Feb 1
Breakfast: 2 fig bars, leftover green beans with mushrooms in a half pita with plain Greek yogurt.
Lunch: 6 or 7 steamed shrimp dumplings from Whole Foods, 3 kim-bab, 4 mugwort injulmi. All of these things were getting stale in the refrigerator and needed using up.
Shopping (at nearby Ethiopian convenience store): frozen peas & carrots, 2 potatoes, 6 housemade sambusas, 1 loaf ambasha bread, red lentils. $19.
Dinner: 2 sambusas, plus a little piece of one of my daughter's; too much ambasha with butter; only one or two bites of the frozen peas and carrots, which turned out to be a) imported from Egypt (Cold Alex brand), and b) terribly, terribly freezer-burnt, to the point where they were encased in a veritable block of ice and the peas were all dried up and shriveled and the carrots smelled weird. Because I am me, I tried to cook them anyway, using a whole lot of seasoning-- salt and pepper, yes, but also a ton of sambhar powder-- and boiling the hell out of them, hoping they would reconstitute. They did soften, but I oversalted them (I'm thinking maybe there was some salt in the sambhar powder, or maybe even in the vegetables?) and they were inedible (and I have a high bar for inedibility). Perhaps this was best for our safety, anyway.
Snacks: 4 cups of coffee, 2 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half. One big spoonful of banana cream pie as it sat tempting me in the refrigerator before dinner.
Feb. 2
Breakfast in two parts: first, leftover green beans with mushrooms, and some pieces of cheddar cheese. Second, 4 mugwort injulmi and a small dish of strawberry Greek yogurt.
Shopping (Safeway): powdered sugar, pecans, unsweetened applesauce, egg noodles, Grey Poupon, organic beef broth, brown cage-free eggs, lactose-free 1% milk, 2 lbs. chuck roast, 1 Gala apple, 2 red grapefruit, 3 shallots, organic bananas, 2 organic avocados, 2 organic yellow onions, organic white mushrooms, organic romaine hearts, organic dried cranberries, blueberries, 6-pack Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, $73. (Liquor store): bottle of cheap Madeira, $6.
Lunch: papaya, blueberries, two slices Pepperidge Farm whole wheat bread with butter and honey, little packet mustard peas.
Breakfast: 2 fig bars, leftover green beans with mushrooms in a half pita with plain Greek yogurt.
Lunch: 6 or 7 steamed shrimp dumplings from Whole Foods, 3 kim-bab, 4 mugwort injulmi. All of these things were getting stale in the refrigerator and needed using up.
Shopping (at nearby Ethiopian convenience store): frozen peas & carrots, 2 potatoes, 6 housemade sambusas, 1 loaf ambasha bread, red lentils. $19.
Dinner: 2 sambusas, plus a little piece of one of my daughter's; too much ambasha with butter; only one or two bites of the frozen peas and carrots, which turned out to be a) imported from Egypt (Cold Alex brand), and b) terribly, terribly freezer-burnt, to the point where they were encased in a veritable block of ice and the peas were all dried up and shriveled and the carrots smelled weird. Because I am me, I tried to cook them anyway, using a whole lot of seasoning-- salt and pepper, yes, but also a ton of sambhar powder-- and boiling the hell out of them, hoping they would reconstitute. They did soften, but I oversalted them (I'm thinking maybe there was some salt in the sambhar powder, or maybe even in the vegetables?) and they were inedible (and I have a high bar for inedibility). Perhaps this was best for our safety, anyway.
Snacks: 4 cups of coffee, 2 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half. One big spoonful of banana cream pie as it sat tempting me in the refrigerator before dinner.
Feb. 2
Breakfast in two parts: first, leftover green beans with mushrooms, and some pieces of cheddar cheese. Second, 4 mugwort injulmi and a small dish of strawberry Greek yogurt.
Shopping (Safeway): powdered sugar, pecans, unsweetened applesauce, egg noodles, Grey Poupon, organic beef broth, brown cage-free eggs, lactose-free 1% milk, 2 lbs. chuck roast, 1 Gala apple, 2 red grapefruit, 3 shallots, organic bananas, 2 organic avocados, 2 organic yellow onions, organic white mushrooms, organic romaine hearts, organic dried cranberries, blueberries, 6-pack Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, $73. (Liquor store): bottle of cheap Madeira, $6.
Lunch: papaya, blueberries, two slices Pepperidge Farm whole wheat bread with butter and honey, little packet mustard peas.
It is my husband's birthday, and I am making a birthday dinner for him. I have yoga class from 4:30-5:30, though, so a lot of the cooking needed to be done ahead. In the afternoon, I mostly-made three things (all three need finishing touches before dinner): my husband's very favorite Madeira Onion Soup (from Jean Anderson's The Food of Portugal), Deb Perelman's Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew (which I made on New Year's Eve), and this applesauce spice cake from the great culinary genius Land-O-Lakes. I swear this is not a sponsored post, but I did think it was funny that, when I went to bake the cake, I did indeed have Land-O-Lakes butter in my refrigerator. That is in fact very rare, and I wonder where I bought it.
Recipe notes: I forgot to buy any raisins or currants for the onion soup, and their sweetness is part of its rich flavor, so I substituted (so help me God) about a teaspoon of apricot jam (which was all I had) and a 1/2 T. of brown sugar. It tasted fine. I used brandy instead of cognac for the beef stew and skipped the red wine. I left the raisins out of the spice cake (on purpose this time, because my daughter doesn't like them. She wouldn't eat the onion soup regardless). On neither occasion that I've made the beef stew did my (homemade) salt pork produce much liquid fat, so I added about 2 T. of olive oil to saute the onions.
Recipe notes: I forgot to buy any raisins or currants for the onion soup, and their sweetness is part of its rich flavor, so I substituted (so help me God) about a teaspoon of apricot jam (which was all I had) and a 1/2 T. of brown sugar. It tasted fine. I used brandy instead of cognac for the beef stew and skipped the red wine. I left the raisins out of the spice cake (on purpose this time, because my daughter doesn't like them. She wouldn't eat the onion soup regardless). On neither occasion that I've made the beef stew did my (homemade) salt pork produce much liquid fat, so I added about 2 T. of olive oil to saute the onions.
Dinner: We had the onion soup followed by the beef stew over egg noodles, and a side salad of romaine, apple and dried cranberries with red wine vinaigrette. Followed by cake. Everything was good but nothing was earth-shattering. Since I previously found the beef stew earth-shattering, I think next time I will make sure to have red wine on hand, even though Perelman says it is fine without.
Snacks: 4 cups of coffee, 2 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half.
Snacks: 4 cups of coffee, 2 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half.