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My original blog - I have moved to http://shannonclark.wordpress.com so this remains only as an archive.
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Searching for the Moon
by Shannon Clark
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Monday, July 21, 2003
Cookies, Curry, Markets
oh my
So, this weekend was all about the food. I read a fair bit, had a nice visit with my family on Sunday and spent Sunday afternoon on a sales call. But mostly, this weekend was all about the food.
Friday, I made a salad and ate it with with a chicken and apple sausage and some leftover applesauce. Very tasty. Then, instead of going out by myself on a Friday night, I decided to bake, don't ask me why, but I did.
So, I took some dried pears and dried apricots which I had laying around and rehydrated them in some water over low heat on my stove. While they were rehydrating, I made some dough, modifying a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I took a couple of cups of flour, some brown sugar, 2 eggs, about a half-cup of sugar, cinnimon, and a half-stick of butter (the recipe called for a full stick, but that seemed excessive. I melted the butter and the brown sugar in a saucepan and then poured it into the already mixxed ingrediants. I then mixxed the dough until it "felt right" (hard to explain). I heated the oven to 375 degrees, greased a cookie pan with butter and shaped cookies. On top of each cookie I put a dried pear and at least one dried apricot (on a few cookies just apricots as I ran out of pears). I sprinkled some confectionary sugar on top to form a sugar glaze.
I then baked them for about 20 minutes, cleaning up the kitchen while they baked.
My verdict. Well they are tasty, possibly a bit too thick (may roll them thinner next time) and some baking soda probably would have been a good addition. I'll probably try this again, possibly next weekend.
Saturday, I shopped at the farmer's market, and then returned home and made myself breakfast, fried eggs, some sausage, and half an English muffin toasted on the same pan as the eggs were fried. Very tasty.
Then Saturday evening, I made Chicken Curry. Not my best curry ever but pretty tasty - about a pound of chicken (legs and thighs with bones and skin), a can of potatoes, tomato paste, coconut milk, and lots of spices. First I started with onions and some hot peppers and a bit of oil, cooked until translusent. Then I added some garlic, and the chiicken. Onto the chicken I added powdered ginger, cinnimon, and curry powder. After the chicken had cooked a bit on all sides and was nicely coated with spices. I added the tomato paste, a few tablespoons of canned Thai Red Curry paste, the coconut milk and the potatos. I then turned down the heat to medium and let the whole mixture simmer (covered) while I boiled water to make my starch for the meal, Chinese egg noodles.
The result was very tasty, though a bit milder then some previous versions I have made and the potatos were only so-so - would have been better to use the potatos from the farmer's market but I didn't feel up to the prep work to do that.
I ate the curry with a little bit of hot mango chutney or a bit of Thai chili sauce - both tasted great with it.
Sunday, I had a barbeque with my parents for lunch, we had great hamburgers and corn on the grill, freshly purchased by me at the Farmer's Market on Saturday - very good. Sunday night I had more of the Chicken curry with a small portion of Chinese egg noodles and one leftover ear of corn.
All-in-all a good weekend from a food standpoint, and a lot of fun to be able to cook and enjoy my kitchen again. Though I missed having someone to share my cooking with.
Tonight I'll probably have a small salad with some greens and veggies from the farmer's market, and finish off the chicken curry and the egg noodles. Since there is not a whole lot of the chicken curry left, I may also have one remaining Chicken and Apple sausage - should be a very tasty meal, which I will eat while doing a number of loads of laundry (I live such an exciting life...)
Tomorrow night I'll be meeting friends (well at least one very particular friend....) for a movie in Grant Park. Other than my remaining cookies, I'm not sure what else will be my contribution to the potluck dinner we'll probably be having.
It feels good to be enjoying cooking at home, and to have somoene to cook with and for. I still have more to finish in terms of cleaning and organizing my home, but I am making a lot of progress. This weekend I managed to sort some of my books into a bit more semblance of order - which feels good, though there is much more work to be done.
7/21/2003 01:19:00 PM
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