liamsaunt
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Posts posted by liamsaunt
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My town has weekly trash pickup and biweekly recycling pickup. There is no charge per bag of trash, and you don't need to seperate out the recycling into glass, plastic, tin--they all go in the same bin. Newsprint, cardboard, and magazines are also recycled seperately. The biggest trash-related problem we face are marauding raccoons that will stop at nothing to get into the trash cans. My sister resorted to duct tape and bungee cords to keep them out of her cans. The raccoons' response to this deterrent was to bite a big hole in the lid bin and drag the can into the woods.
On second thought, maybe it is not raccoons we are dealing with after all. 
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Monday, roast chicken and pan gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted buttercup squash, and gratineed cauliflower. Comfort food for a cold night.
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Well, I am only hosting a super bowl party if the Patriots make it. Otherwise, forget it! If they do get there, the crowd will be at my house, and I am definitely serving lobster rolls. And lots of beer! I am still thinking about other menu additions.
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I dislike buffets for many reasons. First, I can't stop myself from worrying whether the food is fresh. I know it is not fair, but I always think of buffets as consisting of leftovers from the previous evening, reimagined. Then there is the issue of hygiene--people breathing on the food, sneezing on the food, touching it, etc. Worries over whether the food is being held at safe temperatures... I also don't like the pacing of a buffet meal. Rather than being able to relax and enjoy conversation, people are constantly going for refills, which interrupts the flow of the evening. Dirty dishes piling up on the table, yuck. Constant foot traffic from people refilling their plates can be annoying too.
Most importantly, at my buffet experiences, the food just hasn't been that good.
Can you tell that I don't like buffets?
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Balut 'n' Brew
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I got lots of food-related gifts this year. Lucky me!
Cookbooks: Rustico, La Mia Cucina Toscana, Chefs Secrets, and Best Kitchen Quick Tips
A bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne, a nice sherry, and a pinot noir. A leather wine journal.
Homemade cookies, brandy balls, and fudge (thanks sis!)
A giant mortar and pestle, a fondue set, deruta pasta bowls and serving dish.
A gift card to williams sonoma. Salt and pepper shakers.
Finally, my inlaws gave me a Cuisinart Grill and Griddle. It's an electric appliance with a two sided cooking plate. I am not sure what the advantage is over simply cooking on the stovetop. Does anyone have one of these? Is it useful or is it just going to use up my counter space?
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I got 8 of 11. I was most surprised by the Spain answer. The idea of throwing things on the floor seems strange to me. I would be worried someone could slip and hurt themselves.
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Our tree has lots of food ornaments, mostly fruits. Right now the tree features a pickle (of course!), a tomato, an orange, a bunch of grapes, two lemons, a green apple, a red apple, a lime, and an ear of corn. These are all glass ornaments we've picked up over the years. We also have ornaments made from food, such as stars and gingerbread men made from dried out applesauce and cinnamon and a truck made out of life savers, chewing gum, and peppermints glued together. we also have a bunch of walnuts that are painted to look like strawberries. There are probably more that I am forgetting, I will have to check the tree when I get home.
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I have a tin of asafoetida also, never cooked with. It's at least two years old, and not powder, but chunks. I don't know why I bought it, since I almost never cook indian food at home. The only time I take it out is when I can't get my niece and nephew to stop rummaging through my spices (they like to take all the lids off and smell, and grind things in the mortar and pestle). Once I say I am going to open the asafoetida, the threat of "the stinky one" gets them out of the spice cabinet.
Other never-used spices in the cabinet include nigella seeds, onion powder, star anise, and orange extract.
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Mussels. I haven't been able to eat them for over four years, since a bowl of big flabby bland mussels I had in a restaurant. They made me sick, and that was it. It's a shame, because I used to love mussels. I keep trying to make myself eat them again, but no luck so far.
And kaluha. But I won't tell that story.
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Sunday dinner: My brother in law is home from Korea on a brief leave from the army, so we decided to make "Thanksgiving" dinner, since he won't be here on the actual day. Roast turkey with thyme butter under the skin, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, and green beans. I made a nice stock from the carcass, and am planning on turkey soup for tonight.
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Last night, many people over to watch game one of the World Series (GO SOX!! ). Lots of different tastes in the group, including one person who eats no vegetables except potatoes and butternut squash, one no-red-meat person, one no-pork person, one low-carb person, and one vegetarian. So, antipasto (sort of) served buffet style: a cheese assortment, salumi, arancini, arugula salad, three types of fritatta, white beans, vinegared carrots, roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes, olives four ways, sausages, three types of ravioli, roasted onions, sweet and sour onions, and some other stuff I am forgetting. Chianti, pinot grigio, prosecco for wine, and local brews, Bambino Ale and Fenway Pale Ale from Boston Beer Works for beer. It was all yummy, and we won!
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I like your espresso cup, little miss foodie.
I almost always eat the same thing for breakfast--buttered toast and a cup of tea. Creativity comes post-caffiene for me.
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I like to bake a pan of popovers to go with soup, especially fish chowders. Tomato soup with buttered bread is a favorite also.
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I will confess to having a freezer full of novelties as well. I have a second freezer in the basement, and it is well stocked with ice cream treats. Current inventory: klondike regular and crunchy, m+m cones and sandwiches, snickers ice cream bars, hoodsie cups, ice cream sandwiches, fudgescicles, drumsticks regular and caramel, chocolate covered ice cream on a stick, sprinklers, and peanut butter flavored mini popsicles. The stash is for my niece and nephew, who are over every weekend. They like choosing from all of the pictures on the boxes. It's their personal ice cream truck!
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Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy
Roast cod with potatoes
Lasagna
Big trays of mixed roasted root vegetables
Coq au vin
Pommes Anna
Applesauce
Fish chowder and popovers
Fondue
Gingerbread
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Carmelized onions and mushrooms, topped with a sort of fondue like gruyere-wine sauce, on crusty bread. My husband hates this dish, so I just make it every time he is out of town.
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Last night: giant popover stuffed with wild mushrooms, sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes. Tonight: unfortunately for me, dinner in front of the television as the semi-dreaded football season starts again
so, pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil from the garden. At least I know the food will be good. I think. 
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I like fruit but do not eat as much as I would like to. It is really hard to find decent fruit to eat out of hand. Most fruits (especially stone fruits) from the grocery seem to go from rock hard to rotten. Even if a fruit is in season, it never seems to be available ripe, or even from a regional producer, at a grocery. When the farmers market I go to in my city is open, the fruit is pretty limited, though the vegetables are great. The only fruits I remember from last season were plums, peaches, and occasionally raspberries and blackberries. The quality was mixed. In addition, there were tomatoes later along, and then apples (fall). Overall, my favorite fruit is lemon, because I use it so much in cooking!
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My first meal for my now husband was really bad, I admit. Hey, it was a long time ago, and I was really young, so please don't make fun of my menu! I had extremely limited cooking experience, so I just picked a menu from one of the cookbooks I owned at the time, and prepared the entire suggested menu. I now own about 300+ cookbooks, but I have always kept this book, one of the first I bought, because it reminds me of the first meal, bad as it was, that I cooked for him. Here is the menu:
Split Pea and Rice Soup: Well, he ate it with a smile, despite the fact that it was underseasoned and undercooked. What a sport.
Romanian Marinated Mushrooms: seemed fine
Fettuccini with Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce: sounds good, right? I guess I have to admit that neither of us had ever had gorgonzola before, and we both found the taste overwhelming. He still ate it. Good man. Also, I suppose I should mention that I undercooked the pasta, and also did not know the trick of thinning sauces with pasta cooking water.
Fassoulia (green beans). Fine.
Dessert: Trifle. This he ate a lot of.
Oh well. I think the 'experience' of this meal helped us both become much, much, better cooks. Believe me, the meals are 'much' better now!
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I have always kept my paprika in the freezer too, without really knowing why. Now I know! I have been lucky enough not to have had my spices infested (knocks on wood), but I remember my Mom's stories about her rice being infested with some maggoty bug when she lived in Plilly. She said it would look like simple rice, but when she put it in to the hot water, the bugs would come'a calling! Generally speaking, I keep all of my spices in a seperate cabinet, tightly sealed, which seems to prevent infestation.
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Well, I am in the process of hosting a house full of NE Patriots fans, all of whom are experiencing indigestion from the way this game is going! Menu: we all ate earlier this evening, to get ready for the stress of this game! Striped bass with garlic-basil sauce, tuna with spicy shallot sauce, potato gratin, roasted asparagus, seared spinach with pine nuts, cornbread (as a nod to the panthirs). That was this afternoon. With the game: all the usual football food: nachos, buffalo wings, various chips and pretzels, pepperey popcorn, and of course, lots of beer! Go Patriots!
Is it too early to say Go Red Sox?
Probably...
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thursday: spaghetti and meatballs.
Superbowl Food
in Cooking
Posted
Before the game:
Patriot-ritas (margaritas made with curaco instead of triple sec to make them blue instead of iggles green) shrimp cocktail, guacamole, roasted onion dip, that buffalo chicken dip that's been around lately (HUGE hit with the guys), assorted olives, pickles, crudite, etc.
At half time:
Mini crab cakes with remoulade, lobster rolls, chicken satay, and a pasta salad.
Lots of beer and wine of course!
And the next day, I went to the stadium and got to rub the super bowl trophy and shake hands with Bill Belichick and Tedy Bruschi!
(after which we came back and ate all of the leftovers.) Hurray Patriots!