lol! Nice Lola!

Tonight is oven baked chicken, boiled potatoes and cauliflower

Curried cauliflower soup, acorn squash stuffed with quinoa, and for dessert, berries drizzled with a little agave nectar and sprinkled with dark chocolate shavings. (If I'm not ambitious enough it'll just be soup and dessert. Leave the entree for the weekend ...)

Ok - scratch the earlier. The chicken isn't thawed. Going with some leftovers of Inside out green pepper casserole turned taco casserole.

I discovered that you can bake frozen chicken.

taco salad for breakfast


taco salad for lunch


taco salad for dinner, plus margaritas

the salad's all gone now.

Sounds like my kind of day V - I love taco salad! Hmm.....might have to go on the menu next week....

baby bok choy with mushrooms ... garlic, ginger, tamari, sesame oil, you know ... oh my ... yum. And less than 15 min. Perfect.

Could be the perfect hookup ...

What's for Iftar?

Well, we're going to the local Chinese Buffet place. Might be frog's legs, might be chop suey. I can almost guarantee there will be cheese filled wontons. Probably sweet and sour chicken, bbq pork, jello-textured-food-product.

My friend got married today and we're breaking their fast at this restaurant. NOM!

Last night I made butter chicken, which is one of Mav's favourites. Because of my inferior health and energy levels I decided to use a recipe base instead of cooking it from scratch like I usually do. It was ok, but didn't have quite the same tangy smooth rich flavour you get when you build the flavours as you go along.

On the plus side, Mav's g/f thought it was great. Just wait till I cook the real thing!

I love butter chicken.
It sounds so innocent...

Am looking into making a rich fish stew.
Dads won't appreciate it, but I know Mum will.
Trouble is, fish does not need to be cooked for a long time (unlike cheaper cuts of meat) so the broth doesn't seem to thicken.
The photos of promising sounding recipes look like a pile of tumbled seafood in coloured water.

I'd like a tomato-y base (but not too rich as Mum has problems with that).
Am I thinking of a Tuscan dish? Or a Spanish one?
I can't even cheat and buy a jar of something as they are all for meat. And after the meatloaf I have a horror if making another over-seasoned dish :thepain:

Sorry, thinking out loud here. But if anyone can think of a lovely fresh tasting tomato based fish dish with fruits de mer and a little firm white fish, do share!

If you want a good fish stew, think about a gumbo type recipe.

You need to make your stock with some kind of carcass and head. Strain off, then start your veges (whatever you like) in the stock. After that, in a separate pot, fry off your spices (whatever takes your fancy) in a good dollop of butter, then make a roux which you then pour your veges and stock into. Lastly, add whatever seafood you're going to use.

Easy peasy Japanesey. ;)

Sez you.
Make a roux.

grumble grumble...

Make a roux. The secret to making a good white sauce is to ignore all the snobbiness about not using a wire whisk to beat out the the lumps.
So ... fry off spices, add approx double volume of flour to fat and stir til it all binds into a lump. Gradually add the stock (still hot is fine). Beat the bo11ocks out of any lumps at every stage using a wire whisk. :)

Still cleaning out the leftovers, so I am having baked pasta again.

I always use a wire whisk. I don't give a shit about 'how you are supposed to do it'. In the kitchen, it's what works most efficiently if you ask me. ;)