Party ideas

How about a party featuring this Sweet Tea drink?


I had a version of this at H Street country Club on H street--good times with the girls :)

I'm getting a divorce. It's no longer my husband and I and our son who live outside of Washington, it's just my son and I. Recovery from something like this always takes its own course. I need to make a list of things I will do, or still do, things that I enjoy, things that my son enjoys:

1) go to museums
2) have parties at my house
3) go out to eat
4) go to the arboretum
5) have friends over more often

Classic extrovert. I like to be surrounded by people. I think the classic things people feel in these cases are true to form for me. In some ways I don't think all humans are special. I think, like most animals, we are restricted by a certain amount of sameness. That's why people like doctors can do their jobs because our bodies react to things in formulaic fashion. Our brains are much the same. People respond to being abandoned with certain pre-programmed ideas or responses.

I'll still be cooking, but cooking for 1 and a half.

Finally! A dinner that is utterly edible and even yummy: Coconut Fish Chowder

This is another recipe that I can say hallelujah for a sixteen dollar Hamilton Beach immersion blender that has made soup purées so easy.

-- Post From My iPhone

Canadian bacon gratin

Before




After (eggs baked and smothered with some fonky Fontina)

Omigod this was awful. Epic fail! Okay it wasn't terrible but the eggs, they were just so runny. Flavor wise it was pretty tasty, but there's something about raw egg that just tastes yucky.

And plus the fontina in this just tasted fonky. (That's funky with emphasis. It's going into Websters this year...)

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Thai beef stir fry (not curry!)

Or damn you whole foods, you sold me rotten food. If I'm going to pay your damned outrageous prices, you better give me some tasty ass food, and not some damned congealed coconut milk that ruined my damned curry, and forced me to make some weak ass stir fry.
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Menu

I have been having a hard time feeling inspired these days. It seems like everything doesn't look good, or convenient or it seems too similar to the things I've already been eating. It's been blah. So I was happy to pick up my copy of fast, easy, fresh and find a few recipes that seemed to call out to me.

One of them was the Best Banana Bread Ever. Which. If you have a recipe called that. Then it needs to deliver. One f-ing problem. It calls for vanilla extract. Which everyone has. Even people who never bake have that. Everyone has that in their pantry. And I of the millions of spices that accumulate in an entire cabinet like a freaking apothecary . am . out. So I, like anyone in this new-fangled day and age, google: Vanilla+extract+substitute. And the search result basically tells me I am SOL. That if they wanted some other kind of extract, they would have called for it. And substituting it would make the resulting product taste like cat poo. Literally, they described it as cat poo. So I left it out. And it was still pretty damned good. So over-ripe bananas beware, your days are numbered.

Also on the menu for this week (from fast, easy, fresh)

Canadian bacon, Asparagus, Fontina Gratin (canadian bacon, asparagus, shredded fontina, and eggs)
Thai Beef Curry with Asparagus (beef strips, red pepper paste, asparagus, coconut milk, basil and lime) over rice
Coconut Fish Stew (more coconut milk, chicken broth, fish < tilapia, lime)

I have some Halibut that I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with. Any more ideas for inspiration would be welcome.

Maryland Crab Soup

-- Post From My iPhone


Some notes: When I make this recipe, I only make half (it's a LOT of soup). I froze a half pound of crab in its original packaging with some parchment paper filling the space the half pound of crab had previously occupied. It worked fine in the soup, after being thawed overnight. I substitute the water for beef broth, and instead of STEWED tomatoes, I use CRUSHED tomatoes. I have used stewed tomatoes before, but it turns out too watery and not tomatoey enough. This is a lovely, easy soup. Gideon loved it too.

Last note: I do not eat lima beans in any other context, but it BELONGS in this soup.

Dinner number two

Leftover Easter egg and chopped cherry tomatoes in herb salad dressed with salt and pepper.


-- Post From My iPhone

Dinner one!

-- Post From My iPhone

Menu 4/5

It seems like only yesterday that we were snowed in with feet of snow keeping us housebound. Now it's almost 80 degrees, we're not wearing socks, and spring foods are beckoning. I'm looking forward to doing some Farmer's Market shopping this spring. I haven't been a big purveyor of Farmer's Markets, due to my wariness of potentially inconvenient shopping, but I'm looking to give farm fresh ingredients a try.

Up this week is:
Chili-Rubbed Salmon and Zucchini and Sauteed Corn. I already made the corn for these awesome sausage quesedillas this weekend, so all I have to do is pop the salmon in the broiler.

Maryland Crab Soup-I froze some crab from the last time I made crab soup and either this is going to work out or it's not. This time I remembered to get Lima Beans, because when I got crab soup from the North Campus Dining Hall, also known as "The Diner," it always had Lima Beans..

Yogurt Marinated Chicken kabobs (it's the second recipe, plus there are options for other variations, which is why I love Mark Bittman) on the grill (hopefully) with rice, and salad. This marinade of greek yogurt, minced onion and garlic, lime juice, cayenne, cumin, paprika, coriander, salt and pepper. You just throw in some chunks of chicken and let it roll around for a day, and then you skewer it and put it on the grill for a few minutes. I usually broil this in the winter, and I love how the edges get a little burnt and crispy. I only use skinless, boneless chicken thighs because I prefer dark meat, but you can definitely use white meat. This is a go to Bittman recipe.


I usually have three good ideas for dinner, and then I fall apart. Suggestions are always welcome! How do I round out this weekly menu?

Posting

I have not been posting because I had a secret, cooler blog on tumblr. But then I realized I hate tumblr, and now I'm back! Maybe I'll fancy up this blog when I have time, but for now I realize that change is not always good!