Food & Thoughts

As I told you just yesterday, I'm moving. Which means, and I guess that's just the way these things go, that all - or at least, a lot - of my kitchen gadgets and crockery is all put away in big, brown moving boxes. They don't like being down there, but I've told them it's only for a short while, so so far they've stayed. Anyhow, that did kind of limit my choices for todays Dining with the Bloggers. Anything using a blender? No. Semi-large pot? No, only have a small one. Oven? Yes, oven I can do, even though we're bringing it. It's still plugged in. But cake tin, muffin cups, loaf pan? Nu-uh. So I checked my list of bookmarked recipes. And found Mock Deepfried Chickpeas from At Our Table. It's been around , and it's gotten rave reviews! In fact, it was one of the recipes Cathy featured on her first ever Dining with the Bloggers . You haven't tried it yet? What are you waiting for?? Linda's blog was one of the first food blogs I got to k...

(I hope it's okay I borrow your blog-name Cathy - I couldn't come up with a better title!) I think I mentioned a while back that I had this series of pictures from my kitchen, already uploaded and ready for a post. Well, now it's about time I use them, because this Saturday, October 1st. - we're moving! Which naturally implies getting a new kitchen - not much larger, but new it will be. And you know what? I'm getting just a tiny bit nostalgic about it. So it's small. But I always knew exactly where everything was. Flour? Reach up, it's in that big jar on the top shelf over the counter. Extra salt? Well, do you need Maldon or regular? And how much? There are small jars on the small shelf over the stove - extra Maldon over the sink, regular in the cupboard over the counter next to the sink. Big knife, small knife? Choose. Cake tins and loaf pans? Cupboard down on your left. We never installed a real garbage bin. We never got those higher counter tops. The exh...

I love my Dad. I know, every little girl (and the not-so-small ones, too) love their Dads. But my Dad is special. I think I've mentioned before that I've never lived with my Dad. My Mom and him split up shortly after I was born. When I was little, I always hoped that they'd one day get back together - I imagine all children of split-up'ped parents do that? - but on the other hand, I think I knew, deep down inside, that the arrangement was probably better for everyone like this. Because, you see, this way, there was never any anger. They were never mad at each other, there was never any arguing, never any shouting. Not that I knew of anyways. They stayed friends, and to this day, have a profound respect for each other. While I grew up, my Christmas Eve's were always spend with the two of them together. Me, my Dad, my older sister, her Dad - and then the rest of the bunch. The rest of the bunch - well, some years that consisted of my Mom's best friend and her fami...

Do you know how to make broccoli look good? Molly from Spice Tart does! Broccoli's not the only vegetable she makes look good - in fact, she's not even the only one in her family that can make vegetables look good. Her sister has done these wonderful paintings that are up at Molly's site, you have to have a look at those - the first one I saw ( the onion ) I actually thought was a macro'ed out close-up of an actual onion. Nah, it's paint! When we started doing Dining with the Bloggers last season, I went around a lot of the blogs, perusing their indexes and archives, to see if there was anything I'd like to try. Nowadays, Ialso get inspiration from my BlogLine Feed, and I'm telling you, the list is growing like a baby on steroids! This was also how I spotted Molly's recipe for making the easiest, yet tastiest broccoli . I eat way too little vegetables - I pride myself on being oh so healthy (to make up for all those cakes, you know?) but when pus...

Do you have a pan especially for making custard? I do! Sort of, anyways. I mean, I can cook other things in it, I'm sure - - but it's PERFECT for custards. Which is one of the reasons why I was thrilled, when Elise of Simply Recipes announced this months SHF-theme: Cooking up Custard . How can one not adore that velvety smooth, sweet and lovely scented creamy dessert? I for one love it! Which brings me to a little ah-em. I'm not sure what I made would fit the classic category of custard. I mean, sure, it's got egg yolks, sugar, milk and cream - but it's also got corn starch. Actually, I'm pretty sure what I made would be classified as a creme patisserie. But heck - In Elise's mind, custard had something to do with egg yolks, sugar and milk/cream - she even said using custard powder was okay, so what harm might a little corn starch do??;-) Otherwise, I have a couple other suggestions for custardy desserts you can have a look here and here . On to the projec...

I've been wanting to try a recipe from Niki's in quite a while. She keeps up her fantastic blog, Esurientes - The Comfort Zone - from (from me) far, far away Melbourne, Australia. Only problem - if you can call it that - was that a lot of the recipes I've bookmarked from her site turned out to be cakes . Now how could that have happened? ;-) It's probably all natural - Niki's a great baker, and her tastes in cakes correspond very well with mine! And did you know she has an entire index page exclusively with CHOCOLATE recipes?? The problem was (or is) - and you might think it silly - that I need to make more everyday recipes. It's seldom a problem for me to figure out what I want to bake, but ask me what I'm making for dinner tomorrow night and I'm sure all you'll get from me is a face looking like a question mark! No problemo though, 'cause there was plenty of bookmarks for savory dishes too, one of those being something she just made r...

Is it just me or does that look like a cannabis leaf to you too??;-)

That's right, Cathy and I are back with tried and tasted recipes from our favorite source: YOU BLOGGERS YOU! I can't believe (again, I think I've mentioned this before) the amount of new blogs that just springs up all over - it's amazing, and I love it! One of the not-so-new-anymore blogs, that I bookmarked the first time I had seen it, Taste Everything Once , is coming to us from Spokane. It's written by Jennifer, who I just recently realized has a knack for Norwegian language and an opinion on croutons with which I wholeheartedly agree! As if that's not enough, she's got projects going on: one trying to tell us all about the restaurant scene in Spokane , the other one introducing us to coffee place after coffee place . She's got the cutest dog , and oh yes - she makes gorgeous food ! That's still not it. She's also got the best recipe for pizza dough I have yet to come across. It's easy to prepare, you can freeze any you don't use ...

Couple of weeks ago, I made these - I think, personally - very scrumptious-looking muffins. Loads of almonds, milk chocolate chips and Daim chocolate. TONS I tell you! 56 kr. worth! (about $9!) So how come the result just wasn't good ?? I mean they were okay, but they weren't as delish as the ingredients promised. Too much of a good thing, you say? Really? I don't buy it, I'm sorry I just don't. People, we're talking CHOCOLATE here! Maybe it was the shortening? I've never used shortening in my muffins before, I never have it at home, so I just substitute with (more) butter. Maybe I overworked the batter? Maybe... I can't say. They were a bit on the dry side, a bit crumbly. Maybe it was because I accidently started the oven out a little too cold, so I had to bake them for longer? Anyhoo - there is one thing I was very pleased with about these muffin. The packaging. I can never seem to find paper cases that fit my muffin cups - they're either too smal...

No, the picture has absolutely nothing to do with what's in this post - but it was such a pretty picture I had to use it somewhere , didn't I? AY-AY-AY! I seem to be making promises I can't keep! I promised I'd return , then left you for a WHOLE WEEK, without a word of notice! Promises, promises, promises - which will, eventually, just as sun comes after rain, night after day, be followed by excuses, excuses, excuses. No changing the ways of the world this time either: Seems I sometime, about two weeks ago, caught a bugger of a throat virus that I'm still struggling with. The bastard makes my entire throat swell, my voice going weirdo and makes eating - not a pleasure. Kinda the worst part about it, not being able to eat! Drink cold, don't lie down, eat cold - ARGH! I want warm tea! The mere thought of eating (or drinking for that matter) has put me quite cold over the last couple of days - hence the absence. Anyways - enough of the apologies! I've promised ...