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pax_athenaI spent the week at the most useless meeting ever - seriously, if you invite people, have a plan of what you want to accomplish and how to get there. You may want to change it once you see how things develop, but have a plan. Don't ask people you invited "so what do we do next?". Argh. Those are five days I will never get back - and the older I get and the longer I work in this field (and realize that the first week I can host a certain visitor from Spain is in July - everything else is already planned out in some way!), the more I believe that time is the most expensive thing you can ask from people is their time. And to add insult to injury, I also got to enjoy sleet (in its British English meaning not the American English one) for the three hours that I had to explore Bern.
Anyway, it was not only awful. At least I spent some of the evenings with a friend an another person I like, drinking - beer in their case, coke in mine, since Switzerland does not really do cider in tiny corner cafes - and talking. And on my way there, I met with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nefertina86 who was a joy to talk to and introduced me to my new addiction, Luxembuergerli (think tiny macarons). (Plus I got another visit by an (LJ) friend sorted out minutes before my own flight started!)
Now I am looking forward to the market tomorrow, friends coming over for dinner and pandemic on Sunday and cooking with another friend on Monday (I have a terribly early meeting in Amsterdam on Tuesday, so I will be sleeping at her place which will save me about an hour time in the morning - yay for friends who understand this). And here is what I want to cook on Sunday as well as a few other new recipes I loved from the last half a year or so:
Red Pesto Ravioli with roasted tomatoes [vegetarian; can be made vegan by leaving out goat cheese and using vegan pasta]
This one is back from when 101cookbooks was a great work - an old favorite that I never linked to and that I am going to make for my friends. A great vegetarian dish that is especially good for entertaining: easy to make but looks and tastes very sophisticated.
Don't leave out the roasted tomatoes, they are awesome and really make the dish shine. You can simplify the dish by using normal pasta instead of ravioli and just going for some red pesto or tapenade with the roasted tomatoes; the simplified version is my favorite way to use up old, soft tomatoes (cherry tomatoes work best but others are OK, too.).
Roasted squash and carrot soup [can be made vegetarian by leaving out the meatballs]
sophiawestern linked to this one - so there are at least two LJ people (her and me) who recommend this recipe by now :) The meatballs were, however, too much work for me, so I went with just pan-frying half the amount of lamb with the spices listed + some onions and sprinkling it over the soup when serving which worked out just perfectly in both texture and taste.
The second time around, I was lazy and neither peeled the carrots nor scraped the squash from the skin (I read up and the kabocha squash skin is edible!). The soup still did taste great, the color was ... interesting. So if you don't mind colleagues commenting on how your soup looks like vomit, go ahead and be lazy (I definitely will be :P).
Super quick noodles.
So, so, SO good.decemberthirty whom I recommended this to can testify to this :D I half the bacon when I cook it and it tastes great - I think the full amount would be too greasy for me. I've made this one with both "normal" pasta (Linguine in this particular case) and Chinese noodles, both work really nice. Other fatty meats than bacon can be substituted, of course, too.
Pozole stew/soup.
I don't think I've ever eaten hominy before and I don't think I will be able to get it in Europe which is a pity because this is one yummy soup that freezes very well.
(I could not find a small can of hominy and so had to buy a bigger one and so ended doubling the amount of hominy while keeping everything else to a single portion. It tasted great!)
Beet and feta bake [vegetarian]
I caved in and got myself a small hand-held spiralizer - and this one worked out wonderfully. I did cut the feta in smaller pieces that I mixed with the beets and tomatoes, however. Also don't leave out the olives, they bring the dish together.
(Fresh parstley on the other hand can be left out. Nice to have it, but I hardly ever do because it just turns bad before I end up using it.)
Spaghetti Carbonara with cream
I know, real carbonara should be without cream. Who cares? I love mine with.
Made this one with duck eggs - nomnomnomnom. I am sure it works with normal eggs, too. But duck eggs (a lot of yolk, very viscous eggwhite) works just perfectly.
Eggless microwave cup cake [vegetarian]
Not quiet perfect (a bit on the dry side), but I don't expect a microwave cake to be perfect, I expect it to be an easy comfort food that makes me happy. And this one did. (I do however not have a microwave in the Netherlands and I guess 2 minute cakes are not reason enough to spend money on one ...)
Microwave bread pudding. [vegetarian with egg]
Another microwave one. Easy, quick, yummy. I made it for breakfast when a friend was visiting back on Boston and it worked out just perfectly.
Liver with apples [German recipe]
I did cut the liver in smaller pieces, but otherwise followed the recipe. Partly because I was kind of unsure about the apples and the curry, but the different tastes came together wonderfully. Very filling (I made a small portion of mashed potatoes as a side and could not quiet finish it).
Lentil stew [German recipe, vegan]
This is an old recipe rec byadvdiaboli and another old favorite. Copious amounts of cumin are decisive and I tend to cut my carrots in small rounds/halfrounds rather than shred them.
Summer pasta with tomatoes & feta [vegetarian, can be made vegan]
I think I lived on this one half the last summer for lunch. I would cook the pasta, add everything except the tomatoes (in this case copious amounts of fresh basil really make all the difference) and then cut the tomatoes (a lot of them) when at lunch. Yummy, light, filling in a savory way.
Anyway, it was not only awful. At least I spent some of the evenings with a friend an another person I like, drinking - beer in their case, coke in mine, since Switzerland does not really do cider in tiny corner cafes - and talking. And on my way there, I met with
nefertina86 who was a joy to talk to and introduced me to my new addiction, Luxembuergerli (think tiny macarons). (Plus I got another visit by an (LJ) friend sorted out minutes before my own flight started!)Now I am looking forward to the market tomorrow, friends coming over for dinner and pandemic on Sunday and cooking with another friend on Monday (I have a terribly early meeting in Amsterdam on Tuesday, so I will be sleeping at her place which will save me about an hour time in the morning - yay for friends who understand this). And here is what I want to cook on Sunday as well as a few other new recipes I loved from the last half a year or so:
Red Pesto Ravioli with roasted tomatoes [vegetarian; can be made vegan by leaving out goat cheese and using vegan pasta]
This one is back from when 101cookbooks was a great work - an old favorite that I never linked to and that I am going to make for my friends. A great vegetarian dish that is especially good for entertaining: easy to make but looks and tastes very sophisticated.
Don't leave out the roasted tomatoes, they are awesome and really make the dish shine. You can simplify the dish by using normal pasta instead of ravioli and just going for some red pesto or tapenade with the roasted tomatoes; the simplified version is my favorite way to use up old, soft tomatoes (cherry tomatoes work best but others are OK, too.).
Roasted squash and carrot soup [can be made vegetarian by leaving out the meatballs]
sophiawestern linked to this one - so there are at least two LJ people (her and me) who recommend this recipe by now :) The meatballs were, however, too much work for me, so I went with just pan-frying half the amount of lamb with the spices listed + some onions and sprinkling it over the soup when serving which worked out just perfectly in both texture and taste.The second time around, I was lazy and neither peeled the carrots nor scraped the squash from the skin (I read up and the kabocha squash skin is edible!). The soup still did taste great, the color was ... interesting. So if you don't mind colleagues commenting on how your soup looks like vomit, go ahead and be lazy (I definitely will be :P).
Super quick noodles.
So, so, SO good.
decemberthirty whom I recommended this to can testify to this :D I half the bacon when I cook it and it tastes great - I think the full amount would be too greasy for me. I've made this one with both "normal" pasta (Linguine in this particular case) and Chinese noodles, both work really nice. Other fatty meats than bacon can be substituted, of course, too.Pozole stew/soup.
I don't think I've ever eaten hominy before and I don't think I will be able to get it in Europe which is a pity because this is one yummy soup that freezes very well.
(I could not find a small can of hominy and so had to buy a bigger one and so ended doubling the amount of hominy while keeping everything else to a single portion. It tasted great!)
Beet and feta bake [vegetarian]
I caved in and got myself a small hand-held spiralizer - and this one worked out wonderfully. I did cut the feta in smaller pieces that I mixed with the beets and tomatoes, however. Also don't leave out the olives, they bring the dish together.
(Fresh parstley on the other hand can be left out. Nice to have it, but I hardly ever do because it just turns bad before I end up using it.)
Spaghetti Carbonara with cream
I know, real carbonara should be without cream. Who cares? I love mine with.
Made this one with duck eggs - nomnomnomnom. I am sure it works with normal eggs, too. But duck eggs (a lot of yolk, very viscous eggwhite) works just perfectly.
Eggless microwave cup cake [vegetarian]
Not quiet perfect (a bit on the dry side), but I don't expect a microwave cake to be perfect, I expect it to be an easy comfort food that makes me happy. And this one did. (I do however not have a microwave in the Netherlands and I guess 2 minute cakes are not reason enough to spend money on one ...)
Microwave bread pudding. [vegetarian with egg]
Another microwave one. Easy, quick, yummy. I made it for breakfast when a friend was visiting back on Boston and it worked out just perfectly.
Liver with apples [German recipe]
I did cut the liver in smaller pieces, but otherwise followed the recipe. Partly because I was kind of unsure about the apples and the curry, but the different tastes came together wonderfully. Very filling (I made a small portion of mashed potatoes as a side and could not quiet finish it).
Lentil stew [German recipe, vegan]
This is an old recipe rec by
advdiaboli and another old favorite. Copious amounts of cumin are decisive and I tend to cut my carrots in small rounds/halfrounds rather than shred them.Summer pasta with tomatoes & feta [vegetarian, can be made vegan]
I think I lived on this one half the last summer for lunch. I would cook the pasta, add everything except the tomatoes (in this case copious amounts of fresh basil really make all the difference) and then cut the tomatoes (a lot of them) when at lunch. Yummy, light, filling in a savory way.
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