Why I Stay Home-8/27/09

There are days I go a little crazy being a stay-at-home mom. Some of the downsides are the isolation of spending most of the day without adult companionship, the unpredictability of a small child, and the constant sense that somehow things should be done... dishes, laundry, housecleaning, etc. But let me tell you, even on those rough days, I love being able to stay home with Eyrleigh. I get to see her every "new", her every new word, new action, new joy. Today was one of those days were we just enjoyed each other. We played with markers, Play-Doh, books, and toys. She even played happily with the spices and her toys in the kitchen while I made tonight's dinner.
Tonight I made a dinner salad, the Salmon Nicoise Salad with Black Olive Vinaigrette on page 54 in this month's Gourmet. With potatoes, eggs, and salmon, this was not a wussy salad. I've mentioned that Richard is getting ready for his triathlon a month from today so I want dinner to be filling. This was a filling salad and the components went together well. The dressing was pretty salty given the Kalamata olives and anchovies but it works well to stand out among the many flavors of this salad.
For dessert, I made the upside down baked Plum Kuchen on page 38. This dish is advertised as a coffeecake and it's not overwhelmingly sweet. My favorite part was the wonderfully gooey batter right underneath (or I suppose on top of) the plums. This dessert would work as a breakfast cake or tea cake just as well as at a dinner's conclusion.
Salmon Nicoise Salad with Black Olive Vinaigrette-B
Plum Kuchen-B+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hambrick's-Party of Four!-8/1/11

Image
On August 24th of last year, I wrote a innocuous little post on this blog about my husband being a good sport about my creative culinary exploits.  And then....nothing....for over 11 months.  What happened, you may ask?  Well, the picture at left tells a rather significant part of the story but not the whole thing so I'll try to summarize here in case another 11 months go by before I post again.  (Okay, I will seriously try not to do that!)  The year 2010 started off on the wrong foot with the loss of our fourth pregnancy (Thankfully, pregnancy #2 had resulted in Eyrleigh!) at 18 weeks.  We were still reeling from the devastation of that event when my only sibling, my brother Ben, committed suicide at the end of February.  Then in April, Richard's company hired a new CEO and things professionally went south from there for him.  Since a blog is a public format and could therefor be accessed by anyone, including this individual, let me suf...
Read more

Can you say "Tsatsiki"?- 3/12/09

Image
Ok , now is the time for honesty. How many of you have been at a restaurant, wanted to order something but hesitated because you didn't want the servers all laughing at you in the back about how badly you butchered the name of your wine or dish? I live in the South and people order " Gy -rows" at the Great Wraps. In fact, I just looked it up on the Merriam Online Dictionary and that is exactly what they said. I always thought the word was "he-rows" and have ordered them like that for years. Now imagine that with " Tsatsiki "? I tried to look that word up on the online dictionary and you know what is suggested instead? Testicles. Yep, could entertain a few servers for years with that one! Can you picture it? "That lady ordered Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Salsa and Testicles!" Ok , seriously, how do you say " Tsatsiki "? Do you just drop the t, like sat- siki ? Or does the ts make some other sound that is not common in English? But l...
Read more

After I Learn Italian-3/4/10

Image
Cooking magazines love to use fancy names for recipes to make them sound more authentic and delicious. Tonight I made Buccatini all" Amatriciana , basically Italian for tubular pasta with bacon and tomato sauce. It sounds much fancier in Italian. I think everything sounds fancier in Italian. I need to learn Italian or at least go to Italy to hear it spoken for awhile. How I missed the entire country when I backpacked through Europe is beyond me. I think Eyrleigh and Richard would really love to go there too. Though Buccatini all'Amatriciana sounds complicated, it wasn't and the use of store-bought tomato sauce made it downright simple. I replaced the pancetta with low-sodium bacon and realized I had no more Romano cheese so I used Manchego . It worked. The flavor added to the store-bought sauce was an improvement. I may not duplicate this recipe exactly again but this recipe reinforced that anything can be added to a commercial sauce to give it an extra dimension. ...
Read more