Cooking, one week into the new year
Jan. 9th, 2013 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siglinde99The cooking challenge is amazing, so far. Tonight I made Rainbow trout with garlic-dill sauce, from a March 2009 issue of Chatelaine. It took about 10 minutes to prepare, and was quite tasty. I halved the recipe (designed for 2) and still have enough for lunch tomorrow.
I also made a Ginger Butternut Squash Soup from a cookbook called "Recipes from Smokey Tom's", a 2009 cookbook from Saint Thomas's Church in Toronto. The church is known as Smokey Tom's because of the clouds of incense that feature in its services. I like the introduction because it talks about the importance of the Eucharist in Christian workship, and the history of food and hospitality in this parish. Cookbooks put together as fundraisers by churches and small communities are among my favourites; I tend to use them a lot because the recipes are usually relatively simple, and they have been well tested (barring typos!). They often reflect the ethnic heritage of the community (this particular book is heavy on Indonesian, but there are Korean, Indian, Italian, Greek, Ukranian, Cornish, and many other recipes - often with stories about the contributors' immigrant parents, or experiences while working abroad). There are also modern recipes created by, or in honour of, well-known Canadians, and the recipe for oyster stew that was served on the CPR railway on the way to its inauguration in Cragellachie, published in a newspaper in 1967, and a staple New Year's eve recipe in the contributor's family for many years after that. So far, I have made at least 5 recipes from the book and there are many more I want to try. I'm not at all sure that the oyster stew will be among them, as I hated canned clams the last time I had them, and I don't know whether I can manage preparing a pint of fresh raw oysters (though I suppose I could learn, or invite a friend from Nova Scotia to help cook).
My third recipe of the night was Polenta with Tomato Sauce. I'm not quite sure where I found this recipe, but it has been in my binder of recipes to try/recipes worth keeping for at least a year. It was a good way to use up the cornmeal that otherwise is used only to keep my pizzas from sticking to the pan.
My final recipe came from a fun book "Wartime Recipes from the Maritimes, 1939-1945". This little book has some social history, nice historical artwork, and some truly funky recipes. This is the same book where I found the excellent Spiced Molasses Cake I made just before Christmas. Tonight's experiment was Hamburger Muffins - basically two layers of hamburger meat with a bread crumb stuffing in the middle, cooked in a muffin tin. It made 8 good-sized muffins with 1 lb of ground beef, so it is definitely economical!
I also made a Ginger Butternut Squash Soup from a cookbook called "Recipes from Smokey Tom's", a 2009 cookbook from Saint Thomas's Church in Toronto. The church is known as Smokey Tom's because of the clouds of incense that feature in its services. I like the introduction because it talks about the importance of the Eucharist in Christian workship, and the history of food and hospitality in this parish. Cookbooks put together as fundraisers by churches and small communities are among my favourites; I tend to use them a lot because the recipes are usually relatively simple, and they have been well tested (barring typos!). They often reflect the ethnic heritage of the community (this particular book is heavy on Indonesian, but there are Korean, Indian, Italian, Greek, Ukranian, Cornish, and many other recipes - often with stories about the contributors' immigrant parents, or experiences while working abroad). There are also modern recipes created by, or in honour of, well-known Canadians, and the recipe for oyster stew that was served on the CPR railway on the way to its inauguration in Cragellachie, published in a newspaper in 1967, and a staple New Year's eve recipe in the contributor's family for many years after that. So far, I have made at least 5 recipes from the book and there are many more I want to try. I'm not at all sure that the oyster stew will be among them, as I hated canned clams the last time I had them, and I don't know whether I can manage preparing a pint of fresh raw oysters (though I suppose I could learn, or invite a friend from Nova Scotia to help cook).
My third recipe of the night was Polenta with Tomato Sauce. I'm not quite sure where I found this recipe, but it has been in my binder of recipes to try/recipes worth keeping for at least a year. It was a good way to use up the cornmeal that otherwise is used only to keep my pizzas from sticking to the pan.
My final recipe came from a fun book "Wartime Recipes from the Maritimes, 1939-1945". This little book has some social history, nice historical artwork, and some truly funky recipes. This is the same book where I found the excellent Spiced Molasses Cake I made just before Christmas. Tonight's experiment was Hamburger Muffins - basically two layers of hamburger meat with a bread crumb stuffing in the middle, cooked in a muffin tin. It made 8 good-sized muffins with 1 lb of ground beef, so it is definitely economical!
