the week that was; also, cooking
Feb. 13th, 2016 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitMy ankle still hurts. Not as badly as it did, and I'm hoping a good rest this weekend will help, but the past week has not been fun. I've especially enjoyed waking up five or six times a night because my ankle has decided that it cannot tolerate whatever position it's in any longer, nope, I must wake up and experimentally try every other possible way to lie. ("Will a pillow under my foot help? Hmm, maybe, that's not so OH NO OUCH WHO KNEW BLANKETS WERE SO HEAVY, let's move again.").
I think of those of you who deal with disability and pain every single day and I know I am a wimp.
So this weekend will be devoted to staying in the apartment and napping and cooking a bit. Which is in fact what I do most weekends.
My cooking plans are a bit random, based on what I have at home that I want to use up + what I feel like eating. I've got some country-style pork ribs in the slow cooker, stewing with onion, red bell pepper (capsicum), tomatoes, garlic, chickpeas, some Spanish chorizo, sweet and hot smoked paprika, oregano, and a bit of vinegar for tartness. I'm hoping that the spicy-tart-sweet thing will compensate for the stewed-meat texture. Anyway the ribs needed using somehow.
I'm also going to use up some dried fruit (figs, cranberries, two kinds of raisins) that's been hanging around in the cupboard by making Lincolnshire plum buns. I've got tea brewing right now to soak the fruit in.
Also today I'll start some pizza dough, and tomorrow I'm going to make this potato, caramelized onion and gorgonzola pizza, only even better than the recipe because I'm planning to put some bacon on it instead of sausage. Also I'm omitting the balsamic reduction, because meh. (I could muster up a good deal of interest in real balsamico if I were ever offered any, but that's a different thing entirely and not to be wasted on pizza.)
If I get very ambitious, I may also make some chocolate-pecan shortbread bars, because tomorrow is Valentine's day and this requires chocolate.
Lately I've been eating a surprising amount of salads. Salads with lettuce. I don't know what's come over me--vitamin deficiency probably. I am currently lettuce-less because when I went to the supermarket yesterday I didn't feel absolutely compelled to buy some, but now I'm kind of wishing I could have a salad. Genuine question: is there a lettuce that's kind of like romaine only better? I like the crispness of romaine but I wish it had a little more flavor. Unfortunately in my experience the only flavor lettuce comes in is "bitter," but since I seem to be eating the stuff anyway I might as well find something good.
I picked up a couple of inexpensive secondhand cookbooks lately: Supper for a Song by Tamasin Day-Lewis, which has some nice recipes but is hilariously unaware of how unaffordable its idea of cooking on a budget is, and a combined volume of Elizabeth David's first three cookbooks (Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking, and Summer Cooking). I've been reading Mediterranean Food, which was first published in 1950. I picture weary postwar English people, with many basic foodstuffs still rationed, eating toast and margarine while reading hungrily about bouillabaisse and spanakopita.
I think of those of you who deal with disability and pain every single day and I know I am a wimp.
So this weekend will be devoted to staying in the apartment and napping and cooking a bit. Which is in fact what I do most weekends.
My cooking plans are a bit random, based on what I have at home that I want to use up + what I feel like eating. I've got some country-style pork ribs in the slow cooker, stewing with onion, red bell pepper (capsicum), tomatoes, garlic, chickpeas, some Spanish chorizo, sweet and hot smoked paprika, oregano, and a bit of vinegar for tartness. I'm hoping that the spicy-tart-sweet thing will compensate for the stewed-meat texture. Anyway the ribs needed using somehow.
I'm also going to use up some dried fruit (figs, cranberries, two kinds of raisins) that's been hanging around in the cupboard by making Lincolnshire plum buns. I've got tea brewing right now to soak the fruit in.
Also today I'll start some pizza dough, and tomorrow I'm going to make this potato, caramelized onion and gorgonzola pizza, only even better than the recipe because I'm planning to put some bacon on it instead of sausage. Also I'm omitting the balsamic reduction, because meh. (I could muster up a good deal of interest in real balsamico if I were ever offered any, but that's a different thing entirely and not to be wasted on pizza.)
If I get very ambitious, I may also make some chocolate-pecan shortbread bars, because tomorrow is Valentine's day and this requires chocolate.
Lately I've been eating a surprising amount of salads. Salads with lettuce. I don't know what's come over me--vitamin deficiency probably. I am currently lettuce-less because when I went to the supermarket yesterday I didn't feel absolutely compelled to buy some, but now I'm kind of wishing I could have a salad. Genuine question: is there a lettuce that's kind of like romaine only better? I like the crispness of romaine but I wish it had a little more flavor. Unfortunately in my experience the only flavor lettuce comes in is "bitter," but since I seem to be eating the stuff anyway I might as well find something good.
I picked up a couple of inexpensive secondhand cookbooks lately: Supper for a Song by Tamasin Day-Lewis, which has some nice recipes but is hilariously unaware of how unaffordable its idea of cooking on a budget is, and a combined volume of Elizabeth David's first three cookbooks (Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking, and Summer Cooking). I've been reading Mediterranean Food, which was first published in 1950. I picture weary postwar English people, with many basic foodstuffs still rationed, eating toast and margarine while reading hungrily about bouillabaisse and spanakopita.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 12:14 am (UTC)I'm not a huge fan of lettuce most of the year because it's always limp and bitter, if it has any flavour at all, but right now the lettuce in my garden is going so I'm eating it pretty much every day. We have cos and rocket, and we had red coral but it's finished. Every time I eat it I am surprised at actually enjoying lettuce!
no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 12:55 am (UTC)What do you do with rocket? I've liked it in the past with sweetish things (like figs stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts and roasted), and I also like it wilted with pasta, but since it's one of the lettuces I know I like, it would be great to have more ideas for using it.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 05:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 10:21 am (UTC)