Snacks Tonight #50

Tiramisu for the weekend!

Image: Gai Lan Emergent

Dinner Tonight #77

Pork chops with brandied cherries (actually I ran out of brandy so used rum).

Image: Paella

Snacks Tonight #49

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I’m not sure what call these — apple slices? — but they were so easy to make that I got it done before 8 this morning.

Dinner Tonight #76

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Chicken caramel by Chef John.

Dinner Tonight #75

Linguine alla puttanesca; one of my absolute favourites.

Snacks Tonight #48

A very good chocolate cake made with just two ingredients — chocolate and eggs!

Image: Greenspace #4

Image: Blintzes

Image: Bacon

Snacks Tonight #47

Apple and cherry turnovers.

Snacks Tonight #46

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A Basque cheesecake which came out grand! Will be perfect tomorrow with a raspberry coulis.

The Five Sandwiches that Made America

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I always find the Conversation has an eclectic mix of essays, many of which will pique my interest. A recent case in point: the history of five sandwiches — tuna salad, the chow mein sandwich, club, peanut butter & jelly, Scotch woodcock — and what they say about American social history.

The histories of these foods run through the 1890s for the club sandwich — perfectly described as “a blend of elegance and blandness” — through the early years of the 20th century for tuna, pb & J, and the woodcock, and much more recently for the chow mein sandwich of the 1970s.

Image: Alena Haurylick

“As food historian Bee Wilson argues in her history of the sandwich, American sandwiches distinguished themselves from their British counterparts by the scale of their ambition. Imitating the rising skylines of American cities, many were towering affairs that celebrated abundance.

Well worth the read.

Dinner Tonight #74

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Chicken pot pie is a staple in my repertoire so I wouldn’t normally post an image of it. But this one was good-looking as well as great tasting!.

Dinner Tonight #72

Tonight I prepared rougaille, a Mauritian stew/sauce, which I served with sauteed chicken.

Snacks Tonight #45

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Today I made my first tiramisu. It turned out rather well! I used this recipe.

Dinner Tonight #71

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Tonight I cooked a pork tenderloin, covered with onions and cheese and spices, wrapped in puff pastry.

The recipe is in German so you may have to switch on subtitles.

Morning Delight

In the last couple of years we have become huge fans of cara cara oranges.  Have you tried them?  You really should.  They have a darker fruit than other navel oranges; fruit that is not sweet (to my taste at least) but without the slightest acidity.  It has a deep flavour that is so satisfying. I read that its flavour evokes “cherry, rose petal, orange, and blackberry”.  I don’t know about that, but I really love the almost exotic taste.

They are imported oranges of course — at this time of year they are probably from South Africa or Venezuela — and so don’t meet any criteria for local produce.  But you have to spoil yourself once in a while, and cara cara oranges are worth it.

Snacks Tonight #44

Tonight I made a peach and blueberry batter pudding. It was great.

The original recipe calls for apricots and blackcurrants, but we have a lot of wonderful peaches and blueberries right now, so …