Friends and Food
We've been much more social than usual as of late, and as such we've cooked a few lavish meals that one and all enjoyed (or at least claimed too!)
A couple of weeks ago I cooked a vegan brunch (a first for me) which I have to admit was a bit of a challenge. Brunch for me is all about eggs and cheese and bacon, none of which is on the vegan menu. So I looked in a few cookbooks (yay libraries!) and ended up with blueberry coffee cake, cornmeal & blueberry pancakes, roasted potatoes and fruit salad. I was pleased with everything except the pancakes - they were weird. In any case we had a great time with new friends (an artist and a librarian - what's not to love!), they appear to have found enough to eat, and I am no longer a complete novice when it comes to vegan cooking.
Then last weekend we had a friend of mine from knitting at the library (hi Karen!) over for dinner, so I cooked 40 cloves of garlic chicken, roasted potatoes (the same ones) and caesar salad and broccoli. I had never cooked the chicken recipe before and I really liked it - the chicken came out tender without being rubbery, and the garlic flavor was really mild. I brined the chicken first (a favorite technique of the folks at America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated) and I think that helped. Once again everyone seemed to get enough to eat, and it was fun having a fellow knitting friend over to enjoy a meal.
Then today we had friends of the Italian over for brunch. These friends don't eat mammals, so no bacon, but other than that it was open season. We had a chile cheese puff, roasted potatoes (we're liking these lately!), blueberry bread, scones, fruit salad and turkey bacon. The friends were charged with drinks, so we had Kir Royals, Mimosa and Bloody Mary's. Way too much food, but these are some of my brunch favorites, especially the chile cheese puff. We sat out in the backyard which was nice, especially as the kids got to run wild afterward and the adults could just sit and enjoy the meal.
Add in the pasta sauce that we made last weekend and it's been a busy time for cooking. I like to cook but find weekday meal preparation stressful. There's not a lot of time between when I get home from work and when the kids should be in bed, so it's a race against the clock to get something edible on the table. And I like to make good food; I was starting to feel lately that I shouldn't spend so much time cooking, that eating more pre-fab meals would be okay if it freed me up to spend some time with the kids. But then I thought about it some more and decided that I'm teaching the kids to appreciate good food that is good for them, and that is something that will serve them well in our society. If I can make the time as I cook to teach them about food and cooking, which I've started to do lately with Punkin, that will also serve them well.
Now if I could just find the time to exercise I could continue to eat like this!
A couple of weeks ago I cooked a vegan brunch (a first for me) which I have to admit was a bit of a challenge. Brunch for me is all about eggs and cheese and bacon, none of which is on the vegan menu. So I looked in a few cookbooks (yay libraries!) and ended up with blueberry coffee cake, cornmeal & blueberry pancakes, roasted potatoes and fruit salad. I was pleased with everything except the pancakes - they were weird. In any case we had a great time with new friends (an artist and a librarian - what's not to love!), they appear to have found enough to eat, and I am no longer a complete novice when it comes to vegan cooking.
Then last weekend we had a friend of mine from knitting at the library (hi Karen!) over for dinner, so I cooked 40 cloves of garlic chicken, roasted potatoes (the same ones) and caesar salad and broccoli. I had never cooked the chicken recipe before and I really liked it - the chicken came out tender without being rubbery, and the garlic flavor was really mild. I brined the chicken first (a favorite technique of the folks at America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated) and I think that helped. Once again everyone seemed to get enough to eat, and it was fun having a fellow knitting friend over to enjoy a meal.
Then today we had friends of the Italian over for brunch. These friends don't eat mammals, so no bacon, but other than that it was open season. We had a chile cheese puff, roasted potatoes (we're liking these lately!), blueberry bread, scones, fruit salad and turkey bacon. The friends were charged with drinks, so we had Kir Royals, Mimosa and Bloody Mary's. Way too much food, but these are some of my brunch favorites, especially the chile cheese puff. We sat out in the backyard which was nice, especially as the kids got to run wild afterward and the adults could just sit and enjoy the meal.
Add in the pasta sauce that we made last weekend and it's been a busy time for cooking. I like to cook but find weekday meal preparation stressful. There's not a lot of time between when I get home from work and when the kids should be in bed, so it's a race against the clock to get something edible on the table. And I like to make good food; I was starting to feel lately that I shouldn't spend so much time cooking, that eating more pre-fab meals would be okay if it freed me up to spend some time with the kids. But then I thought about it some more and decided that I'm teaching the kids to appreciate good food that is good for them, and that is something that will serve them well in our society. If I can make the time as I cook to teach them about food and cooking, which I've started to do lately with Punkin, that will also serve them well.
Now if I could just find the time to exercise I could continue to eat like this!
posted by Marie at 3:30 PM
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