apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Hi, My kitchen cure has been patchy at best. I manages to get my one bum kitchen a wee bit more organised, i never had any duplicates so that was one less job for me to get done, I did manage to reclaim some counter space by putting away my rice cooker. I have put in a beautiful peace lilly plant in the kitchen. It rests on top of the microwave, so i keep removing it to get my baking done. I have moved myself to a system of checking my pantry (one shelf in my overhead cabinets) every two days so that i dont forget all the stuff i have to work with. I keep looking up recipes.. i literally re-read my cookbooks like fiction volumes. That helps me find stuff to do... For the challenge where we had to make something we have never made before... I made the Rombaeur Jam cake from joy of cooking and layered and covered it with chocolate ganache and then tried to top it off with whipped cream frosting... tried being the operative word... with the cream getting overwhipped... considering i was hand whipping it .. it REALLY was a bit unexpected.. I did somehow manage to mess it up into respectability ( not too much though) As for the Dinner party challenge... I have been thinking of going with breakfast instead... and setting up stuff like a breakfast bar... like at a hotel buffet spread except at home and not so extensive... some indian options like appam and stew, dosa and chutney; then regular stuff like french toasts cut out in shapes with cookie cutter (maybe with some food colouring thrown in), frittata cubes, baked eggs, a mildly spicy frankfurter fry up with de-seeded chilies and onions topped off with soy, whole wheat pita bread with vegetarian trimmings and hummus, savoury pea pancakes, vegetable cutlets, morning glory muffins and some home made whole-wheat oatmeal bread toasts with home made white butter, some apple butter and maybe also try that red onion confit in port wine. Home made vanilla or mango ice cream if i get my new fridge in time... ooh just looking at the list makes me feel exhausted... but i think quite a lot of the dishes can be either part or fully pre-prepped the days even week before and stashed in the freezer... warmed up in the oven on the day of the party... there should be about 10 to 15 people for breakfast... i'm thinking of trying to pull this off at about 9.30 or ten on a sunday morning within a month Shall try and update with fotos... ( once I figure out how to work that feature)

We had a graduation cocktail party with: kir royales with cava (cheaper!), wine, jalapeno stuffed olives with orange zest and olive oil, red-pepper wrapped bocconcini, crostini with goat cheese arugula pesto and roast beef, crostini with goat cheese arugula pesto and roasted red pepper, cucumber-yogurt soup in teacups, red caviar on steamed new potatoes with greek yogurt, marcona almond stuffed dried figs, roasted eggplant rolled up on toothpicks with cherry tomatoes, and lemon squares.

Everything was super easy to put out last minute and I prepared everything in 2 hours by just making the soup and pesto ahead of time and toasting the bread in the AM for the crostini. Soup = 2 peeled seeded cukes in blender with large container of plain yogurt, salt, pepper, dried dill and mint. Pesto = big bunch of arugula in blender with salt, lots of lemon juice (2?), olive oil and almonds or walnuts. I always mix greek yogurt with olive oil, salt, and pepper to top crackers or potatoes followed by caviar as well. Have lots of fresh chives, rosemary, and black pepper on hand to garnish and you're done!

Wow!! All of that sounds amazing! Please tell me we'll see photos of all this deliciousness..

We kicked off Picnic Season on Saturday morning with my daughter and 3 of her little friends (and their moms). We brought 2 kinds of onigiri (rice balls, 1/2 salmon and 1/2 iritamago which is Japanese scrambled egg); sliced strawberries, brownies, and mugicha. Next week we're adding Japanese-style potato salad to the mix, which I just learned to make and I love it. Probably some edamame, too. There was plenty of food but not a whole lot of variety. It was great lounging in the grass on our new oilcloth picnic blanket (that's our new "setting the table"), and the kids had a blast and a half.

Most of our picnics will feature Japanese food because my husband makes the onigiri while Madame and I hit the farmers market, and that's his specialty. As in, that's all he can make. But he does them very well, so we're happy.

Didn't have a dinner party, but I made tamales for the first time yesterday! I brought them to a friend's Memorial Day gathering, and they were a big hit!

http://www.abreadaday.com

Does a picnic in piles of dirt count? We are redoing our entire yard and so we had an impromptu picnic of lemonade, cherries, pickles, tomatoes, and smoked provolone one afternoon. Yeah, I know, an odd combo. It was all food that was good for little one's hands. I did serve it up nice on a pretty tray, and set it on the kids' picnic table amidst the piles of topsoil.

http://backseatgourmet.blogspot.com

We had some family over for a big meal of roast pork followed by apple pie and ice-cream (we're heading into winter down here!). The pie was store bought but I made gravy from scratch! We drank lovely wine and I set the table nicely. No photos. :-(

My kitchen is nice and clean and significantly de-cluttered. There are still a couple of projects I'd like to tackle (really scrubbing up our saucepans comes to mind) but our pantry and fridge are clean and well-stocked, and our "bottom corner" cupboard is finally arranged in a way that continues to be manageable, so I feel happy. :-)

I really appreciated all the links/info provided as the cure progressed, especially the ones about the different flavours from each region of the world. My highlight? The video showing how to dice an onion. I keep thinking that if nothing else, now I know how to correctly dice an onion, and it's a skill I've used almost every day since. :-)

Thanks to everyone at AT The Kitchn.

Spent time cooking this weekend again. Made Vietnamese curry chicken over rice noodles (sort of a soupy dish with lemon grass, fish sauce, curry and coconut milk). It came out super tasty as I let it sit overnight for the flavors to meld. Other than that went to an amazing BBQ where a friend - who happens to be a CB trained chef build a grill with fire bricks and part of a metal shelving rack. He put together all these little foil packets of mushrooms, scallops, pea sprouts and asparagus as well as chicken and beef scewers. It was all so tasty. Lastly I made a great drink from ginger congiac, seltzer water, and lemon juice - very refreshing. Thanks for all the inspiration and guidance the CURE has been a blast!