I am determined to keep going with this adventure, but the obstacle of having three small children and just taking care of everything else in general is definitely making it quite the challenge. To be able to do this every week is just nearly impossible. I will just say that I will continue to experiment in different foods and different cultures when I am able to. I still hope that it is often! I have already found so many new foods that my family and I love that we never would have known exsisted had I not started this project! It's been two or three weeks since my last entry. I decided on Thai food for my latest quest, it only took me two weeks to make a main dish and a dessert!
About two weeks ago I decided that Thai food would be my next adventure. A few days after, I set out to make a dessert called kluay buat chee that I had found on www.ifood.tv which is a terrific website I found that has user posted videos of them making food. I have learned that although following a recipe for me has never been difficult, seeing a dish prepared makes it easier to make sure you know what you are doing. Did I mention I haven't ever even tasted Thai before this adventure? In this case, I wouldn't have needed the video, but it was still nice to be able to watch it. Kluay buat chee was a very simple dish to make. All that is in it is coconut milk, a little bit of sugar and bananas. In my family we make a similar dish, but the bananas are pan fried in sugar and butter. I was thrilled to find this healthier version of a dish we LOVE to use as a side dish at breakfast, or even a dessert. The coconut milk gives it a great taste too! Anyway, it only takes about ten minutes total to make this dish. You heat the coconut milk on medium until it bubbles, then you add the sugar and bananas and cook until they are soft. Super simple! Extremely tasty!
About a week later, I had the free time (aka my husband was home to help with the kids while I messed around in the kitchen) so I was ready to make a main dish. The one I decided on was Kao Moki Gai (Thai chicken in yellow rice). This too quite a bit of time to prepare. I knew it was going to be pretty spicy! Some of the ingredients called for were cayenne pepper, tumeric, cumin and corriander. The latter three are used heavily in Indian food, which I eat quite often...so I knew this combination and how much to use of each...might be too much for me to handle! While I mixed all of the spices together and started cooking things on the stove, I could hear all of the babies and my husband Adam start coughing! I was right, this was definitely going to be SPICY! As an accompaniment to the dish, there is this sort of dipping sauce composed of sugar, vinegar and jalepenos. When I served this, I learned that this dipping sauce was going to be the only way I was going to be able to make it through this dinner! It was very very tasty, but probably the spiciest thing I have ever tasted. That is the great thing about cooking at home though, I know next time to tone down the spices!
I would say that even though it took me a few weeks, my Thai adventure was a success. Everything came out right and we liked it...always a positive in my book!!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Four months later, and I finally got that new laptop I needed. The German food day is lost in my mind somewhere, I know I made a fabulous soup, but other than that I can't recall the rest of the meal. Oh well, I guess I will have to give German another go! That is more fun for me anyway, since my roots are mostly German.
On Thursday, my husband Adam and I have been officially married for 4 years. We decided to celebrate this milestone Saturday night in downtown Ft. Worth at this fabulous restaurant called The Vault. My uncle and his finacee watched all the kids for me overnight, so I thought Sunday would be the perfect day to attempt Jamaican Food. Even better, a great friend of ours came over and I LOVE cooking for other people!!
For my Jamaican adventure, I decided on Calypso Chicken and Jamaican Peas and Rice. Early in the week I made cornmeal porridge, but I don't count that, since it is a favorite around my house and I have made it on many occasions. The Calypso Chicken turned out fantastic. The flavor of mushrooms and onions made the house smell fantastic while it simmered on the stove. And the Peas and Rice was also tasty. We love rice at our house, but have never had it Jamaican style...it was different, with coconut milk, kidney beans and a whole jalepeno added in for flavor. I loved it and I think everyone else did too! I know my daughter did, so both of these dishes will definetly go in my recipe book for future dinners!
On Thursday, my husband Adam and I have been officially married for 4 years. We decided to celebrate this milestone Saturday night in downtown Ft. Worth at this fabulous restaurant called The Vault. My uncle and his finacee watched all the kids for me overnight, so I thought Sunday would be the perfect day to attempt Jamaican Food. Even better, a great friend of ours came over and I LOVE cooking for other people!!
For my Jamaican adventure, I decided on Calypso Chicken and Jamaican Peas and Rice. Early in the week I made cornmeal porridge, but I don't count that, since it is a favorite around my house and I have made it on many occasions. The Calypso Chicken turned out fantastic. The flavor of mushrooms and onions made the house smell fantastic while it simmered on the stove. And the Peas and Rice was also tasty. We love rice at our house, but have never had it Jamaican style...it was different, with coconut milk, kidney beans and a whole jalepeno added in for flavor. I loved it and I think everyone else did too! I know my daughter did, so both of these dishes will definetly go in my recipe book for future dinners!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
I need a new laptop
i just wrote an entire post about German food that I obviously didn't save and lost it! One of the babies is crying so I will have to repost it tonight! We really need a new laptop, this one is insane!
Friday, February 5, 2010
When it rains it pours
There is an old Irish saying- "Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan, if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man." Let's just say, it is a good thing I already have a man...and that he is not Irish! Persian food I can do, a boxty genious I am not. After about half an hour of grating potatoes and draining potatoes and mixing them with all the other ingredients, I just couldn't get these griddle cakes to turn out right. I will not be defeated however, I will keep trying now and again to make these potato like pancakes because the batter smelled WONDERFUL. I might have tried harder to get it right, but the day was a long one (and the night proceding) and I was exhausted. My youngest baby (by exactly 1 minute!) Miles had been up coughing all night. I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with croup and had to get a cortizone shot. The shot made him feel much better which made his mother overjoyous, but I still was very tired and almost didn't even want to cook at all! Luckily Miles and Maddie took a nap at the same time, so I only had Noah to contend with while I cooked our Irish feast. If you read the proceeding blog entries, you know that last week my aunt was in the hospital and the week before that I was in the hospital. I am hoping that this will be the last week that someone is sick, although I realize that with three children under 3 there will always be challenges I must overcome in order to keep going with this project...
Back to the cooking. I must say that Irish cooking was only 50% successful. Two dishes turned out exactly right and two were terrible. The other I messed up with an Irish potato bread and really all I think that went wrong was that it didn't get cooked all the way through. Perhaps I didn't flatten it out enough? Who knows, but I do know I didn't enjoy the taste. I plan to redeem myself by attempting Irish Soda Bread today, which is really what I should have done in the first place!
On to the successes! For the main course, I made traditional Irish stew It is a very basic recipe, only containing carrots, onions, potatoes, beef, water, salt and pepper. I liked that it
was a pretty healthy dish, although next time I would experiment with putting more in it to add more flavor. The crowning glory of Irish week was definetly the dessert, apple dumpling. I have never made a dish like that on the stove, so I was a little weary, but it turned out fantastic! It is basically apples, cinnamon, sugar and water, with a cake like topping that you simmer on the stove. It was simple and delicious, served with vanilla ice cream. Apple dumpling will definetly be going in my permanent recipe book!
I am still not sure what region or country I will be tackling next week, since it's Valentine's day. I thought about French, but I don't know if I have enough time or money to put into it next week. Any suggestions?
Back to the cooking. I must say that Irish cooking was only 50% successful. Two dishes turned out exactly right and two were terrible. The other I messed up with an Irish potato bread and really all I think that went wrong was that it didn't get cooked all the way through. Perhaps I didn't flatten it out enough? Who knows, but I do know I didn't enjoy the taste. I plan to redeem myself by attempting Irish Soda Bread today, which is really what I should have done in the first place!
On to the successes! For the main course, I made traditional Irish stew It is a very basic recipe, only containing carrots, onions, potatoes, beef, water, salt and pepper. I liked that it
was a pretty healthy dish, although next time I would experiment with putting more in it to add more flavor. The crowning glory of Irish week was definetly the dessert, apple dumpling. I have never made a dish like that on the stove, so I was a little weary, but it turned out fantastic! It is basically apples, cinnamon, sugar and water, with a cake like topping that you simmer on the stove. It was simple and delicious, served with vanilla ice cream. Apple dumpling will definetly be going in my permanent recipe book!
I am still not sure what region or country I will be tackling next week, since it's Valentine's day. I thought about French, but I don't know if I have enough time or money to put into it next week. Any suggestions?
Friday, January 29, 2010
a rocky start
Week one was not what I expected. I did manage to cook the three dishes that I wanted, but it took two different days. One of my mom's aunts ended up in the hospital and then two of her other aunts came for a short trip from out of town. I also just finished a 5 day hospital stay myself to have my gallbladder removed, so my mom has been helping me take care of the babies since I am restriced from lifting all three. To make a long story short, since mom was expecting her aunts to visit, I had to take all the kids to her house and cook there. Luckily she lives right down the road. Unfortunetly for me though, it feels like we are moving out anytime we have to go anywhere because we have to take so much stuff with us plus the two babies (Miles and Noah) and my two year old (Maddie).
Persian food is not fast food, it is very intricate and can take lots of time. After we arrived, I put together the rice, which took me a good two hours. Let me tell you though, no other rice can rival the taste and aroma of middle eastern rice, so it is worth the long process of cooking. If you ever try it, and I hope you do, you will understand what I mean. After I got the rice cooking, I started marinating the chicken and realized I forgot the onions at home and wondered if that would make the chicken's flavor taste too off. I sat the chicken in the fridge and decided I'd worry about that later. It was time to relax a little since all of the kids were asleep, and wait for our aunts to arrive. They did a few hours later. We visited with them for a while and then they were off to see their sister, the one who was in the hosptial, who thankfully we had just heard was released and at home.
After they left, my husband Adam and I gathered the food and our children and headed home. At this point, it was already 7:30 so I decided to save the appetizer for the next day. I cooked the chicken kabobs and i was right, the flavor did suffer, without the onions it tasted like chicken drenched in lime. oh well, the rice turned out perfect and there is always another day as far as the chicken is concerned.
Iranian's are pretty famous for making a lot of food, as are most middle eastern families, so it was no surprise that we had plenty of leftovers for the next day and so an opportunity to make the appetizer we had missed out on the day before. It was basically a mixture of spinach, yogurt, garlic and onions. It is to be eaten with bread, but I found I liked it mixed in my rice more than I liked it with the bread.
The Iranian week didn't go as well as I had hoped but it could have been worse too! Next week will also be a challenge since Adam just switched jobs and we can't afford to spend a lot of extra money on this project just yet. Next week will probably be Irish food for that very reason, heavy on the potatoes because they are cheap and versatile. I already know the potato dish I will make, it is called Boxty and it sounds delicious. I am hoping that even though we don't have much to spend that I will have more time to spend in the kitchen to make what we do have taste delicious, just like the peasants in Ireland would do....
Also, I will post the recipes soon for anyone that wants to try them and hopefully some pictures too!
Persian food is not fast food, it is very intricate and can take lots of time. After we arrived, I put together the rice, which took me a good two hours. Let me tell you though, no other rice can rival the taste and aroma of middle eastern rice, so it is worth the long process of cooking. If you ever try it, and I hope you do, you will understand what I mean. After I got the rice cooking, I started marinating the chicken and realized I forgot the onions at home and wondered if that would make the chicken's flavor taste too off. I sat the chicken in the fridge and decided I'd worry about that later. It was time to relax a little since all of the kids were asleep, and wait for our aunts to arrive. They did a few hours later. We visited with them for a while and then they were off to see their sister, the one who was in the hosptial, who thankfully we had just heard was released and at home.
After they left, my husband Adam and I gathered the food and our children and headed home. At this point, it was already 7:30 so I decided to save the appetizer for the next day. I cooked the chicken kabobs and i was right, the flavor did suffer, without the onions it tasted like chicken drenched in lime. oh well, the rice turned out perfect and there is always another day as far as the chicken is concerned.
Iranian's are pretty famous for making a lot of food, as are most middle eastern families, so it was no surprise that we had plenty of leftovers for the next day and so an opportunity to make the appetizer we had missed out on the day before. It was basically a mixture of spinach, yogurt, garlic and onions. It is to be eaten with bread, but I found I liked it mixed in my rice more than I liked it with the bread.
The Iranian week didn't go as well as I had hoped but it could have been worse too! Next week will also be a challenge since Adam just switched jobs and we can't afford to spend a lot of extra money on this project just yet. Next week will probably be Irish food for that very reason, heavy on the potatoes because they are cheap and versatile. I already know the potato dish I will make, it is called Boxty and it sounds delicious. I am hoping that even though we don't have much to spend that I will have more time to spend in the kitchen to make what we do have taste delicious, just like the peasants in Ireland would do....
Also, I will post the recipes soon for anyone that wants to try them and hopefully some pictures too!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
the idea
After seeing the fabulous movie Julie and Julia and watching one too many episodes of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain on netflix, I have decided on an adventure of my own! I would LOVE to travel around the world, but with almost five month old twin boys, a two year old daughter and a husband that is newly out of school and just beginning his career as a doctor, that will have to wait.
In the meantime, I love to cook and I LOVE a lot of ethnic food, so I thought, why not bring those other regions I dream about weekly into our home. It gives my husband and me a little taste of the places we long to go and also will expose my children to the many many different tastes of the world. My family is mostly German, with a little bit of Irish and a little bit of
British thrown in. My husband's family is 100% Iranian, so these are where I will start.
The first stop next week will be Iranian food. The spices and techniques used make Persian food a difficult task to complete, but I am up to the challenge. Hopefully, I will be able to someday compete with my father in law's amazing dishes...someday!
I plan to do this once a week for the next year so if you have a country or region you want me to tackle, please send me your suggestions or recipes or both!
In the meantime, I love to cook and I LOVE a lot of ethnic food, so I thought, why not bring those other regions I dream about weekly into our home. It gives my husband and me a little taste of the places we long to go and also will expose my children to the many many different tastes of the world. My family is mostly German, with a little bit of Irish and a little bit of
British thrown in. My husband's family is 100% Iranian, so these are where I will start.
The first stop next week will be Iranian food. The spices and techniques used make Persian food a difficult task to complete, but I am up to the challenge. Hopefully, I will be able to someday compete with my father in law's amazing dishes...someday!
I plan to do this once a week for the next year so if you have a country or region you want me to tackle, please send me your suggestions or recipes or both!
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