Saturday Night Clue

Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen with the....uhhh....pastry brush?

Had a good evening with the colonel making Poached Pear and Ricotta Turnovers in celebration of his 30th birthday.

The filo dough was a little past its prime, but a little extra butter ...yeah not so good for me, but it worked - it was all we had. And we didn't have fresh pears, so a can of pears with a dash of vanilla, worked for this Saturday night endeavor.

Wrapping them up and enjoying the treats....birthday boy kept the leftovers.

To wash it down, we enjoyed some Thai tea I had brought back from Cambodia. Delicious!

The Colonel may have gotten the leftover turnovers, but I took home my black tea dust, so he will just have to invite me over if he wants some Thai tea.

Parmesan Black-pepper Bread with Swiss Cheese

I am not sure you can call this cooking, but ohhh was it good.

I went into the grocery to pick up some toilet bowl cleaner and walked past some artisan bread - Parmesan Black-pepper, and was sucked into an impulse buy. Then of course I needed some swiss cheese to go with it, so I bought some of that also.

I found that the bread is quite tasty toasted in the oven and then I even melted some swiss cheese (Guggisburg) on top.

Mmmmm! Mmmmm!

Cream of Carrot and Swiss Soup

All this rainy, slushy gray weather is making me wish for soup, soup, and more soup.

Today's soup turned out to be one step down from a stew- a carrot and potato soup made with home grown veggies. That is, since I don't have a garden, some of the carrots and potatoes mom was nice enough to bring down when she came to visit last weekend. The potatoes for certain and the carrots, perhaps, were from their garden last fall. I shredded them and added them in to my stew pot with a bit of thyme and other seasonings.

Then when they were nice and tender I added in some milk and a pile of slivered swiss cheese.

Wonderful and filling on a cool spring night. The soup was a modified version of the Cream of Carrot-Cheddar Soup in the More with Less cookbook.

Memories of Cambodia...

Happy Valentine's Day! Many people enjoy going out for a nice dinner on Valentine's day, me I was excited to stay home. Finally, I am home and have no excuse not to make a nice bowl of Tum Yum Soup. It is a perfect day for it, though the temperature's are warmer today, up to 39°F, it is damp and dreary and I just feel cold.

This may surprise you, but since most anyone reading this most likely knows me personally it shouldn't, I am NOT asian - as was plainly informed to me once in a rousing game of Mafia, in which I was killed first because I was not asian. So hopefully, you'll understand when I didn't realize until a couple of days later that it wasn't tamarind that I wanted but rather galangal that I had meant to purchase. At that point I was disappointed, before that I was rather excited. I saw the lemongrass first and then the tamarind nearby and thought, ahh, now I can make some delicious Tum Yum. Oh well, I was still excited this evening and made delicious soup, but now I have some tamarind and I am not sure what to do with it.

traveling spoons...Merry Christmas!

Well I am off and traveling... Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go..oh wait, its into the car and off down the highway and I've left the good food behind.

We celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Eve and then mom and I headed off to Pennsylvania to visit Grandma, aunts and unc

les and cousins, leaving the rest of the family at home with the leftovers from our annual Christmas dinner. So as I said this spoon is off and traveling...

So the table is all set....what exactly will we be enjoying?

We started off withPetticoat salad(or at least that is what mom call's it and we have decide to leave it at that, because the original name is Goldand Onyx Gem Salad and that is more complicated for the tongue and the brain) and Welsh Rarebit...with a flare.

Janelle made the Petticoat salad, a mixture of boston lettuce, fresh pineapple, black beans (from Kristin's garden once upon a time), avocado, red onion, and mint (to replace the cilantro - which Janelle definitely doesn't eat).