Always thinking of the next meal...
Something I haven’t written about yet was our trip to Paris two years ago. After having seen tonnes of American movies it was my understanding that it is the most magnificent and romantic city in the world. Since the French is famous for their food, I thought it won’t be necessary to do any research food-wise, because surely there would be a restaurant on every street corner with a drool-worthy menu. Unfortunately, it is never a good thing to have expectations. Ever.
Phew, now that was a mouthful to type. The title looks as if it was an item borrowed from a fancy schmancy restaurant menu, but let me reassure you this is a dead easy recipe to prepare, ultra healthy and to top it all it tastes divine! Sod any decadent dessert and serve me this dish instead.
As much as these chicken rolls were a joy to eat, it is a bit tedious to make, so reserve this recipe for when you want to impress your guess (not without practising first though!). One thing I love about the internet is that it is so easy to obtain information. A quick search on YouTube yielded some good videos on stuffed chicken breasts and gives you a better idea of how to go about. As a bonus, you can check out the Related Videos panel and watch how a mouse ends up in a woman’s bra, why you would want breast implants and some suckling babies. Great, huh?
My love affair with the Kabocha Squash hasn’t ended. Our love is as strong as ever and I’m sure it will last a loooong time. Every week when Neil is out of sight at the supermarket I dawdle through the fresh produce section, I hear a “Psssst”. When I turn my head, there he is, sitting in all his glory with his dark and light green striped skin with a rough yellow patch or two; as sexy as ever. Without hesitation I will pick him up, caress him and tell him I missed him. When our tender moment has passed I make a dash for our trolley wherever it may be and hide him quickly before Neil sees him. Satisfied and excited I would quietly plan in my head what sordid yet creative business I’d like to do to him when Neil has left for work. Oh, if Neil only knew!
Happy Easter, everyone! The weather in UK is especially bad this weekend. At one stage Neil and I were standing at a window, hearing the wind howling from the cold North and analysed what exactly was falling. Was it snow, sleet or hail pattering hard on the windows? We still don’t know, but it melted quite quickly.
Our whole family is sitting with a stinking cold, each at a different stage. Neil’s got a sore throat, I’m having a snot-fest and Gabriel is drowning in his own phlegm. (Oops, I know this is a food site, sorry!) How do you tell a baby to cough? He seriously worried me last night when he woke up crying and struggling to breathe because he wasn’t coughing.
A few months ago I raved about Kabocha Squash and I’ll do it again. To my heart’s delight I saw this week while shopping that Waitrose has decided to stock up on Kabocha and Butternut Squashes that are both my favourites. Just maybe the Brits are catching up on the magnificence of the pumpkin. The first time I tasted the Kabocha Squash it reminded me of something else. After a while it hit me that it tasted like a good old Gem Squash. My relationship with the latter is a bit volatile though. It is pretty hard to tell from the outside whether you’ll have a good or bad one. When I’m unlucky, I’ll be stuck with pale yellow, full of threads, watery and bland flesh that isn’t up to much, taste wise. But boy, when you’re lucky you’ll have deep-yellow, moist, tender and smooth flesh that’s to die for. Now that’s what the Kabocha Squash is like each and every time. No wonder I can’t get enough of it.
The reason I love soups is because they are just so versatile. Almost any ingredient can be transformed into a soup and more often that not you hit the jackpot. If not, chances are you can save your creation most of the time, by diluting it, adding salt or cream, you get the idea. Haricot beans and parmesan cheese seem like an unlikely combo but the results are astounding. The parmesan’s exquisite flavour takes this otherwise boring old bean soup to another level. On a cold winter’s night this soul-nourishing soup will warm you up in no time.
Tomato soup is one of those dishes you can’t have as a meal on its own. By the time you get up from the table you have to pee and afterwards you realise it must have been the tomato soup because you’re still damn hungry. To address this problem beans have been added to this recipe. Pulses are notorious for their ability to keep you full for longer and are great for keeping your glycaemic levels stable. My second issue with tomato soup, or tomatoes for that matter, is that it is just so acidic. A little bit of brown sugar does just nicely though. Well, what do you know? I’ve got nothing left to complain about.
Scouring my recipe collection I found this lovely recipe. I had a few problems though. One, I have never baked a pie or tart in my life. Two, I didn’t have a food mixer to make the dough with. I’ve been yearning for a KitchenAid for a long time, which I’ll hopefully get in the near future. Three, there was no time to experiment with complicated recipes even though I would have loved to make a South African “souttert”. I needed to be successful the first time.
Recently I’ve checked my website statistics (the traffic has skyrocketed by the way) and saw a new site linking to me. Curious as always I went to investigate. Nicole from For the Love of Food decided to make my Chicken Calvados and it was a great success which really delighted me. After reading her site for a while I noticed she has a monthly contest, called Taste & Create. The idea is to cook another blogger’s recipe and give feedback. Nicole will then do a monthly roundup of the results.
3km walk done. Papaya & seeds for lunch.