The Princess & The Pea

Hello again! Have you all recovered form your weekends and the Monday blues? Did you get up to anything fun? We had a brilliant weekend!

First up, we had our fairytale new mattress of joy delivered on Friday. Our old mattress from the UK had collapsed on Hubby's side so he had taken to sleeping in the spare bed, but I found the spare mattress too hard so I was still sleeping in the old bed :-( I wont lie, part of me did enjoy the few nights I had with a whole bed to myself, but we were very happy when the new mattress arrived! And oh! What a mattress?!



We got a Sealy Posturepedic pillow top mattress and it is the comfiest bed I have ever slept in in  my entire life! On the downside though, it is twice as deep as our old mattress which makes it look quite ridiculous on our wee bed, and none of the sheets fit properly, but I don't care!! I loves it!!! :-)



On Friday night we had a long overdue catch up with Vera & Leo and their beautiful baby daughter. This was the first of my planned dinner parties of the year and I spent ages trying to decide what to make. I settled on a couple of things that I had tried before - asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and phyllo pastry for an appetiser, followed by grilled chicken with a mushroom and wild rice pilaf and roast veggies. This was the second time I had tried the pilaf and it was much improved! I totally forgot to get pics of these for you, but I will definitely be making them again so you'll just have to wait for next time!

The highlight of the meal was the dessert. Ive never really made desserts before - back in the UK they always came from Marks & Spencer - and was a bit intimidated by most of the recipes I was finding, until I came across Jamie Oliver's cheat pavlova. It looked fairly simple and rather impressive so I gave it a go and was very glad that I did!!

Other culinary highlights of the weekend included my new favourite brunch - a fry up of potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, red bell peppers and topped off with a poached egg - yum! We even threw in some crisped up leftover prosciutto - double yum!!

Saturday dinner ended up being a surprisingly delicious Asian edamame and shrimps noodles. I say "surprisingly" as our food processor failed to puree the ginger down properly so it was all lumpy, and I forgot to reserve some of the noodle water so the dish was a little drier than it should have been, but I really enjoyed it and it will be making future appearances on our menu!



Saturday night found us back at the Grapevine wine bar in Willow Glen, but unfortunately there was a band playing and they were the worst band I have ever heard!! They proceeded to murder many classic rock songs at obscenely loud volumes to the point where it was more comfortable to sit outside wrapped up in coats and gloves than to suffer the noise inside! The wine, snacks, and service was as wonderful as ever, though, and we still had a fantastic, if chilly, night!

Well, that sums up our weekend. Hubby is off work this week so hopefully I'll have some adventures to share with you, culinary or otherwise. The main thing on the agenda for today, though, is to get some new bloody sheets ....!!!! Laters x

Good news or bad news?

Good morning!! What news do you have today? Ive been making good progress on my organisation goals and managed to get all the upstairs crap cleared up, and conquered a good chunk of the Ironing Pile of Doom so I did not have to iron Hubby's work shirt first thing this morning - hurrah!! (Friends usually mock me for doing his ironing, but it really seems like the least I can do ...!)

Ive also been breaking my general healthy eating goal down into more specific targets and one of those is to eat more fish. *groan* I'm not a huge seafood fan. When I was a kid we used to have fish every Tuesday, and without fail every Tuesday morning my dad would ask me if I wanted the good news or the bad news? "The good news is I love you, the bad news is it's fish for dinner" Oh, how I laughed .....!

I'm not as bad as I used to be, but I do believe there is a special circle of hell reserved for salmon. It's just so ....... meh!! But apparently it is very good for cholesterol, and the fact that Hubby has started eating a lot of it is probably one of the reasons his cholesterol is so much better than mine now. So, one of my diet goals is to eat fish twice a week, and make one of those meals with salmon *groan*

I started by making salmon with toasted Israeli couscous last night and it truly lived up to my expectations - it was crap!

Lets ignore the fact that it was overcooked (I'm sharing joint blame with Hubby for that - sorry babe!) The recipe sounded really tasty - I mean, how could anything with pistachios not be delicious?!?! Well, apparently this is how!




I did really like the Israeli couscous, although this was actually the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend with baby garbanzo beans, orzo and red quinoa through it, and I am looking forward to having that again. I suppose I like the theory of the salmon with the couscous, I just need to give it some ... y'know ... flavour!!!

On Hubby's request, I am stopping using my food magazines for inspiration as there have been more crap-fests than successes of late.



Instead I shall be using my Christmas pressie books and delving into the pristine collection of cookery books that I have been collecting over the years and barely touched!! I got many of these books when I couldn't even boil an egg and they were quite intimidating, so hopefully I'll have more luck now!



In other random news, I have made myself a Happy Jar :-) "A what?!" you say? A Happy Jar!




I read about it last month, and normally this kind of thing would have me rolling my eyes and reaching for a sick bucket, but I actually really like this idea. Basically, whenever something fun/good/memorable happens you write it down and put it in the jar, then at the end of the year you open it up and relive all the happy memories. Nice, huh?

I guess I need a little help decorating the jar, though - perhaps one of my arty friends could help with that? Katy ...? Cameron ...?




So far I only have the first cork popped on new year's eve in it, but I'm confident I can fill it by the end of the year, and not just with corks!! Mind you, that would be fun too ..... :-)

Mixed results .....

So this week I have been getting back in to my healthy veggie cooking after Christmas's scoff-fest. My Christmas gift from my in laws was two vegetarian cookbooks that I had had my eye on for a while - Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, and Verdura, Vegetables Italian Style by Viana La Place - and I was keen to get  started on their yummy recipes.

Last night, as promised, was my first attempt at gnocchi with a Sorrento style tomato and mozzarella sauce from Verdura.



 The gnocchi was a lot of fun to make, but the texture of the finished product was a little off and I am not sure why. Maybe I over- or under-under kneaded the dough? Perhaps the water wasn't at the right temperature? Should I have left them to dry a little longer before cooking them?




More research is required, I think, and a trip to a decent Italian restaurant so I can properly savour the real deal and see what to aspire to!!




My sauce, on the other hand, was delicious!! Just the right amount of creamy yet still healthy - yay! I was a little disappointed that the sauce seemed to separate on the plate - Hubby reckons it was because of the mozzarella - something else to research, I suppose! It didn't spoil the taste, though, and all in all I give this dish 5/10 with definite potential.



On Sunday night Hubby and I delved into our Madhur Jaffrey books (her Ultimate Curry Bible has been Hubby's go-to book for years) and created an awesome curry feast! I made Punjabi style Cauliflower and Potatoes (or Aloo Gobi, to give it it's proper name) with a yoghurt herb dip and home made chapatis. Hubby decided at the last minute that we should have something beany and saucy to go with, so he threw together a quick, yet utterly delicious, red bean curry.

The red bean curry probably needed a little longer for the flavours to settle and mix properly, but dear God, it was one of the yummiest curries I have ever had, and definitely something I will be having a go at in the future!!

My offerings were equally delicious! Now, if I had read the recipe for the Aloo Gobi properly I would not have filed it under healthy as the potatoes are basically shallow fried into chips (or fries, depending on which side of the pond you are reading this ...) I don't think I did this bit properly as even after extended cooking time some of the potatoes were a little undercooked, but still edible. I will definitely be boiling them next time as I don't see how frying them improves the final dish.

Anyway, once they were combined with the stir fried cauliflower and mix of ginger, turmeric, cayenne, cumin & coriander they were delicious!!

The chapatis were simple and fun to make, but they were a little crispy and brittle. I know my pan wasn't hot enough to start so this could be the reason, but I think also I could have kneaded the dough a bit better - I kind of cheated and used my Kitchenaid and i think there wasn't enough dough for it to work with properly. I am looking forward to having another go though, as they would be a great addition to our dinner table.

I'm going to give this meal 7/10 and I know I can get this up to a 9 or a 10 with some practise.

You can expect to hear about lots more meals from these books as I work my way through them, but I won't be able to share the recipes like I can when I when I find them on the internet - aside from being too lazy to type them out for you I'm fairly sure the authors wouldn't be too happy about me posting their recipes online!!

Well, I had best get started on my tasks for the day. I'm focusing on my organisation goal today and re-organising upstairs - in preparation for new year's eve I cleared up all the crap lying around downstairs and it is now all lying around upstairs - whoops!! If you don't hear from me by tomorrow I may be trapped under a pile of shoes in my closet ..... x

Stuff 'n' nonsense

Greetings!! What's new in your part of the world? We haven't been having too many adventures, but I would like to tell you about our new favourite wine bar, Grapevine in Willow Glen. We ventured down with the usual suspects (you know who you are!!) on Saturday night and loved it so much we were back there on Tuesday! They have a really good selection of wine and speciality beers, and a truly scrumptious appetiser menu. The ham and Gouda grilled cheese sandwiches, and prosciutto, cheese and arugula flat breads will definitely keep us coming back for more!!

We also got our Vegas trip booked - woohoo!! :-) We were planning a longer road trip there but Hubby will be very busy at work so we are going to fly there Wednesday night and come back Saturday afternoon - that should be just enough time to pickle our livers without destroying them completely!! Thanks to everyone who has suggested restaurants and things to do - I think we have enough recommendations to see us through at least another 5 trips!

I got round to making one of my new recipes that i've been meaning to try for a while last night, and I can confidently say that spicy basil chicken has gone straight in to my top 5 recipes - hurrah!! I made the sesame rice as suggested, but I used white rice as we were too hungry to wait for brown to cook, and it came out a bit soggy but the flavours were really yummy and went well with the chicken.

This will be a good meal to make when our friends Greeny and Nadine get here for their visit (19 more sleeps - squeeeeee!!) as Nadine doesn't eat meat, and it would be very easy and equally delicious made with shrimp.

Well, now I shall go back to contemplating the gym. I went on Tuesday and did a couple of new upper body exercises but have shocked some new muscles in my arms and chest in to life, and dear god they are sore!! I only got 3 or 4 hours sleep last night as no matter how I lay something was hurting just enough to keep me awake :-( Maybe I'll skip the gym today and get some exercise walking around the mall instead .... ;-)

Laters ..... x

Dish of the Day

Good morning!! How are you all today? Just wanted to stop by and tell you about the rather tasty snapper I made for dinner last night! Snapper with zucchini and tomatoes and orzo, to give it its full title.

As I mentioned yesterday, i haven't really cooked fish before - especially without Hubby at my back to monitor my progress! But he was upstairs slaying dragons or something so I was left to my own devices, armed only with Nadine's earlier advice to poke one bit of fish to see if it was ready then give Hubby the intact portion (cheers, hon!!)

It became clear towards the end of cooking time that I hadn't fully prepared for this recipe so I was somewhat running around at the last minute, but I was fairly pleased with the end result.

The fish was a little overdone, but that was down to my panic cooking and then having to spend a wee bit longer keeping warm in the oven than it should. The pine nuts in the orzo were a little under-toasted, but that's because i'm an idiot and didn't notice until two minutes before serving that they needed toasted! I thought it might have been a little lacking in flavour, but that's probably because I used dried herbs instead of fresh and may not have used enough.

Even so, Hubby proclaimed it to be delicious and of restaurant quality!! Yeah, right!! I think he may have been a little generous with his praise, but i'll take what I can get - thanks Hubby!! Definitely one to transfer into my recipe notebook! Thanks again to Cooking Light for their inspiration! For anyone who cares, here are the recipes - snapper with zucchini & tomato with parsley orzo

In other news, my parcel from pinupgirlclothing.com arrived and I was very disappointed to find the dress of joy I had ordered was too small *sob* Now trying to decide if it is something I will fit into once my latest goal is reached or if I should send it back for a bigger size. FYI, here is the dress in question ... pinupgirlclothing.com

There will be no kitchen adventures tonight as it is Wednesday, therefore eating out night. I'll let you know if we have anything noteworthy. Today's challenges shall be limited to getting my ass to the gym (third time lucky this week?) and clearing up the paperwork shitstorm that appears to have accumulated in the corner - fun times!!

Laters .... x

Sausage-tastic!

As promised yesterday, last night I had another go at making sausage risotto, and I am pleased to report that it was (mostly) a success!! Hurrah!!

My first attempt had been a bit of a disaster and I wasn't too sure why. Hubby and I both agreed that the flavour was fantastic but the texture was mega stodgy. For some reason I ended up having to use a hell of a lot more liquid than the recipe called for and I had to cook it a lot longer too. It was all rather disappointing, but I knew it was something I wanted to try again.

I had decided that perhaps my stock wasn't hot enough when I was adding it last time (the recipe calls for it to be simmering but not boiling and I think I may have been a little cautious) so I decided to focus on that this time. 

A risotto is quite a tedious thing to make as it requires constant stirring for about half an hour or so, and I was glad of my newly developed biceps from my recent adventures at the gym!

I got to the end of my stock about 5 minutes before the end of the half hour so I ended up putting about another half cup in, but still a lot less than last time!! Also, the rice wasn't quite done so I gave it another 5 minutes before serving, but again this was way less than last time.

End result? Not bloody bad! I jumped the gun a bit taking the rice off as some of it was still a wee bit underdone, but it was edible! It was also a bit on the salty side as we had used a normal stock cube plus one of Hubby's homemade chicken stock cubes, and my extra half cup of liquid was also stock (I'm fairly sure last time I just used extra water) But these are both things that can be easily fixed for next time!

If you are interested at all here is the recipe I used, once again from my beloved Cooking Light magazine! sausage & spinach risotto I halved the recipe so it would just serve two, but I still used two sausages as no-one should ever have to share a sausage! I also threw in a handful of peas because everything tastes better with peas! :-)

I really enjoyed getting back in to the kitchen and cooking something fun, and cant wait to try some more new stuff! Tonight I'm going to cook snapper for the first time so I'm a little nervous - I'm not very good with fish and usually leave it for the Hubby to cook, but I suppose id better learn at some point! I'll let you know how that goes ......

Well, now I'm off to hover by the window waiting for the FedEx man to deliver my fabulous new dress from pinupgirlclothing.com - my new favourite website - and if he doesn't arrive too late I may even get to the gym, as my fabulous new dress will need a fabulous flatter stomach to do it justice!! (or maybe some Spanx instead ........)

Laters ....!! x

Curry Fail :-(

I'm a little disappointed with my dinner tonight. Ive been trying to get back in to my challenge of making two new things a week and had picked out a Bombay shrimp curry with coconut rice, but I'm afraid it turned out a bit crap :-(

Hubby likes a good curry and used to spend hours pottering in the kitchen, toasting spices, marinating meat and slowly bubbling it all together to perfection so I had a lot to live up to (and was quite possibly insane to even attempt it!)

I found the recipe in my favourite foodie magazine, Cooking Light, but it was part of a speedy cooking special and I guess there are no real shortcuts to a good curry! Hubby seemed quite horrified to hear that it called for a generic curry powder!

As usual, I asked Hubby what he would do to make it better, and he read off a whole list of things that basically meant "find another recipe"! Perhaps I will consult his copy of the Madhur Jaffrey Curry Bible next time ....

Unfortunately it was all there was for dinner and, like a good boy he ate it all up, but I think it goes without saying that it will not be gracing the Kavanagh dinner table again ....!!