Winter Term, Day Twenty Two: Nacho Thursdays

What do you call cheese that isn't yours? NACHO cheese. Thank you, Chris.

Jamie was leaving on Friday and we decided to give her a break on tortilla making. We had nacho night instead of taco night this week.

The menu:

Slow-baked chicken by Eliza
Ground spiced beef by Eliza
Seasoned crumbled tofu by Lady Jamie
Cheddar cheese nacho sauce by me
Peppers and onions by Amanda
Guacamole by Amanda
Black beans, cilantro, minced onions, sour cream, tortilla chips, salsa (pico de gallo, mild and super spicy)
Black bean and corn soup by me

Other dinner attendees included Yoshi, Chris, Mike, and Michael.

Winter Term, Day Twenty One: Sheppy Shappy Happy Shepherd's Pie

Sam Abrams came over for tea, complimented me on my food blog, and I invited her to dinner (it works out well :P). Together we made shepherd's pie, a big dish made with ground beef and veggies, and a mini lentil and veggie pot pie for Sam, who is vegetarian. We also put our projector to good use, and Sam invited over her friends Patrick and Laura to watch A Serious Man. I bowed out and ended up talking to Aries and Yoshi instead of watching the movie, but it was still a very good evening.

Winter Term, Day Twenty: Dumpling House

Despite the two photoshoots earlier in the day, I really needed a time consuming and involved dinner for the evening. Amanda and I talked a bunch and rolled out dumpling wrappers for pork and green onion potstickers (or gyoza, or dumplings... it really depends on how I feel for what name I use) and as Amanda fried/steamed/boiled them, I made a veggie and noodle stirfry. Yoshi got so excited about dinner than he yanked the silverware drawer so quickly it ended up on the floor.








I am so proud of these dumplings. They're totally gone, too, by the way. Dumplings don't last long around me.

Winter Term, Day Nineteen: Julia Child's Kitchen

Despite its perceived difficulty, I decided to make coq a vin tonight. The recipes, at least that I found online, aren't that consistent, so I went with a logical flow:

Rendered the pancetta, took the pancetta out, sauteed the onions, added butter since there wasn't enough fat from the pancetta, took the onions out, cooked the mushrooms, added more butter because mushrooms drink butter, took the mushrooms out, cooked chicken legs (still connected to the thighs) until golden, tossed the cooked veggies plus carrots with flour, added the veggies to the chicken, added two cups of chicken stock and a cup of merlot. I added bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper, and cooked until the chicken was falling off the bone. I then added a bit more flour to thicken the sauce and served it over egg noodles topped with chopped parsley.

My house will smell like this for at least another day, but that's a-okay by me. It's absolutely delicious.




Then later Lady Jamie came over to unload some cinnamon rolls... she apologized for the toasty bottoms but honestly, the burnt sugar tasted like campfire marshmallows. Delightful.

Winter Term, Day Eighteen: Turkish Delights

Spent some time catching up on things, starting my day with cleaning and such and then making a turkey-munster-spinach-tomato-sweet-chili sandwich.




For dinner I made a Turkish inspired meal... lamb meatballs seasoned with crushed red pepper, sumac, onions, garlic, and parsley, sauteed zucchini, sauteed tomatoes, basil herbed couscous, and pickled onions.