Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We're going with Turkish this year, since (for obvious reasons) it's just the family.

Cheese "cigars"
Herbs salad
Pomegranate "soup"
Chickpea Manti

- Red dal and green dal - now I VitaMix them
- Pumpernickel loaves - a very old Fleischmann’s recipe
- A new variation of well-roasted cauliflower soup, incorporating techniques & ingredients we love that are borrowed from here & there
- A wide variety of cheeses, including soft and hard goat and Philadelphia cream cheese
- Thinly sliced smoked salmon
- Various fruit smoothies, incorporating soy milk (loving this product)

*We stocked up to avoid shopping (covid . . .) and should be fine through New Year’s
**We should not be questioned as to our wine supply

There will only be two of us this year, for the first time in forever...or at least since our first-born was due on Christmas Day and gave us an excuse to not have to drive into LA on Christmas Eve for one half of our family and up into the mountains the next day for the other half. Those were exhausting days and we were so happy for an excuse to stay home.
We are making Kenji’s pizza in the cast iron tonight and Eggplant Parmesean tomorrow. Minestrone next week. I just realized that everything is Italian....but we are not!
Merry Christmas to all.

I'm having Mexican tomorrow. I just made some more of Rick Bayless's original salsa negra, which is made with moritas and garlic, and is something I always have in my fridge. His recipe of shrimp in chipotle sauce in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (also where the recipe for the salsa negra is) is fantastic - it calls for 2-4 tb of the salsa negra, and 4 tb is too hot for most people, but even 2 tb gives enough flavor. I use 3 tb, unless someone eating at the time has a tender mouth, though this is still hot, obviously. Delicious in corn tortillas, as well as wrapped in lettuce leaves. I'll probably make something else, with some of those frozen squash blossoms, I got so many of this last season.

We did steak and eggs for breakfast, then a spicy Bombay sandwich thing for late lunch/dinner. I fulfilled my obligations by eating leftover Chinese food, which I heated up. We had a friend over and made cinnamon rolls as an afternoon activity.

We went to a friend's for New Years, and her cousin was in town and cooked. She had so-called traditional southern food; black eyed peas, greens, corn pudding, grilled pork tenderloin. Thank goodness I took a baked brie in puff pastry with apples, cranberries, and walnuts, so there was something I could actually eat!

I really don't understand that food. Everything tastes like mud. The collards were at a full rolling boiling for about 30 minutes after I got there. The pork tenderloins were purchased pre-marinated in plastic and were grilled to a temp of 165F before removing. They were like rubber and inside was an odd, orange color. The peas had no salt, or any other flavor for that matter. The corn pudding was jiffy mix with a can of corn and extra sugar! Was this just a bad night? Or does anyone ever like this stuff?

SS,

Some folks can't tell the difference, honestly.

We did peas, greens, and cornbread for new year's day, but a bit better. The peas were cooked with ham hocks, onions, and smoked pepper in a slow cooker all day. The greens (chard & kale) were also cooked low-& slow with lots of sweet onions. Cornbread was my sweetie's grandmother's recipe, from scratch in a cast iron skillet.

That was just poor cooking. You could make that same menu and it would be real food that tasted good.