You should smell my apartment today. Instead of the usual 'oh my God, doesn't he ever clean his bathroom' smell, the apartment is redolent with the fragrence of cloves and thyme.
Last night was a cooking night.
I tried out two new dishes. The first was Tyler Florence's recipe for Slow-Roasted Spanish Olives with Orange and Almonds. The second was a slow-cooker recipe for Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet.
The olives were absolutely amazing. The recipe called for Spanish olives, almonds, orange slices, sherry vinegar, thyme, bay leaves, a red chile and olive oil. This was then roasted in the oven for two hours. The results (not to mention the smell of the dish as it cooked) were amazing. The best part was the left over flavor-infused olive oil which I'll be using for dipping.
The cassoulet was basically a good recipe, but it may need a little work next time. It called for carrots, onion, tomato paste, red wine, cloves, thyme, garlic powder, white beans, chicken and sausage. Next time, I think I'm going to substitute shallots for the onions, use a merlot for the wine (all I had was cooking wine which was good, but a little too sweet), add a little fresh garlic and maybe just a touch of crumbled bacon. Considering this was a slow-cooker recipe, though, it was pretty good. Since I made this for the week and only had a taste last night, I have enough to make several meals.
For dessert, I had vanilla frozen yogurt topped with Cinnamon-Candied Zucchini. Okay, I know the Zucchini probably doesn't sound good, but they look, feel and taste like cinnamon-candied apples, so belive me when I say they are tasty.
Anyway, the house smells great. Especially after last night's dinner (Caponata, which was store bought) and this morning's sausage and spinach omelette, sprinkled with romano cheese.
I have a recipe for Black-eyed Peas with Stewed Tomatoes that I'm going to try later in the week, as well as one for a Three Bean and Sausage Casserole. Can't wait to try those out.
Man, I love to cook. Now if I could just get this excited about working out. Or finding a boyfriend.
Rich Cat
4 hours ago
9 comments:
Knowing that you love to cook so much, I will be a true friend and allow you to invite me over for dinner whenever the mood to cook stikes you again. LOL.
Given the almost glacial rate at which I'm cleaning my apartment, I don't think I'll be having guests any time soon, but we could always have a picnic in the park before the weather changes. Plus, I might bring some of my dishes to the rugby games.
Not to worry--it is (understandably and deservedly) impossible to get nearly as excited about working out or boyfriends as about food.
Yum. :-)
I would think that your cooking would help you get a boyfriend, if advertised in the correct places.
Anyway, for future reference, I don't like almonds or peas, but I can't wait to sample your dishes, hot stuff. :)
I've forgotten what I was going to say because the comment box took so long to load.
Dan on the other hand thinks you have a great vocabulary.
Sounds fabulous. This is going to make it really hard for me to come up with really creative shit to cook when we invite you over for dinner with the blogger boys some night. Knowing that I will have Julia Child as a critic is enough to make the meringue on my chocolate pie weep for days!
Sounds great. I've added the book to my amazon wishlist but I want the recipe sooner than that.
You can cook for me next time I'm in NYC- I'll bring the dessert...
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