Kevin's Watch

Avatar wrote:Planning whole roasted Bell Peppers, stuffed with couscous, mushrooms, (and lamb for me, but not the vegetarian GF) and drenched in gravy.

(Whether I'll actually go to the effort, (especially of making the gravy) remains to be seen.)

--A

<waits patiently for dinner invite to come through the letter box.>

CovenantJr wrote:I didn't realise low-carb dieting could be so extreme. You wouldn't catch me eating my furniture.

I would love your recipe for the Toad in the Hole you posted a picture of the other day. I've never had it and it looked interesting.

Warmark wrote:<waits patiently for dinner invite to come through the letter box.>

Me too!

Menolly, don't think you'd be keen on the Toad in the Hole, it's Yorkshire Pudding batter with pork sausages submerged in it. The batter's fine, (love Yorkshire Puddings) but I can't stand pork sausage.

--A

Avatar wrote:Menolly, don't think you'd be keen on the Toad in the Hole, it's Yorkshire Pudding batter with pork sausages submerged in it. The batter's fine, (love Yorkshire Puddings) but I can't stand pork sausage.

Would other flavor sausage links work in it? Such as Smoked Chicken Apple?

I have no doubt they would.

--A

Kewl. I wasn't sure if the different flavor would change the basic idea too much.

Now, I have never had Yorkshire pudding. I do have a recipe for it, and hope to try making it for a holiday when I do a roast beef and I'm not low carbing. That may be awhile though, as we still really enjoy deep fried turkey for holidays.

Would I use the same recipe and simply add the sausages to the uncooked batter? Or is there more to making toad-in-the-hole than that?

For instance, do the sausage links need to be cooked thoroughly before going into the batter? Or do they fully cook as the batter is baking?

Yep, same recipe, except you put it in a tray, rather than the muffin-tin type thing. Never made Toad in the hole myself, (because of the sausages) but would imagine that they'd have to be cooked first at least somewhat. Will find out for you. Cj's one looks bought, but maybe he could help?

--A

Gee, the Galley's been quiet recently.

Probably gonna have toast for dinner tonight, but last night did phyllo pastry parcels: Feta, onion and spinach for the GF, feta salami and olives for myself, with strawberry ones for dessert.

Man! What a mission. By the time we were finally done, we were seriously debating the value of the end product in comparison to the work and length of time it took. Gonna be a long time before I try that again. Hence the toast tonight.

--Avatar

Simple (very simple) lamb couscous for dinner tonight.

Last night was Lemon rice (cooked in vegetable stock+juice of two lemons+cinnamon stick) with lamb chunks, pan-fried with cumin, mint and crushed cashew nuts.
(GF had courgettes and soya substitute with hers.)

--A

Nothing to post about the past few days, but we had our monthly International Cooking Night I organize last Thursday. This month a resident from Jordan presented her cuisine.

I finally recieved permission to post the recipes from the International Cooking Nights on our housing web site. While I'll be frank and say these recipes are not tried & true by me (except for the first one in October 2004 since I hosted that one to launch the series), as I only do what the presenter asks me to do in preparation for the events, they are supposed to be the recipes the presenters used to fix the dishes we serve at the International Cooking Night.

If anyone would like to check out the recipes, they're available at ICN Recipes.

Interesting dinner yesterday. Here are cut & pastes of my posts on the AOL WFD board:

1) Beorn's 12th birthday was Wednesday, but with the crowds in town for the opening GATOR game, we haven't gone out to eat anywhere to celebrate. With most fans leaving this morning, we decided to take Beorn out for his birthday dinner tonight.

Beorn hasn't decided where as of yet, but has narrowed his choices to either Olive Garden or Outback, two of his favorite restaurants. Olive Garden is running their $7.95 Never Ending Pasta Bowl special, which he really enjoys. But he also really likes the steaks at Outback. So, we'll see. I'll enjoy either one.

2) Oy, what an experience!

Beorn chose Olive Garden for the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl. We wanted to arrive at 7:30, so I called at 7:10 for call-ahead dining and am told they don't do that, but the wait is only about 25 minutes. We head right over there, which is about a 10 minute drive, and by then the wait is up to 45 to 60 minutes. I get the pager, and then stalk the tables in the bar area which are available on a first come, first serve basis.

After about 25 minutes two tables leave, so I snag one. The waitress comes over pretty quickly, and we put our order in right away. She brings the soup, salad, and bread sticks, but no water or ice tea for Paul. After about 10 minutes she comes back and says, "We're out of the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl; we ran out of pasta." We all laughed, while she looked stony faced at us. She wasn't kidding...

Paul and I both looked at Beorn, and he was absolutely crest-fallen. But, he didn't break into the tears that would have happened a year ago. The waitress asked if we wanted menus and I asked Beorn if he wanted to go over to Outback after all. We explained we would probbly have to wait again, but he said yes, so we asked for the bill for what we had eaten, and the waitress said not to worry about it.

Beorn had only eaten a few spoonfuls of his pasta fagioli, and I suggested to Paul I walk over to Outback (they're in the same strip mall) and get our name in while Beorn finishes eating. He agreed, and when I got to Outback I was told we had a 45 minute wait. Ah well, there's no school tomorrow and Paul doesn't work tonight.

Within 10 minutes, Beorn comes skipping in grinning and says "Daddy forgot the money!" We had agreed to give the waitress at Olive Garden $3.00 as a tip, but Paul said he didn't even have that on him. He was looking sheepish when he came into Outback. Fortunately I had enough cash on me to cover dinner at Outback, but I feel badly for the waitress at Olive Garden.

Anyway we all had a terrific meal at Outback, and Beorn is happy. That is what it was all about after all.

--A

:::if only it hadn't cost $50 US more to eat at Outback than it would have at Olive Garden:::

lunch

my wife: egg salad sandwich, baked fries, grape juice.

me: black bean burger w/ soy bacon, fries and grape juice. pickle slice.

Leftover mashed potatoes,green peas,hamburger patties with brown gravy(the stuff in the packet,you know the brown powder),and home made biscuits-all washed down with Kool-ade.Not much,but we were in a hurry and the kids scarfed it down.

dinner-

both: pan fried potatoes (with mushrroms, onion, garlic), scrambled eggs, grape juice.

me: soy sausage.

her: pork sausage.

Hey Dennis, you should try Mushroom Burgers. Just like a normal burger, but instead of a patty, use a huge black mushroom. Absolutely delicious.

--A

Avatar wrote:Hey Dennis, you should try Mushroom Burgers. Just like a normal burger, but instead of a patty, use a huge black mushroom. Absolutely delicious.

Avatar, I love using grilled marinaded portabello mushrooms in place of an English muffin when I'm low carbing for eggs benedict. They're great as 'burger' substitutes as well.

After our adventure Sunday night, I went to the feedback area of olivegarden.com and pretty much cut and paste the two posts I had made regarding Beorn choosing Olive Garden and then what happened when they ran out of the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. I just got off the phone with the general manager of our local Olive Garden who had called me at home, and he invited the three of us in tonight for dinner on him. I did reiterate that we weren't charged for the salads, soup, and breadsticks we had eaten, but he insisted anyway. He said he was sorry to disappoint my son on his birthday.

Plus, I received an email from Olive Garden corporate, telling me they are also seinding us a gift certificate for another free dinner, which we can expect in about 10 days.

This is one corporation who seems to take their customer feedback, at least when it's something they can try to rectify, seriously. I guess we'll give them another chance.

Result!

--A