The second recipe I tried, from Delia’s Frugal food, was the one for oat crunch bars. (Version of it here. (Although that recipe used two types of oats, whereas the one from the book only has one.)
Colleagues ate it all up. And it was tasty.
Still weeding this cookbook from my collection as the two recipes I tried, were also the only ones I wanted to try in there.
Second cookbook in the «I should clear out some of them from the cabinet»-challenge is Delia Smith’s Frugal food, that I purchased in summer 2009. (After just having finished my education and started my first job.)
The first recipe I tried out was the Spanish tortilla. Recipe
I’m unsure about how authentic the recipe actually is; and I used red pepper instead of green, and substituted fuet sausage for the chorizo.
But honestly, it was pretty delicious. Even as leftovers on the second day.
From the 5 Ingredients cookbook, was the orange and chocolate shortbread.
And… it tasted relatively bland on its own. There’s no salt in the recipe. (I feel like just by using a salted butter, you could make it more flavoursome.)
I ended up drizzling it with Maldon-salt, after testing it without. And then I brought it to work, where they ate it, and complimented me.
Although I got compliments, I feel pretty sure that they might like something from another cookbook better. I am rather MEH about this cookbook.
Summa summarum: the 5 Ingredients cookbook will be weeded from my collection.
So, I’ve been wanting to do something with the “gazillion” of cookbooks occupying a cabinet in my kitchen.
For one thing, I keep buying them, and will eventually run out of space. I guess.
I made myself a challenge, to cook my way through them, to see which I want to keep and which I want to discard. My one rule for this “challenge” is that I have to cook two recipes from each cookbook before I decide its fate.
That means, I have to find two recipes in each cookbook that I *want* to make.
The first cookbook I picked, is the “5 ingredients” (Amazon affiliate link) cookbook by Jamie Oliver.
I see that I bought it on Amazon in July 2018. I had not opened it before this week, when time came to pick the first recipe.
The recipe was the Pasta with pears and gorgonzola.
I made a single portion.
Mine did not look as good as Jamie’s. Not by a long shot. But it did taste very good, was quick-ish to make without a lot of faffing about. So good that I made it again the next day.
pasta with pears and gorgonzola sauce
I bought a new freezer the other day – and currently I seem to be doing my best to fill it up.
The other day I made sweet potato and carrot soup. Today, parsnip, tomatoes and onions are roasting in the oven – and I am waiting to make stock and blend. And then freeze.
I also bought stuff to make chili and lasagna to freeze – but I might end up freezing the mince and bacon solo and then dealing with that bit later.
I generally freeze in portion size – flat – so it is easy to defrost when I need it.
It’s been a while since I did this and autumn seems like the perfect time to start again.
I have such a weakness for bubble tea that I walked an insane amount on holiday to get it. Multiple times. In multiple cities.
And so, I had to try to make it myself. Today the tapioca pearls arrived in the mail.
I followed the mix of the recipe from the vendor and this one.
Because I am also crazy about passion fruit flavoured tea (and my favourite Danish chain of coffee shops have stopped selling it) – I used a passion fruit syrup instead of the almond syrup. Next time, I’ll probably also go for passion fruit flavoured tea, instead of the Yellow label Black tea this time.
Current mode: sitting in the shade, feeling the warm breeze and sipping on my bubble tea.
Even though I’m working the rest of summer, this is a pretty nice holiday throwback.
I think my goal for 2018 is going to be cutting food/drink from my diet that has unexpected, unecessarily added sugar/sweetener.
I’m not going to radically stop eating sweets, but I find it incredible to see sugar listed twice on the ingredients of a frozen pizza, for example. If I eat a chocolate or a piece of cake, I have made a choice to eat sugar. If I eat frozen pizza, I generally am looking for a quick meal – not a dessert…
I’m going to have to try to make mayo from scratch, since that has sugar in it. And look at the ingredients on the sliced meats I buy at the store. I found a brand of liver pate that doesn’t have sugar in it – and it really felt like half the battle was won there in terms of breakfast.
If
Today’s fun read was Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats
Fika is to Sweden what kaffe is to Norwegians – only even more so. It’s coffee, but it is not just grabbing a cup to go at a Starbucks. And it is not just covered by the Norwegian meal that somehow comes after dessert when you’ve visited your grandmother. It is sitting down, and taking a break from your day to enjoy the coffee, and something to bite in alongside it.
It is going on a train ride and bringing pastry and a coffee cup (or tea) to enjoy.
The book is fun and sweet and nicely illustrated.