Cleaning with Coke

Dear Lovely Skillet Who Has Served So Well and Been a Part of So Many Meals,

I don't know what I'd do without you. I'm so very sorry for the horrible accident that left you burnt. It was all my fault and I take full responsibility. I am going to do what I can to get you back to your pre-accident condition. And I think all it will take is a little bit of Coke. (I saw it on the TV show How Clean is Your House, so it's bound to work.)

Love,

Me

I really burnt the skillet.

So I placed it on the stove and poured in about 1/2 a can of Coke.

And then let the Coke simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Then I used a wooden spatula to push away the burnt bits the Coke had magically loosened.

I rinsed the pan and it looked much better, but still not good enough.

But after another round of the Coke cleansing, the skillet cleaned-up nicely. I love not scrubbing.

Soft Sugar Cookies

In kindergarten we used to get snacks. Being a fat kid I REALLY loved snack time. The one snack that I specifically remember was sugar cookies and bright red punch. I thought it was the most delicious food ever. I admire my kindergarten teacher for giving bright red liquid to five year olds, especially one as accident prone as myself. To this day I love bright red punch and sugar cookies. Using rockrecipes as a guideline, I made some alternations, quartered the recipe and ended up with 15 cookies.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter, sugar and egg together until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and lemon extract. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients until the batter is a lovely yellow color.

Roll rounded teaspoons of the dough in sugar and place about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.



Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until cookies start to slightly brown. Remove the baking tray from the oven and let the cookies rest for a few minutes before removing to cool. Serve with bright red punch.

Saag Paneer (Curried Mustard Leaves with Cheese)

A few weeks ago a friend imported some Mother India's Cafe (MIC) curry for us. (She brought it on the train from Glasgow.) So delicious. Now, I'm not pretending that this is a recipe that is going to substitute for delicious curry. But it gets me by between such treasured imports.

I complain about how hard it is to get certain food in this neck of the woods. Like black beans or unbaked tortillas or even decent dried chilies. Ah, but one thing we do have on our doorstep is the ingredients that an unambitious craver of curry needs to throw together something to eat. Saag Paneer seems to be the curry I miss most often, so here's a recipe that Niall gave me.

Ingredients:

227 g Paneer Cheese, cut into cubes

450 g (10.870 oz.) can of Saag (curried mustard leaves)

1 1/2 to 2 cups frozen Spinach (cooked and drained)

1 medium onion, diced

3-5 cloves of minced garlic

2-3 Tablespoons of curry paste (I used Korma this time)

Salt to taste

Oil (I used olive oil, but vegetable would probably be better)

In a large skillet, drizzle the oil and heat the pan. Place the Paneer in the skillet. By the way, I don't know if Paneer should be capitalized, but I'm trying to give it the respect it deserves.

Brown the Paneer on both sides and remove it from the skillet. I put it in a bowl to cool.

If needed, add some more oil to the pan. Add the onions and allow them to saute for a minute or two. Add the garlic and cook with onions until the onions are translucent. Add the saag and spinach and stir. Then add the curry paste and stir into the mixture. Allow the curry to simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste and add more curry paste and salt as needed.

When the curry is acceptable enough (remember, we're not talking MIC acceptable here) add the Paneer. Allow the Paneer to heat through (several minutes) and then serve with Basmati rice.

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Since you asked, here is a food entry. You know I'm not food photographer, right? Along with a million other cravings, I really wanted cinnamon rolls. But I didn't want a big mess, so the recipe for cinnamon roll cupcakes on La Fuji Mama seemed like a pretty good bet.

I thought our new house was much warmer than our old flat. But it turns out it wasn't warm enough as I could not get the dough to rise in our kitchen. I brought it into the living room with me (next to the space heater) and it worked okay. Overall, the rolls were acceptable but a bit yeasty. I would have liked them to raise a little more, next time I'll need to get the heat in the house on a little higher.

I made the dough just like the recipe said, and tried to be obedient in the other steps.

I rolled out the dough in more of a 8 inch x 30 inch rectangle. (Others had mentioned using the original dimensions had made their rolls too big for the cupcake pans.) Because the rolls were a bit smaller than the original recipe I ended up with 32. Brushed on the butter and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar to achieve this beauty:

I rolled and then cut the dough w/dental floss and put the rolls in their individual cups:

Then the dough and I cuddled in the living room for another wee while while the heater got the rolls to raise a little. The tray got put in the oven and the end result:

The craving from lasts week was pumpkin muffins with cinnamon frosting, so I used the leftover frosting. (I love leftovers.) The recipe is pretty close to the frosting on La Fuji Mama, except it has a few teaspoons of cinnamon.

Mmm, frosting. I only cooked 12 on this go, so the rest are in the freezer until the next round of cinnamon roll craving.

Christmas Holiday 2007

the nephews played pinata.




scotland was lovely!

It's a boy!

erm, a tallboy. our first piece of furniture.
it's called jeep.
why? becauase i think jeep is the perfect name for a little baby boy. niall thinks it's the perfect name for an object that just sits in our room.

Gracias

Thank you everyone for coming to the wedding and for all the help!

Interested in pictures? Here are a few links:

Bob

Jo

Lisa

@lisa