I like the new avatar!
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Updating my plan after a few days of settling in and a couple of grocery store visits.
Motivation is still hard to come by, but jet lag makes me very hungry, which is a funny combination.
— Capellini with raw tomato sauce + fennel-arugula salad
— Lemon pesto capellini + roasted zucchini (repeat, the zucchini especially was amazing!)
— Roasted salmon + fennel panzanella / fattoush (tbd leftover frozen carb to use up 
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— Tortilla espanola + salad
— Sushi bowls with Brown Butter Scallops + salad
— Fish cakes inspired by @Phoenikia — maybe the Masala Fishcakes from cookbook Gunpowder + salad
I really want to get into the Andrea Nguyen COTM but I’m not up to cooking something Vietnamese yet (though I’d scarf down a banh mi if someone brought me one).
I’ve also got most of a pack of TJs handmade tortillas in the freezer, so chicken quesadillas and shortcut spinach gozleme might make an appearance…
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Vietnamese take-out can be so good, and making it myself is so much effort. I say , order the banh mi or whatever you’re craving
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There’s only one mediocre banh mi place near me — will hold out for better!
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Oh, too bad! New places with good banh mi are sprouting up on the west side of Toronto lately. There are 3 new places I hope to try.
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Lucky you! I’ll make it to Chinatown for one one of these days.
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I’m liking the posh ones at the upscale Vietnamese coffee shops, a little fancier than the Chinatown banh mi. I get them with an iced Vietnamese coffee.
I would think you should have a hip Vietnamese cafe with a good sandwich closer to you than Chinatown- but I haven’t been to NYC forever and maybe Toronto has more upscale coffee shops with good banh mi right now
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Welp. Toronto still doesn’t have an Australian brunch café with a full menu.
Vietnamese is one of our deficiencies
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Thanks for the Masala Fishcakes recipe link. Interesting. I need to cook more from that book.
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Sending you two virtual banh mi…one for now, one for later! Both better than you can get in walking distance.
If only I could…
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That recipe is pretty close to the fish patties my mom makes from excess fried fish that no one like to eat as leftovers. (No egg in ours, the potato binds well enough on its own.)
Of course the funny thing is that everyone loved the fish cakes, but there were never enough because the leftover fish wasn’t very much, just enough for a snack . And yet they were never made intentionally with fresh fish 
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I also just came across this Viet recipe in one of this quarter’s COTMs (Andrea Nguyen). I’d swap the dill for fennel fronds or cilantro.
I’m also not sure how I feel about the bouncy texture of fish paste, so I might process some and leave some with more texture. Or use canned salmon. What’s interesting here is that there’s no filler (just egg whites that incorporate into the paste).
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Greetings, People.
Casual summer cooking continues, although an outdoor charcoal grilling ban is back in effect through the end of September. DH will be making burgers on the gas grill, and I’ll be practicing my skills at cooking a steak on the stove. On the horizon, we have out-of-town rellies coming for a week-plus visit mid-August, and I’m enjoying the downtime before the major food prep and house-cleaning jobs start. The “cooking and baking for guests” part isn’t so bad (in fact, I rather enjoy that bit), but the house-cleaning – dreck!
FRI: Burgers on gas grill. Convection-oven fries from new-crop potatoes.
SAT: Finnish salmon soup with potatoes and leeks. Herbed biscuits with chive butter. Slaw.
SUN: Blackened chicken on a Caesar salad. French bread croutons.
MON: Pepin’s souffle with leeks, bacon, spinach and gruyere. Irish champ potatoes.
TUE: Pan roasted chicken thighs. Pasta with herbs, lemon, and baby peas.
WED: Budget Bytes cabbage, carrot, and scallion stir-fry. I’ll use ground pork. Rice.
THUR: Steaks in a pan. Leftover Irish champ. Roasted carrots with herb dressing.
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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga, where I’m feeling signs of Olympic fever. Here’s hoping DH’s hometown manages to pull it off!
Friday, July 26: Seekh kebabs from the NYT–inspiration from today’s newsletter
Breakfast: Sweet stuffed Korean pancakes
Saturday: Thai noodle salad with tofu
Sunday: Red beans and rice, tomato salad, sticky toffee pudding
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Classic one-pot pasta
Wednesday-Friday: TBD
Hope you all have a good week! Happy cooking!
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The nice thing about working from home on Fridays is that I can turn on the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games and not have to worry about IT sending us emails instructing us to stop doing that at the office because we are taking up too much bandwith etc etc etc. And the boss is away so the mice do play 
It has been a quiet week this week. The only activity I had planned was to go to a jazz concert on Wednesday night but that’s one of the days I work in the office and we got an epic amount of rain on my way home. I made frequent stops to wait for a pause in rain to continue my walk home. When I did arrive home I decided to take refuge on the sofa for the evening. It had stopped raining by the time I was due to leave for the show but just didn’t feel like going anywhere after so I will try again this week. My menus for this week are as follows:
Today: Take out lunch was Korean fried chicken. I will have a caesar style vegetable salad for dinner. It’s following a recipe in one of my Sunset cookbooks for late summer veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc.) with caesar salad dressing.
Saturday: Off to see a matinée movie called “The Widow Cliquot” of champagne fame. Off to the market after to stroll around and pick up missing ingredients for dishes this week. Popcorn for lunch, basa fillet en papillotte for dinner.
Sunday: Off to Chinatown to replenish ingredients I am getting low on. I plan on buying curry pastes, chili oil, etc. and I will have to remember to add oolong tea to the list…
Monday: Golden vegetable paella from one of my rice and risotto cookbooks. I haven’t tried it yet but the combination of wild rice and long grain rice and brightly coloured vegetables looks stunning. I hope I can do the picture justice!
Tuesday: Stirfried pork with five vegetables.
Wednesday: A quick dinner at home to have chicken casserole, egg noodles, and spring mix. I’ll try again to tie in a jazz concert.
Thursday: Vegetable vermicelli from “City Cuisine” by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken.
Off to see if the Tongan olympian is in the olympic flotilla 
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So far these opening ceremonies have been interesting? I’d complain that I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s my own fault for leaving it muted.
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I just like seeing the athletes walk in and to cheer for my country. It puts me in the spirits.
I’m enjoying it with one eye, it’s more dynamic than the typical opening ceremonies held entirely in a single location, but still interesting. They’re carrying on well in the pouring rain.
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I tried a Kerala style recipe for the fish cakes and it was really good.
I’ve got salmon for Andrea Nguyen’s recipe once I eat my way through these
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Hi everyone! Another solo week here, and fun tv. It’s been wonderful. LLD is on his way home as I type, and Lulu gets back Monday morning. I was on a major cleaning streak while they were away, and while it was exhausting (and there is still lots to do), it feels great to have gotten so much done. Here is what I had for dinner this past week:
Sun: kidney bean curry (one of my favorites, recipe from Made in India), basmati, raita
Mon: leftover cheesy green chile beans, tortilla chips
Tues: baked turbot with lemon cream sauce (recipetin eats, and I loved it! LLD adamantly opposed to white fish with cream sauces, so will have to wait until he’s away again, but can’t wait to have this again), roasted potatoes, salad
Wed: took myself out for sushi
Thurs: a giant baked potato with butter and sour cream
Fri: leftover kidney bean curry. I have to say, it’s been amazing having delicious leftover dinners twice this week. Looking forward to more of that when Lulu goes off to school in the fall.
Sat: tonight; got smoked salmon, bagels, etc for an easy welcome home dinner for LLD
A good friend is in the hospital, and the food is miserable. She doesn’t have a refrigerator or anything to heat meals in. So far I’ve only taken sweets or small carry out items to her. She mostly likes Mediterranean food, especially European. Any ideas on things I could make for her?
Hope everyone has a great, happy week with lots of great food!
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The tv this week: finished My Lady Jane, really enjoyed it. Hitman, Past Lives, Unfrosted, Zone of Interest.
Want to try to sneak The Decameron in somehow …
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