This is about as easy as it gets. And, although not exactly seasonal here, the sun is shining and a summery dish doesnt seem too out of place.
Big chunks of peppers and courgettes go into a roasting tin, with halved tomatoes, sausages, thyme and olive oil. It bakes for 40 minutes or so at 180. There’s crusty sourdough to mop up what I hope will be lots of juices.
And we still have a little Wensleydale to nibble on for “afters”.
The household authorities have determined there will be a starter before the sausage traybake. Another River Cafe Cookbook recipe - asparagus roasted with olive oil, garlic, basil, S & P, olives.
This is supermarket asparagus grown in Kent, which is about as far south from me as it’s possible to get. But, yesterday, we managed to find locally grown “grass” - well. local as in next county.
Some reading.
Some work.
Some stuff.
Some dinner.
Roasted organic chicken, steamed baby potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts. Wine. T’was good.
Why is it STILL raining???! Very over this. There are a lot of sad flattened tulips and cherry blossom trees with all the pretty flowers on the ground now.
Last night was another salad thing to use the more delicate produce from my produce box. Butter lettuce and iceburg, a few mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, olives, cilantro, cucumber and sunflower seeds
Today was more of a several course late afternoon lunch/dinner over a few hours
Had some leftovers of this farro, black beans, sugar snap peas, almonds, bell pepper salad thing
I got my oven to light! (No small feat) and made granola for a friend- snacked on the extras that didn’t fit in her big jar. She’s gluten free (medical necessity), so this was a lot of various nuts, coconut, sesame seeds, coconut oil, millet, and maple syrup with a good pinch of salt
Also baked the sweet potatoes, beet, garlic and acorn squash from my produce box. Last course was half the smallish acorn squash with a PSTO(V)B and everyday seasoning mix from trader joe’s.
WHAAAT? And I didn’t get an invite?
Wok Fun Night. I pulled out my wok after ages… no real reason I haven’t been using it, so I might just leave it on the stovetop for a while and see.
Shiitake mushrooms (and steam):
.
King oyster mushrooms:
Dinner was coconut rice that needed to be eaten, lemongrass and ginger brined chicken that I roasted yesterday, and the vegetables. A happy meal 
Great decision!
Beautiful day here, so scallops on the grill basted with lemon & butter over a bed of buttered orzo with fresh garlic chives and a tossed together slaw with an Asian flavored mayo vinaigrette. Hit the spot. And to celebrate Cinque, a bottle of Adam Corolla hand signed Mangria that’s been taking up real estate in the wine fridge forever!!!
Since an aquatic flavor was mentioned I made an effort to watch for it (dinner had been delayed until this past evening).
The flavor is delicate. It has a little more chew than chicken. It is more tender if you work with the grain. There is a slight very mild flavor somewhat like a really fresh blue crab. This is more noticeable if you are in heathen mode and have your teeth on the bone. Otherwise, in this application, I would have barely noticed it and just assumed it was a hint of the fish sauce.
The anatomical structure leads you to associate this with chicken. But, as Lee noted (istr) this is a creature of the water! With that in mind, I think most seafood eating omni’s would find the flavor within their comfort zone. I really feel people who don’t care for seafood would be hard pressed to notice it. Especially if the topic wasn’t mentioned!
It’s a nice spring day here in northwest England. Still a bit chilly but no rain forecast. Which is good as I’m planning a trip to the zoo in the next day or so. We’re going to South Africa later in the year and I’m off to practice my wildlife photography. I’m toying with the idea of buying an upgraded camera but am full of indecision.
However, as to dinner - which is dead easy. Jersey Royal spuds are cut into 3cm cubes and boiled for a couple of minutes. Onion is fried till soft, in butter and oil then has paprika mixed in. . Spuds are fried till crisp then mixed with the onion. That goes into a serving dish and is topped with a salad of crab (white meat only), watercress, red onion, capers, olive oil and lemon juice. Finally aioli (supermarket) is drizzled over.
Recipe was in my newspaper last week - comes from Thomasina Myers.
I found zoo photography to be quite challenging, as you can’t avoid the cage or the barrier. I think it’s quite different from photographing in the wild when animals are hiding and very far away.
You need those super big zoom lens to photograph wildlife. I once tried a 300x in a shop, they are fantastic but extremely heavy.
Get yourself a great pair of binoculars, those you can use even in dim lights.
It is. We first went to SA in 2011 so have some experience. I’m not a particular keen photographer so use a “bridge” camera rather than a big DSLR. But the zoo visit gives me a chance to practice how I might best capture the animals - I only practice on those which are out in the open paddocks. My current camera is a 20X zoom which was OK, if a bit limited, and the ones I’m looking at are in the 60X range. My problem is that, with age, I don’t seem to be holding the camera as firmly as I used to be able to do, so now seem to be getting some shake which is bound to be worse with a longer lens. No chance of using a tripod of course.
I guess a bridge camera with integrated vibration reduction system offers nice stabilization. But they tend to be bigger in size, those that are good for wildlife photography.
I aspire to the Sony mirrorless full frame models, but probably not in this lifetime.
I use Olympus Pen 4:3 series a whole bunch.
Hardly ever pull out the Nikons for DSLR stuff.
So heavy.
My experience using point and shoots with large zoom capability is that the image degrades significantly at high magnification.
I got a Nikon high zoom bridge cam for Namibia with mixed results. Next time I will use a tripod resting on my seat or against something for support.
Waiting for the group to cross
And off into the sunset they went
God I love corned beef. That looks AMAZING.
Over the weekend, I cooked a recipe my kid had been requesting for a long time from her One World Kids Cookbook. This is our second recipe from this book and I’ve been surprised with the results. The cooking instructions aren’t very detailed, but I can figure that out from experience now. They don’t skimp on flavor or difficulty, though, like most kids’ cookbooks. I don’t know if this Brazilian salmon stew is authentic, but the combination of tomato, coconut milk, paprika, shrimp paste, lime, and chili was delicious. (Does anyone else have an extreme dislike for blanching, peeling, and coring tomatoes?) The accompanying rice, with sauteed onions and garlic, was also very flavorful. It called for more water than I usually use, but it tasted great and the texture went very well with the stew. I have no experience with the food of Brazil, but now I’m very interested to explore further.
Ok…I will be over shortly!
Thank you…Thank you!
