Poire Helene Crumble

We had some pears that were clearly past their prime, and my DH found a recipe in a cookbook I had lying around for a pear and chocolate crumble. Okay, I was game.

I whipped it up in a few minutes. It was pretty easy, the longest part was the crumble, which this time I actually followed a recipe more or less (although I replaced a third of the white flour with a mix of wheat bran and oatmeal to have more texture). It was too sweet, and I cut out about half the sugar.

I was glad to have made a "flash" dessert - I think a lot of my cooking comfort will come from making things like this on the spur of the moment, but I doubt I'd repeat the recipe - too sweet and rich. A good fresh pear on it's own is better.

Celery root puree

Cecile told me that celery root puree was really easy, it sufficed to grate the celery root and a potato in a food processor, cook the mix in some olive oil, and it became puree on it's own.

I'm sure she didn't lie, but something didn't work. As taking out the food processor is already a big step, as is peeling the celery I felt kind of frustrated. But I added water and milk and the juice from half a lemon and kept the thing bubbling for a long time on the stove, and with the aid of my hand blender eventually it came out ok.

Then my DH tells me he doesn't like celery root.... but I did! It's for dinner tomorrow, to go with a roast beef.

Winter Tomato-Mozzarella

Tonight I made a recipe for winter tomato-mozzarella, from a Cyril Lignac recipe from his magazine.

It was pretty easy and used up the ugly old tomatoes I had lying around. Since it used smoked mozzarella and potatoes I knew Eric would like it.

Night at the Museum

We watched my DSS' DVD of Night at the Museum tonight, since my DH didn't feel well and I'm a big Ben Stiller fan. My DSS has seen the movie so many times that he was ok with us watching in English. I laughed out loud several times, and was impressed with the creativity of the concept. Fun!

Chicken Fajitas

I made chicken fajitas tonight for dinner.

I added sliced onions and canned grilled red peppers and it was really good. We only had a small amount of cheddar in the freezer, and a few tomatoes, plus a few flour tortillas, but it came together fast and everyone - DH, DSS, me - was happy. I'd bought chipolte peppers at a Mexican market in the evening, and added those to mine for more zing.

This one will make it into regular rotation!

The Power of Nice

I finished listening to another audiobook today. This one was not fiction, but rather a mix of self-help and business, "The Power of Nice". Basic good principles saying that nice guys and gals finish first and are happier.

Not earth-shattering, but good reminders and quick.

My Mom's Lasagne

When I was growing up, my mom cooked regularly, but one of the 'special occasion' dishes was lasagne. She makes it with little meatballs instead of a much-easier meat sauce, and it always was a big project.

My DSS loves lasagne, and I still ask my mom to make hers when I visit, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was actually a big project - not all the ingredients are at my local market, so I had hit the specialty grocery store in preparation. I wanted to make it for a dinner party tomorrow night, but it's been cancelled, and since I felt like cooking tonight after work, I just went for it - thinking I'd actually just get a start for tomorrow, but in the end we put it in the oven & ate it tonight.