Today I made:
Whew! Today was a little packed because yesterday we didn't get a chance to cook, but we had the ingredients already so some things needed to get made.
The day started off with French toast. I have never made French toast before, as far as I can remember. I don't think I let the bread soak in the eggy-milk long enough, because it didn't really end up looking like it is supposed to, but it still tasted fine. We made the lemon-berry variation, which reminded me of the lemon-berry pancakes I've had at our very favorite brunch place,
Cafe Luna. Plus, I have had some lemon curd in the freezer ever since I made
this cake a while ago, and we're pinched for freezer space these days. We had a (now very stale) demi-baguette and some fresh Challah that our friend gave us, so we used both of those for the toast. I thought it was really good; G thought there was a little too much lemon tart. I love lemon and berries. I still have a bunch of the eggy-milk left, so I'd like to get some more bread and retry with longer soaking later this week. The recipe certainly could've been scaled down, because the amount did not appreciably diminish from getting soaked up.
Shortly after eating, we started preparing for our Dumplings of the World. This was a little mini-feature in Cooking Light, including a gnocchi recipe that we decided not to make. We had been planning to have a little dumpling party, but kept putting it off week after week because we never got around to inviting people. Finally we just went ahead and bought the ingredients so that we would do it this weekend, but then still didn't end up inviting people until the day before. Whoops. But a few people came and we had a good time.
We made all the fillings last night, so all we had to do today was wrap and cook. It was very fast and easy-- so great for having company over but not having to stress about the prep. G made the filling and wrapped the samosas. Everything used wonton-type wrappers, so the samosas weren't too authentic, but everything tasted fine. We were happy to use our steamer for the first time since getting it over a year ago, but less enthused to see that the steamed wonton wrappers just stuck to everything :-/ G refused to try them because he is prejudiced against anything with tofu. The gyoza just tasted like mushroom-- not too special.
So then a little later it was on to dinner prep. It was good that lunch was all veggie because dinner was an all-American, meat-and-potatoes affair. It felt like we were at a church potluck. The ribs roast at a low temperature for a couple of hours, so there was ample time to run to the grocery store, make the lemony potato salad, and whip up the honey cream and lavender syrup. Dried lavender isn't available at our two normal grocery stores, although I know I've seen it somewhere.... Luckily, G and I went to a Chinese tea "class" yesterday, and they just happened to have dried lavender at their herbal tea station (kind of a cool idea-- they just had several kinds of dried flowers, and you could mix and match to make your own blend). So we mooched a little bit to take home for today's dessert.
These recipes were good. The potato salad tasted non-traditional and refreshing (despite the mayo). The combination of the leafy taste of the tea plus the sourness of the citrus (I'm guessing) in the rib's rub tasted a little bit like poi?? to me, but not to G, which is good because he says he hates poi. So I dunno. Hopefully eating black tea leaves at 8 pm won't keep us awake all night. The dessert was nice too-- just very smooth, with none of the flavors overwhelming the others. The lavender syrup, the honey in the cream, and the strawberries all took turns.
Of today's recipes, we're keeping the French toast, samosas, ribs and potatoes, and honey cream.
Now I am really hungry! Thanks for posting.
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