Spring Break Fancy Dinner Date

Anthony and I had a great time preparing for and having a great date over spring break! Supper was unbelievably good. My favorite dish was the baked salmon. It was so thick and soft. I tried a new recipe for the salmon and the sweet potato casserole. Unfortunately, the sweet potato casserole had a disgusting stick-and-a-half of butter in it. It tasted like pecan pie or shortbread. That dish was certainly our dessert as I did not make dessert technically. We had an awesome night. It reminded me of our fancy Valentine's date when we were dating.

Spring Break Fancy Dinner Date Menu:

Grape Juice

All Recipe's Baked Salmon II

Pinch of Yum's Super Easy Sweet Potato Casserole With Pecan Crumble

Sticky Rice

Fresh Whole Green Beans in Olive Oil and Lemon Juice

Rachel Singapogu's Chai Tea

Thrift Store Finds!

Anthony, Shastya, and I went to a local thrift store to get a couple blankets to hang on our bedroom walls to cut the reverberating sounds in our apartment. While we were at the thrift shop, I found a plethora of functionable fashions for baby Shastya and myself! Would you believe it? The total for all the "extras" was $3. That's all! I found two shirts for me, three shirts for Shastya, and a small purse for me. We did find a couple blankets. When we got home, Anthony hung them. They added just a touch of dimension and ambiance to our room. The look is almost reminiscent of bohemian or . . .

ratatouille-inspired soup

Consider this a spoof on ratatouille. My fridge was full of veggies, fruit, and leftovers. I pulled a bunch of colorful ingredients and starting chopping and throwing into a pot. Things that went in included: zucchini, peppers, potatoes, and apples. My base was leftover butternut squash curry. I added a couple cups of water. I brought it all to a boil, and then let it all simmer for awhile. The apples kind of substituted for tomatoes. Apples and tomatoes are both sweet and sour. The McIntosh variety of apples that I used were also soft like tomatoes. The soup was good. It was not bad. It was not amazing. We added salt and pepper. Anthony would have rather had the ratatouille spoof over rice without the potatoes. I liked it the way it was.

ratatouille-inspired soup:

butternut squash base

2 cups water

1 zucchini

2 red-skinned potatoes

2 mcintosh apples

handful of mini peppers

Amazon Grocery Shopping List

I told Anthony, I started an online Amazon groceries list in addition to my regular brick and mortar grocery store shopping list. I had converted my Vera Bradley "Russian nesting doll" sticky note into an Amazon shopping list. I told Anthony, I wrote three things on my list so far: agar agar, liquid nitrogen, and dumpling wrappers! He said, "What!? I don't think Amazon would have liquid nitrogen." I said, "Just because I am shopping/looking for something doesn't mean that I will find it." Then I asked him if it was legal/possible to even order liquid nitrogen. We agreed that ordering it by mail was not very likely. We have often seen liquid nitrogen used on Iron Chef America by Iron Chef Cat Cora. I started a list of ingredients to order online because yesterday Anthony informed me that I should get some agar agar and similar stuff we saw on Chopped to experiment with:) I put the wonton wrappers on my list because while I often make my own wonton wrappers, most of my Asian friends use store-bought wonton wrappers when they are making dumplings. I wanted to try using store-bought wonton wrappers to be authentic! Lol.

Corncakes Take 2

So unlike "Take 1" where I made scrambled cornbread, I figured out this time that corncakes must have sugar and oil in them: sugar, so they won't taste like sandpaper, and oil, so the batter doesn't separate. But other than that, this endeavor was not a waste of time or resources. I'll save all these fixings for later. Maybe I can recycle them to create a kitchen masterpiece! I'm thinking I can crumble them and use them as bread crumbs in meatballs, or breaded/fried something or other. The possibilities are endless. I'm also contemplating checking out a corncakes recipe, or calling my Gramma and asking for the specifics for her amazing recipe! Or maybe I'll keep working on my own secret cornbread recipe.

Shari's Indian-Inspired Butternut Squash Curry

So my pastor's wife randomly awesomely gave me a butternut squash the other day. This evening I decided to use it for supper. My husband kindly chopped it up for me. I made a curry for it from Indian ingredients. I then compared my results to some similar recipes online: Butternut Squash & Coconut Curry, Sambhar, and Indian Summer Stew: Butternut Squash, Coconut, and Lentil Stew. Not bad! Our supper was perfect! Not too much or too little spicy. The dish tasted buttery. I would make it again.

Shari's Indian-Inspired Butternut Squash Curry:

1 TB Ghee

2 Dashes Hing

1 TB Sambhar Powder

2 Tsp Tumeric

2 Tsp Minced Garlic

2 Tsp Ginger Paste

1/2 Ginormous Onion

1 TB Chobani Yogurt

2 Cups Water

1 Cubed Butternut Squash

1. Saute ghee and spices.

2. Add onion. Stir.

3. Add yogurt. Stir.

4. Add water. Stir.

5. Add butternut squash. Stir. Cover. Cook until soft. Mash with fork.

6. Simmer. Serve.