Today was a good day. I had my first session with the physical therapist this morning and I’m happy to finally have my back on the road to recovery (apparently, pretty much every sitting position I like is bad for my back, but I assume I’ll adjust eventually).
And then this evening, we ate like Russian peasants, thanks to some beets that appeared in our larder this weekend! By popular demand, the Borscht recipe follows after the jump!
Buck, it’s nice to have you back! In honor of your return, I took some photos at dinnertime tonight…
I only recently discovered the For the Love of Cooking blog. I’ve become a regular reader, though, and as soon as I saw Pam’s Greek Shrimp Scampi, I knew I was going to have to try it. Tonight was my first opportunity (I’m slow and walking like a decrepit old woman, but at least I’m back on my feet!), and I’ll definitely be making this one again! It is so simple, quick and delicious! Here are a few pictures of my prep and delivery (yeah, I kinda went nuts with the feta! Yum!):
(On another subject, I really need to work on lighting the food porn after dark — so much of it looks both overexposed and ill-defined all at the same time…)
I’m sitting here now watching Ralph — one of the best cooks here at Chez 10K — assemble some habanero chili. We grew the habaneros in our yard this summer and then he started experimenting with the chilies and one of his favorite dishes: chili. If you think you’ve had great chili before, it was only because you haven’t had some of this variety yet. Seriously. I’ve eaten a lot of chili in my adult life. Ralph has been making it for years, constantly tinkering with the formula, and many times, he’s made some damn fine chili. But this — well, this just takes it to a whole new level. He started with a recipe from allrecipes.com, but has tinkered a bit with it (he’s added some beer, jalepeños, red chiles and cumin, and played around with various substitutions for the beans, onions and bell peppers, depending on what we’ve had on hand). On such a cool, cozy evening, it’ll be a real treat with a bit of cornbread and salad…
Well, it was quite cool this past week — it even dipped into the 40s during the night a few times, so it was a bit nippy in the mornings. It put me in the mood for hot, cozy soupy food, so on Thursday night, tomato soup was on the menu. Now, it was a busy day and the debate was going to be on, so I took a shortcut and used canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh ones. It makes for a very quick meal that way.
I’ve been asked on at least one occasion to provide recipes when I post food porn and this time around I thought I’d go one step further and include some step-by-step photos as well…
I’m not the only one who’s been a blogging slacker. Keera and Ted, among many others, are also having a hard time trying to keep up with their regular posting schedules. In my case, the distraction is coming from seasonal fun, summer projects, and lots of cooking, so here’s a bit of (my own) food porn for you all — a recent potage of lentils. Yum!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any food porn. The weather has gotten warm here, with some summer-like temperatures in the past week. So, that means we make a shift away from a lot of soups for dinner in favor of cooler salads. One of our favorites is what we call simply “big salad,” and it changes according to what we have in the fridge, but basically consists of everything we can find to toss in there…
Oooh, it’s gotten cold here in Tennessee — which is perfect soup weather! (And a perfect opportunity for food porn — these photos are fresh off my camera today!)
Here is DH’s traditional Nouvelle Année Gumbo. He made a big batch last night, so there’s plenty left over. It’s a thick and spicy soup featuring, among other things, shrimp, sausage, and okra.
And I just finished whipping up my first batch of Black Eye Pea and Tomato Broth. It’s seasoned with chili pepper, cilantro, cumin, and turmeric (in Israel, this soup is known as Lubiya), so it also has a bit of a kick to it!
I have some photos to share from this past Saturday evening (before we came home to a bit of drama). We got to have dinner with a group of friends at the home of a woman whose Russian mother was visiting from Moscow. Much to our delight, Mom kindly prepared a traditional Russian dinner for us all, which was both a visually beautiful and an absolutely delicious meal!
The meal started with what I think are called pirozhki — small pies with either meat or cabbage baked inside. You can see them in the background of the first two photos.
After the appetizers we enjoyed some borshch, a very light and tasty beet and vegetable soup. I could have made an entire meal out of just this one course, which was thick with veggies!
After the soup, we enjoyed a delicious winter salad, which was appropriate, since it was the evening of the solstice. This was a meat-vegetable-potato-egg dish that was the most substantial part of the meal. It was a struggle to avoid eating too much as it was so good, but also quite filling and I was trying to pace myself without knowing what to expect next.
The salad was followed by some caviar — a rare treat! Apparently it appears more regularly on the Russian table, but to me it is quite the delicacy! The caviar was served on buttered bread, so this was bit lighter than the previous course, and made a great transition to the meal’s conclusion.
We wrapped up the meal with some very thin crepes, which we rolled and dipped in a fruit whip. It was a wonderful conclusion to an impressive dinner — one that I very much prefer to the way we end meals in the US. I’m not a big fan of the rich, heavy sweets that most Americans bring out for dessert so I usually skip the final course when eating out (and at home, we don’t bother with it at all), but this was very light and tasty and with just a hint of sweetness, so I thought it was just right for the end of the meal.
This the first time I’ve had a whole meal of authentic Russian cuisine and it really whetted my appetite for more! Of course, it was served with wine (or vodka!), and the company was just as impressive as the food. We really enjoyed the conversation, along with some great stories about life in Moscow. It was a rare holiday season treat. If you ever have the opportunity to sample some Russian food, I highly recommend it!
