food + book + Frasier

Yes… I got another cookbook. This time it’s the Cafe Nervosa cookbook. Needless to say I got it because I’m a big fan of Frasier. I’ve always had a crush on Niles. He’s cute in so many ways. I suppose Fredrik kind of reminds me of Niles at times with his little spaz moments. They can be so annoying but so endearing.

The recipes in the book look pretty interesting. Cakes and muffins and sandwiches and quite a long list of drinks. Would be fun to get into the cooking.

Fredrik and I had tacos the other day for dinner. With him gone on tour, I’ve got a carton of sour cream. I just found a sour cream coffee cake in the book. I have only 1 egg. Think I’ll half the recipe and make a small cake. If it works out, I’ll bring it to my friend’s place tomorrow when I head over for coffee.

my first risotto

The other night I decided to give risotto a try.

I’ve never made risotto before. I had my first risotto this year at our wedding potluck. Our friends Cesar and Ylva made a shrimp and peas risotto that was just awesome.

Not to toot my own horn but my first risotto was AWESOME.

I used Jamie Oliver’s instructions on making the base risotto. Followed it from his Cook with Jamie book. I used fish stock instead of chicken or vegetable stock. I was low on chicken bouillon and figured that fish aught to work. There’s peas, corn, leek and spinach in it. I didn’t use any cheese ’cause we have none.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/risotto/basic-risotto-recipe

You can add just about anything and about half a litre of stock to this basic risotto recipe.

I was also surprised by how easy it was.

It’s interesting how in North America, risotto is often thought of as “fancy” Italian. At least that’s the impression that I got. While in Italy, it’s considered as “fast food”.

The shrimp was just pan fried with some butter and loads of chopped garlic. Sometimes the best way to make something already delicious is to just make it as simple as possible.

I’m hoping that the forested area behind our future house will have loads of mushrooms. Fresh chanterelles would make and awesome mushroom risotto. I’m already drooling thinking about that.

woo packages!

We came back from London this afternoon.

I came home to 2 pick up notices. My order from Amazon UK!

Sometime last week, I had a moment of weakness. I found out that Amazon UK was shipping not just books to Sweden and splurged a little. I probably shouldn’t have but I don’t regret it!

I got myself a copy of Martha Stewart’s Cookies, Cook with Jamie and Nigella Bites.

My favourite thing about Martha Stewart’s Cookies is the picture table of contents. There’s a picture of the cookie and the cookies are categorized by their characteristics. There’s not many cookie recipes missing from this book.

Cook with Jamie is super informative. I took a look at the book at Noel & Ryan’s. Thought it was great that he included things like tips on how to buy the best cut of meat. Sometimes grocery shopping can be a bit of a mystery. How do I know if the carrot I’m holding in my hand is the one I should be buying? I’m always worried that I picked the crappiest of the lot. Don’t ask.

Nigella Lawson is… well… I think she’s fabulous. I’ll admit that there have been more than 1 occasion where I watched her show to see her. She’s gorgeous in my eyes. The fact that she loves food and makes delicious foods just makes her even hotter. Her recipes are also pretty good. She makes food that I’m willing to eat. So far I’ve got 4 out of the 7 books she’s written. Hoping to get the rest of them at some point in time.

But the books are not all!

I got the Joseph Joseph nested bowl set!

It’s every bit as wonderful as I expected. I just LOVE it. It’s a wonderful addition to my kitchen. Think I’ll give it a test run sometime this week. Just need to decide on what I should make using it.

i probably shouldn’t have

I picked up a book order today and it included a copy of The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics. I wasn’t expecting it to be so… encyclopedia like. It looks fabulous.

The most entertaining aspect of it all is when I read it, I hear Martha Stewart’s voice in my head.

There are so many recipes in this book. I can’t wait to give some of them a try.

I was actually thinking the other day that I should cook more out of the cookbooks that I have. I’m starting to run out of space in my cookbook shelf. I’m hoping to get a nice shelf for my cookbooks and pyrex bowls when we move into our house. At the present the books and the bowls are sharing 1 shelf.

another cookbook

I picked this up in Gothenburg. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted it at first but for only 25kr. It was a hell of a bargain. I’ve seen a few episodes of Kylie’s Kitchen. She’s a Chinese-Australian chef and a lot of the recipes in the book are almost traditional Chinese recipes.

I’m running out of space for my cookbooks.

I have a copy of Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics coming in the mail. It was a bit of a random buy. Not saying that I don’t want it. Just saying that now might not be the best time to be randomly buying things. You know how it is…

a slice of life

My order from Amazon came in last week. I got A Slice of Organic Life and Living with Chickens.

A Slice of Organic Life is a pretty good beginner’s book. It kind of leads up to the other self sufficiency book I have. You can take it slowly and the things they teach you to do is a bit more doable in an urban situation. It does include some more advanced things you can do like keeping a goat, cow and chickens. But most people can grow a bit of salad greens in a window box and make their own preserves.

I’ve only flipped through Living with Chickens. It looks like a pretty thorough guide to keeping your own chickens.

I’m really looking forward to keeping some chickens of our own. Although I don’t think that’ll be a reality any time soon ’cause we’ll probably get a place that is a bit too crowded for chickens. But who knows right?

Yesterday at the grocery store, I told Fredrik to get some more eggs and he asked, “Already?” He eats an egg every day. And he wonders why I want to keep chickens.

fish pie! fish pie!

I made a fish pie on Monday.

I used Jamie Oliver’s Fantastic Fish Pie recipe from a book when Jamie was still referred to as “The Naked Chef”. I’d go check which book I have but Ull’s sleeping on my lap.

We had some leftover kipper in our freezer. I used pangasius filets. Didn’t use any cheese and used chopped spinach.

Jamie doesn’t have the Fantastic Fish Pie recipe on his site but he does have the fish pie recipe from Ministry of Food.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/fish-pie

Definitely recommend giving it a try.

more of a dreamer

Ever since I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I’ve been more interested in this idea of being self sufficient. It’s a bit of a hard thing to do living in a flat but I can dream.

My mom always grew tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and squash in our backyard.

Dreaming of my own small vegetable garden and a small brood of hens is not that unrealistic. It will be a lot of work. But considering the kind of chemicals they spray on the fruits and veggies, not to mention prices and places they’re shipping my vegetables from, I think it would be worth it. Fredrik says that it sounds like a great idea.

I got myself a copy of The NEW Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency that will hopefully be able to guide me towards my dreams of being more self sufficient.

A vine ripen tomato is WAY more tasty than any tomato that has to make a truck journey from the vine to my kitchen.

there’s artsy and there’s fartsy

My Gordon Ramsay cookbook came in the mail today. I got it from eBay for £1.20.

Looks pretty.

I’ve only flipped through the book.

Unfortunately, pretty doesn’t mean functional.

Different font size, types and colours. Very distracting.

When I’m using a cookbook, I want to be able to focus on the recipe.

Yellow on yellow is about as good as Dark Throne’s black on black.

The yellow words may look clear in the bright light of the flash but in regular light, it’s pretty hard to see. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

I’d like to know who designed the layout of this book.

why the pain?

I just finished reading The 100 Mile Diet. Definitely recommend it. Fredrik and I aren’t living the 100 mile life but we do try our best to buy local and/or Swedish products. The unfortunate thing about the produce stands that we find in the local “squares” is that they sell the same produce from Argentina or Spain as they do in the supermarkets. I’d really like to find a farmer’s market at some point.

I woke up this morning to some serious stomach cramps. It continues as I’m typing. I’ve eaten some Shreddies but it’s been no help. I’m thinking that it’s from something I ate. It feels like I’ve been punched in the stomach.