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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Sooooooooo behind!


My mom has been here for the last 3 weeks and although I have been doing a lot of cooking, I just have not had time to follow recipes! I do plenty of creating my own recipes...but hmmm that is not my goal!
The good news is I now have two chickens that lay fresh eggs for me every day and I have an herb garden (thanks to my mother). Now I just gotta get cooking!
I am having a dinner party on Saturday, I am calling it my first 'table nosh'. Hopefully I will do four new recipes, to make up for lost time and it will be a wonderful 'in home' dining experience for everyone!

Keep ya posted.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Frozen Raspberry Souffle and Company...




Another fine evening with good friends and new recipes! Our dear friends Na & Frag joined us for the tasting of recipe #9 (I think I am already behind!). Seeing as dessert was rather intricate...I had to sacrifice doing a new recipe for our main. But the company was excellent and I think dinner was just fine.

The Menu

Appetizer: Salmon & Cream Cheese Crostini (by Frag)

Main: Grilled Shrimp Skewers w/ sweet chilli & garlic
and grilled asparagus over parmesan, tomato and cous cous salad.
Dessert: Frozen Raspberry Souffle (from 'Glorious French Food' by James Peterson)
The process...I made a tart earlier in the day that required 6 egg yolks, therefore I was left with 6 eggwhites and did not want them to go to waste. This is basically how I came upon doing the raspberry souffle recipe, out of a newly borrowed french cookbook. There were a few steps involved in this recipe.
The raspberries, I used frozen raspberries and they had to simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes and then be strained through a sieve of some sort. Meanwhile beating eggwhites, making sugar syrup and whipping cream. Oh and the directions said to create an edging around all the ramekins with baking paper (fortunately I had a friend over and she did this for me). Getting the sugar syrup to the right consistency was interesting (I am not sure if this was achieved). I do know I managed to burn myself AGAIN with this stuff - same stuff I burned myself with last time :). Anyhow once you had all the components ready there was a lot of careful pouring and folding. Then you put the mixture into the ramekins and in the freezer. I made some chards of dark chocolate to stick on top to serve. They were pretty good...similar to my semi-freddo...I think I will have to try the warm chocolate souffle next!
So, now I am also thinking about this idea for my 'in-home' dining experience, offered to friends and friends of their friends...once I get the idea sorted out a little better I will explain it to you. For the time being I need a name?



Monday, February 1, 2010

Blogging is HARD

Okay so I am so sorry...I definitely do not have the hang of this blog thing! Not to mention I am slacking on new recipes! Although I am doing a new recipe right now, but is a complete 'Leila' experiment...eggplant parmesan lasagna? I will let you know how it turns out (it smells good).

My mom gets here tomorrow so I will have to cook up some good things for her. And my health kick, I was supposed to be cooking recipes from my super healthy cookbooks. Oh dear I am behind.

What I really keep thinking about is my 'in house' dining experience mixed with hospitality/fellowship idea. I keep trying to think of names...tell me what you think: 'Leila's Quaint Kitchen', 'Backyard Dining', 'Our Table', 'Leila's Cozy Kitchen', 'Lilypads'

Okay so next time I will have a recipe to report on!