food-blogging

I've decided not to bore you with more ice-skating trivia after all. If you do feel like some pictures of yesterday's excursion to lake Neusiedl and can't be bothered with the text anyway, you might want to pop over to TD.

Instead, I think I'll torture you a little with my latest culinary exploits. On Saturday, we had the first dinner guests of 2006, FCN and hubby, "Mr. FCN". Another of my nice colleagues gave me Jamie's Italy for my birthday and I decided to make the starter and dessert out of that book. This is what I conjured up:

Aperitif: champagne (also nice with prosecco or other bubbly stuff) with pomegranate seeds and (Turkish) pomegranate syrup.

Starter: fried ricotta and tomato salad (I made the ricotta patties according to Jamie but had to add some extra flour as the first batch disintegrated in the frying pan. They were also a bit on the bland side so if I make them again I'll add some more seasoning)

Main-course: a tried and tested wintery dish (non-Jamie) I love: slow-roasted (in soy sauce, rice wine, star anise and cinnamon bark) pork with Asian mushrooms and rice. I also made a salad of Chinese cabbage, carrot shavings and spring onion, marinated with a (shop-bought) Japanese sauce made of fruit and vegetables, salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Dessert: lemon sorbet. This was really nice, if a bit too acidic for TD's taste. Tonight (to be devoured after swimming with the Mermaid) I'm going to try the same with half orange, half lemon juice. Ever since I bought an ice-maker this summer, I'm really into DIY ice-creams.

I love pretending to be a domestic goddess every now and then but much prefer cooking for guests to slaving over the stove just for the two of us. In my student days, pre cohabiting with TD, I lived on pizza slices and the only things that ever got produced in my kitchen were salads, pasta, sausages (as in heating up, not as in actually making them...) and Kaiserschmarren.

Lunch-break purchase: Hofer got chef torches (you know, those butane torches you use for caramelising the sugar on creme brulées) today and I needed one. Urgently, like.