I’m currently cooking with one half of my brain and blogging with the other. Or, to clarify, in case this conjures up pictures of more activity than is actually happening, I’m waiting for a timer to go off, wondering about what else to cook and thinking about recipes. At the same time, having missed a post last night, I’m typing a post while I have a few minutes and feel warm enough to do it. We are still economising on heating, which means I don’t get to the keyboard as much as I would like, as I’m still determined not to take the laptop into the living room.
We have not been doing as much menu planning as we should, and I’m faced with a problem of what to make with carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes and onions. We’ve already had vegetable stew and vegetable soup in the last few days. Julia did something Chinese with chilli, rice and prawns on Monday but I’m struggling to be inventive. We would have had fish pie but we are trying to clear the freezer for Christmas and all the fish is currently frozen as we aren’t very good at forward planning and anything takes days to defrost at the moment. I could, I suppose, bake pieces of fish in foil. They will defrost like that, but I’m not sure that they go with root vegetables. In the hands of a Masterchef contestant, with a carrot puree here and a parsnip foam there, and probably a sweet potato pickle and a fondant potato, I’m sure my list of ingredients would be wonderful. In mine, not quite so much . . .
We could have the good old standby of pasta with stuff in it and pesto poured on – we have prawns and mussels in the freezer and they take no time to defrost – but it doesn’t seem much of a meal in winter.
Julia just rang as I was juggling pans. She’s on her way back from a meeting and wanted to know if she should go to the chip shop on the way past.
So, tonight’s menu is fish and chips with peas. Tomorrow we will be having mixed vegetable hash with corned beef (it could be eaten tonight, but I’d rather have chips) and I’m currently using the vegetable water from parboiling the hash vegetables to make a carrot, lentil and garlic soup. It was going to be carrot and lentil, but the garlic paste jar looked about empty so I used it all, and the resulting smell from the pan is rather garlicky.
In fact the chips just arrived so I’ll eat now and finish this later.
It’s the thought that goes into meal selection that is the most knackering
I’m easy to cook for – if I like it I’ll have the same thing all week. Julia, on the other hand, expects someth9ng different every day.
Same in this household, except I’m only sous-chef now
🙂 I aspire to be treated like a dogsbody in the kitchen.
Sometimes I make a roasted veggie dish here with herbs, olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar mixed in. Depending on the combo of vegetables, it can be a meal all in itself, especially if potatoes are a part of it.
Yes, potatoes always seem to make things better.
Not sure what the temperature in your house is, but I find I can thaw fish relatively quickly in a pan of water on the kitchen counter. Cold water. Takes half an hour to three quarters and you can do other prep in the meantime…but whatever that picture up top is, it looks pretty edible…
That was a library photo. I’ll try that technique, but fear that there is no cure for ti but more forethought.
Forethought is good if you can get it…
If you use half your brain to cook with it saves frying the other half.
🙂
Creative menu planning at its best. Hard to beat fish and chips.
That’s the problem with fish and chips – it’s so hard to resist.
🙂