RecipeMuncher

I’m a teacher, and school started 2 weeks ago. To put it bluntly, I feel like I got hit by a truck! Teaching is fun, but it can be such an exhausting job physically and mentally. I slept 12 hours last night. The last time I did that was probably was about a year ago - when school started for the year.

As I got into bed (after my nap) last night, I decided to flip through the pages of my brand new Food and Wine that arrived in the mail yesterday. I love Food and Wine.

Well, this month’s issue was a real good one.

Each time I go through a food magazine I go through and flag the recipes I want to make. Usually there are maybe three to four recipes that I long to make. But this month was overwhelming with greatness.

I’m in such a pickle! There were eight this month that I just wish I had the time to make - along with the twenty or so that got backlogged throughout the summer.

Some look very do-able, even on my tight schedule. Some aren’t.

First, there’s a nice, probably not time-consuming scallop recipe from Stephanie Izard, winner of last season’s Top Chef. It’s on a bed of greens with bacon in it. She shares her secret to browning the scallops. I can’t wait to try it!

There’s a fritatta recipe that I just know I will make when my department feeds all the teachers for our monthly breakfasts. It’s got mustard greens and sweet onions. I just love sweet onions.

The Chicken Tikka looks like something I can accomplish. It’s an Indian recipe. They offer easier to find ingredients, but let you know what they are replacing in true Indian cooking. I really haven’t done any Indian cooking, and I’d like to expand my horizons in that direction.

Another featured Indian recipe that I’m just dying to try out is the Creamy Ibdian Spiced Halibut Curry. Wow, that’s right up my alley. I’m going to go all out when I make it and use the whole milk and all the cream. Honest!

One of my favorite foods it goat cheese. I did a post on a local producer in my area, so I can practically drive down the road and get it any time. Food and Wine has two fabulous recipes with goat cheese this month. There’s delectable-looking little stuffed mushrooms and Creamy Pasta with tomato Confit and Fresh Goat Cheese. Yum!

There’s Sauvignon Blanc-Stemmed Mussels, Chicken with White Wine and Creme Fraiche, and a Raisin-Studded Apple Bread Pudding too.

And the one that I most want to make, but the least likely that I will (I’m giving myself a challenge here) is the Apple Tart with Almond Cream. OMG! That looks so wonderful.

Is that just eight recipes? Nope, it’s ten. Ugh!

It’s official: my nearly 3-month-long hiatus from Veggie Terrain (coupled with a recent 4-day “complete blog shutdown”) has finally ended!

But as much as I’ve truly missed blogging, I’m proud to say that I accomplished a lot during my absence. During the past few months, I graduated from law school, completed an undeniably hellish Bar-prep program, and ultimately sat for the Bar Exam, itself. And although I won’t know whether I passed until the 2nd week of October (talk about traumatic), I’m trying to be as positive as possible, and to take comfort in the fact that I’ve never worked so hard at anything in my life…

So, with that little bit of Bar Exam talk out of the way, let’s get to the new - and hopefully improved - Veggie Terrain!

I’ve spent the past few days completely overhauling my blog: revamping the layout and background; tidying up the sidebars; reorganizing my blogroll; and even adding a new set of “WordPress-ish” links to the top of the pag…

In keeping with my anthropological approach to eating whenever I am away I eschewed the regular looking breakfast items and went straight for the steaming bowl of what looked like wallpaper paste.

Eggs and bacon are all well and good but whenever I eat anything like that for breakfast I feel so sluggish and tired, like I want to head straight back to bed, rest a hand on my belly and watch some inane television. This was most definitely not what I wanted to be doing during my holiday. I wanted to be suppressing boundless energy and racing from temple to temple and market to market. Not snoozing in front of Mythbusters in an air-conditioned hotel room.

So steaming wallpaper paste it was. If this was full of enough goodness to keep generations of Asian farmers fed then I was sure it could keep me sated for the next few hours, no matter how many over-zealous tuk-tuk drivers I had to fend off.

I assumed that this rather unappetising looking gloop was cong…

The wonders of the East are beckoning, softly calling in hushed and gentle tones. In a few short hours I will be stepping out of the cool capsule of an aircraft and into the oppressive humidity of Bangkok. And I cannot wait.

Consequently, this is likely to be my last post for a while. I may try to jot down a couple of lines whilst I am there but I shall not be making any promises.

I should also mention a very worthy blogging event going on here, at A Merrier World. I will be writing a last minute entry as soon as I am once again ensconced in the warm bosom of home, two long weeks from now.

In order to keep this little entry vaguely food related, we had some really good mackerel not long ago. It was bought only hours old in sight of the ocean that had a short time ago been the fishes’ home. It was cooked in the simplest fashion possible over the barbecue and adorned wi…

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, but life have crazy.  Fun, but crazy.  Last week I took on the roll Super Auntie and watched my sister’s three little girls for 3 days while she vacationed in Mexico.  Right when she returned I had a dinner party that I was catering that very day.  I worked for 12 hours straight and although I was beat tired I had a lot of fun.  I have been doing dinner parties for a group of three couples for their date night out.  We choose a different theme for each dinner party and this one was “A Mexican Fiesta”.  I had a great menu planned and the night was a hit!  We started the night off with Blue Corn Blinis that were topped off with Crab, Pico de Gallo, and Avocado crema.  Next I pulled out a hot Mexican layer dip that had refried beans, group beef and onions, green chile, cheddar cheese, taco sauce, and homemade guacamole.   

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