Posts Tagged ‘Chicken’
January 26, 2012
In the mid 1980’s we lived in Hong Kong for 18 months during which period we somehow managed to have enough time to visit Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Macau and Singapore. On the apparently rare occasions that we were at home, we used to meet my father at noon every Saturday and go have Dim Sum. We’d meet my father at his office, and then cross through a public garden which on a Saturday was full of brides in bright red wedding dresses having their wedding pictures taken (possibly Statue Square?), to the Dim Sum restaurant at the top of the neighboring office tower. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, Meat and Seafood, pork, soup, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Leave a Comment »
November 22, 2011
I was not a kid who had to suffer through many cafeteria meals during my school years. I was spoiled and my mother packed me a lunch almost every day well into high school. By and large the only times I ever bought lunch were on the rare occasions that the school cafeteria was serving something I really wanted to eat. In the year I spent at Convent of the Sacred Heart this meant the days that they did Indian Fry Bread for lunch – don’t ask me how that was nutritionally viable, but it came hot from the fryer and covered in powdered sugar and everyone wanted one – and any time they served tater tots. In the year and a half I spent at the Old Greenwich Elementary School this meant the occasional pizza on Friday (why I wanted burnt pizza is an issue to explore some other time), and any time they served tacos. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged Beans, Chicken, Meat and Seafood, Side Dish, Vegetables | Leave a Comment »
November 4, 2011
The boys over at The Bitten Word have helpfully indexed the 250 Thanksgiving recipes that debuted in this month’s cooking magazines. For the record, that is an insane number of new recipes for a holiday in which generally speaking nobody wants anything but what they always have – because, as we all know, everyone else’s Thanksgiving is wrong and ours is the only right one. For example, my cousin’s husband’s family doesn’t do gravy. She called to tell us this the first holiday she spent with them, and I think our collective appalled gasp could be heard across state lines. She ended up marrying him, so clearly his family’s bizarre stance on gravy wasn’t a deal breaker, but I’m pretty sure that she spent some quality time impressing on him the importance of gravy. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, Meat and Seafood, squash | Leave a Comment »
October 5, 2011
Some books should come with warning labels. I don’t mean the kind of warnings that land books on the Banned Books list. I mean warnings like ‘Do not read this book unless you have time to make cinnamon rolls this weekend’. Or, ‘Map the route to your nearest Moroccan restaurant before starting this book.’
I’m not talking about the obvious books either. Anyone who didn’t know that “Like Water for Chocolate” was going to leave them hungry was clearly not paying attention to the cover copy. I’m talking about books like the one I just finished. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, Meat and Seafood, Side Dish, Starch, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
August 3, 2011
There are some weeks when my menu planning falls into place like the perfect game of tetris. Then there are weeks when I leave my menu plan open in the background on my computer all day long, all week and keep clicking back to it in spare moments to swap things in and out and leave blanks and email everyone I know (okay, my mother and Jes) asking them for help figuring out what’s missing. This week was a lot more like the latter than the former. At this point, I’ve made and eaten Dinner and I’m still not entirely happy with the juxtaposition of all the dishes. 90% of it was there, but the green beans felt off somehow, like they didn’t quite fit into the rest of the meal. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, fruit, Side Dish, Vegetables | Leave a Comment »
June 29, 2011
When I was in high school my parents and I went on a vacation to Vienna during which it was so cold that every activity was punctuated by a stop in a café for coffee (mit schlag, aber natürlich) and torte and to defrost. The five days I just spent in New Orleans was highly reminiscent of that – substitute heat for cold, air conditioning for radiators and beignets and café au lait for coffee and torte. If we didn’t succeed in eating our way through the city, it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying; and if there were iconic dishes we didn’t sample it was only because there simply were not enough meals in the day. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken | Leave a Comment »
June 15, 2011
I firmly believe that sandwiches are the world’s perfect food. You can eat them for any meal of the day. They can be sweet or savory. They can be hand held or served on a plate and require a knife and fork to eat. They can embody the spirit of any culture and cuisine. Plus, by definition they contain a tasty starch. There is no bad in this equation.
The British understand the appeal of sandwiches (and bacon) on such a deep emotional level that students at Leeds University got funding to research and derive a scientific formula for making the perfect bacon buttie. How much do you wish you could have been a part of that research team? Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged Chicken, fruit, sandwiches, Side Dish, Vegetables | 2 Comments »
June 1, 2011
You know what I loathe? Recipes that call for a ¼ cup of something that only comes in a 16 oz can, or recipes that call for 1 ¼ lb of something that is usually sold in 1 lb increments. Sometimes I just omit the ingredient, or substitute it, or make just under what the recipe calls for to make up for the ¼ lb of whatever it is that I’m missing. A lot of the time I’ll just skip over the recipe and find something else to make. However, sometimes, like tonight, the ¼ cup of coconut milk is important and the recipe is actually worth opening the can and dealing with the remaining coconut milk. This is when you discover that your freezer is your friend. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, Meat and Seafood | 4 Comments »
May 24, 2011
It’s possible that my spice collection has gotten a little out of control. Between them the sweet spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc.) and the savory spices (cumin, thyme, paprika, and about 40 more) take up nearly an entire shelf in my pantry. It’s gotten to the point where the only spices I don’t have are the ones I don’t know about yet. And actually, as of about 3pm on Sunday afternoon that’s not even really true anymore because I now have a bag of dried fenugreek leaves and while I theoretically know of a lot of things to do with them I’m still a little unclear as to what they are exactly, or what flavor they’re imparting to a dish. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra, Uncategorized | Tagged Chicken, Side Dish, Vegetables | 1 Comment »
