Making Meals, Sticking with It

It's hard to believe that at this time my kitchen is packed up, and well, it just doesn't even exist.  My things are all out of the house, and all we are left with are some suitcases and other things to get us by until we get to Japan in a few weeks.  As far as the kitchen is concerned, I am left with plastic forks, knives, spoons, and paper plates and bowls.  There is limited ways to cook food, and so for the most part, I don't.

But before all those things were packed, and after Italy, I did fit in a few last meals in our kitchen here.  Making at least 2 weekly meals is my goal, but I knew this move would come in the middle and there was just no way to prep a whole meal with nothing in a kitchen, so I am alright with taking a break until we are settled in Japan.  So, like I said, there were a few more meals made here.

First up is a pizza like stuffed roll.  Too bad it didn't quite go as planned.  Never fear, food does not have to look 100% as good as planned to taste 100% as good as planned.

My filling consisted of soy crumbles and zucchini.

 

I did use some prepackaged French loaf dough.

 

To my filling I added some tomato sauce.

 

After cutting the dough down the center, I rolled it out to make a place to "fill".  Then I topped with mozzarella.

 

I rolled them up and sealed them together at the seams.

 

Or so I thought!

Within seconds of starting to bake I realized I may not have sealed them as well as I thought and this would not do.  Oh well!  Looks like pizza and will probably taste like pizza, just not a pizza roll.  It was a success regardless of looks!

Next up was a pepper chickpea soup.  I love to make soups.  I love that I can add whatever I want and have a different creation every time.

 

I used a tomato base along with a can of veggie stock, and then added those to my sauteed veggies.  Near the end I tossed in the chickpeas so they would not get too mushy.  This was a huge success!

 

It seems I like chickpeas.  My third meal also contains them.  I made some spicy potatoes from some that my next door neighbor gave to us.  He had the biggest harvest he has ever seen and has no idea why, but he has tons and tons of potatoes this year.  We have been happily eating them, and will certainly miss them when we move.  To make these potatoes I just chop them in chunks and coat with Old Bay seasoning.  I don't add anything else.  Then I bake them in the over for 30-45 minutes.

 

The focus of this meal, however, was the chickpeas.  I sauteed up some peppers, onions and garlic.  Once these were getting soft, then I added the chickpeas.  Again, I waited so they did not completely turn to mush.

 

This made an awesome meal, and not to mention some awesome leftovers.

 

My final meal that I prepared in my kitchen was a salmon dish.  We had frozen salmon and I knew for sure this would have to get eaten or it was going to wind up in a friends freezer.  I marinated the salmon with pineapple juice, low sodium soy sauce, fresh grated ginger and red pepper flakes.

 

To go with this I made those same Old bay potatoes, and steamed up a side of green beans.

 

To top my fish I sauteed some garlic and olive oil, then tossed in some soy sauce to coat these cherry tomatoes.

 

Then the fish was ready to be plated up and served.

 

I think this dish turned out beautifully!

It is a little sad to know my "kitchen" is gone, but I am please to know that whenever I was here (except for a few times with visitors) I was able to cook dinner twice a week.  When I set this goal it was to make meals that required me to actually cook, not just heat things up.  I am always in a rush and running around, so I found I rarely had time to actually cook, and I have a very short attention span.  But I realized this is not a good enough excuse to not cook more often.  I needed to slow down and spend some time connecting in the kitchen with my true passion for food.  I wanted to get this skill down before we are parents because I want my kids to see me cook and feel comfortable in the kitchen.  It was important to me and so I made this a priority.  I have made many great meals and I am actually impressed with myself.

Thank you all for sharing in my adventure in the kitchen.  Next time you see me going at it, I will be in Japan!

Stay tuned for more posts of things that have happened since Italy, a month ago.  Still working at getting caught up.

QUESTIONS:  How often do you cook dinner?  What is your favorite dish to cook?

Who let the bulls out?

Two weekends ago we could not miss the Saturday night bull fight because it ran by our house.  Since we had this at our house one weekend last year, we knew what to expect.  Well, the only difference know was that it was almost a month earlier than expected and we found out just days before.  But that did not stop is from throwing a little party at out house.

Here is our house once our landlord put up the boxes that would “protect” the front of our house.  Setas means spikes in Portuguese, so you can bet we have spikes on our gate behind the cardboard.  No, the bull can’t read, but guys on the street jumping out of the bull’s way often like to know if they are going to land on spikes.

 

 

I am thinking this would not really stop the bull from busting down the small driveway and into our garage.

 

For our little get together, Ryan prepared some bruschetta.

 

 

 

While he was prepping food, I ran outside to take some pictures of the procession announcing the arrival of the bulls.

 

 

 

The end of the pack of cars is the truck with the bulls.  There are 4 bulls, each in one of these crates.

 

Then I came back in to help with the food preparation.

 

 

 

 

Only 2 of my friends showed up, but that was OK.

Good thing they arrived just as the 1st bull was released.  Our house was so close to the end line that they should have been safe no matter what.

 

This is the bull trying to bust into my next door neighbors yard.  A little further back you can see the white “end” line for the bull’s range.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the bull smashing my favorite hydrangea bushes.

 

Now, another bull really wanted in to my neighbors yard.  We stood and watched but were really nervous it would get up there.  Thankfully, the bull did not get in.

 

 

 

 

 

Every year someone wants to climb the pole in an effort to escape a bull.  It is actually very funny to watch.

 

 

Speaking of watching, here are some videos from the bull fight.

QUESTIONS:  When was the last time you had company over to your house?  If you were invited to our house for a bull fight, what dish would you have prepared?

An Azorean Christmas

Seeing as we had no real plans for Christmas, when our neighbor invited us over, we decided to go.  If we said no and then they were there to see we weren't doing anything anyway, it would look odd and we may never be invited over again.  So, we decided to join in with their traditional Azorean Christmas celebration with their family.  I guess it may be similar to a Portuguese Christmas, but since the island is isolated, they probably have their own customs as well.

This is actually our neighbors sister, who is also our fantastic housekeeper.  She is so sweet although i don't understand much of what she says.  This is her husband and in this picture they were offering us sweets or "American" goodies before the meal.

This was the only traditional Azorean treat on this table.  As best I can tell these were little Dona Amelias, which is the traditional sweet of the island.  They are sooooo delicious.

I was happy to see they also like my fave jelly beans...the starbust kind.  Ok, ok, I'm lying a little.  I really like jelly belly the best, but this is the next right after those goodies.

We were happy to see they all like Bud too.

This is a traditional dish, which I believe is pork.  The resemble the ones our landlord brought over for our bullfight party.

They made a ham...

These are similar to potatoes, but are a different kind of root veggie.  It had an interesting taste, a little sweet and a little salty.  They told me the name in Portuguese and it sounds like it had yam in, but it's not a yam, and I still can't tell ya what exactly it is...other than something that is native to this island!

This is alcatra.  This is the traditional island dish...they are famous for this.  It is cooked in a clay dish or tile.  My neighbor made Ryan some the night before Christmas and so I am saving all the details of this dish for it's own post.  In other words...more to come.

The traditional and oh so yummy bread.

Ok, here is where I started to feel bad.  I didn't tell them I am a vegetarian because I did not want to have them go through any trouble to make something special.  I also didn't know if they would undertsnad well enough to know what I do and what I do not eat (since I eat dairy, eggs and fish/seafood, but nothing from beef, pork, chicken or other animals, including gelatin or broths, so you can see with the language barrier I just didn't want to explain).  They felt SOOOOO bad and kept apologizing for not having anything prepared for me.  So Maria (neighbor) and Ashelina (her sister and our housekeeper) along with my neighbors daughter who speaks English, prepared for me this dish or fried eggs and these little fried turnovers filled with tuna, onion and spices.  These little tuna things were delicious.  But I felt so bad for the trouble they went through to prepare me something special.

Now on to dessert.  This had gelatin in it so I passed, but Ryan did like it.

I did not pass on this one though.  It was cake on the bottom, with cream and like a chocolate mousse.

They also had a very nice fruit salad.

Then it was time for all the kids and adults too to open their presents.  The gifts just kept coming and coming.

They did give Ryan a mug and us a table cloth and some embroidered linens with Christmas designs.

Ryan also gave me some mroe of my presents.  I totally got a slap chop!  You know you're jealous!  And of course another bread machine cook book.

Last, but not least, our landlord gave us this, which we REALLY wanted.  This is a serving tray with tiles (which is the traditional craft on the island).  This is a bull fight scene.  They paint these scenes as big or as little as you want.  We are so happy to have received one of these.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday if you celebrate Christmas.  If you are Jewish...I hope you enjoyed your Chinese food and an movie (or some variation, haha!)...

QUESTION:  What was your favorite present you received this year?  What was the best part of your meal yesterday?