Monday, August 07, 2017

Cooking up a storm


Oh, wow! I think I used every pot and pan in my tiny kitchen tonight. On the menu: fireplace trout, squash casserole, broccoli with anchovy/garlic butter. The company was my longtime friend Linda who lives in Granbury but travels so much it’s hard to catch her. I did tonight and even sent her to Central Market for trout filets. Another night when I learned a lot.

About the trout: when I unwrapped it, I was astounded by how much there was. I asked Linda how much she bought, and she said she told the fishmonger two filets. What she got was two trout, fileted. One trout was plenty for us to split. Christian got the other one. I had found a recipe called fireplace trout that called for cooking the fish in an iron skillet in your fireplace. Showy, but the magnetic skillet on the hot plate turned out just as succulent a product. Salt, pepper, a bit of flour so they didn’t stick, and sauté in a combination of butter and olive oil. Cooked just barely underdone—delicious.

The squash: I found one of those recipes that said it was absolutely the best you’d ever eat. I believed it, but for two I had to cut in down (Jordan and Christian won’t eat squash, though I may teach them better). I thought it would involve complicated steps but when I actually got to it, it wasn’t bad at al. Sauté the squash and some onion; mix together grated cheddar, egg, mayonnaise, sour cream, salt. Stir the squash into the creamy ingredients, and top with buttered cracker crumbs. Baked nicely in my toaster oven. I used two squash and have one small casserole left for tomorrow.

The broccoli: Linda loved it, but I didn’t, and it was my own fault. The recipe was quite clear about using butter, garlic, and a bit of anchovy, but Jordan pointed out she still had the anchovy/caper butter I’d made for salmon the other night. Why didn’t I just use that? I did, and for me, the flavors were too strong. Takes a lot to say that. Now I need to go back and try the recipe the right way.

Linda and I collaborated on cooking, though she, poor dear, ended up washing a lot of dishes. It’s not easy for two people to cook in a tiny kitchen, and I fear I rolled my chair over her toes more than once. But we had fun, and as she pointed out, cleanup in a tiny kitchen is pretty easy.

We sat on the patio tonight briefly. Lovely evening, but large, splattering raindrops drove us inside—and then came to nothing.

I had anticipated a busy day, but it was only sort of. The groomer came for Sophie about 8:30 this morning. Sophie thinks being groomed is a great adventure and loves it. Then Teddy came to walk with me around eleven—as always, he boosted my confidence immensely. I did what for me was a marathon—down the driveway to the sidewalk, including the incline, over to the stairs, up to the porch, down the side steps and back to the cottage. I was tired, and my back hurt, but neither was unbearable. And I was pretty proud.

Really a good day.




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