creative inspiration: home and garden stores

I stepped into a shopping mall yesterday in search of a birthday present. Godiva closed, but there was a Läderach. And so I dropped 75 bucks there for Swiss chocolate for Patrick. Crate and Barrel happened to be having their fall sale, and so I spent another 25 bucks for 2 cereal bowls and 2 white wine glasses to replace chipped and broken dishware. And I window shopped a lot. I admired and coveted the denim blue Staub pots with brass knobs and wondered if I should try to re-make some modern house Christmas lights in porcelain.                

 

I thought if I were young and starting all over again, I would have no plates or bowls, but just have these shallow pasta bowls in my cupboard.

And I admired this pink sequin dress at Anthropologie I would never have occasion to wear and mostly browsed the furnishings and books rather than the clothes.

And then I took lots of pics of succulent gardens in the garden shop. I loved this miniature purple orchid which cost $56. Too rich for my pocketbook. But it was gorgeous.

All of the succulent pots were so expensive. This pumpkin was glued to the moss that was in this garden.

I really liked these fall and winter-themed moss gardens in these shallow copper pots, which were $58.

And I've got to change up the succulents in my own concrete planter to mirror the variety in this planter.

I also liked that there were dried branches and moss in some of the tableaux. Though I don't know if I liked the mini pumpkins.

 

The succulents stuck on top of the gourds were okay, and golly even the smaller gardens were pretty pricy.

I suppose one could have designed their own succulent garden within a pot of their own choice at Terrain.

 

In the end I bought none and came home to admire the fall bouquet that Patrick had made for me.

cook: corned beef dinner

I had bought this corned beef in March. The weather then turned summery, and remained warm so that I just never got around to making a St. Patrick's Day dinner. Finally, the weather 8 months later is blustery and cool, and preparing a corned beef dinner seemed like a pleasant Sunday afternoon activity. I rinsed the beef very well, covered with water, added the corned spices and simmered medium to low for 3 hours. I peeled a russet, a red and a Yukon gold potato and put all in a pot with water. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have poured out water of the beef pot and poured in more fresh water to make it less salty. I swear COVID is making everything taste saltier.   

I also set out a package of heirloom baby carrots as well as 3 stalks of celery which I cut into the same size as the carrots to add to the pot the last 45 minutes of cooking.

 

While the beef simmered, I sliced half of a medium head of green cabbage thinly and put it into a pan into which I melted a few tablespoons of butter.

  

I then put the sautéed cabbage on low and began boiling the potatoes. And then lashed those potatoes with lots of butter, cream and a bunch of chopped scallions.

 

When the corned beef was done simmering, I put the meat on a board to rest. I strained the vegetables from the boiling broth, added butter and chopped chives to coat.

 

Instead of serving the mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage separately, I folded the two into a Colcannon.

Dinner done! I was in a mood to serve the meal in stainless steel and set out the mustards I had in the fridge and jar of horseradish.

Corned beef is not Patrick's favorite, but he did declare this meal was kinda good.

I think I cook a boiled dinner differently by trying not to boil all the color out of the vegetables and add pops of emerald green in the scallions and chives. I'm still testing positive for COVID, and so it's still gonna be a few days before I can go to the grocery store to buy rye bread to make a Rachel--a corned beef sandwich on rye with coleslaw and Russian dressing.

cook: egg sandwiches for breakfast and dinner

I’ve COVID, and had relied on neighbors to get us milk and wine this week. I've enough groceries to get by until a negative test when I can return to the supermarket. And I also had one Thistle vegan dinner of jollof rice with sweet potato and pinto beans and an aioli sauce. OMG delish. And then my olfactory nerves went dead.

 

I so wanted to enjoy my ham, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. I made my egg over easy soft. Should have gone for medium because yolk ran all over my t-shirt, the kitchen counter and my cutting board.

  

And I so wanted to enjoy it, but I could really only taste ham. For a late lunch, early dinner, I made egg salad. I followed a Food and Wine recipe for Japanese 7-Eleven Egg Salad Sandwich. I cooked the eggs exactly 10 minutes on a medium high heat and then submerged them in ice water, peeled and then sliced them with handy dandy egg slicer I got from one of Patrick's clients who just moved into memory care. I loved the vintagey item even if it didn't slice all the way through.

 

I used a fork to mash the hard boiled eggs even more finely before adding the Kewpie mayonnaise and the heavy whipping cream as well as salt, pepper and sugar.

 

I combined it all, and it was too salty. Yikes. And it needed that allium bite I love. And so I chopped a scallion and chives very finely and mixed it in.

So much tastier. And I probably should have cooked one more egg, so it wasn't so gloppy.

But again delish. I sliced off the crusts of buttermilk bread and generously buttered the bread.

 

This was the school lunch the cafeteria ladies had promised and which I couldn't partake because of freakin' COVID. I had planned to share with Nicole along with a bag of potato chips.

But I feel like I've got the recipe down. A bit less mayo and yeah omit one of the egg whites.

cook: thai green curry (soup)

I loved the chicken and vegetable red Thai curry I cooked last week, but this week I wanted to make a green one and one that is a soup with rice noodles rather than a viand to spoon onto steamed rice. I suppose this dish might be close to what is a laksa with Malaysian influences though I used the typical Thai flavoring of fish sauce rather than dried shrimp and I didn't cut the noodles shorter to make for easier slurping. Just as with most of my cooking, I start with my usual aromatics, this time garlic and shallots. I also grated lots of ginger and took out my Asian condiments of fish sauce, lemon grass, green curry paste, coconut oil as well as kaffir lime leaves and Thai chilies.                            

 

I wanted to load this soup with vegetables: red bell pepper and zucchini. 

And to make it even greener: a tender kale. I also added to the vegetable arsenal: bamboo shoots and straw mushrooms. I couldn't find the six pack of coconut milk I bought recently at the time (it was placed next to my boxes of bubbly water) and had to do with lite coconut milk on this soup.

 

Per Pai Chongchitnant recipes and instructional videos I watched, I sweated the aromatics and the green curry paste in the little bit of coconut oil I had left. And I had also taken out of my fridge chicken thighs and tempeh.

  

Before I burned the paste and the aromatics which were starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, I hurriedly cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and threw them into the pot. And then as quickly, cut the tempeh and put that into the pot too.

 

Next I put the coconut milk and chicken broth and a few tablespoons of fish sauce into the pot. And next ALL the vegetables including the canned ones. While my pot simmered on low, I boiled the rice noodles.

I decanted the soup into two containers, one for me and one for Cecilia and then divided the boiled rice noodles also into two containers.   

Campbell’s chicken noodle for the husband and Anna’s Asian chicken noodle for me comprised our Saturday lunch,

which I’m eating outside unmasked, sequestering myself from the husband who has COVID.