Wednesday, January 17, 2007

wishful cooking



The kitchen is coming along. It has gone from its mutilated state (left) ; then the stove served up an assortment of strange chemical dishes, right; and now it's assuming a bridal-white coat of primer below right).

But cooking is once again suspended, and we've eaten more TV dinner type food than I like. The Boston Market chicken pot pie is not that great, in case you're interested; Marie Callendar's is far superior (although a little too salty).

In the meantime, I'm reading cookbooks and blogs and marking recipes I want to try when my stove has lost its plastic drapery, and the cupboards are full of food and dishes instead of paint thinner and sandpaper.




There have been a lot of winter vegetable posts lately, enough to make a menu. Here is my dream wintery menu:

Appetizers:
Puree of Celery Root Soup, from Orangette
Winter Salad with Fennel, Pear, Orange, and Pecan, from the passionate cook
Entree:
Simple Butternut Squash Tart, from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks

with side vegetable:
Roasted Parsnips, from Maureen at No Feeling of Falling
and for dessert,
Dark Chocolate and Beet Brownies, from La Tartine Gourmand

In the meantime, the contents of my kitchen cupboards are all over the place. Is the oatmeal on the dining table or in the corner of the living room? Where is the cinnamon? Did we eat all the walnuts, or are they in a box next to the couch?

Our tentative date of cook-ability is January 25: here's hoping.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Wishful cooking. I found this great video I think you'll appreciate :http://travelistic.com/video/show/1606

This Boston Chef combines Italian and French cuisine. (No TV dinners!)

mary grimm said...

We actually had chili and rice last night, cooked among the plastic sheets. You can only do Stouffer's and Marie Callendar for so long.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

It's awful to be without a kitchen, but great fun when the new kitchen is ready to be "loaded" and cooked in. Hang in there!

Anonymous said...

I made the butternut squash tart yesterday and it was delicious. Thank you for introducing me to the 101 Cookbooks website.

mary grimm said...

Kathleen--but what about the beet brownies!?

Anonymous said...

I don't think I'm ready for beet brownies. I have tasted beet cake though and I can only describe it as "interesting."

TasteTV said...

The chocolate with beets does sound very interesting

We've been trying to encourage people to send in videos of their old, bad, or under construction kitchens.
If anyone has any ideas, let us know. (http://www.TasteTV.com)

Lorence said...

Lucette, I came upon your blog via RosiesKitchen (rosieskitchen.blogspot.com) and I just have to ask - Are you going to be keeping that great old range? We're really going to have to tackle the kitchen soon - it's still circa 1950 or so, and I'm still using the 1950 Frigidaire range that's been here in our house since it was new.
Good luck and good cooking!

Lorence
Lorence's Kitchen

Lorence said...

Thanks for the message back - Glad to hear you'll be keeping the old range. I really like my old kitchen, but it definitely needs to be updated. It's circa 1950 (house is 1940). I'll probably retire the range at that point, though, since it's electric, in favor of something modern & dual fuel unless my wife lets me splurge on something like this.
Ah, to dream....

Good cooking,
Lorence