In the kitchen

I've been on a bit of a baking and cooking kick lately. Doing things in the kitchen can be a bit scary to me because I've been told you learn to be a good cook by making mistakes, but really I'd rather not make mistakes. But I was inspired by some friends I've visited in January and February, so now that I'm finally home I've been spending many of my free hours before classes start in the kitchen (and at the fruit and veggie market, the butcher, the grocery store . . .) The week has had its share of successes, failures, and some things in between.  

I got back from my travels late last Sunday night and the next day I made bread for the first time. Then I did it again on Friday, so I'm an old hand now. (Favorite bread recipes, anyone?  The only one I tried is this Honey Wheat Bread.)  Bread was accompanied by Sweet Potato Peanut Soup which is a recipe I'll definitely use again.  We dined fashionably at 9 pm.  

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 tsp. brown sugar

2 onion, diced

6 cloves garlic

2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 cup carrots, diced

5 cups of vegetable broth 

sprinkling of:

cumin

chile powder

coriander

cinnamon

4 Tbs. smooth peanut butter

Put all the ingredients but the peanut butter into a soup pot 

Boil 30-40 minutes

Blend in a blender until smooth

Return to pot, stir in peanut butter, and simmer until warm 

Serves 5-6 

Not so successful was my attempt at broiling chicken in the toaster oven.  The local grocery store seemed to be out of all chicken except for bags of mysterious frozen chicken parts which I rejected.  The butcher just down the street, however, had a fat slab of chicken which I bought.  Long story short, it seems like the upper element of the toaster oven doesn't work because the chicken was barely warmed and certainly not broiled.  I moved to the stove.  What I ended up serving was so tough I wished I had steak knives. I cut it up the left-overs the next day and Grace included it in fried rice.  Tuesday's lesson was "don't buy chicken that's about 3 inches thick."  Or maybe it was "don't try broiling in this toaster oven."

This morning's lesson was "don't try to make Apple Skillet Cake without a skillet."