frozen lasagna and other things

The thought of writing has not been too appetizing for me these days as evidenced by the lack of current content. We are still eating, and I am still cooking. But I will also admit to a few trips to the freezer section of the grocery store these days for frozen lasagna (a meal we’ve had four times now). My only excuse is a short attention span that is currently consumed by craft projects, so that’s receiving the full weight of my creative energy. Goodbye blog, in other words.

I am still loving the cooking, creating and eating process, so here are a few recaps of Husband’s and my exploits in the kitchen.

My Christmas present from Husband was a subscription to Delicious magazine, easily one of my favourites from Australia (although this is the UK version). When I received my first one last month, I turned to it for many an evening meal including the Indian version of a chicken salad, photographed above. A lovely alternative to the typical chicken salad, this one has mango, chicken, mango chutney, yogurt, curry spices and coriander in it.

Husband made this fantastic warm beef Mexican salad. It was perfect for the warm late spring days that we’ve been having.

Then we had an Easter lunch of a roasted leg of lamb – the same as our Christmas lamb – with an Easter salad and a delicious potato salad. Our desire is to keep a consistent food thread at our meal table for Christmas and Easter, so that our children will connect the two days in the hearts, heads and stomachs. This was the Easter salad, a fantastic recipe, full of crunchy green veggies. It was fresh tasting and packed with great flavors.

For my daily lunches – when I’m not eating frozen lasagna, ha! – I tried a few quick and easy veggie stir fries. This one has egg in it if I remember correctly. I could not say what else went into it except the other basics: broccoli, carrots and brown rice.

And finally Husband made these burgers that made my mouth salivate. I have no idea what he put in it, but the burger was tasty, and the sweet chili sauce was a classy touch instead of the typical ketchup. Who would have thought that asparagus could work on a burger? The dense whole wheat buns were great as well. We should call this the Not Your American Burger burger.

That’s all for now, folks. With the Small One’s pending arrival, I have no idea how much cooking, photographing or writing I will be doing. I will probably be eating though. One never knows how having children will change my cooking. I have often wondered if breast milk can be used for anything other than feeding babies. Oh the uncharted frontiers to come…

green and orange stir fry

Saturday is our work day. It’s been five weeks since we returned to Geneva, and we spend a good portion of the day sorting, packing, building and taking down in the hope of turning this flat into our home. One marriage surprise for me was how enjoyable it would be to work on projects with my husband, and we are discovering new skills all the time. He is strategic, creative and excellent at putting things together. The other marriage surprise is that we have not had any major decorating arguments.

Lunch on Saturday isn’t planned, so I just go through the fridge and hope that ingredients will work together. A stir fry works beautifully in these situations – we love veggies, soy sauce, garlic and onion. The hardest thing for me about cooking a stir fry is getting the flavour evenly throughout while making sure that nothing gets undercooked or overcooked. Here’s my asian invention, using the contents of our pantry and refrigerator.

• Stir Fry chop chicken, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, onion and garlic. In one pan sautee onions and garlic in olive oil, add chicken and cook on low to medium heat. In a wok, sautee onions and garlic, add broccoli and carrots and cook on medium heat. Add soy sauce and sweet chili sauce to both pans (I used strong Tamari soy sauce and a Thai sweet chili sauce). Add the mushrooms when the broccoli and carrots are starting to look done because it doesn’t take mushrooms long to cook. When the chicken is done, add the contents in that pan to the wok and cook together for a few minutes. Taste and add more flavour depending on your preference. When it’s finished and the fire’s off, I cut spring onions and corriander (cilantro) over the top.