Tis true, I have not been updating regularly. But rest assured, I have been continuing to observe the challenge and have cooked several delicious dishes since the last entry.
First, I must admit to a restaurant meal. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I had no choice. On Wednesday I had to go to Lexington for work stuff. Traditionally, one of my colleagues in our Lexington office would have taken me out to lunch, which is also technically against the rules, but I would have let it slide for the sake of professional relations. However, this did not come to pass, and I was stranded in Lexington without my trusty lunch bag. So I went to a nearby Indian buffet and had a plate of food, a couple gulab jamun, and an iced tea. Is that so wrong?
Highlights from the last week or so of the challenge:
- We made this chili recipe on the recommendation of one of my coworkers. It was good. I enjoyed the vegetables.
- My mom tried to get me to meet her for lunch last Saturday, but I talked her into coming over for breakfast instead. I made this spinach quiche (an old standby) and these raspberry muffins. Delish.
- We had a picnic in Cherokee Park consisting of pimento cheese sandwiches, chips and salsa, and grapes. Not very exciting or exotic, but it was the first warm day of the year, and after lunch we both read for a while and fell asleep in the sun. Perfect.
- Neil and I have this joke about him hating lentils. He doesn't, really; it's more that he hates the idea of lentils because they sound like dirty hippie food to him. I was determined to show him how yummy lentils can be, so I made this red lentil curry recipe. It didn't have quite the complexity of flavor that it seemed like it should, but it was still really, really good.
- Thursday night we made this recipe for ginger scallops. Neil wanted to invite our friend Devon over for dinner, and I wasn't too enthusiastic about this, because the other times I've cooked scallops they've turned out quite mediocre. And Devon is a really good cook, so I didn't want to embarrass myself. But we ended up getting good scallop-cooking advice from Devon, and dinner was fantastic. The secret to searing scallops: use an oil with a high smoke point, or if you don't have any such oil (we didn't), use a combination of olive oil and butter. Turn it up high and cook the scallops one minute per side. We did that and then added the scallops to the ginger sauce. Mmmmm. I love scallops and now I know how to cook them properly. Hooray!
- Last night we made panang curry using this recipe, another favorite I've made before. I also used these instructions for dry frying the tofu. The tofu turned out great. The curry was both delicious and inedible. Life lesson learned: do not let Neil measure the curry paste. The recipe calls for 2-3 tablespoons. Every time I've made this recipe I've used 2, and it's been just right. But Neil is a heat junkie and added a third. We also used a different brand of curry paste than we usually do, so that may have accounted for some of the heat as well. At any rate, I can't eat any more of it. I only made it through dinner by drinking two big glasses of milk with it. And I never drink milk. I probably haven't had a glass of milk with dinner since I was 12. Anyway, I think I might make this again this week with much less curry paste, because it's soooooo good.
We're just about halfway through our 30 days. It's still fun. I somehow magically have energy to come home and cook dinner; I guess knowing that I have no choice is enough to get me started, and once I start doing it I realize I'm having a really good time. One thing I'm not sure we're doing though is saving a whole lot of money. I mean, surely we are. There is no way that $100 at restaurants could go as far as $100 at the grocery store. But last month we spent $406 on groceries, and this month we've already spent $412. So we are on track to spend over $800 this month on groceries. And we don't even eat meat! Since we've never really done regular grocery shopping, we're not in the habit of shopping with an eye toward value. We save coupons but never remember to take them to the store with us. And I really have no idea what foods are more expensive than others or how much things are supposed to cost. I guess as we continue to shop we'll get better at this.
I have photos of several of the meals we've made lately, but it's Saturday morning and the camera is in the other room and I'm lazy right now. I'll do a photo post soon!
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