Several months ago, I called a conference of my worldwide technical staff that would take place over the week of November 27 - December 1. I wasn't thinking about the fact it was the week after the American Thanksgiving holiday and that getting flights into Boston from places like Kuala Lumpur, Rio, and London would be so pricey! (My corporate bean counter just LOVES me...) But, it was a good week. We had lots of hands on with new loudspeakers the company I work for will be debuting this year as well as the typical corporate rah-rah that has to happen at these things. We also had some pretty good meals at a few local restaurants and one really atrocious meal at a chain steak house up the road from our headquarters. I was getting up at 4:45am to get into work by 6am just to read emails and do a little "real" work then not getting home until almost 11pm every night. Poor MBH was fending for himself all week with the slim pickings in the fridge since there wasn't much coming out of the our kitchen.
I've added to my cookbook collection this week. I don't know how I lived without Amazon. I find cookbooks at the library I can't live without (OK, I could live without them but come on here folks. I'm a cookbook addict. I know it. You know it. Heck, even my cat KNOWS it...) and then order them if I want to add them to my personal library. One is the delightful American Century Cookbook by Jean Anderson. This is a wonderful book that chronicles food trends of the 20th Century with stand out recipes, great stories about the foods we all know and love, and little tid-bits about the companies that brought us the products that made up the century of convenience foods. Another cookbook I added was the gorgeous Solo Suppers by Joyce Goldstein. I'm looking forward to cooking out of this book very soon as well as Truffles, Candies, and Confections by Carole Bloom. I'm sure Carole Bloom's book will come in very handy during the Christmas baking season.
A few days ago, my good friend Sara over at I like to Cook had a great photo post of all the food she has taken pictures of the past few months with good intention to blog about but just hasn't quite gotten around to being able to do so. Sara, I know what you mean... I have folders of pictures I've been meaning to post about but just haven't found the time. So, I'm "borrowing" her idea of throwing them up and letting you see what I've been cooking the past few months.
About seven months ago, a co-worker and his wife asked me to bake for their baby shower. His wife is English and she was longing for real English Cream Tea Scones as well as fat and gooey cupcakes. So here are the English Cream Tea Scones from a recipe I got from my landlady when I was living in London
Next up is some very yummy bruschetta made with tomatoes, chives, cilantro, and basil from my summer garden and placed on top of a freshly baked baguette of sourdough from one of my starters. The recipe, believe it or not is from a Richard Simmons cookbook my grandmother had that somehow I ended up with after she died. Say what you will about Richard, this bruschetta is to die for...
While we are in my garden, here are the only fried green tomatoes I got all summer. It was an awful summer for tomatoes here in New England and the one week the tomatoes were perfect, I was traveling. But I have high hopes for next summer. I use the recipe from the Fried Green Tomatoes cookbook when I make these.
Until really recently I had four or five huge piles of cookbooks all over our house. In September, I unburied The Breath of a Wok which I had picked up some time ago. MBH loves stir-fry so we found a recipe for Stir Fried Pork that looked really good. It was! I served it on some Hong Kong Style Noodles we picked up in Chinatown.
One of the great things about being a food blogger is reading other people's food blogs and finding recipes that become star recipes in your own repertoire. In October, Lisa at La Mia Cucina posted about an apple cider jus for pork tenderloin she had found on Je Mange La Ville. Michelle of Je Mange la Ville calls this the "best sauce ever" and I have to totally agree. This was the best sauce ever! Not to mention the rosemary and scallion roasted baby new potatoes were a fine compliment to the pork loin.
And last but not least, I've been baking goodies for MBH to take into work. Here are some Frosted Fall Leaves. Just in time to practice my icing skills for Christmas cookies.
Well, guess we are all caught up! Time to go finish getting the Christmas baking list together. I'm starting tomorrow and need to get a battle plan together. Happy Weekend!
