Finally a walk, seafood pasta, brownie accolades

Today the cooking was about pasta, penne, to be exact, with a lovely sauce, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, knob of butter, parmigian rind. And onions, shrimp and scallions. Blue cheese sprinkles.

It was soooo good. I do like shrimp with practically anything. I'd skip the cheese next time though, too many competing flavors. But no complaints. And enough for several more meals.  

I managed a complete walk, tired coming home but I made it. No pictures, really quiet day for birds and animals. Very pleased I had enough energy.

Last year this time was a different story

I also found today that this is the total germination of the two beds of memorial snowdrops. Clearly since this lone one is flowering, there's little to no hope of a sudden growth spurt from the dozens of others.

Not acceptable. I've written to Breck to request a refund. Then I'll buy some shrub or plant locally and start again. This happens, nobody's fault, probably frozen in transit with no protection.

Gary came bursting in, this morning, all thrilled with the brownies, which he found when he came home yesterday. I gather he'd eaten one before he got his coat off! When he found out there were two more batches in his future, he was a happy guy.

A convo later with Paul Couchman, the Regency Chef, on Twitter, reminded me that seasalt goes well with chocolate.

So I sprinkled a bit on this afternoon's brownies with a cup of tea, great reminder. Chic!

I checked on my library holds, including this one

It's getting excellent reviews from a range of critics, and I've heard part of the audio, really good speaker. So we'll see.

I'd like to try recipes from Meghan's Together: Our Community Cookbook, but it's backordered everywhere. I think I'd like some of that food, Indian, and Middle Eastern. But I can wait. 

I'm interested in his story,  as a survivor of sibling abuse myself, rather than as a current gossip meme. Please tread softly.

If anyone's seen and cooked from the cookbook, I'd like to hear more.

Happy day everyone! May your energy fit your ambition today. Well, every day, but right now today's the issue.

Photo AC 

Marcella, Chowder and Me

This morning unleashed a storm of cooking since the chicken thighs I'd put in the fridge to thaw couldn't wait any longer, so I cut them into small pieces, and sauteed two thighs then added in the Marcella Hazan simple tomato sauce I cooked and froze the other day

and the other two thighs I sauteed ready to use with the plum sauce I made and froze.   

Six meals out of four chicken thighs.  I did add a chunk of thyme pesto to the simple chicken, and oregano pesto to the tomato sauce one, and a sprinkling of lemon zest on top to finish.  I never buy chicken breast, since I find it dry and not so interesting.

The other seasonings were equally simple:  fresh ground black pepper, shake of kosher salt, garlic, onions.

And lunch was a bowl of the seafood chowder I made the other day and never mentioned in here, very good, using part of the seafood mix I'd included in a seafood pasta dish I was living on last week, I added in some pieces of flounder to the chowder, too.  And a piece of homebaked bread to go with.

There was also some pasta left over from the seafood p. dish, so I added it into the chowder instead of the usual potato.   This is a Manhattan style chowder, more or less, a forgettaboudit one, not the elite New England style chowder.  And there are several more meals of it in the freezer.  In fact I've used up all my freezer containers at this point.

Fortunately I've trained myself to remember to label the containers, since the plum sauce, the tomato sauce, and the chowders all look very much alike when frozen.  I like having plenty of choice in the freezer since, though I do like to cook, I don't always like to cook, and do like a day off here and there.

And while all this was going on, I was rising a batch of bread dough, flours were ap, wholewheat white and oat.  The last batch was heavy in pulse food flours, lentils, split peas, and though very good, was a bit crumbly to cut.  It toasted nicely though. 

The original recipe is from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, which I swear by, for great artisanal bread with minimal effort. You'll note all the little scribbled reminders on the favorite page.  And since I got the tip from Pepin about putting the dough into a nonstick big casserole, and found what a wonderful crust it gave, far better than the nonstick loaf pans I'd used, that's been my go-to pot.  You mix the dough up in it, rise in it, bake in it, and pop it out at the end, dust off the pan and it's ready for the next time.

In case you wonder how a lady living alone manages to get through all this food, I do have friends who also benefit from it, and Handsome Son can always count on a decent meal here.  So there's that.  But I'm happy to dine alone.  It's good company!