Samosas

When our girls went to public school in the very ethnically diverse Los Angeles County, a school potluck was an international feast. I have a vivid memory of the Indian mother that brought the most incredible samosas to a kindergarten gathering. I've always wanted to try making them.

I followed the recipe from the new Gourmet Today. I can't find the exact recipe on line but this link is pretty close. I chose to make the classic potato and pea filling(which is vegan) but the spiced lamb sounds good too.

Next time I think I would roll the dough a little bit thinner.

Here they are waiting their turn to be fried.

The filling had a nice spicy kick, so we ate them with a bit of mango chutney.
Next time I make shrimp curry for a dinner party I think these would be lovely with cocktails!

Gourmet Today

I picked this up at Sam's club last week out of curiosity and then couldn't put it down, so it ended up in my basket. I heard a bit about it when it first came out, but I made the assumption it would be complicated food taken from the magazine. It's so approachable and really all about how we cook today. I can tell I will use this for years to come. It was listed at $40. and Sam's had it for $24.95.  I've been cooking from it since I brought it home.

The first thing that caught my eye was Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock. I've been looking for other good   uses for my pressure cooker besides beans. And the weather was calling for me to make some homemade chicken soup.

I gathered the ingredients: a small chicken, onions, celery, carrots, thyme, garlic, parsley stems, a bay leaf, salt  and peppercorns.

I put it all in the pressure cooker and added 7 cups of water. Brought it to a boil and then put the top on it.

Once it was hissing I turned it down to a simmer and in 15 minutes it was done!

I removed the chicken and picked all of the meat off it for the soup and had extra for chicken salad.
Then I strained everything else out and let the stock cool. After adding fresh carrots, celery, onion,
the chicken and egg noodles we had some comforting chicken noodle soup.

Vodka

See what happens with all of  these cold winter days. We start debating Vodka!
We both like a good martini occasionally.  Mark has taken to buying really low shelf Popov (must we let this budget thing effect our vodka?).  I say it's fine for him because he likes to mix in lots of sweet stuff. I however drink it straight up with an olive. Well if I had my way I'd drink only Grey Goose. Have you seen how beautiful that bottle is! And it's from France, need I say more. Anyway, I said I'd be fine with the lowest brand a restaurant would serve you which is usually something like Smirnoff. While we were at the liquor store I got another really cheap brand, Burnett's, which my dad has always liked.

Let the tasting begin:
 I set it up so he couldn't put the same kind in every glass and then say "fooled you". We  poured them together and then mixed them up, since the glasses were labeled.
I stand by the fact that Popov is very strong smelling with a chemical taste. I, however chose the smooth non chemically taste of Burnett's over Smirnoff. I'm a bottom shelf drinker after all. My low brow husband picked the Smirnoff as the smoothest.
At least we haven't started buying Popov and putting it through our Brita filter. ( Mom why does the water taste funny?)

My perfect size martini with the perfect olive ratio.
I hope the sun comes out soon........., oh look it's schnowing aagain.......

P.S. I still accept gifts of Grey Goose!

Chicken Pot Pie

On a cold rainy January Sunday I decided a homemade chicken pot pie would hit the spot. I followed the recipe from The Art & Soul of Baking. The book has fantastic bread recipes so of course the crust was wonderful.

You can check out the recipe here and look at their beautiful picture. Ok, so I don't have a chicken cookie cutter. I had to assure the children that our cat and pet bunny were still just fine. You use what you have, right (for the cookie cutters). I thought this would look better than the dog bone cutter.

I've dined at several asian restaurants recently. I tried the fairly new Tara Thai in Barracks Road. I didn't realize it was a chain, until I saw the interior. It's identical to the one in Richmond at Short Pump. The food was tasty but I had a bad stomach later!

A great new chinese place is A Taste of China on 29N. At lunch time, for $6.25 you get a soup, a roll, a noodle dish, a main course, rice and a little dessert. It's a lot of good, fresh tasting food for a deal. It's my new local favorite chinese. I wasn't so impressed from what else C-ville had to offer as far a chinese food.

Then I went to a birthday gathering at Thai 99.  I hadn't been in years and hadn't been crazy about the food but I was pleasantly surprised. I had a curry and it was great. A while back Mark and I had a wonderful lunch at Pad Thai. We really have some good Thai choices in Charlottesville.

I hosted a breakfast recently and served lox and bagels. I got a variety of bagels from Bodos, which I declare are as good as any bagel in NYC. I mixed up some herbed cream cheese and had some plain, then I made a platter of lox, red onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and capers. Yum.