Another birthday has come, and according to server time, has already gone. But I've got a few minutes left of it to record what I did today for posterity. Normally, I wouldn't do this since I did very little. However I made dinner tonight with a few E2 recipes and thought I should record the menu and how everything came out.
- We had:
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Salad
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Beer battered fish and shrimp
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bread
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Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream
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and drank prosecco, although one person chose to go with beer.
The salad was simple. I was going to do something with avocado, but a ripe avocado was not to be found. So instead: Red leaf lettuce, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, scallions, sectioned blood oranges. The dressing was blood orange juice, lime juice, scallions, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I had a hard boiled egg taking up space in the fridge, so I cut it into wedges and added it.
The fish was great. The batter was just enough for 2lbs. of dover sole and just over a pound of large shrimp. WAAAAAY too much food for 3 people, but just think of the fish sandwiches tomorrow! Lometa's recipe leads to an unbelievably light, crisp batter. Nothing glutenous or dense about it. So very yummy. I let the oil get too hot at one point, but otherwise, it was easy enough. Oooh, I do love beer battered fish! Must do this again.
Lometa's tartar sauce is delicious as well. I didn't really measure the ingredients. 1 tbsp. of chopped gherkin pickle is, after all, about 1 pickle! I eyeballed everything, and it was perfect. I do love a recipe where you can do that!
Nothing much to say about the bread. I bought a loaf of freshly baked multigrain from the supermarket and stuck it in the oven while I was frying the fish. Warm bread is a necessity, not a luxury.
Mmmm, sneff's sticky toffee pudding is really really good. Absolutely massive bang for cooking effort buck. I baked it in a 10'' round cake pan because I don't have a 10''x8'' pan and even with my poor math ability, I figured out that the volume was within an acceptible range.
The 'pudding' is a moist cake, with sweet, chewy dates adding little bursts of Sweet! Sticky!. It isn't, however, that sticky or that toffee, until one adds that egregious toffee sauce. I can imagine eating the 'pudding' straight, as a nice snack. We had it tonight with a side of vanilla ice cream. Mmmm....
The sauce. Oh, my the sauce. There is so much of it! A whole quart left! My family tends to go easy on the sweets, so we've only used a few tablespoons of it. I imagine it is just killer all by itself over ice cream and will store it in the fridge for just that purpose. I used dark brown sugar, and it's absolutely lovely.
Bought myself a new betta today. $3. White body, frosty blue fins, and intelligent black eyes. Also, received a check from the parental units. Presents are nice, and cash presents are even nicer since they and I both know what I want, and they and I both know I can get it cheaper and more easily than they. Amazon.com here I come!
yclept sings softly to herself: ''Happy birthday to meeeee, happy birthday to meeeee, happy birthday dear mee-eee, happy birthday tooo meeeeee....''