Samoan Coconut Rice with Ginger Pesto

This was a simple yet flavorful dish I made when I was in St. Louis a few months back. These recipes were adapted from the book Sam Choy's Polynesian Kitchen. The coconut rice was super easy to make - the rice is cooked in a mixture of water + coconut milk - I used about 1/2 a can and a couple of pinches of salt. I also sprinkled a pinch of nutmeg when the rice was cooking. For the ginger pesto, I ground together the following: 1/4 cup of cilantro and mint leaves, 1 inch thick piece of ginger, a handful of walnuts, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 small shallot - chopped, a tsp of olive oil, salt and pepper and some water. We had this as a side dish with our dinner.

Samoan Coconut Rice with Ginger Pesto

Playing with Yarn

Though I learnt to crochet years back, I hadn't been working diligently on any projects or finishing the one Afghan I started. Recently, with the inspiration from the fund raiser, I have been working with the yarn I have accumulated and making neck warmer/ scarfs. The rose colored one is the neck warmer I am sending to one of my friends. I also added three buttons to it and it is made from a wool / acrylic blend yarn. The middle lavender with silver strand one is more lengthier and made of a acrylic/rayon/nylon yarn. The most recent one in awesome gold/orange is actually made with two different skeins of yarn - I just pulled them together through the hook. 

The first two have the same 'Dew drops' pattern and the last one has a 'Tipsy cluster' pattern. The stitches are from the book "The complete photo guide to crochet" by Margaret Hubert. I have loaned this book from the library, but it is so good, especially with pictorial representation on the stitches that the book is making it to my wishlist! I might have made more progress on my crocheting if I had come across this book before. But right now, I seriously wish I could pick up skills with MATLAB as fast as I can with yarns & hooks :)

Blitva from Croatia

Croatian Blitva was so easy to make and so delicious, it is going to be a recurring dish in my kitchen, especially as I look forward to using all the left over greens in the garden. I followed the recipe from Maninas: Food Matters. In a small pan, I sautéed chopped potatoes in olive oil, added a little water and let them cook till soft. I used two kinds of potatoes as you can see in the picture. To this, I added chopped rainbow swiss chard and 3 cloves of minced garlic. Seasoned with salt and pepper and once the chard has also cooked, mixed in a couple of tbsp of crushed peanuts. We had this with rice and Eritrean Alitcha Birsen for dinner!

 
I am sending this dish to the food blogging event Dish Name Starts with: B, hosted by Akila's Kitchen.

Brussels Sprouts Au Gratin

For Blog Bites #8, Nupur of One Hot Stove has challenged the food bloggers to come up with new ideas for one dish meals. I love one pot meals and for this BB8, I have modified Kevin's recipe from Closet Cooking and inspired by a couple of other recipes, made a one dish meal with Brussels sprouts. Not only do I like one pot meals, I use only one pot (in this case a pan) to make them. I am so glad to have these Acroflam pans that can go from the microwave to the stove to the oven to the table! 

I started with shredding a few parsnips, given by a friend from her CSA box. I also chopped up an onion, and halved roasted chestnuts. In my pan I initially boiled the Brussels sprouts for a few minutes. I saved them and in the pan heated up a tsp of butter + olive oil and sauteed the onions and parsnips. I removed these from the pan and heated a tbsp of butter till it was brown. I made a simple sauce by adding flour to the butter and whisking it with milk. Then came about a tsp of veggie broth powder and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg. Into this sauce went the Brussels sprouts, onions and parsnip along with salt and pepper. I also added the roasted chestnut and some leftover plain cooked rice that I had. I also added one whisked egg to this mixture. Topped it off with bread crumbs and a mixture of cheddar cheese + raw cow's milk cheese. Then the pan went into the over preheated at 400F for a good 25 minutes. The au gratin was delicious served with a dollop of Greek yogurt!

Krazy Kiddo

Off? Are you sure recliners are not for my comfort?

The Great Salt Lake

I spent last week in Utah, mostly at Snowbird attending the 17th Annual Conference of the Wildlife Society. After the conference at which I had a great time reconnecting with friends, getting inspired by some of the talks, great conversations with my advisor and arguing about diversity! On Friday I traveled in Salt Lake City and my last stop before my flight back home was the Great Salt Lake State Park. I went to Saltair drive near the airport. The water level was pretty low and I had to walk a little to the water's edge. The day was gorgeous and it was wonderful being outside. I did taste the water and felt it was saltier than sea water :) Here are a couple of my shots!