"What I Cooked Today" Day 128

Today Jochem stayed at home while I worked, so Jochem did the cooking. He made something that he has some very good memories of: fish & chips. Apparently he had this heavenly fish & chips once while in England, and he's been dying to have it again ever since. So today, he tried. Of course we used Jamie Oliver to do this (although, I must say, these recipes are not his but Brendan Fyldes' of the London's Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill). We ended up having some fish, some chips and some mushy peas. Greasy, but good!

Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 12 August/September 2010

"What I Cooked Today" Day 127

A gal (a working gal at that!) can't be culinary every day. And, what with having cooked Thai curry from scratch yesterday and my boyfriend forsaking me for his friends on his day off (scandalous, I know), I decided not so much to cook but to instead:

- tear off the wrapper from an oven pizza and put said pizza in a pre-heated oven;
- grate some Parmesan cheese;
- tear up some basil;
- pour some spicy olive oil;
- cut up pizza into quarters.

It's Monday.

"What I Cooked Today" Day 126

True, I've only been working my office job for a week now, but one of the things that I love about it already is that I don't have to spend my weekends doing homework or planning classes anymore - instead, I can do other things. Things that I really love and care for. Like cooking. Today my parents came over and they asked Jochem and me when our love for cooking started. We found it a difficult question to answer. I guess it's grown so gradually that we can't pinpoint it to an exact moment. But cooking we love, and cooking we did today. Good friend Danielle was kind enough to send me some Thai curry recipes and we tried one today. We made a penang fish curry with monkfish. We even made our very own penang curry paste and we bought jasmin rice, spicy shrimp crackers and Thai beer (the downtown Asian market made fortunes on me yesterday). It was quite delicious and I'm glad mom and dad also liked it as much as they did. I can't wait to try another curry!

Source: Cooking Know-How by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough

"What I Cooked Today" Day 125

I wish that I could say that I did NOT have left-over artichoke risotto AGAIN - that I was somehow NOT compeletely and utterly demotivated to cook after having sent off the boyfriend to work for a late shift for the sixth day this week and that I ended up cooking something absolutely breathtaking and delicious, you know, JUST FOR ME.

That, however, would be a lie.

Now, I have a movie to catch with Bic. Two of my friends kept raving about Inception and I, honestly, don't think I would've succeeded in convincing Bic to see Sex and the City 2 again. I just hope it's really as good as they said and, well, not too scary...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 124

Today is Friday and I finished my first week at my new job. Quite successfully, I might add. I was too tired to cook anything new, so I just had left-over artichoke risotto again. Mmm...

"What I Cooked Today" Day 123

Today I cooked a batch of artichoke risotto to last Jochem and me through the next couple of days of work, and I am happy to announce that after cooking undercooked and underseasoned dishes two days in a row, today I finally had a winner. I just couldn't get over the whole idea of using mint in risotto...

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 122

Has anyone noticed that I have certain favorite recipes that keep coming back? Because the food I made today has been made at least twice before in the 122 days that I've kept this part of my blog. I made the good ol' classis pasta with leek and creme fraiche. The great thing about this dish is that you can cook a tasty meal with hardly any ingredients in no time - today, for example, Jochem only had to buy leek because everything else we already had and I can't have spent more than 20 minutes on dinner (including cutting things up, which, let's be honest, takes up most time, which is something they never show on TV). I must say, however, that working all day and having to cook by myself has harmed my ability to season my food and both today's and yesterday's meals were a little bland. Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow.

Source: The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 121

After another GREAT day at work I came home to an 'empty' (+ pets) apartment and made myself some boiled potatoes with peas and mint, added some left-over chicken and watched a new episode of 'Grenzeloos Verliefd' (which I can't be bothered to translate right now) while the heavy Dutch rain come down on my old roof and Manchego sat in my lap whilst, in the process, I forgot to take a picture. Oops... Better luck next time!

Source: Happy Days with the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

"What I Cooked Today" Day 120

Today was a GREAT day (besides having to saying goodbye to my American friend at 6 'o clock in the morning, which was nothing short of tragic since I probably won't see her for another two years). But today was my first day at my new job and I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit. Turns out that my job description is 'assistant office manager' (no, not 'assistant TO the office manager') and I had a great first day. When I came home after nine hours things got even better - my beautiful man was cooking a dish in the kitchen that I'd been longing to have for a while and finally had an excuse to make: a surf & turf (Source: Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver). I don't really know what surf & turf means, but it consisted of lobster, tournedos and homemade potato salad. It was kind of out there, but I figured that finally having a 'real job' (as my brother would say) is worth celebrating, even on your ordinary Monday night. For dessert we made Oreo milkshakes (Source: Jamie Magazine Issue 12 August/September 2010). What a delicious meal!

"What I Cooked Today" Day 119

Today I will not be cooking because, in honor of Danielle's last day in Utrecht/the Netherlands/Europe we are going out to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants: the Theehuis Rhijnauwen. This rustic pancake house is located at the edge of the city near a forest and we have very good memories biking there on a cold winter evening to have us some well-deserved pancakes. Here we go again!