it's another potato sunrise

this week i made this curry for lunch. two days in a row.  it is going to become a staple, methinks. it is easy, fast, and intoxicating. imagine this: golden onion smell commingling with coriander, cumin, cayenne, cardamom, and fresh ginger... and that is just the beginning. enter tomato paste and chickpeas and coconut milk. i might have been caught sneaking spoonfulls of leftovers...and someone else might have finished off the second batch...  clearly this is a sign.  we are hooked.  and since i regularly have chickpeas, coconut milk, and onions at my disposal...well...

so delicious.

also this week, i made two kinds of vegetarian sausage. first up, a spicy sausage from the PPK for us to eat with bell peppers and pesto rosso.

later in the week, i made a sage apple sausage for dinner -- a favourite. this time i served the sausage breakfast style, along with a twice baked breakfast potato. since the sausage recipe calls for mashed potatoes, it felt like a perfect match.

two potatoes were baked in advance. then i lopped the top off and scooped out the guts.


i put down a layer of mushrooms, some fresh parsley, and some gruyere cheese.

next, i cracked an egg inside the potato cave and shoved it in the oven at 175/350 for what seemed like forever. in reality, it was only 25 minutes.

and dinner.


bon app!

salad, sammies, and something tasty for dinner

the bounty this week from christian's parent's garden was frisée lettuce and chard!

i love salad. this one, in particular, was delightful.
i used:
a nectarine
2 carrots
a bunch of frisée lettuce
some dried cranberry
2 boiled eggs

and for the dressing, i combined mustard, vinegar, honey, and olive oil.



these days, it's like switzerland remembered there wasn't much of a summer, so it better get down to business and provide one.  it has been quite warm! lausanne is on a huge hill (the elevation ranges from 372 m at the lake to 929.4 m at the top of the hill), with lots of small hills, so walking around town these days makes one hot and sweaty and ready for something cool an crunchy.

this salad beautifully combined the sweet of the fruit with the bite of the lettuce. plus it was pretty.  i love the colours.

the plan was to sprinkle some pistachio nut on top, but truth be told, i forgot.  until i was halfway through.  and by then, i was not going to run into the kitchen and shell a handfull of nuts to crush to enjoy.

while we were in the airport in madrid, the unthinkable happened--i ate something.... tasty!! can you believe it?! i still cant.   it was a lovely tuney fish sandwich with raisins in it.  and that got me thinking.  know what goes with raisins? apple.  know what goes with apple? curry.  and my lunch was born.

ive always been a bit of a monotonous tuney fish maker.  mustard, dill, fish, yogurt (or occasionally mayo).  my routine changed a little after living in china because adam always made tuney melts, so that became a standard for me.   but still, it was pretty routine.  not saying it's not delicious, but still.  so when i bit into the sandwich in spain and there were raisins, i was surprised and delighted.  this sandwich, inspired by that sandwich, did not disappoint.

the bread here is awesome, but the "toast" isnt. "toast" is sandwich bread. it doesnt matter how many times i've protested that "toast" isnt toast until it's toasted to no avail. if you want a big sandwich, you have to buy the american "XL" toast. it's white processed junk. i am happy to know there are whole grain sandwich breads here. because yuk.


i am a sucker for something crunchy with this kind of sandwich so i munched on some dijon potato chips the mister bought and, i think, forgot about.

after mixing the shredded apple, raisins, drained fish, yogurt, and curry, i let it all hang out before i assembled the sandwich. i wanted the flavours to get a chance to know each other.

i'm glad i did.

i'm also glad i had some swiss chard!! or, as it's called here, chard.  since we had some big healthy leaves, i decided to stuff and bake them.


i used:

5 mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
lovage
goat cheese
1/4 cup uncooked red quinoa
lemon slices


i cooked and fluffed some red chard (i used a mushroom stock instead of water), chopped the mushrooms and garlic and chard stems, minced a handful of lovage, and combined that all with fresh goat cheese.

a lemon was sliced and the bottom layer of my roasting pan lined with the fruit.  these slices serced as a way to keep the rolls from hanging out on the bottom.  lemon stilts.

i chopped off the chard stems earlier, when i was preparing the mixture, and cut the leaves into a lily pad shape.  basically, i cut a v out of the bottom, removing the stem.

to make the rolls, i lay out the leaf and crossed one side over the other, to get rid of the V , plunked down some of the mixture towards the top, and rolled it, folding the sides in.


each roll was balanced on the lemons.  once the pan was full, i added enough mushroom stock to cover the lemons, but not saturate the rolls.

these were incredibly filling.  i was so stuffed after one, i wrapped my other one in plastic wrap and ate it for lunch later in the week.



i had a tomato that needed to be used and some room in th pan, so i gutted and filled the tomato with some leftover quinoa.

the mister made himself a seared steak to have with the chard

next up: the mojo experiments have begun!!

Bon Appétit