tomatoes, tomatoes, everywhere tomatoes

Or at least some sort of juice, spluice, mess....
So, you take a few of these burners...

A few boxes of Tomatoes. This is how you buy a bushel these days. Not so romantic. Oh well, we got 2, crazy amateurs.

We blanched them, took the skins off, quartered them and boiled them again. Actually, my husband did all that before I came home from church.

With all the skins left over, he put it through a nifty puree machine to get the pulp. This was half a bushel.

My job was the jarring. Then boiled them for 90 minutes.

Here is a bit of the set up.

Nice and pretty. I hope we did it all right. It will be a tasty winter if we did.


Oh to have strength and better weather to do the rest. It was hotter and more humid than Hades last time. He wants to make sauce out of it.
have a good one,
Amanda

Fish Cakes Portuguese style

Two nights ago, we had salt fish for supper (salt cod). A common dish in both Newfoundland (me) and Portuguese (DH) cultures. In our house, that means fish cakes the next day!!!
It's a process much like the Croquetes here

Use leftover fish, potatoes, sometimes the leftover carrots and fresh chopped parsley. Apparently, this is important. An emergency market run was in order to get the parsley!

Mash it all up. We used the potato ricer for the potatoes. it made the cakes very "fluffy" compared to the usual mashed potatoes. nice. 2 spoons are used to shape the cakes into triangle shapes. You don't get to work alone in this kitchen. Always a little sous chef around.

With the fat fryer outside, (really, we don't eat that much fat fried food. just had 2 traditional treats in the same month. that's about all we fry, and hand cut fries) a little queue was getting started inside.

And leftovers the next day. It's hard to sit and eat a proper length meal with this type of food. When the first ones come out, there is a constant dipping into the bowl for more before we even get to the table. Everyone is full by the time we sit down!

We make fish cakes in Newfoundland also. But it is more chunky shaped in a hamburger patty shape and pan fried. My mama makes the best salmon cakes! yum.

And yes, they are even good cold!

Ciao,
Amanda

croquets Portuguese style

Every once in awhile, our meat leftovers get to be enough to make croquets. It's a treat to have this Portuguese tradition when my husband makes them.

We grind the meats, in this case, pork tenderloin and a nice pot roast. And don't forget the chourizo. It adds great flavour. Hand grinding makes it that much closer to the rustic days.

Add some kind of oil/ fat to the mixture. this time it was olive oil, but next time, it will be lard. It was kind of dry. 3 eggs for this amount, salt, pepper and some bread crumbs to hold it together.

Here's the shaping...

And rolling it in more bread crumbs.

then comes the deep frying part. I forgot to take pictures at this point, as there were some ready to be eaten. Distractions. Anyhow, here is the presentation picture of the leftovers. Not much. Many consumed at the table with coleslaw and polenta shaped in bricks and pan fried. The parmasean cheese melted deliciously.


have a good one,
Amanda

bit of a feast

Well, with New Year's we wanted to shake things up a bit. Not overindulging for Christmas makes it permissible to do it for the New Year.
yesterday, we had raclette. yum. DH prepared and cooked the food first so we could just warm it up and get the cheese melted.

In Sweden, it is common to make a dish of all the things and then shave the raclette cheese on top of that. here, we make little pans of it and put under the element.

roasted, toasted, cheesy goodness.


Because we ate a bit last night, we didn't get to have the fruit I intended as dessert. So today, we had chocolate Fondue. The quickest way to get fruit into the kids!

Like, it was half gone by the time I got my camera.

This guy had no part in it! No, he didn't like it at all. :}

And while we were overdosing on chocolate, DH had a loaf of bread in the oven. So after it cooled off enough to cut, we had a feast of lassy bread! This is a common way to eat homemade bread in Newfoundland, where I grew up. I remember visiting my grandmother in late summer and sneaking the warm bread with molasses on it so my mother wouldn't see. My grandmother would be in on it. That made it more special.
There is great debate on whether you should put the butter on first or the molasses. This piece has the lassy on first so it can soak into the bread and the butter on top so the lassy doesn't slide off. it's a science I tell ya.


Hmm, now I'm hungry again.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

felt food

Since I like working with felt and I like my husband's cooking, it is no coincidence that the two should meet.

Here is a pasta dinner, Ravioli and bowtie pasta with a bit of tomato sauce. I only had a little "whole wheat" pasta in my cupboard today. it will be added to my shopping list for next time.


And here is a hastily made sandwich.
Ham and cheese (I know, wrong colour cheese for holey swiss)



some tomatoes and cukes (again, hastily made)


and a few leaves of lettuce.


Put it altogether, a sandwich. I need to work on the bread. I have an idea how, just didn't have the time.


And now I'm full of pasta, cucumber, tomato soup and nice bad for you, white bread.

hhmmmm, dessert. I think I need to make some cookies or muffins! yes, muffins.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda