Dinner tonight - or last night.

sorry oss went completely over my head.

Congratulations, dadpad!
You win the $1000 prize for being the 50th person to confuse margo & msolga!
Who knows why this happens so constantly? Beats me.
~

I know why, as I mixed you up early, and still do slightly. Two sharp women whose names start with M from Australia...

Aaaaaaaaaaaah! So that's it, osso!

I honestly don't mind, though I know it drives margo mad! :wink:

Dinner was a Chili's chicken ceasar salad in Houston before a long flight home. Glad I ate because there was nothing for me when I finally did make it to my house.

sorry margo ............and msolga.

ps send prize c/- the elphus foundation.

Last night, Setanta made a potato-veg soup - starting with the water the asparagus had been cooked in the night before (and the asparagus stem cuttings).

Tonight that soup is being further transmogrified with the addition of cheddar smokie sausages. Yummmmmm.

baked portobello mushrooms stuffed with real crabmeat and topped with provolone and tomato from our new neighborhood Publix. It was delicious. With that we had a side salad of simple lettuce and grape tomatoes and wholewheat rolls.

Homemade guacamole and chips followed by a bunch of cookies after my daughter's orchestra concert

thanks...they're going in the master book

chicken breast marinated in raspberry beer and maple syrup (SO good!), spinach gnocchi and spring salad with beets, asiago cheese, and walnuts.

I made a soup tonight. I sauteed onions and fennel in olive oil, made a roux (I'm loving the roux), tossed in a little each of chicken and vegie broth and some swiss chard. Super easy, super yummy!

That sounds easy-peasy & quite delicious, k! I love fennel in soups & other concoctions. (Not so crazy about it raw, though.) I also love chard (silverbeet in Oz).

By roux, you meant adding a little flour & mixing into the oil & onion mixture to thicken? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here? (I think I'll make this. Just getting the details right.)

MsOlga, you and I should cook dinner together some time!

I don't know much about how to do roux properly. Here's what I did do. I used only olive oil (no butter), sauteed both the onions and fennel (and parsely and cilantro) before adding the flour (yes, you had the right tree). Toss in enough flour to soak up the remaining oil and let it cook there until sort of elastic (if you use butter, let the flour brown slightly). Then add your broth and chard (silverbeat is a nice name!). From there, you just let the chard cook to your liking.

Tell me how it goes!

Thanks, k!

Yes we should cook togeteher some time! I love your cooking!

A couple of extra questions, if I may?: Do you use the stems of the chard, or just the leaves? And just a smidgeon of the chard, so the soup is sort of flecked with it, or more, to make it thicker?

Oh! And parsely & cilantro (coriander here! ) Perfect, perfect!

Olive oil, rather than butter for me! Whenever possible!

I made the mistake of ordering the shepard's pie at the Pannekoeken Huis.

The first and last time I shall dine in that particular chain.

Not nice, Gus?

What was wrong with it? A bit dog foody?

MsOlga, I used enough chopped leaves just to add contrast (and to use up some wilting chard), and I don't use the stems. Chard has that earthy-beety taste, so less is probably better with mild fennel. If we listed coriander ina recipe here, most would assume to use the ground seeds. Coriander leaf might work, but most know it as cilantro.

Gus, that's a MN chain, eh?

Thanks, k. That's good to know: coriander seeds. Gotcha.

Yes, come to think of it, chard steams would too assertive to use in a recipe like that. They'd completely overwhelm the (delicious!) taste of the fennel.

I don't use the stems much, either, though I keep reading (in cookbooks)that the French & Italians consider it very tasty! And often cook it seperately, as a side vegetable on it's own. The taste isn't all that appealing to me unless I'm using very young, thin stemmed chard.

I'll probably cook your soup next week sometime. I'll let you know how it goes.