Dinner tonight - or last night.

We went to Taste of the Danforth with a former colleague this afternoon ...

this is a partial list of offerings

http://www.tasteofthedanforth.com/6tastlist.html

I went with bougatsa from Akropolis Pastries, 2 (count 'em, 2) lamb chops from Asteria, then back to Akropolis Pastries for spanakopita, and finally a lemon sorbet in a waffle cone from Caffe Demetre. I'm a happy lil piggy right now.

Setanta and Catherine had a whole pile of other stuff I couldn't keep up with. The dogs got the lamb chop bones to rev up their kibble broth when we got back. They are happy lil pigDogs now.

A few minutes ago I indulged in Maria's (bought frozen & made locally) spinach & ricotta ravioli with new (just sprouted) & snipped with scissors garlic chives, roasted chili flakes & freshly ground pepper in a butter "sauce". Ooooooooooh, that was very nice!

Went with the typical Sunday dinner again.....Roast shoulder of lamb,roast potatoes,spring greens,gravey and mint sauce,followed by bread and butter pudding.

black pasta

mama's leftover spaghetti bolognese (always tastes better the next day)

nice avatar mandarin

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G'day Mandarin and welcome to A2K - from the long standing (here) Sydneysider (and that always depends on alcohol intake!)

Tell us about yourself.. your profile reveals zip!

thanks, my avatar is ... special
i'm trying to compress this picture, but i failed because as i cut the width it grew in size.
i'm thinking a picture of my cat - and i'm from Australia. not too many Aussies here, i guess.

btw, never buy black pasta.
it tastes like dough, and is absolutely disgusting.
so much for gormet food

Is it black from octupuss or squid ink or something? That would put me off straight away. There are a couple of people from Auz here, think Dutchy is.

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i have absolutely no idea, but next time i'll stick to normal pasta. i think i was more interested in why it was black as to how it may possibly taste once i tried it.

Not many Aussies here - but the super-dang queen/guru of the place is a croweater type - well, comes from Adelaide, anyway.

Couple of others - that come and go. About a hardcore half dozen - but we fight above our weight - as in everything else!

Cat pix are always welcome - have a look at MsOlga's cat room.

Some of us from elsewhere like the aussies we know very much.
Not to get mushy.



So, I made this concoction of cooked arborio rice and drained and rinsed black beans, ..

well, backing up, when I cooked the rice I added pancetta, not my usual way as good pancetta shouldn't be simmered much less boiled. But this pancetta didn't taste right to me, so, I tossed it in the rice cookery.

So, we have rice and black beans (canned, rinsed), and some green chile salsa, and some chopped tomatoes, both of those last canned...
and I am looking at canned heaven.

What can I say, fresh ripe, lightly cooked.

I swear, I need to get back to bean soaking et al.




To summarize, I think fresh is good.

And finally, the dish wasn't bad. as ingredients blended. Still, fresh can only be better.
Usually.

half basil pesto and half parsley pesto with pasta and a beer.

I'm still digesting black beans and rice et al...
pass that beer...

Osso, I loveeee black beans mixed into food. I wish my family was as fond of them as I am...ummm. The dish sounds good....

Tonight, I had a Cajun Turkey/Pepperjack Cheese w/Mustard/Lettuce on White Bread & pickle on the side....lol Its too hot to cook anything heavy, it filled me up..was good, but would have been better to have had it on Wheat or Sour dough...lol


Osso, you might try this...it all comes out of a can, but its still good. Its served cold....mix all ingredients into one bowl...marinate, chill..and serve

1 can Black Beans (rinsed)
1 can of White Shoepeg Corn (drained)
1-2 Jalepeno (minced up)
1 cup of Purple Onion (diced finely)
1 large Tomato or 2 meduim ones (diced up)
1-2 stalks of green onion (chopped)
1/2 bell pepper (minced)
Cilantro (minced)
Salt/Pepper to taste
Italian Dressing (amount depends on amount of veggies) you want to use it for a marinade....

Let it soak, then use pita bread, tortillas, tortilla chips to dip it with....its called Cowboy Cavier. I just love it.......sometimes I put more corn in it...I play around with the amounts, its all in your taste, you can leave stuff out if you don't want something, or add something different. Sometimes I leave out the fresh tomatoes and jalepenos...and put a can or two of Rotel in its place, depending on the season...good tomatoes are hard to get around here, depending on the time of year...

I use most of those items all the time, shivers, but not in this sequence, and I tend to go toward basil instead of cilantro. Not that I don't like cilantro, but that I seem to have nerve endings for basil. That recipe sounds good.

I just bought some damn white bean dip thing in a jar that sounded good, not your ordinary potato chip aisle bean dip... but still, boring.

Phooey, I know how to do this stuff myself. Just that as a single person, I don't need pounds of bean dip...

<passing beer to Osso>

....brief interruption to the flow of the conversation:

Right now I'm roasting a free range (I certainly hope it is! It'd better be!That's what I paid for!) chicken with potatoes, carrots & pumpkin ... which will be accompanied later by peas & gravy.

My cat is being driven absolutely crazy by the cooking aromas wafting through the place! But she has already had her dinner, so she's not going to get any! (Fat chance! )


.... please continue your conversation now ....

^ mmmmmm roast chicken.......drooling.........

I had a horrible sloppy Shepherd's Pie oven ready meal. Bleurrrggghhh.

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