Lent, Week Three

Buds are on the trees, the leaves are almost here. We had a few days of wonderful sunshine, but it turned to a miserable gray drizzle by Wednesday. It is amazing how much the weather affects my mood, and so strange how at the beginning of autumn I’m longing for cozy rainy days but in spring I detest them. Luckily the sunshine returned by the end of the week to brighten a walk with friends. I had felt in a bit of a slump coming into this week. Meal planning, which I normally find so engaging I really have to stop myself from going on a month out, did not hold my attention. Cooking truly felt like a chore. But I feel myself rising out of it again, thankfully. I attribute this in part to the utter joy of reading Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbridger. I am kicking myself a bit for taking this long to get to it, but I also think it is exactly what I needed right now.

Sunday, a simple roast chicken. We wanted to start investing a bit in the meat we eat now that it is so infrequent. And really wanted to test the difference between a grocery store bird and one raised on a better, local farm. The difference was indeed apparent! I kept it simple and seasoned the night before with salt and pepper, and placed a few cloves of garlic and a wedge of lemon in the cavity. Served with roast potatoes and oregano and spinach salad. Delicious and so satisfying. A roast chicken is honestly one of my favorite foods, and this was just so obviously better in flavor. The leftover meat is going into Monday’s dinner and the bones into stock for it as well.

Monday is white bean chili, though in actuality chicken chili as it had a smattering of the leftovers of Sunday’s roast. The weather turned on us in the afternoon so this was perfect for a drizzly afternoon! We had some garlic bread alongside, normally I’d make cornbread but it was calling out to us when we went to pick up a few things after the gym.

Tuesday was a Kidney Bean and Mushroom Bourguignon, bean burgundy if you will. This was so cozy and so quick (if using canned beans it takes around 25 minutes, chopping included). I really liked the flavour but would chop the shallots into smaller pieces next time. It is a really cozy and hearty dish, and I know it will pop up again in our autumn and winter rotation for sure.

Wednesday was supposed to be a chickpea pasta from Simple by Ottolenghi. But I just could not be bothered. A majority of the recipes from that book seem to have this effect on me. I am planning on doing a review of the book but want to have actually cooked some more from the book. I feel really terribly about this, as he is so well-loved! I am hoping it is just this particular book that doesn’t work for me. Anyway, we ended up trying a pizza place that has been on our radar, Matto. We tried one with an artichoke base that had eggplant on it (outstanding) and the other we tried was a margherita that we added broccoli rabe to (also amazing).

Thursday we moved up fish Friday as we had plans to go out for Friday. We had mussels cooked in a golden ale with chips and a salad. It was my first time cooking mussels (tremendously easy) but I was so nervous I was going to give us food poisoning, but everything went well. Though I don't think ale was the best choice, not bad but I prefer cider or white wine. The ale was supposed to be a vague nod to St. Patrick’s Day as corned beef was obviously out of the question.

Friday we went to Paradise Palms for vegan burgers and tiki drinks. We have been missing Hotel Albatross in Seattle tremendously lately and needed some fun tropical drinks in our life, and wanted to scope out the place to maybe bring my cousin and her husband this April. It was good! I did feel a bit out of place, as it is on Potterrow and very popular with students. The food was good but very, very messy. But a very fun place overall and definitely scratched the itch.

Saturday we had a somen noodle soup vaguely based on this one from Just One Cookbook. I say vaguely because we had forgotten to prep dashi and so muddled through with a kombu and mushroom stock cube combo. I have a tendency to forget how layered Japanese soups are and so mine are often sad, slapdash ghosts of what they should be. But Matt was at the helm this evening and he is a much more by-the-book kind of a cook, so this turned out absolutely delicious.

Cherry blossoms in Craigmillar Castle Park.