Dec 31 2009
One Year On
It’s been a year since I finished The Challenge. I spent lots of time last year saying ‘this will definitely be cooked again’- so, one year on, what have we gone back to?
- Red Prawn and Mango Curry -a great many meals inspired by this, as well as ‘proper’ repeats.
- Caramel Croissant Pudding – about three times! Including just last night, in celebration of the acquisition of some bourbon.
- Rhubarb and Custard Gelato – when I found some pink rhubarb, and I even blogged about it!
- Steak Slice with Lemon and Thyme -at least once!
- Flourless Chocolate Brownies, and
- Hot Chocolate Sauce -when my cousin and her man came for dinner. Very well received :o)
- Goujons of Sole with Dill Mayonnaise- I am fairly sure we did this but perhaps without any dill. But I remember frying!
- Mango Split
- Home-made Instant Pancake Mix, – absolutely loads. It is our standard recipe for ‘breakfast’ pancakes now. We even did it for D’s parents and Granny on Christmas morning this year.
- Blueberry Syrup for Pancakes- sometimes, but not always, when we make the above. Ridiculously easy, ridiculously good!
- Maple Chicken ‘n’ Ribs- still can’t get them as sticky as I want. Still meaty and good.
- Moonblush Tomatoes
- High-Speed Hamburger with Fast Fries- fast fries, certainly. Not sure about the burgers.
- Tuna Steaks with Black Beans- yup, although we couldn’t get pinto beans in Leith, funnily enough!
- Nectarine and Blueberry Galette-right here!
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae- well the sauce anyway. Tis gorgeous!
- Chowder with Asian Flavours
- Rapid Ragù- winter warming fare.
- Jumbleberry Crumble
- Doughnut French Toast
- Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies- they don’t hold their own weight though, so are not to be advised for taking to parties!
- Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon- we haven’t re-cooked these. But D bought smoked salmon today. And the night is yet young!
- Duck Breasts with Pomegranate and Mint- again, I have not yet re-cooked. But I do have two duck breasts sitting in the freezer waiting specifically for the right occasion.
- Ice Cream Cake- for a party, it went down very well! So fast, in fact, that I got no pictures of the finished product!
- Mexican Hot Chocolate 1 2 Properly- Essentially whenever we have any kahlua!
- Rocky Road Crunch Bars- a LOT
- Sesame Peanut Noodles- quick, easy and very satisfying. Plus once you’ve bought beansprouts you might as well make a massive amount.
- Snowball- repeated a couple of times and then it dawned on me, the reason I didn’t rate it was that I don’t like lemonade! How obvious! Dougal has since introduced me to drinking advocaat with ginger ale. Much better!
- Festive Fusilli- is only festive if you serve it at a feast. Otherwise is sunblush tomato, vodka and mascarpone pasta!
- Marshmallow Crispy Squares- at least once. I needed to use the rice crispies up! And they are scrummy.
- Garlic Oil- eventually it dawned on me to use a food processor to cut the garlic up. We need a new bottle now, in fact.
- Salade Niçoise- even with the inclusion of anchovies!
17% repeat rate. I predicted at least 10 at dinner tonight, so I suppose I’m not wrong. Looking through the list tonight it is clear that I like making sweet things! I think the recipes we repeated were probably more representative of low-faff rather than those recipes we were most excited about last year. This might be because the biggest surprises came from recipes I would never normally have bothered with before…and which apparently I am not inclined to go back to! A revision of the list tonight was good though- now I have some fresh ideas for 2010!
