I swear I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet! I have just be uber busy. Life is hellish right now with Miss Saigon, mid-terms, work, and money. This whole being a grown up thing is strange. I turned twenty 3 weeks ago. How strange that I am an adult. I can no longer tell people I am technically and teenager. Crazy, yes. I know. That is why I didn't cook then. I didn't cook the week before because I was visiting American Fork. But I did cook the week after, February 28. And I made food from 3 countries! As I posted earlier, February is Elsa month. So I celebrated my heritage by cooking a side dish from Russia (possibly where my dad is from. . . we aren't sure because he is adopted but he certainly looks Russian), a main course from Norway, and a dessert from England.
The Russian dish I made was Pskovsky Hot Vinegret. It was GOOD. It was made with turnip, potato, carrot, mushroom, and vegetable stock. Pretty simple and straightforward. The only problem was the turnip. None of us (Alexa, Justin, Spencer, I) had ever eaten a turnip and we were scared. I kept thinking about Wallace and Grommit, which really is beside the point but that was my thought process. We smelled it first and it smelled like a dirty sour potato. Yum. But I stayed true to the recipe and added it in. Turns out Turnips are delicious. It added this really earthy flavor to the veggies and I quite enjoyed it.
Next up we have Norwegian apple pork chops with caraway seeds. I loved this! And that is saying a lot because I hate pork chops. Now to be honest, I was planning on making a fish dish for Norway because that is pretty much all they eat but I chickened out. I hate fish. Always have. Can't eat it unless it's covered in batter and fried and smothered with tartar sauce. So I wasn't prepared to make that leap. Perhaps in the future. But these chops were another huge step for me. I seared the meat and then put it in a pan with sliced apples, apple juice, and lots of caraway seeds. Now I know the seeds kind of look like fruit flies but I loved the seeds and so did Spencer. They had a kind of floral and musky and I don't know what flavor but they were tasty. Alexa on Justin on the other hand. . . not huge fans. Alexa doesn't like rye bread and caraway seeds just happen to be the main flavoring component of rye bread. But the combination of the meat with the fruit was splendid and I would like to have it again.
English trifle! YUM! This dessert will always be good no matter who makes it! And I made it so it was especially good. I made my own lady fingers and I took a picture of one as proof. I also made my own custard and my own whipped cream. I did not make my own raspberry jam though which would have been awesome. I made little mini trifles for everyone because I don't have a big fancy trifle dish. I layered the lady fingers with raspberry jam spread on them, the custard, defrosted frozen raspberries and whipped cream, refridgerated it and voila! Dessert.
Good week. Tasty food. I should stop getting so behind. I have to do two countries this week because of another trip to American Fork. Blarg, so much work. But I love doing this project and it's not a chore. Cooking relaxes me. It is my escape from all the aforementioned woes of daily adult life.
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