The theme this week has been ‘food that goes with rice’. I made a Cuban ropa vieja tonight – SQ actually liked this one (he doesn’t generally like ‘stews’). I need to focus more on making dishes that require my complete attention, otherwise I just stand in the kitchen and snack on anything I can find. Tonight was no exception. The beef and peppers was in a slow cooker all day, so I had almost nothing to do but make some rice. I stood around drinking a Negra Modelo and popping Butterfinger bites into my mouth. I’m generally not a big fan of slow cookers…I think they slow cook the taste out of most things, though the fancy All Clad version I have has been very nice to me. I made this dish with a flank steak, and was pleasantly surprised at how nicely it shredded up at the end of 8 hours braising. And my house smelled like oregano and cumin all day, which is a really nice smell when you have to work on a laptop all day. A bit of fresh cilantro sprinkled on top of the whole thing at the end really made the dish.
I’m so excited for Christmas – I have a long laundry list of kitchen ‘stuff’ that I want, and I hope I get at least a little bit of it. I’m Le Creuset-less right now, as well as having no money to invest in it, so I’m hoping Santa is nice to me again this year. My favorite French dishes would be so much nicer in a saucy black Le Creuset dutch oven. My next project is to find a bit of space and materials to keep live herbs growing in my kitchen. It’s so annoying to have to keep re-buying them, and then making dishes each night that call for said herbs until they are gone, lest I waste any of it. Throwing basil or thyme down the sink should be a crime.