New Year's Eve Dinner

From Hayashi Sushi. It tasted so fresh I think it's worth paying a little more. I love the rolls because they're fun but the sashimi is the way to go to enjoy the pure taste. We got the sashimi starter; nine pieces, chef's choice. We also had the nigiri starter; three a salmon, tuna, and yellowtail, a spicy tuna roll, tuna and cucumber roll, a rainbow roll, edamame, and stuffed mushrooms (homemade). Shara had an eel nigiri, her new favorite, and a sweet potato tempura maki. She also shared the rest, but not the spicy tuna and no mushrooms.
New year's resolution: go to su su sushi.

Last Winter CSA

Today was a little sad - the end of the winter CSA. We did get a double share to get all of our weeks in. Here's what I took home:

2 Acorn Squash
1 Butternut
2 bags Beets (3 lb.)
2 bag Carrots (3 lb)
1 bag Sweet Potatoes (1.5 lb)
1 pint Fingerling Potatoes
1 bunch Kale

1 quart Red Potatoes or 1 pint Fingerling Potatoes
5 ears Popcorn
1 bunch Mustard Greens
1 bag Salad Mix

With my new, favorite and super-easy soup - carrot, ginger, sweet potato, I'm sure I won't have a problem using this up. Not sure what to do with the mustard greens. The girl there said they are a bit spicy but braising them makes them tamer. I just bought a fairly large container of Olivia's spring greens, but the salad mix looks like it has quite a bit of spinach in it, so I'll probably cook that up too. Maybe add it to the carrot soup!

Unreal Cookies

Though I don't think these bake well, the color didn't stay, I will certainly keep these on my list of candies for decorating. They're all natural, taste great and the color is beautiful. Maybe next time I'll stick the candy on 1/2 way through the baking process.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with a couple from church. We had a great time and all enjoyed the Persian food from Chaloos. I tried something different - Kashk O Bademjon - Sautéed eggplant, onion and garlic all finely blended with “Kashk” a yogurt sauce and garnished with hot mint sauce served with basmati rice and saffron. Everyone else had kabobs. Alan and Shara split a big kabob platter. There were no leftover! We won't wait so long to go back again.

Wonderful and super-simple carrot, sweet potato, ginger soup. Looked at a bunch of recipes but they were all basically the same. Cut up a bunch of carrots, onion (I used leeks), a russet potato (I used a med. sweet potato), garlic, ginger, broth. I added some rosemary and thyme (as suggested by Dorie Greenspan), salt and pepper. Boiled it all, didn't even bother to saute the leek, used the emersion blender but left some chunks. It's all gone. Next time I'll double or triple it and try to freeze some.

Cookies!

Big Soft Ginger Cookies w/ Caramel Buttercream

Lebkuchen - so delicious. Hopefully will put a smile on a couple of German ladies I know.

Read a tip that was a real time-saver. Spread the dough in the pan, rather than rolling it out after chilling. Can't imagine it would have worked any differently.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

Cranberry Orange Cookies - I thought these would be very soft but they turned out nice.

Lime Poppyseed Thumbprint Cookies

Other cookies already made, but photos not yet available:
Mocha stars w/ caramel icing
Vanilla Blueberry Shortbread Triangles
Coconut Shortbread Cookie Bites
Fig Walnut Biscotti - Smitten Kitchen
Amaretti Cookies
Big Soft Ginger Cookies
Carrot Cake Cookies - Betty Crocker

And to come:
Caramel Toasted Pecan Fudge
Meringue Swirls - never made
Cocoa-Oat Truffles (Whole Foods)
Some kind of chocolate coconut bars - never made

Highly decorated Sugar cookie

Fishy Dishy

Shrimp and scallops in black current mustard dressing with greens, butternut squash and roast carrots and parsnip. Not bad for a weeknight dinner.

Tofu soup

Tat soy, tofu, carrots, mushrooms, rice noodles, soy sauce, rice wine, chicken stock, eggs, leeks

Gingerbread decorating at the easton children's museum