Garden of Galadriel

Even though I work in a kitchen, I sometimes get bored with cooking. We have a new menu change twice a year but as I have absolutely no say in what goes on it, it can get old fast. I was thinking also that my home cooking has been in a rut for a while. I have a list of things I make and the list hasn't changed for a few years really. I make stir-fry, lasagna, cottage pie, spagetti, pork chops...you get the idea. Just basic cooking. I have several nice cookbooks: the best one by far is The Joy of Cooking, and it's always my first point of reference when I need to find something. It seriously has it all. Last night I made a vanilla cream pie with cookie-crumb crust and meringue topping, compliments of Joy. I was too impatient to wait the full three hours of cooling time, so we dug into it at the two-hour mark and it bled just a little of its filling, but it's so nummy; the meringue is just perfect. Actually, I couldn't believe how much meringue there was. I made a 7-inch pie with four egg yolks, so I used the leftover whites in the meringue and it ended up with more volume than the filling.

I also made a home-made tandoori curry marinade for our leftover lamb roast from Sunday. I used mostly equal parts cumin, coriander, cinnamon, fresh garlic, salt, and ginger, with a touch of chili, all mixed together in plain yogurt and vegetable oil. I marinated the chopped meat for about an hour and then just quickly cooked it on the stove. It was So Nice, and so easy. The pie also was very easy, though I used quite a few pans, bowls, and utensils. It made me remember how much I actually do love cooking.

In other cooking news: I've learned to make homemade yogurt recently, and after a few failed starts, came up with an excellent method and a superior product. It's so much cheaper to make my own than to buy it. When I buy it I don't want to waste it in cooking; it's for eating only. I've also got a brand-new sourdough starter (pictured) in my fridge--made last week. I've used it once to make bread and I'll give it another go today. Technically it's a sponge starter and all I need to do is feed it some flour and water once a week and it'll keep indefinitely.

*Partner asked me why in my last post I wished to kill every tenth weed instead of them all. I looked up "decimate" and while it does mean to kill every tenth Roman soldier, I'm relieved to confirm it also means to damage badly.