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I’m attempting to do the first thirty lessons from the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. They are the Pratique de base, or Getting Started lessons. Wish me luck. I’m a beginning cook. Here are is the recipe I tried the other day when Tom came up. They were good. I wouldn’t mind having one now. 
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Trying to show image, but this thing is being @nal.
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I’ve already had dinner. I made a soup that I first tried earlier this summer. It’s the roasted tomato soup from Tyler Florence. It really is a once or twice a year soup. The tomatoes come from my garden, which I hardly water – hopefully increasing the sweetness of the tomatoes – a technique called “dry farming” they say. The tomatoes were a mix of red cherries, black cherries and other larger heirlooms. The heirloom tomatoes in my garden are much smaller than the ones I’ve seen the couple times I’ve been able to spot them in farmer’s markets. The tomatoes were planted in my room around January or February in my room under a homemade light setup. They were nourished under the southern sun amazing my loved ones and me with their heigth and sprawling dense growth. Now, they bring bittersweet, literally, feelings as we pass into fall. This soup was delicious. What I really like doing is tearing homemade rosemary focaccia and soaking it in the soup. It’s like dumplings. Click here to see the recipe for the soup.
Posted in soup, vegetarian | Tagged soup, tomatoes, tyler florence, vegetarian | Leave a Comment »
Today I made a tortilla de patatas for the first time this morning. A tortilla in Spain is similar to a frittata, rather than being a corn or flour wrap. It was tasty. Flipping the tortilla over on the plate was tricky.
Take a pound of potatoes and slice them into thin slices. I used smaller/medium red potatoes as I read they will hold together better. This was approximately three red potatoes. Fry them in a generous quantity of oil. I used a mix of soy and olive. Add to the frying oil some thinly sliced onion – I used about 1/4th large white onion. Remove with a spider or slotted spoon onto paper towels. Salt. Beat four eggs with some salt in a bowl. Add in the potatos and onion. Pour into pan which has had most of the oil removed. Cook, shaking the pan sometimes to try to keep the tortilla from sticking. Take a plate and flip the tortilla onto it then slide back into the pan to continue cooking. Serve warm or cold, with romescu/romesco sauce or mayo on the side. I just served sliced tomato from the garden.
Fall is coming in. Honestly, I’m not too enamoured with the idea. I’m very sensitive to cold. I think it’s 77 here, 74 inside and I’m already wearing long sleaves. I must be tropical? If the temperature gets below 75 I freeze. I like 75-95, preferably 85 during the day and 77 at night. The name of my blog, amante del sol means lover of the sun. So, you can assume that I don’t welcome the shortening daylight. With winter though comes a neat cycle in nature, and especially many celebrations like fairs, baking, and holidays. Many weeds die back or slow down and the mosquitos disappear.
This fall and winter I plan on:
- Staying healthy through exercise and a diet that is balanced, not too heavy.
- Winter sowing – I did this last year. It’s sowing seeds in the winter, great along with the former for combating any seasonal affective disorder that might be creeping in.
- Celebrating big or small the following holidays – halloween, day of the dead/all saints day, thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas eve, Christmas day and the year. Wow, I can’t believe my birthday is around the corner again. That’s insane.
Wish me luck. I’m always making these lists. 
. Sometimes they get followed partly, sometimes none at all.
Posted in Frugal, Spanish style food, vegetarian | Tagged eggs, fall, plans, Spanish style food, tortilla a la española, vegetarian | Leave a Comment »
Last night I made the French Onion Soup recipe from Julia Child with white wine, homemade baguette and gruyère.
It was delicious. The whole flour thickening technique has deepened my interest in attempting a gumbo.
I live in a small southern town and so knew that finding the gruyère would be an adventure. I don’t think there are any specialty food shops or farmer’s markets here. I love to visit the markets in the ethnic areas of Atlanta. The stuff is of 1. better quality and 2. more fairly priced. These make a huge difference!
You know where I got the cheese – the Kroger. Eww. Don’t get me started on that store in this post. Let’s just say for now that I have a fervent dislike of this chain and try to spend no more than $5 monthly there and another of my favorites (LOL, can you taste the sarcasm?) Wal-mart – two of the principle shopping destinations here. My principle problem with Kroger is that they overcharge for most things, which also happen to be not so good.
Well, the wedge of Gruyère was $10. The Kroger budget is gone. Not another dime of mine will be theirs this month. Yay.
What are your experiences with French onion soup? Do you have a favorite recipe that you would like to share?
{{{Hugs}}}.
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Human observations: 1 – Obsession with death. Public version.
May 8, 2009 by amantedelsol
My purpose on this earth isn’t to sit around on my ass judging others for the clothes they wear, the cars they drive or petty shallow material fleeting things like that.
But, where morality and values are concerned, I feel that some sort of judgment is necessary. What a person believes and how they act or don’t act in accordance with those beliefs are important.
The observation I want to mention today is obsession with death. What’s up with that? Surely most of us believe and accept that death is part of this life. We have all had a family member, friend or pet die. Death is part of the system. It is part of the whole natural cycle and surrounds us. Where there is life, there is surely death.
Why obsess about it?
Don’t get me wrong, I think that some art mediums properly explore it. For one example: flamenco music.
Some mediums totally disrespect it. For example: television shows like CSI, NCIS, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Numb3rs, Bones, etc.
I don’t understand why someone would want to watch such garbage. Who?… on a beautiful spring day with 75 degree weather could sit inside all day long in the dark with the air conditioner blasting - fixated – all day long – with this?
I don’t get it.
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