I used to cook a lot. I tried out new recipes, I read my cookbooks, I watched cooking shows. But the last few years I've become complacent. I make the same things over and over, and while I make an excellent roast chicken, and a great pot of minestrone soup, it's a little boring. Lately I've renewed my interest in cooking. It started with the bento boxes, and coming up with tasty (and cute) food for lunch. And then while I was visiting my family, we picked, literally, pounds and pounds of cherries at my cousins house (okay, well my 5-year old niece picked a gigantic bowl full of cherries, I just grabbed a few off the trees and popped them into my mouth). What to do when you have a lot of cherries? Make a clafouti (or two), of course:
Clafouti is really sort of like a big puffy pancake. In fact, some people were putting syrup on it. I had made it around breakfast time, so I guess that's okay. I took another one over to my semi-crazy aunt's barbeque, and we ate it cold. The consensus was that clafouti is best eaten hot out of the oven, but it's not bad cold.
I've been watching the occasional FoodTV show, and the Barefoot Contessa made a summer pudding recently. It looking so easy and delicious that I had to try it:
It was really easy, but I think there is way too much sugar in the recipe. It's really, really sweet. Also, Mr. Lucy, when he opened the refrigerator and saw it sitting there, was a little bit scared at first. He thought I'd brought home some sort of human organ. It is a little frightening, but I think the idea is good. I'm going to try it again with a lot less sugar, like maybe half the amount.
Of course it's been a few days since I've posted a bento box, so here is one from a few days ago:
Yum, Mexican food! Not very colorful, but very tasty! Black beans, rice with salsa, and whole wheat tortillas with grilled chicken, avocado and a little feta cheese inside. I brought a jar of salsa to eat with my burritos. I love salsa. This bento box is pretty big. It's about the size of a brick, and with this lunch inside, it weighed about as much too.
Coming soon: little tiny cupcakes!
