First Blog Entry & Indian Food

Welcome to our blog! I'm finally getting it off and running while perched on a stool by the stove. The sizzling pan on the cooktop is caramelizing 3 large onions for the base of Lamb Vindaloo. Just before this I started marinating chicken breast for Chicken Tikka Masala. We're planning on eating these saucy dishes tomorrow night with rice, puppodums, and raita (my personal favorite dish...even though it is considered more of a palate cleanser). I can't wait! The house already smells like an Indian restaurant.

Lately we've been having some interesting eats around here. Since Edward's arrived (and Allison, too) I've been able to justify preparing larger, more expensive meals now that there are enough people to eat all the left overs. (I absolutely adore cooking, but really only for other people. When Dave travels this much I tend to abandon major culinary endeavors until there are folks to feed.)

On Saturday night Edward and I marinated and then BBQed a whole leg of lamb. It was over 7 pounds and such a magnificent cut of meat. We looked like tough barbarians holding that thing up by the bone. We ate it with thick yoghurt, couscous, and my homemade chutney from this summer. Dessert was tangerines while playing Pictionary at the dining table.

While at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning we randomly decided (okay, okay, I decided) to buy 2 pounds of live crawdads. The man at the stall looked so lonely without any customers that I just had to go talk to him and ask him what people do with his strange critters. I've seen him at all the Farmer's Markets but have never seen anyone buying anything from him. He said they were for eating, duh. He told me to simply store them in the fridge in a plastic sack (he promised they'd survive that way "seriously, for daaaaaaaaaaays") until popping them into a boiling pot of water heavily seasoned with Old Bay. Allison suggested that I add a lot of cayenne to make them super spicy, which I did, of course. Whew! You could starve to death trying to fill yourself up on those mini lobsters but they do taste good. The beer, fresh-dill fingerling potatoes, and the live RPI hockey game on the TV certainly helped.

Some of our other planned culinary experiments during Christmas break include cooking a comically large, whole fish and making fondue. Given the recent popularity of all things fondue, I realize that making fondue may not qualify as a true endeavor for most people--but for all the times we've eaten both sweet and savory fondues, Dave and I have never used our own pot. My grandmother gave me hers from the 1960s, complete with individual servers that fit onto a custom Lazy Susan emblazoned with orange and olive green mushrooms. I figure it can't be that difficult--adding beer to melted cheese sounds delicious no matter what happens!

Thanks for reading!