Golden foods for a golden day

It's official. Today is the last day of summer '09. And a golden day it has been. The light streaming through the trees seems bent at a whole new angle.

So with all that golden light, coupled with the choice of leftovers available (bits of turmeric chicken), it seemed like a night for golden food.

What qualifies as golden? A curry that's filled with bite-sized drumettes as well as the aforementioned chunks. I also added onions, mushrooms, and an eggplant from the garden that needed rescuing from the slugs.

There's even a fleck of gold in the salad, as there was a chunk of yellow paper that stepped up to volunteer.

Adventures in laziness

I'm almost embarrassed to report yet another lazy supper.

Still, we were out in the forest for most of the day, foraging for this and that, both edible and for the garden. Even though we weren't as successful in finding mushrooms as we've been other years, both of us took a lot of photographs, so that made the day worthwhile. And really, all that marching about in the fresh mountain air is hard to beat.

Anyway, as soon as we got in the door, we put in an order for pizza. Just enough time for shampoos and showers, with supper delivered to the door.

As an added bonus, we even found a coupon for a free Caesar salad. Double-easy, double-lazy. Yes!

Linguinus Serendipitus

Okay, so my Latin is almost on the level of Pig-Latin. Still, the taste of tonight's pasta was truly one of those fortunate accidents we call serendipitous.

I was assembling a bowl of last night's leftover salmon, trying to ensure there weren't any bones in it (I failed, of course). At the same time, the pasta was cooking and I'd put a pan of olive oil on the stove with some sliced up garlic -- all in the name of slightly softening the garlic.

But next thing I knew, the garlic bits were crispy golden. Oh well, sez I, you're not starting over.

It turned out that the almost-burnt bits imparted a wonderfully smoky flavour to the oil and made what would have been a very ordinary Saturday night pasta into something memorable.

Ciao!

The joy of friends

One of my favourite things is sharing a meal with friends.

Tonight, we're enjoying the company of a couple of our favourite Albertans and celebrating with an 'orchestrated potluck'. Mary brought extravagant bread products, while Pam brought a wonderful salad with a 'miracle' dressing (mainly lemon juice and maple syrup). We cooked up a salmon and some pot stickers.

Lots of great conversation, and all the while, two dogs curled up on the floor, apparently appreciating the sounds and smells of such a fine evening.

Easy supper, lazy night

Last night was busy, tomorrow's going to be too. So tonight it's one of those stand-by suppers when nothing in particular screams "Try me."

Pre-packed broth (commercial, not homemade) is always better with some chopped-up garlic and fresh parsley cooked into it. Then to make it a meal, I added store-bought wontons from the freezer. Fresh chives from the garden and sliced broccoli serve as the evening's token greens.

Easy and lazy, just right.

Tonight's the night

It's a big event for me tonight -- a book launch, so the Dear Man has been kind enough to buy us some takeaway for an early, easy supper.

Up, up and away!

Elaboration on a Beef Dip

Usually a beef dip is just a roast beef sandwich with some dipping sauce by the side.

Tonight's version of same is chunked up rouladen (from Sunday) on a bun, with a bowl of hot beef broth on the side.

The bacon and onion and dill pickle add a new dimension to one of my old faves. I'll have to remember to do this one again!