Cooking Notes

Wasn't really in the mood for "meat" this week; so, leaned towards more vegetarian dishes this week:

• Continued with the Ethiopian/Indian/Middle Eastern inspired dishes  (noticed that the spices and the way of cooking were similar, probably due to the early trade routes).   Using onion, garlic, ginger, tumeric, and cumin as the base for flavoring, pan fried bell peppers and also a tomato basil "stew"
• Spinach garlic hummus, with garbanzo beans, tahini, roasted garlic, sauteed spinach, olive oil, and water.  The garlic was quite strong; but, overall, the hummus was pretty good
• Greek Salad - cucumber, tomato, red onion, olives with olive oil, lime juice, and feta cheese
• Pickled Cucumbers with Carrots - sprinkled cut cucumbers with salt and let sit, then added shredded carrots, vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil

There were still a couple of "meat" dishes - grilled some sausages and salmon fish fillets (with basil).

8-Aug:  In continuing to lean towards vegetarian dishes, there were a couple of really simple ones that turned out surprisingly well, like snow peas lightly sauteed with just green onion and soy sauce; and the same with portabello mushrooms.   And boiling corn or mixed vegetables for a vegetable soup base instead of using meat works fine as well.   One of the soup dishes that have been really good, is to use the vegetable soup base, boil with tofu, imitation crab meat, green onion, and imitation snow peas and then seasoned with some fish sauce.   I also did a "mediterranean" type soup; with stewed tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, and fish; but, it felt like it needed to be served with bread or with some rice in the soup to counteract the strong flavors, particularly of the curry and spices.