Lunchbox Treats

FAIL!!!! This recipe is a piece of shite as far as I'm concerned. I got all my ratios correct and all but for the life of me I could not get these to form into balls. Then I decided to give it a taste to see if it was worth the effort I was about to put in to try and save this recipe from disaster. So I took a bite from the mess that was all over my hands like an animal and I was not happy with what I tasted. I just plain was not good. I cannot recommend this recipe. You know what, if you thought about making this, save yourself some hurt and make rice krispie squares. That's it. God, I am tired of this cookbook!

Scallops-on-the-Shell

This is effing good. It's pricey, my 6 scallops cost me 10 bones, but they were mighty tasty. Super easy to make too. Toss the scallops in breadcrumbs, throw some butter on them, along with lime juice, garlic oil and salt and pepper. Then you just toss them in the oven and wait for the timer to go off. I couldn't get scallop shells -they didn't have them at the market. However, I just cooked them all in a small ovenware dish and it worked just as good. You just don't get the presentation like you would with the shells. But hey there's other ways to get presentation.

I definitely recommend this recipe it's easy and simple but truly delicious.

Nectarine and Blueberry Galette

I love baked fruit. It is so damn yummy. In Nigella's intro to the recipe she says "Galette is a fancy way of saying this is a pie, but don't get your hopes up." So I was wondering how good this would be. I have to say her description is pretty bang on. This is a poor man's (or rushed woman's) pie. It's tasty but as everyone knows the secret ingredient is always love and you can tell with this recipe that it doesn't have a whole lot of the secret ingredient. I think this recipe is good it you have some fruit to use up but just don't have the energy to make a proper pastry. And it only takes 15 minutes to bake too as opposed to your normal 50 minutes for a pie. And I'm going to say I could have taken this out at 12 minutes and it would have been better but I did just set it and forget it as Star Wars was on. And with it being Empire Strikes Back there was plenty of Yoda screen time, and puppet Yoda is my favourite. CG Yoda is cool too, but he's no puppet. Kind of like this recipe actually. Think of the galette as being the CG Yoda. Better than nothing, but come on, it's just not the same as the original Yoda that we all fell in love with - puppet Yoda.

Swedish Salmon

Well, I did it again. I didn't read the instructions before making this and needed way more time than I allotted. But, once again I did not let that stop me. You're supposed to poach the fish and then let it cool in the poaching water for quite some time. Until your poaching water is completely cooled. Nigella suggests preparing this in the morning for dinner to allot enough cooling time. That wasn't happening for me. So after I was done poaching my fish I let it cool on the stove top for a bit and then moved it to the fridge to bring the temperature down fast. I know I didn't make this perfect but it was still good. What is really yummy is the sauce that goes on top of the fish. I actually put the sauce on homemade chips that I made for a side and that was really, really good. I do recommend this recipe. It's pretty simple and it's pretty tasty. If you don't have a ton of time to let it cool properly you can always use my short cut -but do realize you're probably sacrificing some of the flavour by doing that.

Lamb Shanks with Beans

The bad news is, I didn't make this properly. The good news is, it still turned out. Straight off I was deviating because lamb shanks are expensive and I don't want to drop a bundle on something I'm not even eating -yes I'm selfish, so what. Loin chops were half the price of the shanks so that's what I went with. Secondly, I didn't pre-read the recipe. This is a mistake I continually make, but don't really care that I make, and so will continue making this mistake until something truly terrible happens. Don't ask me what that could be, but I'm sure one day this little habit of mine will blow up in my face. Then there is, again, the problem of finding red currant jelly. You know, if I really wanted to, I'm sure I could get my hands on it somewhere, but again I don't care enough. Apparently I'm a very apathetic person. So there are the mistakes I made even before I had started to make this. Now let's get to the actual meal preparation. I came home and wanted to slug this one out because I'm one of those terrible people that loves a train wreck and I am totally loving Charlie Sheen's current antics. I love how he is going balls out and saying he's a superstar crack smoker who has tiger blood and therefore cannot O.D. . This is pure gold in my opinion. So with TMZ coming up to broadcast time I needed to be done this for what was sure to be 30 minutes of non-stop hilarity. I pull out all the ingredients and upon reading step #1 realize that the meat was supposed to marinate at a minimum overnight but even up to 2 days. "Does this matter to you?" I asked myself and I quickly realized, no, it doesn't mean a damn thing to me. I decided that 4 minutes would be plenty of "marinating" time. So that is what I did. Put the lamb, wine, black currant jelly, garlic, onions, rosemary all in a bowl and turned my attention elsewhere. 4 minutes later I dumped this concoction into a oven safe dish and realized I hadn't added any oil. So I got out the olive oil and drizzled some over pretty half assed. No measuring, nuthin' get threw some in. Then I realized I had a new dilemma. Nigella says to roast this for 90 minutes - which I new was not right for me and my loin chops. So how long was I to cook these??? Personally I had no idea. So, genius that I am, I pulled out my cooking meat for dummies thermometer and set it to medium rare lamb, stuck it in the meat and closed the oven door. Then I started working on the beans. Here I became confused because the bean directions weren't involving the Worcestershire sauce that was staring me in the face on the counter saying " hey buddy, you still haven't used me". So I went back to step #1 and started reading again...Oh, that was supposed to be in the meat "marinade" that is now in the oven with the meat. Huh. So, I quickly decide the proper course of action here is just to open the oven door and toss the 2 tbsp of Worcestershire into the pan, it's only been a few minutes, what's it matter really? I'm thinking. Apathy all over the place here.

So, finally I have the meat all done and I'm free to fully prepare the beans. Which really is just warming them with mustard and garlicy oil on the stove top. It really didn't take very long at all and the lamb was finished, at which point I decided the beans were done too. Then it was just a matter of dumping the beans in with the now cooked lamb and marinade. Conveniently this was when Husband rolled in from along day at work so I looked like super wife having dinner timed perfectly. Husband at the lamb, I ate just the beans. We both really liked our meals despite that fact that this was prepared entirely willy-nilly. So, if I can turn this horror show into a delicious meal then I'm sure you can make this work too. And JFYI - TMZ was a huge letdown. Not even a Sheen anthem which I was sure there would be.

Amaretto Syllabub

Hmpf. I think I would re-title this Syllabarf. This is so sweet I felt I may as well have been sucking on a sugar cube. I had no intention of eating the whole dessert but I certainly didn't have to practice self restraint to do so. Once again it becomes clear to me that I fall into the salty person category. You sweet people are all crazy I think. How can you want that much sugar??? I would definitely take a bowl of chips and dip over this any day. If you're the kind of person who likes desserts where you make an appointment for a filling after your sugary treat then I'm gonna say you'll like this. It's actually really easy to make - only takes about 5 minutes. And if you can finish this dish without puckering your face in sugar overload then my hat is off to you.

Quickly Scaled Mont Blanc

Oh my god, could this book have anymore recipes in it???? I'm down to the nitty gritty and it is PAINFUL. I'm likening this to when I ran the 10K Mud Run in 30+ degree weather with not a spec of shade or a drop of water for the first 5 K. Painful. And you wonder when the eff you will ever see the finish line but you just keep running because you know you'll get there eventually. Right now, I want to burn Nigella Express. I will finish it, but I'm feeling terribly masochistic at the moment. Why do I do these things to myself?

The Mont Blanc is easy enough to make - IF you can buy pre-made meringues. I made them myself which adds an hour of unwanted cooking time in the kitch. And to be perfectly honest eating a glass full of chocolate and whip cream is not what I wanted to do tonight but someone has to eat it and Husband refused. I tried to convince him to eat this by saying I was making it for Valentines Day (which was just a happy mistake) but he must know me too well because he wasn't buying what I was selling. He said he's rather have something else for dessert. But back to the making of. IF you have store bought meringues this will take you all of 5 minutes to make. Chop some chocolate, whip the cream and do some layering. It's pretty straight forward. The taste...well...it's different. It's not too sweet but there's something about it that I just couldn't figure out. I actually think the average person would really like this dessert but I am not your average person. I'm not into desserts like the average person. I'd drown my cat for a bag of chips, but I can pass up the most decadent of desserts with out so much of the bat of an eyelash. Chocolate just is not my crack. So I can take or leave this one. But if you're into chocolate and cream then yeah give it a shot. I think at this point I'm just jaded and I'm not going to give anything a good review anymore...oh the bitterness.