trying new recipes

Well, the weather is....still warm (I guess I did jinx myself). The weather people have compared it to mid-August temps during the day...blah. I learned something new the other night, the weather guy said that the wispy clouds are autumn clouds and the fluffy ones are summer clouds. So as you can see from the photo, even the sky is confused as to what season it is...sigh. Oh, and if you see a jet stream and it stays in the sky for a long time, this means it will rain and if it fades quickly the weather will stay sunny....

Yesterday, I was in a procrastinating kind of mood with my bead project, so I decided to eat all day and tried some new recipes.

There was banh mi for lunch. The post on Tamarind and Thyme led me to Viet World Kitchen which gave a recipe for the veggies that go inside of a banh mi. This sandwich reminded me of the sandwiches I've had at Ba-le in Hawaii. I think if I had some fish sauce it would have tasted a little more authentic.

And then these petit mont blancs from one of my cookbooks for a mid-afternoon tea. The topping which is usually a chestnut mixture, is made from sweet potatoes instead. The bottom was a cookie, not the usual cake. The only problem I had was piping (as you can probably tell). Using my tiny food processor, the sweet potato didn't get as smooth as I would have liked it, so when I was piping, bits got stuck in the frosting tip and would blast itself out...I'm lucky it wasn't more messy. These were super easy (aside from the piping) to make and a very nice snack. (the two in the background are for Satoshi)

And then there was Amy's penne alla vodka for dinner. I didn't have vodka in the house, only shochu (which is like sake but made from potatoes or barley and stronger than sake), so I guess mine should be called penne alla shochu. I liked this recipe, it tasted like something I've had in a restaurant before. Too bad I didn't buy more baguettes, so I could mop up the sauce!

I love the internet! All the exchanging of information at my fingertips.

Hope you have a nice weekend, we have ANOTHER 3-day weekend (although Satoshi has to work today)....I guess I better get beading.

UPDATE: I switch out cream with skim milk in the Penne alla Vodka sauce to cut back a little of the calories and sometimes just make the sauce so we can dip bread into it.