Monday 11 February 2008

Dumplings and blogs


Yesterday I took the opportunity to get a bit of head start with cooking for the week. We had Thai Curry for lunch and then in the afternoon I made two fruit crumbles for puddings, a bowl of egg mayonaisse for sandwiches and a casserole for todays dinner. When i got home from work this evening I discovered that the peice of beef in the casserole had shrunk to a fraction of its former size so I made a dozen dumplings to fil everyone us a bit. This was a real success. I made too much dough so we have enough for another day because I find it really difficult to judge and ofcourse I never weigh anything. Anyway I formed about a dozen little balls of dough and then dropped them into a metal roasting pan which contain a half nch of gravy from teh casserole. I then put them under the grill for 15 minutes. I know this is odd but they are really nice when the top goes a bit crunchy instead of soggy. If i had made them earlier I would haveadded them to the casserole an hour from the end and then not replaced the lid, so they browned off a bit. Anyway, they were really lovely and no-one complained about the lack of meat, so I will make an effort to make them more often in future.

On the subject of casseroles I read on the website http://www.livingonadime.com/ that a casserole means any meal made in a single pot in America, as opposed to an casserole in the British sense, which is more like a stew but cooked in the oven. This explains why I have always imagined Tuna Casserole (which I have read about as an economical meal on US websites for years) as tuna fish chunks in gravy with potatoes and onions. No wonder I didnt like the sound of it. Now I know it means something completley different I am quite interested again. I read a lot of websites and blog from other English speaking nations and I love that the same words mean different things in different countries. I also like that there are such different ways of describing the same thing. Makes it all a lot more interesting! Another good thing about reading all these blogs is having a little window on someone elses life and their corner of the world. You can watch movies and documentaries but it really isnt the same as reading a blog, which is pretty much a daily diary with photos. I will write about some of my favourite in future & hopefully this will guide me towards some new blogs to read.

So now I know what I need in my life, more dumplings and more blogs.

3 comments:

  1. if you like gardening blogs (some of which mention food and other stuff) then you could do a lot worse to check out blotanical, which has listings of garden blogs all over the world..

    keth
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Keth
    Nice to hear from you.
    Definitely going to check it out. I have never come across it before and its almost time to start on the allotment again so I need a bit of inspiration.

    Best wishes
    Liz
    x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I forgot to ask. Would you recommend the rotovator ( see, I have been peaking )& do you think a couple of middle aged women can manage one on their own? My sister and I are thinking about using one to knock the allotment into a bit of shap at the beginning of the season but we are not sure if it doesnt do more harm than good.
    Any advice gratefully received!

    Lizzie

    ReplyDelete

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