A cooking kind of weekend

Inspired by GP I suppose, it was a lovely weekend filled with family and cooking, as you've spied in the last couple of posts. Sunday was no different and since we FINALLY had some sunshine (and it nearly hit 68F! WHOOP!), we decided to grill (though we ate inside since it was still freakishly cold). MRN requested something "normal" (though he was kinder in the nomenclature) so there were hamburgers but then I got to be more creative, making:

Marinated lamb kebabs (marinated overnight in red wine, red wine vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic and an assortment of fresh herbs including rosemary and thyme) speared with red onions, yellow and red peppers and served on toasted pine nut cous cous (made with homemade chicken stock).


"Mom's potato salad" (right) which is a standard Hawaiian concoction that contains very little potato combined with pasta, hard boiled eggs (shredded), carrot (also shredded), crab meat, onion, black olives and mayo.

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Homemade "Waldorf" salad with shredded chicken (left)-- my random concoction which this time became a Waldorf by based on what I happened to be able to find in the pantry; in this case, apple, celery, raisins, red onion, walnuts, chicken, S&P to taste and some mayo). This is one of my favorite things to make and eat with all the layers and textures. It's also great as a hors d'oeuvre which you can serve in Tostito "scoops" (which you can't find here, so I served it with corn chips on the side instead).

and last but not least,

Peach crostata (Ummm... half eaten; couldn't beat away the eaters to let me take a photo first)--a variation on apple and a perfect substitute for the summer. But I really must learn patience to convert measurements. The whole guessing on the amount of butter is making for some interesting results.

I also used GP's chicken stock recipe to freeze and store stock for future use (and use it for the cous cous that was served with the lamb). However, it yielded LOADS more than the recipe's stated 3 liters-- try 6. Whoops. So I froze 3 liters, reserved 2 cups for the cous cous and used about 1/2 a cup for a lemon/olive oil/rosemary sauce for the lamb... the rest I'll make into chicken noodle soup with the left over chicken from the stock (half of which was used for the chicken salad). And by the way-- cooking cous cous in chicken stock-- so much better! It gives it a whole new dimension and is so much tastier (thanks Ina!).

So not only was there lots of cooking this weekend, but one item ended up resulting in all sorts of applications (the chicken, the stock, the veggies...). And now when Ina's recipes call for "good chicken stock" (which it what it actually says) I can pull it out of the freezer instead grabbing a stock cube. I'm sure food will taste magnificently better for it. (So I'll keep telling myself.)