Thursday, June 30, 2016

Not Much Ambition for Cuisine

An apple omelet. And toast with melted cheese and chutney. 
The apple omelet.
I've been making simple food this week -- no recipes, just memories of how to do it. An apple omelet, for example, has these ingredients: eggs, butter, apple slices, sugar. I cook the apples briefly before pouring in the lightly beaten eggs, so there's still some crunch in the fruit. Nice light dinner.

Ready to go in the oven: stuffed mushrooms and brined pork chops
brushed with balsamic glaze. 
Ready to eat! No recipe in either case. The mushroom stuffing was chopped whatever there was in the vegetable drawer
and ready-made breadcrumbs moistened with a bit of vegetable juice and red wine. 
Turkey, mayo, and chicken-liver-spread on a sandwich.
Now I know I'm going to hear from the liver-haters again, and maybe from those who think chicken liver and mayo is a bad combination. I made these chicken livers from scratch, with onions and butter. I pureed the result with my immersion blender. I don't know if Julia Child called for that fine a puree, but otherwise my method was based on my memory of her recipe.

8 comments:

Jeanie said...

Simple food. Isn't it fun to cook without a book -- and still play? Love doing it. Heading north again and there isn't much to cook with there! So, the creative time will come out!

Beth F said...

Simple food is often the best. I love chopped chicken livers, but the mayo addition makes my skin crawl!

Mae Travels said...

Beth F: when we ate it, we put veggies between the liver and the mayo. This made it ok.

Tina said...

Looks like your kitchen is where the fun is, I want to play along! Love to cook from memory and you sure have me tempted with those mushrooms.

Jackie McGuinness said...

I LOVE liver!! Please post your chicken liver recipe.

Mae Travels said...

Jackie -- The Julia Child chicken liver mousse is reproduced in many places on the web, as well as being in the book. So I didn't feel the need to redo it. Here's a link:
http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/chicken-liver-mousse

I don't usually use the heavy cream that it calls for, but just add a bit more butter. The original recipe suggests an optional jelled glaze that I also don't make (it's not included in the version I linked.

Claudia said...

I've been making mostly simple dinners as well in this hotter weather: a delicious tabbouleh, no cooking at all, fish very quick in banana leaves, and Salad Nicoise, with the potatoes, green beans and eggs boiled earlier in the afternoon. Good summer meals.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Sometimes, especially in the summer, simple and with no-recipes is my favorite way to cook. It looks like you have been eating well this week!
;-)