Kitchen Shenanigans

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Cooking, Food & Wine

Monday, June 30, 2025

Do you give a fig?

Trader Joe's had fresh mission figs today! I bought the package that has 10 of the little beauties... Well, 9 now. Do you like fresh figs? Have any recipes for them, fresh or dried or cooked? I've read up some on their nutritional benefits and possible problems, seeing as they are high in sugar, but... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 5:32 PM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Something new!

A couple of days ago I saw some lovely red rhubarb at the grocery store, and remembered how much I like that stuff, so it came home with me. Finally this morning I got busy, cut it up and put it in a sauce pot with a little water and a fair amount of sugar. It cooked down while I fried up some diced... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 10:50 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Duck!

OK, you can get up again... I was at the Asia Pacific Market this week, and bought some things I've been wanting: Chinese eggplants, the long skinny ones, some duck eggs, and on impulse, the one package of duck they had. First of all, the Asian way of prepping duck seems to be to hack at it randomly... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:53 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

The season of the huge shallot!

I never used shallots much, they are so small and fiddly to work with, but for the past couple of weeks there have been absolutely huge shallots at the grocery store! So this morning I'm having a scramble with shallots and shitake mushrooms. Now I'm trying to figure out how they taste compared to... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 7:29 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Great French Toast!

Nothing to do with lifting a glass of champagne or chardonnay... Not, actually anything French at all. I toasted slices of bread, then dipped them in the batter--eggs, milk, a dash of vanilla and another of nutmeg--and fried them up nice and brown on both sides. Then--I dipped them again! And fried... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 6:08 AM | add or view comments (1) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, February 28, 2025

Softly, softly...

This past week I've been very aware of the virtues of soft food. Soup, especially broths, pudding, mashed potatoes... Still not eating crispy potato chips, pretzels, or very hard crunchy things. The dental extraction point is healing, but still vulnerable so I'm going to be cautious for a while yet.... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 10:15 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, January 27, 2025

Nothing to do with food...

I get a lot of sale-fruits/vegies that are packed up in little plastic mesh bags, and o ur holiday ham and turkey were also in larger versions. I've finally found a practical use for those bags! Flatten the bag out, and make a stack of similarly flattened bags, then fold the stack together to a... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:46 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Soup, Glorious Soup!

Vegie broth is pretty much as tasty as chicken, especially when loaded with cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and chicken shu-mai, shrimp, scallops and added at the very end, some calimari. What I've discovered about the seafood-- The shrimp go in frozen, and when they are about ready, the scallops,... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 4:59 PM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, January 9, 2025

My wok is woke!

It has lain under a happy little coating of seasoning for some time now, and though it is regularly scrubbed clean, it's original shiny stainless steel face has not been seen--until now! Day before yesterday while water boiled in the big pot for spaghetti, I fried up onions and mushrooms, added some... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 9:01 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Something fishy going on...

Christmas came way too early this year to even consider cooking another turkey. I bought a ham--it was half the price of the fancy ones in the foil wrap, and twice as salty. 😝 As an alternative, I looked at the fish on ice and was unimpressed with the two smallish fillets of sockeye salmon, but... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 11:27 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

About this Blog

The Kitchen is always a place of warmth--sometimes too warm--and gratifications, of indulgences, clever solutions, and occasional disasters. It is a place of recipes and experimentation. This blog is going to be hanging out in the kitchen for a while.

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