Strong Spices

I am obsessed with strong spices; curry, garam masala, tumeric, cumin, etc. are helping me ease into fall.  I had some leftover rice from yesterday's curry dinner, so I fried it up with some extra curry powder, tomatoes and green onion.  On the side - a perfectly seasoned chicken breast.

The problem is my eyes have been waaaay bigger than my stomach lately and I was only able to eat about half of this delicious meal.  

 

What is your favourite spice?

Mystery Giveaway Contents

Last week I did a mystery giveaway ... now that the winner has received the package, I will show you what was in it.

A $25 Starbucks gift card:

Some Canadian goodies 

(I added these after I found out someone from the US won):

Dill Pickle Pumpkin Seeds (eat them whole - including the shell!)

Coffee Crisp, Mint Aero and Smarties

Maple Flakes (great on oatmeal):

A Clif bar:

Some fancy sea salt:

Two flavoured liquid stevia products:

Some Halloween chocolates:

And some pretty Fall napkins that I forgot to snap a picture of.

Have you ever won anything online?  

What is your favourite chocolate bar? 

Lamb Curry and Spiced Basmati Rice

The leftover lamb from Saturday was delicious in a lovely curry this evening.  

Lamb Curry 

 (rough measurements)

I am not 100% sure about the measurements, because we just randomly threw things together, but it contained:

1-2 T canola oil
1/2 large white onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
1 lb leftover lamb leg (cooked)
1 cup or so canned diced tomatoes (with liquid)
1 cup hot water
1 T parsley
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 T corn starch
about 3 T curry powder
1/4 cup cold water
garam masala, tumeric, cumin, more curry (to taste)
Salt and Pepper

Heat the oil and let the onions and garlic cook for a few minutes.  Add the lamb, mushrooms, tomatoes, hot water and parsley and let simmer on low for about an hour.  Add the carrots, celery and bell pepper partway through the hour.  After the hour of simmering, make a paste out of the corn starch, curry powder and cold water.  Add this and then season with other spices to taste.  Serve with rice.

Spiced Basmati Rice

1 cup Basmati rice
1.5 cups water
1 tsp garam masala
pinch of salt
pinch or two curry powder

Throw all ingredients into a pot.  Bring to a boil.  Switch to another burner that is on low and cover for 15 minutes.

Dinner was hours ago, yet the house still smells spectacular.  I'm very happy there is some leftover for tomorrow's lunch.

Do you ever turn leftovers into a whole different creation?

What do you do with leftover meats?

Am I the Only One & 10 Quirky Questions

This meme has been floating around the blog world.  

I saw it over at Lisa's Yarns ...

Am I the only one ...

- who doesn't have a smart phone?

- who refuses to call Wednesday "hump day"?

- who has never had a glass of egg nog?

- who still buys CDs regularly?

- who hasn't and won't read 50 Shades of Grey?

- who thinks cilantro is the greatest plant to have ever grown?

- who prefers to drink water that is room temperature (over ice water)? 

- who thinks Tim Horton's coffee tastes like poison?

Lisa also posted 10 Quirky Questions on her blog.  Here are my answers: 

Do you take the shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotels?
Occasionally.  I don't use them, but I drop them off at Carmichael Outreach, a great local, non-profit organization where one of my best buds works.

What is your biggest pet peeve?
Long (boring) story tellers who have no social awareness and can't take social cues.


Do you chew your pens and pencils?
Nope.


Do you believe in ghosts?
Nope.

What was your first concert?
Bush and Veruca Salt.


Have you ever cried because you were so happy?
Yes, once or twice.

Do you crave sweet or salty foods?
Salty.  

How late is "sleeping in" to you?
Typically around 10:00, but it has been later lately.


DJ or band at a wedding? 
Either, as long as the music is good.  Music and food are the two most important aspects of a wedding reception.

Answer any or all of the questions in the comments if you so wish!!  

Finish the sentence "Am I the only one ..."

Dinner Guests & Lamb

I have only had lamb a few times, as for a long while I thought I didn't like it.  I always thought lamb was gamey, but if cooked properly, it's not at all.  I had my first delicious taste of lamb at Jeff and Alaina's place.  They put on a great dinner party!  More recently I tried the lamb enchiladas at a local restaurant, and I was again impressed.  Yesterday I cooked lamb for the first time for some special dinner guests.

I spent Friday evening baking a pumpkin gingerbread loaf with spiced butter cream, rhubarb strawberry pie and dinner buns.  

 

I also made three sauces for the lamb: a mint sauce, a cilantro mint sauce and a red wine sauce.

We started with appetizers (bacon wrapped, cream cheese filled jalapenos, goat cheese, an apricot chipotle cheese dip, and crackers):

 

 

The lamb leg was served with roasted potatoes, dinner rolls and salad.

After letting the food settle for a bit, and having a nice visit, we enjoyed dessert.  

 

After dessert we went to the live theater to see A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline.  It was great!

How was your weekend?  Have you ever cooked lamb? 

Fall Eats & TV

I was huuuuungry all day today.  After work I had some errands to run and my stomach was growing away, so I snacked on this Cliff bar:

 

When I got home I made dinner - beets, chicken Swiss (like chicken parm, but with Swiss cheese) and some noodles with sesame oil, soy sauce and green onion.  

It is not quite Fall yet, but it is sure starting to look and feel like it.  I am craving heartier meals, and feeling like hibernating a lot more lately.

There are a lot of important things I could or perhaps even should be doing this evening, but what I want to do is snuggle up and watch the finale of Big Brother, and that's what I'm gonna do!  Go Dan!!  I am also excited for the shows that are starting up this fall, and just got Netflix yesterday, so I see a lot of cozy, snuggling evenings in my future.

Are you craving heartier meals yet?  Any recommendations for TV series or movies I should rent from Netflix?

Kimchi Fried Rice & Mystery Giveaway Winner

After we made bee bim bop on Sunday there was a lot of leftover rice.  We used that to make kimchi fried rice last night.  

For some extra fun we added veggies and tofu (browned up a bit before tossing in with the rice and some kimchi and oil).

 

 

 

 

I had the leftover fried rice for dinner this evening and added an egg and some sesame seeds on top - it was pretty much happiness in a bowl.

Mystery Giveaway Winner is Kacy!  (Chosen by random number generator).  Please email me your mailing address and I will FedEx that package your way this week.  Thanks to all those that entered the giveaway - you are all pretty groovy.  If you are interested to know what was in the random giveaway package, I will post that once I know Kacy has received it.

I have another recipe that I used for kimchi fried rice here.

Have you ever made fried rice?  What do you do with leftover rice?

I made bacon fried rice once ... ahhhh yeah!