Lori you certainly keep busy baking and it all looks lovely. We've been out a lot this past week but I've been cooking fish, salads, chicken and vegetables at home. Here's some of what we've had, all together. But yesterday Wolf and I went to the tennis and sports club to have a lunch with my friend Anne, who leaves for England today, and Lynne who had just come back from volunteering at the cat refuge, where she helps out every Saturday with abandoned animals. The restaurant at the club is just wonderful and for a small price of ten Euros (not much more than ten dollars) we get a three course meal, including a drink, bread and butter. And sitting outside on the balcony over the courts, it was so sunny and warm we kept moving the overhead parasol to keep us out of the sun. We all chose their cream of squash soup, some with cream, mine without and the three of them had a delicious breaded pork escalope with rice and creamed mushrooms. I had a curried chicken and vegetable dish. Dessert for Wolf and Anne was homemade apple strudel while Lynne had ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was a wonderful lunch, finished off with strong cafes cortado. It was a nice sendoff for Anne. Today I'm not sure what's for dinner, but it will include some lovely new green beans and squash that I bought this morning. Happy Sunday everyone! SharonCb

Well, I just finished breakfast, but now I want potato pizza, Hong Kong noodles, fish and chips, AND dessert! Last night I fixed a Lancashire Hotpot with beef, onions, potatoes and carrots. This is such an easy dish I don't know why I don't make it more often. I bake mine at 300 for 2 hours or more then up the heat to 375 and remove the cover of the casserole to crisp up the potatoes on top. And...I have leftovers! Today I'm going to make a 15 minute Curry Vegetable soup to use up some broccoli and cauliflower. This is a new recipe to try. At one point last week I had 3 homemade soup recipes in the fridge, which I love because I usually go home for lunch on work days. Lancashire Hot Pot based on the recipe from Marie at The English Kitchen blog Serves 4 I guess you could call this the English version of Irish stew. One pot cooking of the most delicious persuasion. 1 TBS olive oil 750g diced lamb (or beef) 2 onions, peeled and sliced 2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunky pieces 1/2 medium swede (rutabaga) peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (can omit) 500ml lamb stock 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce 2 sprigs of fresh thyme 750g of potatoes, peeled and cut into thin slices butter sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Pre-heat the oven to 160*C/350*F. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the meat in batches and fry it until browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large casserole dish (one with a lid) as it browns. Set aside. Once all the meat it browned and removed from the skillet add the vegetables to the pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring them occasionally. Return the lamb to the skillet and pour over the stock. Add the Worchestershire sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix it all in well and then carefully pour the mixture back into the casserole dish. Tuck the two sprigs of thyme into the mixture, burying it. Cover the top of the mixture with a layer of half of the sliced potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and then dot with butter. Finish layering with the remaining potatoes and adding a final dusting of salt and pepper and dot once again with some butter. Put the lid on. Bake in the heated oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the lid and bake for a further hour until the meat is very tender and the "thatch" is nicely browned in places and tender as well. Serve hot spooned out onto hot plates along with seasonal green vegetables on the side and plenty of crusty bread and butter to mop up the delicious juices.

I made our Christmas meal yesterday, since I am stuck at work today. Turkey tenderloins, chicken dressing, cranberry sauce (from the can) Mac and cheese, collard greens. I brought some to work with me to eat later, along with the absolutely sinful dark chocolate dipped pretzel sticks SO gave me for Christmas. I assume he will eat some later if he gets hungry while I am here at work. I made a pan of brownies this morning while I was getting ready in case he wants something sweet afterward. The dogs got the ham hocks from the collard greens for their Christmas present. My sister hosted some of her husbands family for Christmas Eve. A couple of his sisters, that's all. They always have tons of finger food for Christmas Eve and I made some of them for her and delivered them the day before so that I could have Christmas Eve all to myself and SO. Homemade salsa, olive bread thingies and sausage stuffed French bread. She said her kids did NOT want to leave Santa cookies. They left him cheesy olive bread and chip dip. (I guess they wanted to get a leg up on the other kids of the world. To be fair, I would rather have olive bread and chip dip than cookies any day)

I much prefer Pati Jinich to Diane Kennedy (have her book and don't like it) or Rick Bayless. Pati's recipes are very much like what I used to get in Mexico City when I would go there for a month at a time every winter when I lived in San Francisco. I highly recommend her books, and I have a large collection of Mexican cookbooks but hers are the best IMO. Pati grew up in Colonial Polanco, which is here I usually stayed with friends in Mexico City. I also sometimes stayed in Colonial Condesa or Veranica Anzures, which is between Condesa and Polanco. From Mexico City, I traveled to regions in southern Mexico, including Oaxaca and Yucatan. I loved the food in Yucatan but not in Oaxaca, as I am not a fan of mole, especially when it is sweet. Pati has some good recipes for Yucatecan style food, and I generally make Yucatecan enchiladas when I make enchiladas, but this mainly involves adding achiote paste to the chili sauce. I've only passed through Monterrey (usually on the train) and have always wanted to visit there but never have. As a child, the radios stations from Monterrey were the loudest ones I could get at night.