Am I the only person, I wonder, who, upon coming into possession of (another) cookbook tends to wind up having takeaway or pasta bake for dinner? It happens every time. I look at one gorgeous recipe after another, and want to cook them all, and can’t decide between them, and it’s six o’clock already, and I need something which will give me leftovers that I can use for lunch tomorrow and Friday, and I don’t want to miss MasterChef (to which I am still terribly addicted), and the next thing I know, it’s tuna casserole again.
Actually, tonight it was pseudo-Mexican food, and rather good pseudo-Mexican food at that. I sautéed sweet potato, garlic and cumin in a little oil, then added a splash of water and steamed it with the lid on. Then I mashed it up roughly and added a tin each of black beans and kidney beans and that jar of really good mole sauce from Casa Iberica. I sautéed onion with cumin, chilli and heaps of capsicums, added a tin of tomatoes and some lime juice, and spread half over the bottom of a baking dish. I rolled the bean and sweet potato mix up into tortillas and put them on top, sprinkled over some grated cheese, and added the rest of the capsicum salsa-ish thing. And then I baked it until it was hot and bubbling. It all took a surprisingly short time, and tasted amazingly good (and surprisingly meaty, actually). I’m afraid that’s all the recipe you’re getting, however – I’m not really sure what the quantities were.
My dear readers, I really don’t have much else for you today. I was expecting my sourdough yeast to arrive, and it hasn’t, and I find myself strangely uninspired to write about anything else. So in lieu of content, I shall share with you an odd and pleasing little video I found online. It’s based on an Edward Lear poem that I loved as a child – the poem is “The New Vestments”, and it’s full of food and eating. It’s also quite strange even without little animated cutouts.
Anna Glynn, Jaspers Brush, Verse Versus… from Museums of History NSW on Vimeo.
Also, the artist (and the houses) is Australian!
Tomorrow, you shall have a cookbook review… but in the meantime, dear readers, I throw the floor open to you. What do you have for dinner on the nights when you can’t face cooking, but manage takeaway either? Do you have a meal that you can make very nearly with your eyes shut?
5 comments for “Days when one doesn’t feel like cooking…”
rosemaryinwheat | June 8, 2011 at 10:36 pm
I’m rather embarrassed to say that your “uncooking” nights sound any awful lot like my “special occasions”.
Does last night’s dinner of pasta tossed with garlic and olive oil even count as a meal? I did also eat some tortilla chips with leftover spinach dip. 😉
Catherine | June 8, 2011 at 9:14 am
Well, last night got more elaborate because I was craving Mexican. And I only spent about twenty minutes actually in the kitchen – chopping some vegetables and opening some tins doesn’t take that long.
And spaghetti aglio e olio is one of the great fast-cooking classics! I should do that some time.
Megan | June 8, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Nights when cooking is only slightly more appealing than take-out? I have toast:)
Or if I’m feeling slightly less lazy, pasta with pesto-from-a-jar and tuna-from-a-tin.
Catherine | June 9, 2011 at 9:26 am
Tuna from a tin? You mean it exists outside a tin? 🙂
Toast is oddly not a comfort food for me. Though another good quick meal is toast with sautéed grated carrot and zucchini and onion on it with a bit of chilli and basil and melted cheese…
(yeah, I have a slightly skewed view of ‘not cooking’, don’t I?)
Megan | June 9, 2011 at 11:57 am
Megan | June 8, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Yes, it comes in sushi rolls as well. And sashimi! 🙂