Belgrade, Montana, United States
When it comes to the kitchen, some years are better than
others. For me 2024 was not a
particularly big cooking year. That makes me wonder – what have I been eating
if not food I make myself. I rarely eat out when at home. Well, 2024 was
something else – a rather big travel year.
In total I was around home for somewhat under six months total. Nevertheless, why was I not more culinarily
inclined the scant half-year I was around?
My house still being somewhat of a construction project
through the year, work my library just being finalized in late October as I am
about to head out on another long trip, I did not host a whole lot of dinner
parties. One of those was Saint
Patrick’s Day when I made some Irish Seafood Chowder and an Irish Soda Bread to
go along with the trad Corned Beef and Cabbage. Dessert was Pavlova, not Irish
but a baked meringue with fruit that is supposedly Australia’s national
dessert.
One of my big trips in 2024 was two months in Albania,
Greece, and Cyprus. I was very impressed with the food there.
I was ready for a break from it after I got
back, but in less than two months I was craving it again and eager to recreate
some of the dishes I had there for myself and friends. My creations included variations on
traditional Greek (Horiataki) Salad and other salads I tried there, Kleftiko
(baked) Lamb Shanks, Giouvetsi (orzo pasta and tomato meat stew/casserole), and
Shrimp Saganaki. It was tempting to make one of those super-sweet sugar
syrup-saturated Greek nut and phyllo desserts, but I decided to be calorie
conscious with Greek Yogurt Parfaits with Honey, Walnuts, and Cinnamon.
My friend Rodrigo visited in October. He really likes food and gave me a Downton
Abbey Cookbook for my birthday this year.
So, naturally I had to make him a “Downton Abbey Banquet”….even though
it was just the two of us. I let him
pick a few dishes from the book for me to make. After a few, “No, that’s too
complicated” or “I don’t have all the equipment” we settled on three dishes –
Cucumber Soup, Summer Berry Pudding, and Filets Mignon Lily with Anna Potatoes.
The last one of those was supposedly served in the restaurant on the Titanic the
night the it hit the iceberg, relevant to Downton Abbey because the first episode
of the series begins with the family getting news that the heir died on the sunk
ship. Cucumber soup was interesting to make because it’s a vegetable that’s
normally cooked nowadays, but that wasn’t the case in the past.
The rest of the year when cooking for myself my meals were a
little bit of this and a little bit of that, whatever recipes I encountered
that appeared relatively healthy and appealed to me at the time, including a
few soups, a number of beef and seafood dishes, and experimenting with various
kinds of vegetable dishes that used strange ingredients or different
techniques. Finnish Rutabaga Bake anyone? OK, so maybe that wasn’t the best,
but at least I tried!
2025-05-22