Hey, lovely people of retro food world.  I feel like I have been totally neglecting you recently but believe me, you are not alone.  Top o’ the list of neglect as been myself.  There was a night last week when my dinner consisted of 1 cronut and  2…ok…3 glasses of red wine.  Oh and tears. Which I figure counts for grains, fruit and salt.  That’s three of the food groups isn’t it?

I have been working all the hours and even though it has been crazy busy, I have also been loving it.

The tears were because that night I realised I had not only missed a book club meeting but I had missed the emails advising of the book club meeting so I was basically a no show which I hate.  Because that’s just rude.

Safavid Style Beef Pastries

So, there has not been much cooking done at all.  One of the few things I have made was the Safavid Style Beef Pastries from Persiana.  My plan was to get home by 7, maybe 7:30 and then  make a yoghurt sauce and some salad and the pastries – I had already made the beef mixture –  and we would eat, drink and be merry and marvel over the elaborate pastry swirls and curlicues I had formed.  Except I didn’t get home til closer to 8:30 and those pastries were thrown together with the love and attention that you would normally give a a not very interesting advertisement for something you have no intention of buying.  There was no yoghurt sauce.  There was no salad.  There were some badly formed pastries on a plate with a blob of ketchup mixed with tabasco sauce (me) and HP sauce (him).

BTW, these should have looked like this:

Safavid Style Beef Pastries3

I felt I had done really badly on this meal. So when I asked a very tentative “So what do you think?” I was pretty much bracing myself for critique that contained all the things I was berating myself for, being all the missing parts of the meal I had planned in my head.  And that the pastries looked like they had been made with someone with no opposable thumbs.

“These are great.  I really like them”

“What?”

“Are there more?  Can I have some more?”

Sabrina Ghayour, this is why I love you.

Speakin’ of which

The Persiana Project

Last time we spoke I had 32 recipes left to cook from Persiana.  Somehow, and I don’t even know how I managed to do this, we are now down to 26.

I made the Safavid Beef Pastries, the Cod with Relish, the marinated feta, the feta cigars from the marinated feta and….two other things  that I have no recollection of making.  Such is the fugue state of my brain. On the other hand, this challenge is going really well.  And OMG…the marinated feta and the feta cigars?  Delightful, delicious, delovely!

 

Persiana Marinated Feta

Turkish Feta Pastry CigarsNext on the list to cook is the Chicken and Artichoke salad which I am planning to make tomorrow night.  Then again, I was also planning to make it tonight and ended up having a jaffle made with some leftover curry instead.  This is actually one of the very best ways to eat leftover curry – and a special little trick – instead of just plain butter on the bread, make a little garlic butter.  Leftover heaven!

Curry JaffleInbox Zero

Because I have been so busy my personal inbox is out of control. At last count I had about 2700 unread emails.  My challenge for April is to get this under control i.e. no more than one page of unread.  I have found in the past, the best way to do this is to pick the latest email, search for all from that sender and work through them in a batch.  This is particularly good for anyone who is selling anything as you can do a mass delete and voila that’s 30 emails gone in 10 seconds.  But if anyone has any tips on how to control a crazy inbox, please let me know!

 Watching

I reinstated our Netflix subscription over Easter so I am finally watching Making A Murderer.

I am also binge watching The Librarians…this is almost like someone make a show EXACTLY for me.  It’s set in a library and its about really smart people solving supernatural stuff. Who even knew I had that many buttons that could be hit?

 

Reading

The Midnight Watch

Loved it, loved it, loved it.  Best book I have read thus far this year.  And I feel like I have read a lot of good stuff already. Stay tuned.  There will be more. Soon.

The Method

I loved this too.  How is this for a premise?

“Imagine a helpless, pregnant 16-year-old who’s just been yanked from the serenity of her home and shoved into a dirty van. Kidnapped . . . Alone . . . Terrified.

Now forget her . . .

Picture instead a pregnant, 16-year-old, manipulative prodigy. She is shoved into a dirty van and, from the first moment of her kidnapping, feels a calm desire for two things: to save her unborn son and to exact merciless revenge.

She is methodical – calculating – scientific in her plotting. Leaving nothing to chance, she waits . . . for the perfect moment to strike. The Method is what happens when the victim is just as cold as the captors.”

This week I am hoping for a bit more time away from work to get my life back under control.  I am planning to cook the salad from Persiana as mentioned but also Anthony Bourdain’s Onion Soup Les Halles, and a mixed mushroom strudel.

Your turn now.  What are you cooking, reading, watching doing this week?  I love to hear from you so let me know.  Also., please send clearing email tips.

Oh and if anyone out there is a jam maker?  I have an A-Z of Cooking Project just for you – get your  1970’s jam on!  Just let me know.

Have a super week!

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