Family Restaurant

[Phaedra]

Although it kept raining, I harvested some Komatsu and Chinese Cabbage leaves for making this spicy and savory glass noodle, using two of my homemade sauces.

I hope my experiments about planting leafy greens in the greenhouse will be successful. As one side of the greenhouse faces the west, I plan to install a few solar LED Landscape Spotlights, commonly installed for outdoor lighting. If the devices work properly, they can store solar energy for 6 hours when it's sunny and provide extra light for the young plants.

Otherwise, the variety of vegetables here is so limited (sigh)

 

[Phaedra]

Usually, we have a simple sandwich (very German) and hot tea for dinner. But it's Friday night; there should be something more unique.

I used eggs, a potato, and two carrots from our garden to make something close to the Spanish potato omelet (Tortilla de patatas).

Lovely surface after baking

The preparation isn't complicated. I fried the potato and carrot with minced turkey meat, added the mixture of eggs and milk, finalized it with a cheese layer, and then sent it into the preheated oven.

It is served with corns, baby corns, and broccoli in cream sauce, delicious!

 

[baymule]

It looks delicious!

 

[Phaedra]

Pancake time again!

Cinnamon batter

With Adzukibean paste (sweet)

It also tastes charming with a bit of cheese.

 

[Phaedra]

The Journey of a Cheap Pork Butt

I got this 1Kg Pork Butt in the discounter yesterday, and it cost 3.2Euro (due today). I didn't own a restaurant, but I loved to take every chance to train myself from a chef's perspective. Maximizing whatever ingredients I could get cost-effectively and making them into delicious dishes is the task I like very much.

First, a quick cut
(Left: food for cats/dogs；Right: food for us)

I picked the best parts and marinated them with salted lemon and chopped sage for our dinner today.

I now have potato peels that chickens can't directly eat and pork fat I don't want to eat. So, the pork fat is fried until the lard is rendered; then the potato peels are fried. Chickens got those crispy peels as the topping of their first meal today.

Cats and dogs got some pork in their meal, too.

As for the scratchings after rendering, they are chopped and used in the energy blocks for garden birds as extra protein.

The first batch of energy blocks for this winter~

 

[Marie2020]

Pancake time again!

Cinnamon batter
View attachment 45101

With Adzukibean paste (sweet)
View attachment 45102

It also tastes charming with a bit of cheese.
View attachment 45103

I'm not into ham but in pancakes with cheese it's really yummy.

Sadly I can't seem to make pancakes like I used to. I was taught in Holland but somehow I've lost my touch

 

[Marie2020]

It looks delicious!

It sure does, my my tummy is rumbling now

 

[Phaedra]

Soup season is here - I love making soup - everything is in and done.

I also made another batch of black chocolate bricks: 85% black chocolate, roasted peanuts, cornflakes, dried apricots, dried prunes, and raisins.

After the chocolate was solidified, I cut it into smaller bricks and dusted them with sugar-free cocoa powder. Now they look like the sweets from fancy shops.

The daily routine remains. I like to collect ingredients for enriching our chicken feed.

Most of the time, each bowl would be emptied within 5 minutes; therefore, my two leghorn hens (who used to lay in the very early morning) always tried to "hold" their eggs after breakfast (otherwise, nothing would be left). They couldn't hold any longer several times, just went aside to lay mega quickly, and returned to continue their food.

Similar routine for cats and dogs - I have some "food-sharing" advantages as we have chickens, cats and dogs. Cats and dogs will have fresh eggs, and chickens will have some animal protein (cooked meat, skin, and organs from cats' and dogs' food).

 

[Phaedra]

I always like to create delicious home food from those "about to expire (from the best-before date)" ingredients. It might be a proper thread to share some recipes.

The truth is, I didn't follow any specific recipes, and I always like to modify something.

The story of discounted shrimps and scallions

Part of them became fried rice, served with my chili dip.

The rest became Japanese miso soup - something I like very much and would recommend anytime.

The first step is to prepare the broth from the shrimp heads. Fish heads/bones, chicken or pork bones are also suitable for making a good broth. Boil them for five minutes and then simmer (with the lid on) for 15-20 minutes. The vegetable-based broth is also okay.

Ingredients: It can be pretty free-style. The traditional Japanese miso soup needs some fundamental but very essential elements. However, home cooking doesn't need those rules. Besides the broth, my personal collection for making a good miso soup includes only four ingredients - chopped scallions, dried seaweed, tofu, miso.

Mushrooms (Shiitake, Enoki, King Oyster, Maitake are very suitable), fish, shrimp, or other seafood will add their unique flavors, so when I have those ingredients, I will also use them.

There are many kinds of dried seaweed - I always have several packages of this "Wakame" variety in my pantry. It's a survival-type dish - dried wakame and miso (a fermented food) can be kept under room temperature; green onion/chives/scallions grow very easily in most of the garden; as for tofu, it can be done at home when you have a kit and soybeans. Well, but it's not difficult to buy tofu here, so I didn't make it by myself so far.

I usually didn't cut my tofu like this (unless I cook for some guests) - just use a spoon to separate it into smaller pieces for cooking.

Put all ingredients (except miso and a small part of scallions, greener parts) into the broth and bring them to boiling, about 3~5 minutes. Like all fermented foods, putting miso in the boiling soup will destroy more nutrients. Therefore, turn off the heat and then put miso paste in.

It will be much easier to "melt" miso paste evenly by using a sieve and a spoon (or a fork or chopsticks)

Before serving, just add a bit more (raw) scallions - then a very healthy and delicious soup is ready.

 

[Phaedra]

Today's Special: Baked Pudding (Water Bath)

Delicate, from top to toe

Creamy~~

It's so lovely we have some good sunshine hours today - so I took a photo under the sunlight so bright.