Cooking Day, or A Dinner of Apples

Leif helped me in the kitchen a great deal today.  Here, he's wiping the kombu (dried kelp) with a damp paper towel to get rid of the excess salt (and little crustaceans that still cling onto the seaweed).  He did a magnificent job!

Pardon the blurriness of these photos...they were sharp to begin with, but I processed them differently and they became rather blurry in the process.  Weird.

He was so happy to be helping, but he gave me this face.  What a silly!

We spent most of our day in the kitchen today, whipping up all kinds of things (and all "international" dishes, too.  Hmn.)

The above sea kelp was for Dashi (stock made from seaweed) which would serve as the base for our Miso soup.  We made a double batch - one the quick way, and one the slow way.  Tomorrow, Miso Soup noodle bowl for lunch!  Yay!

This was dinner, Meat Stuffed Apples (I'm not sure which is less appetizing, the name of the dish, or this picture.  Food photographer I am not).  Dinner was all Greek.  In Greek, this dish is called "Mila gemista me kima" and it smelled delcious as it cooked.  Although "Meat-Stuffed Apples" isn't very yummy sounding, I had everything on hand for it, and it ended up being absolutely delicious!  It has ground beef in it, with mint, parsley, currants, pine nuts, and a little bit of rice.  It is topped with a bechamel sauce (which is what looks so burny-like in the picture).

Horrid name, but definitely a keeper recipe!

The side dish was Saffron Pilaf (Pilafi me safrani) which by itself was kinda meh, but when mixed with the meat-stuffed apples and their juice, Mmm!  I used my saffron that I bought in Spain (yes, rather elderly saffron) and I think I've discovered a sad truth...I don't think I like the taste of saffron.  Waah.  Love the thought of saffron, dislike the taste.  Oh well.

The other side was sauteed haricots verts, but I shan't bore you with details of that.

All of those Greek recipes came from a cookbook I've been wanting since before it came out, and snagged at the library the last time I was there.  I figured I'd try out a few recipes and then if I really liked those that I tried, I'd invest in the cookbook.  Well, if all the recipes I try are like this one, I'm gettin' it!

Last night, I sat up late, waiting for Jason to get home, and I perused (read every word) of the cookbook.  I pored over the recipes, literally drooling over the octopus, squid and sardine recipes (I'm in a mood for cephalopods and briny fish, what can I say?)

I'm fresh out of octopus in the house (although I'm workin on gettin' some in!) so I made the meaty apples instead.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Oh, the book is Vefa's Kitchen, in case you wanted to know.

Then we moved on to German fare:

German Apple Cake served a la mode, because my husband believes that dessert is nothing if not served a la mode. 

Very yummy cake.  Nice and moist.  Just perfectly appley and spicy enough, and yes, downright delicious with the vanilla ice cream.  Also a keeper.

That recipe came from Smitten Kitchen (link to that site at the sidebar to yer left).

So, we had stuffed apples for dinner and apple cake for dessert. 

It was all very appley and all very yummy.

I love when I try several new dishes in one day and that ALL turn out to be keepers!

Seriously, how often does that happen?

Mmm, apple cake...

Today was a lovely rainy colorful Autumn day, perfect for copious amounts of tea and hearty amounts of apple dishes.  Oh joy.

:)