Happy 2014!

I knew I hadn't posted much in 2013, but it was a shock to find out that there was only one single post at the beginning of the 2013.

Let me start again, wishing the accidental viewer (as at this point any follower must have given up on me) a Happy New Year!  Followed by stating  the same resolutions as last year's. I have a scatter gun approach to resolutions, I figured out that if I have a ton of  them, I am bound to get some done, even if only by accident.

Starting with food,  I want to feed my family good food (most of the time),  increase my children's exposure to different tastes and my cooking repertoire.  With my Brazilian and Japanese background, and my father's curiosity about food, we grew up eating a variety of food. We though nothing of eating sashimi, carpaccio and quibe cru. Or feijoada and dobradinha. The first 3 involve raw fish or meat.  Feijoada has pigs ears and trotters (though my mother didn't use them) and dobradinha is made with cow's stomach.

That's something I didn't manage to pass on to my kids, a curiosity and liking for new food. My daughter has a potential which hasn't been encouraged much, while my son is suspicious of anything he hasn't eaten before. I am aware his attitute won't change overnight. In fact, we are in a campaign to get my son to be more adventurous for years. It is slow, requires patience but there's been progress and it is rewarding to see it.

I'll tell you about it sometime, but for the time being, let me share this year's strategy. I am trying to plan the menu in advance. Menu planned in the weekend, weekly shop on Monday.

While it is as easy to write the menu anywhere, I am using Ali Edwards' menu planner. It is simple, has slots for fruit/veg/desserts and new food. It is supposed to be for dinner but has enough space to squeeze lunch and dinner in it.

Increasingly I am using recipes I find in the internet and save in a pinterest board. I have been doing this for the last year and the only drawback is to be referring to my iPad while cooking, so this year, I am also printing the recipes and keeping them in a folder. So my folder would have a printout of the menu planner, then printouts of any recipe I am going to try during the week.  I am hoping to try at least one new dish every week.

Here's the list of recipes I or one of my collaborators tried so far: Pinterest board with recipes tried. There's real comments in it, which either I or my friends wrote.

Of the things I tried so far in 2014, the spaghetti with olives, tomatoes and feta is my favourite. It's more of a summer recipe but after coming back from visiting my family in Brazil, I was still in the mood for something light and fresh.

Hope you enjoy it!

Trying new food

While I haven't been completely idle as far as idle as craft is concerned, I haven't taken any photos of what I have managed so far. So I'll change the subject. To food.

Sometime ago I set a goal to try to make a new dish every week.

Why? Because I had fallen into the routine of cooking the same dozen or so dishes that everybody at home liked. Specially after my number two turned out to be a very fussy eater. Or else, cooking something for my husband and I and popping chicken nuggets and chips in the oven for the kids.

I have kept the goal - with a little bit of cheating - but I can't remember exactly what I made and when I made, so my next project is to have a folder with the recipes printed so I can go back to the ones that were sucessful.

The recipes I found in the internet I saved in Pinterest so I can list here, click on the link for a comment and a link the original post/recipe:

Source: skinnytaste.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Source: pink-parsley.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Source: skinnytaste.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Source: jamieoliver.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Source: blogs.babble.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Food

I should add a mid-year resolution to my new year ones. Take photos of "mission accomplished" tasks.

Last week I made a oven baked risotto. I had it first at a friend's house and it is so much easier than the traditional method. I googled and found this recipe. The photo is by MollyMesnik too.

I made a couple of mistakes. One, I let  it bake for too long so it was a bit too soggy, two, I didn't have enough parmesan cheese so it tasted a bit bland.  I'll definitely try it again (halving the ingredients).

New Year's Resolutions, 6 months on...

The problem with New Year's Resolutions is that, after a month or so,  I forget about them. Honestly, at this point I don't even remember all of them.

So I came up with this cunning plan to shame me to stick to them. After all, it is only June, I still have more than 6 months to get some results. Maybe if make a plan to blog weekly about my progress (or lack of) it will help me to keep focused?

I'll list my resolutions as I get them started again.

Resolution 1 - Meals: Every week try to cook something new. It doesn't have to be anything big, a side dish, a dessert is fine.

I got a subscription to Easy Food with my Tesco vouchers and I've tried a few recipes from that. Now I started to save interesting recipes I find online with Pinterest, that way, I can keep track of I want to try and write down if I liked it or not afterwards.

Today I tried Hasselback Potatoes, Donal Skehan's version. It was a bit dry, but rereading it, I made a mistake and didn't melt the butter. I'll make it again.

This is a foto from Donal's blog, mine didn't turn out as pretty, but nice enough.

Resolution 2 - Home and Garden. Let's say they're not looking good. Prunning, cleaning, weeding in the garden. Home needs decluttering, repainting. And lots of imagination, it is so bland.

My husband got a multiple picture frame like this one for this birthday in February. It is a tricky one because you need lots of photos that go well together. I printed some photos but didn't like the final result then had a brainwave and went for mirrors instead.

It is temporarily sitting on top of my mantelpiece.