One of my dearest friends injured her ribs, and was off work for a week.
Now, this chick is an absolutely gorgeous human being, and a foodie. After leaving her home—twice—with cuisine magazines I hatched a plan. In order to entertain and amuse her (and challenge me), I decided on a game! I would make a recipe out of one of those magazines every day for the remaining four days of the working week!
Day One: Brownie cake with boysenberries. Truly truly deeeelicious! Rather than burden my friend and her family with the task of eating all of it (and I hasten to point out here that I gave her only half the cake and kept the other half for my own family) I issued her with a challenge: she had to make every person who visited her eat a piece!
Day two: and this was a massive undertaking, it was quince and roquefort frangipani tart. I have never eaten blue cheese in my life, indeed I phoned my friend and asked “Is Roquefort supposed to smell like that?” to which she replied “Yes.” Tart made, I took it round, and insisted she try it first as I had no idea how roquefort, quince, a pastry base with icing sugar in it, and frangipani was going to work. She loved it, so I tried some, and I have to admit folks, it works so utterly gorgeously because of the Roquefort!!! It was a smash hit!!! Since her lovely parents were there they helped us to eat some and (in continuance of the game) took two slices home, plus some brownie cake! I came home with a little under half of the remaining tart and my daughter and I finished it off.
Day three: by this time I knew that both I, and dearest friend, were concerned for our waistlines, and so I scoured the two magazines for the right recipe, and when I selected it I made it, took it round, raved about how long it had taken me, told her “You are going to love this!” Naturally she was fearing another extravagant and fattening dish…and so I removed the tinfoil cover to reveal: fruit kebabs with a lemon yoghurt dipping sauce!!! She laughed, with—I believe—both delight and relief!
Day four: still concerned at sending my friend’s scales—and my own—to new heights, I opted for a roasted tomato and labneh recipe. Basically, tomatoes with garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of smoked paprika and caster sugar, seasoned with salt and pepper, then roasted slowly. Once done, a scattering of sliced almonds, and dollops of labneh (greek yoghurt mixed with a tsp of sea salt and strained for 24 hours). Again, I sold her on the delightful dish, and then did the great reveal of something simple, healthy, and low calorie! However…she had phoned me up and give me a recipe, earlier in the week, for salted caramel, and so I am afraid I made that also, and to compensate for the healthy dish, I took some of the salted caramel as well.
Admittedly I have had a fun week, and probably could have done some more writing … but the wonderful thing for me, is that I feel a renewed enjoyment of cooking! I feel re-inspired!
It is so easy to get sick of cooking, and it is so easy to not make the time for another person. This week I have rediscovered the joy of cooking, and got to spend time with a person who is often out of the city with her job, and busy for most of the rest of the time. She is, as I said, a truly gorgeous human being, one who’s very presence lights up the lives of those around her.
It was a great week! When I saw her yesterday and she gave me another cuisine-type magazine I quickly asked “There’s no challenge with this one, is there?”, and her ‘No no no!” was uttered rather too quickly!!!
