The Lyorn's Den

For two:
Clean and slice a medium-sizes hokkaido squash (other will do, too).

Crumble 100 grams of white cheese (sheep or goat). Thinly slice 50 grams of Chorizo, cut slices in halves or quarters, if they are too big. Put it all in a big bowl, add two tablespoons of olive oil, and salt to taste. If you like, also some finely chopped rosemary (about a teaspoon fresh, about half dried), smoked paprika powder (again, between half a teaspoon and a full one), or sliced green olives (to taste).

Butter (or oil) a sufficiently large form or baking tray, pour everything in.
Put in oven and set oven to 200°C (lower on convection). Bake for about 30 minutes.

Serve with toasted flatbread or ciabatta: Put the bread in the oven with the squash for about 5 minutes. If the bread's a bit stale, pass it quickly under running water to dampen the surface before putting it in the oven.

We had a nice dark Tuscan cuvée with it.

Quickly made, and good to strong black tea. Will probably keep a few days. (If not eaten before.)

( Read more... )

I made this yesterday, we tried it today, and liked it. The olive oil taste was strong before baking, but unobtrusive after.

( Notes )

ETA (Jul 3): I just ate the last piece. Still good. Also good with summer fruit compote.

ETA (Jul 28) ( Version 2.0, even better )

Yesterday, the cats had their yearly appointment at the vet to get their shots and have a check-up.

Now, getting cats into boxes can be risky and bloody (cats fight tooth and claw), or it can be annoying and stressful (cats diving under furniture), or very time-consuming, or all of the above.

Yesterday evening, I got out of bed from a little cat-nap. Got dressed. Picked up a sleepy Tully from the covers and set him down in front of his box. He got in and I closed the door. Repeated this with Jerry. Both cats boxed in less than two minutes.

Only when I carried the boxes out in the cold, there was a soft "human, what are you doing?"-meow from Jerry.

At the vet, the scary good behaviour continued.

Back home, they carefully left their boxes and looked for a place to nap in peace.

A bit later, mad_freddy and K___ came over for testing lebkuchen. We had nine different kinds, each cut in three and all pieces labelled, notepads and pencils, and very seriously set about to rank them by taste and lebkuchen-ness, or, in my case, just make notes of their distinguishing characteristics. I did that mostly one-handed, as Tully had decided that the best place to nap was right next to me, getting his ears rubbed.

After that, we were as happy and full as expected after finishing the equivalent of a three-course-dinner in lebkuchen.

Other than that, I feel as could be expected, all things considered. I.e. tired and in pain, but generally OK.

Also, dinosaur feathers! (via pallia.net)

Yesterday I didn't close the freezer door fully before going to work. I think the veggies, the bread and the ice cream will survive, as the ice cubes didn't even melt, but I have doubts about the fish. So, yesterday, there was ( unexpected fish )

Did I mention that I've been getting a lot of eggs? ;->

( Tortilla Espanola with green things )

I knew this was experimental: ( Palaeo Banana Bread )

(I call it a casserole here, but it's halfway to a soufflé: it rises on beaten egg whites, but it does not use a milk/egg yolk custard as a base.)

I am getting lots of fresh eggs from free-range chickens at the moment (big, strong chickens that chase off the farm cats if the cats happen to be in their way), so I've been looking into recipes that need lots of eggs.

After a less-than-succesful cheesecake where the soft wheat semolina was too al dente, and the whole thing lost all volume overnight, I tried something which would not get the chance to collapse at cooling and would give the semolina sufficient time and heat. So: ( Curd Cheese Casserole )

This serves six. It's medium-sweet, even with the fruit, and considered a main dish in Germany. To balance it somewhat, you might serve a salad as a starter.

Variants: If you can't have wheat, the recipe should work just fine with polenta. If you want to do something savory with curd cheese, replace the seminola pudding with mashed potatoes and the sugar with grated cheese, and the fruit with veggies to taste.

BTW, while I was trying to translate cooking terms, I happened on this: Cooking for Engineers: Dark Chocolate Soufflé.

Gaming yesterday, and eating well.

( Braised Pork with Squash and Curry spices )

In other news, I have applied for vacation in August, and if I get it I will be at LonCon3 with K___ and two of her friends. Don't know yet if I'll take the car with the others, or fly, or go by train. Anyway, need my vacation OK'd first.

After the very good results with the cookies from the Welsh cookbook, I attempted a ( Tea-and-fruitcake )

ETA: Turned out fine. With less sugar, it tasted more like bread than like cake, so I served it with butter, and everyone liked it.

I cooked this for the gaming group today, and it was fast and simple, and very tasty. I had expected it to turn out well (obviously), but in fact it was even better. It's also vegetarian and can be made vegan with little effort. Get the kale frozen and already chopped, or it will not be fast... The following will probably feed six. If you want to make sure it's enough, just make more pasta.

( Pasta with kale and apricots )

In other news, I bicycled to work today although temperatures were below freezing. It was fun, but now my throat hurts. My new coat does not close well over the chest. I am trying to get an outdoor jacket. So far I have not found one that I liked.