Food In The Fort

This is a recipe that Catherine and I are wild about. We positively love the rustic, hearty taste of the fish, mushrooms and potatoes coupled with the creaminess of the evaporated milk, and the spicy kick of the chili powder and ground red pepper. Weekday nights are notoriously hurried and since Catherine often has after-school activities she’s usually starving by the time she gets home. So I like to have something quick, simple and filling ready when she walks in the door so we have more time for talking and cuddling. And this recipe certainly fits the bill. That it should be so delicious just makes this recipe all the more perfect.

In fact, now that I think about it, this may have been the very first meal I ever made for Catherine. I don’t think I’ll forget the look of surprise and delight as she walked in the door and the warm, fishy aroma first hit her, or the look of joy that overtook her face on first tasting it. As I said above, Catherine and I both go nuts for this time-saving stew which leads me to wonder why I waited almost a whole year to make it again.

I mean, really, why don’t we make this more often? It’s so simple to make that you can chop up everything the night before, fry up the bacon and onion the next morning and toss it all in the crockpot before you leave for work. By the time you come home, you’ve got a wonderful, tasty and satisfying home-cooked meal that beats the pants off any pizza. And if you knew how much I love pizza, you’d know how strong of a statement that is.

You’ll want to serve your stew with your favorite cheap beer and a nice crusty bread to sop up the soup left at the bottom of your bowl. Read the rest of this entry »

I remember looking around a couple of years ago for a garlic mashed potatoes recipe and coming across a website called Eat Dangerously which was promoting a cookbook of the same name. I loved the site and eventually ended up buying the cookbook for myself and for my parents and a couple of friends. I have since lost my copy (a bunch of books went missing when we moved - if you find my copy of this book or Caesar’s Forms and Syntax, please let me know). You should definitely check the site out: it’s humorously written and full of delicious recipes which live up to the site’s “blow health out your ass” philosophy. They use heavy cream, they aren’t afraid of butter, and they know that seasoning food robustly is not a crime. All this having been said, this isn’t their recipe for garlic mashed potatoes, but I think they might approve. Read the rest of this entry »