- chefcarlin
Food
Still menu planning, still cooking, still copying recipes but not feeling like baking. I really want to make this. I have all the ingredients, just not wanting to bake.
I made this puff pastry quiche and used Cabot habenero cheese. The cheese is spicy! I'd make it with pepper jack next time. Sour cream was our friend to tone it down. Yes, it was huge, yes it heated well.

Merguez patties with noodles and a cabbage/tomato side. Delicious!

I've been cooking a lot. I've been trying to make fewer leftovers since my freezer space is limited and I've been doing pretty well.
Thai chicken salad was excellent. I pan sauteed chicken breast for the chicken. Rotisserie would work very well. I also used snow peas instead of sugar snaps. Trader Joe's scallion pancake on the side.

Pasta with longer cooked broccoli and pan sauteed mahi mahi. Very good!

Spicy pork with vegetables and soba noodles. So good. Forgot a picture.
The perfect spaghetti carbonara was pretty tasty. Sticky salmon with sushi rice and pickled vegetables, great.


Chicken Korma was very good, I halved the recipe and used less cayenne and less salt.

Bacon, Egg and Leek Risotto was wonderful. We had it for dinner but good anytime. Picture not exquisite, but the recipe was. Used the leftover risotto to make arancini.

Green chile chicken and dumplings - delicious. I cubed chicken and cooked it with the peppers and potatoes but rotisserie would work well too. Planned leftovers, stored the dumplings separate from the filling.

Fun
I went to the Dunwoody Arts Festival for some fun. The show was great. Since it was the day before mother's day, the cats suggested I look for gifts from them. I found some earrings at Talia Serinese Jewelry. I liked most of her work but got paper clip and hoop styles.
I think I still need the stacking rings.

I also bought a vase at Flora and Function. I need to pick up some of her other items. Favorites - bats, carrots, owl.
Went to ramen lunch with my friend Cathy. She was the first personal chef in Atlanta and when I decided to start my business in 1998, I called her with many questions. Many. And she answered, had also left a big job in the corporate world and we've been friends since.
I am always recharged when we lunch and chat.

Lunch out with husband at Cafe Sababa which is one of my favorite places. Everything is good.
Floral and Fauna
I cut some celery because it was starting to flower and I used it in a salad. So pretty! I can see it wilting quickly with the warmer weather. I'll see how it does this summer.

Husband planted some of my giant potato eyes on the side of the house so another wait and see. Husband does not laugh much now at my weird planting tries.

Craft room plants are doing very well! I am watering them and the cats are not eating them. My peace lily has three flowers now and the African violet is very fluffy.


Replanted the avocado. Again. Seems happy.

I bought porch farm plants. I tried to be sensible and not over purchase - tomatoes, peppers, calla lily, begonias, lavender, rosemary, green and purple basil. The rosemary is for the front yard but I'm afraid something - deer, chipmunks, will eat anything else in the front so am wary.


Front yard does have an onion that I planted when it sprouted, and a cabbage from fall planting. I guess none of our wildlife likes them. And they are so pretty!


And a pileated woodpecker friend. It is tough to get a picture!

Busy month that seemed to go by quickly, but I got a lot done!