One of my goals for this moving to Europe business was to become a better cook. I knew I would have a lot more time on my hands (the upside of the whole not really being employed thing), and I wanted to take advantage of it. I never really cooked until I met Dan. I think my first foray into cooking was when I was about 10. I attempted to make macaroni and cheese (from a box–of course) for my mom. Unfortunately, I tried to make it in less than 2 minutes, so my poor mom got a bowl of uncooked noodles covered in clumpy, powdery cheese. I’ve come a long way since then, but it’s only been the last couple years that I’ve truly become interested in cooking, because it’s something Dan and I can do together (truthfully though, I’m usually the sous chef since he’s so much better at it than me).
But, I am determined to work on my culinary skills and have come up with a new project for myself. I am going to try 1 new recipe a week while we’re here. We shipped most of our cookbooks here and man, were those boxes heavy, so I am going to make good use of them. I hope to stick with it and also welcome suggestions for interesting recipes (following our dietary caveats of no red meat and no pork).
Tonight I made my inaugural dish for this project, something from a great Syrian-Jewish cookbook I’ve been meaning to try for awhile. It’s called “rishta b’tahineh” and it’s an egg noodle dish with lentils, sesame butter and caramelized onions. It’s an unconventional group of ingredients and it wasn’t the most appetizing looking dish (brown lentils seldom look like anything other than poo, let’s be honest), but it actually came out fairly well. So, week 1 of my independent cooking school was a success!
This weekend we finally saw Slumdog Millionaire, which I’ve been wanting to see since its release last year, and we thought it was great. However, what we didn’t know was that a lot of the dialogue in the beginning of the movie is in Hindi. Movies in Belgium are shown in their original version, so if they are American or British movies they are shown in English, and French and Dutch subtitles are put in–the voices are not dubbed. This is great since dubbing is wretched and should be made fun of at all times, but when characters in English-speaking movies speak something other than English, the words are only translated into French and Dutch. So, during Slumdog Millionaire we had to put our French to the test and see if we understood what the characters were saying. And, I’m pleased to report that we actually understood the majority of the French subtitles! We are learning!
(Linguistic) Change is coming to the Seaton Wisman household!
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
You and your kid brother should have a cook off while we’re there – he’s becoming quite the experienced chef these days. Much to my benefit.
February 25th, 2009
I should have told you before – i have and love this cookbook. I’ll look up stuff that I’ve made, but the pies (spinach and cheese, squash and cheese, and maybe one with leeks?) are total favorites. You’ve probably had them at our house, actually…
March 11th, 2009
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