Food52: A New Way to Dinner

I am a big admirer of the Food52  network, for the way in which makes every step of the kitchen management and any recipe achievement just a matter of time. For someone like me, growing up with the deep feeling that I will never be able to bake or cook anything but fried eggs, it is an invaluable incentive that helped me to go through the challenges of managing almost successfully a house with children and regular hungry guests. 

The founders of the website, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, kept up helping lost-in-the kitchen people like me. A New Way to Dinner aims at offering first-hand and long tested assistance to busy family - of four - for managing the chores and challenges of having every day something new, healthy and tasty on the plate. Scheduled as one-week seasonal menus, with ingredients that can be easily switched and combined to create new dishes, the recipes suggested are easy to make and require a minimal time investment. In addition, you are promised to save money on groceries and waste less food, improve the shopping and cooking habits. Sounds delish, isnt't it? The aim: 'Gone will be that nagging to-do anxiety about what you'll put together for dinner after work'. 

You are offered a weekly plan, with details about the time you need to spend in various days for cutting or cleaning the veggies or for the cooking per se. You have reheating directions, advice about how to store the veggies or meat, what kind of storage containers you need. 

The menus are meat-based, but most probably not impossible to substitute them with meatless variants.  Although the portions are aimed for a family of four, with a but of flexibility and imagination, the recipes can be extended or restrained for bigger or smaller households. 

As I am an instant lover of everything that aims to better organize and manage the time, I loved the book even more. However, there are also some of the recipes that I have in sight for the next days, so expect soon to read about applesauce cake with caramel icing, meatballs with onions and zucchini or watermelon puree. 

Strongly recommended to anyone interested in tasty dinners with a minimal time and financial investment.

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

My first porridge

I wanted to taste porridge for a long time, but despite my frequent trips near Scotland and the foodie recommendations from well experienced friends in matters of porridge and my interest for various traditional foods, the moment of true porridge was delayed for a couple of years. (What a shame, I know!) But in one of those moments when you realize that it should be 'now or never', I finally made it! I bought two colourful boxes from Glen Oats, and after a little while, I proceeded to the tasting. 

The porridge, available in three variants, simple, berries and gold syrup, was produced especially for the German market. They look colourful and funny, maybe with a design too charged in my opinion, but friendly enough to convince you to buy it. Especially if you never had the taste of the porridge, it may be a proper incentive. The preparation can be done within minutes, making it a perfect choice for the fast breakfast or lunches spent near the computer: boiled water poured over the content till the designated limit. You should mix well before starting to eat, in order to create a mixture as compact as possible.

As a general recommendation, it is better to consume them while hot. I tried one of them also one hour later and was not very happy with the taste: some traces of gluten, the whole composition was a bit sticky, and without too much taste. But fresh, it can be delicious and bringing good energy.  

My favourite out of them is the berry: it's fresh, fruity and mild. It goes with a breakfast based on fruits or as the only meal of the morning, accompanied by a simple tea or a coffee. 

The corn syrup is a bit too sweet for my taste, with a very milky taste. At a certain point, it tastes a bit artificial, but maybe one should pour less water. For me, it was enough for the morning, together with the coffee. 

My first meetings with porridge, although with the ready-made ones, was fine, good enough to make me curious to try an original meal one day.