There Must Have Been Something in the Fanta Soda

Rei was practically loopy at one point while we were cooking and I had to wonder what was in the Fanta orange soda. Either that or they found Adam’s super secret stash of medicinal tree and decided that the DARE program wasn’t for them. Hey! I resent that remark! I was simply high on the thrill of life!

Either way, I am glad they were feeling good because our dinner was a bit of a cluster. You’re allowed to say ‘fuck,’ Mom.

Rei started by attempting these French chocolate brownies from Sweet Paris. They changed up the chocolate a little bit but not enough to make a difference. We’ve been having trouble with butter lately. I wish we understood the chemistry because then we would know what to do. We need a butter doctor. Stat. The thing is, I changed the chocolate that I stirred in at the end, which shouldn’t have made a difference at all. Weird and rather frustrating…

See all the grease on that top? Well that just got worse as the baking continued to the point where Rei and Zeke had to pour off the excess butter in the sink and let it rest on a rack in the sink. It looked gross and didn’t taste better.

I don’t like chocolate so I wasn’t bothered by the disaster but Rei was pretty disappointed. The chickens will be getting a tasty treat in a few minutes. Rei decided it wasn’t fit for human consumption.

We decided to try a new potato recipe. I had Zeke peel the potatoes and then I sliced them and tossed them into a pan with milk, cream, Dijon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. I am not a Dijon or nutmeg fan but given it was the first time we made the recipe, I opted to follow it. The recipe is one of Rachel Khoo’s from My Little Paris Kitchen.

After simmering the potatoes for ten minutes, I poured them into a casserole dish that I’d prepared by rubbing with garlic and smearing with softened butter. It baked up beautifully and ended up being ok. I probably overcooked the potatoes and didn’t add enough salt. Sure were pretty though.

The problem is that we are used to Julia Child’s potato gratin, which has copious amounts of gruyere cheese in it, while this recipe doesn’t. Our taste buds are hard-wired for cheese when in the presence of a potato casserole such as this, and thus we were disappointed. Science!

Rei marinated the duck legs for a few hours in some citrus concoction before putting into a roasting pan and popping into the oven to bake. The ‘some citrus concoction’ you mention is orange juice (freshly squeezed, obviously), orange zest, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Super easy dumped over the legs and popped in the fridge for a while to stew and flavorify the meat.

Then they worked on the sauce which was some combination of Fanta orange soda (yep! you read that correctly) that was reduced in a pan before adding orange segments to it. Rei is loving our new knife. I secretly love it too. Secretly? Hunny, that’s no secret and you know it.

While Rei worked on the sauce, I prepared the salad and the breadcrumbs for the fried goat cheese. Pretty simple really but it does help to avoid overcooking the cheese on the first side because flipping melted cheese is pretty flippin’ difficult. It was really funny, though. Just as it was tonight when I failed to pay attention and overcooked the first side. Sigh.

I created quite the goopy mess. Rei and I are going to try again tonight. This time I am going to avoid multitasking while cooking the cheese. I also think the breadcrumbs could use some chopped walnuts for extra crunch and flavor.

Rei plated the duck and added the orange sauce. There was a fair bit of Grand Marnier in the sauce. Wait a minute…maybe Rei was enjoying a nip of it as they were cooking. Rei?! Dude, don’t blow my cover! I’m supposed to be the snarky but well-meaning kid, not the rebellious teenager who drinks all your alcohols! Just don’t drink the good stuff. And for the love of all things holy do not try to hide consumption by adding water and ruining a perfectly good tequila or vodka.

Dinner was a bit of a miss. The salad dressing had a little too much oil. The duck legs were stringy and tough. The potatoes needed more salt. And dessert was inedible. At least it was prettier than Thursday’s, I guess. I will take tasty over pretty any day.

While we were making dinner, we were also working on our weekly quiche. Rei and I like to have an egg and veggie dish in the morning and have gotten into the habit of making a quiche on Sunday. We use whole wheat flour for the crust which gets blind baked before I add the veggies, egg mixture and cheese.

This week I cooked up some leeks (as usual) and then sauteed some mushrooms and some spinach. I like putting the sliced tomatoes on topic because they look so pretty once the quiche is cooked.

I love quiche.

At least one thing turned out well for the night. It was tasty for breakfast this morning despite both of us being pretty food-averse in the morning. I just can’t handle the smell or taste of food in the morning, but if I’m up long enough it isn’t a problem.(Our nutritional therapist encourages us to have a solid breakfast with our supplements.) Sounds like you need to get up before 7:05 AM Rei Rei!~Terri

Tonight Rei an I are opting for eggs poached in cream (update: we opted for eggs poached over tomatoes and garlic) and an arugula salad with the fried goat cheese again. Hopefully we — I think you mean you— don’t screw this up. I guess we could just order from Blueline Pizza (had the thin crust veggie for the first time the other night and OMG!).

Rei? What do you think?

Fingers crossed that dinner tonight will be fine — it’s super low key and chill; Mom is starting to cook while I blog, which is a nice change of roles. Worst case scenario, there’s Nutella in the pantry and boxed mac and cheese in the cupboard. What could possibly go wrong? (Nutella and mac and cheese…now that is disgusting ~ Terri)

And on that ominous note, I leave you to ponder all the ways we could fuck this up!

Have a cringhkleyastulous day, and until next time, ciao!

Rei and Terri