Ninja Neko

My dishwasher sometimes stops working, spilling out water over my kitchen floor. It only ever does this when I’m out or sleeping though. When I’m listening intently to the sounds it’s making – trying to detect a failure somewhere in a rincing cycle, stupid machine keeps plowing on happily. I never manage to catch it in the act, the sneeky thing.

Again I bought more cookbooks this year. And used them!
I did not add many dishes to my list, but am getting good at the ones that are in my repertoire already.

I can now also cook
- Risotto! Several variations – plain, lemon, tomato, prawn (Marie Claire cookbooks mostly)
- Prawn, peas and beans stirfry (Jamie Oliver recipe)
- Chicken cacciatore (Martha Stewart recipe)
- Oven roasted ratatouille (Clotilde Dusolier recipe)
- Brocolli and apple quiche (Clotilde Dusolier recipe)
- Leek and salmon turnovers (Clotilde again)
- Oven roasted polenta (Clotilde again)

On my list for this year
- Spring rolls!
- a good stew
- Still want to make a good home made pizza

I need to start making my own soup again.
I’m thinking about getting a proper freezer (I now only have this teeny tiny box at the top of my freezer). This would stimulate me to cook more: I only have time to cook properly in the weekends, but if I cook too much I’m stuck with leftovers for days – which I could now freeze and eat later during the week. And it would help me with my goal of bringing home made lunches to work to replace the greasy cantina food.

So last year I visited a couple of Antwerp’s museums, and a fling in the summer led me to discover new restaurants and neighbourhoods. I still have a bunch of museums and old churches on my list – and here’s hoping for more summer nights in the city.