Week T-9: Pesto, Risotto cookbook, mango salsa


Trying to make some progress this week, I cleaned out my cupboards and actually added to the panic: I found a container of seafood stock in my cupboard which clearly came from Shannon as I have no idea where you would even buy such a thing. So add that to the list.


Hoping to gain some ground, I made two things tonight. First, a torta of layered cream cheese, pesto and sundried tomato, adapted from a recipe on Epicurious. It's for use/eating during my book club on Wednesday. It molds for two days - how very 1960s! - which is superconvenient for anyone who works during the day. I'm a little concerned about the pesto layer, as I didn't follow the directions and just used the tubed pesto, and it's a little runny. We'll see how that comes out - I suspect that any combo of pesto, sundried tomato and cream cheese will still be good.


Then I made a risotto from the Williams Sonoma Risotto cookbook. This one has broccoli and parmesan, and more interesting - no wine. I was interested to see if the result would be remarkably different, and it isn't - I think due to the strong taste of the parmesan. I also used my favorite vegetable stock, which is very rich and dark and would also have covered the taste. Here's a photo:





My last accomplishment tonight is going to be eating the mango salsa, which I'm taking over to a friend's tonight for eating while we knit. I'm not sure how conducive mango salsa is to knitting, but I'm also happy to sit and eat while they knit, so I will taste it. I am a little concerned that the salsa's been around for a year, and tried to open it earlier today, but it is stuck. Really stuck. That's either good for the salsa, or it will become a paperweight. My friend who's hosting tonight is likely to have one of those opener thingys, so we'll see how it tastes...