Saturday, July 9, 2011

Spanish eggplant dip and ruffle cake

Spinach pilaf
Food Diary (July 08, 2011)
Breakfast: Missed
Lunch: Spinach pilaf
Dinner: Oat bread with pickled herring, Spanish eggplant dip, baked salmon
Baking/sweets: Double coconut cookies

Couple of days ago I made double coconut cookies and froze the leftover dough. And it came in handy today. I baked the cookies without defrosting the dough and they turned out great. I have done this many times before and noticed that freezing does not affect the quality, and defrosting does not really seem to make a difference apart from increasing waiting time!
  
Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Cakewhiz
Ruffle cake




Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: The Local
We humans are very picky. Take for example the hospitality industry. Mostly ‘attractive’ persons are employed as air hostesses or waiters. And we don’t just treat our fellow human beings that way, even fruits and vegetables are not spared. All fruits and vegetables sold in supermarkets are perfectly shaped and good looking. Of course not all of them grow to have the perfect figure. What happens to the rest? According to a Swedish Board of Agriculture report Swedes throw away about $3-6 billion worth of food every year and the food thrown away by households, stores and restaurants is just the tip of the iceberg. Unattractive vegetables don’t even make it to the stores.  It is estimated that as much as a fourth of all the carrots farmed are rejected by stores. This is a problem not just in Sweden. 

It was only about 2 years ago that the EU laws were amended to allow shops to sell imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. So now shops are allowed to sell cucumbers which are not perfectly straight, however if the consumers continue to be fussy we won’t see crooked cucumbers in the shops.

Rising food prices and food shortages are constantly in the news yet we throw away food just because it looks unattractive. 
at 12:36 AM

14 comments:

  1. KimJuly 9, 2011 at 1:09 AM

    what is a spanish eggplant dip??? sounds amazing~~

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nami | Just One CookbookJuly 9, 2011 at 1:45 AM

    Your spinach pilaf looks delicious! This is a great way for my kids to eat spinach as they don't look "visible" so much. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jocie's MomJuly 9, 2011 at 2:06 AM

    I think ugly food is adorable :) I'd be happy to take the reject veggies! Hey, don't miss breakfast again!

    ReplyDelete
  4. pingJuly 9, 2011 at 4:32 AM

    Spinach pilaf ... great Popeye power dish!
    I agree with Parsley Sage ... misshaped fruits and veges ... they're adorable. I see form and character in them, just like I see the gingerman as my avatar and my strawberry mushcle man :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kelsey AnnJuly 9, 2011 at 5:20 AM

    ruffle cake!!!???!!! what a crazy but cool concept haha <3

    ReplyDelete
  6. ♥peachkins♥July 9, 2011 at 8:45 AM

    cute ruffle cake!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 9, 2011 at 10:40 AM

    I loved the ruffle cake as well. Great choice!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Angie's RecipesJuly 9, 2011 at 11:41 AM

    Your pilaf looks so delicious! Ruffle cake is very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  9. elisabeth@foodandthriftfindsJuly 9, 2011 at 6:13 PM

    Spanish eggplant dip sounds like the Sicilian version of the eggplant caviar, or the Israeli baba ganoush, I imagine.
    The spinach pilaf looks, amazing, and the ruffle cake is gorgeous...so nice of you to share!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Three-CookiesJuly 10, 2011 at 3:11 AM

    Junia: its eggplant, tomato, garlic etc. Really delicious!

    Nami: thank you! Yes the spinach is quite well hidden. You could also add bacon or ham to hide the spinach even more

    Parsley sage: same, I would happily eat ugly/reject vegetables

    ping: I always wanted to know what that avatar/symbol was, now I know

    Kelsey: yes very cool concept!

    peachkins: very cute indeed

    yummychunklet: great minds think alike:)

    Angie: thank you

    Elisabeth: I think it was more the Sicilian version, it had tomatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  11. pingJuly 10, 2011 at 6:06 AM

    Haha! It's a chunk of ginger with a kumquat for his head!

    ReplyDelete
  12. SissiJuly 10, 2011 at 1:18 PM

    Thanks for the freezing tip! I sometimes make too much cookie dough too and have never thought of freezing it.
    I noticed even on the farmers markets only straight flawless fruits and vegetables are sold. There is one big stand where they sell separately "ugly" vegetables-curled aubergines, small tomatoes, bent cucumbers... They usually cost 60% less than the beautiful ones and people rarely choose them! (I do of course! Why would I care if the cucumber is bent?? Unless I wanted to transform it into a rolling pin ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Three-CookiesJuly 10, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    Sissi: I haven't seen any stalls selling 'ugly' vegetables, I rarely go to farmers markets, maybe thats why:) I suppose you buy straight vegetables when you also need a rolling pin, its quite practical:)

    ReplyDelete
  14. kristyJuly 11, 2011 at 1:54 PM

    Oh! Look at that ruffle cake! It's just beautiful! I wouldn't want to eat it though - it's just too darn pretty. :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)