We got gifted some live lobster so I boiled them. But then I had all the shells left over so I figured I’ll make a Lobster Bisque. I only watched the chef at Culinary II make it and this was my first time making it myself. It came out ok-ish, but I didn’t have fish stock so the flavour is not as full as it should be. The texture is nice, but took a lot of beurre manie because I added too much liquid.

Bought some brioche from Costco (why wouldn’t you?) and made french toast for breakfast with it. The brioche is so soft and fluffy that the french toast was almost like custard on the insight. Definitely making this again!

I love cinnamon buns. I usually make a recipe that I found on the internet and the results are not bad. Today I was craving cinnamon buns and decided to give the recipe from on of my favorite books, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, a try. And man did they not disappoint. The texture and consistency of the buns was almost brioche like and might be the best I’ve made so far.

Was too lazy to make proper lunch so I threw together a sandwich. Charred red bell pepper and built a sandwich with pickles, ham, Havarti, red onion and the bell pepper.

I had some corn tortillas, black beans, and pickled red onions left over from dinner so I decided to make some breakfast tacos. Scrambled some eggs, fried the black beans with the onions, and put some cheese on it. Voila. Leftovers used well.

I had been craving chocolate chip cookies all day and decided to make some after dinner. However, no eggs left in the fridge so I used this recipe instead. The cookies came out nicely. I baked them longer than the recipe prescribed – 16 minutes vs 12 minutes – just to get some color on them. The texture was nice, slightly crispy on the outside, but still chewy on the inside.

Last time I made the pan fried sesame garlic tofu I had used silken tofu and it didn’t come out very crispy and the sauce was lacking aromatics. So I made it again, and this time used firm tofu which made frying it crispy possible. I also added aromatics (green onion, garlic, and ginger) to flavor the sauce. I added them just before adding the sauce slurry, but I think the pan was a little too hot, so garlic became a little bitter. Generally, I think cooking the sauce in a separate pot would be better because it lets you keep the sauce and the tofu separately and maintain crispiness until you serve it. And, trying to stir the sauce and maintain proper heat control while you have chunks of tofu floating in it is kind of tricky.

Needed a breakfast and felt like something different so I threw together a firttata with some random veggies I had in the fridge. It came out quite nicely, even though I probably shouldn’t have tried to flip the whole thing. Instead I should have just cooked it with a lid.

Yesterday’s dinner was oven roasted cod with cherry tomatoes and shallots, with potato gratin and roasted asparagus. I followed the New York Times recipe for One-Pan Roasted Fish with Cherry Tomatoes and it’s a wonderful dish. Will definitely make this again.

Just a photo of this morning’s omelette because it looked so nice.