Another disastrous day at the office, but the upside is tomorrow is Friday. Tonight was perfect for take-out. I drove past a new Indian restaurant the other day, and we decided to order from there. The one we usually get food from is 20 minutes away, and this one is only 10 minutes, so it would be nice to find something as good that’s a little closer.
Even though I noticed their signs up about a week ago, turns out coincidentally that today was their opening day. They’re a non-vegetarian restaurant (some Indian restaurants are strictly vegetarian), so we were pleased to find out that they had The Husband’s favorite Indian entree, Chicken Makhani (aka Butter Chicken). While on the topic, I know there are some Indian-food bloggers that read my site, if any of you have a great tried-and-true recipe for this dish, please share! Our usual Indian restaurant haunt will give up the ingredients, but not the method. I know in their version, just the onions in it alone are a two-day process! Funnily enough, until the owner mentioned the onions, I had never even noticed them. So, I digress. This new restaurant’s version was very close to the one from the place we usually go to, which is a good thing. The bad news is they don’t have Meat Samosas (which I thought was odd, considering they’re non-vegetarian), Bhel Puri or Pani Puri, three things we always order. On the upside, their Kheer (a dessert best described as soupy rice pudding) is just as good as our usual place, and the Onion Kulcha is even better. So, overall, not a bad night.
The Girlfriend came over for dinner and playtime again, to give her parents some time to take care of other things. Between her and Nicholas, they both ate lots of spaghetti, grapes and strawberries, shoveling in food like they hadn’t eaten in weeks. I think they eat so fast because they know that finishing their dinner is the only thing standing in the way of more playtime. We also found out that The Girlfriend likes Basmati rice, something I’m SURE The Neighbor can handle cooking. ;)
In the fast-paced world of overexposure, Rachael Ray and Oprah are teaming up to do a show together.
Ray, a frequent guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” is going into business with the daytime queen’s production company, which has agreed to produce a pilot for a new syndicated cooking show hosted by the celebrity chef.
 She got married last week in Italy, has 4 (yup, 4!) shows on FoodTV Network, is the author of 10 cookbooks and has a new magazine debuting next month. I’m naive enough to think that she still does a lot of the work herself (instead of having a large staff behind her doing the idea-sparking), but enough already. I’m a Rachael Ray fan, don’t get me wrong, but how ’bout some equal time, or discovering another new talented young cook?
OK folks, all for tonight. For my fellow bloggers, don’t forget Weekend Dog Blogging #4 is upon us. Send me your cutest pics of your pup and I’ll include them in a round-up Sunday night. Please send them via e-mail, instead of in the comments section, because I want to make sure I don’t miss anyone. Also, for the feline-friendly, don’t forget to send your kitty snaps to Clare at Eat Stuff for inclusion in her Weekend Cat Blogging event.
Lots of Fallish-type cooking planned for the weekend, so make sure to stay tuned for that. Until then…
I don’t get why she needs a “lifestyle” talk show… But I think she qualifies for overexposure…. a few foodTV shows ago! Don’t get me wrong – I do like the idea of her shows but when they are playned non-stop it seems it can get a little annoying.
Like Payton, I love Basmati rice. ;-)
Paz
You can’t believe that she does all that herself, do you? I mean, come ON! She’s human. And if she IS doing all those shows and she IS writing all those books, don’t you think she’s made a few bucks by now, so she’s hiring out the drudgery? I can’t imagine her doing it herself… Hell, I’m not rich or have four tv shows, and even *I* hire out the drudgery. I’m sure she’s got a staff of people doing her laundry and cleaning her house.
I ranted a bit on my site, did you have a chance to see my blog?
Not to be a hater, but I hear you on the RR front. I’m not the hugest fan. I couldn’t take watching her show for more than 15 minutes. She was kinda like Katie Couric on acid or too much caffeine or something. But maybe that’s what people like about her. My take is FREE THE AIRWAVES, share the hours with other interesting characters, don’t let 1 rule the roost!
About the chicken makhani, I don’t make it myself being a veggie, but was using a cookbook recently that has what appears to be a pretty tasty and authentic recipe for butter chicken. the book is Suvir Saran’s Indian Home Cooking and I am pretty sure you can find it at your local library ( i did).
hmmmm , the onions do make for a good thick gravy. what I cud sugest and this is something ive tried, is to blend a lot of onions , garlic ginger in a liquidizer and then fry it all till it turns brownish. It ‘ll take a long time and needs to be watched. But, once you are done with the frying, the fried stuff keeps. I usually split it into half cup portions and freeze. Next time u wanna make some indian dish with gravy, take one portion out, microwave to thaw and cook . simple
its usually one big onion, an inch of ginger and 2-3 cloves of garlic. hope this helps.