Any Cooking Plans for The Bank Holiday ?

[shyvas]

It looks like it's going to be a nice warm sunny week end for the South of England with temperatures around 18 °C. Do you have any plans or special meals in mind for the Bank holiday ? A nice relaxing day in the garden with a glass of chilled Pimm's ?

I'm planning to try (depending on whether I have time) and make some tortillas and prehaps a pizza with some Strong bread flour that I purchased at Sainsbury's.

I would also like to make a big batch of guacamole and freeze some of it. I'm going to try and do some
cooking with all the stuff that is in the freezer and cupboards as I am leaving for the UK next Saturday.

Enjoy your Bank hols everyone !

 

[Second Summer]

So how did it go? I've never thought of freezing guacamole before - does it work well?

I also wasn't aware that flour comes in different varieties, where apparently "strong" means it has a high protein (i.e. gluten) content, and "weak" or "soft" means it has a low protein content.

We didn't do anything extraordinary in terms of cooking over the weekend. The weather was so nice that we tried to spend time outdoors as much as possible.

 

[shyvas]

Guacamole freezes very well indeed. I usually make a huge, huge batch, eat half of it and freeze the rest of it in
small plastic containers. Ideal for last minute cocktail parties or when you want a nibble and your avocadoes are
too hard to mash.

Yes, '00' or strong flour has a high gluten content and makes a better bread dough. It is excellent for making pizza, calzone or various breads. This is another item that I cannot buy overhere so I'll have to make use of the 1.5 KG that I bought in the UK.

The pizza was divine and the crust was mouthwatering. I regret not having bought more Free From cheese as I only like cheese pizzas.
The soft masa tortillas tasted wonderful. It was the first time that I had used my tortilla press and the results weren't too bad. I must say that the taste was excellent and I really enjoyed the meal.
The only thing is that I couldn't duplicate the light texture of real Mexican tortillas that you find in
Mexicain supermarkets in California. I wonder what their secret is ?

As I have stated previously, there is so much more choice of vegan and vegetarian foods in the UK and US which
really does help to have a varied delicious diet.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Bank holiday yesterday. I was at work but am having 2 Public holidays in a row and will be off work tomorrow and Thursday.
Back to work on Friday and flying out to London on Saturday.

 

[hungryraccoon]

Oh, I've never even thought about freezing guacamole. What an excellent idea!

No cooking for us. We had a picnic in the sunshine - just supermarket bought food: houmous, falafel, carrot sticks, strawberries etc. It was lovely