Last night I really got hit with the revenge of the kitchen god – or is it a goddess?
I´m not sure.

This is what happens if you heat sauce from a jar and then pop into the living room to watch Food network….

I had already made some aubergine stuffed ravioli and decided to use a glass jar of tomato-basil sauce I had sitting in the cupboard for emergencies. In this case the emergency was, that it was after midnight and I really only needed a little bit of sauce to use as a part of my sons lunch.

The night before – Sunday night – we went to a restaurant to celebrate
my mother in law´s birthday.

We often go to restaurants to celebrate birthdays in my husbands family – and we usually go to restaurants that we´ve been meaning to give a go.
I usually leave disappointed, as was the case that night.
Without going into details or naming the place, an hours wait between courses is highly unexeptable, especially for a party of 9 (thereof 3 children) that arrives at 18.30 on a Sunday night.

The food was not up to standards, neither was the service. And this is one of the more highly rated, recently opened restaurants. Unfortunately, often restaurants that gain popularity soon after opening, fail to keep up the standard. I hope for their sake it was either a really bad night, or that they manage to get their act together and deliver what I think they set out to do.

But enough about that!

I usually make my tomato-based sauces from scratch using tomatoes, passata or my favorite tinned tomatoes – organic cherry tomatoes for Biona.

Last night I felt lazy – or…not really lazy…

More on my mother in law´s birthday…

The plan was to have a small birthday party for other members of the family at her house.
Just some coffee and cakes – something casual. A tradition in Iceland at least and I guess in many Scandinavian countries – “kaffiboð”. Coffee and cakes in the evening. Usually at around 8 o´clock:)

Seeing I didn´t have much time to cook ( came home unusually late as well ) and that there would be cakes and other things at the birthday party, I just made quick green pea soup, served with the rest of the tortillas I made to go with the tuna salad I made for lunch.

Which left the aubergines I had cooked to make the melizana I had planned to make the night before ( when we then went to the restaurant – I had mixed up the days and started to cook..)….Confused? I am.

Guess it´s what happens when you open a jar of tomato and basil sauce to skip making from scratch ( well – it was after midnight and I only heated it to go with the freshly prepared ravioli I had made for my sons lunch…).

What happened was, I forgot the pot on the stove after packing his lunch and went to the living room to catch Reza – spice prince of India – a show on Food network. It is a wonderful show – highly entertaining and with stunning food and sights. I love watching Food network when I finally gain total control of the remote and everyone is gone to bed;)

Just as he was demonstrating how to smoke salmon on the pan using charcoal and I could actually smell the smoke from the pan through the tv-screen…the fire alarm went off. It is highly sensitive ( guess that´s a good thing with all the cooking that goes on here ) and fortunately it was just smoke from the totally reduced tomato and basil jar sauce…

When the security company called to see if I´d gone up in flames, I told them it was smoke from the oven. I just could´t bring myself around to admitting that I had used jarred tomato sauce….hahaha… Well – it was a quicker explanation and I don´t think they really cared which it was.

So – the lessons I´ve learned:

1. Just go to the few restaurants you already know and don´t let you down.
Everything else is risk.

2. Don´t use sauces in jars if you´re not used to it and it´s after midnight.

Recipes will follow – and pictures.
Perhaps I´ll even take one of the really blackened pan if I´m in the mood…..