Laptop Lunches #38

Bananas and blackberries, snow peas and orange tomatoes with Greek yogurt-veggie dip, chicken apple curry (from the Dinner Doctor cookbook), and rice.

I liked the chicken-apple curry all right--it's just a variation on chicken korma, really--but I wanted something with more oomph. Still, I love cooking savory dishes with fruit.

Tip, and lesson, what have you: This recipe called for a cinnamon stick. Now, you can go to the spice aisle, and buy a very overpriced, tiny jar of cinnamon sticks, or you can go over to the international food section, find the Indian food, and buy a bag of four times as many for half the cost of the little jar. This sort of thing is true for a lot of things. Sesame and peanut oils, found with the other oils, will cost you an arm and a leg, but off with the Asian food is quite reasonable. Red and white cooking wine, next to the vinegars, is on the pricey side, but the Goya brand, with the Mexican foods, is on the cheaper end of the spectrum.

I wish all this was true for European things like lemon curd and balsamic vinegar, but alas, it is not. Still, it's generally a good tip.