May 1st 2008
Whoever first thought about adding chocolate to chili was a freaking genius.
Archive for the 'Cooking' Category
March 16th 2008
Lazy Bachelor Food, take 1
Are you feeling lazy today? Do you have nobody to impress with food, but still want something that tastes good?
Go buy yourself a package of Lemon Pepper Pappardelle* pasta from Trader Joe’s, and grab some cheese to grate. Boil water, toss in the pasta. While the pasta’s cooking, grate the cheese, don’t grate your hand. When the pasta’s done, drain it and put it in a bowl. Add the cheese on top. Stir. Eat. Enjoy!
If, at some point, you have someone to impress with mad cooking skills, grill up some chicken that you’ve lightly seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper and add just the tiniest smidge of lemon juice to it. Make a simple spinach salad or some Caesar salad to go with it. Done!
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*I normally look at lemon-pepper things as an affront to good taste and nature. This stuff is so delicious, I just want to eat the whole bag.
February 27th 2008
Hot Ginger Lemonade
Is winter getting you down? Is it too cold outside for you? Do you need something to warm you, body and soul? Here’s something, somewhat courtesy of a Making Light thread, and my own questionable kitchen skills.
Take a medium sized pot, put a bunch of water in it and start up a fire underneath it, remember, global warming can’t happen without you burning fossil fuels, so if you want winter to ever end: burn, baby, burn. Toss in some sugar, like 1 tbsp (brown, preferably, white sugar’s for rich people with taste and refinement), if you don’t have honey, make it 2 or 3 tbsps. Get some (3) lemons and zest them. (Note: do not grate your fingers while doing this, later you’ll be squeezing the lemons and that will HURT.) Take a chunk of ginger and, after peeling it, slice it into thick medallions. Put the lemon zest and ginger medallions in the by now hot water. Lid that shit up tightly and turn the flame down to low. Now walk away for at least 10 minutes, more like 30 if you have even the slightest tolerance for strong flavors. If you don’t, suck it up anyway, this shit is good for you.
Now that your house smells like ginger and lemon and it’s overpowered the vindaloo curry you had for dinner two weeks ago, take the lemons and roll them a bit to get their juices flowing. They like that. Ahem. Cut them up and squeeze the lemon now, all into the pot (don’t freak out if seeds get in there, you’ll be filtering them out later. It’ll be okay.) Add some honey, half a cinnamon stick, a couple shots of tequila* and re-lid. Walk away for another 10 minutes. I’m serious, go play Guitar Hero or annoy your cat or something.
Get 5 stars without using star power? Good, I’m glad for you, now go taste your hot beverage. If it’s good, strain it, drink up and enjoy, if it’s not sweet enough, add some more honey, if it’s too sweet add in more lemon juice, or if you’re a wuss, more water (more booze is always an option, too, Vodka’s a good grab)
Remember, a lot of this happens with fire under a lidded, unwatched pot, so keep your fire at an appropriate level. You don’t want to have to clean this off your stovetop. Also, to re-cap the ingredients: water, ginger, lemons, sugar, honey, cinnamon stick, booze (tequila, vodka, whiskey, whatever.)
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* I probably actually can’t taste the tequila at all, but I need to add booze to almost everything I cook. It’s a problem, I know that. I’m still not getting any help. You can pry my beer bread, brandied apples and booze bars from my cold, dead hands.
February 6th 2008
I’m bad
Sometimes, I’m not a terribly nice person. I’m not damn straight evil, but there are moments of non-righteous glee.
Tonight that came from letting my very old dog have a few spoons full of my spicy orange sauce* and then laughing when she paused mightily after the first few tastes. You could see the brain process go “It’s human food. Hot! Spicy! Still, food. Hmm. Food! NUM-NUM-NUM. Hot!” And then she licked the air for about 30 seconds.
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* Made from orange juice, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, cinnamon, cumin, ancho chiles, chile de arbol, a squeeze of lemon juice, tequila and a few slices of orange. Good, but not quite to the glaze-like consistency I want. I’m thinking about adding more tequila next time and then reducing the heck out of it, even more than the greater than half I did tonight.
January 31st 2008
Lazy Thursday cooking
Tonight hunger came to me during a break in shoveling. I figured I’d keep the theme of the night going by shoveling somewhat fluffy white things into my mouth, and so I made fauxscuits. These bear as much resemblance to real biscuits as Domino’s does to real pizza. That is, they’re more a delivery vehicle for toppings than a part of a cohesive taste experience. I imagine that they have more than a bit in common with Saltines.
The only dilemma facing me was the choice of toppings. Did I want to add some oregano to the mix and then dip them in warm marinara sauce? No. That would be too much like spaghetti. Did I want to make my sausage-less sausage gravy (really just a roux with loads of nutmeg and black pepper)? Not really, that’s a bit too labor intensive for how I’m feeling tonight. Fauxscuits aren’t good enough to pair with either of the two Trader Joe’s boxes of soup (carrot/ginger and butternut squash) I have, so that option was Right Out.
At this point, I was getting somewhat alarmed, as I really don’t have all that much food to make right now, and I’d rather not order out for pizza. Again. Then I spied the jar of peanut butter that was mysteriously absent last night, which triggered the thought that *horror* I was out of bread. Lately I’ve been giving into the urge to eat peanut butter and pumpkin butter sandwiches, so with the realization that I had two of the ingredients and was planning to make a marginally reasonable facsimile of the third, “Game On” was cried.
Fauxscuits were prepped, popped into a heated oven, patted down with pumpkin butter in the process of baking, and then treated to a little plop of peanut butter. Mmmm. Delicious.
(for the curious, fauxscuits consist of flour, milk, baking powder and salt, all combined in a ratio that looks and acts like a functional dough. I think the last time I measured for them was the first time I made them, so there’s no way you’re going to be able to pry out actual ratios for them. The ingredients are listed in descending order, though.)
January 22nd 2008
This shouldn’t have been surprising
Not all that long ago I bought a 2 pound bag of sugar. I always like to keep things in containers that are more bug-proof than not, so I looked around for a new holder for the sugar and noticed the newly empty 2 pound yogurt container.
“Well, I’m going to be using a cup or so of this sugar for what I’m cooking, so when I’m done this bag ought to fit.”
It did, and I was happy.
I imagine that you can piece together why I felt fairly stupid for my joy not long after.
January 13th 2008
A Helpful Hint
Beginning to make chili by slicing open your thumb is not the best opening move. Better moves include: not slicing open your thumb, and slicing open your thumb and putting on a bandage.
In related news, my thumb really stings and my kitchen smells really good. I’m ready to watch football tomorrow, and my nose is prepared to run.
November 26th 2007
Lazy Bread Substance
Are you cheap? Poor? Lazy? In need of a bread-like thing to go with your pasta or Indian food? In need of a pita-esque thing to make better use of leftover turkey?
Try a bit Trader Joe’s pizza dough, rolled out to less than a quarter inch thick, sprayed on each side with your favorite non-stick spray and cooked to golden, brown deliciousness in a non-stick pan. You really get a lot of stuff for less than a buck-fifty. Both the whole wheat and garlic and herb varieties are recommended, as appropriate.
October 10th 2007
I am not Iron
Sometimes I think I watch too much Iron Chef: America. I know, I know, there’s really no such thing as too much, but I definitely do not yet have the cooking chops to pull off Squash, Sweet Potato, and Apple Soup, especially when I’ve never actually used squash in any sort of cooking before.
Pumpkin Butter (flavor by Trader Joes) Sourdough Biscuits, however, are very nice. Most of the credit for those needs to go to How to Cook Everything, though.
September 20th 2007
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
In coming up with a meal plan that involved apples, ala Iron Chef, I made the most delicious sweet potatoes I’ve ever had. As with any of my recipes, spices are subject to taste and were never measured by me.
Ingredients:
2 Sweet Potatoes
1 Apple
butter
ginger root (4 inch long, finger width)
allspice
cinnamon
brown sugar
Instructions:
Peel and cut into chunks both the sweet potatoes and ginger. Place them into a pot of boiling water until the sweet potatoes are mushy. 20-30 minutes
Cut the apple into eighths, and melt some (1/4 tablespoon, perhaps) in a small non-stick pan. Add the apple to the pan. Halfway through, add an amount of cinnamon that looks right, perhaps 1/4 teaspoon. Continue cooking until the apples are mushy. Some extra butter may be needed if the apples are starting to burn. About 20 minutes cooking time.
Ladle out the sweet potatoes from the water to a food processor, making sure to remove the ginger. Add the apples to the food processor. Add in the allspice (1/4 teaspoon [perhaps]) brown sugar (3 tablespoons, maybe less, remember, cooked apples are awesome, and these are sweet potatoes) and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the water the potatoes and ginger were boiled in. Make the processor work its processor magic. The addition of additional butter to this isn’t needed, nor is it a bad idea, unless dieting is also on the menu.
This has a very autumn/harvest feel, and I could see adding some nutmeg in the spice package. For making larger batches, I’d suggest going with a 3-1 sweet potato/apple ratio. None of the flavors really linger and while it’s distinctive, it’s not excessively strong, so it makes a great side. Of course, it’s delicious enough to eat all by itself.
