Food/Drink

I basically did oriental thanksgiving yesterday

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I set a good chunk of time aside yesterday to make some of my favorite recipes, and even try a couple new ones.

I like to make a sweet soy sauce (top right) as well as a red pepper sauce (top left) but I also wanted to try another one with some extra scallions I had lying around. That on the bottom is a sweet scallion sauce, it turned out tasty for the most part… but I probably should have stirred it better when making it. I ended up with a sugary blob in the center of a bunch of vegetable oil. I managed to combine it better after taking out some of the oil, but that’s one I’ll have to practice again at a later date. On the very right I also have what remains of a salad dressing made of cider vinegar, sugar, a little bit of sesame oil and red pepper flakes for color and flavor. Most if it went into a cucumber and grape tomato salad that accompanied both my breakfast and dinner yesterday.

I made miso soup for breakfast yesterday. I like to eat it in the morning sometimes, it can be a nice change of pace from the traditional cereal or bacon and eggs. I threw in some udon noodles for something additional to chew on.

This was something new I tried. I mixed some of the pepper sauce with the sweet scallion sauce, plus some garlic soybean paste and mixed it with noodles, peppers and shrimp, sherry and a little bit of onion. It was really zesty.

Normally when I make a noodle dish I don’t follow it up with rice (or vice versa), but yesterday I basically declared it oriental Thanksgiving, and I wanted to also have the option of ham and egg fried rice… even if this isn’t fried. I boiled some jasmine rice, cooked an egg in another pan then mixed it into the rice, then added cooked vegetables and ham with a generous pinch of sea salt and some white pepper. Normally I would use just peas, but taking inventory in our deep freeze yesterday proved to me that 99% of the frozen vegetables we have on hand are in fact corn… So some peas are better than no peas at all.

This was a simple vegetable dish to make. All you do is steam some asparagus, and then take 1/4 cup of soy sauce and mix in some sesame oil. Add the asparagus to a platter and drench  the sauce over it, and let it sit for about 10 minutes and you have a tasty yet delicate accompaniment to dinner. Of course I have one person in the house that despises asparagus… which means I need to add MOAR vegetables.

I stir fried some sugar snap peas with some salt, pepper, sherry and just a few shavings of fresh ginger. I did cheat a little and pad the rest of the meal with some cream cheese wontons and chicken potstickers…

Then I awoke to find that a giant bowl of rice was not put away this morning… everything else was though, dafuq?

No stream tonight… Have some food and SFM porn instead

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Today was a rainy day. A perfect time to do some laundry, a little animation, and make soup and sandwich to keep heat in them thar bones. I made my first attempt of Manhattan style Clam Chowder with a grilled cheese with buffalo chicken, pepper jack  and a couple steakhouse tomatoes inside of sourdough wheat bread. I was missing the fresh parsley, but managed to make due by using a little bit of dried parsley with a shredded carrot at an attempt at something similar. I regret nothing. :meseeks:

I also managed to edit a few scenes today and clean my bedding at the same time, that I may lay my clean head of hair on a clean pillow for what may or may not be clean dreams. I just need to make it through one more day, and I’ll be free for a little over a week.  I’ll have time to be productive on things I enjoy, and I’ll have to promise to do something nice for myself if the weather permits… like maybe take myself out for a latte or sushi or something, and perhaps a small shopping adventure either local or over teh interwebz. :zorak:

I anticipate there will be more streaming as well. :melon:

Recipe Sharing: Ranch Dressing

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I was going through some cookbooks last night and mentally noted that none of the ones I have carry any ranch dressing recipes, and then I became curious as to what went into a ranch dressing. My search quickly landed me on Food Network’s site, and next thing I knew I was doing some shopping during my lunch break! I followed the recipe to the letter and it tastes quite nice. For the hot sauce portion I used Dave’s Temporary Insanity Sauce, gives it a nice kick but not too overpowering thanks to the cream based dressing. I was going to make more than just a dressing, but noticed there were still plenty of leftovers to go at, perhaps tomorrow. I’m thinking soup and sandwich to combat the extremely cold weather here. This has been by far the coldest winter in all the time I’ve lived here; this morning I had to cover my face from the nose down to keep my face from freezing off, or feeling dry… I looked like some cross between an Eskimo and a Ninja, an Eskininja? :zorak: I wonder if I can make that into a thing…

Touched by noodly appendage

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After a busy work day I set aside special plans to make my own variant of dinner tonight. I originally planned to buy some smoked salmon for a salmon pasta dish, but there was none to be found. I also bought a potato rosemary loaf of bread that I made my own garlic butter mix for (unsalted butter, Italian herbs, garlic powder and a small pinch of sea salt).

I didn’t realize that I was nearly out of parmesan cheese, and had to resort to making a three cheese sauce instead consisting of the leftover parmesan, plus generous portions of danish bleu and smoked provolone cheeses.

It tasted good, though feedback afterwards suggested that I add something more to the sauce in the future… I might try using wine for additional tang next time. 😛

With the addition of a bunch of carbs I felt like a nice salad would be a good balance. This is a spring mix with a homemade raspberry vinaigrette using my own homemade raspberry vinegar! There are also grape tomatoes, danish bleu cheese, and mixed nuts crushed with a mortar and pestle for additional flavor and crunch.

Wondertea

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Over the holidays I got a nice haul of tea thanks to a long time best friend of mine, and one of the many teas I got was from a nice pack of Disney’s Alice In Wonderland tea collection. It cones with six flavors total, and the one I’ve mainly been sucking on so far has been the blueberry one, and also a bit of the medley tea… that stuff is like sweet nectar. :melon:

On the inside of each triangle there are instructions for either brewing hot or iced tea as if it were written by the characters themselves. It puts a nice bit of imagination to tea time. I’m not sure what it is but I’ve mainly been drinking blueberry tea or coconut vanilla iced tea for the last few days, something about those flavors leaves me coming back for more as if it were watermelon. I have a feeling the blueberry will be going very quickly. :v:

Rain and risotto

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Today was best spent indoors out of the blustery weather, mainly doing some laundry and video work. After primary work this morning I picked up some ingredients for tonight’s dinner I volunteered to make. One of the things I like about winter is comfort food. For me a good Italian risotto can fall into that category, and there are so many ways you can prepare it. In the past I’ve added chicken, beef, ham and of course sausage of any of them as the meaty part of the dish. This time around I gave tuna a shot instead, as I haven’t partaken of any recently. Originally I tried to follow a recipe in one of my cookbooks, but due to not being able to find certain ingredients and discovering too late that some of them were missing I had no choice but to improvise. I have to say it turned out to be quite a savory dish with a nice texture given to it by the pecans.

First I was low on chicken stock, both the fresh stuff and the bullion cubes; fortunately I still had some Mexican chicken/tomato granules for a rich broth. Next came the rice preparation which went smoothly as always, mixing the uncooked rice in melted butter and olive oil with browned onions to give it a nice nutty aroma and flavor, and of course adding the stock bit by bit until I gained the desired creamy consistency that makes risotto so delicious. In a bowl I combined some tuna, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, chopped pimento, olives and then a mix of marjoram and parsley. In my broth pan I added some more butter and oil and fried some garlic and chopped pecans, which sounds weird but surprisingly tastes really good mixed in with everything else. Of course I had to add some fire roasted tomato to the mix, and made green beans for the side vegetable. Overall I was happy with the results considering I pretty much measured and improvised the ingredients to make up for the actual missing ingredients. I’ll definitely have more tomorrow. I’ll have enough for an after work lunch, and then I can plot tomorrow’s dinner menu. I’m thinking something Scandinavian inspired.

Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a sausage festival.

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Once again we arrive at a time where I am given one chance to poison my family by preparing something most sinister. Behold:

I made a warm German/American potato salad with bacon. The saltiness of the bacon mixed with the sweet yet tart flavor from the apple cider vinegar all coming together on the holy canvas that is the fucking potato. I’ll have to remember to make this again sometime.

Instead of doing plain ol hot dogs I invested in some nice chicken sausages with fancy cheeses mixed inside. They were sauteed alongside some peppers, onion and garlic with some splashes of Marsala for a little more flavor.

I also opted to get Hawaiian hot dog buns. It feels kinda funny having food like this during the winter, but then again it’s all nice, warm, and different from the everyday hot dog and cold potato salad. It’s also less salty despite the bacon’s involvement. 😛

Belly of zen

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It’s been awhile since I’ve done much in the kitchen. During the holidays we were so pressed for time that we had to live on unsatisfying pre packaged food just to fill ourselves, but that hell is over or at the very least reduced. I bought a bunch of vegetables today and made soba noodle bowls with a cucumber salad and some pot stickers on the side. I would have made my own sauces but was sorely lacking in the soy sauce dept, fortunately I had my emergency Asian sauces to save the day!

It felt good to eat a healthier meal, plus its been so long since I’ve done anything Asian. Everything had the right amount of seasoning and spice to it.

Now to plot my next dinner menu…

Combining different parts of the world for one meal

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After the holidays we’ve been having issues eating properly around the homestead due to work fatigue and everyone’s busy schedules. My stomach can only take so much emergency food, though finally we have managed to get somewhat back on track for prepping actual meals. The above is what I made for dinner last night. I took a chicken breast, cut it up and cooked it in caramelized onions and garlic, then added them to some rice cooked in butter and oil and homemade chicken broth with peas and carrots. I also have a salad with Russian dressing on the side with a little touch of chipotle, so it’s more of a Mexi-Russiantalian meal. I got the idea to make this meal from a Russian cookbook that I picked up years ago as part of Time Life’s Foods Of The World Series, and was inspired by a Lamb Pilaf recipe. But I don’t care much for lamb, so opted for chicken instead. The recipe also called for raw carrot and onion, but I opted for caramelized onions, carrots and peas for added flavor and color. For additional flavor I threw in some Italian influence by cooking the grains in butter and oil first, the rice is jasmine, giving it a little boost of flavor and overall aromatic goodness, and much more welcoming to my stomach.

It was either going to be this or panko crusted chicken breasts with fries, but we’ve had too much potato substance recently and needed a severe break (something I’d never thought I would say). Tonight we’re going to have pizza, it’s cold outside and it’s definitely a good night to either bake or get baked.

Using my noodle

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It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any culinary wisdom. Tonight I took leftover roasted ham and turned it into a dish that I made by scratch with no help from a book.

One of my favorite sauces to make is a white sauce. I added Parmesan and smoked Gouda, and also a few splashes of Marsala with Italian spices as well as the ham. Tasted like a nice creamy Alfredo by the time it was thickened and ready for noodles.

Folded in the noodles. They’re wheat noodles, while the rest of the food may be fatty the wheat will help counterbalance it. 😛

That and the corn, can’t eat pasta alone… But eating this was really excellent. I’ll have to remember to try adding different boozes to cream sauces in the future to see how well they turn out. Will probably stay away from Creme De Menthe and Midori though…