Saturday, February 2, 2008

Scatter Shot Post - 02/02/2008 - Home Cookin'

  • I've been doing a lot of cooking recently, and have a lot of random non-sequential thoughts about the topic. You know what that means: Lock and Load!
  • As mentioned before, I'm trying to restrict my diet to mostly things I've cooked myself, or by someone I know, at least casually. So, fried chicken from the Grocery Store Deli is OK,(it's fresh everyday!), any thing that includes a packet(s) of mystery seasoning, says "ready to eat" or only needs cooked in a microwave for 90 second or less is out. My grocery shopping consists of buying ingredients, not self-contained meals.
  • Since I've been here, I have opened exactly 6 cans, 4 of which were releated to making tomato sauce or pizza sauce (more on that below) .
  • After a little over three months of doing this, here's my summary of it in a single blurb: Cooking is easy; Cooking well, not so much.
  • I only condsider a cooking expirament to be a failure if I have to throw food out due to the meal going terribly wrong. When wasting food is preferable to eating that crap, it's time to throw in the towel.
  • To date, I've had to throw something away only once, and the meal was perfectly fine the first time around. I made beer cheese soup. pretty good the first time around, but when I tried to reheat a portion of it, it separated into an oily top part, and a chewy bottom part which was like some kind of cheddar flavored chewing gum. after a few bites, I decided it wasn't worth it, and disposed of it. This is what is often refered to as a cullinary abortion.
  • Hmmm... I wonder if Wrigley can market cheese flavored gum in Japan? They eat all kinds of oddly flavored stuff, why not a pack of Cheddarmint?
  • Today, I had some difficulty in reproducing my father's tomato sauce, so I exchanged ideas with my sister. Her World of Warcraft Character is called Tomatosauce so I figured she'd know something. Eventually, I decided to add in a little more sugar, and that helped. We also exchanged a few meatball ideas. Mine didn't come out so well.
  • Even if your too lazy too cook, there are three things you can do before resorting to opening a can of Chef Boyardee: (1) A grilled cheese sandwich. There's the typical 2-3 slices of american version, but latley, I've taken a liking to this: a slice of provolone, sprinkle lightly with basil and oregano, and set a second slice of provolone on top of that. The oils from the cheese bring out the herbs, giving an Italian flavor to the sandwich. (2) You can just make some eggs. Seriously, you can't screw up an egg. Omlette, over easy, scambled, whatever. Toast some bread, and you have a a decent meal in front of you. (3) Last Resort: just have a bowl of cereal or something. The grocery store up here recently had a sale on just about all of theirs, after the markdown and manufactures coupons, I walked away with 10 boxes for $15. I don't think I'll have to buy any more until at least this Fall.
  • Cassaroles are great, becuase they can be thrown together from whatever stuff you have on hand. I put some cubed leftover chicken, some brocclli, cheese and rice together, and I ended up with dinner, and lunch for the next 5 days. Same with the Macaroni and Cheese I made.
  • One final note about the meatballs I tried to make today: while searching for meatball recipies, i came upon recipes for Sweedish meatballs, which inevitably, let to me rediscovering a Childhood memory of mine.

Bork. Bork. Bork!

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