S.I.P./Quarantine Cooking

Well, we are all in a mess, so lets have some fun and learn a few things along the way!  First and foremost might be that...you can make a burrito at home!!!  That's a bit facetious talking to this crowd here on THP, who have some of the maddest cooking skills on the interwhebz. 
 
SO, lets post what we are cooking at home, what is made from the pantry, what was out of but substituted, all basic cooking skills.....
 
I'll get it started!
 
A couple days ago, talking with my son who is now 21 and living on his own for the last 2 years, he said..."I gotta go, Mom, the roasted chicken is done.  We're gonna eat dinner now."  :sniff:  AWW!!!!  I'm a happy mom.....
 
 Here's what we did for family entertainment last weekend.  We rented Milo and Otis...for the DOG to watch!!!

 
what's in the meat drawer- pork chops
Pantry- wild rice (doctored up majorly!)
Breading with pantry crackers
tomatoes (cuz that was the best FRESH veg I could come up with.)

 
I didn't have Panko, so I blitzed some Mary's pepper crackers in the food processor with some flour,  added some spices and pepper powders, dredged the chops in seasoned egg/milk wash and then cracker crumbs.  Pan Fry in cast iron skillet with a bit of oil until golden brown and done.
 

 
Rice- Saute rice mix in some butter (ala Rice-A-Roni) until toasty nutty done.  Add water and chicken base/boullion, cook until done.  Key notes!  Use broth as the cooking liquid and saute the rice mix before with butter!  There are lots of quinoa, rice mixes....just don't cook with plain water.  Saute in olive oil/butter or not,  or not, but definitely use seasoning in the water. 

 
Looks kind of blah, but was really yummy!

 
 
next up... Pork, shrimp, LO wild rice-vs-white rice, beans........and andoulle...
 
share what you got cooking.  Might make this into a competition of who had the best cooking Hack, or best out of nothing dish, to be awarded when all of this shite is over.
 
and my husband has developed a strange affinity for watching musicals.
 
Paint Your Wagon
Oklahoma
Dirty Dancing (OK...that one's mine... )
 
 
I'm queuing up
Pirates of Penzance,
Showboat
South Pacific...

 
and Floyd's final episodes.....

 

[salsalady]

Heyyyy now you started this cook with whatcha got thread and now you critique lol!!!!

It was that 'it was really good' then the Pinocchio emoji....not sure how to interpret it is all....didn't want to make a joke when it was serious.

 

[PepperFish]

 
Heyyyy now you started this cook with whatcha got thread and now you critique lol!!!!

 
 
I'm not really sure if this counts as a meal either, but I ate it as one.
 

 
The girls seem to be confiding in the fact this isn't a bird flue epidemic, so we've got eggs.
 
 

 
Only have a few things growing right now, but today we've got rapini.
 

 
So that gets chopped and wilted down in skillet.
 
 

 
Take a small handful of dried Guam Boonies
 
 

 
Crush those.
 

 
Take a few eggs and whisk in the peppers.  Pour that into a greased hot skillet.  Add the rapini and some feta cheese.  Fold and Voilà
 

 
Guam Boonie Pepper Omelette w/ Rapini and Feta, topped with the last of a bottle of sauce reminiscent of our latest lost liberties.  
 
 
Enjoy, but please wash your hands first!

 

[salsalady]

Fresh eggzees! No going hungry at your home, pepperfish. Wonderful looking omelet, breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Thanks for sharing.

When I first scrolled thru your post, I read 'not sure if this counts as a meal, but I ate it as one'....and all I could see in the photo was the chicken in the doorway..........

I'm thinking...ok, it's a farm, gonna eat the chicken.....



Then I scrolled the picture down to see the eggs.....Whew!!!!

 

[Guatemalan Insanity Pepper]

I ate the chicken 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Americanized Chicken Taco Salad 
 

Chicken, some of the wifes weak MILD salsa, and some previously frozen diced green roasted hatch chilies 
 

crushed cool ranch Doritos 
 

that buy 1 get 1 bagged shredded lettuce still seems really fresh 
 

layer of Chicken-chilies-salsa mixture
 

some shredded 'cheeses'
 

Avocado, Sour Cream, and (how can she even call this salsa ? )
 

guess there was some red onion left still in the fridge 
and some black olives from a can.
 
 
hope your all stayin safe 
 
 
 

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I thought that too SL

 

[PepperFish]

Ha, these ladies are worth more to me alive. I've only got a handful of them but they really help out with the compost and provide more eggs than we need. There is very little maintenance involved considering, but the hawks are always on patrol. It's sad when we loose one.

 

[salsalady]

But what I said is so hypocritical, considering the chicken I have in the freezer right now.  And what GIP posted.  I just had to share what was going through my head as I saw the picture and scrolled through the post.    Glad you are keeping the girls safe.
 
My brother and I raised rabbits for 4-H, and my older brother did pigs for FFA.  We butchered them, ate them.  I was pretty young so I didn't do any actual killing.  I distinctly remember a wide board nailed to the walnut tree with a couple nails at the top to hook the legs, pull the hide off.... 
I remember this one rabbit was a pretty old buck that was supposed to be really tough.  My mom cooked it in a small pressure cooker.  For some reason, I remember it getting done at around 10:00 at night, past my bedtime.  But when she opened the pot, and pulled out that meat (no idea what she put in for seasoning) it was the most tender, best tasting meat I think I'd ever tasted.  Seems like we just put it on the table and everyone just pulled chunks off and enjoyed it.  
 
 
 
 

 

[salsalady]

The Brisket's been in the brine for a week, today is COOK DAY!!!  MMMMmmmmm Corned Beef!!!!
 
I have a whole thread about corned beef here.  Quick history lesson-
There isn't any corn in corned beef.  It got it's name from nuggets or kernels of salt.  Back-in-the-day, salt didn't come finely ground, it came in chunks that resembled kernels of corn.  People would use corns of salt in the meat cure...you know where this is going...
 
Last week- an 8 pound trimmed brisket, spices and Prague, Into the zipper bags....get happy in the refer for a week turning every other day or so~
The recipe is on the linked post, but basically it's
1/2 cup store bought pickling spices
1 tsp dry ginger
extra hot pepper
extra black pepper (sorry, geeme) cuz I like it
2 tsp Prague powder
1 cup sea salt
 
Simmer everything in 2 quarts water (not the meat!), remove from heat, add 2 quarts cold water.  When cool, add into 2 gallon ziplock bags with the chunks of meat.  Let it brine in the refer for a week....or more....~

 
 
COOKING DAY! 
Remove the meat from the brine and discard.  The brine....not the meat...
Rinse well under cold water, rubbing off all the chunky spices. 
Put the meat into a pot, cover with water and bring it Just Barely to a simmer, Turn off and let it set for a bit. 
Remove the meat and discard the water.  This removes a lot of the salt that was needed to preserve the meat. 

 
Place the meat in a roasting pan and cover with water.  Make sure you have enough room for all the veggies that will be added to the pot.
 
 
And this is where it all went sideways for me.  The 2" roasting pan was not deep enough to cover the meat, and have room for the veggies.  And, my stoopit-a$$ JennAir oven isn't large enough for the 4" hotel pan I wanted to use.  Okay, no biggie, I'll just use 2 smaller deep roasting pans.... But even THOSE don't fit into the oven!  ARRGH!!! 

 
 
Solution- put a lift under one of the pans, enough so they will both fit in the oven. 

 
It's all cooking happy at the moment, I'll be back to post up finish plates later. 
 
Sheesh....I need a re-wine.....

 

[salsalady]

I ate the chicken 
 
 
 
 
 
and some previously frozen diced green roasted hatch chilies 
 
 

It's all good GIP... I'll be next to you in the confessional in a couple days~~~ 
 
 
 
I cracked up about the hatch chiles, because that exact thing happened to us today!
 
John was starting a pot of beans, bacon, onion, garlic, and we usually toss in a tin of Hatch chiles.  Crap, none in the pantry....  and then I remembered.......
 
Friends of ours used to travel to NM during harvest season, buy TONS of roasted, skinned, vac-packed hatch chiles and bring them home in a couple of ice chests.   They gave us (8-10?) packages of chiles.  I thought I had 1 or 2 left in the freezer out in the salsa kitch.
 
BINGO!!!!

 
The first post is a little fuzzy because the frozen package was frosting over. 
 
More on the beans in a later post. 

 

[Ashen]

The Brisket's been in the brine for a week, today is COOK DAY!!!  MMMMmmmmm Corned Beef!!!!
 
I have a whole thread about corned beef here.  Quick history lesson-
There isn't any corn in corned beef.  It got it's name from nuggets or kernels of salt.  Back-in-the-day, salt didn't come finely ground, it came in chunks that resembled kernels of corn.  People would use corns of salt in the meat cure...you know where this is going...
 
Last week- an 8 pound trimmed brisket, spices and Prague, Into the zipper bags....get happy in the refer for a week turning every other day or so~
The recipe is on the linked post, but basically it's
1/2 cup store bought pickling spices
1 tsp dry ginger
extra hot pepper
extra black pepper (sorry, geeme) cuz I like it
2 tsp Prague powder
1 cup sea salt
 
Simmer everything in 2 quarts water (not the meat!), remove from heat, add 2 quarts cold water.  When cool, add into 2 gallon ziplock bags with the chunks of meat.  Let it brine in the refer for a week....or more....~
IMG_20200323_131926906.jpg
IMG_20200323_133922666.jpg
IMG_20200323_142720678.jpg
 
 
COOKING DAY! 
Remove the meat from the brine and discard.  The brine....not the meat...
Rinse well under cold water, rubbing off all the chunky spices. 
Put the meat into a pot, cover with water and bring it Just Barely to a simmer, Turn off and let it set for a bit. 
Remove the meat and discard the water.  This removes a lot of the salt that was needed to preserve the meat. 
IMG_20200401_104307604.jpg
 
Place the meat in a roasting pan and cover with water.  Make sure you have enough room for all the veggies that will be added to the pot.
 
 
And this is where it all went sideways for me.  The 2" roasting pan was not deep enough to cover the meat, and have room for the veggies.  And, my stoopit-a$$ JennAir oven isn't large enough for the 4" hotel pan I wanted to use.  Okay, no biggie, I'll just use 2 smaller deep roasting pans.... But even THOSE don't fit into the oven!  ARRGH!!! 
IMG_20200401_114418075.jpg
IMG_20200401_114947493.jpg
 
 
Solution- put a lift under one of the pans, enough so they will both fit in the oven. 
IMG_20200401_115027732.jpg
 
It's all cooking happy at the moment, I'll be back to post up finish plates later. 
 
Sheesh....I need a re-wine.....

Technically corn was named after salt because the kernels resembled corns of salt. Maize didn't make it to the old world until long after the use of the word corn to describe salt. Yes I am one of those pedantic SOBs

 

[texas blues]

 Yes I am one of those pedantic SOBs

 
Negative.
 
You're just Canadian.

 

[Ashen]

That's fair, we are kinda boring and like facts. We tend to be amused but not conviced by wildly speculative opinions stated with a sociopathic conviction .

https://youtu.be/U2pMkW7EwSc

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Technically corn was named after salt because the kernels resembled corns of salt. 

 
Okay Dr. Scholl's! I just want to know, do I soak my corn in salt, or my salt in corn?

 

[salsalady]

Technically corn was named after salt because the kernels resembled corns of salt. Maize didn't make it to the old world until long after the use of the word corn to describe salt. Yes I am one of those pedantic SOBs

I got my information here
https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/beef-and-bison-recipes/home-made-corned-beef-recipe
And make no claim to its accuracy. I mean, it is on the internet so it has to be true, right?   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZbSlkFoSU

 

[The Hot Pepper]

You are both basically saying the same thing. Corn was named for a salt corn and a salt corn was named after corn. It's a chicken egg thing. Pass the sal....corn!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

So is popcorn salt, salt for salt?
 
 
Look what SL did here!!!!!
 
Oh wait it was Ashen!!! SL you are off the hook.

 

[salsalady]

First time for that!

 

[Guatemalan Insanity Pepper]

all this corny talk and now i want some Elote   
 

 <--------- needs a few splashes of hot sauce  still
 
 
 

 

[salsalady]

Oh, man.....I want some of that ^^^!!!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Salt makes it hotter!