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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!!!
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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.)
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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.
 
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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. 
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Looks kind of blah, but was really yummy!
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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... :lol:)
 
 
I'm queuing up
Pirates of Penzance,
Showboat
South Pacific...
 
and Floyd's final episodes.....
 
Decided to try something I hadn't done before, and make some of my own mozzarella. Tricky process, and had to buy a few chemicals I didn't have on hand. End result was not really that great. Cheese ended up being a bit too rubbery, and once you get to that point you can't reverse the process to fix. I think I added a bit too much rennet. Mine was very concentrated. May have also overheated milk by 5 degrees F. I added some Lipase for flavor and some granulated citric acid. Milk was also what I had on hand, so just 2% and not the best whole milk. Also, I don't know anyone with an actual cow who could donate 8 liters of fresh raw unpasteurized milk to make cheese. So I had to work with what I had. 
 
Interestingly, i also underestimated the salt requirement. I thought a teaspoon would be more than sufficient, but that barely scratched the surface. I think I could have easily doubled the lipase and the salt and not noticed. Needed more flavor. All things I want to fix in the next batch. Might need some Calcium Chloride too and a sharper lipase.
 
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dragonsfire said:
Calcium Chloride is a must and never use Homo milk, I used to use 2% and add cream to that.
Looks Good!

why do I not want to use homogenized? just out of curiosity. I'm still learning. And how much cream for a gallon? I did use 2% in this batch I think.
 
dragonsfire can correct me if it isn't what he means but in Canada , Homo milk usually refers to whole milk about 3.25 % milk fat .

It is very difficult to find any dairy that hasn't been homogenized.

Industry standard at Canadian dairies (probably USA too) is to completely skim the milk and then add back the cream and homogenize.

It is how they get such exact percentages, because raw milk typically varies in cream percentage by season and feed given.
 
Homo does not clump, its made so the cream does not separate like it used too in the old days, CaCl helps milk to clump so you get the tight solids again.
Depends wht you are making depends on how much cream you want to add.
I mainly did bloomed cheese and the odd swiss.
 
I've been making fresh mozzarella and other cheeses for years. Quality is directly related to quality of milk used. If you can't get raw/ unpasteurized milk I personally wouldn't bother. Luckily for me here in Maine we can buy it at most grocery stores and directly from the farm.
 
Looks good, DF! What is that frond like green sprig?
 
Fresh marjoram! I dont think I have ever seen that.

I have a couple new toys we have been playing with. Instant Pot and Thermal Cooker. Posts coming soon, learning the new site.
 
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