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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.....
 
Guatemalan Insanity Pepper said:
 
 
salsalady said:
Beautiful! And so healthy!






Just wait till you see our dinner.......
Hometown Pizza now has a drive up window.  Take-n-Bake for the lazy Friday dinner....
 
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Ashen, that is some gorgeous bread bakes there.  I showed a picture to John and he basically said.."yea, looks good. When are YOU gonna make some?"   :lol:  I guess I gotta get on it...
 
But tonight is gonna be Fish Tacos!  Already have the cod defrosting and I'm going to use the batter recipe Ashen linked. 
 
 
SalsaKid isn't a kid any more.  21 and living in the Olympia WA area.   He and his girlfriend are hunkered down and doing some good cooking. 
Chicken Alfredo.  They didn't make the alfredo sauce but found some homestyle stuff at the store.  Ingredients were cream, butter, romano, parmesan, salt, pepper.  That's pretty much homemade.
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Seafood Fettuccine with cheddar biscuits and king crab legs
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Engine LaLa's - When he was a toddler, he couldn't pronounce enchiladas, so it was Engine LaLa's.  :lol: Looks killer!  :sigh:  I'm so proud of the little shit...
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Oh, and TB~ the wine pairing for the egg salad sandwiches with potato chips was a 2019 vintage Franzia Green Box Crisp White.  :lol:

 
 
Today's BREAD escapades-
 
French Bread!  I googled up something that looked pretty good.  Did not have any packets of yeast so I hit up the salsa kitchen and the digital scale for .25oz of active dry yeast.  I mixed up .25oz yeast with 2 cups 110F water and 2 cups flour.  Got it all happy and added 4 more cups of flour.   Knead for 8-10min minutes.....
 
anyone notice something missing?
 
:doh:  :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
 
something like SALT?!?!???
 
What a dumbass!  OK!  Well, after the dough has proofed, divide in half and roll out into a rectangle....sprinkle salt on it.....roll it up and seal the edges.
 
Let it proof again.  Brush with egg white wash, SPRINKLE WITH SALT (cuz I'm an idiot) and bake.
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Cut the hot baked bread, slather up with butter (and a dash of SALT!!! )   and enjoy!  
 
 
And this is why I can't make fresh bread very ofter, cuz I will literally eat half a loaf out of the oven slathered with butter.  Not good for the diabetes......
 
 
 
On another front, todays' fish tacos have become fish and chips.  It's what honey wants, and we have the ingredients.  Did some homemade tarter sauce and coleslaw.  Pics coming after we actually cook the cod.  
 
 
 
 
 
Ashen said:
Warm lemon sponge with lemon curd centre
 
 
holy shit! my eyeballs popped out of my head when i saw that.
i need good dessert badly.
 
also, nice french bread, SL. just wondering.. did the bread seem to proof faster without the salt in it? i've heard salt retards yeast, but it's not something i've experimented with.
 
my dinner tonight was bolognese. first time making it. pretty fun and easygoing thing to make. i highly recommend it.
(ps: my 'secret ingredient' was sichuan peppercorn. i put that in almost everything now, so it's kind of an inside joke. i always quiz my family about the 'secret' ingredient, and they roll their eyes.)
 
 
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Sinensis, it seemed to proof like normal. Good looking bolognese.
 
salsalady said:
 
 
anyone notice something missing?
 
:doh:  :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
 
something like SALT?!?!???
 
What a dumbass!  OK!  Well, after the dough has proofed, divide in half and roll out into a rectangle....sprinkle salt on it.....roll it up and seal the edges.
 
Let it proof again.  Brush with egg white wash, SPRINKLE WITH SALT (cuz I'm an idiot) and bake.
 
Cut the hot baked bread, slather up with butter (and a dash of SALT!!! )   and enjoy!  
 
 
Sounds like what I did with my first batch of hamburger buns. I actually remembered the salt, but I boiled some water and didnt let the water cool enough....and killed my YEAST! lol.
 
I had to make the whole batch again. The batch you all saw was my second attempt. hehe.
 
salsalady said:
:lol:  at least flour and yeast aren't expensive.  Although if you'd only had one packet of yeast, that would of been a bummer.
 
On that note, the next time I go to the store I'm going to have to look for some more yeast. I've heard its getting pretty hard if not impossible to find. But I had some on hand, so I haven't really needed to go to the store for it-- plus I've been buying 3-4 standard sandwich loaves for the family each time I go to the store. You'd be surprised how many meals you can get out of grilled cheese.. lol.
 
Since we're pretty much on food rationing of sorts, we try to limit our trips to the store. I have an elderly family member who lives at the house. So any trips out to the store have to be done with extreme caution. I was wearing masks and gloves before that became a thing. I remember gettings stares for it. Now you get stares for not wearing one. lol.  So grocery trips like once a week or every two week trips only. 
 
Oh and Sausage, Onion, Potato, and oregano soup I made (Oregano is an anti-viral you know. I have hopes for GMO potatoes as well on that front, but didn't have any. Coincidentally so is Rhubarb, but I didn't have any on hand either.)
 
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Oh, SHOOT!  All my posts have been disqualified...I didn't include the "money" shot!  :lol:
 
And Bay Leaf in the soup.  I like using bay leaves, John doesn't get it, and gives me a bad time whenever he finds one.  Whatever, I know it helps in the stew, beans, or whatever. 
 
I used to work in the kitchen at a Job Corp center back in the late 80's.  One time a kid found a bay leaf in his food, came up to the serving line throwing a big ol' fit accusing the cooks of putting trees in the food.  The cook had to take him back into the kitchen and open the spice jar to prove it wasn't from the rhododendron bushes outside.  :rolleyes:
 
 
The campus also housed some mentally ill patients.  There was this one guy Wally, who was a pretty sweet, timid and sensitive guy.  One day, Wally came up to the serving line with his tray of food, really upset, almost crying.  He'd spilled his glass of milk onto his tray.  It was all I could do not to bust up laughing as I told him, "it's OK Wally, no use crying over spilt milk."
 
True Story. 
 
I used up some of Mike's seasonings today for Scooby snacks. Head Country was the sauce of choice, these are too rich to eat many and I feel like it's the best heart attack bite you can take even though I trimmed off some fat.
 
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This will be used it the next batch of sausage!!
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After 3 hours of smoke.
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I subbed the Cherry rub for brown sugar since it had so much in it but added honey and butter.
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One hour covered then sauced and back to caramelize, sticky sweet pork candy!!!
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Even after 5 hours of smoking, there's still enough of the glorious gelatinous fat to make it feel like a sin.
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This was started yesterday, but after the half a loaf of fresh baked butter-slathered french bread, we weren't that hungry. 
 
 
Fish & Chips!  ala inspiration from Ashen!
 
Homemade tarter sauce-recipe card is the original from the restaurant, back in the day~
Place 1 Tbsp dried minced onions and 1/2 tsp garlic powder/granules in a bowl.  Add 1 Tbsp HOT water, allow to hydrate for 10 minutes or so.
Add 1/2 c mayo
1 Tbsp lemon juice or brine( I didn't feel like trekking out to the kitch for lemon juice, so I used some brine from some Spicy Dilly Beans from Masher)
1 tbsp dill relish or minced dill pickles
 
Mix it all together and allow to rest in the refer for at least 2 hours for the onions to fully re-hydrate.  Longer is better.
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Cole Slaw-
Recipe card original from the restaurant.  I scaled it back~ and used the Dilly Brine instead of ACV
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Red Potato Wedges-  350F oil, scoop 'em out and BAM with some Johnny's Seasoning Salt!  Oh, Yea, we each at least one Potato's worth of wedges before they even got into the house.
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Arctic Cod- dried the fish, seasoned with Johnny's, black pepper, garlic then dredged in flour. 
Batter- I followed the link Ashen posted.  Flour, baking powder, egg, beer, seasonings.  It fried up pretty well, nice and crispy, but I feel like there was too much leavening.  Maybe one or the other of the beer or baking powder.  The crust was pretty 'lacy'.   Whatever, it was good and we ate it up.  Just comments for a future  cook.
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collateral damage-
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