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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.....
 
Damn, I made a curry with 2 big ass chicken breasts and 2 large carolina reapers from my freezer. Tossed in two canning jars full of montufar salsa. About a cup of heavy cream. A few red onions, a handful of whole green and black cardamoms, several whole star anise, a very heavy dose of ground turmeric, salt, whole black peppercorns, did I miss something?
 
Wife fried this and it actually evacuated the entire house. Full biological weapon attack. Everybody coughing like hell.
 
I had a taste and it was (me, who is super tolerant to superhots) really fucking hot.
 
Decided to make a casserole with it. Added 2kg (4.5 lbs) of frozen green beans - fried in oil and garlic. Added some more heavy cream. Added a big bunch of dried, crispy fried onions.
 
Threw it in the oven for a while. It came out and I had a taste, still mindblowing hot.
 
Made a few STRONG gin-tonics and went to the table with the wife to eat.
 
And now, the morning after, first time in my life when I actually got exit-wound burns while taking a piss. Normally they always come from the back-side.
 
We still have a YUUUUUUGE amount of leftovers.
 
Those jokes about keeping the toilet paper in the freezer, bit of truth in that.... :lol:
 
Canned Soup- we started out to make a similar soup a couple weeks ago and ended up adding rice and shrimp, it turned out good, but not really soupy.
2 cans tomatoes, can of corn, can of red beans, can of white beans, andouille, browned ground beef, onion, seasonings... served with cilantro and creme
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BigAzz Taco Salad with LO taco meat
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Ultimate Pasta Salad
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This pasta salad recipe scales up really well and is excellent for family reunions, pot lucks (remember those things?)  You can also add cooked chicken, ham, or other meat to make it a main dish.
 
But there's a couple of tricks.  First is you gotta make some Swamp Water.  For this batch I used 2 Tbsp garlic powder/granulated, 1 Tbsp Italian Herb mix, 1 Tbsp onion powder/granulated, 1 Tbsp salt to the pasta cooking water.
 
The Ital Mix in the recipe above is 2 parts garlic, 1 part Italian herbs, 1 part onion powder, 1 part salt.  When I was catering river rafting lunches, I would mix up about 5 pounds of the pre-mix which would last me a couple weeks worth of cooking.
Use a chunky pasta like penne, bowtie, radiatore, spiral.
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Cook the pasta until fully done.  You do not want it al dente.  If it's al dente, it will soak up all the dressing and become really gummy.  By cooking it in the swamp water, the pasta will have some flavor and you don't need to rely on the dressing to flavor it.
 
When the pasta is done, add the shredded carrots and broccoli bits.  If the carrots are diced or chunkier, add them to the cooking pot first until they are cooked, then at the broccoli last.  Stir it for a minute, just enough to blanch the broccoli.  Drain in a colander and put the colander (on a plate) in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes or so. 
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Add everything else, (this batch has some yellow blend dried peppers) toss it and refer it for a couple hours to get all HappyHappy. 
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Love the one your with....
cuz thats all you got...
in isolation .....
but if you dont have a roommate.....


OK!!!!!!!! Never mind!!!!!!!


TB, I love corned beef hash. And as a wacky whatever, I have been defrosting for 3 days, a chunk of corned beef from the corned beef cook we did a couple weeks ago. Plan is for a corned beef pie.
 
salsalady said:
Love the one your with....
cuz thats all you got...
in isolation .....
but if you dont have a roommate.....


OK!!!!!!!! Never mind!!!!!!!


TB, I love corned beef hash. And as a wacky whatever, I have been defrosting for 3 days, a chunk of corned beef from the corned beef cook we did a couple weeks ago. Plan is for a corned beef pie.
 
As always.
 
You've always loved.
 
The one you're with.
 
This world is a better place.
 
With you in it.
 
Not a "spicy" dish,more of a comfort food I guess. What I don't eat I will freeze for later. Totally forgot to mention the base spices - black pepper, generic season salt, minced garlic and a little soy sauce. That's it. I usually add a little hot sauce to my individual dish afterwards because I share with some who aren't into the heat. Basic dish but so good.
 
https://youtu.be/YshcyX7cPHM
 
Ashen, you are very lucky to have a Lovely that makes such great food/breads/desserts!  :clap: 
edit- and then you posted them kabobs while I was posting.  Ya gotta give props to someone who even has them flat skewers at home.  Lamb?
 
 
WM- that soup is very similar to one John made a few days ago, pure comfort food.  I like your suggestion to fine dice some potatoes and chunky dice others.  Makes a lot of sense.  It thickens up the broth, but you still have the bites at the end. 
 
 
 
Yesterday's Chicken Parmesan
Last weekend, the Kid called up wanting some tips on making chicken parm.  I walked him through it and this was the result.
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Yesterday was our once-a-year trash the kitchen chicken parmesan treat.
1 large chicken breast, cut in half, pounded thin with a meat mallet, metal can, framing hammer (whatever you got :lol:)
Bread Crumbs ( i used that failed french bread from last week.  A few days ago, I cut it thin, toasted it in the oven, blitzed it in the food processor and added....salt... italian herbs, garlic, pepper)
milk,
egg wash
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
marinara sauce
good red wine
 
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Pound the chicken thin, splash with some milk, dredge in flour, run it through the egg wash, and pack the bread crumbs on to it. 
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Fry the cutlets (or fillets?  WHATEVER!) in a heavy fry pan, (Pookie, CAST IRON works good....if you hadn't thrown all of yours into the back alley!!!)
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Place on a baking sheet, schmear with some red sauce, add mozzarella and intot the hot oven or under the broiler.
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DONE.
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and then spend a hour cleaning the kitchen and 2 loads of dishes for all the plates and bowls needed,  Oh Well....it's not like I have to go to work or anything.....
:cheers:
 
Ashen said:
Glad to hear from you Reggie.
I was wondering and worrying a bit about what sort of strangeness you have been dealing with. Cheers.
 
Great looking cooks Ashen! I won't opine about my world, save to say this place is my little "comfort zone." Otherwise FUBAR... holding steady...  :cheers:
 
Ashen said:
Salsalady. That chicken Parm looks fantastic.

Not lamb this time but we do love that too.

We just used what we had on hand.

pork loin cubes from freezer that was marinated overnight with Greek oregano,lemon zest, garlic.
 
Souvlaki - love that stuff!
 
Portveyn, that looks like a great comfort food. What is the level of restriction in your country?
 
Harrissa is a great spice blend. I use it a lot. Love the mint. Makes food pop with freshness. Mint smell on the palette does some weird stuff to the brain lol.
 
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