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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.....
 
In our state, it is a mask mandate in public spaces. Bob65, are you currently in a lockdown/quarantine?
 
Well, yes and no. Not going to get into the politics of it

but...

Some restrictions lifted as of today in NSW. Mon 11th Oct, but only for double vaxxed people.

My work is considered to be an "essential service" so I have been able to work right through.

More easing of restrictions later this month apparently.

But.........

The town that I live has been identified (months ago) as an "LGA of concern" (Local Government Area) meaning delta running rampant for a while and residents locked down, even to the point of curfews etc. To the best of my knowledge that is still in place even with the easing of restrictions as of today. Hard to find out one way or another because no one is freely giving out that info. I have literally had to get a permit to be able to leave my LGA to go to work. I have also had to get a permit to go and visit my mother that lives in the same LGA.

But................

One of the blokes on my shift at work has been identified as a "close contact". His son caught covid from a teacher at pre school. He is in lockdown isolation for 14 days pending negative tests.

This means that the people on the same shift (my shift) are considered "casual contacts". As a casual contact I had to get tested immediately and then again 5 days after last exposure to close contact person. If negative after first test isolate where possible, distance when not possible to isolate etc etc. Have just been down this morning for the 5 day test, waiting on results. This is on top of the extra super special lockdown for living in a LGA of concern.

But......................

If you think that sounds bad, it is in NSW.

Victoria has it worse.
 
Wow! dayummm ....we have shite and stuff happening locally also. Dont want to derail this thread so, thanks for posting the grub!!!
 
This isn't cooking related, but we are once again locked down due to SNOW. We had 18" of fresh snow fall overnight before ~7:00am

Joe Don't Care, he just wants to play.
https://youtu.be/bNUoNGQurL8

let's see if this works~~~


OK the link seems to work. Weather predicted for more snow, 40-60mph winds in areas, and freezing rain on top of up to 2 feet of fresh snow.

Gonna make a run to town in the morning in the 4x4 for enough rewine for the weekend and ingredient for pho!
 
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I don't even know what they are calling this latest circle of hel version of restrictions.
modified step 2 reopening blah blah blah.

whatever, comfort food was requested and required.

grilled polenta, pork spezzatino, plus some good cave aged gruyere to eat with extra polenta. finished off whatever wine that didn't go into the spezzatino. (served in a small water glass mandatory.)
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Didn't want to start another thread, so here is another post in the cooking thread, even though we are no longer in lockdown.

We bought a very nice (and expensive) Victory grill last spring. Pretty disappointment in the performance, and also in a couple design features. The grill bars seemed too far apart. Ground beef for burgers stuck and fell through the bars. And the knobs are mixed up. There are 3 grill burners and one side sear burner. But the knobs don't follow their placement. It should be grill-grill-grill-sear. But the knobs are grill-grill-SEAR-grill. This doesn't work when DC-ing. (Drunken Chef-ing). I had to put red tape on the side burner knob so we didn't turn it on by accident.
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Enter the PLANCHA!
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This medium size plancha from GauchoLife fits perfectly on the grill, heats evenly and quickly. We have cooked 2 pounds of bacon on the griddle at one time, (way faster than 5-6 pieces in a fry pan), smash burgers, hibachi (tepenyaki/benihana) style rice and proteins, steaks with butter, garlic, thyme (steak-house style), dutch oven for red beans and rice, over easy and sunny-side-up eggs, hashbrowns, omlets.... It brings us back to diner cooking on the flattop grill.


Ingredients including the Holy Duo (didn't have any celery for the Trinity) thyme, garlic, cayenne, smoked paprika, bay leaf, black pepper (sorry, geeme), andouille, bacon, brined small red beans, rice.
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Thanks, GS.
We often make a large-ish dish of whatever and after 2 to 3 days end up pitching the last bit in the bin. This one...we ate the whole thing.
 
I forgot to include the other major gripe I have about the Victory Grill. The tool hangers on both sides.

The hangers are a flat tab about 5/8" wide. Tongs can hang on those wide tabs, parallel to the side table, which means the tongs are criss-crossed. Food service turners have a smaller hanging loop. I had to scavenge S-hooks from an old grill and make some from #4 solid copper wire.
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Between the sub-par grill, the bad knob design, and bad hanging clips....about the only positive thing i can say is that the grill seems to be fairly fuel efficient. We did a lot of cooks on one gas bottle. Even including one burner left on overnight. Literally a week before we had the the hard pipes and timer installed. :banghead: :lol:
 
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