My Cooking Adventure III

What I Made (Friday):
"Simply Amazing Meatloaf"

I followed the recipe straight thru and was really interested to see how using the Rice-A-Roni instead of bread crumbs or crackers would work. The rice was still crunchy and I don't know if that is intentional, but it was unexpected. One change I made was instead of using a loaf pan, I just formed it into a loaf and placed it in a 8x8 Pyrex dish. I had done this before with another meatloaf, but here it is explained why its better than using a loaf pan. Per the hints and tips on this page, I wanted to lay strips of bacon across the top before cooking because, as they say, everything tastes better with bacon. But my wife vetoed that idea because she was already planning on cooking the squash we got at the farmer's market for our vegetable. She was trying her mother's recipe of cooking onion an bacon in a skillet and then adding the squash, with a little seasoning, until done. It was yummy.

What I Learned:
making meatloaf in a roasting pan is better than using a loaf pan.

This might be it for a while because there is still quite a bit of meatloaf left over, but one of the links above also mentioned that it makes a good sandwich, so I will have to try that for lunch tomorrow. :-)

My Cooking Adventure II

Yesterday I introduced a new adventure I'm embarking on (I have no idea how long it will last, but I imagine Corrina is pleased with the variety and, hopefully, healthier food). Tonight I wish to catch up on yesterday's meal and share tonight's:

What I Made (Wednesday):

Stir Fry Vegetable with Pork

As I mentioned it would be yesterday, it was really easy because I just use the big bag of frozen stir-fry veggies from Costco. However, before throwing them in the skillet (we don't have a wok) I heated a little bit of EVOO and some fresh grated ginger root. Then I threw in the veggies. After they were done cooking, I added the pork that I had previously grilled with a little garlic powder rub. After adding the pork to the veggies is when I added the stir-fry sauce. I had also added a handful of slivered almonds to add a little bit of crunchiness to the stir-fry. All this combined made it taste almost identical to the bottle of Kikoman's Stir-Fry sauce we had used before.

What I Learned:

Adding fresh grated ginger root to the oil before the veggies will not(!) make the ginger flavor too powerful (yay!)

I need to review cooking temps and times for pork chops before the next time I grill it. I think I cooked them a little too long because they were a little firm. Fortunately, they tasted fine (I think the garlic powder was a nice touch, and was Corrina's idea) and I chopped them into bite-sized pieces after cooking and before adding to the veggies so it wasn't that big of a deal.

What I Made (Thursday):

Soy-Glazed Salmon Steaks and Steamed Vegetables

So, I was a little worried I was going to fail tonight because, for various reasons, I didn't think about dinner til this afternoon. I found a fairly simple, and yummy-looking recipe for a meat loaf that I thought about trying, but when I mentioned it to Corrina, she pointed out that there wasn't going to be enough time to thaw the beef and cook the loaf :-( So I went onto supercook.com (which was suggested to me by Amanda Dyck) and entered a bunch of the items we have on hand. We happened to have some frozen Salmon fillets so I added that to the list and this was one of the recipes that bounced back. Can you say super easy! The glaze is 3 ingredients that you whisk together and then you just brush it onto the salmon and broil it. The veggies were another bag of Costco frozen veggies, Normandy-Style this time. I cooked those in the micro-steamer while the fillets were broiling and added a little bit of butter to them in the last minute or two. My wife and I aren't big fans of fish, but we have found some yummy recipes for salmon, and this is one that I think I'll add to the repertoire, with a minor change which I'll discuss below.

What I Learned:

I CAN'T BROIL AND, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN! This isn't the first time I've tried and every time I have, I can't get it to work right. If the recipe says broil for 5 minutes, it ends up taking 10-15 and the extra juice/sauce/glaze run-off inevitably burns and smokes up the the place. That is why the minor change in repeating this recipe will be to brush the glaze on both sides and throw it on the George Foreman grill.

I also learned that I love ginger in cooking. It added nice flavor to the stir-fry last night and added nice flavor to the salmon tonight, didn't even need lemon juice. My mother-in-law is very allergic to ginger, so that would be a problem when she visits. However, when she visits, she usually cooks because she is so much better than me. :-)

Sneak Preview for Tomorrow:

Can we say bacon?!

My Cooking Adventure

Recently I started a little cooking adventure. I've been making at least one item home-made from scratch each night. It started when I was in the mood for curry and, knowing we had curry powder, got online to find a recipe how to make the sauce. The recipe I found was labeled as easy and I only lacked a few ingredients that were easy enough to acquire at the local grocer.

What I Made (Sunday):
Chicken Curry with Rice

I cooked the rice in the rice cooker and boiled the chicken breasts so that I could cook them with out fear of burning them and so they would be easier to shred to add to the curry sauce when its ready. I followed the simple recipe to make the sauce and then when it was ready, I added the shredded chicken and some frozen peas until everything was heated through then spooned it over the rice.

What I Learned:
If the recipe calls for tomato, it will be a red sauce and that is why it doesn't call for coconut milk
If the recipe calls for coconut milk, it will be a yellow curry
next time I will either add less chicken, or double the curry recipe so there is plenty of sauce for the rice.

What I Made (Monday):
Tacos de Maiz

So, technically, there were actually 2 homemade items this meal: We cooked up some dried red beans in the crock-pot a couple days earlier so I reheated them and mashed them up almost to refried consistency, but the planned homemade item was pico de gallo. For the sake of my wife's and son's taste buds, I left out any kind of hot pepper and only used onion, tomato, cilantro, and lime juice. We also had the left over rice from Sunday night, which I threw frozen peas in before reheating (I'm telling you, this is the only way I like peas), shredded chedder cheese, and sour cream in corn tortillas.

What I Learned:
chop up the tomatoes SMALL! (I don't like the taste of tomatoes so the bigger the chunks, the more pervasive the flavor)

What I Made (Tuesday):
Tacos de Maiz (yeah, yeah, yeah... there's nothin' wrong with leftovers now and again, especially if its so yummy)

What I Made (Wednesday):
Stir Fry Vegetable with Pork

Okay, so as of this writing, I haven't actually cooked anything yet, but I have prepared the homemade portion: the stir fry sauce. Tonights meal is going to be really easy and the sauce is the easiest homemade part yet. I'm kind of cheating because we buy the big bag of frozen stir fry veggies from Costco so I just have to throw them in the skillet (we don't have a wok) until they're mostly done, then I add the sauce and the cooked meat. The pork I will cook separately on our electric grill with a little bit of seasoning and then chop up into bite-sized pieces before adding to the veggies. The sauce has 4 ingredients: chicken broth, corn starch, soy sauce, and white wine. The only bottle of alcohol we have ever bought, or has ever dwelled in our home, is a little bottle of white cooking wine used for cooking only (duh) :-)

What I Learned:
Well, nothing yet, because I haven't tasted the final product, but I do like the idea of being able to make things from scratch that are really simple and end up being cheaper in the long run. I hope it tastes good, too.

So far, all the recipes for the featured homemade item have been found on eHow: How to Do Just About Everything