What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?

Roasted a whole duck a few days ago. Salted the skin and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for three days. Stuffed the cavity with onions, Rosemary, garlic, and orange peels. Pricked the skin over the breasts with a pairing knife.

Set it on a wire rack above a pan full of carrots and diced potatoes. Cooked it at about 250f for three hours. Then pulled it from the over and cranked the heat to 425. Put the duck and the veggies back on the oven on their own pans this time for about 15 minutes. Fat was completely rendered from the duck, meat was juicy and fall apart tender.

I'm savoring the last of the season's English Peas. I get them each week at my farmer's market and then spend hours shelling and eating them on Sunday afternoons as I watch my husband play TOTK. It's become our Sunday tradition. Even the dog gets in on eating the peas I shell.

I'm generally not much of a drinker, and know little about wine outside sticking to a few light whites (think pinot grigio.)

A short while ago, though, I went to a wine bar where a couple of the wines I tried really expanded my understanding of the complexity and flavour possible. I've since been having fun looking up different styles to try (while sticking to reasonable prices!), and am really blown away by the huge variety in flavours possible.

A couple of stand-outs include:
-A Marlborough sauvignon blanc so intensely fresh and fruity I felt compelled to double-check it didn't contain added flavourants
-A fruity, spicy alcasian pinot gris
-An almost-bubbly, herbal gruner veltliner

I don't see myself falling deep into oenophilia, and I'm still sticking to white wines, but it's nice to learn about different options :)

I have been obsessed with Pinto beans lately. I like to buy dry and pressure cook when I have time, but I have actually been eating canned recently.

Most of the time, I mostly drain a can and then dump it into some garlic (two cloves) and cumin seeds (0.5 tsp) I have been frying for a few mins. Add salt to taste and mash a few of them, then cook until breaks down a bit.

I guess it's a lazy refried beans that I leave mostly whole rather than totally mashing. I absolutely love it, and think I could eat it every day and as a side to everything. It's an amazing taco filling when paired with some crunchy vegetables (and optionally a bit of cheese too).

I recently discovered a new tasty way to roast carrots that will probably be my go-to if I am making a Japanese inspired dish.

Slice carrots into about quarter inch straps about 1.5-2 inches long. Toss with mirin, sugar, and salt. Roast at 425 for about 20-30 minutes. They are awesome over rice and with a runny egg!

Sourdough pancakes with blueberries for breakfast this morning. I replaced some of the flour with protein powder to help it fit my macros. Turkey chilli and nachos. I'm soaking some chickpeas right now for a veggie version of a coronation chicken sandwich filling, hoping that turns out well!

I'm trying to shave off calories and increase protein where I can to keep dieting engaging.

I've recently stopped drinking alcohol for health reasons, so I've had to find alternative beverages. My favorite NAs are the Athletic IPA and the Flying Dog Deepfake (such a good name). The Sierra Nevada Hoppy Refresher is also great, though that's a hop-flavored sparkling water. I've also branched out into normal sparkling water, and have really been digging Spindrift - sparkling waters with 4-10% fruit juice, so it's pretty healthy and tasty.

Very open to NA beverage suggestions.

Idk what this is but it's delicious!

I shredded red cabbage with a vegetable peeler, added minced ginger and garlic, gochujang, light and dark soy sauce, vegan oyster sauce, vegan fish sauce, vegan mayo, a squirt of sriracha, lemon juice, gochugaru and a couple of pinches of chaat masala (it needed something and this seemed right and really worked) and stirred it all together with white rice.

Had this for three meals so far and I'm still enjoying it.

I mentioned last week that I finally bought a zojirushi rice cooker. It was a bit expensive ($150 USD), but 100% worth it. I made chicken teriyaki and it's the best dish I've ever made (not just because of the rice, I nailed the chicken, too). I also made some fried rice with spam and veggies with the leftover rice.

It's just so nice to have a tool that can make a consistent base for so many meals. It's very easy to just throw some rice in the cooker and to know it will come out perfectly every time so that I really only need to worry about prepping veggies and protein.

Besides that, I'm still trying to hone in on a pizza dough recipe. I finally found one I like that makes a good thin crust, but if I fold the edges over to get more of a crust on the edge, it just tastes really crackery instead of savory and chewy, but the part of the crust that's under the sauce and toppings is delicious.

I have just sliced and marinated beef to make jerky. I use around 12-15 spoons of soy sauce, 5 spoonsof worcester sauce and some salt and grounded pepper (not the vegetable, but spice). I let it sit in a fridge through the day and in the evening I'm gonna put it on skewers and in the oven set to hot air and 50 degrees Celsius overnight. It's important to leave the door just a little bit opened so that the moisture can get out. In the morning I'm gonna set the oven to over 70 for a few minutes and close it to kill any bacteria or whatnot.

A bit of a disclaimer - if you are going to make your own jerky, be warned that it is technically uncooked meat and can cause you health problems.