What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?

I'm the only one in the house with any interest in playing around with cooking. I typically spend a good deal of Sunday in prep and cooking, which I usually enjoy. But lately, no one seems to give a shit.

I made beautiful, juicy smash burgers yesterday with green leaf lettuce, red onion, garden fresh tomatoes and ciabatta rolls, and a special garlic-herb mayonnaise I made from scratch. They were cooked just shy of well and were made with sufficiently fatty beef that they stayed juicy. It was honestly one of the best burgers I've had in years.

Half of the family sucked them down like McDonald's with no comment. One fed half the burger to the dog, then complained about the mayo behind my back to another family member, who threw the rest away (the loss of the mayo especially hurts). My guess is they weren't a hit because I didn't use 100% lean ground beef and cook them to hockey puck consistency. It may sound like I'm being facetious or hyperbolic, but I'm really not. They were weirded out by the fact the burgers were juicy–not pink with myoglobin, mind, just juicy like a well-cooked burger should be. One of them complained that they had to use a napkin.

When I was growing up, getting together on weekends to cook something a little out of the ordinary was an event. Everybody enjoyed trying new things, and iteration and trying new techniques was part of the joy of getting together. I'm still working on some recipes from my childhood 30+ years later, even though I could cook most of them in my sleep by this point.

These people see nothing to enjoy about food. It's just chemical energy, and if it isn't cooked to hell and back, they just assume it'll give you trichinosis or something. I can't tell you the number of times I've put a perfectly medium-rare steak in front of someone only for them to get up without a word and nuke the bastard for 3 minutes on high because it isn't totally gray. That's their prerogative, but God damn if it isn't demoralizing.

I think I'll just give up on trying to make Sunday into anything special. I'm just going to put as little effort into dinner as they put into enjoying it, unless I have something in particular I'm craving.

Sorry for the rant, but I needed to vent.

After traveling to visit some friends I was prompted to return to some cooking and baking. When we all lived near each other I was definitely the friend to have a new dish or baked good to share with everyone. Life as pulled us to different parts of the country and worked has taken up more of my time. It was that situation where they were a bit surprised that I hadn't been cooking.

(To be clear, I guess I cook every day but it's a standard rotation of very simple dishes. When I mean by cooking is exploring different methods and styles.)

French boules: Most of the bread I've made has been levain based. Fits and starts at maintaining my yeast has kept me from making much bread. I was gifted a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking a couple years ago. On a whim followed her recipe for French boules since she has a very basic recipe with active dry yeast. Only criticism is she provides volumetric measurements rather than by weight. The bread turned out good. Since I made two loaves and cooked them separately the second loaf is over proved. The crumb is good sandwich bread consistency. Will likely keep playing with it and try and nail down some weights so I can break it down into bakers ratios.

Caramel Apple Crisp: Apple crisp is a standby for me. I have a really simple Jean-Francois Mallet recipe I used to keep apples around for and whip up whenever I wanted a simple dessert. This NYT Cooking recipe has had my eye for a while. It's a pretty simple apple crisp but the spices are more fleshed out than the barebones Mallet recipe I've used. The real draw to this one was a caramel sauce. I haven't made much caramel so it was fun to try. The caramel turned out well after a brief moment of panic when my butter separated before it started browning. Continued monitoring and it all came together when the cream went in.

Shakshuka: A really simple meal one of my friends made for us. Essentially a tomato sauce that you then poach some eggs in. Best served with good bread and hot sauce. Really like it as it mixes up brunch/breakfast.

Shrimp/Potato/Bacon/Corn Chowder: My partner picked this one out. It was pretty good and pretty simple to make. We kind of did the level 2 version, making the bacon in the pot and using the rendering to sear the shrimp before making the chowder proper. A bit bland straight away but much improved on day 2. Could definitely make it with fewer steps and fish stock would be an improvement over the chicken stock we had on hand.

Literally by the label Pet Food.

In reality $2.99 a pound for steak trimmings. Cut off the fat for the doggos. Steak, potatoes, celery, onions and garlic. Super awesome stew. Hmmmm