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What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
I’m in Las Vegas and so far the best thing I have ate is… a fruit plate. A $20 fruit plate in a casual upscale restaurant in a casino on the strip. At first I was disappointed because it had a lot of fruit that I don’t like - kiwi, strawberry and blackberry. But they were so fresh and sweet that they were fantastic. It was served with two non-fruit sides; one of them was a whipped coconut cream, which turned each bite of fruit into a flavor bomb. The other side were two mini chocolate chip mufffins which, though they were probably among the best of their kind, were actually mildly disappointing next to the fruit!
It just goes to show how different the quality of grocery store produce is from the good stuff.
I've worked 10 years as a produce clerk and let me tell you this: ALL fruits are very good, the problem is they're only good a couple of weeks to some months per year.
For instance, Ontario peaches are insanely good, but they're only there ~2 months a year. Raspberries are my FAVOURITE fruit by far, back when I worked as a clerk, I could legit eat a pack in about 30 seconds... that was the case about 3 weeks a year. I always tasted the raspberries when we got them and they only tasted like that maybe 4 weeks a year.
It's sad because so many people end up finding out they don't like the fruits because they happened to eat them on a bad patch. Berries during the winter are never good, clementines during the summer are never good. You just need to learn the seasons, especially your local produce! The less travel, the better they are.
Happy to see you got a good batch :)
I'm only realizing now that I'm an adult how lucky I was that we had a bunch of raspberry bushes growing next to my house growing up. Ours had two harvests a year iirc and they were delicious.
Made a banana bread last week that's always a winner to make:
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-banana-bread-the-simplest-easiest-recipe-139900
Picked up a copy of Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Great Italian Cook by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali [0] and look forward to digging into it some more this week and hopefully start pulling ideas from it next week.
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My oldest kid was visiting for a half week to study stats with me, so we got a lot of things that she likes, mostly frozen potato items, like hashbrowns and tater tots. We also made some chocolate chip cookies because I had a dad brain fart and when I went out to get the hashbrowns and tater tots, I asked my son if he wanted anything and he asked for chocolate chip cookies. I said "of course" and went and bought tater tots, hashbrowns, jalapeños, and a couple of other things that weren't chocolate chip cookies. When I got back he was a bit flabbergasted that the only thing that people asked for that I didn't get was the thing he asked for, so we just made some cookies. He agreed that was better anyways.
Man, hashbrowns are so fattening and tasty. Today I had my standard egg burrito (sauteed mushrooms and onions, with scrambled egg and cheese), but I put a hashbrown in it as well. A+ highly recommended breakfast burrito.
First week I can actually contribute to the thread. I feel comfortable saying I cook now! Yeah me.
I asked my friends for two small recipes and he sent just me what he did this week: a dumpling salad and a white beans/sausage dish. Both turned out great! Although the cream in the beans recipe triggered my lactose intolerance instantly...guess I should use no lactose cream next time.
Anyone got easy go-to recipes to share?
This time of year, roasting vegetables is the best effort to value ratio cooking.
Carrots, broccoli, onion, squash of all types, peppers, brussel sprouts, turnips, green beans, whatever you can find at a reasonable price.
Get out the biggest tray that will fit in your oven, cover it in foil. Preheat your oven to 400. Cut your veg into pieces you consider eatable (well, maybe not the green beans, since they're so small). Dump in onto the tray, add oil and mix (I use olive, no need for extra virgin, since the flavor will burn off in the oven). At minimum, add salt to taste (literally, taste the raw vegetables and see if it has as much salt as you want). If you'd like add whatever other seasonings you have or want - - black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin are all easy. For best results, avoid overcrowding the tray.
Throw it in the oven and let it go for around 20-25 minutes, and then pull it out and check on it. If the veg still needs cooking, throw it back in. You can stir them first if the top or bottom is already browned. If it's nearly done, but you want more browning, turn on the broil setting for a few minutes (I always stare directly at the oven while broiling after I had a kitchen fire once toasting pita bread).
If you want meat, I'll often do whole sausages, or chicken thighs directly on the tray. Thighs take about 35ish minutes to cook through, whole sausages take 30ish. I always check with a meat thermometer. You can also cut the casing on the sausage and divide it into smaller pieces. Either way, it's often a good idea to reduce the oil a bit, since both options will render out their own fat.
If you want to add a carb, potatoes are easy, particularly fingerling potatoes. Shelf stable gnocchi is delicious as well.