Today I Made:

[sardia]

I would shred the brie rind and use it in a cheese mix for pizza toppings. Of course, I view pizza as a fridge cleaner for whatever bits of meat/veg/cheese I have around.

Today I am making: Pizza! crust was made two days ago (sourdough), toppings will likely be roast chicken, bacon, onion, and jalapeno, maybe with green onion added after baking, depending if the green onion in the fridge is any good.

it's harder to justify given the nutrients to calorie ratio in a pizza. Maybe home made dough has more fiber?
Most dishes can use up leftovers. However I'm struggling to use up a 10lb+ ham. It's sitting in my freezer. So far I tried using it in
Baked beans
Red beans and rice
Pork Verde chili.

I'm going to try roasting it next. But that's a lot to just eat roasted ham, even with a theoretically great marinade/sauce.

[PAstrychef]

Split pea soup is great with ham. Also, ham and potato croquettes, ham with a sweet and sour glaze over rice, etc. you night chop some up and leave it in the freezer to add to omelets, crepes, fried rice and so on.

[cephalopod9]

That said, the crepes sounded (read?) delicious!

pretty good, not my best crepes ever, and the strawberries were on the mushy side. I chopped 'em up to take to a thing, and then forgot them. I keep meaning to learn how to make a good balsamic vinegar reduction.

Pizza! crust was made two days ago (sourdough), toppings will likely be roast chicken, bacon, onion, and jalapeno, maybe with green onion added after baking, depending if the green onion in the fridge is any good.

I understand these words individually, but not together.

I spend at least 10 times as much time thinking about food crafting than i do actually doing anything in the kitchen. I heated up a can of spinach with leftover chicken and cheese, and an entire can of store brand spinach probably has more sodium than I was accounting for.

[Zohar]

We had a seder at our place so we made a shitload of food - matzo ball soup, roasted sweet potatoes with chickpeas and a yogurt dressing, charoset, a chocolate mousse cake, and macarons.

[Sandry]

I made okonomiyaki and spinach dahl and apple crisp and rice pudding.

I feel like I've gotten pretty good at making a thing that is like enough to okonomiyaki to be worth calling it that and it's not as high effort as I was afraid it'd be, and given how much of it is cabbage, it's not super expensive. But since frying things is inherently a staged process for doing multiple servings, it seems like it's a time-consuming process.

I think I keep ending up at things that are essentially curries, soups, or casseroles because it's so much easier to scale those up for batch cooking than other types of cooking. And that's basically fine, but I guess I sometimes find myself thinking I never make anything interesting. I'd been considering doing an eggplant dish I made in my French squared cooking class, but I feel like if putting in the extra effort doesn't result in something both tastier and healthier than something like spinach dahl, why bother?

[Zohar]

Okonomiyaki was perhaps my favorite food to discover in Japan and it's really unpopular outside of it. I don't know why...

[flicky1991]

I sometimes go to a restaurant that claims to be the only restaurant in Europe to specialise in okonomiyaki. I agree, I don't understand why it's not popular either - I specifically sought out this restaurant because I had loved it so much on the previous occasions I'd tried it.

[PAstrychef]

Breaded cutlets and asparagus. Of course it’s snowing instead of being springlike.

[Zohar]

My brother's been in town so we went out a lot instead of cooking stuff. But Saturday night I made Smitten Kitchen's fig newtons recipe. The dough was a bit finicky to deal with at first but after I put in the freezer for ~8 minutes it was much easier to work with.

I liked the recipe overall, but I think it would have worked better with dried prunes instead of figs. Of course, then it won't be fig newtons.

[Sandry]

Yesterday I made twice baked sweet potatoes filled with caramelized onions, spinach and cheddar. I was not feeling at all confident about the flavor profile working, but I'm enjoying my first one for lunch today with no objections.

Also roasted off a bunch of veggies for hummus/cheese/sunflower seed/roasted veggie sandwiches, baked a metric ton of spiced apples and made a bunch of shakshuka.

I guess one good thing about this winter just not going away at all - I like all of these foods and it doesn't feel weird to be eating them even though it's supposed to be spring 'cause it's constantly descending back down to freezing temps. *shrug*

[PAstrychef]

Stuffed a pair of Cornish hens with spiced rice, chopped dried apricots, preserved lemons and pine nuts then roasted them on a bed of sliced potatoes in a hot oven.

[Zohar]

Made some fried rice last night with a bunch of veggies. Turned out pretty decent.

Having friends for dinner tonight so making some roasted potatoes, something with asparagus, and cauliflower with tahini.

[dubsola]

Haven't been doing as much cooking these days as I used to, but by golly I've made some yummy things recently:

1. Vegetarian lasagne - thin slices of butternut squash, roasted, cooked puy lentils, tomato sauce (I make a really great tomato sauce), and white sauce. I put basil leaves just under the cheese at the top layer. Had about 15 people over, made two lasagnes (took about 4-5 hours) but oh boy was it good.

2. Chicken parmigiana - much easier than lasagne. Spaghetti, tomato sauce (again - delicious), hammered crumbed chicken breast (I really enjoy doing that btw), then basil leaves tucked under a sheet of mozzarella, fried for a bit, then finished in the oven in a bed of tomato sauce.

3. Fettucini and meatballs - used pork and fennel sausages to make the meatballs, and then again with my killer tomato sauce.

I sometimes go to a restaurant that claims to be the only restaurant in Europe to specialise in okonomiyaki. I agree, I don't understand why it's not popular either - I specifically sought out this restaurant because I had loved it so much on the previous occasions I'd tried it.

I see you're in london, I think I've been to this restaurant. Was the first place I ever tried it, and it is AWESOME

[Zohar]

I completely forgot to post things here! We had two slightly fancier dinners in the last couple of weeks.

The first was with friends, and we made a great shakshuka, tahini, roasted honey-glazed carrots, zucchini "baba ganoush" (wasn't great), and homemade saffron challah.

The second was with my in-laws and we made a great mushroom lasagna, a fresh asparagus salad, and some berries, pears, and chocolate crumble.

[Sandry]

Mmm, that sounds delicious.

dubsola's lasagne sounds fantastic, too. I feel like I don't do a lot of cooking for entertaining folks, and I should clearly try to do that again ever.

I did make ice cream again for the first time in ages (mint chocolate chip), and will be making "lightsabers" this evening - pretzel rods covered in melted white chocolate with colored sugar stuck to them. Because tomorrow is May the Fourth and I'm on our social committee at work, and make all sorts of good choices because of that.

[dubsola]

I thought you were vegan Sandy? Not that you need to explain anything, just curious how icecream works.

...

Actually I've had coconut icecream, pretty good.

[Sandry]

Nah, I'm not vegan, just a long-standing strict vegetarian. I often cook vegan and think it's a fine choice in theory, but in practice I'm not very good at it, and am happy with the impact of my life choices, even if they're not 100% perfect.

[Mikeski]

This is the Internet! Stop being reasonable!!

[Zohar]

I was looking to order some dinner Saturday night but everything had too high a delivery fee or didn't look interesting. I didn't want to spend $25 on a meal for one person. In the end I got up and started angrily cooking. Made a Japanese curry - doesn't take a lot of work.

[dubsola]

Thanks for answering, Sandy. That is a pretty good way to be actually. I'm guessing it'd make restaurants that much easier.

angrily cooking

I hear ya.

Yesterday I had the day off, cooked for a while. I made a rich delicious spicy pumpkin soup, with onion, fresh chilli, butternut squash (yes I know that's not technically pumpkin, it's nice though), vegetable stock, ground ginger, nutmeg, and bayleaf. Once I'd blended it smooth it needed a little more, so I added a bit more chilli powder and some smokey paprika, then some cream at the end. It was pretty good but didn't need any more chilli. I wanted it just a touch milder. But it was actually delicious and rich so I'm not complaining.

I also made a rhubarb and pear crumble, I was running low on white flour so I used half and half wholemeal and white, and didn't have any unsalted butter so I used salted. It was totally amazing. Crumble is the best.

[Moo]

Oh man, pumpkin soup! Thank you for tonight's dinner inspiration

[Angua]

This is the one I use http://nevisblog.com/pumpkin-soup-recip ... bbean.html

[dubsola]

Looks great. Oh I forgot to mention, I also put some passata in the soup, tomato in almost any soup is awesome.

These days I never really use a recipe for soup, I've made it enough times and it's such a forgiving meal that I just don't bother. Converse from say a white sauce, for which I always feel compelled to check the ratio of butter : flour : milk even though that is also something I've made a bunch of times

[Moo]

I am a white sauce heretic. I don't make a roux. Life is short and I always get lumps.

I just whisk flour into milk with some seasoning and microwave that shit (stirring every minute once it starts heating up) until it's thick; then stir in either a bit of butter or a shitload of cheese.

Bonus points for not needing a stovetop, since I still don't have one and am still cooking out of my makeshift kitchen set up in the bar.

[Zohar]

I like you, and I remember the cookies you made me years ago were excellent so I have no doubt you're a fine cook, but I'm going to mildly judge you for that choice.

[dubsola]

Meh. Go with what works. Especially if you don't have a stovetop.

[Zohar]

Hey, I said "mildly"!

[Mikeski]

But, how mildly?

Please express your answer in Scoville units, as this is the Food forum.

[dubsola]

As mild as a white sauce...?

[PAstrychef]

A week of simple stuff-cabbage and sausages and farro in the instant pot; a big batch of beef stew; spaghetti and meat sauce. Planned to make gnudi twice and let the ricotta get too old both times. Third time is in the fridge right now.

[Moo]

The weather is turning colder here quickly, so I've been trying to stockpile comforting low carb work lunches:
- Spicy roast tomato cream soup
- Cream of chicken soup
- Bacon wrapped green beans with hollendaise
- Bacon wrapped baby leeks with hollendaise
- Curried pumpkin soup with coconut cream
- Broccoli and gorgonzola soup

[freezeblade]

Well. Yesterday I made:
Strawberry Rhubarb fruit braid for work. Dough was a modified yeasted sweet dough, filling was a base of ground almonds then macerated strawberry and rhubarb chunks, with a dusting of raw sugar on top.

[speising]

interesting! doesn't that get rather soggy? my strawberry rhubarb pie last weekend came out quite runny, despite copious starch.

[freezeblade]

interesting! doesn't that get rather soggy? my strawberry rhubarb pie last weekend came out quite runny, despite copious starch.

I used to have that problem. Now I macerate the berries/rhubarb overnight (with a healthy pinch of corn starch added to the sugar), then put the whole mess into a strainer, draining off the excess liquid, then add more sugar to taste when filling the bread.

When doing a pie, I will cook the resulting drained liquid until it thickens, then let it cool and add some back (I learned this trick from someone on here, specifically for apple pie, but I've found it works for all high-moisture fruit).

As a bonus, the drained liquid (uncooked) makes for an awesome cocktail ingredient:

In a collins glass:
2oz Dry Gin
.5oz strawberry rhubarb maceration liquid
Ice Cubes
Fill with club soda (or sparkling wine if you're feeling fancy)
Garnish with a lemon wedge/strawberry on a cocktail toothpick

Like summer in a glass

[speising]

upwards pointing thumb emoticon!

[pogrmman]

I made cardamom bread today. It’s a family tradition to make it with thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner, but I decided it would be fun to make it now to share with my friends.

It was my first time doing it, and I had to convert most of grandma’s volume measures to weight measures (I don’t have measuring cups), but it looks pretty good. I did a pretty terrible job braiding it though, and there’s were tears in both loaves. It should taste good (the dough tasted just how it was supposed to).

EDIT: It tasted just like it was supposed to. It went over great — between me and my 6 friends, we went through the two loaves almost instantly. Everybody loved it!

[PAstrychef]

The first strawberry rhubarb thing of the season. Cooked the fruit a bit with some sugar and cinnamon, then baked it with a crumble topping. I’m sure mom will love it.

[Sandry]

Back from two weeks in the UK. While I was over there I could only cook out of the hostel's kitchen (and even that I only had access last week, not the first week), so all my meals were sort of difficult to pull off. They didn't even have a vegetable peeler, which ideally I would've figured out before buying a whole bunch of carrots. It's always nice to be reminded that while cooking at home is an effort, at least I have knives that actually cut things.

I did manage to make a couple of reasonable stir fries, an approximation of chana saag, an approximation of red lentil dahl and a metric ton of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I basically got through week one traveling through the center of the country by living out of a bag of bread, bananas, peanut butter and clementines while periodically buying a pint of milk to unstick my mouth again.

Nonetheless, it's good to be home, and I'm looking forward to actually cooking anything involving spices ever again. It's even a three day weekend coming up, so I should try something ambitious!

[freezeblade]

The first strawberry rhubarb thing of the season. Cooked the fruit a bit with some sugar and cinnamon, then baked it with a crumble topping. I’m sure mom will love it.

Strawberry-Rhubarb is like, my favorite summer fruit combination: Crumble, Pie, Coffee Cake, Buckle, Tart, Gallet, Muffins, bring them all on!

[Zohar]

They didn't even have a vegetable peeler, which ideally I would've figured out before buying a whole bunch of carrots.

Huh, I basically never peel any vegetables if I can get away with it, carrots included.