Cooking

Recipe: Kenji's Grilled Potato Salad recipe with some leftover grilled cabbage tossed in for color.

Bread home made. Cheese is some home smoked halloumi. Squish is home grown ass and baked with some home made herbs de provence except I didn't have lavender flowers.

Cost per person: $1 because at this point homegrown squish is basically free and the cheese was on clearance. If you have the ability to cold smoke cheese you never pass up clearance cheese.

We ended up with a lot of free romaine today. Too much. Like an impossible amount. So we gave some to our birds and delivered some to three other people with livestock because it was a crazy amount.

I took some and some kitchen leftovers and made salad. You can't see the hard boiled sliced duck eggs under the feta which is under the bacon and croutons. Because I suck at plating.

Cost per person: $4.50, mostly because of bacon and feta. Can you order this anywhere? Yes but no.

Dressing: oliva oil and balsamic vinegar

I made a simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water by volume brought to a boil), then poured it over some magnolia blossom petals while hot and let that steep covered over night.

The flavor and aroma and quite intense. The flavor reminds me of ginger up front, but then that gives way to a very pleasant floral flavor.

Homemade noodles, I'm always so happy with the noodles! The top did get a little too dark for me, but the rest is great!

I ordered groceries the other day and meant to get 4 containers of shelf stable oat milk, but instead I accidentally ordered 4 normal oat milks (64oz containers that go in the fridge). I'd like to keep them from going bad, either by using them for something or freezing them.

Has anyone here successfully frozen oat milk for later use? I'm thinking about trying it, but not sure it'll screw up the texture / cause it to separate.

I'm also open to suggestions for using it on something. Ice cream maybe? Lots of lattes?

Smoked sausage sandwiches with provolone. Escabeche and pickled sweet peppers from last year when a neighbor gave me pounds of surplus peppers.

Cost per person: $6.03 not including any mustard or picked peppers. But, as you can see, this is an unreasonable serving size. One sausage per person with the commercial pasta salad would be $3.34 Can you get this anywhere? Maybe?

coffee and cucumber to put down the flames later lmao

Cost per person $1

How would you serve this? I've already quartered it and froze 3/4, and ate two slices myself. Its delicious! The baker used some hearty flour. Could definitely make sandwiches with this, or serving it with soup, but I'm curious how others would use this absolutely massive bread!

Who are your favorite cooks/shows to watch on TV and/or social media?

Lately I've been watching stuff by Minoli DeSilva and Sad Pappi recently.

Also love watching Someone Feed Phil.

I pickled/canned about four pounds each of jalapenos and carrots. But I had some peppers left over. Also I had shredded cheese leftover from yesterday's burritos, and half a pound of bacon from yesterday's dinner.

Well that sounds like the start of a wonderful dinner. Poppers would have been too much work. I have a bag of potatoes... Oh. Let's do this. Jalapeno bacon potatoes au gratin.

Cost for pickled peppers: $1.30 per pint Cost per person for dinner: $3.40 (realistically I ate two full servings so this should really be $1.70 each for four people.)

I tried my hand at a London broil and I think it came out perfect. I marinated the top round in spices and balsamic vinegar for 24 hours then fried in a cast iron skillet. I reduced the marinade down into a gravy and drizzled on the broil and veggies. 😋

The thing I made yesterday was escabeche. It is rich and deep in flavors. I made sure to properly clean out the jalapenos so there is no heat here, just flavor. The acid from the apple cider vinegar cuts the eggs and potatoes perfectly.

Cost per person: $4.50.

I’ve being curious about baba ghanoush since when I listened to BABAGANOUSH by Madame. The first time I made it cooking the eggplant in the home oven, but it didn’t come out good. So I’ve found this article on Seriouseats.com and managed to make a great baba ghanoush with very low effort

The recipe is available on the website, I’ll just share some thoughts.

Roasting the eggplant was the key for the recipe. Luckily I have an outdoor gas barbecue, and I roasted the eggplant for 35 minutes at about 200/250°C However, the articles doesn’t mention this, but you really need to make some cuts on the eggplant skin otherwise it will likely explode due to water turning into steam too quickly. It actually happened to me, but it didn’t turn into separate pieces, so I was still able to cook it

Unlike the article’s recipe, I used mint instead of parsley, mostly because I had the impression that mint was more “traditional”. I think it combined really really good, and together with lemon juice greatly balanced the highly smoky flavour of the roasted eggplants.

I don’t know if this is common knowledge, however recipes as baba ghanoush or hummus as well seem to taste better if you eat them only after letting them cool down in the fridge for a while. I made baba ghanoush yesterday, and right after making it, it tasted really good but the smoky flavour mostly covered the eggplant taste. I eat it again today and I find that the different flavours are much more detectable, so if you can, try to cook it a couple of hours before serving, I think it is really worth it

Meal prep. Except it's snack prep. I eat way too many Walmart mini microwave burritos. The 4 oz ones that come in a $4 pack of eight. Basically 11.9¢ per ounce

It's hard to make an exact clone at home because making tiny burritos is difficult due to the urge to over fill. These are larger so one instead of two for a snack. These aren't as cheap. 100 ounces of ingredients for $17.38 not including the seasoning. So let's say 19¢ per ounce but are more flavorful (homemade taco seasoning), better texture because they aren't 50% tortilla and a whole lot healthier.

So it's all trade offs. But the results are worth it.

These go into the chest freezer and then get bagged.

Recipe: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/chicken-scarpariello/

I added green olives to this and I feel like it added some nice (needed) brininess. I also didn't bother with the butter at the end and just reduced the sauce until thick instead.

I've been on a quest to make better pizza. Now that I've got a happy crust I'm able to work on other parts. I got new pans so I can make two at a time. Which means I can have different toppings that cook at different times from my wife's toppings.

Her: under the cheese is banana peppers and olives. On top is pepperoni. Me: tomato, onion and sardines

This is part of my plan to be able use leftovers for fried rice and pizza. But toppings are insanely cheap. It's hard to put more than a dollar in toppings on a pizza unless you are buying really premium stuff.

Cost per person for no toppings besides cheese: $2.50. officially cheaper than mid grade freezer pizza. Can you order this anywhere? It's pizza

Handling some of my basil surplus before it bolts. A bit of basil, some 190 proof everclear that someone donated. This will sit in a dark space for a few months. Basil lemonade is definitely on the menu. Maybe a vodka sauce for pasta.

Happy Pride Month y'all! 👋

Recipe: Sous Vide Carnitas

Toppings: Red bell pepper, orange carrot, yellow corn, green avocado, blue corn chips, and purple cabbage.

Home grown squish and wings. Dip is a mix of yogurt, sour cream and feta.

Right now I'm looking for either I think some ceramic cookware or stainless steel cookware, and I'm trying to make it a buy once cry once type of purchase, which would I think lean more towards stainless. I would just like a recommendation of how to compare durability/food safety and whatnot that isn't paid for via advertising dollars. Even direct recommendations for a brand I can look into are welcome.

Thanks in advance