What's cooking? The GRM unofficial cooking thread.

I figured I might get one or two replies when I started the bread baking thread. Instead, it took off.

Social distancing might have helped keep it going, but a  lot of us have been baking for years, or maybe always had an interest in baking, and only just got the opportunity.

I've cooked for myself and my family for my entire life. My dad raised my brother and I, and for a few of our teenage years we also had another boy my age living with us. When we turned 16, my dad told us that he was tired of cooking and laundry, gave us each an allowance, and told us we were on our own.

We boys lived on fast food for a few months, then I organized the other two boys, pooled our money, and I started cooking. That skill came in handy when I decided to go to college, as I quit the harness horse racing business, and moved in with my grandparents. I took over the cooking, shopping, and laundry, and started college. Five years of room and board, in exchange for having a meal on the table every night.

My grandparents are long gone, my dad died a year ago, so the family is now my wife and two children. Our twenty fifth wedding anniversary is this month, and I'm still the primary cook in the family.

We're not eating out or ordering food, so I've had to produce something every night. It seems like it might be a good time to start this thread, and see if anyone's interested.

I'll lead off with the turkey stock that was simmering on the stove overnight.

The work of making one of these was decreased by 90% when I found out about the stock pots with a built in strainer.

Three gallons, headed to the freezer.

I love my stock pot with strainer:

I'm trying to decide what to make this weekend.  I'm thinking a lasagna because I'm going back to work and can have it a few nights in a row.  

I do all the cooking for the missus and I. Partially because I know how and she doesn't, but mostly because I really enjoy it. We were dining out about 3 nights a week up until the first of the year, then we went keto which meant I was cooking almost every night. When the virus hit of course now I'm cooking EVERY night and keto went out the window.

Cooking every night is tiring. I try to plan at least a couple easy meals each week and at least one that gives me leftovers for another night.

Like most people, there are a number of meals that are go-to faves that end up in heavy rotation. Ours incude:

Asian Turkey bowls

Mexican style tacos

Spaghetti and meatballs (an easy fix using frozen bagged meatballs)

Grilled beef with roasted brussels sprouts

Bagged salad mix with chicken 

lately, BBQ pork ribs with a side of tater tots

Grilled chicken with Greek Village salad

Tonight's dinner will be a marinated and grilled flank steak with brussels sprouts and Vidalia onion. Tomorrow night is boiled shrimp I had shipped in from the GA coast where we hang out and pimento cheese grits. It's the wife's birthday.

If you want good recipes there are plenty on the web, but if you want to be a better cook check out a book called Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. And then watch the Netfilx series based on it.

In reply to ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) :

I have tried to get into the habit of planning ahead and cooking on Sat & Sunday to provide leftovers for most of the week and then Fri becomes either a quickie meal like soup & sammiches or something frozen.  For many years it was just 2 of us so I managed to come up with recipies that would give 4, 6, or 8 servings.  Now I'm having to adapt to feeding just me.  I do a lot of the same quantities and freeze half for a few weeks so I'm not eating the same thing for a whole week.

I'm not sure if I'm lazy or not. The Wife felt like chicken fingers, I didn't feel like going to the diner. 
 

I like this. We haven't been going out to dinner since the madness began, so we've been dining in at home. Annie cooks most of the time, but occasionally I'll do something. Last weekend I posted a photo essay of a frittata I made in another thread on this forum. So I like the idea of a standalone thread for this. So now it looks I'm going to have to give Annie a break from cooking more often! I'll be checking on this often and posting occasionally.

Breakfast burrito. 

Slice up the last Bahama Mama in the fridge and throw that in. 

Some hot sauce to add to the eggs when they are done. 

Add some cheese to melt then pile everything on a tortilla, wrap it up and squeeze some sour cream on top. 

Here's how the flank steak turned out...

Edit: I'm happy to share recipes or how-tos on the stuff I listed above if someone wants it, but I won't bore you with it unless asked. Sometimes you just need inspiration...

Well, sorry for this travesty of a healthy meal. But it was tasty. Annie and I have been eating very healthy at home since this madness began. We had some Hebrew National super-dogs in the freezer, a thousand or so cans of Grillin' Beans in the basement, and some leftover 'kraut from last week. Probably more sodium than we've had in weeks. So here it is. (This is Annie's plate and it's her pic. I was already well into eating mine):

In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :

That hot sauce is my jam. 

polish boys with kielbasa, pulled pork, homemade sauce, hand grated coleslaw and fresh cut fries.  

Waffles, lots of them. On Saturday mornings I cook up a double batch of waffles. I follow the "Better Homes & Gardens" recipe mostly, but with a few additions. I add a healthy teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a 1/2 teaspoon of good vanilla extract, and most importantly 1.5 cups of brown sugar in the liquid mixture. Blend the liquids with a hand blender for total mixing. You end up with a waffle that cooks up wonderfully brown, crunchy, and is so sweet it doesn't need syrup. I call it a "street waffle" because you can just eat it while walking around, which is perfect for small kids who tend to wander at meal time.

We eat 1/3 of them for breakfast on Saturday and I freeze the rest. Toss them in the toaster oven and they warm back up beautifully.

My wife recently learned how to make fried rice, which is good because someone gave us a rice cooker. I've requested it to be a weekly menu item now. I love the stuff.

Easy tuna empanada that you can recreate at home. 

Empanada Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cold butter chunks
1/3 cup cold water
1 egg
1 tbsp vinegar

Tuna Filling:
1 cup boiled carrot chunks
2 large pieces boiled potato chunks
1 can spicy tuna, slightly drained
1 can regular tuna, slightly drained
5 tbsp mayo
Salt and pepper
1 cup cheese, cut into small squares

Egg Wash:
1 beaten egg
1 tbsp milk or water

In reply to slefain :

Secret weapon for fried rice is ginger

Pork empanadas last night 

I guess that these could go in the baking thread, but we did eat them with dinner.

Sourdough butter biscuits (Link), with an egg wash. I make them regular size instead of the sandwich biscuits called for in the recipe, and add the egg wash sometimes. Family loves these.

Home made tortillas. This is only the second time I've made them. They're really delicious, now I've got to work on consistent size and shaping. I used butter for the fat, instead of lard, shortening, or corn oil.

This is a frequent meal of ours.

Brown and wild rice, cooked and some chicken broth, with some minced garlic, a little cumin, and some salt.

The stir fry has minced onion and garlic, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and yellow squash.

And minced bacon.

Sourdough crust pizza.

How's this for using sourdough starter discard? Sourdough chocolate cake.

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

By discard are you referring to the amount you pull out when you feed it?  Mine is staying good with a feeding every 6ish days in the fridge so i just pull some out and make bread and feed it

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to slefain :

Secret weapon for fried rice is ginger

Oh, that's so true! And I have forgotten it the last two times I made fried rice.

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

By discard are you referring to the amount you pull out when you feed it?  Mine is staying good with a feeding every 6ish days in the fridge so i just pull some out and make bread and feed it

Yes, I try to calculate the amount I'm going to need, so I don't have any waste, but sometimes the recipe I had planned doesn't get made. 

Then the starter gets over ripe, I need to feed it, and I have a large quantity that's passed the point of being able to work in a bread recipe.

Another sourdough pizza.

Before baking. Doesn't look that good, yet...

After. Much better.