what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

fuck it, this has been on my wishlist forever and i just bought it: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0470194960/?coliid=I3L0KGYII342ZT&colid=1P6XT5QYBLVO9&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

same, have not bought yet but thanks for the reminder

I have peterson's splendid soups. I texted the gumbo recipe to my friend in new orleans for a quick check, and he talked to me for the next two hours about how it was a recipe that could only have been conceived by the antichrist. Yet, I've always liked the other soups I've made from that book.

and the gumbo recipe is probably tasty, too. it's just hard to please everyone with such a broad sweep of a topic.

The black bean soup in that book is good.

I made ricotta using the recipe from Kenji's book and...I guess I did it wrong. Curds stuck together almost immediately and the end result was kind of chewy :(

Made oven-braised pork chops with red onion and pears, zucchini with anchovies and capers, plus my wife chipped in some delicious sauteed radishes. Good times!

I wouldn’t be surprised if I posted about this dish in the past but it was 90-something degrees today so for dinner I rinsed a can of cannellini beans, added a can of tuna in olive oil, sliced red onion, red wine vinegar, and flat leaf parsley and ate it with some bread and rose. Ten minutes of prep time and nothing to heat up

that sounds awesome, i'm saving it

I've been adding a crap ton of tumeric to everything because I went to the doctor and my uric acid levels were a little too high (so also cutting out wine for now). This weekend I made DUMPLINGS! again but they were tofu, tumeric, scallion, kale. Also did a salmon dhansak which came out well but the salmon had a lot of the properties as if we just used canned tuna.

I've got this new turmeric that is brighter yellow and makes longer lasting stains on everything it touches. but I love it. Night+Market fried peanuts with lime leaves, red pepper, lemon grass, etc. have changed my pad thai game. Long, complicated recipes are never too enjoyable for the person that eats them. So the key to enjoying my own cooking is putting all of the effort into toppings or additives that are delicious and can be added very simply to the recipe in the moment before eating. Or I guess just making stuff that reheats well.

ugh what great summer dishes should i make, help i'm going grocery shopping tonight someone hold my hand!!!!

Hot dogs n potato salad

pffft

Cmon that’s the most summery meal there is

i need to make a side dish for work picnic. no hot dogs, possible potato salad.

How about a cold asparagus rice salad.

I make this Lebanese Lemon-Parsley Bean Salad. vegan and gluten-free!

green papaya salad.

i had to do dinner for 7 tonight with about one day's notice so i busted out this absolutely classic two-hour pork ribs joint:

http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/a-recipe-from-the-chefs-vinny-dotolo-and-jon-shooks-balsamic-barbecued-baby-backs-2378837

y'all this was SO GOOD and SO EASY i just can't believe it, i just used ground pork from the store

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/ba-breakfast-sausage

oh, i like the look of that Lebanese salad up there. gotta remember that. xxpost

on holiday from school and moving in a couple weeks to my transfer school area ( i found an apt. this weekend, YAY!) so am making use of some ingredients on hand. even though it's supposed to be scorching tomorrow, i made a big batch of curried lentil soup, that i think is gonna rule. that's for tomorrow/rest of the week. tonight making eggplant pizza. my housemate has a thing for eggplant.

i made the lebanese salad for guests and have been munching on the remains for like a week. it's very tasty.

I pan cooked a thin-cut porkchop and put it on a King's Hawaiian hamburger bun with mayo and hoisin, A+

I order halal lamb and chicken over rice and cut up tomatoes and cukes for an extra side salad with lemon dressing. One order will make at least two meals for me so it's a good way to prepare lunch the day before.

That's the extent of my cooking in past months.

haha! i regularly do the same thing
although today i made (vegan!) spinach pies (in easy to use country-style phyllo) with onions, berbere, ginger, turmeric

it's my antidote for enduring food poisoning sunday-monday

(food poisoning was NOT from the place i usually get my meat/rice/tabouli/hummus fix)

I'm doing my first and hopefully last kitchen reno.

What are things you'd change about your kitchen layout and why?

Are you happy with your appliances?

Should I get a bright orange wall oven?

Yes to the last.

yes to orange oven
most annoying thing is that the trash can is too far from the cutting area. if i had my way they would be closer together.

Bright orange oven yes. If I could redo my kitchen, I would seal seal seal the spaces between all the appliances and counters and the floors. I hate food particles falling in between. Definitely a bigger double sink (I rarely use the dishwasher), built in wine cellar, prep space for two people, and integrated seating/hangout for when I am waiting for stuff to cook. I'm not really into spending a lot on appliances, as long as I have a gas burner and an inoffensive fridge, I'm good.

Although I do covet Smeg and Big Chill fridges.

most annoying thing is that the trash can is too far from the cutting area. if i had my way they would be closer together.

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, June 12, 2018 5:05 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a good one.

my layout is pretty inoffensive; a big u shape with a peninsula with seating and the fridge on the opposite wall. if i had more space i'd add a center island because it's the best place to do prep. i'd def get a double wall oven if i could.

we added a butcher block in the middle of our kitchen (family heirloom of my wife's), it is slung low so I mostly use it for mortar/pestle grinding but it is extremely handy to put things on when you are in the middle of a project, islands rule

buzzfeed had an article on DJ Zedd's house. Most of it was whatever but I did like his costco room and the vacuum at the bottom of the kitchen cabinets that you can kick dropped food to get vacuumed up.

Trash placement is an excellent point. I was gonna put it near the sink/dishwasher opposite the island where I'd be doing prep, but maybe it should be at the island.

I have decided to say fuck it and put the rangetop in the island instead of against a wall. This is a highly controversial move in the kitchen design world, apparently, but I'm doing it anyway. This means a hood hanging over the island, but I can rig it so that it is over my sight line when I am at the rangetop.

Architect is urging me to put in a speed oven. I've never had a speed oven but it gives some more options than a microwave and could supplement the BRIGHT ORANGE WALL OVEN if for some reason I needed more baking power.

i just read about speed ovens for a minute and they sound like expensive bullshit

I have never heard of these either. I was trying to figure out if it was morelike a toaster oven or those weird mocrowave/oven combos that are all over europe.

yeah sounds like the latter. idk, i only use my microwave to reheat leftovers and melt butter, but it cost like 150 bucks and does those things fine. if you have a good-quality wall oven with convection idk what this thing is getting you.

So apparently you have a microwave mode, a convection mode (for baking), and a combo MW/convection combo mode.

I'm like you, destroyer, with the reheat and butter melt. But I guess having a second small oven isn't the worst thing, especially since I do a lot of cooking just for 2 ppl and it would be nice not to have to preheat the big oven all the time.

I'm really into toaster ovens but probably because I started using them at a much later age (when my house wasn't sending enough electricity to my oven so I was relying entirely on my toaster oven). They really can cook almost anything.

if my house didn't have a microwave-sized cutout over the range i probably wouldn't even have one of those b/c you can indeed get a lot of shit done with a toaster oven.

my new oven has a screaming-fast preheat time so i fire it up for all kinds of things now. not the best for energy consumption but it's a nice change after years of having underpowered gas ovens.

i hate our cabinets: they are impractical & all have huge doors thag dont catch properly & that swing so wide you have to stand a foot away for clearance, those would go first.
our counter is tiled & the grout gets soooo grungy. its gross. so i would get rid of the tile & i replace with something solid, even formica fuckit i dont care
gaps between counters & appliances otm
i would put a range over the stove
i like the ones with the built in microwave
and i would replace the flooring with faux wood laminate or something dark & easier to clean than shitty cream vinyl

also this would take serious remodelling but i hate that the kitchen is cut off from the dining room, i would rather it be open & more social.

omg i'm definitely not the cleanest person ever but a tiled counter would actually cause me to lose my mind

My current counters are 2-inch tile. Both surface and blacksplash. Royal blue with white (or used to be white) grout. LOL 80s I guess.

Ppl seem to be into induction cooktops for modern kitchen renos. Not I. Basic 4-burner gas range with one simmer burner and one mega BTU burner (I'll be able to pull off the grate and put a wok on directly! Totally going to end up burning the house down!).

Counter in this place is granite-like but it has widely spaced grooves, they’re not grouted they’re just grooves disrupting the counter surface for no reason. Do not get these counters.

My folks redid the kitchen about 13 years ago, counters are something called Silestone which has I think been bulletproof.

xp that's cool. i like my induction range but only have it b/c gas isn't available in my 'hood.

I found an old kitchen thread started by Jaq (miss u, Jaq!). Apparently I should poll single vs. double sinks. I know which camp I'm in.

Silby I'm gonna do Silestone, glad to hear your folks have been pleased. Actually I'm thinking zinc for the island, but that may be a totally stupid idea i dunno.