What's cooking? part 4

Just made pasta w/asparagus & goat cheese. This is the kind of meal I have to be careful not to eat too much of.

mmm cheeses. I've become a little addicted to fried haloumi which is just deadly for my belleh.

friday was crab meat and aspagus risotto (using crab stock).

today was pork pozole to try and combat the creeping chill.

Oh god that risotto sounds freaking amazing. I've become obsessed with making risotto (so it's helpful I'm into making stock). Posole is probably my favorite Mexican soup but I've always been a big fan of hominy.

feeling like crap. think i'm gonna make kale and white bean and garlic soup.

That sounds tasty & restorative. Do you have a recipe to share?

oh i figure i will just wing it. probably something like:

sauté some onion and a ton of garlic and some red pepper in olive oil, add beans.
probably separately sauté the kale briefly. add to rest of stuff.
add broth. season if necessary. cook.

I find chicken stock/broth with lots of garlic, red peppers, (chili if you like that) and some greens is excellent for run-downityness.

Thanks much for the link to the sriracha brussles! Gonna try that this week.

yes by red pepper i meant crushed red chili pepper not bell pepper. it's the best!
xpost

My favorite lately is Aleppo pepper. Yum.

herb roasted turkey breasts
broccoli
maybe potato?

i am now the proud owner of a blender! what i should i make with it??

margaritas! vinaigrette!

smoothies!

pesto!

creamy soups!

hummus!

ooooh yes pesto recipes plz!!

smoothie recipes plz!

hummus recipes plz!

this is so exciting!

Hummus is SO cheap when you make it, too...the initial price of the bottle of tahini may seem kinda spendy but it'll seriously make like 40 batches of hummus so don't balk.Whole bunch of recipes here; once you get the hang of it tho it's fun to freestyle a bit. I am so addicted to this shit, it's ridiculous.

you can make a healthy milkshake by mixing protein powder, soy/rice milk, and a frozen banana - it gets the consistency of a milkshake w/out the awfulness of ice cream :)

what protein powders do you recommend, tza

ytth loves the shit out hummus, and i really love homemade hummus - really don't like store-bought stuff

tbh i find most of them too sweet - designer whey is okayish... proteins + is super sweet... biochem has a 'natural' flavor one that is a little tart (i prefer this for a regular day) but i think fruit would sweeten it up enough and whatever you add to it will flavor it. but if you want a 'milkshake' w/out too much sugar the designer whey is not bad!

by w/out too much i mean like 2g sugars per serving.

the proteins + one is made w/ stevia and it's just wayyyyy too sweet.

Yeah I made my own hummus a while ago and it was nice - you get to control the dominant flavours too. I did find that the garlic was quite overpowering though. may cook it a little first next time.

yeah i did some hummus a few weeks ago and the garlic was like woahhhhhhh

also cutty recommends bluebonnet i think but i have not tried it yet bc they don't sell it in any of the stores if frequent.

xpost

yeah i want something pretty milkshakey

after being really good for like a few months and eating breakfast every day, i've gone back to my old habit of not bothering: protein shakes are my new solution

i don't know what i would do without them really.

so with other wedding shower gift cards we also bought a big awesome chopping board that extends over our huge double sink; a massive, deep fry pan with a glass lid; a mandoline.

now that the weather has turned shit, it's too cold to continue eating salad every night, so i am psyching myself up to actually begin cooking stuff. this week: roasted brussels sprouts, cauliflower mash, veg stew.

:D roasting sprouts tonight!

also lmao at discussing what i should cook for dinner tonight and my dad recommends 3 different cauliflower pie/gratin things after i said 'hey i don't keep cheese in the house and i ate some cheese at a party last night no more til xmas!' and then emails me a recipe that calls for a heaping cup of shredded cheddar.

I think there was cheese in everything at the party last night. Except the fruit cake, and the dolmades lxy made.

ha and i ate neither!

the blender was kind of a piece of shit. hoping it'll still work for smoothies, but it couldn't puree some goddamn cauliflower.

the mandoline came with the shittiest instructions. i've never used one before and had no idea wtf i was doing. jordan had more luck with it.

dinner was still a success, and my lovely husband was very helpful, even when i started cursing.

my turn to make dinner tonight so made braised short ribs in red wine reduction in a dutch oven.

a few lessons learned: 1) remove excess fat from the ribs prior to cooking. 2) red wine reductions does not mean syrah, cab and oh what about this half drunk bottle of sav blanc. 3) stick to tomato paste and not stewed tomatoes. 4) skimming the fat regularly is very important otherwise shit will get greasssy.

mmmm

Braised beef dishes like that are one of my favorite things ever. Most of the time I make them a day ahead of time so I can peel the solid sheet of fat off before I reheat it.

combining my weird quiche and the chard/potato bake i did last summer. made a zucchini/potato pie crust and filling with sauteed chard and zucchini. will do a little egg mix to go over and bake.

made spakanopita tonight - shameful amount of butter but man it was a good home comfort food to have on the last night of finals. one of my roommates said "and the lord said it was good. i'm comparing your cooking to god."

i bought this thing at the supermarket, because it looked just like the buttercup pumpkin we get in nz (which i love), but it was called something else... something like 'mexican kobucha' (not sure on the second word). i haven't cut it open yet, so not sure if it looks the same on the inside as a buttercup, but does anyone know what these are?

It's a winter squash - might be a little dryer than a buttercup, but you should be able to cook it the same.

Actually, wiki says kabocha is called buttercup in NZ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabocha

yay! thanks, jaq :)

Still havent tried potato base quiche!!

roommate mentioned making latkes tonight, but knowing him this will be around 10-11 pm or not happen at all. i think i am going to see what the big deal is about brussels sprouts while waiting a couple hours for the real meal though.

all right, made them and am not particularly impressed. oh well, was worth a try.

ok so i need some cooking ideas, since i totally lack any kitchen creativity. i have:
one small buttercup pumpkin
some yukon potatoes
some red potatoes
a brown onion
some baby spinach
a couple of tomatoes
a yam of some sort (looks like kumara, that's why i got it)
tumeric
cumin
paprika
sesame oil
balsamic
apple cider vinegar
white rice