What's cooking? part 4

I just picked 5 pounds of apples and want to bake something that incorporates cheddar. Any tried-and-true recipes over here?

today work at home/cook at home day -- making granola and cochinita pibil

need to start making my own granola again. it's easy and SO MUCH BETTER/less sugary than any store bought for the most part.
just made scallop tacos - corn tortilla, seared scallop, mashed avocado with cilantro and habanero tabasco, and mirco cilantro....nice little work snack

that sounds delicious. i love scallops so much. i never put them in anything because i like to eat them alone so much and do it so infrequently. did you use sea scallops? they're like $10.99/lb here at the cheapest and have clearly just been defrosted from who knows where. i'd love to cook in a place with better seafood access so i could go totally bananas.

work had a anniversary dinner the other night. the scallops just got seared on one side that night. i baked them for a few minutes mostly just to take the chill off today. lots were leftover since they were just one of two entree options that night. these were literally flown in fresh for us from east coast, i'm not exaggerating(just took a look at the invoice - we had over 60# and paid ~$9.15/lb, btw). i saw these when i walked in today and hooked coworkers up with some of what i wanted to have (win/win)
can't figure out how to show you the pic of the dish.....

usu if i buy scallops for myself it's just a few to make scallop sushi rolls with....

Today I'm making caponata and am gearing up for two weeks of cook-everything-on-the-shelves-and-in-the-fridge frenzy before we hit the road and do not have much access to cooking for ourselves until, like, mid-January. This is both a great thing (travel! restaurants!) and a bad thing (restaurants! no way to make own food!).

I love scallops, only cook them as a special treat. I usually make them with spaghetti with lemon, cream, chilli flakes, cherry toms, some rocket and chives and that's basically it. Oh and some big prawns to bulk it out some more.

that pasta sounds yummo, and it's nice to see the scallop love - if i had to pick one seafood item to be available for me to eat..... (and yeah, it's always some kind of special treat)

Hey my lasagne turned out pretty well, and wasn't much of a PIA to assemble at all! Gonna make another one soon why because I have half a box of pasta sheets left.

fresh scallops, cheap-ish in season, are one reason i love new england.

tonight i made the chicken stew from the newest cook's illustrated. this stew is hilarious, it's just a bunch of umami hacks to prove that a chicken stew can stand up to a beef stew.

tell me more

cook bacon, remove
brown chicken wings, remove
cook onion, celery, garlic, anchovy paste, thyme in resulting fat
completely simmer off wine, stock, soy sauce
add butter, flour, more stock, potatoes, carrots, bacon, wings
cook in oven
add chicken thighs and cook more in oven
take out, discard wings, s & p, a little more wine, fresh parsley

i guess the interesting parts are the anchovy paste, soy sauce, and wings (which they say are full of collagen that cooks out into the stew). also during cooking they have you pull it out a few times to stir frond back in. i was surprised, it is very rich and meaty.

sounds yum!

that is SUCH an ATK recipe!

lol i know right?

I mean that show/mag/cookbooks are getting ripe for an onion piece at this point

basically they were doing One Weird Trick before it was even a thing

Yeah but guys, SCIENCE!!

If you have to add pork to chicken to make it taste as good as beef, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD just cook beef. Unless all you HAVE is bacon and some chicken thighs, which tbh is exactly what's in my freezer right now. But jeez.

i think i'd prefer chicken made with bacon used along the way.

Ya but chicken is like $3 and beef is like $9

I prefer not-beef bc beef upsets my stomach and I don't like it much. Beef beef beef. I love the word beef, though, as food, grudge, or verb.

ll in "beefing with beef" beef

'umami hacks' yay

today, this:
http://circle-b-kitchen.squarespace.com/food-and-recipes/2010/7/1/avocado-fries.html

whoa

and o-ma-gawd they were better than i expected. chef loved 'em and said it reminded him of some kinda white trash grilled cheese sandwich from down South that involves pimientoes/shredded cheese/mayo.
made a sambal aioli for 'em. really liked the crispy exterior/creamy interior aspect. and since avos firm up when they cool off they're a little better not piping hot out of the fryer.

attempting chicken & DUMPLINGS! for dinner :D

nailed it iirc

totally! so good.

i used this recipe
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/12/chicken-and-DUMPLINGS!/

the only things I did diff was remove the skin from the chicken; used milk instead of half & half in the DUMPLINGS!; and I only added a couple of spoonfuls of cream to the broth instead of a full half cup. but holy shit so good.

oh and she has too much liquid for dumplinngs - one cup is plenty, no need for one and a half

LOL that avo chips lady is complaining theyre expensive at $1.50 each. I paid $4 for ONE avocado on the weekend :(

hey Stevie D, re: thai cookbooks (conversation from ages ago), I just got the pok pok one & its pretty dope... maybe more useable than the pink david thompson one?

so for our Filipino coworkers today am making 'em:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/29790-halo-halo-ice-pops

they're freezing now and it looks nice

Stevie, to honor the late great Marcella Hazan, the Classic Italian Cookbook would be very worthy addition.

crackerz in oven!!

You're gonna spend the rest of your day with a belly full of crackers!

i know, i cannot fucking wait

also: a sink full of dishes

on first glance i rolled these way too thick!!

Massive lamb casserole with cobbler topping in the oven right now. Smells good but bit dubious that the lamb is any good...

these are just kind of okay-tasting biscuits :-/

:(
Lamb was awesome. Also made passion fruit creme brulees and meringues..

Mmmmm cheese crackers make me want ginger ale, just like potato chips make me want Coke. Maybe I'll make a side-trip when I go to the laundromat....

i recommend rolling them out/baking on parchment paper -- and roll them super duper thin!!

Ya I made a double batch and made them as thin as I could make them on the cookie sheet but oh well whatever

It's tom kha gai weather here.

wait, stevie, did you just roll out all the dough into one sheet of crackers? i divide mine into smaller equally sized portions to cook in batches -- i think usually 6 balls (6 sheets of crackers) for a double batch iirc.
they look like this

before cooking
[http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5038/5888487973_a412d4df05.jpg
after cooking
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3484/3770411927_7cabc1a5dd.jpg

after slightly overcooking (but i like the burnt ones)
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5038/5888503815_1bdb510642.jpg

i think the last ones have paprika on them too

Yeah I just did one sheet (scored of course) bcz I didn't realize how much they puffed