Post the last thing you cooked

[TheOfficer]

We're headed out the door to a friends thanksgiving party, but I wanted to throw these up here. I tried a new cornbread recipe. Bacon Cheddar Cornbread. It smells and looks delicious, but we havent actually gotten the chance to try it let. I'll let you guys know.   

[Pube Truth]

What! Challah is delicious! Challah french toast is delicious! It's exactly the same concept as brioche french toast, only with challah! What is wrong with challah!

no no no no...i was all like "challah!" but saying it like "holla!" get it now? terrible but completely necessary joke, hence 

[FAGGOT WATCHIN TRON]

Ooooooooooh I get it. Yeah, totally not an internet joke. Nice try though.

[Pube Truth]

i thought you would use your carly/mary esp to get it. nice try though.

[Violent Unrest in Allentown]

Still waiting for th everdict on the Bacon Cheddar Cornbread. 

[TheOfficer]

Still waiting for th everdict on the Bacon Cheddar Cornbread. 

It was ok, Kind of dry but the bacon and cheddar really did compliment the cornbread well. I think my next batch will probably be better, it cooks differently than normal cornbread so I had accidently left it in about 5 minutes too long last time. Eamonn claims it was delicious but I feel like he has to say that.

Just made a pumpkin pie to bring cheer to my office that has to work tomorrow. (EGH!)

But I'm too tired to take pictures. It smells delicious though, trust me. I couldn't find a recipe I was in love with so I just sort of did it by taste and I think it turned out pretty fucking well. I was worried it was going to be a little too sweet, but its got a nice creamy delicious sweet spiciness. I am proud of this fucking pie.

[FAGGOT WATCHIN TRON]

Monday night I made my butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner. I deviated wildly from the recipe, due to using a squash about two pounds larger than the recipe called for, and wanting a much soupier, creamier consistency than was given by following the recipe instructions. I am quite happy with the results.  In fact, it was so delicious Benjamin just HAD to have a bowl and half before I locked it away the fridge until tomorrow night.

I also made the brine for my turkey. The house was smellin' goooooooooooood Monday. 

[TheOfficer]

Sorry for the bad quality pic. First P-Pie from scratch ever. Thank you treasure island for actually having pumpkins in stock. I just ate the last sliver for breakfast this morning.

[Famous Hogbert]

I am sad I missed a slice of that pie.

[WWW.SETH.COM]

I made some fried peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for dinner tonight. They were very good. I'm going to have to use some self-control with this stuff.

[Pube Truth]

roasted a delicious chicken, mashed some potatoes, and green beans with sliced almonds.

I shoved a cut up onion, tangerine, and lime in the body cavity of the chicken, and rubbed the outside with some butter, then sprinkled it with sage, rosemary, marjoram, thyme and celery salt. And I put a little sour cream in the mashed potatoes. Extra-yum.

[FAGGOT WATCHIN TRON]

That sounds awesome. *wants citrus roasted chicken now*

[الله أكبر]

Last night I did something I've been wanting to do for a long time: marinated stuff in beer.

I took some pork chops, tenderized them, then covered them with a mixture of Yuengling Traditional Lager (a pretty neutral beer, so I figured a good starting place for beer marinades), soy sauce, brown sugar and ginger, and let them sit in the fridge for about 4 hours.  FRIGGIN' DELICIOUS.  The aroma of beer tantalized the palate while the whole marinade made the pork chops nice and tender.  I broiled them since I didn't feel like venturing into the cold to use the grill.  Next time I'll use fresh ginger root instead of dried ginger powder (that's all I had), and I'll let the chops marinate over night.  I'm looking forward to experimenting with different kinds of beers.  I'd like to try this with some of Yards' ales and definitely with some wheat beers.  I think I'll steer clear of IPAs and stouts, but I'm sure there are decent beer marinades you can make using those types.

[الله أكبر]

Okay, so yesterday was pretty much my magnum opus of cooking.  I spent the entire day in the kitchen.  Everything you see in this post was made completely from scratch.

I baked a batch of the Greek pitas that I showed earlier in this thread.  I used them to make gyros.  Since I don't have a vertical rotisserie deal, I used beef tenderloin for the meat.  I cut it into strips, pounded them with a tenderizer, then marinated them in a mixture of salt, Hungarian paprika, oregano and white wine vinegar for about 2 hours.  Then I pan-fried each.  I also made tzatziki sauce from scratch; bought some Greek yoghurt, strained it for about 5 hours altogether, then blended it with fresh, de-seeded and diced cucumber, dill seed, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, and something else I'm probably forgetting (used a recipe I found online).  Lastly, I served the aforementioned comestibles with diced onions and tomatoes, and here's the result:


A closeup (I forgot that I wanted to take a picture of it, so please excuse the ravenous teeth marks):


Now, you can't not have dessert...while the bread was cooling, the meat was marinating and the tzatziki was chilling, I made a cake.  My mom makes this cake where you take Betty Crocker's or Ellie Focker's or Helga Umfenmeierstein's or whoever's cake mix and add a can of Sprite.  I liked the idea of soda-in-cake and I wanted to do something with Coca-Cola so I found a recipe for Coke Cake.  What really brought out the flavor were the 3 sticks of butter in the cake and the frosting.  I was a little disappointed that the flavor of the Coke isn't so prominent, but in any case, here it is:


As Ike Willis says, "a-haha...a-there ya go!"

[Pube Truth]

Those Gyros look fantastical. We have a family recipe for a Coke Cake....I think we usually frost it with peanut butter. I bet the one you made was better.

[FAGGOT WATCHIN TRON]

I made Chicken Piccatta last night and Good Lord was it terrible! I pan fried the chicken and it came out waaaaaaay too greasy, and the sauce was, well, it was the grossest looking thing ever. Tasted pretty okay, but MAN it looked horrid. Like brown puke. Or stomach bile. The rice was simultaneously too watery and undercooked. I even managed to fuck up the brussels sprouts, which is RIDICULOUS because they are the steam in the bag in the microwave kind so uh yeah. I put too much salt on them. So overall I would say it was my most epic failure in the kitchen.

Ben and Vince both thought it was delicious, though, so whatever. I only made it because Ben asked for it. So as long as he was happy, I guess.

I can't wait to bake my NEAPOLITAN CAKE: REDUX!!! on Thursday. With the help of the lovely Mary. Which reminds me, Mary, bring your Flip with you and we will make hilarious videos of us in the kitchen!

[Pube Truth]

ok. cant wait. maybe we can have a silly tv style food fight? pretty please?

[FAGGOT WATCHIN TRON]

I was thinking the EXACT same thing. Icing fight, anybody? Will it end up with us rolling around on the floor giggling like little kids and then maybe accidentally kissing? Because I hope so. 

[Pube Truth]

 

[FAGGOT WATCHIN TRON]

Made Pasta Bolognese for dinner last night. Well, sort of. I didn't look up a recipe and I'm sure it wasn't very traditional, but it was still hella good. I took a whole bunch of onion*, sauteed it in oil, then added a whole bunch of garlic** and sauteed that, then added a whole bunch of finely chopped baby bella*** mushrooms and sauteed that for a few minutes. Then I put all that in a bowl and set it aside, and browned my meat. As that was browning, I added a shit ton of generic Italian spices (see Oregano, Basil and Thyme), and then when it was cooked, threw the onion/garlic/mushroom mix back into the pan WITHOUT DRAINING THE FAT. This was mostly due to laziness, but also due to the hope that it might add some flavour. Then I let the whole thing cook just a LITTLE bit longer.

Finally, I threw the meat and veggie mixture into a pot full of cooked pasta. I used a box of mixed pasta shapes we had in the house, I think it was shells, penne and rigatoni. It was all we had, but if I'd had my choice I probably would have just used rigatoni. Anyway, I stirred that around a bit, turned down the heat on my burner, and then threw in a can of petite diced tomatoes and I think three cans of unseasoned tomato sauce. Stirred a bunch and let the whole thing simmer for a bit, constantly stirring so it wouldn't burn and stick on the bottom of the pot. I also sprinkled in some good quality Parmesan cheese and stirred that in, but only a little. I didn't want it to be excessively cheesy or anything, I just wanted the flavour. Oh and I added a healthy splash (maybe half a cup? who measures? not me!) of red wine. I used Pinot Noir because its what I had open was drinking. Admittedly a Burgundy or a Beaujolais would probably be better choices, but hey, who gives a fuck? Again, not me!

Served it with a salad of mixed field greens and romaine, topped with pine nuts and grape tomatoes. Would have had Craisins on it, but I forgot to buy some at the store. D'oh!

I give it a resounding A++. It was mighty tasty, satisfying, and easy-peasy to make. Only dirtied two pots and a few bowls in the process, and I used the same wooden spoon for the browning and mixing. It also passed the man-test, as Benjamin and the roommate ate it right the fuck up.

*In this instance, a whole bunch = A whole medium/large sized white onion.
**In this instance, a whole bunch = About 12 cloves of garlic, which might possibly be a whole small ear.
***In this instance, a whole bunch = A whole one of those little styrafoam containers you get at the grocery store. It's a lot.