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[egor]

So tonight I had fresh picked home grown oyster mushrooms and a bowl full of salvaged onion, garlic and shallots (long story). So what to do.

I came up with "Que los Hades es este" or Some dumb luck.

I threw a can each of Cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup into a pot with diced garlic, onion and shallots, and the two soup cans partially filled with half/half.
Then I turned in on medium heat and diced two chicken breast and thighs into that.
Then I chopped and added 3 small carrots, 5 celery stalks, 1 green and 1 red bell pepper, two "leafs" of fennel and the two large cluster of Oyster mushrooms into the "sauce"

while that was cooking I had one package of spaghetti boiling.

I added salt, pepper, ol' Bay and herb provincial.

After it cooked for a while I added a small piece of Parmigiano Regimano and grated it right into the sauce.

Turned out pretty good.

 

[Curiositykilledthecat]

Oh food, yay,
I love to cook but I do WW to keep my weight in check. I don't use light products, I rather make my portions smaller.

So I made a big batch of pork ragout the other day.

So I am used to the metric system so I bought 1 kg of pork tenderloin in one piece. I got a good butcher at the local market. (I hope I got the part right, it is also used for making pulled pork)

Put a big casserole pan on, olive oil, browned the meat, added 3 spoons of tomato puree, 2 cans of tomatoes, 1 spoon of fennel seed, 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, pepper and salt and a good pinch of hot dried pepper flakes, I added water until the meat was 2 cm above the liquid.
I put it on low heat, checked it every 45 minutes, added extra liquid, after 120 minutes I picked out the pork, reduced the sauce to 50% and pulled the pork apart.
Added it back to the sauce et voila.

I used half of it to make a lasagna with bechamelsauce with old provolone, zuchini and whole grain lasagna sheets.
My bechamelsauce was 30 grams of butter, 30 grams of flour, I browned the butter, added the flour, browned it, added warm 0% fat milk (300 ml) and whisked it until it thickened. Added a pinch of nutmeg, 60 grams of shredded provolone and used it as layers in the lasagne.

The other half of the ragout is in my freezer, yum

 

[egor]

I got a "Great course" video collection " Food: a cultural culinary history". It starts 3 million years BC and moves forward from there.

So far it is very interesting and I think the best way I can sum it up so far is:

1) all animals thing and survive, but only "man" can cook.

2) as we moved from Primitive man to 1200 ad, Agriculture was developed, we learned from the mistakes, we got religion practices around food, big empires killed themselves off and the "little Native Clans" took over, those that need will go to war to get what the other guy has.

3) Social order adds value to certain foods i.e. White bread over whole grain, orange carrots, and certain spices.

4) Regions are so different that in the long run they become similar as you break down the foods.

5) most of our food styles are based on "medical and religious" beliefs i.e. Galen's 4 humors: earth, water, fire and air.
In more detail if you are hot and horny, eat cooling earthy foods. Feed a cold warm foods and starve a fever water and airy type foods.

 

[egor]

I made another batch of "Some dumb luck" last night for dinner. The big thing was I used my home grown home made baby corn and for the first time in many years home grown bean sprouts.

 

[egor]

I made a batch of Honey BBQ sauce Friday night.

2 jars of home made tomato base (canned Diced tomatoes will work)
1 large can of Tomato Paste
2 bottles of "old fashion" Root beer (The old real deal like Hires or Dads)
12 oz honey
2 small onions diced
1 head of garlic chopped
1/2 cup Molasses
15 shakes of Hot sauce

Put it all in a crock pot and cook on high for 12 hours.

 

[egor]

After the BBQ sauce was canned and the crock pot cleaned. I made a batch of baked beans using 12 oz of the BBQ sauce. I used the Kansas City Baked Beans recipe (I believe it is listed in the top of the blog)

I used the Ham bone from New years. I boiled it in about a gallon of water. I strained out the meat and bones and used 6 cups of that water to cook the beans in the crock pot.

6 cups ham water
meat and de-fat skin from the ham bone to make water
2 small onions diced
2 cloves of shallot
1 head of garlic
2 table spoons of brown mustard
12 oz honey BBQ sauce
1 bag of white beans
12 shakes of hot sauce.

I cooked it for 16 hours.

They turned out GREAT.

Should go well with the beef and pork ribs I am brazing for dinner. Along with fresh corn on the cob.

 

[egor]

@egor Which would you recommend for making chicken fajitas? Chicken breasts or tenderloins?

I would use what ever I grab out of the freezer.

I am more likely to have boneless skinless chicken breast then tenderloin.

In my personal opinion I do not think it would make that much diference with the way fajitas are cooked.

 

[egor]

So I have been having issues with my weight and some of it was medications that I stopped. Then last week was 100% eating issues. So this week I am on a salad kick.

Monday I made a Mozzarella salad= Orzo, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and sliced basil. I added grapes and sauteed shrimp. I used a balsamic vinaigrette to saute the shrimp and that liquid became the dressing.

Last night I mad an "Italian Deli Salad" with spring greens, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, green onion, hard boiled eggs, proccuto (damn spell check), pepperoni, and cotta salami and a Tuscan Italian dressing on the side.

Tonight is some sushi and leftover salad, then tomorrow I will make a Vietnamese noodle salad.

 

[egor]

Had a big shellfish feed for father's day. Baked Oyster and Sea Scallops, Steamed Crab, clams, shrimp and Crawdads. I also Baked the corn still in the husk for the last 10 minutes the oysters and scallops where cooking.

Slurp and Burp Festival.

 

[egor]

Played with the soft serve Ice cream maker this evening with some left over/over ripe fruit and made a "banana split Ice cream".

I very soft banana
8 large strawberries
1 handful of frozen pitted cherries
1/4 cup cubed pineapple
1/4 cup coconut chunks
1/4 cup broken 85% cocoa discs
1/4 cup of honey
1 cup of fat free half/half (sort of a wash since they add corn syrup for the removed fat)

Started with the harder stuff into the food processor, then added the softer stuff, then the liquid.
Pored all of that into the ice cream maker and let her run.

Red/pink in color and very "gritty" (in a good way)

Made about a quart and Have eaten 3/4 of it all ready.

 

[egor]

This is an example of why i have this blog and suggest everyone to share recipes.

I am making Strawberry Rhubarb Jam and I could not find the recipe card (at least I think I made one) so I cam in here and looked and "Th'are she Blows". It was the Nutmeg pod I forgot I needed.

Here's the Blog to save the Day!!!!!