readera | Entries tagged with cooking

I made 2 Korean dishes both from Maangchi recipes for dinner last night. One is fairly familiar & easy, garlic green beans, but the other was new and a bit more complicated. Spicy Braised chicken .
I made some adjustments, as usual. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts & I used applesauce instead of sliced apple. I also used American style red pepper flakes instead of Korean since that is what I had at home. For the garlic green beans I used frozen instead of fresh and I thawed/cooked them very briefly in the microwave before adding them to the cooked garlic and oil in the hot pan. You finish it with sesame oil, off the heat which was the main difference from how I normally make garlic green beans.

I served them together over rice in a bowl and they were good. Next time I make this I will make enough for leftovers & used sliced apple. If you want to try out Korean home cooking Maangchi has been making YouTube videos for years. She is a Korean immigration who lives in NYC(I think) so she has knowledge of traditional Korean cooking & how to adapt it to available ingredients in the US.

Current Mood: full

The other day I made a new recipe, marmalade muffins. They turned out good and were very tasty.

I used a master muffin recipe and altered it some. I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, as that's what we had. I also used white sugar & then added a tbsp or so of molasses since i was out of brown sugar. I added 1/3 cup & a heaping Tablespoon of orange marmalade & folded it in at the end. Next time I think I'll use a bit less sugar or molasses as they came out a bit browned where they touched the tin.

Current Mood: exhausted

Today I made 2 big mason jar's worth of Chicken stock from scrap bones & veg scraps (onion, carrot & celery). I also made 2 sauces, 1 simple salsa & 1 tinga sauce. I roasted the ingredients for both at the same time on the same pan. The tomatoes, tomatillos & onion got roasted while the garlic did not. The salsa is 4 roma tomatoes + 1/2 an onion & 1 jalapeño plus salt & some hot sauce since it wasn't as spicy as I wanted. The tinga sauce is a bit more complicated. Here it is, if you want to see it. The tinga will go with shredded chicken for tacos & taco salad and the salsa will go with it. Plus we can have it with tortilla chips if there is any salsa left.

Last night for a midnight snack I made Arroz con leche with some leftover cooked rice. I used half oat milk & half coconut milk instead of dairy milks to make it plus I only used 1/2 a cup sugar instead of the full cup that is called for. I used powdered cinnamon since that's what we had. It turned out so good and is already gone. If I were to make it again, which I probably will, I would make a bigger batch, lol. I would also heat up the rice in the microwave so that I can unclump it easier.

I did buy bread from the grocery bakery instead of make it. I also got a whole chicken to cook again. It's one of the best bang for your buck deals esp since I just roast it whole and shred all the meat. Then I have a whole carcass for stock to freeze for later. Plus we can freeze the chicken meat in 1lb bags and take it out as needed. There are a few meals where I like to start with raw chicken but this is so convenient.

Tonight's dinner is going to be Fried catfish with sweet potatoes, green beans and bread. I got brown paper bags to use when breading the catfish, which I hope will make it a lot less messy. I'm going to try to make cream cheese danishes this week using this recipe. I have made pie dough before but not pastry dough so fingers crossed it goes well.

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: at home

For dinner tonight, I made a batch of chicken and dumplings and roast carrots on the side.

I used this base recipe for chicken and dumplings with some changes. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chicken-and-dropped-dumplings-recipe-1949787

I made it with about half the weight of chicken using chicken thighs. I cooked them in my instant pot. I halfed the dumplings recipe as well. We ate all the dumplings already. I'll just make more when we eat it next. My partner and I both love these dumplings.

The roasted carrots were seasoned with brown sugar, salt, honey, black pepper. I cooked them at 350 so the sweet sauce didn't burn.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: at home
Current Music: Mythbusters

I made chocolate chuck cookies and a broccoli casserole. We went to a family Thanksgiving for my partner's family. By the time we left, the cookies were all gone and the broccoli casserole was about half gone. Yay! The cookies were made with this recipe. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/ I made a double batch & used my stand mixer. I used Tony’s Chocolonely milk chocolate bars that I chopped up. I also used vanilla paste instead of extract. I used more chocolate and vanilla paste then was called for. This was my first time using the paste and it was very good. I have made these cookies before & I will again.🙂 The broccoli casserole recipe I used was this one. https://www.budgetbytes.com/broccoli-cheddar-casserole/ I made quite a few changes to this. I did use a different cheese sause and didn't add cheese to the main part of the dish. Instead of a roux base which the recipe calls for, I melted the cheeses into half as much milk & seasoned it. I used a bit of american and mostly chedder. I did still add the onion & garlic but I sautéed it and then added it to the rice & broccoli. I added seasoned breadcrumbs on top near thr end instead of more cheese. When I made the rice the day before I cooked it with chicken stock. It was good but if I made it for just us again I would use more broccoli and maybe add cauliflower to it.

Current Mood: full

A lot of my reading these days is done using audiobooks from the library, so that I can read while at work or doing chores. Today I finished the 16th book in the Dresden files at work, which is the 2nd to last book out. I like long series and I wanted to get a new series started before I finish this one. Plus I have to wait for the hold to come in. I also wanted something a bit lighter. So I checked out the first few books in the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. I've read the circle of magic books by her & I really enjoyed them. But I never read her other universe, so I thought it would be a good time to do so. I just finished the first book, which is under 6 hours on audio. I enjoyed it and have already checked out books 2 & 3. 😁😁 With this book done I've read 19 books so far this year. That's not counting fanfiction or reading here on DW. I wonder if anyone's made a program to track that.

As for cooking tonight I made a new dish, which is from the sorted sidekick app. I'm a decent cook but I struggle with meal planning & shopping. So far this has really helped and my partner & I have enjoyed most of the recipes. This one was polenta with kale & crispy turkey on top. I did make some changes including using stock instead of milk to make the polenta & using turkey instead of beef, but it was quite tasty. I don't know that I'll make it again but we'll see. I do have most of a bag of polenta to use up.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: the dishwasher running in the kitchen

I've done some comfort cooking & comfort eating this week.

I made chocolate tofu pie earlier this week. It's very rich & super tasty. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the phyllo pie crust & alton brown's recipe for the filling. I didn't have coffee liquor so I used some instant coffee & sugar instead. This is the first time I've made this but it turned out well.

Today I made some chicken noodle soup which is an old favorite comfort food and I made crackers too. It was another first time recipe that turned out well. It was very easy, but cutting was a bit fiddly. https://www.seriouseats.com/diy-oyster-crackers-recipe

Current Mood: full
Current Location: at home

Tonight's dinner was chicken tacos with salsa & pickled radish. I made fresh corn tortillas which turned out ok. The first batch was too thick. The second batch I rolled thinner but they didn't puff up when cooking. I'm not sure why. This was the last of the pickled radish, which I made last week. The chicken was leftover shredded chicken from a chicken I roasted.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: at home

New recipe tried today. Pork & cabbage gyoza.

They turned out well & now we have some in the freezer for later. I didn't have any green onions so I subbed the same amount of yellow onions. Plus the recipe filling matched the amount of skins that came in pack I got from the store. Big plus!

Current Mood: full
Current Location: Home

I tried a new cookie recipe this weekend. Inspired by the Cheer up cookies from "When Circumstances Are at Their Worst" by Ysabetwordsmith.
The OG recipe is Granola Chocolate chip Cookies. Instead of homemade granola I used store bought granola cereal with dried strawberries, raspberries & blackberries. I used double the sunflower kernals instead of adding almonds, since my partner doesn't like Almonds. I used semi sweet bakers chocolate instead of chips. I made about 12 cookies and then I made cookie bars with the rest of the dough.

The cookies & bars are more dark & bitter then I expected from a chocolate chip cookie. Next time, I think I will try a different granola, maybe homemade & use more & lighter chocolate. J & I both like the bars better then the cookies. They are soo good with a cup of tea or milk.