What Have You Cooked Recently?

Butternut squash bharta with umeboshi rice. I liked how the salty and sour umeboshi cut through the sweet denseness of the mash.
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Made a batch of apple sauce with the leftovers from an apple picking excursion I took a few weeks back. The apples weren't great for eating but they made fairly tasty sauce. I also tried out this "apple-scotch" pie recipe a while back (with store bought granny smiths) and, despite not thickening the "scotch" enough, it came out pretty good.
 
. My local asian store went from stocking only like 2 flavors of Maesri-brand cans to having 10+
Absolutely green with jealously. The tinned Tom kha is just one of my cupboard favourites.

Well I thought I'd celebrate fall with a Mexican old rags inspired stew and the weather decided to turn back to summer. Totally psyched the weather ha! End pictures never pretty but here's some roasted veg and non roasted veg and a piece of brisket that was reduced to make it. 50 minutes in the instant pot with some ready to go enchilada sauce and the end of nandos peri peri medium marinade. It is complex or skillful? Nope. But two days out of 2 the weather has been beautiful. 20231008_142948.jpg20231008_143019.jpg
 
Had two thanksgiving dinners back to back. The one at my partner's parents place was perfect and everything was delicious. I was looking forward to my mom's traditional stuffing but this year she decided to switch it up with a bunch of weird shit "for color" which was disappointing. Still fun being with family.
 
Had two thanksgiving dinners back to back.
I always love this. It's already a holiday basically completely about eating. I always have two sides of the family and get a full dinner out of each one and then they give me food to take with me too. Awesome! Turkey on sandwiches is awesome too.

Americans eat Thanksgiving later though.

I'm going to make pecan pie for them this time though.
 
I always love this. It's already a holiday basically completely about eating. I always have two sides of the family and get a full dinner out of each one and then they give me food to take with me too. Awesome! Turkey on sandwiches is awesome too.

Americans eat Thanksgiving later though.

I'm going to make pecan pie for them this time though.

Probably my favorite Thanksgiving pie, easily better than pumpkin. Cherry and apple are more summer pies, although I can see vanilla ice cream and warm apple pie having a role here. Also, yea, Thanksgiving is the best holiday, and I'm glad that America actually stood up against the commercialization of it a bit and stores are no longer bragging about being open on Thursday.
 
Oven roasted chicken. Salt, pepper, garlic powder(sadly out of fresh garlic at present), chopped fresh red onion, thyme. Threw carrots and potatoes directly into the roasting pan about half way through the chicken's cook time. Squash is covered with a small amount of butter, cinnamon and brown sugar then baked.

Two jars in the picture are the broth from the roasting pan. It will be turned into soup.

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Two standard pumpkin pies. Not bad, but I think I can do better. Next time I'm going to add a hint of maple syrup. Didn't want to experiment on turkeyday. Seems unwise to displease family.

Chicken and vegetables were super soft and moist. Good flavor, too. As you can see my pies boiled over. That is what I get for using premade crust. I was brought premade and told to use them, I obliged. The mess is my penance. I should have said no rofl. Ah well. Some times you just do what family wants you to do.

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Squash is something I just love the hell out of. I can eat it plain. Turkeyday is a day to dress it up a bit, though.
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Next experiment will be end of the month. I'm going to try a sauerkraut&beef teriyaki stirfry. Broccoli, carrots, beef strips, garlic, bacon, sauerkraut. My German friend recommended I add garlic and bacon to balance out the kraut. I know there's garlic in the teriyaki sauce already.. so I'll do a half and half experiment. One half with no extra garlic, one half with. I trust him, I'm just a loon that likes to mess around with recipes.
 
Corned beef hash and eggs. Very simple, you can get the corned beef in a can, but it lasted me two breakfasts. Just cook the meat in a skillet until brown

This is something I associate with Americans and order when I'm stateside.

I ordered it once in the Maritimes at a truck stop and they served it as cubed potatoes and crumbled ground beef.

Awesome! Turkey on sandwiches is awesome too.

Americans eat Thanksgiving later

I think I actually prefer turkey the second day in sandwiches.

It was 30 degrees Celcius last week when I was cutting the grass. It snowed here yesterday.

I hate it here.
 
Tonight I made beef and butternut squash stew. I used fresh thyme and rosemary that I added to the last hour or so of simmering. I also had dried tarragon that I added. Costco had eye of round on sale, so I used that instead of the normal chuck roast I'd normally used and it turned out great! I have half of the round left over and plan on making roast beef sandwiches with it. My soups and stews have elevated ever since I got my Dutch oven last year and learned what a Beurre Manié is instead of doing a cornstarch slurry.
 
I've been trying out making monte cristos in a waffle iron because I'm thinking of making a fuckton of food so I'm using every appliance I have. Lot better and easier than frying them in every way.

So far it's:
-Monte cristo on the waffle iron
-Battered fries with a cajun + truffle seasoning blend air fryer
-Fried Tilapia in deep fryer
-Maybe shrimp in oven if we figure out where the turkey is being made

So I have a slow cooker and one of the areas in the stove-top left. I was thinking of seafood for the slow cooker - maybe clam chowder, but I need something vegan with no sugar/salt because one of my uncles is scared shitless of food after literally everyone died, and having my nephew cook something for once using the last stovetop
 
Made yellow thai curry with oyster mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, green onions, cubed daikon, and a bit of pork belly I had leftover on Tuesday, and used one of those rice ball shaker tools to make large marble-sized spheres of sticky rice, which I lightly brush with sesame oil. It was mostly purchased as a fun way for the kids to get rice in their lunchboxes, but the texture is actually really nice for dishes with a sauce component.
Made green thai curry with peppers, carrots, green onions, broccoli, green beans, and a few shrimp yesterday.

The Maesri cans are actually really nice- not as spicy as I like, but that's why the best way to use pre-made curry bases is as that, a base, and doctor it up with aromatics, fish sauce, and veg. I'm actually really impressed, they were retailing for like $1.50 a can at full price and I regularly get coconut milk for about $1 a can, so that's a very affordable base price for a meal that is very satisfying even without protein. I've made my own curry paste before and obviously nothing compares, but my husband's workload has been insane recently so I'm all for quicker meals as long as we don't have to eat slop.
Unsure if we're having another curry tonight, none of us are bored with it yet but I don't want to get fatigued. I have like 6 or 7 more cans to sample and I didn't even get every flavor on offer.

Nevermind, carne picada (just the cut, it comes unseasoned) was on sale so we're making tacos. I marinate the beef with soy sauce, lime juice, piloncillo, and a bit of worcestershire sauce. I'll be making the red salsa I keep on posting every 3-4 pages lmao (sub chile de arbol and piquin peppers with fresh serranos because I forgot we were out lol) and we're having them with cilantro and onions as usual, but also queso fresco this time.
 
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Made chicken broth yesterday (roasted chicken wings, a carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf and a splash of yakisoba sauce) and I'm going to have ramen with a poached egg for dinner tonight. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it
Reminds me I really need to make some soup stock for ramen. I want to try making a pork, garlic, mushroom and onion stock. That will have to wait, though.

I hope you enjoy your Ramen! When its well made its a damn good treat.
 
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