What Have You Cooked Recently?

It's great in stews, soups or even a faux-mirepoix but don't let that fool you! Treat it like carrot and it will roast very well with your taters, rutabaga, carrot and celery root in the oven. Very nice.
Get it just right when roasting them and those little beauties will caramelize wonderfully. Absolutely delicious. Oh the other hand, I made a pretty low effort but tasty dinner today - Smokey BBQ chicken fajitas with salad and rice. Probably the last 'summery' dinner we'll have this year as it's starting to get colder now so soups, stews, roasts and casseroles will become more prominent.
 
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Cooked a medium steak loin end with Crab cakes from Lidl yesterday to celebrate the election.
 
I'm still on a bland diet (gross), so chicken breast with a light broth seasoned with Krakow Nights, french green beans, and mashed potatoes cooked together in a casserole, sort of like a cottage pie. I'll melt some swiss cheese on my husband's half a few minutes before serving. Hope it's tolerable.
 
I'm still on a bland diet (gross), so chicken breast with a light broth seasoned with Krakow Nights, french green beans, and mashed potatoes cooked together in a casserole, sort of like a cottage pie. I'll melt some swiss cheese on my husband's half a few minutes before serving. Hope it's tolerable.
I don't imagine it turning out too well. A little brown butter sauce on top at the end may help if you are not having cheese. But if you aren't even allowed butter, garnish some fresh EVOO and lemon juice, it may help.
 
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Next I'm going to try to make a shakshuka to see what all the fuss is about.
Its hard to go wrong with eggs poached in a tomato sauce.

Tax: Chicken breast with a pan sauce of butter, onion, garlic, Herbs de Provence, Better Than Boullion, and water. Also had steamed veggies acquired from Sam's Club.
 
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I roasted a cut of tri-tip earlier this week. I either marinate it in a wet mesquite mix overnight or dust on some applewood rub just before, sear it for 4 minutes on each side and the flat, and then throw that fucker into an oven set at 350ºF until the internal temp of the steak is a nice 125ºF-130ºF.

As far as a side dish is concerned I either do french fries or mac & cheese (the latter being what I went for this time) with baked potatoes being considered for future dishes.
 
I’ve had quite a lot of pumpkin this week.
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It was requested that I make a pumpkin cheesecake and I decided to my own puree. I steamed the smaller one, once strained it yielded about 4 cups worth.
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I made the base for the cheesecake with Biscoff and ginger snap cookies, although it looks a bit gray around the edge in the photo. (I got distracted while I was making the custard and had to perform a rescue mission after a few minutes in the oven to add the rest of the eggs!) I topped it with whipped cream, chopped pecans and homemade caramel sauce.

With the other pumpkin I made a double batch of pumpkin and bacon soup, it looks more like potato because the pumpkin flesh was super pale, plus I added cream. I baked a focaccia to go with it; roasted garlic and cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts and pumpkin seeds.
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I also made a steak and black bean chili that I slow cooked and added in some roasted pumpkin. I made ganache from chocolate leftover from Halloween and used some of it to make truffles, they’re not the prettiest but it was getting late and I wanted to use everything up.
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I have 2 cups of pumpkin puree leftover in the freezer, I’ve got some pie crust and chocolate ganache in there too so I am considering making a chocolate and pumpkin cream pie for Thanksgiving.
 
The last thing I’ve cooked recently was buffalo cauliflower it was good but I don’t like franks red hot sauce
Also someone posted about washing rice before cooking it in a separate thread and I didn’t burn the pan so honestly such good advice. I’ve been trying to cook more recently and I found out I like cooking. I’m gonna make cookies sometime soon and I’m excited about it.
 
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I’ve been trying to cook more recently and I found out I like cooking. I’m gonna make cookies sometime soon and I’m excited about it.
This is a very fun discovery to make. Here's a few channels I like for sweets and quick fixes if you're ever wanting more ideas with some videos that are straight to the point with pretty minimal/easy-to-find ingredients.
Cooking Haru
HidaMari Cooking
Gom's easy Baking
RecipeTinEats
 
This is a very fun discovery to make. Here's a few channels I like for sweets and quick fixes if you're ever wanting more ideas with some videos that are straight to the point with pretty minimal/easy-to-find ingredients.
Cooking Haru
HidaMari Cooking
Gom's easy Baking
RecipeTinEats
Thank you I’m so excited to look through it I want to get good at baking I made cupcakes for Halloween time but the frosting didn’t turn out how I wanted it.
 
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Thank you I’m so excited to look through it I want to get good at baking I made cupcakes for Halloween time but the frosting didn’t turn out how I wanted it.
It's definitely a bit of a journey. Expect to mess up quite a bit at first, and have fun with it. There's always something to learn and get better at. Can't tell you how many treats I've had to dump after fucking some small thing up and turning it to mush in the oven :story: Learn to enjoy the process itself. Check out what other kiwis have to say about utensils, appliances, and cookware. In my own case I have a couple of decent non-stick pans (a deep one that doesn't spill over, and a smaller one for fast dishes), a couple of ceramic breadpans, a springform pan, and a set of ceramic bowls I got from Target on the cheap. Wooden utensils are good to have since they're much more gentle on your cookware.
 
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