What Have You Cooked Recently?

I dont consider chili a stew bud
Eh, you'd be wrong on it just like how you were wrong on Cincinnati style Chili.

A stew in simple terms is any dish where you combine and cook solid food ingredients into a liquid until it's mixed. It differs from soup mainly on the amount of the fluid content; soups as a rule are much more liquid based than stews. You can serve them in bowls on their own or if it's rather thick on dishes too. It's because of these qualities chili (especially the standard con carne type most think of) counts as a stew because of this.

A sauce is a mainly liquid or semi solid food item you use to top another dish or compliment it. It is rarely eaten by itself unlike the con carne type. Cincinnati Chili ergo is a meat sauce given it's pretty much only used as a topping for hot dogs, spaghetti, and other dishes and is only mildly thicker than the more common tomato sauce. I don't deny it'd be amazing on some hotdogs or even fries given I have some familiarity with greek and turkish cuisine, but I just don't really count it among its more popular brother because of just how different it is.

Enough food sperging from me though since I'm driving us off-topic; I've had to make burgers out of 73-27 ground beef. I was horrified at the puddles of horrible grease that pooled the pan, but the burgers themselves were not as greasy as I feared they would be.
 
I've been cooking a lot of rice based dishes lately for some reason, mostly because I learned how to make excellent rice without a rice cooker a while back so now I think I'm hot shit I guess.
I cube chicken breasts and cook it in a skillet with my pineapple sauce that I make and serve it over rice. I use pineapple juice, pineapple chunks, soy sauce, ketchup and a lil bit o' vinegar and probably some other stuff I don't remember off the top of my head.

Today I made fried rice, I cooked veggies in the skillet, added two eggs ans scrambled then and then added the rice and some sauce.

Figuring out what meals to make can be challenging because no one tells me what the fuck they want so I just go in my fridge and browse google for an hour seeing what I can make
 
That's what makes cooking great fam. It's loose science. Now I won't lie, I'm sure your fried rice is great. I'm a pretty good cook great on grill but I still undersell myself. I want to hear about yours more and my suggestion, another egg.

Only dish I feel super proud of is my fried rice and my cheat is way more egg than you think. Nothing fancy. I love pineapple but I don't use it aside raw or grill.
 
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A mixed green salad with a lemon peppered tuna on top complimented with a side of black rice cooked in chicken broth and assorted spices.
 
Ive been making a lot of pizzas recently. I made the dough from Tony Gemnigani's pizza bible book, but I felt like I overkneaded it with the machine the first time so I made a second batch. Technically each batch is supposed to make two pizzas, but I spread the dough a little thin since I dont know how to throw it, so I can make each batch last for about 3 pizzas, since I dont always get a crust or anything since I just spread it by hand. So I made two batches and even between my family and I, weve been eating pizza for like breakfast lunch and dinner since about Sunday (I think my sister made crepes on Monday, and dinner on Tuesday or something). Theyre about 16 inch pizzas.

Theyre good though. I grew some arugula in the garden and it's starting to try and flower, so I cut it back to the root so it will come back again as leaves, so I put arugula, thick cut bacon, sage sausage, fresh mozzarella, pepper flakes and pepperoni on it. Kinda same-y after three days but it's also pretty decent.
 
I made a big batch of Shit on a Shingle (or Chipped Beef on toast for you church ladies) and I've been eating some just about once a day. I'm using a beef roast instead of actual chipped beef because it tastes a little better and I believe it's healthier.
 
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Swapped out a few ingredients because eating 4 whole bread rolls for a sandwich is a bit much and I don't have some things but I can't say this sandwich is all that great. The spam is a bit too overpowering to properly taste the eggs. Dunno, perhaps not using Spam™ played a role but bacon doesn't do that.
 

Swapped out a few ingredients because eating 4 whole bread rolls for a sandwich is a bit much and I don't have some things but I can't say this sandwich is all that great. The spam is a bit too overpowering to properly taste the eggs. Dunno, perhaps not using Spam™ played a role but bacon doesn't do that.
I used a pack of those small hawaiian type rolls for hot dogs and stuff recently. Original plan was sliders but then I remembered I had hot dogs so I'd take two, leave them joined, open them, and bam hot dog bun

I made a big batch of Shit on a Shingle (or Chipped Beef on toast for you church ladies) and I've been eating some just about once a day. I'm using a beef roast instead of actual chipped beef because it tastes a little better and I believe it's healthier.
I'll make something vaguely like that with ground beef.

Chop up some onion and bell pepper, toss it in a pan with some jarred minced garlic with olive oil and a bit of salt, cook that up a bit, add a bunch of ground beef, maybe some other seasonings and mushrooms, cook it through, toss in leftover rice to heat and soak up the grease.
 
Inspired by the "Spam or meatloaf thread"
experimental meatloaf

1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
1 can aldi generic spam (mashed)
2 eggs
1 can mushrooms
1 can 3 bean salad
1/2 jar spicy salsa
a bunch of jarred banana pepper slices
about a 1/3 of a cup of red lentils (heavily rinsed and soaked for an hourish)
paprika
minced garlic
salt
white pepper
rosemary
worcestershire

I was going to throw in some casserole onions but whatever. Maybe I'll top the slices with them or something.

The main loaf is in the oven at 375, after an hour or so I'll slice it up and bake the slices for a bit.

37min in edit: peeked on it, smells really really good from a distance, good but a little weird up-close. Too bad I don't have potatoes, the liquid from this would probably go good for mashed potatoes.

36min later edit: transferred slices for rebaking, ate the leftover bits, so far pretty good.

37min later again: good stuff. A little loose but pretty good. Definitely shows that mashed spam works in meatloaf.
 
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I've been making a recipe from a soup cookbook I've got with angel hair pasta, wilted spinach, and chicken broth with a fried egg on top. It's not turing out as soupy as it's supposed to, but it makes some damn tasty noodles.
 
I bought beef strips. I marinated them with teriyaki sauce. But I think next time I'll split them into smaller containers each with a different marinade. They're great cuz you can grab a few of them and throw them in the pan and they're reading in 3-4 minutes. I'll mix them in with some onions, peppers, broccoli and pour it all over some rice. Or you can add it to a bowl of ramen and it's quite good way to "beef up" your cheap lunch.
 
Last night I made a beef stroganoff recipe that I've made a few times before.

Start boiling water for a pound of pasta. I use wide egg noodles. The recipe says to use linguine, but I know better. Proceed with the recipe and whenever the water is ready, dump in the pasta. Remember to turn it off and drain it when it's finished so it doesn't end up overcooked, then leave it until you're ready to add it.

It calls for 24 ounces of flank or skirt steak, sliced and fried in a pan with 2 tbsp butter. Since we always have 80/20 ground beef in the freezer, though, I use a pound of that. Instead of crumbling it, I slice it thin while it's still partially frozen and throw the slices into the pan to brown before they melt and fall apart, so I end up with thin slices of browned cube steak. Transfer it to a small bowl along with the fatty juice that came out of the meat while it was cooking.

The recipe then calls for 2 more tablespoons of butter, but since I didn't fry the beef in butter, I just toss half a stick (4 tbsp) in at this step. Next, a chopped medium-sized onion (wet your hands and then rub them on the nearest stainless steel object to remove onion odor). Saute onion in the melted butter until translucent, then add 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped (the stainless steel trick works for this also). As soon as the garlic starts to cook, add a pound of sliced mushrooms, stir and cover. Stir periodically so they cook evenly and don't burn. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add 2 teaspoons of prepared mustard (recipe calls for Dijon, but I use regular yellow mustard, and I don't really measure it -- just a few squirts) and 1 teaspoon of powdered paprika. Stir. Next, add about a half cup of dry white wine (I use whatever's cheap). Stir and let simmer, uncovered. While that's cooking, mix up two cups of beef stock (I use bouillon), two tablespoons flour, and one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. When the wine reduces how you like (I wait until I can no longer smell the alcohol, because my wife doesn't like the flavor of alcohol), pour the stock mixture in and cook, stirring occasionally, until the flour thickens it. Dump the beef in (I chop the slices into half inch strips) along with the juice, heat until bubbly. Reduce heat to low and stir in one cup of heavy cream (the recipe calls for sour cream). As soon as that's mixed and hot (not boiling), shut off the heat and stir in the cooked pasta. Let it sit for a few minutes to let the pasta start to soak up some of the liquid and the sauce to thicken up some more, then stir again and plate. My wife thinks I'm a food god, and it makes enough for generous portions with some left over to stick in the fridge.
 
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Yesterday I threw a cup and a half of rice in the rice cooker, and diced up a couple of chicken breasts. Tossed the meat with some cornstarch, a dash of garlic powder, and a few shakes of soy sauce, then cooked it in a non-stick pan. In another pan (I should've just used one big pan, but whatever) I steamed/sauteed a bag of snow peas and a sliced green bell pepper (would've been nicer if I had a different color so it'd contrast with the snow peas), a little water, more soy sauce, about four cloves of crushed chopped garlic, and a decent amount of grated ginger off the nob I keep in the freezer -- so easy; just grab it and grate directly over the pan, then return the nob to the freezer. Mixed up about a tablespoon of cornstarch with some water and a pinch of chicken bouillon (maybe a third of a cube's worth... mainly because I didn't have room to cook the veggies with the chicken and wanted them to have some chicken flavor), then poured that over the veggies and stirred until the cornstarch cooked and thickened it. Dumped the chicken in, stirred, then over rice. Taste, and if it's not flavorful enough, add more soy sauce. Had enough for a couple containers of leftovers.

I made this around 2 or 3 pm, and we were full enough that we didn't have anything for supper.
 
Wanted to grill and clean out the fridge, so tried mixing a little jerk seasoning into the ground beef, made burgers, topped with mushrooms and a tiny bit of cooper sharp just to add melty goodness. Salad was grilled romanie in homemade Caesar.
 
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I don't cook very often, but when I do, I tend to go with simple things; my favourite to make is a dish of rice, steamed asparagus/Brussels sprouts, and toaster oven cooked salmon with a light coating of ginger splash. Everything cooks at different speeds, but if you're able to get the timing right, it's easy to make!
 
nothing marked down at Aldi so I got a half a pork loin, about 2 3/4 lbs
cut it in half, stuck it in a big casserole type thing, sliced up the top for more surface space
paprika
white pepper
salt
rosemary
thyme
minced garlic (jar kind)
dumped a can of can of mushrooms in with it
covered it in slices of onion
extra salt on top

375 for like an hour and half or so. Turned out good.
 
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