What Have You Cooked Recently?

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I just like making pie.
 
Lazy as heck, I took a costco frozen pizza mrs bass and I shared, chopped a lot of olives some peppers and onion and garlic threw on with dash of hot pepper flakes and baked.

For 2 people and spending 2.50 we had a really nice dinner that took no work.
Frozen stuff can be always made better by adding some other stuff.
Have you ever had pizza with spaghetti as topping? Its absolutely divine!

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Made my own tamales for the first time. I always loved tamales but I've never had the temptation to make them before. So I decided to stop being a lazy fuck and make some.
Masa, lard, chicken broth, baking powder, a touch of salt for the outside, chicken and green chili sauce for the inside. Wrapped 'em up and steamed 'em for an hour. They turned out pretty well! Gonna bake a load of them in the rest of the green sauce and top the with some fresh Los Altos cheese I picked up.
 
I have a basic meat brine recipe that I make tweaks to depending on what is about to get the salt bath treatment. For last Sunday's dinner, I let a pork sirloin tip roast thaw and soak in the brine in the fridge for three days. I roast it on the broil setting for about 15 minutes to keep the moisture sealed in during the ensuing 350f roast in a shallow pool of chicken broth until the center reaches 145 (it'll easily coast to the 150 goal after taking it out of the oven). I use a probe thermometer for consistency and basic food safety. There's a ton of steps I'm not gonna get into, plus the side-dishes and the gravy I make out of the broth/drippings mixture.

If you ever have any issues with your meats being bland, I urge you to try meat brining. If you like it spicy, add a shitload of crushed red peppers to the brine that will make the meat bite back without the assistance of a dry toss or a sauce.
 
A giant crock pot of chicken and dumpling soup from an Internet recipe. Started with a whole chicken. I could have got a roasted chicken for almost the same price, but the only actual labor intensive part was ripping it apart anyway and it would have been drier so I'm glad I didn't. Called for chopped parsley as garnish but I used chopped celery leaves instead because I had the celery and because fuck parsley.

The dumplings turned out okay. I was a bit leery of them as they turned out doughy and nasty last time I made them. These were pretty simple, though, just flour, eggs, milk, butter and baking powder, dropped in by the teaspoon.
 
I recently bought some nice Hokkaido Awase Miso and since it's so hot in upsidedownland, I made Butter Miso Ramen.
Butter and Miso are made for each other.
For toppings I used Sukjunamul-muchim (bean sprout salad) that was in the fridge, some corn, spring onions, ramen egg and aburaage tofu (those tofu puffs used in inari), topped with shichimi togarashi and nori.

It was satisfying and whilst the new miso is good, it's too understated for my tastes in that dish. You need a punchy older miso.
 
Made one pan spaghetti. I can't say I'm a fan of this method. It doesn't do well for leftovers. Freshly boiled pasta is just always better.

Agreed, I can't stand leftover pasta stored with tomato sauce. The pasta gets over-hydrated and mushy while the sauce turns into some horrific, gummy paste. I recommend storing any leftover noodles in sandwich bags or containers separately, heat them up separately from the sauce, then the leftovers are pretty much like fresh. Well, save for the flavors between the meat and sauce getting time to mingle overnight, which makes it better, IMO.
 
Agreed, I can't stand leftover pasta stored with tomato sauce. The pasta gets over-hydrated and mushy while the sauce turns into some horrific, gummy paste. I recommend storing any leftover noodles in sandwich bags or containers separately, heat them up separately from the sauce, then the leftovers are pretty much like fresh. Well, save for the flavors between the meat and sauce getting time to mingle overnight, which makes it better, IMO.

You really shouldn't ever have leftover noodles.
 
I've been on a meatball kick. First I made buffalo chicken meatballs. I ground chicken breasts in my food processor and did a basic meatball mix with breadcrumbs, milk, egg, garlic and onion. Baked them then topped with buffalo sauce- Franks red hot mixed with a little melted butter. Served with carrots and celery and blue cheese dressing to dip.

The best part was the next day when I took leftover meatballs, buffalo sauce and all, and put them in homemade Alfredo sauce to top pasta.

Then I made beef meatballs, again just a basic recipe, and topped them with a creamy dill sauce. I made a roux of 2 tsp butter and 1 tbsp flour. Slowly stir in 1 cup beef broth until thickened. Let cool slightly then add 1/2 cup non fat greek yogurt, a couple dashes worcestershire sauce, and a shitload dried dill. Served with mashed potatoes and green beans.
 
Made steak and used two different seasonings as a test on Saturday. Lower quality cut got steakhouse I had lying around, good cut had just salt and pepper. Both were comparable, but the good cut was still better. Most likely due to the cut quality, though freshly ground seasoning probably helped.
 
As BigRuler originally said, I am also a poor sodomite and must buy whatever is on sale. This week a whole chicken was less than a dollar a pound, and I prepared it in a very traditional manner. The secret is to use so much butter that it tastes delicious!
 

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