Pantry Raid

Sometimes, we run out of food. It happens. There's this downtime in our kitchen that happens right before another trip to Walmart or Sams. It is during these times that my title as Food Alchemist shines through: my competence, my knowledge and my ability to completely and utterly BS my way through a recipe.

I had little available, so it was time to scavenge. And, since I had so little available, as casserole was in order. Plenty of ground beef was ready to go, so that was no issue. Neither were the onions I still had. Cream of mushroom soup was plentiful. But that was it at first glance. At second glance, I found some cornbread stuffing mix. Hello yummy crust for casserole. More scavenging revealed a few carrots left. They were sprouting a little but some quick surgery removed any gross parts. Aha! A teeny can of mushroom heads and stems. Wife would enjoy those. My aromatics were complete. Those were given a cooking in a teaspoon of butter and a pinch of kosher salt, which we're running out of. After a bit, they picked up some nice color and the whole kitchen smelled wonderful so off the heat.

Cooking the beef, which is about 1.75 pounds of the stuff (as it's half of a roughly 3 pound package), was easy. At this stage, I was trying to figure out how to stack everything. Adding the soup to the veggies I thought might thin things out too much and defeat the purpose of a binder. As I'm busy stirring, I think, "Boy am I stupid" and dump the veggies into the beef for a second quick simmer. More mingling flavors, including Adobo.

Speaking of the binder, CoM Soup I thought lacked a smidge in the flavor department. There was also not enough room for adding cream of celery soup. More thinking, and as a nod to Salisbury Steak, Worchestershire sauce went in, along with some Cumin and more Adobo.

The crust was too easy. Follow instructions on the box. Except... oops. No milk. Half and Half tagged in. The goo went on the bottom. Then the meat and veggie mix. Then soup. Then a bag of hash browns we had left over.

But uh oh! How long do I cook this for? Both Wife and mother of friend agreed a half hour on 350. I topped it with shredded cheddar 25 minutes in. Then poof.

Wife inhaled it, despite my protests. And now we have a reasonably stocked fridge. So all is well.

Wok you like a hurricane

For the second time in my life, yesterday, I tried to make fried rice. For the first time though, it worked. Four cups of long grain brown rice and... some oil. I'm not sure how much. It was more than two tablespoons, which is what the recipe demanded. I just felt very nervous tossing all that rice around in Wife's nice big pan. I was so scared of it sticking.

In the rice went some soy sauce, three lightly scrambled eggs, some cooked onions, two big ole slabs of chicken cut into chunks (and adoboed) and maybe... a third of a bag of broccoli, all cooked in oil as well. I figure that way, I can do things faster. Wife insists it came out okay. I think now they could have been cooked longer. Maybe. I dunno. I've never done this before. But now we have it reheated with more of those pot stickers some few posts back.

Who needs Yummy yummy?

Backlog

I have a lot to write about. I however, do not want to write about it all tonight. Meh. So I'll start off easy. Carvel. I grew up with these guys as my main ice cream supply store. I even worked for them one summer as a lad. Tonight, I went there with a hankering for a frozen dairy treat. I see something called an Iceberg, which was apparently a blended root beer float. I think 'sweet!". And boy, I couldn't have been more right. Too sweet, in fact. I couldn't finish it. I could barely finish a quarter. So I left that Carvel six dollars poorer but six dollars wiser. Me have heap big buyers remorse.

The good news though, I went to this local bar and grill with my aunt today. Naturally, I ordered wings. Extra hot was on the menu so extra hot would be on my plate. This time, I certainly did not regret it! Mmmm, were they good! Meat fell right off the bone and the sauce was rich and flavorful and still with plenty of
Capsaicin

to knock me off my seat. Finger licking good and with no blue cheese. A little sad and they could have used a cooling agent besides celery but hey, they were superb.

Coachmen's, if you're ever on Katona Avenue in Woodlawn NY.

This Afternoon

The Nickleback song, by the way. Don't ask.

But anyway, we have some nice big hunks of pork in the oven right now for a little less than an hour now. What first I did, technically, was steal some latex gloves from my job just for this job. THEN I remade my rub. Alton Brown recipe again, folks. Eight parts brown sugar, three parts kosher salt, one part chili powder. That last one part (From Pork Fiction) I cooked up myself with Cumin, Onion and Garlic Powder, Cayenne, Adobo and Black Pepper. The braising liquid I kinda BSed and now I hope for the best. A cup of Red Wine vinegar, some hefty shots of honey and Worcestershire sauce, and finally a single shot of hot sauce. Hopefully, nothing too terrible will happen with the added acidity and it'll reduce to a glaze still. I also realize as I type this that I forgot to add the cloves of garlic.

Rats.

More later when things come out of the oven.

Soup Da Whoop

First off, I'd like to say how much I hate putting this off.

Second, this post is for the Lap Banders out there, so get your fill. The pun was about 75% unintended. Don't ask.

Now, on with the show. My wife has the Lap Band. I've probably mentioned this before. Because of this, I've had to adjust my cooking to meet her special needs, and that includes post-fill mushy diets. Luckily, I prepared for it ages ago and hunted down a soup cook book that would surely have some ideas in store. "Is it Soup Yet?", by Dot Vartan, 9780740743016 is the product number, I say as I work in a bookstore, and I highly recommend it. One recipe in particular I and the wife greatly enjoy. "Potato Corn Chowder", on page 114.

2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/8 tsp ground thyme
2 (15 oz) cans whole potatoes
2 (15 oz) cans whole kernel corn
1/2 cup half and half
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
Optional: 1 cup julienne cut smoked ham
Parsley flakes

Now I summarize: Boil the broth with onions and carrots and thyme. Reduce the heat then simmer for 10 minutes. Drain potatoes and chop a full cup, then set it aside. The rest go in a food processor (I used a bar blender) with 2 cups of the broth. Puree until smooth. Add the new goo to the pot, stir and add... everything else. Boil again, reduce again, simmer again, this time for 5.

For liquid diets, you can sub out kernel corn for creamed corn. You can also just blend the lot of the potatoes into a delicious ooze. For an added kick, toss in some handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese. Be sure to do it during the final simmer phase. Add one handful, stir and melt, THEN add more. Only until all the current cheese is melted do you add more.

OkayIloveyoubuhbye!

Big edible bowls

It is not the first time I've been to Panera's. First time, I admit, I was a little intimidating. Everything was shiny and new with its light brown and sepia atmosphere. All I could really order was chicken noodle in a bread bowl. It was all I felt safe getting. And I had no regrets, really. It was acceptable, as chicken noodle is hard to mess up. The same thing was true maybe... 3 months ago? We had went again. Thankfully, my soup palette had grown and I thoroughly enjoyed my bowl of French Onion soup. Mmmm mmmm.

My discovery of French Onion soup happened last year at a Morton's steak house in White Plains, but that's another post.

To save Angel some money, and to feel a little fuller, I got a sammich this time around. One of their cafe versions, whatever that means. Simply Ham and Cheese, as, once again, I didn't feel truly safe ordering anything fancy. Again, passable. Quite yummy, in fact. As simple as Ham and Cheese is, they got it right. Gulden's mustard made it heavenly.

Then came last night. I was feeling bold, and Wife pointed out that not much would change if I got a hot sandwich instead of a cold one. So I ordered what Wife ordered: Turkey, bacon, cheddar and some sort of sun dried tomato mustard.

HEAVEN.

Now I know why she orders this every time. I shall be following suit. Wife was even sweet enough to give me the last bite of her sammich. I wubs her so.