Eating Waffles

Being stuck at home for two and half months has taken its toll.  We have not gone out to eat/take out/fast food once, we have not taken a walk in the park, strolled the beach, biked at the wildlife management area since the second week of March.  In fact, except for the once weekly trip to the grocer, we have not left the house and neither of the other two table counterparts have left the safety of the car on these trips.  They stare longingly out of the car window while I stand in line waiting my turn to shop.  Crazy times. Covid be damned we have done to visit family (a fellow hermit like ourselves who lives off in the country) since school ended Friday.  Dinners are going to soul filling, rib sticking, heartwarming meals such as this Layered Chicken Chili Relleno Casserole .  Desserts will be plentiful, one for everyday there, and all new.  Life will be OUTSIDE!         Modifications Made: A very large whole chicken was boiled in a heavily salted water along with one roughly diced o

Don't know about where you live but the hype over the supposed missing Popeye's chicken sandwich has been crazy.  People who I know who don't even eat Popeye's are even discussing/debating the reasons.  Throwing myself under the bus, all this discussion about missing sandwiches has lead me to want a chicken sandwich, but not a drive through soggy version.  A homemade, fresh, crunchy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, pure 100% chicken breast sandwich.  Want something different than my favorite go to chicken sandwich with honey mustard, provolone cheese, and lettuce, I settled on a sandwich out of the ordinary. A  Summertime Fried Chicken Sandwich . Modifications Made: Chicken breasts were pounded to tenderize, to reduce cook time, and make sandwich bitesizable.  A burger too tall with toppings makes a mess.  Tony Chachere replaced seasoning in both the marinade and flour mixture. Scaled for Likability: Great, No Thank You Chicken: Great Breadcrumb exterior

One of my favorite food websites is Budget Bytes.  Recipes are simple, easy to follow, and refreshingly good.  If you are looking for Julia Child caliber recipes then Budget Bytes is not for you.  If you are looking for down to earth, uncomplicated and tasty meals, then have a go.  To date over the past several years, I have more than two dozen recipes saved.  Today I went wild and tried Sweet Potato Corn Cakes with Garlic Dipping Sauce . Modifications Made: Not having a potato masher, cooked sweet potato, diced green onions, cilantro, double the salt, two teaspoons of comino, two teaspoons of chili powder were tossed into blender and given a quick pulse.  Nothing excessive, just a quick blitz.  Emptied into a bowl, the following was added and mixed until just moistened: two well beaten eggs, third cup of masa, half cup of breadcrumbs, and half cup of frozen corn.  After cooling down in the fridge, patties were formed into patties and allowed to rechill for another hour or so.  Once re

A few weeks back, I watched an episode of BA;s Test Kitchen where Molly Makes Sour Cream and Onion Biscuits .  The teen counterpart takes after me and loves, loves, loves biscuits.  Plain, jelly, honey, bacon/egg/cheese, sausage gravy, hot, warm, cold.  The other table counterpart not so much.  The two table counterparts love sour cream and onion chips.  Thin, wavy, ridged, Pringles, kettle cooked.  Me, not so much.  As in I will eat one chip and be done for the year.  However, these biscuits were calling my name for weeks and weeks so when  Easy Scallion Pancakes with Soy Dipping Sauce  was discovered on one of my video feeds a few days ago, I knew immediately they had to be made for lunch. Modifications Made: Dough: Salt was increased to three-quarters of a teaspoon instead of half.  Knowing from making homemade flour tortillas, more salt is better than less.  Salt consumption can be reduced in the sauce is the tortilla/pancakes seems salty.  Scallion were switched for green onions.

There are just days when not one single new recipe sounds tempting, days when all table counterparts are too tired to cook, too tired to eat, and too tired to try new foods, days when comfort foods are needed.  What is this tables' ultimate comfort food: spaghetti.  Plain white noodles with garlic and herb jar sauce.  Having fresh veggies in the fridge and not wanting to make a salad, Fresh & Easy Veggie Spaghetti was made instead. Recipe: In a large pot, one small onion was diced and cooked until translucent.  To onion, one diced zucchini, half carton of sliced bella cap mushrooms, one tablespoon of minced garlic, one teaspoon of dried oregano and basil were added and allowed to simmer on low until zucchini was tender. Scaled for Likability: Normally, if vegetables are going to be added to jar spaghetti sauce it is spinach, mushrooms, and sometimes a small jar of black olives.  Never zucchini.  Why?  Because just as I suspected but never put to test, the vegetable cooks down i

Cooking with homegrown chard has become my new favorite past time.  Recipes are actively searched containing not only chard, but kale, spinach, or any other green for that matter.  Chard is an easy substitute for all greens as it is tender like spinach with a more bitter undertone like mustard greens and holds up well when cooked like kale.  It is a truly versatile green and like all greens pairs well with bacon as in this  Creamy Bacon Chicken .   Modifications Made: Six strips of diced pepper bacon were browned to extra crispy stage to avoid any soggy bit later in the dish.  Upon removal of bacon, three chicken breasts, sliced thin to make six pieces, were fried in remaining grease and set aside atop of bacon to rest  while one large, finely diced shallot onion and two gloves of diced garlic were browned until translucent.  To onion and garlic, two tablespoons of salted butter was added along with two tablespoons of flour to create a thick light rue. Chicken bits stuck to bottom of p

One of my new favorite non meat dishes is lentil tacos. One pound of brown lentils made the same way as one pound of ground beef produces more lentils tacos than beef tacos.  One pound bag of brown lentils will serve about fifteen tacos.  One pound of ground beef will only serve eight to ten tacos.  Lentil "taco" meat has been served in corn, flour, corn/flour mix, and spinach tortillas, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and with or without rice/lettuce/salsa/cilantro/sour cream/avocado.  Lentil "taco" meat has never been served with nachos. Modifications Made: Normally nachos are: chips, beans, rice, meat, cheese, cold toppings.  For lentil nachos, the lentils needed something to secure to the chip. Therefore, nachos were: chips, lentils, rice, cheese, cold toppings. Scaled for Likability: Good  Not quite the same as messy beef nachos, the lentil lack fat to combine the toppings together and still fell off the chip when nachos were pulled apart.  Nachos without bea

Take out Chinese food growing up consisted of a handful of meals: almond/cashew/lemon chicken, sweet and sour chicken/pork, moo goo gai pan, beef and broccoli with carrots, and hot and sour soup with fried rice and egg rolls.  Never once did the meals consist of spicy plates such as General Tso Chicken, Hunan Beef, or Sichuan Pork.  Having a new found affentiny for meatballs and Asian foods,  General Tso Chicken Meatballs  were given ago. Besides, if I thought the sauce too spicy, I could temper to tastes. Modifications Made: Sauce: Not having teriyaki sauce, a homemade   Teriyaki Sauce  was quickly made and allowed to simmer and set while meatballs were made. Sauce ingredients were doubled and the use of chili sauce instead of chili flake was the only modification. Meatballs: To one pound of ground chicken, one teaspoon of ginger, one teaspoon of chili sauce, one teaspoon of minced garlic, and two stems of finely diced green onion were mixed.  Meat mixture was then placed back into fr

Say what!  The local grocer is out of premade burger patties.  Typically there are four pack, eight packs, or twelve pack patties directly next to the ground burger meat.  When asked if they would be getting any on their next delivery date, the meat manager informed me premade burger patties were not being delivered for the next foreseeable future.  Thank you Covid. Not having a burger in my future was NOT even a comprehensible thought so a value pack of 80/20 ground meat was bought along with a bottle of McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning and patties were made at home.  Five imperfectly round patties following instructions from The Best Jalapeno Burger Ever : gentle, gentle, gentle circle not compressing or flattening leaving nice and fluffy. Scaled for Likability: Great Never again will premade burger patties ever be purchased again.  NEVER.  The only mistake made was not making the burgers flat enough causing the patties to a little fatter than most burgers usually come

For lunch Almost There German Pork Burgers were made.  Not wanting the half can of sauerkraut to waste, I took the same German infused pork burger idea but placed it over hot dogs. Modifications: To help achieve the German flavors, the sauerkraut was cooked with a heavy dosage of celery and caraway seeds and black pepper.  The hamburger buns were heavily toasted before assembly. Scaled for Likability: Good Sauerkraut on brats topped with extra tangy yellow mustard is a staple at this table.  What this German dog ensemble lacked with full beef hot dogs.  Plain jane run of the mill $.89 package hot dogs just could stand up to the full flavor of the kraut, even with three sliced hot dogs per bun.  The kraut needed that extra layer of beef fat to fuse all the flavors together.  Next time the Almost There German Pork Burgers are made, Almost There German Dogs will be made again but with 100% beef dogs.

Not Greek Turkey Zucchini Burgers  were made last week and while good, they did not have lasting impressions.  Being made with an ethnic flare was the best part of the burger so today another twist was made,  German Pork Burgers .  Pork has been used once before in Apple Pork Burgers and the results were great.  Combing pork, swiss, and sauerkraut seems like a win, win burger. Modifications Made: Having only one pound of pork available, the recipe reduced by half (sort of).  To one pound of pork half tablespoon of salt/celery seed instead of juniper berry/black pepper was mixed in along with just a heavy tablespoon of sour cream. I feared using an 1/8 of cup of sour cream would make the patty too moist to stay together on the grill. Scaled for Likability: Good Not exactly what I had in mind, but they were good.  They can, however, easily be made into a great burger.  To one pound of pork, double the seasoning (meaning use the original quantities as stated in the recipe), add two teasp

When the weather turns warm, all dinners become too hot to make, too hot to eat, just too hot to even warm up in the microwave.  Stews, soups, and warm winter meals are viewed with a longing that will be six to eight months away.  Oppressive heat does not stop the wish booking of warm winter meals.  While saving the link for  Italian Sausage Soup  I saw a sneak peak popup for Minestrone Soup .  Similar in ingredients, there was just enough differences to make them separate meals.  Not want to wait until winter, the AC was turned on in the kitchen and the two recipes were combined and modified into one. Modifications Made: The basis of the meal followed the Italian Sausage Soup with additions from the Minestrone Soup.  Not having orzo pasta, half box of thin spaghetti noodles were broke into two inch pieces and pan fried to a golden brown in a large dutch oven or pan with lid.  Noodles were removed, sausage was cooked and drained of fat, and set aside (not with the noodles).  To the res

Every summer as a child I looked forward to mom's zucchini nut bread. Light and fluffy loaf pan filled with perfectly moist, tenderly plucked off the vine, gently shredded zucchini and fresh off the tree sweet and slightly oily, finely chopped pecans. She would make loaf after loaf and when she finally could catch up to the house eating them, the loafs were securely wrapped and stored in the freezer for a later date. Next week, next month, next season, the defrosted loaf bread was just as good as it was the first day straight out of the oven.  Not having mom's recipe and not wanting to ruin memories of her perfection, a slightly different recipe was used:  Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies . Modifications Made:  One cup flour was substituted with half cup white flour and half cup whole wheat flour. Dark brown sugar instead of light brown, half cup of milk chocolate chips and half cup of semi sweet chocolate chips, and half cup of chopped walnuts were added. Scaled for Lik

Peanuts are for caramel and chocolate, roasted in salty honey sauce, and blending into peanut butter. They are not for serving in breakfast, lunch, or dinner meals. Thai foods are heavy in peanut and peanut flavorings but if the peanuts can be removed such as in this 20 Minute Sweet & Spicy Noodles , the recipes are utterly simple and tasty. Modifications Made: Regular spaghetti noodles were used instead of rice noodles. Sauce ingredients were doubled, the peanuts were omitted, and the honey and red pepper flakes swapped for Thai sweet chili sauce. Scaled for Likability: Great  It is nice to have a second or third simple noodle rotation. If I could offer one advice for new taters of Asian foods, do not leave out the cilantro. Its addition will not cause the dish to take on a mexican flare, its addition will only enhance the unami flavors. Add the cilantro directly before serving allows the crunch to remain while bringing a vibrant color to the dish.

Now that I have discovered Thai Sweet Chili Sauce, I am constantly looking for new recipes this spoon smacking good stuff to incorporate it into. Today it is  Thai Sweet Chili Green Beans .  Modifications Made:  Crushed garlic instead of garlic slices and red pepper flakes were omitted. Not wanting an excessively sweet green bean, only a 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce was used. Scaled for Likability: Great  Brightly green pole beans covered in a sticky salty sweet spicy garlic sauce, what else is there to say. The only way this side dish would have been better was to have used fresh off the vine green beans. These beans had been in the fridge for close to a week and were not at full crunch level. Served alongside a hot bowl of steamed white rice or simple fried rice, this side dish could also be a meal all unto itself.

My hometown has food festivals all year round.  One around Easter, another in summer, and a third in October.  Foods celebrate the various ethnics cuisines, Mexican, German, Polish, and Cajun to name just a short few.  One of my favorite festival foods are pupusas served with all the Curtido  one wants to slather on top.  Having leftover shredded chicken, I decided to try my hand at curtido to serve over homemade chalupas. Modifications Made: Oregano was omitted and curtido was melded for about half of day to retain some crunch. Scaled for Likability: Good The teen table counterpart loved this!  Not quite the curtido served at the summer food festival, this recipe will be made again but with a few changes.  Vegetables sliced thin, thin or maybe even shredded in the food processor, substitute yellow onion for the red as I didn't care for the leaching of color onto the cabbage, and the addition of shredded radishes for extra tang.

Ever the quest for a tasty burger continues. Not having a turkey burger since way back in November with  Turkey Cheeseburger with Apple Relish  which good but not great, a totally different tactic was taken today, a  Spicy Turkey and Zucchini Burger . Modifications Made: Red onion was added to accent the greek flavoring of cilantro, mint, and tzatziki-ish dressing.. Cayenne pepper was omitted mostly because it is not a staple seasoning but it would have been good in the burger.  Not wanting the patty fall apart during cooking, the egg was omitted. Scaled for Likability: Good The instructions made small burgers or even sliders.  Not being a fan of sliders as that is just bread filling and not meaty goodness, small burgers were the choice burger of size.  A one pound package of turkey was divided into five small burgers.  As you can see, five patties were too small.  This recipe would have been better for quarter pound burgers or even third pound burgers.  The meat held together wonderfu

Growing up mother canned everything she grew, bought from the produce stand, or swapped with neighbors.  Canning was a yearly ritual that was neither always exciting or enjoyable.  It was just a thing that needed to be done.  But goodness how mother could can a pickle, a corn, or an okra.  Everybody loved her pickled whatever and never turned down an offer to enjoy a pint or two. Many years later when I tried to lead a normal life with a house in the city, a garden in the yard, and an infant on the hip, homemade pickles were made just like mom used to make and they were great!  Since then my pickle tastes have advanced to something more than just a dill pickle.  This table prefers the garlic, the pepper, the cold packed pickle to have the crunch similar to veggies like these  Quick Fridge Pickled Veggies . With cucumbers in abundance in the garden what better way to preserve than pickles.  Better yet, refrigerator pickles.  They were simple to make and easy to store in the back of the

Oh my enchiladas.  Do I really need to tell you about how much I love enchiladas and that my favorite are plain-o-jane-o cheddar cheese enchiladas?  Again?  I didn't think so.  My next favorite enchiladas are green chicken. Spicy shredded chicken meat stuffed inside a corn tortilla covered in Herdez Mild Salsa Verde topped with queso fresco, sour cream, and homemade red salsa.  When Best Green Chicken Enchiladas  were stumbled upon, it turned my T&T chicken enchiladas on its head and twisted it around. Modifications Made: A small whole chicken was boiled, deboned and set back to simmer in its own stock along with one can of green chilis, a tablespoon of chili powder, one teaspoon of comino, and a tablespoon of garlic and onion powder each until stock reduces to just a cup or so.  Tortillas were warmed in a small bowl of Herdez Mild Salsa Verde.  Rolled stuffed tortillas were covered in more salas verde and Monterey jack cheese.  When served an extra dollop of sour cream and a h

Sundried Tomatoes.  In my head they are full of flavor, sweet and tender, and moist.  In actuality, they are lacking in flavor, tough in texture, and oily yet dry in taste.  With dozens and dozens of recipes using sundried tomatoes to produce wonderfully creative meals, another attempt was given in  Linguine with Spinach and Sundried Tomato Cream Sauce  using a high quality brand of sundried tomatoes.   Modifications Made: Pasta was increased to 12 ounces instead of 8, garlic was increased to four cloves, mustard greens replaced spinach, and basil was omitted. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You Having now made real cream alfredo sauce a couple of times, this alfredo sauce was lacking in depth of flavor.  It reminded me of the alfredo sauce from a jar, thick and creamy with little flavor.  The sundried tomatoes were tender and did offer a touch of elegance but not worth the effort or oily residue.  Sauce may have been lacking in flavor but it did make a nice creamy product that bonded

Recipes are categorized immediately upon reading, watching, or tasting.  Yes, No, or What the Hell?  The latter given to those recipes that A) are over the top in work/ingredients/complication like Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon  which I want to make but cannot find the energy and wonder does the recipes really need to be that complicated? B) are absurdly off the wall such as sweet scrambled eggs  which sounds easy enough but will never be tried/attempted and have to wonder why any sane person would? and C) are so vastly different and off the beaten path they have to be tried just for the sake of trying like Chinese Shredded Potatoes with Vinegar and Chili . Modifications Made: Red pepper flakes replaced dry chopped chilis. Scaled for Likability: Good Not really hashbrowns and not really french fries.  Not really crispy and not really crunchy.  They would not be good served cold as I think they would be too oily.  They would also be lots better if they were served with chopped drie

The elder table counterparts is full of euphemisms like "ticks on a dog", "R-U-N-N-O-F-T" from O Brother, Where Art Thou, and does the Pope wear a funny hat? just to name a few of the many hundreds.  Hundreds!  No, I am not exaggerating either. In reading Black Pepper Chicken  my very first thought was "that's a spicy pickle!"  A stir fry with three different peppers and only three teaspoons of sugar had to be given a chance.  Even it was too spicy the pictures made it worth trying. Modifications Made:  Marinade: The recipe did not state so low sodium chicken stock was used.  Granulated white sugar was used for the marinade and stir fry instead of palm sugar.Garlic was doubled.  One and half teaspoons of black pepper instead of one teaspoons to help offset the lacking peppercorns in the stir fry itself.   Stir Fry: Black pepper was increased by quarter teaspoon to offset omitted black peppercorns. Scaled for Likability: Great Oh, the debate over celery

From a garden full of stink bug bitten and bird pecked tomatoes one has to decide what to do with the produce.  They are not "pretty" to give away and too plenty to toss.  The skins are ruined from the bugs making them tough to eat and the reddest brightest are pecked by the birds.  What to do, what to do.  Spaghetti sauce, that's what to do.  No, they are not the best tomatoes for sauce but with enough cook time and a slight alteration to standard recipes, I am confident this will work.   Many recipes were consulted but done were actually followed.  In a large dutch oven, one small diced white onion and two diced garlic were softened in one tablespoon of olive oil.  Tomatoes (about a gallon bags worth) were washed and quartered and added to pot along with one teaspoon of rosemary, basil, oregano.  Sugar was called for in the majority of recipes but was omitted as sweet tomato sauces are gross.  Salt and pepper were added and the sauce was cooked until a thick consistency

Simple dinners, the quest for every blogger, working parent, busy American lifestyle.   Shrimp Canh  was a quick and simple dinner ready in less than an hour with the majority of time being used to clean and devein the shrimp. Modifications Made:  Instructions for this soup were very simple.  Saute an onion, add water/fish sauce/, cook the greens till half the volume, add diced shrimp and ginger.  Quantities were given but were also more of a guideline than actual instructions.  In the tweak notes it said five to six ounces of chicken/pork/fish could substitute shrimp.  Figuring a dozen shrimp were supposed to be equal to the five or six ounces and not enough for three people without additional side dishes, shrimp was increased to a heavy half pound. Scaled for Likability: Good Holy moly! This was the first time I had ever cooked with fish sauce and let me tell you what.  Living half mile from bay waters and surrounded by tidal flats, I have never smelt such fishiness from actual fish

Just when you think you've seen them all a new found direction in a recipe appears.  Something a little off, something a little different, something that just has to be tried to see the results.  Something as simple as a glaze apparently.  Yes, a glaze as in to glaze a ham but in  Mushroom Stir Fry with Peas and Green Onions , glazing mushrooms instead. Modifications Made: I am sure by now you are aware of my strife with Americanized Asian foods and their sweet sauces.  The WHOLE reason this recipe was made was because the author discusses sweet foods and that this recipe was sweet without being "cloying".  Well, with that kind of recommendation and having really only one tablespoon of sugar for the glaze and a quarter cup for the sauce, the sugar was not omitted or altered.  Strange, I know!  Fret not as plenty of other modifications were made.   Glaze: was made using reduced salt chicken stock, one tablespoon of honey, and one tablespoon of soy.  Instructions were for o

I am in love!  It is a sweet love with a kick.  A love that does take a bit of work but rewards are worth the effort.  Spicy Sweet Chili Sauce  is not difficult just step heavy. Modifications Made: Apple cider vinegar replaced rice vinegar in equal amounts, sugar was reduced by two tablespoons, soy sauce was doubled, cayenne pepper was omitted, and sambal oelek was reduced to one and half tablespoons. Scaled for Likability: Great Great, as in can I just eat this from a spoon great?  Great, as in yes, I did eat this from the spoon, and the spatula, and off my fingers when I spilled it pouring from the pot in to the jar.  Great, as in a second batch was made as soon as dinner was done to ensure there was enough for a few weeks.  So long Sriracha, hello Sweet Chili Sauce.  Ok, maybe not as Sriracha is pure heat and this is sweet heat.  My heart has room for two.

Pick your poison: less is more or can't have too much of a good thing.  When cooking, eating, savoring, and splurging on good foods, it is difficult to know where to stand.  There is never enough pumpkin pie and anything other than a 9x9 pan of lemon bars is too much.  Crab rangoons are only served two at a time which is all one needs as they are very rich in flavor and rich in cost.  Egg rolls are the same.  They are not as costly as crab rangoon but only ever come in single or double rolls and ordering five or six for myself makes me seem like a pig.  Six egg rolls and a side of stir fry veggies makes a great meal. Having mastered, yes mastered the potsticker,  Vegetable Egg Rolls  were given a go. Modifications Made: Veggies were cut as thin as possible.  A good egg roll has a nice crunch to the veggies but they are also not raw.  Bean sprouts were added to the list of veggies.  Meat was omitted.  Egg rolls were fried, not baked. Scaled for Likability: Great In wrapping egg roll

Just as Tex-Mex varies depending upon ones location in Texas (North/South/Coastal/Central), gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee varies depending upon the location one is eating in Louisiana.  Well atleast I would think it varies depending upon location as I have never actually eaten in LA.  Just driven though a few times along the coast line. In attempts to educate myself on the differences, it turns out the internet does not agree from one reputable website to another.  Not really caring actual name of the dish, I wanted a dark roux, fish based stew, with shrimp and rice.  Basing only upon the versions eaten in Central Texas, this  Shrimp Etouffee seemed to fit the memories best. Modifications Made:  Cayenne and white pepper were omitted as the teen table counterpart does not care for spicy dishes.  As with all good things, the longer the simmer time the better the results.  Gum-balaya-ffee was simmered for just over an hour before adding shrimp and another 30 once the shrimp were added.

Favorites.  Favorites are stupid as nobody has an absolute favorite of anything.  Especially when people start down the narrow roads of favoritism.  With that my favorite food is Mexican.  My favorite Mexican dish on the other hand will depend on the day, the location, the restaurant, the company, the weather, the sun and moon alignment to each other.  Get my point, right?  How can I compare plain-o-jane-o cheese enchiladas to green chicken enchiladas, simple cheese nachos to nachos grande, or debate corn vs flour tortillas or refried, pinto, or charro beans.  They all have a special place. Having had a debate of homemade flour tortillas to store bought uncooked flour tortillas with my aunt I decided to prove my point that there is nothing better than homemade tortillas.  Nothing.  When looking for my favorite flour tortilla recipe I stumbled across  Flour and Potato Tortillas  and new these had to be made instead.  To eat flour tortillas by themselves seems childish so  Easy Refried B

Hello, my name is Eating Waffles and I have a noodle addiction.  They say the first step to addiction is to admit the addiction. With the addiction acknowledged, the addiction can be lessened.  Ha!   Mixed Pepper Pas ta  was worth failing at the step to addiction recovery. Modifications Made: Halved cherry tomatoes and parsley were omitted making this just a pepper pasta. Scaled for Likability: Great Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but.... I think my picture and pasta was better than the original recipe.  Especially the picture. My is brightly colored and peppery (red, yellow, orange, and black).  Sweet bell peppers spiced by a decent quantity of fresh cracked black pepper surrounded in a buttery garlic noodle.  Simple, easy, delish, and ready in less than 20 minutes.  Perfect.

Growing up there was a local Italian restaurant who served the most amazing simple lemon cookies for dessert. They had other fancy desserts like tiramisu, gelato, and fried ice cream but the local regulars knew to order lemon print cookies. The restaurant has long been closed but forever will remain known for their cookies. Soft Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies  were not the favored cookies of my youth but they are worthy of eating more than once.  With or without the complete covering of icing. Modifications Made:  Lemon zest was not measured.  It was whatever quantities came off two  very large bright yellow lemons.  One half teaspoon of lemon extract was also added as numerous reviews stated they were not lemony enough.  Lemon juice replaced water for icing just as I would have for my T&T lemon bread recipe. Scaled for Likability: Great Nothing made so far in this journey has produced a result so drastically different than the pictures shown in the original recipe.  Cookies pictured w

Yeah, a dinner other than noodles!  Table counterparts were wondering if the noodles were wrapping me into their tentacles and new limiting new dinner ideas. So many noodle options!   With the success of Dragon Noodles and Green Beans and wanting a dinner with meat, Turkey Sriracha Meatballs  were selected tonight.  Still a simple dinner as the rice cooks while the meatballs fry and everything is done in about 30 minutes but it is not noodle and sauce simple dinner. Modifications Made: Other than the decrease of 19oz turkey to 16oz, the recipe was followed as written.   Scaled for Likability: Great Let me get this straight, I am all for the removal of Freedom Units for the ease of Metric Units.  Don't even get me started on dry vs wet weight measurements!  Having a standard just makes sense.  It's not like there is not a standard measurement in place in the REST OF THE WORLD!!!  Literally, the rest of the world.  Nowhere else do freedom units exist.  If it was such a good thin

Help, I am stuck in a rut with new meal choices.  Simple dinners.  After the failure of Renewdled Lo Mein and the success of Dragon Noodles last night, I spent way too much time late last night looking for another new simple noodles recipe.  This one to incorporate the usage of a fresh slice of tomato.   Apparently simple noodles are not what cooks want as they are unappealing to the eye of the camera.  True as that may be, only cooking dishes viewed through the eye of a camera limits ones culinary experiences.  Luckily for me, I found this other cooking blog who on the surface seems more concerned about good, cheap food than Pulitzer pictures.   Sesame Noodles with Wilted Greens and Fried Eggs , whose pictures are astoundingly beautiful by the way, was the winner for dinner tonight! Modifications Made: Noodles and sauce were doubled to a one pound box of whole wheat pasta, spinach was replaced with garden fresh mustard greens, and the egg was fried to hard yolk instead of sunny side

Every meal has its time and place.  From overly complicated and fancy at holidays, a savory and heart warming during the cold winter months, to a simple and quick get to the table.  Today was simple with  Spicy Dragon Noodles  and fresh picked  Green Beans .   Modifications Made: Noodles: Sauce ingredients were scaled to cover a one pound box of thin spaghetti instead of 4 ounces lo mein with exception to the red pepper flakes.  Only a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes were used as this sauce still had sriracha heat, too. Green Beans: Red pepper flakes were reduced from a half teaspoon to quarter as I wanted to enjoy the freshness of the garden grown beans without my mouth being completely on fire. Scaled for Likability: Great Cilantro, was the winning ingredient!  Who knew?  The more Asian recipes read and videos watched, the more I have come to realize cilantro is not just a Mexican ingredient.  Of course, if I am being honest, I like cilantro to begin with and have a tendency to be

First things first.  ReNEWdled Lo Mein is a not a typo but a play on words.  It is the combination of renew noodle lo mein.  Re-NEW-dled. Black is black, white is white.  Don't judge a book by the cover or a recipe by the title.  What you see is what you get.  Those any many more cliches exist for a reason.  But sometimes they are not true.  Not true at all.  Black really is the combination of all colors and white is the lack of color.  This insanely long titled recipe  The 30-Minute Ultimate Spicy Chicken Lo Mein  really took closer to an hour to make and contained very little heat.  Very little heat. Modifications Made: Good grief, the list of veggies in this recipe were over the top.  Just to prepare the veggies would have taken close to thirty minutes, not to include cook time, or mix time.  Not wanting to julienne all the veggies nor wanting to wait an hour to eat, I used veggies already in the fridge ready to go.  The only two items needing chopping was one cup cabbage and on

Way before the lock down was finalized and people went into food hoarding status, this table bought a 20 lb bag of rice.  Why, you ask?  Simply because I was tired of running out of rice.  Some tables eat pasta, others potatoes, others bread.  This table eats rice.  Breakfast rice (bean and cheese and rice tacos), lunch rice (tacos with rice, nachos with rice), dinner (porky rice, chicken and rice, stir fry and rice), and dessert (rice pudding). One cup uncooked rice results in three cups cooked rice.  If served for dinner as a side, cooked rice nets less than a half cup of rice as leftovers.  With so many rice recipes twenty pounds should last about two and half months.  Better get cracking on new rice recipes like  Garlic Butter Rice with Kale . Modifications Made: As to be expected, the cooking instructions were not followed.  Rice was cooked by itself as normal, no changes made.  Rice, water, salt, 15 minutes.  Kale was sauteed in a skillet over low heat with olive oil, butter, sal