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Showing posts from August, 2020

Simple Pinto Beans

Beans. Should be such an easy thing to accomplish. Dry beans, flavorings, water or broth, cook till soft. Every time I see a post for beans I want to attempt them.  But I don't. It's so sad to see all that time and energy in wasted beans tossed to the compost bin.  Until last week, I've ignored my desire to cook beans. Stumbling across Frijoles de la Olla  I found myself unwilling to ignore the urge to make them.  Besides the recipe was from one of my most favorite food sources and it's host is from my great state.  I am hosting his native food does not fail me today. Modifications Made: The recipe consisted of six ingredients, three of which were given options.  I chose quarter cup onion, one bay leaf, one tablespoon of dry cilantro, three garlic cloves, one bag pinto beans, and one tablespoon salt.  Everything was added to the pot asking with water and beans were cooked until tender.  Water and salt was added as needed. Scaled for Likability: Great Thank you to Rick M

Roasted Corn Cob

If you read the internet, nothing says summer like grilled corn on the cob.  Where I'm from roasted corn is a year round thing starting with the rodeo in February, to the different monthly food festivals held during the months of April, June, and October, ending with fall sporting events.  Add in holidays, summer weekends, and any BBQ or picnic, fresh harvested corn on the cob roasted slowly in it's own husks and tightly wrapped in aluminum foil on the BBQ pit is most certainly not a summer food. Depending upon where you grew up this "summer" favorite may or may be wrapped in foil. Foil doesn't really affect the flavor unless you are the few who prefer the charred treated on your corn like yours truly. Foil just makes for a less messy meal as roasted corn cobs are eaten straight from the cob while standing with butter dropping down your face, your arms, the husks onto your shoes and spicy seasoning stinging sunburnt and wind chapped lips.  Yum. Grilled Corn on the

Easy Stir Fry Sauce

The quest for easy and sticky but not too sweet stir fry seems never ending. With exception to sesame seeds all ingredients for  Easy Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry were on hand and containing only five steps, this easy stir fry seemed to good to be true. Modifications Made: Switched olive for peanut oil and beef for chicken.  Half cup of pre-shredded carrots and green onions were added. Sauce was doubled. Sesame seeds were omitted. Scaled for Likability: Great I think I might have found the perfect simple stir fry sauce: three parts soy, two parts oyster, to one part sugar. Since the sauce was doubled and I did not want to double the sugar in fear of making the sauce too sweet, I settled on three tablespoons of soy, two tablespoons of oyster, and a teaspoon of sugar along with half cup of low salt chicken broth. In the skillet the stir fry looked like it was drowning in sauce but when spooned over a heaping mound of rice it was the perfect mixture. Not too sweet, not too salty, and just t

Egg with Bacon Tacos

Tacos! Have I mentioned this table's love for tacos? Breakfast tacos, lunch tacos, dinner tacos. With or without meat.   Corn/flour/spinach/corn flour/and occasionally grain tortillas. The only tacos not partaken in are dessert tacos.  The thing about tacos is wording. The same two ingredients can produce two different tacos depending upon what was started first.  Potato & Egg: fried potatoes in scrambled egg Egg & Potatoes: scrambled egg with fried potatoes on top Bacon & Egg: bacon bits in scrambled egg Egg & Bacon: scrambled egg with a bacon strip on top The local taco joint offers both types of bacon. Bit tacos have a soft texture. Strip tacos maintain their crunch.  Bit tacos are cheaper than strip tacos. If strip bacon tacos are desired they are made at home. Especially since two bacon strip tacos with cheese are even better than one. Seriously, are you seeing this taco? The only thing missing that is available from the local taco joint that was not on this ta

Avocado Pasta Salad

The table counterpart found a picture of a recipe that sounded good for these hot, hot days.  Only after finding the actual website the recipe came from did it come to light the pasta dressing was avocado base.  Guess the title should have gave it away: Vegan Avocado Pasta Salad Oh well, I was giving it a go anyways.  Modifications Made:  Sauce: dijon mustard replaced horseradish, dill was omitted, lime juice and finely diced white onion were added. Salad: one can of chickpeas were used instead of three cups, and red onion and cherry tomatoes were omitted. Scaled for Likability: Good  Made hours before dinner was served the salad had ample time to meld in flavor and become thoroughly cold. Veggie combinations offered both crunch and chew along with fiber and protein making it filling.  Leftovers were served the next day with a small piece of pork chop and while the flavor was still good the pasta was already becoming runny meaning this salad would not make a great picnic dish unless s

Soy Vanilla Pudding

For those of you out there with a milk intolerance or choose to not drink it for whatever reason, hats off to you. I love all things milk: milk, ice cream, sherbet, cheeses of every flavor except blue, yogurt, pudding (vanilla, chocolate, bread), tapioca, waffles, oatmeal, alfredo, etc... In fact the only time I don't like milk in the dead heat of the summer.  It's just too hot.  Nothing says yummy like curdled milk in your stomach.  Therefore in the summer milk is limited and soy milk replaces cows milk. Soy is not milk but in waffles, cookies, smoothies its not noticeable anyways. Wanting to branch out and wanting something sweet for dessert, Vanilla Pudding (with Silk Vanilla Soymilk) was attempted. Never having made pudding before this was a whole new experience with a large learning curve to be expected.  Modifications Made:  Recipe followed as instructed.  Scaled for Likability: Fail Pudding are a rich, sweet dairy based dessert. Puddings can be spooned with its shape re

Extra Tangy Tofu

Several months ago Sesame Garlic Tofu was made. It was the first time ever anybody at this table had eaten tofu. Other than taking way, way too long to cook, the dish was tasty. Since then tofu recipes have been searched out and read on extensively. Apparently there is a great debate as to how to cook tofu to ensure its crispy texture. Oven baked vs skillet fried.  Skillet fried then debates one step further, cornstarch dusted or plain.  Always appreciating one less ingredient or step in a meal a non cornstarch recipe was sought.   Vegan Sticky Lemon Tofu   was just the ticket.  Modifications Made:  Extra firm tofu was pressed in paper towels until towels no longer soaked up moisture. Taking close to two hours to achieve very dry tofu, the tofu remained in the fridge during this process. Once dry, tofu was cut into 1" cubes and skillet fried in olive oil on two sides. Lemon sauce was made in a saucepan not a wok. Agave was replaced with 1 tablespoon of white sugar. Chicken broth r

Totchos

A few months ago I saw a banner at a Sonic Drive-In stating "now serving Totchos". Up until last weeks failed attempt at tater tots, I had forgotten all about Totchos. I'm not sure what Sonic's Totchos taste like but what I can tell you is mine were better! Modifications Made:  According to Sonics website, Totchos are "crispy, golden tots layered with creamy cheese sauce, crispy bacon pieces, diced onions, and spicy jalapenos topped with zesty baja sauce." My totchos were Mexican in flare. Tater tots deep fried, covered in taco meat and shredded cheese, topped with sour cream and guacamole (not shown). Scaled for Likability: Great  As stated numerous times before its a good thing I despise frying foods otherwise Totchos would become a T&T meal. Served with lettuce and corn on the side, Totchos would be equally as great having been served over a bed of salad.. Totchos Salad with fresh chunks of avocado and sweet corn topped with spicy cilantro ranch dress

Sticky Somba Noodles

With this here pandemic going on, one never knows what the grocery store will or will not have. In looking for fish sauce for last week's ZXXX I discovered organic soba noodles. Never having seen them before i immediately tossed them the cart. Now over a week later the perfect recipe had been found.  Sesame Soba Noodles . Modifications Made:  Sesame seeds were omitted and Sriracha was added. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You  This might be the very first Asian inspired meal unlike by all table members. There have been other Asian meals where one member or the other didn't care for it but never all three.  Loving the Asian vinaigrette, the dislike came with noodles themselves. The flavor was bold, texture was bold, and the noodles were super sticky.  Sticky lcky. Would like to try this same vinaigrette on egg noodles in the future as it was simple and different from standard lo mein sauce.  And maybe add some veggies as this dish was boring to look at unless one likes to eat

Hawaiian Kabobs

It's too hot. Too hot to cook, to hot to think, to hot to think about cooking. Especially inside. When the weather gets this brutal cooking outside is the best option. Grill cooking doesn't get the house hot, doesn't require lots pots and pan clean up, and doesn't take long from meal prep to table. For example tonights ten Hawaiian Teriyaki Chicken Skewers took less than hour. That included starting the grill with wood, cutting veggies and chicken, marinade time, skewer prep, and cook time for both skewers and the side of rice. Nice and easy. Modifications Made: Did I mention it's too hot to cook? Well it is. It is too hot to cook marinade sauce, therefore, all ingredients were tossed into a microwavable bowl and cooked and stirred until a nice consistency.  Mushrooms were added and green bell pepper was omitted. To sauce, all veggies were added to cool down the sauce before chicken was added.  Mixture allowed to marinate while fire finished getting ready.  Scaled

Guacamole Bacon Pork Burgers

Many months ago, an Avocado Bacon Burkey Turger  was made in attempts to recreate my local fast food joints Avocado Bacon Burger.  While my burkey turger was good it was not the local fast food joint.  At the end of last year Apple Pork Burgers were made resulting in a new found love of pork meat burger patties.  Wanting a burger with all the good stuff (bacon, cheese, avocado, lettuce) but needing a new recipe I combined the pork meat from the apple burger with the avocado and bacon from the burkey turger. Modifications Made: Thinking the avocado would be less messy if slightly smashed and wanting the taste of onion without fresh onion slices, a simple guacamole was made.  One fork smashed avocado mixed with with a shake of onion powder, a splash of lime juice, a sprinkle of salt, and a spoonful of canned jalapeno juice. Scaled for Likability: Great Avocado! Bacon! Burger!  What can I say, I love burgers!

Spicy Chicken and Rice

Needing a braces friendly dinner as the teen table counterpart is still yammering on and on and on about tender teeth, Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps with white rice seemed like the perfect meal. Best of all, no additional ingredients were needed and it was 30 minutes or less meal. Modifications Made: Brown sugar was left out as the past two Asian dishes were just too sweet to eat. Since the meal was ground chicken tossed in a sauce, removing sugar was not an option and adding extra soy sauce was not option either as the dish would be too salty. Better to add sugar as an after sauce in the form of sweet Thai chili sauce than toss the whole meal out. Scallions were replaced with 5 sticks of green onions, both the white and green parts. The cooking order was also changed. Chicken meat was browned with no additional oil, onions and sauce were added along with 1/2 cup of water. Meat then cooked in sauce until water evaporated on low heat. During the simmering of the meat one cup of white ric

BBQ Black Eyed Peas

Homemade stock is the best. Be it chicken, fish, or beef.  Chicken, of course, is the easiest and quickest, followed by fish. Beef is not difficult but take hours and hours to develop its true rich flavor. Never once have I seen pork stock at the grocery store nor a recipe calling for it.  But why not? There are recipes where having a savory pork stock would be fabulous. Like black eye peas for example. Having peas in the pantry and a leftover BBQ wild pork leg in the fridge, I decided to make my own pork BBQ pork stock. Ingredients: Leftover pork leg with some meat attached  1 large onion, diced 1 bg dried black eyed peas Salt, pepper Instructions:  Use a stock pot large enough to accommodate the entire bag of beans, their needed water, and the pork leg itself with room to spare. No sense in crowding. In stock pot, add diced onions, pork leg, and salt to taste. Cover with water and simmer until marrow is soft enough to come out of the bone center.  Add beans and pepper and test for sa

Dairy Free Chard and Sausage Pasta

  Sometimes when a recipe is found, I immediately know it will be a winner.  Fusilli with Spicy Sausage and Swiss Chard  was one of those recipes. Modifications Made: Two links of sweet and three links of regular italian sausage were used instead of spicy sausage.  One small onion, cut in half, then finely sliced into long thin slivers was cooked until soft in remaining sausage grease along with three teaspoons of minced garlic and one teaspoon of red pepper flakes.  Frozen chard and one cup of reduced salt beef broth was added to onions and garlic mixture along with returned sausage crumbles and.  Mixture was cooked until chard was soft and tender adding water as necessary.  Al dente cooked noodles were added, seasoning was adjusted, and noodles finished cooking in mixture.  Feta , oregano, and parsley were omitted. Scaled for Likability: Great Oh, this recipe would have been wonderful with feta crumbled atop. The saltiness of the feta to accent the sweet chard and sweet sausage.  If

Apple Waffles

Can you believe it has been almost two months since waffles were made? Two months! Not that there hasn't been attempts, it is just that life gets in the way sometimes.  You know, best laid plans and all that.  In fact I have had Oladi (Russian Kefir Apple Pancakes) on the menu for three weeks. Why haven't they been cooked, you ask? Mostly it goes back to what was stated yesterday, it is too hot to cook, too hot to eat. And waffles/pancakes about as hot as it gets. With freakish cool winds for the past two days, I decided to take the plunge and make waffles for dessert. If I could just get through making them, eating outside in the cool gentle breeze would be worth the effort. SPOILER ALERT: it was!  Modifications Made: Per the instructions, kefir was substituted with yogurt and milk. Specifically 5 ounces of Silk Almond Soy Yogurt and 1٪ milk to make up the difference.  To add a hint of texture and to reduce the amount of boring ap flour, 1/2 cup of oatmeal flour replaced 1/2

Chickpea Salad with Tuna

It's so bloody hot. Hot winds, hot sun, hot humidity. It's too hot to cook, too hot to eat.  "Cold" dinners are always salads, cereal, sandwiches.  Just making these in the hot, hot kitchen cause sweat to bead up.  Days like this need a dinner prepared first thing in the am and ready by dinner..  something refreshing, cool.  What better way to cool off than with a nice cold Mediterranean Tuna Salad . Modifications Made: Albacore tuna is a trend in food because it's healthier than regular tuna. It's also more expensive, dry, and lacking in flavor. Instead of plain albacore tuna, the recipe was split. One can albacore, one can regular. Not three cans, but two and both in water not oil.  Red onion was omitted nor was it replaced with any other onion. Parsley was omitted. Grapeseed oil replaced olive oil. Only 1/2 of lemon and lemon zest were used. One cucumber is vague as cucumbers are all different sizes. The current cuc in use was over 16" long. It didn

Swiss Chard with Sweet Onion

The last of the swiss chard for the season had been picked.  Texas summer heat, soil drainage issues, and lack of rain for too many weeks to count has finally killed the swiss chard. Oh don't get me wrong, the plant looks beautiful and alive first thing in the morning. By the time noon rolls around, the leaves have shriveled. But the time four pm bears down, the entire plant has wilted over and is literally laying on the ground.  To commiserate its final bounty, the last meal had to be special.   Caramelized Onion & Swiss Chard  seemed like a fitting farewell.  Modifications Made: After the swiss chard is wilted, the dish is removed from the heat and allowed to rest without further caramelization of onions. Scaled for Likeness: Good  Caramelized onions take more time than the recipe states is needed for the whole meal, resulting in a dark brown toasty coloring, and would not have paired well with the swiss chard.  Onions instead were cooked until very translucent and soft befor

Blandness Burger Steak and Gravy

One my most favorite meals at school was the hamburger steak with gravy and taters, served with green beans and a roll. Hamburger Steak & Onion Gravy  seemed like a fancier version of school lunches. Modifications Made: Fresh garlic replaced powder and 1/2 bunch of mushrooms were sauteed alongside the onions. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You The meat was tender and moist, the mushrooms and onions offered the perfect sweet offset to the salty gravy.  If only the meal could have been rated at that.  But alas the gravy was runny and anemic.  Having read and re-read the instructions, there was a clear and definitie missing step in the flour gravy department.  They only way to achieve such a dark gravy was to make a dark roux.  This cannot be achieved with onions and mushrooms still in the skillet.  Gravy aside, the meat was tasteless, plain, and too thick.  Thinner patties would have helped create a better gravy infused flavor but the meat should have had double the seasonings.

BBQ Pulled Pork & Gravy

There is nothing more wasteful than leftovers gone bad.  How to turn leftovers into new meals is the goal.  Being I despise leftovers, for the most part, this is always a troubling concern.  One of my tricks is to freeze meat products straight away.  Once in the freeze, there is time to plan and scheme.  Like this BBQ Pulled Pork and Gravy. Ingredients: BBQ wild pork leg meat, cut in large chunks Store bought pork gravy from powdered mix Instructions: Follow powdered pork gravy mix instructions.  Once made, add bite size pork meat and dilute gravy with one cup extra water.  Cook pork meat in gravy until warm adding extra water as needed. Scaled for Likability: Good When cooking the meat in the gravy my only concern was the outside of the meat containing the BBQ crust would turn the gravy into a BBQ flavor.  To eliminate this too BBQ flavor, most of the dark crust was removed.  It was a good plan. The gravy had a hint of smoke, the meat was very moist and tender, and when served over ex

OJ Stir Fry

Most stir fry recipes are easy to make, easy to modify, and are all basically the same. Veggies/meat in a sauce comprised of soy (full salt, reduced salt, tamari), sugar (white, brown, honey), ginger, garlic, and cornstarch. There are some additional variations to the sauce such as sesame oil, chilis, oyster sauce, chicken broth, hoisin sauce, etc... Basically the same.  Until  Easy Beef Stir Fry recipe was found that is. Modifications Made: Regular soy replaced reduce salt soy and brown sugar was reduced from two tablespoons to just two. Scaled for Likability: Great The addition of orange juice was a great subtle flavor.  When making again, orange juice was would replace all the water and the brown sugar would be omitted all together.  If sauce was doubled, this would be great as lo mein, too.

Wild Pork Carnitas

Wild pig can be difficult to cook as it tends to be dry and depending upon the age of the pig very tough. Not wanting to waste a young pig,  Slow Cooked Wild Pork Carnitas  sounded like the perfect fit. Modifications Made: Only the shoulder of the piglet was used instead of three pounds of various pig parts.  Only itemed omitted was the half can of beer and instead a cup of beef broth was added instead.  The shoulder was cooked in a crockpot on low until falling off bone.  Meat was shredded and returned to pot until juices were cooked down.  To create the dry edge associated with carnitas, the pork was added to a searing hot cast iron skillet and moved very little until juices were dried and meat crisped on the edges.  Butter was omitted as the meat was seared in a fine layer of bacon fat. Scaled for Likability: Great Cooking wild game, especially pork with citrus helps to overcome gamey taste while tenderizing the meat at the same time.  Once cooked, topping carnitas with additional l

Tater Tot Scramble

Tater tots are a take out wonder. Oh sure, even school lunch plate all across America has tater tots at least once a week but they are baked and while good, they are not fried wonders.  I haven't had a school lunch in a two dozen years and I can't remember the last time I ate at a restaurant where tots where served instead of french fries.  Having made burgers the other day with enough for leftovers, I decided to attempt my hand at tater tots.  They must be good as they are popular in the frozen food isle.  If I can fry up decent fries, then I should be able to fry up a tot.  Right? Modifications Made: None. Instructions were followed to the letter: 375 degrees, straight from the freezer not room temperature, pan not too crowded, gently swirl to keep from sticking to bottom of pan, fried 3-5 minutes until crispy. Scaled for Likeness: Good As it turns out, frying tater tots is not so easy. Well not so easy for me, anyways. They tasted fabulously but looked like chicken crumbles,

Too Saucy Honey Garlic Stir Fry

Stir fry meals are the best. They are perfect use for odds and ends veggies, leftover veggies, or just one/two veggies. Have been making stir fry for years, I have pretty much settled on my T&T sauce.  But just because I have a T&T stir fry doesn't mean new recipes aren't tried such as Honey Garlic Chicken Stir Fry Modifications Made: Whisk together minced garlic, chicken broth, honey, soy sauce, and cornstarch, set aside.  Cook the chicken, set aside.  If you cook the veggies first, they will get cold and potentially soggy when reheating later. Cook veggies, add meat and sauce and heat thoroughly. Scaled for Likeness: Good Great potential to perfect at a later date.  Simple in ingredients, the sauce was flavorful without being too sweet or salty.  What the sauce needed was to be cooked by itself to cook down the broth before adding back the chicken and veggies.  A shot of sriracha would have been great, too.

Pork Burgers

That's it.  I am done with this here stupid pandemic.  It is not the wearing of the mask, the stress of the unknown, or the lack of groceries (still) at the store that has wore me down.  It is the inability to go get a decent meal.  What I wouldn't give for a local fast food joint burger right now.  Ugh.   What is worse, there is not a single pound of beef burger in the freezer.  There is ground chicken, ground pork, ground turkey, various chicken and pork sausages which could be taken out of the casing for simple ground meat but there is not one package of ground beef.  How can I fulfill my burger craving without beef.  Good thing I have meat and can just swap beef with pork or turkey or chicken.  Pork burgers on the pit.  Yum. Modifications Made: Ground pork was made the same way as Homemade Burger Patties  were made. Scaled for Likability: Good Poor pork burgers.  What you were lacking was beef flavor.  Were you juicy?  Yes.  Were you tasty?  Yes.  Would you be made again? Y

Chicken Fajita Quesadilla

Quesadillas are great.  Simply they are pan fried flour tortillas filled with various cheeses.  Extravagantly they are cheese and meat filled flour tortillas browned to a crisp perfection topped with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, salsa, served with a side of beans to dip them into. A couple of months ago, I scored big with the table counterparts with the invention of Steak Quesadilla  for lunch.  Using leftover thinly sliced steak with mixed cheeses inside of a spinach tortilla was quick and easy and delicious.  Today I was hoping for the same pleasurable experience for dinner but with leftover chicken fajita. Scaled for Likability: Great The key to success with any meat filled quesadilla is to finely chop the meat.  Huge bites are hard to cook around, the cheese falls out onto the griddle, and the tortilla cooks unevenly.  Spinach tortillas would have worked well with this quesadilla as it did with the Steak Quesadilla, however, I am baised and love spinach tortillas.  What I

Yard Bird Tetrazzini

Not in my recollection have I ever made Chicken Tetrazzini . Still on the kick of using up pantry staples, only sour cream and cream of mushroom sauce was purchased as the chicken was farm raised free range birds. Modifications Made: Yard bird was boiled in heavily seasoned with onion, garlic, salt and pepper until falling off bone.  Chicken was removed and stock reduced.  Recipe was halved, regular noodles replaced linguine, cream of chicken was omitted due to halved stated and heavily seasoned chicken broth.  Salt was omitted as chicken stock and cream of mushroom soups were plenty salty.  Chicken, soup, broth, and other ingredients were allowed to cook the entire time the pasta cooked to allow flavors to meld together and hopefully help tenderize the yard bird. Once nice and creamy, the noodles and cheese were added and mixed until smooth.  Baking in a oven was omitted. Scaled for Likability: Good Not really a cream of anything soup fan, however, there were enough ingredients to mel

It's Not Spaghetti Sauce

Maybe in other parts of the world there are sauces for spaghetti that are not red, green, or white and they are good. Here at this uncultured table, spaghetti is red, and alfredo and pesto are noodle sauces. Nothing more, nothing less. Romesco sauce had two ingredients no red, green, or white sauce has ever included: roasted red pepper and almonds. Modifications Made: Parsley was omitted Scaled for Likability: Fail My dinner looked just like the pictures!  I couldn't wait to try something so vastly different, something so full of healthy foods, something new and exciting.  Wrong.  It was not love at first bite, nor second bite, and by the third bite the chickens were dancing on their toes for the blessing of manna from heaven: pasta.  Oh, how these crazy chickens love their carbs. Omission of the parsley nor the taste were the cause for the complete failure of this dish.  Failure was due to one simple but important element: texture.  Eating this sauce with its crunchy almond piece

The Last Meal

Tomorrow the teen table counterpart gets braces. To commiserate this monumental time, dinner was all things not allowed or difficult to eat when having braces.  Nothing was "new" but dinner did have corn on the cob which has not been cooked in this house for over three years and crunchy corn chips (you know the kind that get stuck between the wire and teeth).  We also had a new brand of ice cream (don't worry Blue Bell you will always be my favorite) that was loaded with nuts, sticky caramel, and bits of toffee. Have to admit, the ice cream was (almost to very) good. It was a fabulous meal!

Upcycled Jambalaya

As mentioned yesterday, last night's dinner of Vegetarian Jambalaya made a mountain of food. With enough leftovers remaining for an entire meal, I decided to upcycle the jambalaya into something more along the lines of what we are used to seeing and eating: shrimp and lumps of crab meat.  Unfortunately, crab meat could not be found at the store. Modifications Made: While leftovers where reheated in the microwave with a cup of water added to loosen up the contents, one pound of fresh Gulf shrimp were peeled, deveined, diced into bite size chunks, and boiled until done.  To enhance the flavors of the jambalaya, shrimp were boiled in just enough water to cover all shrimp and the water was heavily seasoned with Tony Chachere's Original seasoning.  So much seasoning, the water was red. Scaled for Likeness: Good Say NO to tomato paste.  What was manageable yesterday was overwhelming today.  It was not as though the dish tasted like spaghetti or anything, it just further away fr

Tomatoey Jambalaya

Taking stock of pantry supplies it has been decided this week is clean out the fridge/freezer/pantry week.  Meals are going to have to be creative and require little supplies from the grocery store.  First recipe up to bat was Vegetarian Jambalaya where the picture did not match the ingredients list.  Like did not match at all! Knowing then there were going to be issues with this recipe, pantry dinner #1 was already interesting and it was not even tasted yet. Modifications Made: Not basing the picture to the ingredients list, this meal was cooked based upon experience and gut feeling.  With exception to the tomato paste, all ingredients seemed a likely combination in proportional measurements.  Therefore only method of cooking was modified, not quantities.  However, vegetarian meat substitute was replaced with four links of Eckrich smoked sausage because that's what was in the freezer. Onion, celery, and bell peppers were cooked until al dente.  Canned tomato, tomato past

Cabbage and Carrot Stir Fry

It is final, red cabbage is not for stir fry, lo mein, or slaw.  At this point, I do not foresee another red cabbage being bought.  This decision has been forthcoming as this statement is not new.  Previous statements are mentioned in  ReNEWedled Lo Mein , It Ain't Popeye's Chicken Sandwich  and Red Rocket Salad just to name a few select posts. But now it is has been established after this yet again failed attempt in Cabbage and Carrot Stir Fry.   Modifications Made: Using Easy Garlic Lo Mein as the base recipe, vegetables were switched for red cabbage and carrots but all other steps were the same. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You Why was it not a failed recipe.  Well because it was edible.  It wasn't too salty to eat, or too tough to chew, or anything worth tossing to the chicken.  It simply wasn't for this table.