Jan
14
I was chatting online a couple weeks back and one of my friends stated that he was eating shapes. I blinked my eyes several times and asked him to repeat himself and he confirmed that he was eating pizza flavored shapes. I told him that I thought this was a very silly thing, indeed, and that he should stop pulling my leg when he continued on to inform me that each shape has a different flavor.
This went on for several minutes with links to images of “biscuits” and wikipedia articles about Arnott’s Shapes when he decided that I must try them.
Because they are baked, the texture resembles that of cardboard. However, the fact that you can actually see the “flavour” attracts me. This doesn’t taste anything like that nasty MSG-hotness laden BBQ flavor we have on potato chips here in the states. Once you get past the cardboard texture, they are actually quite delicious.
I’ll try and save some if anybody local would like to try them.
Jan
01
- 1 can chili con carne with beans
- 1/4 cup diced tomato
- 1/4 cup diced onion
- 2 cups cooked rice
- cumin
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
The purpose of this meal is to learn how to make do with little and at the same time learn how to stretch what you do have. I could have very easily used a whole onion or a whole tomato but when you are running low on produce, it can be a good practice to use them in portions so that you have some left over to flavor other foods with in the future.
Every time I cook chili or beans, I always make sure to have some cooked rice with the meal. This technique will stretch one can of chili into four separate meals that aren’t boring even if simple.
The only preparation, really, for this dish was the effort put into presentation. Warm your chili on the stove, at end of cooking time toss in your diced veggies but save about one fourth of the jalapeno for garnishing purposes. Season rice with your cumin and garlic powder, top with chili, then sour cream followed by jalapeno slices. The technique I used for the jalapenos was to cut at an angle in order to provide more surface area to make it look more pretty.
p.s. Canned chili almost never looks pretty or appetizing unless you are quite familiar with it.
Dec
22
Things have been tough lately and I’m sure most people can agree. For the next few months I will be sharing recipes that depend upon canned goods other items that people receive from the food bank. I’ve known a lot of people that have had to rely on charity from others recently and these are some of the things I have been cooking for friends and family based on the canned goods they receive from food donations.
Here’s a great way to use up all those canned tomatoes you have in your food storage. You’ll need three different types. Fresh produce can be difficult to come across during the winter but with the right spices (if you’ve been stocking your pantry properly) you can make some decent tasting food.
Spaghetti Sauce
- 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 16oz can stewed tomatoes (I got lucky and this one had bell peppers in it)
- 1 16oz can diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (to taste)
- Italian seasoning (most people have this instead of parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme)
- splash of olive oil
- minced onions
- onion powder (to taste)
- garlic powder (I’d normally use garlic but I’ve noticed a lot of households don’t carry it)
- dash of cinnamon
- 1/2 of an apple
All you really need to do is cook your sauce first so that it can stew slowly for a while. This will allow all the flavors to blend. Plan on spending about thirty or more minutes with your sauce.
Start with the crushed tomatoes on a medium heat and then add your spices. After everything has blended for a few minutes go ahead and add your stewed tomatoes. If they are whole, slice them. If they are already sliced, you will still want to cut them in half or quarters.
Do not put in the diced tomatoes or the apples until the very end. If you have baking type apples then you can put them in with the diced tomatoes about10 minutes before you are finished. About the same time you start your noodles.
Most people make the mistake of starting their noodles with everything else. Generally, you will want to save the noodles for last.
I wanted to make some carbonara but I didn’t have any pancetta or Parmesan, so I just tossed the noodles with a couple of raw eggs. Don’t let this scare you. All you need to do is throw the noodles into a bowl with eggs and black pepper immediately after you drain the water. The heat from the noodles will cook the eggs well enough. Once the noodles are in just keep stirring and tossing those noodles.
I know this isn’t anything fancy but many people might like to know how to make spaghetti sauce if they don’t have the pre-made stuff laying around. I served tonight’s dinner with some fried and breaded eggplant with a side of green beans and apple muffins for desert. We just used the Jiffy brand boxed muffin mix. Nothing in this meal was fresh but it should be appropriate for the way most people stock their kitchens.
I took some pictures but I failed at figuring out how to transfer them from the cell phone to the computer. Hopefully your imagination makes it look yummy but that’s hard to do knowing everything came from cans.
May
14
I normally don’t consume pork, but the food co-op always includes about a pound of the stuff whenever I get food from them and my kitchen is quite bare so I made some quick ribs. Those of you who enjoy pork or slow cooked ribs, leave now because I will probably offend you.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound pork ribs, mine didn’t have bones for some reason
- paprika
- salt
- black pepper
- crushed red pepper
- maple syrup
- basil
- onion powder
- 4 oz can of diced chiles
I always salt and pepper my meat for anywhere from five minutes to half-an-hour. It’s a good habit to get into. Tell you why later. After generously covering my ribs with salt and pepper, I dashed in some onion powder and then generously covered each piece with paprika. Covering the meat so that you can’t see the meat anymore, only in spots. Dash a bit of basil and then spread crushed red pepper all over.
After about fifteen minutes, long enough for the oven to pre-heat to 325, I lay the meat in a single layer in my skillet. I don’t have a pan for the oven and I probably won’t buy one for a while. My pots and pans do a fine enough job of it. Before I built a cute little tent out of tinfoil, I soaked each piece in maple syrup. Taking care not to disturb the dry rub, I placed the syrup on each piece carefully. The syrup should be thick enough to not wash off your rub.
Before placing in the oven for an hour, I made sure that I had maybe an 1/8th of an inch to a 1/4 of an inch of water in my pan before closing the aluminum foil tent just barely enough so that steam could escape.
An hour later I tossed in a can of diced chiles, turned the heat up to 375 and then browned the meat for another 12 minutes. This stuff ended up tasting pretty good. I wasn’t disappointed.
I still had some brown rice from the food co-op and it made for a nice filler tossed with a couple drops of liquid smoke and a hint of mustard.
Minimal effort, happy tummy.
Mar
03
A delicious recipe that I used for the Awkward Hour cooking special last Saturday. Delicious!
- 5 lbs chicken breasts with bones and skin
- 1 c flour
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 c buttermilk
- dash hot sauce
- 4 c cornflakes, crushed
- salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread salt and pepper over the chicken and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. You can use this time to prepare other food or conversely feed the cat, put gel in your hair, etc.
If your cat is properly fed then add some more salt and pepper to the buttermilk in a large bowl. Chop the rosemary. Fresh rosemary is the best, but at $3.00 for a little pack you either need to grow your own, you can even use that hydroponics set up from your failed weed-growing venture, or get dried. Dried works as long as it’s fresh. So, add the rosemary and hot sauce to the buttermilk and put the chicken in there and let it soak 20-30 minutes.
Feed the cat again or maybe reorganize your stamp collection.
Okay. This part requires three semi-large bowls. If you don’t have bowls Tupperware works. If you don’t have Tupperware, consult your nearest Tupperware party.
Drain the buttermilk into a bowl. Put the flour and cornflakes in bowls as well. Coat the chicken in the flour, then the buttermilk and finally roll it in the cornflakes.
FInally place your chicken on baking sheets and bake for about 45 minutes or until there is no pink left. It’s really good! Try it!
Jan
08
I am at work and munching on one of the most ghetto creations I have ever eaten. I didn’t have anything to pack for lunch today, so on my way out the door I grabbed my last package of ramen. I figured that some empty carbs would hold me over until I could get back home.
Upon opening my package of ramen I noticed that it had already been torn open and the flavor packet was missing. Oh joy. I’ll eat most anything but I love to have some variety and flavor. What can I do to make this taste better? Please do not read further if you are offended by bums and hobos because that is exactly what is going to happen next.
Looking across the cubicle hall I can see a carl’s jr bag and a taco bell bag that are getting ready to go into the garbage. I remembered that my co-worker had jalapenos from the night before that he didn’t use on his burger. These would help the ramen taste better. Especially with that unused taco bell sauce packet in the bottom of the taco bell bag.
I’ve eaten ramen without flavor packets before and I usually eat it raw. Well, not quite raw and dry. I eat it how I like to call ‘medium-rare’. I accomplish this by splitting the brick in half and passing both halves under some water. Then I shake out the excess water and sprinkle the flavor packet. When I don’t have the flavor packet, some leftover pepper packets from Wendy’s are always floating around the office that really make the ramen not all that bad. The one thing that you must have on hand in an office environment is salt. I happened to have my own which I use on eggs and potatoes that I occasionally bring to work on which to snack.
I prepared my ramen medium rare like I always do. Sprinkled a generous helping of salt and pepper. Then I stretched the one and only one taco bell sauce packet across both halves, topping each with several jalapenos. My lunch wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed it and so did my taste buds and my stomach. Mission accomplished.
