Cooking.
I figured I would have some time to clean up in the kitchen while I was cooking this weekend, but instead I ended up cooking a bunch of stuff while cleaning and never really made headway with all the dirty dishes. I cleaned all the dirty dishes and then made new ones. It felt like I was running up and escalator, so I'm not sure if i came out on top. Sigh.
I did make a lot of food.
The first thing I made were braised short ribs. Meh. I mean, braised shortribs are always good, but this recipe called for a lot of fannying about with no obvious benefit. I added a pint of red wine and a pint of port to the ribs, to no clear result. I could have been drinking that pint of port FFS.
Then I made meatloaf. It was great and Carol really liked it, so that's a plus because it has the word Meat in it, so she doesn't enjoy it lightly.
My most recent issue of Fine Cooking has a modular Meatloaf recipe. It tells you the quantities of necessary ingredient types and then gives you lists for what you could use in each of these roles. So you can use the basic framework of the recipe and mix up the ingredients. Anyway, mine was great and wrapped in bacon... but I repeat myself.
Left: meatloaf before cooking. after cooking, it was devoured. Right: Weird-but-good chicken stew.
Today, I made this really weird sounding but delicious chicken stew. The ingredients don't sounds like they'd go well together: mint, vinegar, chicken, oranges... very strange sounding but really really good.
Rub 8 chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
Melt 4oz of butter in a sturdy pot and brown the chicken thighs on both sides (about 5 minutes each side), 4 thighs at a time. Place on a plate.
Add 12oz of pearl onions, 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika and 6 sliced cloves of garlic. Let the onions brown (5 minutes) then add 12oz of mild vinegar - rice, cane or cider.
Scrape the bottom of the pot, bring it to the boil. Reduce to a medium heat and let the vinegar reduce by about half, then add 12oz chicken broth and bring it back to the boil.
Put the chicken back in the pot, skin side up, submerge in the liquid, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
After that, stir in 6oz of spinach leaves, 2 tablespoons of chopped mint leaves and the segments of 4 peeled navel oranges. Then serve, I did it with mashed potatoes.
I did make a lot of food.
The first thing I made were braised short ribs. Meh. I mean, braised shortribs are always good, but this recipe called for a lot of fannying about with no obvious benefit. I added a pint of red wine and a pint of port to the ribs, to no clear result. I could have been drinking that pint of port FFS.
Then I made meatloaf. It was great and Carol really liked it, so that's a plus because it has the word Meat in it, so she doesn't enjoy it lightly.
My most recent issue of Fine Cooking has a modular Meatloaf recipe. It tells you the quantities of necessary ingredient types and then gives you lists for what you could use in each of these roles. So you can use the basic framework of the recipe and mix up the ingredients. Anyway, mine was great and wrapped in bacon... but I repeat myself.
Left: meatloaf before cooking. after cooking, it was devoured. Right: Weird-but-good chicken stew.
Today, I made this really weird sounding but delicious chicken stew. The ingredients don't sounds like they'd go well together: mint, vinegar, chicken, oranges... very strange sounding but really really good.
Rub 8 chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
Melt 4oz of butter in a sturdy pot and brown the chicken thighs on both sides (about 5 minutes each side), 4 thighs at a time. Place on a plate.
Add 12oz of pearl onions, 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika and 6 sliced cloves of garlic. Let the onions brown (5 minutes) then add 12oz of mild vinegar - rice, cane or cider.
Scrape the bottom of the pot, bring it to the boil. Reduce to a medium heat and let the vinegar reduce by about half, then add 12oz chicken broth and bring it back to the boil.
Put the chicken back in the pot, skin side up, submerge in the liquid, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
After that, stir in 6oz of spinach leaves, 2 tablespoons of chopped mint leaves and the segments of 4 peeled navel oranges. Then serve, I did it with mashed potatoes.