The Requested Amateur Food Porn Entry

Jan 08, 2006 18:24

I can cook now.

It was a goal of mine to learn over the summer, because I learned an obvious but painful lesson during my asshole stepfather’s time here - if you can’t cook for yourself, you are never guaranteed a good meal. Further, it was his perverse way to torture me by making burnt chicken and baked potatoes every night of the week for two years.

I’ve been cooking so much that it’s come the point that my mom is handing all cooking responsibilities over to me. She has cooked once since this break started, which was a night I went out with friends. She cooked a poached egg on toast for her and my grandma because they didn’t know what else to do.

When I mention I cooked dinner or the like, people have asked, “What can you cook?” or “What all have you cooked?” Uh. Lots of stuff. So, I decided to make a food porn entry in my journal so interested parties can see the food I’ve made. It would have been more, but we’ve had to repeat some of these dishes they were so good.





Boiled then broiled lobster tail, twice baked potatoes, and salad. I made this for Christmas Eve dinner. It was quite good.



The twice baked sweet potato I made for my grandma. It ended up being delicious and not overly sweet or candied even with the marshmallow topping. We’re going to make these at Thanksgiving next year instead of a pan of the usual sweet potato casserole.



Crème brulee for dessert that night. Playing with fire is the best part of making this. Absolutely delicious.





This pizza was amazing. The dough was the best I’ve ever tasted. You didn’t even need toppings the dough was so good. And yes, I kneaded it by hand and baked it on a stone. My grandma loathes pizza and she was going for thirds on this. I made the pepperoni for myself and the green pepper and mushrooms for my mom and grandma. I couldn’t get this out of my head for days. The only negative is that it wasn’t good cold the next day.



Carmelized pear with blue cheese. A fancy dessert, at least in appearance, but I ended up overcooking these. I blame the huge cast iron skillet I was using. This one came out the best and it was all right, but this could have been a whole lot better.



Seared cod with spicy mussel aioli. Probably not the best thing I’ve made recently, but it was good. It needs improvement, but has a lot of potential. I know where I definitely went wrong and that was using inferior ingredients in the aioli. It definitely comes off as a gourmet meal when you see in person. The picture is really bad. The red slab over it is a roasted red pepper, if you were curious.



Chicken marsala. This is a old school family favorite. We stuff it with asiago cheese and thicken the wine sauce with cream.



Grilled lamb, parsnips, baked potato, and squash casserole. Not a whole lot to say about it, besides it’s tasty.



Red curry chicken with Japanese eggplants and brown jasmine rice. This was damn spicy and damn good. My grandma was crying after the second bite, but she couldn’t stop eating it. I have not had sinus problems since this meal. I’m not a fan of the brown jasmine rice. Everybody else loved it, but it just didn’t have the light sweetness the white seems to have.



General Tso’s chicken. He may have been ruthless in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, but his chicken is delicious. One of my favorite meals.



Pad Thai. This was amazing. I didn’t think my mom would like it all that much, but she’s not shut up about it since I’ve made it. We’ve had it three times now. This is on par with any restaurant’s version. I need more Thai food.



Broccoli beef. I made this for Erika because it’s her favorite and my mom won’t buy flank steak. I think it’s the best broccoli beef I’ve eaten. I still miss Hunan, though. I really miss their Chengtu steak - which I can’t find a recipe for. I think it’s a Hunan original. I want to track down the guy that owned Hunan - who shall be known as Mr. Hunan - and demand him fork over that recipe. Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

If I win big moneys in the lottery, which is now possible, one of my first acts would be to reopen Hunan.



Erika made the fried rice for the above dinner, but I thought I might as well feature it. It was pretty tasty.

So that’s all the food for now.

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