45-8

Mirepoix, butter and herbs.

Potatoes added

Starting to look like soup!

Chicken with herbs.

Cutting up the tortillas.

Toasting up the tortillas.

Looking even more soup like with rice.

The boy helped stir, that is his hand.

Roasted corn and shrimp.

Cooked chicken.

Shredded chicken is that only way to go when you are dealing with the soup, chicken combo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final meal.

I would just like to state that this was a total free-form soup, I had the general idea but when it can to execution I just kind of winged it. 
and it payed off. My friends you are looking at my second meal that ranks a 10 on the boy's Nom scale. I think that this 10 is more earned too. I mean filet mignon with hand cut fries is an easy 10, but this? This is earned. 

I apologize for not having the obligatory ingredients photo. The whole point of "winging it" is to just figure it out as you go along, so if I knew what would end up in there then I an defeated before I even start. Right? Right.Well I can tell you that there is cumin, chili powder, red chili flakes, seasoned salt, and one packet of onion soup mix in this bad boy. There is also shrimp, roasted corn, rice, flour, butter, hot water, 2 russet potatoes, mirepoix, and 'Herbes de Provence', which are a mixture of dried herbs I bought from a specialty store on Newbury Street last week. The amounts are a mystery, I just mixed them in until they tasted good. The cumin, chili powder and red chili flakes definitely added some heat, but it was a slow burn type of heat that really complimented the sweetness of the roasted corn. The toasted tortillas were really great too, they added a great crunchy texture with out over powering the flavor. We had a ton left over too, and that is after he had two bowls and I had a bowl and a half.

Homemade soup is such an easy thing to make and is so satisfying to eat. This one was rather thick but it wasn't quite a chowder so we nicknamed it stoup (the baby of stew and soup). He told me that I could make this again for him anytime, and I just might. I don't thin any batch of stoup will be like the other. Too much stuff to play with :) Next week... Something different but I don't know what yet!

Ahhh! How is it Wednesday?

I am sorry everyone. The Monday holiday completely threw off my schedule and I didn't notice until about 8pm last night that I had not made my usual Tuesday post. Bad me! Well to try and redeem myself I am posting now.

I am planning on making soup tonight. There is no set recipe because I am flying by the seat of my pants on this one. I bought mirepoix and some chicken breasts and that is about as far as I have gone with it. I think I may try a white chili but I honestly have no clue. Fascinating reading, I know. Things that I know will be in the chili: Mirepoix, potatoes, roasted corn, peas, and chicken for the boy. I do have some rosemary and thyme; I am thinking to roast the chicken breasts with the herbs and chop them up and add them to his at the end. Ooh! I just forgot that I have also bought tortillas and I am planning to cut them up and toast them and add them at the end AND I have rice. So there.

You know that cooking show where the trained chef is a creeper in the supermarket and follows a woman home to make a gourmet meal with stuff she already has in her pantry? (it exists I swear) That would be helpful if it happened to me today. Cross you fingers and wait for pictures tomorrow!

46-7

Ingredients for fries, truly a 3-ingredient recipe.

Potatoes all chopped.



Seasoned and ready to roast.



Green Veggie!!

Filet Mignon.

Pan searing.



Flipped. (please note the ridiculous amount of Mountain Dew Original in the background, there is more on the sun porch...)



Roasted!

Boiled!



Finished birthday meal!!



My meal...

Parchment roasted fish with citrus.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR! (I did not make the cupcake, I bought it, I don't think I could ever make one this delicious)

Due to circumstances beyond my control, dinner on Wednesday didn't happen. Instead I made it all last night, which in a way was better considering that last night was my darling's birthday (in case you didn't get that from the last picture).

I made Filet Mignon with boiled asparagus and oven roasted garlic fries; I made parchment wrapped, citrus herb fish for myself. I was pretty concerned about making the steak to be perfectly honest. I have made steak in our oven before for a group of friends but I had used the broiler for that. I couldn't use the broiler this time because I needed to cook the fries and the fish and with the broiler on I can use the oven part of my stove. So after much looking online I decided that I was going to pan sear the meat and then finish it in the oven. The also proved somewhat daunting considering that I do not own a cast iron skillet, let alone a skillet that I can just toss in the oven. So I jerry-rigged it. I used the non-stick skillet that I do have and while the fries where roasting I put an empty pan in the oven to heat up so that I could just switch the steaks from one pan to another. It worked! Yay! I still want a cast iron skillet though.

This meal garnered me my first 10 of this project. I am very excited about this fact. The savory portion of the meal was a 9.4 and with the addition of the birthday cupcake it jumped to a 10. I don't think that I asked for a one phrase descriptor but he did say "It's Steak!" on a few occasions, so I think I can use that. I did set two of the smoke detectors off, but when you are pan searing steak and you literally have 8 smoke detectors in a 6 room apartment it is tough to not set off a smoke detector. Especially ones that are super sensitive and go off if there it too much steam from the shower, true story.

So next week might be a soup. What kind I have yet to figure out. See you
next week!

(Post Script: I apologize for the oddness of the pictures, the usual camera that I use decided to not recognize its memory card so I had to use the camera on my phone.)

Pre B-Day Eats

Menu for 2/16:

• Steak
• Hand-cut garlic fries
• A green veggie of some sort

Steak:

Bovine meat.

Seriously, it is just cow meat in a slab like form that I will cook to his liking.

Hand-cut garlic fries:

Russet potatoes, fresh garlic, salt & pepper, olive oil.

I found the recipe for these in one of my Real Simple® magazines. The article was titled "3-ingredient recipes for easy summer dinning". Now I know that it isn't the summer but I figured that this particular recipe could be used throughout the whole year and still be good. The idea of a recipe only having 3 ingredients is pretty awesome in my book; just good food and not much frou-frou in the way.

A green veggie of some sort:

I think that this is pretty self-explanatory.

I am currently thinking peas, green beans, or asparagus but I have to go and see what looks good at the market.

47-6

The ingredients

Cooking the "noodles" (a.k.a. spaghetti)

Searing the shrimp

Cooking the veggies

Sauce, shrimp, and veggies all together

Finished meal!

Well here it is! As you can see but the ingredient picture I "cheated" by using frozen veggies and bottled sauce. I don't mind if you think that I am a cheater; the 'cheats' save me time and money and are probably better than I could have made.

The whole meal took me about half an hour to make and was served nice and steamy hot right at quarter past eight. The boy ranked it at an eight (a high eight, but still an eight), saying that the sauce was a bit sweet for his taste. It was, however I did add a little bit of crushed red pepper flakes to add a tad bit of heat, so it wasn't all sweet. In hindsight I could have added some soy sauce to the mix and perhaps if I make this again I will. There were a couple of things that I added that did not get in the pictures; garlic, honey, lime juice, the aforementioned crushed red pepper flakes, and a pinch of red onion. I figured that those flavors would all go with the theme of stir-fry so I added them into the veggies in a "willy-nilly" pattern, and yes that is the technical term. He did enjoy it, I know that for sure. He went back for seconds and would have had more but he was too full. I also gave him chopsticks so it could be just that much more of a challenge. In my opinion it was very yummy and I agree with the eight out of ten ranking.

So I have no clue what I am going to make next week but I do know that is has to be good. Next Wednesday is the day before my darling's birthday! Yup, it has to be great!

Stir-Fry LIKE CRAZY!

Menu for 2/9:

• Stir-fry with shrimp and noodles

Stir-fry:

Shrimp, noodles, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, mixture of veggies.


This Wednesday night dinner will be a product of being short on time and funds. I already have most of the ingredients in my kitchen as I am typing this. Actually, I have all of the ingredients, what I should have said was that I already had most of the ingredients just out of hand. 

I am anticipating and easy night with this one. I don't think I will be getting a snow day (sad), so something quick will be a good thing. Stir-fry is the definition of simple in my world. Get a whole bunch of fresh (or frozen in some cases) stuff, toss in skillet, sear, add sauce. BOOM, done. If you are looking for a better definition of "stuff" I classify it (in this case) as such: Protein, Starch, Vegetables. Rice will not be included in this particular stir-fry because of the noodles. Doubling up on veggies is great, but doubling up on starches... not so much. I may add red chili flakes to it for heat but I am still undecided on that point. He loves the spicy. I have a love hate relationship with it.

Check in on Thursday for the results!

48-5

All of the ingredients

Tomatoes

Beans

Peppers

Mirepoix

Spices

Ready to cook

Grated dark chocolate and cocoa powder

Chocolate and cocoa added

Finished meal.

Well there you have it! Chili with chocolate. It tasted... hmmm, how to describe it? It tastes like, like, chili. Yup that about sums it up; chili. However it smelled like chocolate and the mixture was a very interesting sensory experience.

As for the boy; I think that he loved it. He ranked this meal as a 9 out of 10. He said, "Not what you might expect from the ingredients; it is rich and hearty meal that literally anyone would enjoy." I think that that is a pretty good compliment. That and he went back for seconds; always the mark of an excellent meal. He did mention that if there was meat in the chili it would have been out of this world but as it was it was merely fantastic. Meat could very easily be added to this, just sear up some steak or chicken and toss it in at the end.

The rice worked out a lot better than I thought it would. It really soaked up the chili-ness and made the meal a meal. When the boy went back for seconds there was not more rice so he used a piece of bread, it reminded me of a savory strawberry short cake. We were also left with quite a bit of left overs, so perhaps I will update this post later to tell you how they work out. Come back next week when I will let you know that I am going to cook because right now I have no idea. YAY!



Chocolate for dinner! 2/2

Menu for 2/2:

• Vegetarian Crock-Pot® chili with chocolate

Chili:

Mirepoix, garlic, green pepper, red pepper, black beans, red kidney beans, canned tomatoes with juice, paprika, chili powder, cumin, oregano, sea salt, unsweetened coca powder, 60- 70% dark chocolate.


Yeah, you read right. Chocolate. For dinner. To be fair it isn't that much chocolate and it is mostly low on the sugar ratio. It is also going to be the last thing added to the meal before serving. The point is though, there is going to be chocolate for dinner and I know that you are jealous about it. HA!

I found this recipe on the Internet during a search for delicious veggie recipes that the boy would eat without commenting on the lack of meat. Since the both of us are fans of dark chocolate and chili, this one caught my eye. I think that I may cook some rice to go with it to make it a little more hearty but just keep it off to the side in case it is too much. This recipe also is letting me utilize my lovely little Crock-Pot®. Seriously, whom ever it was at the The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago that thought to themselves "You know what? I want to be able to put a whole lot of stuff in a pot with liquid, cover it, and then let it cook for 8 hours on a low temperature so that I can get a ton of other stuff done and I don't have to worry about the food burning or catching fire.". That person is my hero of the day, perhaps even the week.

Alright, I will check back in on Thursday with the finished product and let you know how it goes. With any luck I will have a snow day tomorrow and be able to monitor the whole process. Thank you to whoever keeps scheduling the snow storms for Wednesdays!