Not dead!

I'm not dead! Lots of stuff has happened between my last post and this one, an update should go up within the next week... School and whatnot...

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio w/ Shrimp

I saw this recipe on food network the other day, and it looked really good. I made it last night following the recipe on foodnetwork.com, while changing it slightly.

I boiled a pound of spaghetti for approximately 5 minutes, after salting the water liberally. Meanwhile, I heated about 1/3 cup of olive oil over medium heat in a 12 inch stainless steel saute pan, while I peeled 8 cloves of garlic, and sliced them all thinly. By then the spaghetti was done, so I took about 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water, and put it off to the side. when that was done, I poured the spaghetti into a colander and turned my attention back to the sauce. The garlic was golden around the edges by that point, so I then added red pepper flake, and after about 30 seconds, poured in the water. At this point I also added in salt and the shrimp, and let it boil for about 5 minutes. While I was waiting for the sauce to finish, I grated a cup of fresh parmesean cheese, and another cup for garnish. once the sauce had reduced by 1/3, I added it to the drained spaghetti, which, by this point, I had returned to its pot. I stirred in the cheese, and served. I garnished with the extra parmesean, and ate.

This turned out REALLY good... Almost the whole pot was gone by the end of dinner.

Would I recommend this recipe? Yes, most definitely, if you like cheesy, shrimpy, slightly spicy food.

Pizza

Twas just a pizza night, from a new place that we have never tried before... It was ok.

Guy Fieri Tri-Tip Roast w/ Macaroni and Cheese

Again, sorry for being late with this one, if only by a day.

Last night was another "What's in the fridge" night. So we had picked up a Tri-Tip roast from Costco the other day, and last night finally got around to cooking it.

I tried cooking it per the directions on the bag, by using a grill pan, but that didn't cook the interior, so after about 25 minutes, I put it in a 350F oven, for about 20 minutes. 

While I was waiting around for the roast to cook, I made some Kirkland Macaroni and Cheese, per the box's directions. I didn't have milk, however, so I just used Half and Half.

After pulling the roast out of the oven, I let it rest for a couple of minutes, and then I cut it into thin slices, against the grain.

After which, I plated with the Mac and Cheese, and served.

Frankly, the Mac and Cheese was better than the roast. The roast was kinda meh; it didn't really have very much flavor to it, even tho it came in a bag of some sort of "marinade" type substance.

Would I get the roast again? No.

Pot Roast w/ Mashed Potatoes and Corn

... I have no excuse for this going up TWO DAYS LATE. Sorry.

This was a "no-inspiration-whats-in-the-fridge-oh-that-looks-good-what-would-go-well-with-that" night. We had a pot roast, and some instant mashed potatoes.

Just before the pot roast and potatoes were done, I realized that I needed a veggie, so I pulled out a small pot, and filled it with some frozen corn. After the corn was cooked through, I added a pat of butter.

I then plated all of the ingredients, and there were some dripping from the pot roast, so I used those as a loose gravy for the potatoes.

Dinner turned out pretty good, for one of those nights.

Aw feck!

It's far too late too post dinner. I'll do it tomorrow >_<

Costco Breaded Tilapia w/ Mixed Veggies

Oh my goodness, why did I wait so long to post this... It's so late >_< 

Anyway, I made breaded tilapia with frozen mixed veggies. I baked the tilapia at 400F for approximately 16 minutes, after which I took it out, and waited for the veggies to finish cooking.

 While the tilapia was cooking, I mixed together some mayonaise, prepared horseradish, ketchup, siracha, and a lot of pickle relish.

 With about 8 minutes left for the tilapia, I threw together some frozen corn, frozen green beans, and some leftover diced tomatoes. I let that cook on high heat until it had heated through.

After everything was cooked, I plated up the veggies, tilapia, and the sauce.

All in all, dinner was pretty good, except the beans weren't cooked properly... They were too crunchy...

Oh right, yeah.

 Nothing too fancy tonight... Just some rice, and something called Moog Choley... Donno what that is, but it was pretty good...

So first of all, I made 2 cups of plain, long grain, white rice according to the Good Eats Formula.

Next, I cut open the package, and poured the contents into a skillet, placed on (eventually) medium high, until it was heated through.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the plated dish, but trust me, it may not have looked very appetizing, but it tasted fine to me!

Hmm...

I'm not sure what I'm going to make tonight...

UPDATE: Couldn't get any inspiration tonight, just ordered out for mexican...

Fried Chicken Cutlets w/ Tomato Basil Siracha Sauce

My goodness! A post going up on the RIGHT day! But yeah, my idea worked splendidly! Pictures will follow later...

So first I defrosted 3 frozen chicken breasts in the microwave. They... kinda... startedcookingbeforetheydefrosted. Now before you throw a fit, they turned out fine.

I took the defrosted breasts and split them lengthwise approximately down the middle. I then wrapped the breasts in paper towel, and smashed them flat with a heavy sauté pan.

I then dredged them in flour mixed with black pepper, salt and cayenne. I then beat one egg in a wide, flat bowl, and poured some matzoh meal into a plate. With my breading station ready, I started the process of dipping the chicken in the beaten egg, and then dropping each piece, individually, into the meal, covering each piece until no more meal stuck to the chicken.

 After flattening the chicken, I put the pan over medium heat, until I was done breading. Once the breading was done, I then added vegetable oil, and started frying the cutlets. After each side had browned to my liking , I took the piece out, and put another in. I wound up having to add more oil to the pan, since the first batch of chicken soaked up all of the oil.

Once the chicken was done, I moved the pieces to a plate to wait for me to make a sauce. My sauce wound up being a can of tomato sauce, with some basil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of Siracha.

After the sauce was done, it was time to plate, and I wound up putting a little sauce under the cutlet and then some more on top.

After making a quick salad of bagged greens, tomatoes, half of a cucumber, half of an avocado, and some of the Kens Italian for dressing, I grated some parmesean on top of the sauce and the cutlet, and dinner was ready.

 For something that I had thought up, like, not even 3 hours previous, this turned out REALLY GOOD. The only complaint with the sauce was that it was a bit too spicy... But I mean, if you are actually reading this for recipes  one, what fresh hell hast thou imposed upon thyself, and two, I may have made it this way, myself, but you will be cooking, so change it as you wish!

Swordfish

I can't believe I forgot to update last night... Anyway, here we go!

I had made swordfish with steamed broccoli and sharp cheddar bechamel sauce.

 Here is the swordfish; the left piece doesn't have the "marinade" on it while the right piece has some on already. I was gonna take a picture before I put any marinade on, and after I put it on, but I derped... The marinade was nothing more than some Ken's Italian dressing, which I coated both pieces of fish in liberally...

 Here's the beginnings of the bechamel sauce. This is right after I added the flour to the margarine, and as you can see, at this point I was using a spatula, but I soon moved to a whisk...I just made a basic Bechamel Sauce.

 This is after the sauce thickened up considerably, and after I added pepper and salt. hence the specks.I hadn't added in any of the cheese or the cayenne yet.

 This is the finished sauce, cheese and all. After I took this picture, I took a piece of parchment paper and placed it over the top so that it wouldn't develop a skin. I don't know of anybody who likes "pudding skin", which would be essentially what this would be, but savory and cheesy...

 Broccoli, of course, being steamed. I wound up getting two heads of broccoli, and steaming them both... It worked out ok, but 3 would have been too much for one steamer...

 This is the swordfish in the oven, and you can see all of the marinade running all over the pan, but that's ok. Temperature wise, I over cooked it, but the texture was fine... I wound up cooking it for about, 20 minutes at 350F.

Now what you have all be waiting for! The finished dish! IMHO, the sauce seemed a bit too thick for this, but this was the first time I have made Bechamel, and I used margarine, instead of butter... Tasted a lot better than it looks, but I undersalted the sauce... Other than that, it was really good!

Again, sorry about me forgetting about this last night, but hey, what can I do now, right? I have another idea for tonight's dinner, and hopefully THIS time I will remember to post it the night that I make it!

Oops

Just realized I didn't update last night... Will do it after class... I actually have pictures of cooking this time!

Wat

Just put up the last post, and for some reason, blogger decided to completely derp, and lose(?) my blog? Wat?

Food.

Well, my idea of writing every couple of days didn't really go anywhere, huh? Well, I have another idea! I post pictures of every dinner I make. MAKE! Not takeout or resturaunt food, food I made at home, by myself or with others, completely homemade or nearly completely store-bought (e.g. rotisserie chicken casserole w/ Costco chicken). To start off with, tonight I made a dry aged steak, steak fries, and peas with carrots.

































Truth be told, the steak could have been aged longer, as I only aged it 2 days, but it still was pretty good! Grilled it over charcoal, so it got a little bit of smoke, but most of the flavor came from just some salt, and pepper... The steak fries, of course, were bought at the supermarket, and the peas were just some IQF peas with some cut up carrots.

Hopefully I can actually stick to this sort of idea for more than one post in a row... Also, if there is a real recipie, I may put that up, or a link to the original with my changes after the link...

Hello World!

Hello World!

That's what I would say if I were a computer... BUT I'M NOT! Awesomesauce!

Anyway, this is really just a test post, just to see how this works, and since it's like 1AM right now... :P

Unlike other attempts (mostly failed) to write and update a blog (which is hard for me :P), I will try to post on here at least once every couple of days... I mean, other than school, and looking for another job, what else am I doing, right?

Just to let you know, if you are reading this, that I may mess around with some of the templates, but most likely, I won't customize the blog too much...

Anyway, time for me to finish watching Food Wishes, and go to bed! Bye!