Cooking Triumphs!

[Setsunaela]

I am the goddess of pasta! haha!

Ok maybe not the goddess.. but certainly not the failure I was last week.

a few days ago, I made a homemade, 100 percent from scratch spaghetti meat sauce, with mushrooms, onions, fresh garlic, and herbs. My husband, who is notoriously picky about meat sauce, loved it, and had thirds!

Tonight, I made a white sauce, with chicken broth, milk, flour, butter, onions, garlic, herbs, and parmesan (so i guess it could be called an alfredo?) and it's the first time ever that I've not lumped it all up!

I guess I'm just proud of my cooking accomplishments and wanted to share.
I'd love to hear y'alls stories of feeling ridiculously accomplished over a meal.

[Eric the Grey]

I bought myself a Wok last week and made stir-fry for the first time.

Granted, I used a bottled stir-fry sauce and followed the recipe, sorta (I used different vegi's but that's all) and it came out pretty good.

Next week, I'm going to do another one for the wife and hopefully impress her. I want to try home made fried rice too, but she can't eat that, so it'll have to be something I make for myself to take to work.

On the failure side, Don't make soup with broccoli heads in them. It tastes all right, but the fluffy part of the head holds in the hot broth, making it hard to eat.



Eric the Grey

[ArcticChicken]

I was very pleased with my Chai infused whipped cream

[lupo pazzesco]

Tonight, I made a white sauce, with chicken broth, milk, flour, butter, onions, garlic, herbs, and parmesan (so i guess it could be called an alfredo?) and it's the first time ever that I've not lumped it all up!

I guess I'm just proud of my cooking accomplishments and wanted to share.
I'd love to hear y'alls stories of feeling ridiculously accomplished over a meal.

Er, technically an alfredo is butter, cream, garlic, and parmesan. Though your sauce sounds yummy...and far less artery clogging! I think it's more along the line of a bechamel.

<Quashes the inner Italian>

Ahem. Biggest accomplishment for me to date is ravioli. Everything from scratch. Pasta, sauce, filling, etc. >.< Never again, I tells ya!! It's hell when you don't have an actual pasta machine.

ETA:

I was very pleased with my Chai infused whipped cream

WANTS!!!!!

[Setsunaela]

Er, technically an alfredo is butter, cream, garlic, and parmesan. Though your sauce sounds yummy...and far less artery clogging! I think it's more along the line of a bechamel.

<Quashes the inner Italian>

inner Italian me away! Hubby constantly fusses that what he eats around here isn't Italian enough... One of these days I'm gonna grab me a gen-yoo-wine Italian and force them to teach me a recipe, and he's going to die of shock at dinnertime

also we're sort of on diets, so less artery clogging is awesome.. and it was incredibly yummy ^_^ I followed a recipe I got online, but when it was finished, it was almost the consistency of that cake frosting you get in the plastic tub at the store so I put my mom's famous gravy-making skills to use and thinned that baby out! ^_^

[Jester]

I have had a few triumphs (in addition to a few dismal failures as well).

Probably one of my biggest was my chili, which I have made all of once, and my friends still ask about. It was a triumph because I came up with the recipe in my head, then looked up some ideas on chili, incorporated this, that, and the other, but stuck to my original concept, then made it.....and of everything I have ever made, nothing has ever come closer in final execution to my original concept as my chili did. It was pretty much exactly what I wanted and envisioned, and I look forward to doing it again. (Sadly, my notes from making it are rather....sketchy, so I am going to have to redo it all over again.)

My Famous German Stew is a triumph, though that took time and many incarnations to become one of my friends' favorite dishes that I make, though they don't see it often, as it takes two days of commitment on my part to make. (One hour of prep and marination the first day, four hours of slow cooking the second.) It is a triumph because it freakin' rocks, but also because it was the first recipe I ever made up in my head that was not simply another recipe modified. It truly was born from my creativity and tinkering, and actually does have secret ingredients that I will NOT divulge.

Also my Crianza Salad was a great triumph for me. It got me my first of two cookoff wins (I also have one second and three thirds), and it was, as the German stew, born from scratch in my head. It is basically a salad with a wine-and-garlic-sauteed portabello mushroom cap on it, with a homemade red wine vinaigrette (same wine as the mushroom is sauteed in), plus bleu cheese crumbles, jicama, and homemade bacon bits. It rocks.

And one last triumph I must mention is my stir fry. Not because it is all that creative, necessarily (though it does have at least a couple unique touches), but because the first time I ever made it, I did so without looking up any recipes or even having seen how it is made. I basically came up with the recipe in my head as I was driving down the Keys from somewhere I had been. Later, after making it (and thinking I nailed it), I DID look up a stir fry recipe, and discovered that I had missed only one basic ingredient: ground ginger. All in all, that is pretty impressive Asian cookery for a Jewish guy from the desert, wouldn't you say?

[ArcticChicken]

WANTS!!!!!

Steep chai teabags in whipping cream over low heat until it is a suitable shade of chai. Cool, whip.

Goes especially well with candied ginger and honey over vanilla ice cream.

I'm going to experiment with other teas as soon as I get enough room in my freezer for my ice cream maker and can make interesting flavours of ice cream.

[AccountingDrone]

I am the goddess of pasta! haha!

Ok maybe not the goddess.. but certainly not the failure I was last week.

a few days ago, I made a homemade, 100 percent from scratch spaghetti meat sauce, with mushrooms, onions, fresh garlic, and herbs. My husband, who is notoriously picky about meat sauce, loved it, and had thirds!

Tonight, I made a white sauce, with chicken broth, milk, flour, butter, onions, garlic, herbs, and parmesan (so i guess it could be called an alfredo?) and it's the first time ever that I've not lumped it all up!

I guess I'm just proud of my cooking accomplishments and wanted to share.
I'd love to hear y'alls stories of feeling ridiculously accomplished over a meal.

Well, if you are in america =)

To make Alfredo in the traditional Italian way, cook noodles as you would normally while grating a copious amount of fresh Parmesan. Drain the noodles, and toss butter into the warm pan. Once the noodles have thoroughly drained, put them back into the pan and toss with the butter to coat. Next, add the grated Parmesan, and more butter. Toss again before serving, cracking generous amounts of salt and pepper on top.

It really is better, light and not as glorpy. heavy white sauces make me feel bloated because of how glorpy they are. With the proper home made noodles, just the light coating of butter and the best parm that you can get [or try asiago for a switch] and freshly cracked black pepper .... /drool

You are just *killing* delicate home made pasta with glorpy nasty cream sauces. Try it the original way once and you will see =)

I bought myself a Wok last week and made stir-fry for the first time.

Granted, I used a bottled stir-fry sauce and followed the recipe, sorta (I used different vegi's but that's all) and it came out pretty good.

Next week, I'm going to do another one for the wife and hopefully impress her. I want to try home made fried rice too, but she can't eat that, so it'll have to be something I make for myself to take to work.

On the failure side, Don't make soup with broccoli heads in them. It tastes all right, but the fluffy part of the head holds in the hot broth, making it hard to eat.



Eric the Grey

If you can find a chinese or korean grocery, try and score a bottle of bulgogi sauce and try that next time ... especially with a beef stir fry. We like beef, baby bok choy, napa cabbage, bamboo shoots and green onion as a stirfry.

Now I am getting hungry =( and the duck wont be cooked for another 2 hours=(

Steep chai teabags in whipping cream over low heat until it is a suitable shade of chai. Cool, whip.

Goes especially well with candied ginger and honey over vanilla ice cream.

I'm going to experiment with other teas as soon as I get enough room in my freezer for my ice cream maker and can make interesting flavours of ice cream.

that might be good with a honey vanilla ice cream, and warm red bean paste and garnished with Penzeys.com 's fine diced candied ginger

Or even make a swirl out of honey/candied ginger vanilla ice cream and red bean paste, and top with the chai cream?

[ta2ooed1]

I'm not as fancy, creative or adventurous as some of you but last night I had a successful grillout for the bf's folks (first time since I moved in ) in a steady downpour! Amazing how much a patio umbrella can cover when you put it over the grill instead of the table And I'm happy to report that as soon as she tasted it the notoriously picky little sis of the bf demanded her mom get the recipe of my cheesy potatoes. Mmmm GOOD Brauts, Hot metts and big beefy burgers!

[Noo_Noo]

Tonight, I made a white sauce, with chicken broth, milk, flour, butter, onions, garlic, herbs, and parmesan (so i guess it could be called an alfredo?) and it's the first time ever that I've not lumped it all up!

Making a good white sauce is all down to technique and practise. The thing I found that makes it all smooth is just starting off with oil and flour miked together, heating that up until it boils then adding milk whilst beating the hell out of it with a whisk, before adding the other ingredients as it thickens.
You'll get better at it the more you do it, trust me, and as you do, you'll find more and more inventive things to add to it. I found that tinned tuna, Dill, salmon and parmesan over pasta was particularly delicious indeed

[sms001]

To make Alfredo in the traditional Italian way, ....It really is better, light and not as glorpy.

Fett Alfredo is always my touchstone for any new Italian place. So simple, but so easy to get wrong wrong wrong. When it comes as you describe, I'll give them a chance at the red sauce dishes. When the Parm Pudding comes out instead - I don't go back



Props out to ya Setsunaela - glad you're having a good kitchen run. Is the hubby a northern or southern Italian fare fan? Guessing from the meat sauce, southern, but you might want to look at the whole cuisine if you're delving into "less artery clogging."

[AnaKhouri]

I made strawberry mochi and coconut mochi. I was shocked how easy it was! But now every surface in the kitchen (and me) is covered with rice flour.

[lupo pazzesco]

Mochi....

<droooooooools>

mochi!!!