What are you cooking?

[fishorama]

Maybe we should have been more careful in our spousal selections, lol? Bah, sometimes I'm not sure if I don't like something, or if, after almost 50 years, they're really his issues, not mine. I do sometimes get my own choices for lunch or if we go out...but then there's the sharing aspect...I want to try his food, but he often doesn't want to try mine. It feels greedy of me to do that but we're pretty much used to it. I "let" him have leftovers I'm indifferent to, it all works out more or less...but if I have to hear mac'n'cheese" every dinner discussion it gets very old. I like it but not every week! I also don't want to cook lunch & then dinner too. I'm getting lazier in my old age

 

[jaylach]

Maybe we should have been more careful in our spousal selections, lol? Bah, sometimes I'm not sure if I don't like something, or if, after almost 50 years, they're really his issues, not mine. I do sometimes get my own choices for lunch or if we go out...but then there's the sharing aspect...I want to try his food, but he often doesn't want to try mine. It feels greedy of me to do that but we're pretty much used to it. I "let" him have leftovers I'm indifferent to, it all works out more or less...but if I have to hear mac'n'cheese" every dinner discussion it gets very old. I like it but not every week! I also don't want to cook lunch & then dinner too. I'm getting lazier in my old age

Not much I don't like but there are some things...
1) I do not eat body parts that had a job as in organs.
2) I really don't care for coconut.

As to the Asian sirloin tips I was going to have I live alone and can change my mind any time I want. Decided to have an omelette with sausage, red bell pepper, onion, shrooms and cheddar cheese instead.

 

[fishorama]

I guess the nagging does work sometimes We're having mac'n'cheese, the homemade stovetop kind. White sauce, sharp ched, cooked mac. I really prefer some browning on top but not often worth the bother.

I don't cook organ meats & head cheese just looks nasty. As a kid we used to have chicken livers floured & fried in bacon grease with onions once in a very long while. Then deep fried was kind of a fad for take out, both were pretty good. That was after I'd left home, we almost never had restaurant food except on vacations...we were told that's why we could afford vacations. When I raised discus fry once, I did make beefheart mix 1 time but eww! It was pretty gross. It lasted a while in the freezer. My husband & his sibs recall smelling beef liver cooking from blocks away...& trying to be invited to any friend's house for any other dinner.

That made me think of early in our dating, his mother made "hot lettuce". A PA Dutch dish sometimes made w/dandelion greens & ham. Way too sweet & way too sour served on boiled potatoes. Eww! I couldn't even eat much just to be polite. It may have been a dating "test" I failed, lol.

jaylach, not even coconut milk in Thai curries, satay marinade, etc? Macaroon cookies? Mounds candy bars?

I'm sure there are foods I don't like, but after that trip down hot lettuce memory lane nothing else comes close...

 

[gwand]

If you want to kick your Italian meat sauce up a notch blend ground chicken liver with the chopped meat 1:4 ratio. Adds great flavor and richness.

 

[fishorama]

gwand, that made me think of Michigan Coney Island chili dogs. Flint & Jackson style include ground beef heart; Detroit style doesn't. I like both kinds. They also need skin on hot dogs for that "snap", nutmeg, raw onions & mustard. Might be an acquired taste...

Any organ meats in my red sauce would likely lead to divorce. I do a little Worchestershire sauce for depth of flavor. We both pretend it doesn't have any fish taste Really not enough in a big batch to notice.

 

[fishorama]

I finally made spag sauce tonight. We didn't have any tomato paste, so I waited. Our cheap canned crushed tomatoes were "roasted". Pretty good for chili, Spanish rice & red sauce, so far so good. No meatballs this time but we didn't miss them too much. My husband is a pasta lover; if he has a dinner vote it's often mac'n'cheese or spaghetti. Luckily I can call chef's prerogative at any time

 

[fishorama]

Pot roast with extra carrots tonight! I pressure cook, but it still takes a while...

 

[jaylach]

Pot roast with extra carrots tonight! I pressure cook, but it still takes a while...

Personally I think carrots are one of the best parts of a pot roast... Carrots and pearl onions.

 

[fishorama]

Me too jaylach! I had leftovers for brunch & there were still lots of carrots! I might get 2 more meals unless husband wants some too...I hope he knows better by now

Tacos tonight with black beans, always good!

 

[lottabubbles]

I go off on the dark end of cooking sometimes
got up this morn and was in the mood for sausage/egg biscuit. checked and no eggs. put the sausage in the pan and while frying I got back in the fridge and saw the jar of spicy peaches we bought from an outlet called Rural King. cut a slice off the peach half and put it on the sausage in the biscuit.
these peaches are heavy on the clove spice side and it wasn't bad at all. sweet clove, red pepper, sage pork/biscuit.

 

[jaylach]

Me too jaylach! I had leftovers for brunch & there were still lots of carrots! I might get 2 more meals unless husband wants some too...I hope he knows better by now

Tacos tonight with black beans, always good!

Except for the cabbage I tend to do a pot roast the same as corned beef and cabbage. In both cases I stove top sear and then throw in a slow cooker. Have to have a LOT of carrots in both along with pearl onions. I also like fresh green beans in a pot roast even though popping off the ends and pulling off the little thread along the side of the bean is a pain it is worth it as fresh beans are just different than frozen... I don't do canned veggies. I WILL use frozen whole green beans but not for either of these dishes.

I guess I pretty much do both the same except for the meat. Of course corned beef, being pickled, gives the thing a totally different taste. I also like vinegar on the cabbage and taters when doing corned beef and cabbage. To me the best vinegar for doing this is tarragon vinegar as it just has a unique flavor that goes very well with the pickle aspect flavor of the whole thing. Tarragon vinegar is not available at my local grocery so I just make my own. Actually you just add a few sprigs of fresh tarragon to a bottle of white vinegar. Of course it takes time, not thyme... to steep the tarragon to flavor the vinegar so I usually have two bottles going. One bottle is steeped and usable and the other bottle is steeping for the next need.

Another thing with me and corned beef and cabbage is that I don't really like mushy cabbage so I get a head of green cabbage and quarter. When about 20 minutes away from serving I'll throw in a cabbage quarter. Gives enough cooking time to flavor the cabbage while still keeping a semi crisp texture. When over the corned beef and cabbage rush the remaining cabbage turns inst a slaw base.

Pot roast left overs also make for GREAT French dip sandwiches as left over corned beef makes for awesome Reuben's.

With a pot roast it is often that I'll run out of the carrots and pearl onions before the meat. Here comes beef stew with the addition of a lot more carrots The original carrots and taters I'll puree and add new of both. Mashing up the original veggies just makes fr a good base for the new stew if any are left.

 

[jaylach]

I go off on the dark end of cooking sometimes
got up this morn and was in the mood for sausage/egg biscuit. checked and no eggs. put the sausage in the pan and while frying I got back in the fridge and saw the jar of spicy peaches we bought from an outlet called Rural King. cut a slice off the peach half and put it on the sausage in the biscuit.
these peaches are heavy on the clove spice side and it wasn't bad at all. sweet clove, red pepper, sage pork/biscuit.

Sigh, Peaches.... I LOVE them!!!!! While I like apple pie and/or strudel I'll take peach in either case! Unless you have a LOT of time this works best with canned peach halves. Saute canned peach halves in half and half the canned juice and butter on medium to medium high heat. The butter and syrup mix will become almost like a caramel. This needs to be watched as you want the peach halves to almost turn black on the edges while the rest ends up browned and the caramel aspect is easily burned.. Absolutely awesome as a side for a pork chop or roast. This is really simple to do but demands attention to prevent burning the caramel aspect. I guess you could sort of consider it as candied peaches.

Thinking of candied and either carrots or peaches let's think carrots. This demands close attention as 30 seconds could be the difference between awesome or burnt. You need fresh carrots for this sliced on the diagonal bias. You also want real maple syrup even though the fake stuff will work but not as well. Again it is a 50/50 mix of butter and syrup. Again pay attention as this is done with pretty high heat.

Par boil the carrots just to get heated, not anywhere near soft. Put the butter and maple syrup in a saute pan and melt with medium high heat and add the carrots when the butter/syrup mix just starts to bubble. Crank the heat and do the carrots until the cut edges blacken and seriously char. Blackened edges are awesome but a totally black carrot is not. This is really easy to do but attention is needed.

 

[fishorama]

jaylach,I think what you described is similar to New England boiled dinner of my youth. I haven't had it in many years so I may be off. I "think" it has cabbage & either ham or corned beef. The big thing was whether it has vinegar, turnips & rutabaga or not. Not something we eat these days, I blame my husband, lol. He'll eat rutabaga mashed with potatoes. The only time I've had rutabaga "out" was when we took my F-I-L to Ireland at a truck stop. Cute strips of potato, rutabaga & carrots with ham

 

[Essjay]

Language differences again. I had no idea what rutabaga was so I googled it. It's a swede.

When I was a child my mother cooked carrot and swede and it was my father's job to finely chop them together while my mother finished cooking the rest of the meal.

 

[Fishmanic]

No cooking for me today. I had a store bought chicken stir fry sub sandwich...chicken, peppers, mushroom, onions, cheese and fresh tomatoes...very healthy sub.