how many of you guys cook??? - Page 8

It's also for cutting down the largest tree in the forest. The same amount of salmon is 4x or more the price, and no better, since the canning process pretty much ruins the good natural flavors (sticking w/ US, Canada, and N. Europe for sources; wild only).

Most carnivorous small fish offer good nutrition and minimal pollutants. Canned is a convenient way to get some extra flavor and nutrients in, without cost or time being a major factor. It's not something to ever, ever, ever, be used for guests .

I cook; at least I try. I like to try really complex fancy recipes - last one I tried was a Bobby Flay recipe croissant french toast stuffed with grilled peaches. I actually got to flambe the syrup - that was fun but a LOT hotter than I thought it would be.

But I almost never get to cook. My wife says she CAN'T STAND the mess I make in the kitchen!!!

The pre-bake is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. By the way, love the avatar; I grew up with Springer Spaniels (would have one now but my other half is allergic to dogs).

I'm a pretty good cook...

I made Japanese Style Deep Fried Shrimp for dinner Friday night.. I butterflied mine and they turned out to be some of the best I've ever tasted.

I am not big on cooking at all. I don't like finding all the ingredients, the preparation time, nor the cleanup. I learned some stuff growing up but I swear I cooked more as a kid than as an adult. The past few years I rarely bothered with anything that wasn't packaged and came with instructions, the few times I bothered to cook. Microwaveable meals have been my mainstay along with cheap restaurants and fast food.

But I am starting to try to cook a little more often especially this past month. I've simply grown bored of eating the same stuff over and over again, and I seriously doubt that what I've been eating is all that good for me. The sodium content alone I know is insane. Eating out is also quite expensive and while microwave meals can be cheap, they add up too. I'm just kind of winging it and making up stuff, but the few things I've made so far have turned out decently.

Made that salmon agrodolce again last night

Im no pro photographer or chef but it was good =)

Here's today's attempt at something:



It's chicken with some sort of spicy salsa that I just threw together. Turned out pretty well, although I put a tad bit too much red pepper in the salsa.

Homemade pizza with cracker whole wheat crust, EVOO, minced garlic, diced red onions, fresh mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and green peppers, herbed turkey breast, crumbled bacon, italian herbs, four stong hard italian cheeses, fresh spinach and mozarella. Pretty much your basic food groups. Oh, yeah, glass of pinot grigio. B*tchin'.

I made steak tacos tonight. Slapped some chili rub on a ribeye, grilled it to medium, sliced it up and served it on grilled tortillas with avacado, red onion, and cilantro, with a squeeze of lime and some home made salsa.

Tater Tot Hotdish, long a school cafeteria favorite, is basically browned ground beef seasoned with S&P topped with condensed cream of mushroom soup under tater tots and yellow cheddar, baked and browned. This can be improved.



Here some nearly finished browned ground chuck and lamb seasoned with seasalt and fresh cracked black pepper, garlic, italian herbs, cumin, sweet Hungarian paprika and worchestershire sauce await draining. On deck are chopped homegrown tomatoes, homegrown green and red pepper, chopped white onion, chopped celery (including tops). and fresh sliced mushrooms. Whenever I get the celery/green pepper/onions together, I feel a little like the Big Guy and the other end of the Old Muddy.



'Ello, 'ello, what's this? A different kind of pepper? Sweet? Spicey? Yes. Chop it up; throw it in.



Sauteed green and red peppers, onion, garlic, celery, and mushrooms now meet up with the fresh homegrown chopped beefsteak tomatoes to cook and reduce. The Lodge porcelain coated three quart caserole was essentially the only pot.



The assembled hotdish (previously cooked meat and vegetables topped with one can of Campbell's Healthy Choice Cream of Mushroom Soup (A/K/A mushroom white sauce in-a-can) under thawed onion seasoned Tater Tots topped with shredded mozarella, cheddar, and monterey jack cheese). Seasoned asparagas toasted bread crumbs and toasted pinon nuts. The glass of Moo is for SWMBO.



The served plate. Plenty of Heinz 57. Glass of cab. Yum, yum, yum!

I'm not a pro, but I can cook. Some damn fine food pics in this thread, by the way!

Whole wheat pasta with homegrown yellow and red cherry tomatoes and bacon sauce and homegrown marinated cucumber salad.



Homegrown vine ripened yellow and red cherry tomatoes roasted with EVOO, sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper, flaked red pepper and balsamic vinegar get cozy here with fresh homegrown basil, thyme and flatleaf Italian parsley.



Here minced garlic sauteed in EVOO with fresh chopped white onion, fresh sliced mushrooms, homegrown green and red pepper, crumbled bacon, and pinon nuts relax in the pan.



Adding the roasted tomatoes and their pan juices to the hot tub to get cozy and reduce after dropping the whole wheat pasta.



Fresh homegrown burpless cucumber marinated with dill in the Svensk style. And with apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper in the decidedly non-Svensk style.



Here the whole wheat spaghetti has been united with the roasted cherry tomato sauce and some good hard Italian flavor cheeses.



The served plate. Roasted homegrown yellow and red cherry tomatoes with whole wheat pasta. Glass of cab. The candle is lit. The spaniels are drooling. SWMBO is impressed in spite of herself. Magnifico!