Chimichurri chicken and rice

April 12, 2023 10:17 PM

I wasn't going to make a blog post for this, because I made this during my workday, and I only took one picture, and it's not that great.

But before I made this, I went searching through my old blog posts to see if I had made this before, and I feel like I have, but I must have not blogged about it. And there's a decent chance I'll make this again some time in the next five years or so, and when I do, I know I'm going to look for it in my blog and wonder what I'd do differently. So...

• This was really water-y. Maybe just use 1.25 cups of water next time. I did sprinkle in a little chicken msg, which I think was a good addition
• The chicken was a little dry. I basically had it cooked completely in the beginning, so maybe just throw that in at the end instead of having it sit in the pot while the rice is cooking
• Feta would be great on top!
• I didn't add peas. I'm sure they would be fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way to include them

This was pretty good, and it was a good way to use up a bunch of cilantro that I didn't want to waste.

Cookie in a mug

April 15, 2023 2:35 PM

I've made plenty of cakes in a mug before, but a few weeks ago I saw a video for a chocolate chip cookie in a mug. I love desserts in mugs! And I love chocolate chip cookies! I had to try it. And then I had to try it again. And again. And again.

Hey, I really like making meals for one. I can just keep iterating!

Attempt 1: The first one that I made actually didn't turn out so well. I used one of those Corelle mugs, and I found that it was a little too narrow. After cooking it in the microwave for a minute, it still seemed undercooked. So I cooked it a little longer. It still seemed undercooked, but when I started to eat it, I realized that the middle was way overcooked.

It was also way too sweet. I bought a milk chocolate bar and just crushed that into little pieces, but I definitely should have just gotten a bag of the classic semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Okay, so not great, but I could make adjustments. The video said to use a shorter, wider mug, and I just happened to have this cute little mug as free swag from work.

Attempt 2: Apart from the switch in mug, I also used less sugar. I bought a bag of dark chocolate chips, and I cut the brown sugar down to just a tablespoon.

Just coming out of the microwave, this looked much better. The top wasn't too goopy, and it settled into a nice cookie texture after I let it cool for a few minutes. But the middle was still really hard! I think 60 seconds was a little too long.

The sweetness level was good though, but I think it was a little too chocolate chip-y for me. I still didn't have the semi-sweet chips, and I also think using mini sized chips would have been better. (But I wasn't going to buy another bag of chocolate chips)

Attempt 3: Alright, this time I only cooked it for 50 seconds, and that definitely helped! I also only mixed a single tablespoon of chocolate chips (as opposed to two in my earlier attempts), but I still added a few on top once I had mixed everything together. Much much better cookie to chocolate chip ratio this time. But man, I need a better strategy for not overcooking.

Attempt 4: This time I cooked it for 45 seconds (but I really should have done 40), and then once I let it cool for a couple of minutes, I pulled it out of the mug and put it on a plate. I figured that being in the warm mug just kept cooking it longer, so I wanted to prevent that. I think it helped! And it allowed me to take a slightly different looking picture, which is a plus.

My latest attempt was certainly my best attempt yet, but it was still overcooked in the middle! I think I'll have to try something completely different for my next attempt. Maybe I'll use a much bigger mug.

For now, I'm going to take a break though. This recipe called for an egg yolk, so every time I made it, I accumulated an egg white. By the end of the week, I decided to just cook all the egg white and eat it with rice and some soy sauce. Honestly? It was pretty good. I just really like eggs.

Hummus pasta again

June 11, 2023 5:46 PM

The past two months have been really busy with either me traveling to visit someone, or someone else visiting the area. I haven't really cooked as much, which means I haven't done anything for the food blog.

But I did try making hummus pasta again, and it turned out really well!

This is what I did differently this time:

• I only cooked half a pound of pasta. I actually used higher quality shell pasta this time! It was from Aldi, but it's so fancy that they label it Conchiglie instead of Shells
• I only used half a can of the coconut milk (now what to do with the rest...)
• I used the Taste of Thai brand of coconut milk, which is better than the grocery store brand, but they only had light coconut milk and organic coconut milk! I just wanted regular coconut milk. Maybe next time.

If I had more time in my day, I'd cook a lot more and I'd make the same dish three days in a row, just so I could keep making tweaks to make it better each time.

Scallion noodles again

June 17, 2023 5:00 PM

...and again and again and again. I think I made these noodles at least 7 times.

So the first time I made this, I referenced recipes from Binging with Babish and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, but as I was scrolling through food things (like I always do), I stumbled across another scallion oil noodle recipe, this time from i am a food blog. And it made me realize something. I can just make one serving of this at a time. And then if I wanted to tweak the recipe, I could just make it again the next day! (and the next day, and the next day, and the next day...)

This is what I've settled as my preferred way of preparing these noodles:

• Start boiling a pot of water, and when that's ready, cook about 3 oz of dry noodles. (I was able to find packs in the store with individual sized portions!)
• Meanwhile, cut four scallions into strips, about 2 inches long. Slice the white parts a few more times length-wise.
• Pour enough veggie oil into a pan in order to cover it, and cook the scallions in the oil, until they start to brown and crisp up a little. I just use enough oil to cook them, not to have the scallions swimming in the oil.
• Take the crispy scallions out of the pan and set aside.
• Transfer the cooked noodles directly from the pot into the pan with oil. (No need to frain! I just use chopsticks or tongs for this)
• Pour some sugar, a dash of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and Chinese black vinegar into the noodles, and stir it all around. Taste and add more of whatever I feel like adding.
• Serve the noodles with the crispy scallions on top.

Am I even making scallion oil noodles at this point? Or am I just making some noodles with crispy scallions on top? I don't know, but whatever it is, it's delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these meals I made. But I think now it's time to take a break from this, so I can make other foods.

Garlic shrimp in coconut milk

June 18, 2023 12:42 PM

When I was buying groceries for that hummus pasta, for some reason I bought two pints of grape tomatoes, even though I only needed one for the pasta. And since I only used up half of my can of coconut milk, and I also had two green onions sitting in my fridge, I figured this was a good opportunity to make garlic shrimp in coconut milk and tomatoes.

I've actually made this recipe several times in the past, and I've always really liked it, but I guess I haven't written a single blog post about it. Until now.

So, this recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes, not a pint of grape tomatoes, but I figured this was an okay enough substitution. It also calls for a whole can of coconut milk, not a half one, but the whole point of this is for me to just use up what I have. I really just needed to buy a single bell pepper and some shrimp. Oh and cilantro. I always need cilantro.

I was able to get the bell pepper from Giant Eagle, but when I walked over to the seafood section, I looked at the shrimp, and it was $13.99 a pound! That's insane! And the recipe calls for a pound and a half. I wasn't going to pay $21 for shrimp. Aldi sells shrimp. I'll just get it from there.

Unfortunately, Aldi ended up being out of raw shrimp, and they only had bags of cooked shrimp left. I'm pretty sure I have an old blog post about why I should never buy already cooked shrimp. But I didn't want to walk back to Giant Eagle just for the shrimp, and this bag was only like $7. So I bought it.

Terrible decision. Never never never buy already cooked shrimp. It was way too tough and didn't have enough flavor.

So, I made way too many deviations from the original recipe, and this turned out...not as good as it normally does, but it wasn't terrible! I still ate all the leftovers.