Today I Made:

[sardia]

I roasted a whole head of garlic wrapped in foil for an hour. It turned out way better than trying to peel it and then roast. Turned it into delicious garlic parmesan bread with oil and butter.

[Zohar]

Made some challah buns with chocolate and tahini on the weekend (new Smitten Kitchen recipe). Turned out a bit ugly-looking due to using a wrong pan at first and panicking about spacing, but delicious! Could use more tahini I thought, but some of the people having it don't love it so I think they were pleased.

[freezeblade]

Yesterday: Made some Kaiser Rolls to go with brotwurst for dinner, as well as for sandwiches early in the week. Used a poolish of ale yeast as the yeast source, held back a ball of the kaiser roll dough as a pâte fermentée to make pizza dough (Dinner set for tonight is pizza).

Made a batch of infused oil for a friend yesterday as well, there was enough leftover as my portion to make a batch of de-stress brownies, once the current batch runs out. Been contemplating making it a side hustle.

[PAstrychef]

Nice batch of lamb and chorizo chili with hominy. Four medium pans of apple cinnamon bread pudding that went straight into the freezer, since I was just using up extra apples from the holidays and rather a lot of milk. Will probably make more puddings/custards tomorrow.

[Moo]

Made Eisbein last night for dinner with my parents with mashed potato and (store bought) sauerkraut and pickled red cabbage. I thought the (smoked) hocks were a bit salty and I would've liked the skin much crispier, but the reviews were good and there was hardly any food left - and there was a LOT of food.

The resulting stock from the slowcooker is nice too, might see what uses I could come up with for it. Pea soup is not really weather-appropriate right now and also no one in my house actually eats it.

[Zohar]

Made a really nice pesto last night for dinner. Om nom nom!

[Zohar]

Continuing the pasta theme, I made mac and cheese yesterday, added green chiles, acorn squash, onion, carrot, broccoli. It's basically a salad at that point, right?

[Liri]

Continuing the pasta theme, I made mac and cheese yesterday, added green chiles, acorn squash, onion, carrot, broccoli. It's basically a salad at that point, right?

You can file that under the 'casserole' umbrella.

Pesto is heaven. How do you make yours?

[Moo]

Last night my friend (who also eats low carb) came for dinner. I made pesto-baked chicken portions, buttered baby corn, lemon-butter asparagus and roasted baby potatoes for the carb eaters. Dessert was a sort of tiramisu/trifle hybrid - I moistened some low carb chocolate cake in individual bowls with strong sweetened coffee, then topped it with chantilly cream, shaved dark chocolate and sort-of-candied pecan pieces.

Yum.

[Zohar]

Pesto is heaven. How do you make yours?

I have no idea what the proportions are. I took a bunch of fresh basil, lightly toasted pine nuts, some garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Then I just adjust quantities until it's liquid enough and delicious enough.

[Liri]

Pesto is heaven. How do you make yours?

I have no idea what the proportions are. I took a bunch of fresh basil, lightly toasted pine nuts, some garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Then I just adjust quantities until it's liquid enough and delicious enough.

I can't argue with that.

(I prefer walnuts though. Less expensive and I think has a heartier flavor.)

[Zohar]

I definitely prefer pine nuts' flavor, but they do hurt your pocket more.

[freezeblade]

Have either of you tried to make pesto with pistachios instead of pine nuts? I've found they work really well, and are closer in flavor to pine nuts than walnuts.

[Liri]

Have either of you tried to make pesto with pistachios instead of pine nuts? I've found they work really well, and are closer in flavor to pine nuts than walnuts.

I've used almonds (my mom developed a walnut allergy) and I honestly couldn't taste much difference.

Pistachios would be fun though, I might try them. Totally tangential, but I've made a delicious mango + cardamom cheesecake with a pistachio crust a few times and it is really something.

[PAstrychef]

I made some potato-leek galettes with a pistachio crust a while back-they were tasty.
Today I have beef mushroom barley soup in the instant pot. When that’s done I’m doing a pork tenderloin in apple cider, and sautéed apple and onion rings and a roasted cauliflower. And herbed spaetzle.

[Bakemaster]

Do you bother to sear in the instant pot for recipes like that (beef soup)? The booklet likes to instruct me to sear but it's just so awkward in the pot. It does seem to do a decent job where there is contact with the bottom but it comes out so patchy and takes all that extra time when what I want is to set and forget.

[PAstrychef]

Asctually, I do brown things in the pot. I don’t find it much of a bother, but I’m not aiming for perfectly even color on every piece, just some fond to improve the flavors.
And the soup was very nice. I put off the rest of that menu when I couldn’t find the gallon of cider I thought was in the fridge.

[Zohar]

Made a giant pot of Japanese curry rice. I used S&B Golden Medium Hot, added some cayenne, and the veggies were onions, celery, carrots, potato, sweet potato, with some edamame and tofu for a bit of extra protein. Added some cayenne to spice things up a bit more, and this time I tried adding some bitter chocolate and ketchup, per online recommendations. It turned out well! Not very sweet, but still a bit deeper of a flavor.

[cephalopod9]

turns out you also can't make a ganache with coconut milk*, and candy melts. It was weirdly translucent for a while before it cooled down, and stayed goo, sort of between laundry detergent, and nutella. It might be something interesting to add to a cake in the future, but I needed frosting. I also made 2 cakes that I entered into the Arizona state fair competition.

Coconut milk can be used for crepes though. I tried making some chocolate coconut crepes, but the over all flavor was pretty mild. the consistency was a little different, and I should have bloomed the cocoa powder.

I still have at leasst half a can of coconut milk.

*I think I was thinking of a recipe that called for melted chocolate and coconut oil

[freezeblade]

Re: coconut milk in baking

coconut milk subs in for regular milk in a basic sweet dough like a champ! Makes for awesome little sweet rolls, with shredded coconut inside, or even rolled around a touch of dark chocolate.

[Sandry]

I just did a banana bread with coconut oil instead of butter (and almond milk instead of milk) last night.

Worked out okay, but texture could be better - needed more rise in the loaf, though the muffins turned out okay.

...I was trying to figure out how to describe what I meant and the term "form factor" came to mind. I don't think that actually works outside of computers, ec. What's the real term I should be using here? /:

[freezeblade]

The crumb?
Or how about "the profile could have been taller?"

[PAstrychef]

Chicken and bean quesadillas. Did the beans in the instant pot, with onions and ancho chilis and bacon. Shredded some roasted chicken and added that too. Nice to not have to go to the store.

[Zohar]

A couple of days ago I meant a nice vegetarian lasagna with veggie "beef" in the tomato sauce and spinach in the bechamel sauce.

[Liri]

Deets on the "beef"

The vegetarian lasagna from vegetarian cooking for everyone is in my top three favorite things to put in my mouth. I usually leave out the eggplant. It's an excellent cookbook in general.

[Zohar]

Oh, just some Trader Joe's stuff I got, not my own invention. If you're looking for a great vegetarian lasagna, you could try Smitten Kitchen's mushroom lasagna. It's very light, doesn't have a hearty quality I often associate with lasagna, but the flavor is wonderful.

[Moo]

I made my kid a "Hotwheels" cake and some flame-inspired cupcakes for his birthday party on Saturday; I also made a pecan caramel cheesecake trifle with bits of cake cut-offs for a smaller braai (cook-out) with some friends yesterday that couldn't make the party on Saturday.

The cake isn't ahmaazing but I was still quite proud of how it turned out.

Spoiler:

[Zohar]

That's pretty!

Yesterday was mother-in-law's birthday, so I made a carrot cake with some figs that turned out great. I was also asked to follow a recipe for sauteed zucchinis which were OK, not too bad, but not great either. I probably wouldn't have chosen the recipe in the first place.

[freezeblade]

Well, last night:

First Pan De Muerto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_de_muerto) of the season! More of a success than past first attempts, I might up the fat content a bit next time, but I think the texture and overall flavor was pretty spot on.

Boring (to some) details about the bread in spoiler

Spoiler:

Yeasted (ale yeast), 60% hydration, 50% of liquid from eggs, 5% butter, 20% sugar (bakers percentages), flavored with anise, orange blossom water, and orange zest. Double-mix technique: mix everything without sugar to develop gluten a bit before adding sugar in two stages. Topped with a sprinkling of sanding sugar (sugar in the raw) and sesame seeds.

For next version: bump up butter to 7-8%, add more anise, do a longer preferment (perhaps sourdough?)

[Zohar]

Oh and Saturday I made some brown sugar ad cinnamon monkey bread! It was so good, I ate way too much.

[PAstrychef]

A sort-of ratatouille, with the usual suspects of eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and peppers, but I put a layer of spicy beans, leftover from quesedilla night, on the bottom and used plenty of garlic.
Tonight the extra ratatouille is going to be served with lobster cheese soufflé.

[Sheikh al-Majaneen]

Tacos, with:

Tofu in an achiote paste + sour orange marinade, refrigerated for three days
onions pickled in sour orange and lime juice with salt, garlic, black pepper, cloves, and allspice, also for three days
avocado
four habanero peppers + 4 cloves of garlic, roasted in the oven for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, then blended with the juice of two limes and some water

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Daaaamn.

[PAstrychef]

Greek style braised lamb shanks in the instant pot. I used a jar of Greek pasta sauce I’d found on sale somewhere and added a bit of red wine.

[Moo]

Slow cooker lamb curry. It was nice but I should've used coconut milk, not coconut cream; between that and the lamb it was hella fatty. Tasty though.

Yesterday I made a lemon drizzle cake for friends who came over for a (SA: braai; UK: bbq; US: cookout). I liked it, but all the kids took one bite and then declared it too sour. Lol. I love sour, sorry for them.

[Liri]

We use barbecue and cookout pretty interchangeably here.

[Moo]

I thought BBQ referred to smoking giant slabs of flesh for long times? Or is that when it's used as a noun and not a verb?

[Liri]

I thought BBQ referred to smoking giant slabs of flesh for long times? Or is that when it's used as a noun and not a verb?

It can refer to the event, the meat, or the style of cooking.

[Moo]

Ok, cool, thanks, good to know; but to me smoking != cooking over an open flame. But I will accept that they are interchangable, it's just a bit confusing.

[jastim]

I made Spaghetti Aglio e Olio.

[Mikeski]

Ok, cool, thanks, good to know; but to me smoking != cooking over an open flame. But I will accept that they are interchangable, it's just a bit confusing.

That is a point of contention, actually.

Largely because "BBQ grill" became shorthand for any Weber-esque charcoal- or gas-powered outdoor grill.

Purists will tell you that using one of those "ain't barbecuin', it's just cookin' outside," and BBQ is, properly, just the smoking thing.

...don't get those people started on "BBQ sauce".