Today I Made:

[Bakemaster]

Last time I went through Corning, CA (between my house and my parents' house, where lots and lots of olives are grown), I got a cup of ice cream with lemon olive oil mixed in. It was so great. This summer I am going to experiment with making coconut milk ice cream with lemon grass, ginger and keffir lime. I expect it to be a great success.

Lies and balderdash! It wasn't lemon olive oil, it was blood orange olive oil. How on earth could you forget? It was so delicious!

[Nath]

Mustard fish curry with the leftover mackerel cakes. Adapted from a Bihari (north Indian) recipe. I've never used fish cakes in a curry before; they soak up the sauce quite nicely.

[PictureSarah]

Irish Coffee Cupcakes. Basically coffee-flavored cupcakes with whipped cream frosting with whiskey whipped in. I am going to dust the tops with espresso powder. I am bringing them to work tomorrow because today is my 1 year anniversary working at my office, and our program manager really enjoys both whiskey and coffee.

[Nath]

A simple stew with beef, potatoes, carrots and onions braised in oatmeal stout, seasoned only with salt and pepper. Rather good. Browning the beef and onions thoroughly helped, I think.

[ExplodingHat]

Tilapia, fried with a secret mixture of 11 herbs and spices, topped with avocado and salsa.

[PAstrychef]

A roasted chicken using a vertical roasting rack that I found on sale cheap. Got a nice spice rub recipe and it tasted great, but it didn't get as crispy all the way around as I like. I think the chicken was just too big for the rack, which was designed to hold two smaller birds.
Alas, we are spud-less in Gaza at the moment, so the perfect dinner of chicken and potatoes was impossible.

[dubsola]

A simple stew with beef, potatoes, carrots and onions braised in oatmeal stout, seasoned only with salt and pepper. Rather good. Browning the beef and onions thoroughly helped, I think.

Sounds wintery! And yeah, it always amazes me how much flavour you can get out of vegetables (you would have got some from the carrots and potatoes too), especially onions.

[Nath]

Not really cooking, but I mixed equal volumes of Greek yogurt and sparkling water, with a pinch of salt. Very satisfying after a workout. Reminiscent of kefir.

Couple of days ago: brats braised in stout, with lots of caramelized onions. Turns out this oatmeal stout stuff is a pretty excellent braising liquid. I'm going to have to use some for chili at some point.

Sounds wintery! And yeah, it always amazes me how much flavour you can get out of vegetables (you would have got some from the carrots and potatoes too), especially onions.

Yeah, I browned the carrots and potatoes, too, but not as much as the beef and onions. Didn't want them mushy.

[Bakemaster]

Not really cooking, but I mixed equal volumes of Greek yogurt and sparkling water, with a pinch of salt. Very satisfying after a workout. Reminiscent of kefir.

Doogh!

[Nath]

Pretty much. Or carbonated lassi.

[PAstrychef]

In honor of Bastille Day, crepes! Some filled with mushroom-leek and chicken filling and some filled with blackberries and sweetened yogurt. I even had enough crepes to freeze a stack to use on a later date.

[poxic]

Tinkering with a wheat-free diet, I tried the muffin recipe on the back of a Bob's Red Mill package of grainery. Naturally I couldn't make it just according to the recipe...

- Sub out the 1 cup wheat flour, use 1 cup gluten-free "flour mix" (mostly rice flour and assorted starches)
- Sub out the 1.25 cup milk for something I had on hand (some tofu whizzed up with water in the blender)
- Sub out the egg, use packaged egg replacer
- Sub out the margarine for canola oil
- Add a pile of dried fruit, nuts, and some choco chips and cinnamon

I was expecting something of a disaster, I guess. And the muffins did take about 1/3 longer to bake than the recipe stated. And the first one I tried to pick up shattered into many pieces, despite having a paper holder. (I did sub out everything that could legitimately be a binder, I guess.)

And yet, it was delicious. So nice to think "I am allergic to NOTHING in this delicious muffin", which is difficult to achieve when I buy them from places.

[PAstrychef]

Not quite today, but I just figured out how to post a picture-

The birthday boy was suitably impressed.

[Thesh]

My grandmother does something similar with jello, alternating layers with cream cheese (very time consuming). Always seems to impress.

[Fractangle]

I made... something delicious. I'm not sure what to call it. But it was awesome, and easy. Directions:

0) Defrost an english muffin in the microwave, and split it into the two halves.
1) Put both halves in the toaster oven until partially toasted.
2) Remove one half from the toaster oven, and put a generous quantity of chocolate chips on it.
3) Replace the chocolate chip covered half, and toast until non-chocolated half appears properly toasted.
4) Remove both halves from the toaster oven, and spread peanut butter on the non-chocolated half.
5) Put the two halves back together like a sandwich, and eat!

Pretty sure it's vegetarian-friendly too, if that's your thing.

[ImagingGeek]

Monday was a holiday up here.

I brewed 20L (~5 US gal) of beer (an european-esk ale I invented to rid my pantry of some aging brewing products). At the same time I smoked some pickerel (fish) I caught on Sunday. Pretty easy - rub with large grained salt, smoke at low temp using mix of apple & cherry wood. SWMBO'd made some vegetable of some sort to go with the fish. It all went well with a bunch of beer...

[The Moomin]

Yesterday, I finally managed the second Man V Food weirdness I wanted to try - burger in a glazed doughnut.

While cooking the vegeburger, I sliced the glazed doughnut in half. Mayo on one half, ketchup on the other. Slice of cheese on both halves. Added lettuce and onion when the vegeburger was cooked and ate it fresh.

Not as completely disgusting as I was expecting, but I won't be doing it again.

The first Man V Food thing I tried was the Monte Cristo Dog (hot dog roll spread with jam, slice of cheese and then the vegehotdog. Better than the weird burger thing.

[bluedaisy]

I haven't done anything today. Yesterday I made bread and an omelette for dinner. But today I want to make yogurt.

[Nath]

Been experimenting with iced coffee brewing methods. Found a winner today. Lightly roasted Nicaraguan Limoncillo beans, brewed extra strong with a drip cone, directly into a cup full of ice. Might have been my all-time favorite cup of iced coffee. Beat the pants off the cold brew I made with the same beans.

[cerbie]

Been experimenting with iced coffee brewing methods. Found a winner today. Lightly roasted Nicaraguan Limoncillo beans, brewed extra strong with a drip cone, directly into a cup full of ice. Might have been my all-time favorite cup of iced coffee. Beat the pants off the cold brew I made with the same beans.

I might have to try that.

Sausage melt with eggs over-easy, with fresh onions and garlic cooked with the sausage. It was good, though I completely underestimated how important the timing of adding a slice of cheese to the top is. Ever notice how they add it to a melt a bit before removing it from the griddle? That's actually really important to the final texture.

[Nath]

What kind of cheese?

Dinner: a simple salmon curry, finished with a good splash of olive oil and a squeeze of lime. Eaten on leftover rice.

[cerbie]

What kind of cheese?

Mild cheddar. I couldn't make one myself and use American, like most restaurants would . I made two, a few hours apart, due to the first one melting inadequately, from putting the cheese on just as I removed it. On the 2nd one I put the cheese on about 10-15 seconds before taking it out of the skillet. Externally, they seemed about the same, but the 2nd one's cheese melted into all the little crevices, the way it should be in any good melt (or cheese-steak, for that matter, but the first one was breakfast, thus the sausage and eggs).

[webzter_again]

Blueberries + sugar + butter + vanilla extract + lemon extract + dash of cinnamon. Reduced over low heat, cooled slightly, served over vanilla ice cream.

yes.

[Nath]

A basic stew with cannellini, bacon, tomato and spinach, and a handful of other ingredients. Quite satisfying for such a simple dish. The bacon helped, as did the generous splash of olive oil at the end.

[Fractangle]

Technically I made these 2 days ago, but they're fan-freaking-tastic... I'm not sure what they're called; the recipe doesn't have a title on it. Basically they're chocolate-ish cookies, with a little bit of cayenne to give them a kick. Not that it's relevant to me, but they're also 100% vegan!

Oh, and I made a double batch. Same amount of cleanup, double amount of cookies.

[PAstrychef]

A basic stew with cannellini, bacon, tomato and spinach, and a handful of other ingredients. Quite satisfying for such a simple dish. The bacon helped, as did the generous splash of olive oil at the end.

Bacon always helps!

[Nath]

Tested out my new stick pan with some cheeseburgers. Big improvement; definitely the best burgers I've made at home.

EDIT: ribeye (rare) with mushrooms and spinach. A notch or two above my usual top blade steak.

[Bakemaster]

Wait, are you talking about the stick pan? How do you make cheeseburgers in a stick pan? Details please, this sounds interesting.

EDIT: Just to make sure, are we talking about something like this?

[Nath]

No, by 'stick pan' I just meant 'non-non-stick pan'. It's just a stainless steel pan with an aluminum base.

[poxic]

Corn soup! I read somewhere that boiling corn husks makes a sweet broth, and I saw some early corn in the market today, so this happened:

Cut corn off cobs, awkwardly and being annoyed by the task
Rinse husks and silk, trimming away yucky-looking parts of husk
Boil cobs, husks, and silk in an indeterminate amount of water.
When the husks are an unappealing colour, remove all the bits and leave the water.

Add your favourite soup stuff. My list today was:

garlic, green onions, cumin, basil, olive oil, a bit of dark sesame oil, a bit of bouillon cube and soy sauce
red lentils, quinoa
the corn kernels, minced dried tomatoes, chopped spinach and broccoli

That's good eating, right there.

[Giant Speck]

I ruined two batches of fudge yesterday. I got right up to stirring the chocolate chips into the marshmallow/sugar/butter/evaporated milk mixture and about ten seconds in, it all just turned into a huge crumbly clusterfuck.

[Nath]

Flanken-cut short ribs marinated in soy, clementine juice, ginger, garlic, mirin, sriracha and a bit of honey.
Spinach with pan-deglazing goodness and balsamic vinegar, and a splash of olive oil.
Grits.

Pretty good. Surprised by how different grits are from polenta.

[freezeblade]

I baked my house french country sourdough recipe last night, shaped like demi-baguettes. I would have taken a picture, but it was late and I had work early this morning. Today I'm making sourdough bagels, the dough was mixed/kneaded last night, and I'll be shaping/baking them tonight.

[Thesh]

TIM: cheese and crackers. I sliced brie, 3 yo cheddar, and smoked gouda into chunks and placed them on pepper or sesame seed water crackers.

[poxic]

Upscale snacking ftw.

I ran out of sugar while making muffins today, so I threw in some blueberry jam. The dough went from a lovely purplish colour while mixing, to a somewhat dismaying wet-pavement-grey by the time the tin went into the oven. I'm hoping they turn a more appealing colour while they bake.

"Here, have one of my homemade muffins!" *thud*

--

Updated: the end result looks okay. If you compare one to a muffin from a previous batch, it's a little on the grey side. Sort of like a zombie muffin.

_{"GRRRAAAAIIINNSS"}

[Nath]

Coffee. Pictures of the roasting process here. Needs to rest for a few hours, but I couldn't resist making a cup as soon as I got home. I got some of that praline candy flavor the bag promised, and a lot of green appleyness as it cooled; I'm guessing that'll diminish after the rest. Slight smokey aftertaste, perhaps from the roasting method. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

EDIT: also, cheeseburgers, from grass-fed Angus beef.

[3fj]

Today I ate (Yesterday I made) a low-carb mushroom stew with pork chunks.

I was having trouble with stews and stuff because it's one of my favourite meals. If I was to do it again I'd use chicken instead of pork, though.

[roband]

What made it a mushroom stew with pork, instead of a pork stew with mushrooms?

[3fj]

The sheer amount of mushrooms. It was two cutlets of pork to about a half a kilo of various mushrooms.

[freezeblade]

Making I suspose, started the dough for it last night, will be baking it in the evening.

SF style sourdough
Monkey Bread with almonds/walnuts/loads of butter