Chili Mac – Home Cooking

So after thinking about some thing I decided to get back in the kitchen to make some meals so I don’t eat the same thing 18 times in a row when writing, drawing or learning some stuff on Alison (free education website). A nice little stretch of macaroni and actually a nice dish overall. If you like cheese on top of your chili this will actually turn a couple meals in to about a week’s worth. Here is what you will need for a large pot of Chili Mac.

Ingredients

6 C Dry Macaroni
3 Cans of Chili
1/2 Lb Cheddar, Shredded
1/3 C Grated Parmesan Romano
1 pt or 2 C Heavy Cream
1/2 stick Butter
Chopped Green Onions to Garnish.

Makes 6-8 servings

Just to let you know my cream is frozen. So first we start with the macaroni. Boil that up.

After its cooked you can drain the noodles to begin working on the cheese sauce make sure the cheddar is shredded. If you have the boxed mac and cheese just make it as you see fit. On low heat you want your butter, cream, and cheeses until everything becomes one. Push the heat higher and the sauce may curdle.

After everything has been melted and the sauce been tasted and seasoned here is where you have the option to add some green onion. I add some to mine to give a little bit more color to the whole affair. It is not needed however.

After your sauce is simmering heat your chili up in another sauce pan or in the microwave whichever is easier just until it all becomes more fluid. Put your noodles back in the sauce, add your chili making sure the chili and noodles have a nice meet and greet of flavors in the pot.

After all that is done. finish with your garnishes and serve or in my case freeze and eat as you see fit. Add some hot sauce if you like to give it a little more heat.

I had a little cheddar left over so that was used as a garnish as well. In any case its a mild dish without being boring and it holds long enough that I will have been eating it while working on my other projects.

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Fried Tofu with Teriyaki Sauce

For this dish it is suggested that you have some cooked rice to pair it with. For this you will need the following ingredients.
Serves 5-7 with rice

Flour for dusting and Oil for frying
A block of Extra Firm Tofu (16 oz)
1/4 C Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Rice Wine Vinegar
Shredded sushi seaweed for garnish

Pour your oil in the narrowest pot you have as to save on the amount of oil needed put it on medium heat. It will take a couple moments to get to frying temperature. Next put a cup of flour in a wide bowl, and set aside. Press your tofu lightly with a paper towel so it will remove as much of the moisture as possible before cutting in to cubes at an inch squared. After cutting, check the oil by pinching a small amount of flour in to the oil if you get a fair reaction that looks just like a soup on a low simmer then you can begin. Dredge them in the flower in batches before dropping them in to the oil you don’t want to do it all at once because that will drop the temperature of the oil and for most stove top burners you will not be able to hold temp without splitting them in to at least two batches. I did mine in four batches total, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Let them fry until golden brown or a light manilla color for those who know their around an office better.

The bubbles don’t have to be big you just want to make sure that when they come out they can drain. rinse and repeat with all batches until all the tofu is drying off. For the teriyaki sauce take a small pot and put your sugar, vinegar and soy in it before bringing it up to a simmer making sure to stir until the sugar has been dissolved and let simmer for a couple minutes until all the flavors meld together or about three or four minutes.

I got a little impatient and cranked up to high which you can do if you want to watch it for a minute or two. You do not want the sugar to burn or else you will need to try again. After your tofu has dried appropriately you can use your sauce to dip into or pour over depending on how you like your sauces to be done. Some people are picky, no judging here.

I got my tofu placed on cooked white rice and seaweed around it and from here I just poured the sauce over the top and dug in. The picture didn’t come so clear as I had hoped but its tofu blocks on rice. So I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you liked what you saw give some of my other dishes a chance their in the cooking category on my blog.

Have a good day everyone, oh and before I forget starting in December their will hopefully be more posts I am getting a little bit more comfortable doing this as well as the youtube videos if you watch those link is to the side. I am going to try to up my game to do two a week I feel like it can be done. Wish me luck.

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Game Day Quesadillas

I am more of a sunny day or in the Oregonian case the rainy day sports fan. However, one must have some game day grub that is easy to eat so let’s go with a good quesadilla. I make quesadillas full size with two tortillas each so a full one can get you eight pieces of a good size. In these pictures I am using an eight inch tortilla here.

Ingredients:

2 tortillas per quesadilla
2 pieces of bacon or 1/4 C of refried beans
2 slices golden cheddar
2 T chopped green onions

The secret comes in the cooking we will be doing this in pan and it take close to five minutes on medium heat. Cooking it in pan is closest to the flattop stove that most restaurants. You want to have your bottom layer with the cheese in their first so that everything melts together. Doing it this way also allows the tortilla to crisp up a little before cutting in to it and that means less on you when your team is fighting for the win.

Flip it over when it looks like this.

Finish it up.

For the bean and cheese quesadilla I like adding some green onion to it to give it just a little more aroma. Make sure to spread it as evenly as possible without having an O.C.D panic attack.

When your food is done cut it up and use the green onions to garnish. It adds just a little bit of aroma to the overall dish and aroma is the one sense that can make you hungry better then your taste buds. Cut in to eight pieces like a pizza or four if you know some of the hungrier guys are coming around. For twelve inch tortillas you want to go to three basic slices of golden cheddar. If you don’t get the sliced stuff then you want about 1/3 C shredded or diced small.

A little bit of ketchup or your favorite salsa on the side and this makes a good snack to watch a game, play a game, even make a game of your trying to be or already are an indie developer.

Now when your cooking for yourself you’re not going to be so finicky in the exact placement of garnishes. That will be for another blog post. Have a good one.

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Chili tofu

Now with this you can put it over rice or noodles. I still wasn’t sick of ramen so I used dry pack ramen noodles. The chili tofu is hot though so if you can’t stand the heat find a substitute. Cooked vegetables work well or even just a touch of soy after the tofu is browned in pan. For the chili tofu you will need the following.

A 16 oz package of tofu – Extra firm – tofu normally they come in 16 oz portions so no worries about over shooting and if you don’t want to make a full batch just replace the water in the tofu container before putting your remainder portion and that should give you about a week of time to play with it.

2 t of vegetable oil to help lubricate a wide shallow pan for the tofu

2 T chopped garlic

1/4 C sweet chili sauce or (1/8 C water, 1/8 C sugar, 3 T red chili flake)

1/4 C ketchup or (1/2 C tomato paste, 1/2 C white wine vinegar, and reduce to half)

Your seasonings of choice in my case.

Set your pan up and place on medium high heat. Oiled and ready we then move to the tofu and for this you will need a plate and a couple extra paper towels to make it easier on yourself. Open the package and drain it before setting it on the plate and pressing the paper towels lightly in to it. What this does is help remove some of the excess water so it will be easier for you to saute without breaking in to chunks.

What if it breaks in to chunks anyway? Use less sauce smaller pieces will not need so much to represent the same heat level. Other then that no changes so go for it. Next take your knife of choice and chop it up first in to planks before going in to cubes.

Behold cut tofu. Now after chopping your tofu up toss it in the pan.

You should get some sizzle as you drop it in so after that if you have to fuss with it you can set up your sauce to be poured in later. It will take some time to get a nice even browning or you can be like me.

After about ten minutes let it flip and toss in your garlic. If you want it to be more browned what you do not want to do is try to scrape it from the bottom of the pan within the first few minute you will have more of a chance of the tofu cubes breaking if that happens. After the garlic gets some browning time you want to add your sauce.

What if I let the garlic cook to long or everything seems dry in the pan?

Great question, now with tofu because it is so porous their will always be some absorption and the garlic will help with that so if you need a little more liquid as soon as your going dry you can add a couple drops of oil to finish your browning. Or if you say my ingredients I also had a lemon and an orange. They were on sale and I don’t get a lot of fruit so you can add the juice of a couple citrus.

I like mine a little hotter then normal so this is with an extra teaspoon of chili powder with the citrus juice to produce that red color. As soon as you finish this if you let things cook until they stick the pan still the juice will help bring those particles back up to add some flavor to your sauce. Add your mix of sweet chili sauce and ketchup to the pan and let it reduce a little making sure to get all the flavors together to properly introduce each other.

Ketchup has been used in dishes like this for many years, and old fans of Iron chef will remember the Chen ken min had a delicious prawns in chili sauce recipe that worked with ketchup as a base. If you don’t feel comfortable though you can pull back on it or make a quick version from the ratio I put up.

So after your sauce is ready its thick, full bodied, and delicious you need to have something to serve it with. For things like this I gotta go with the incredible edible egg. High in protein and adds just the right match to spicier things over rice or noodles in my opinion.

Lightly fried egg and spicy tofu over noodles. Enjoy, if you like anything I have been up to comment and if you know someone that could enjoy one of these please show them the way to my little corner of the internet.Oh and before I forget you can actually catch me at the twitter thing call me old fashioned if you like but I am at oneguyportland on the twittery thing. Have a good one everybody.

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Apple onion salad with garlic mustard dressing

This is a nice dish that will work well with the pork dish for next week. If you are vegetarian no fear this works just as well as a light potluck dish. For two servings you will need the following.

Salad: One green apple, half a white or yellow onion, salt and black pepper to taste, one lemon to juice. In this picture the orange and lemon are already zested because I used the zest for making my own bath salts. Like put in the bath and make everything smell nice as you relax and mine is all natural. Salt, teas, extracts, zests, etc. So ya mine are already zested if you have a moment you can use the zest as a garnish on top.

Dressing: A tablespoon mustard paired with one of honey or two tablespoons honey mustard, one teaspoon chopped garlic, a pinch of cocoa powder.

So core your apple chop it in to quarters before slicing and toss it in a pan on low heat. Next you want to take your half onion and slice it up julienne style making sure to do it a little thicker then normal julienne. tossing it in the pan we will mix it together and let the flavors meet each other as the onion begins to sweeten. Sweating on medium low with a touch of butter or oil of your choice if you do not have a non stick pan.

Mix up your dressing as everything is sweating just mixing it all up before tossing a portion in to toss with the reminder of the dressing on the side to taste.

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Potted shrimp

For two servings you will need the following…

Half lb of shrimp meat, three ounces of salted butter, teaspoon of chopped garlic, teaspoon of honey mustard, four slices of sourdough bread and chili powder for garnish.

This appetizer comes from across the pond originally made with brown shrimp you can make it with shrimp meat like me if you do not mind seasoning your butter a little bit stronger.

I like having the butter melt so you can season and make everything mix completely. Whisk your mustard and garlic in with the butter over low heat before dumping your shrimp in the butter. Cook in the butter until meat begins to turn white , and for the miniature shrimp that is about ninety seconds on low heat.

Mustard and garlic halfway mixing before tossing the shrimp in. After your shrimp is done you pour in to a pair of ramekins and while some prefer this chilled I actually enjoy this the most while everything to smear on toast making a delightful meal. Garnish with Chili powder if you like a little bit of heat at the end all the a quick grind of pepper works too.

When you chill the butter mix with the shrimp the butter will grow opaque but the shell will be much thinner then you think. After you chill them the meal is just delicious with some toasted sourdough for breakfast. I had some garlic sourdough I bought on sale from the local Franz store I just warmed up to eat with. Chilled properly the potted shrimp can last a week without major issues as long as it is refrigerated.

If you can find your way to get some butter and shrimp with a couple slices of good bread then you can make this the focus of a good meal in the autumn sun watching the beautiful colors of the leaves maybe with a nice glass of whiskey and cheesecake. Hope you enjoy your own version of this dish.

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How to make bachelor chow

So if you need a cheap meal to not absolutely suck here is what we call ramen which has more salt then anything else you can put in your body outside of a salt brick. It does last a long time. When making ramen you usually drop it in some water microwave it until soft, add seasoning and mix.

Now often times ramen can get very boring so here some tips to help make the meals a little easier to get down. When you cook your ramen in water it rehydrates it however after it gets soft you can continue cooking. I like to saute it in a non stick pan or with a drop of oil to get some color on the noodles before tossing them back in the broth.

Next is the sauce for those who do not know the bullion packet has the majority of the salt and many times you can make a quick sauce to toss with your noodles with.

After you make a sauce you could finish it back in a small amount of broth or just let the sauce do the job in the pan before grabbing a fork and jumping in.

Between making the noodles fried or soft, sauces, and broth combinations you can make thousands of dishes and even whole cookbooks have been written on the subject, but those are the things that can turn a simple ingredient in to something not so boring.

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Chicken a la kiev

Chicken a la kiev is a dish I found a recipe to in the old cookbook. We will do some slight changes here is what you will need.
Chicken breasts (skinless and boneless)
Egg for breading
Breadcrumbs for breading
Seasoning for the breadcrumbs
I use a combination of parmesan cheese and old bay to season my breading

Compound butter –
A compound butter is a butter mixed with other things to add more flavor and has been used in kitchens as a form of sauce. In this recipe my compound butter was made with an addition of crushed garlic, green onion, and honey mustard with a splash of lemon juice.

After mixing it all together you want to put your butter in the freezer. If you like everything a certain shape you can fill up an ice tray half full so you get little squares of butter already setting up.

Butterfly your chicken and after the butter has frozen stuff in the middle of the chicken before breading it up and dumping it in a frypot already heated up. Let it cool and dress as you see fit. If you do not feel comfortable putting frozen butter in raw chicken then you can put the butter on top before plating. The butter will melt to form a sauce to match the chicken.

After plating garnish with what you want. I use a small little piece of muenster cheese to work with the small amount of butter.

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Finally published, kinda

So I have been published for the kindle on amazon. 100 ingredients: Home Edition will be available for 4.99. Although I had to go through self publishing options it does feel good to know I can put whole books up now and other people can read them. Until I hold the book though I still think it is like diet publishing. However I can get a good grasp of advertising and other associated angles before moving on.

Diet publishing aside because of my love literary hardware I did it. I hope you enjoy it. The fanfiction is up after a couple edits. They are not as long as I wanted them to be Still like them though so they can stay. It is still amazing that I got something published so to celebrate i am going to relax and blow up some ships in Black Flag: Assassins Creed

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Beef and bell peppers over rice

For this you will need the following for ten portions heaped over rice. This is a dish that holds well in the fridge and can be eaten as is or over rice or noodles. When my friends or myself are feeling a little under the weather we eat a bowl of this. It can cure what ails ya.

Seven large peppers consisting of three red bell peppers, two yellow, a green bell pepper, and one poblano pepper.

One large white onion, one bunch of green onions, one shallot, and five or six good sized cloves of crushed garlic.

Meat wise you will need a half pound of each beef and pork chorizo and a pound and a half of 75/25 ground beef ( 25% fat)

Otherwise you will need a tablespoon of oil. (your choice) I had olive nearby but any will do.

Start by getting your oil in the pot before putting the pot on medium low heat.

Peel and smash your garlic before adding them to the pot. Dice your onion type items ( green, white, and shallot) before dumping them in to the pot and giving them a good stir. You don’t want to hear a whole lot of sizzling.The pot will be there just to hold everything.

Give it a good stir before dicing up your peppers. Make sure to remove the white ribs of pith (That’s the kind of soft stuff forming the ribs inside the pepper.) Dice your peppers up and toss them in. Even if you are not the fastest with a knife you should have very little effect on the food. We are letting all the guests know each other flavor wise. Once it is mixed up in a pot take it off to cool. If your doing rice with this you can dump the veggies in to the future rice pot while the meat cooks.

Place your pot on medium high heat devoid of all vegetable matter before dumping in your chorizo. You want these to cook first because this will allow the spices in the fat to be released so that the beef can pick up the flavor. Once that has been rendered you can dump in your beef and let that cook up. While that is going in this is only going to have the spice of the chorizo which will be very mellow once it is all tossed together with the chopped offerings. This will be fairly mild overall.

Now the main portion of cooking will be when you dump everything back in to the pot with the warm meat and let everything hit a low simmer. Doing this will draw some of the liquid out of the peppers giving you a very nice well rounded sauce made in pot with little effort to pair with our bell peppers and beef.

Cook some rice and cook an egg sunny side up and build your bowl. It follows very few diets but by portions it can be tweaked with adding more vegetables or less fat if you need to.

This recipe was just a guess from the bell peppers and beef mentioned in the Cowboy Bebop anime. I would think that even a pair of bounty hunters could enjoy this. Thank you and see you all next time. Happy Easter.

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Ingredients

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