Week Three: Wednesday

I feel robbed. I got home from chauffeuring my brother and found Dad already making spaghetti.

Week 3: Tuesday: Cod Stir Fry

Here is the link to the recipe that I found: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chunky-Cod-Stir-Fry

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cup chicken broth (Swanson Organic Broth, 3.59)
• 2 tablespoons sherry or additional chicken broth 1TB broth, 1 TB Sicilia Lemon Juice (2.29) 
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepepr flakes
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 package (16 ounces) A little bit of frozen stir-fry vegetable blend, thawed + a little chopped celery, 1/2 lb bean sprouts (81 cents), and bok choy
• 1 small sweet red pepper, julienned
• 1 pound cod, cut into 1-inch cubes (3 packages of frozen cod from Fish Taco Night)
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
• 4 cups hot cooked rice

Directions

• In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients until blended; set aside. Wash vegetables. Boy choy, cut into thumb sized pieces. Chop celery. In a nonstick skillet or wok, stir-fry garlic in oil for 30 seconds. Add mixed vegetables; stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add red pepper; stir-fry for 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Put vegetables in a drainable bowl and then put into the pan. Use a spatula-type thing and stir around the vegetables for about 2 minutes (I'm not sure if that's stir-frying). Cover with a lid until bok choy and sprouts change color. Remove and set in a bowl.
• Remove and keep warm. I marinated (i.e., put in a bowl with stuff) cod with a few squirts of lemon juice and salt and pepper, which I soaked while cooking the vegetables. Add more oil. Add half of the cod to skillet; gently stir-fry for 3-5 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove and keep warm. Repeat with remaining cod. 
• Stir reserved broth mixture and add to skillet. I also added the marinade from the cod and a ladle of chicken soup that Mom and I made over the weekend (I might get to that later). Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened (The sauce actually thickens because of the corn starch; it's one thing to know that corn starch is a thickener, and completely another to see it with your own eyes: magic!). Return vegetables and fish to the pan. Add peanuts. Gently stir to coat. Cover and cook for 1 minute or until heated through. Serve over rice. Yield: 4 servings.

Response: The smell was amazing. Mom, Dad, and Brother all liked it, and mom liked the extra lemon flavor, but they all remarked that it was slightly too salty. Maybe it was because I added the marinade to the sauce, or maybe it was the soy sauce, or maybe our family's tastes are more mild. Maybe next time I can add more vegetables, or my dad said I could wash the cod off after I marinated it and before I cooked it. 

And now, something I've never done before: picture!

(Okay, admittedly it looks a bit mushy, but trust me, it's good!)

Note: for dinner, my dad also grilled half a piece of salmon, and I baked puff pastries with some prepackaged puff pastry dough and banana and honey and chocolate and peanut butter for fillings (the filling leaked out a bit while baking. Next time, I'll put tin foil over the baking sheet). 

Stick around - tonight I'm planning a mango-avocado pasta!

Week 2: Thursday: the Quiche

I did consult recipes for pie crusts: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/
And quiches:http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-broccoli-quiche/,
but I tried to combine all of the recipes and create a MacGyver-like quiche.

Pie crust: Flour, a little salt, a little sugar, and leftover corn tortilla in a blender. Taken out of the blender, and mixed with about 1/8 cup butter and a little water until it had a doughy consistency. Took a cupcake pan and sprayed the insides with Pam, or butter, or olive oil. Spread the pie crust inside the cups.

Filling: Spicy buffalo wings, toaster-ovened and deboned. Placed one piece of swiss cheese over the meat and poured soymilk over it. Heated until cheese melted, and soymilk boiled down a little.

Pour filling into the pie crust. Bake 350 degrees F, 25 minutes, or until crusts golden.

Pocket cake with remaining filling:
Remove filling. Spread one corn tortilla along bottom of pan. Place filling on top. Cover with another piece of  corn tortilla. Put flour along the edges of the pan, where the corn tortillas come together. Pour soymilk where the flour was poured. Cook until the bottom is solid enough to be flipped without the cake coming apart. Flip. Cook the other side. Done!

(Picture forthcoming)

Week 2: Monday: The Fish Taco Rejection

I'm just going to stop trying to post breakfast and lunches unless I actually make them, because really I tend to miss breakfast and eat out for lunch, and my family doesn't do a sit down breakfast or lunch. We mostly scavenge. (Also, I didn't post on the weekends because my mom only 'hired' me to 'work' on weekdays.)

DINNER: Fish Taco
Last week I'd picked up a few free recipe cards at the supermarket, and my brother saw the fish taco recipe. He picked it out specifically and said that he would eat them if I made them. So Monday afternoon I was extremely excited and I got my dad to go with me to Albertsons to get fish.

1/2 lb flaky fish, such as mahi mahi or grouper used fish sticks and packages of frozen cod
cumin, salt, and pepper to taste
6 inch corn tortillas
chopped lettuce
chopped tomato
Sauce: 4TBsp mayonaise : 1 TBsp salsa

Putting together a taco should be pretty self-explanatory. The main issue is cooking the fish. The fish sticks are easy, because you can just microwave them or put them into a toaster oven. The frozen cod requires cooking.

1. Defrost in sink
2. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin
3. The directions on the card said just to cook it 3-5 minutes on each side. I figured it was just a few drops of oil on a pan, and the fish on the pan. I thought that's what my dad meant when he asked me if I knew how to fry things.

How to fry things:
1. Get a pot tall enough to contain most of the spitting oil.
2. Pour half an inch to an inch of oil in the pot. Heat oil until it starts to bubble.
3. Beat eggs in a bowl, spread corn starch on a plate.
4. Cut fish into strips, dip into eggs, then cornstarch and lower slowly into the pot of oil.
5. Let cook for about 3 minutes, until the fish changes color.
6. Use chopsticks or a spoon with holes to fish out the fish and place on paper towel lined bowl.

The fish tacos turned out pretty well, even though ordinarily I wouldn't have eaten fish tacos. Dad said they were good too. Mom and Brother ate some fish sticks, then made Ramen.

Slacking Off: Day 4: Blue Chicken and Sketchy Root

DAY 4: BREAKFAST
Again, I was not awake.

DAY 4: LUNCH
Thai food: Hawaiian (pineapple) fried rice. Note to self: Make it. Ingredients: Rice, pineapple, green onions, cashews, shrimp, chicken, soy sauce(?).

DAY 4: DINNER
Dad just sort of took over dinner. Since I didn't do any of the shopping or cooking, I don't know how much anything cost, and I have to just relate what I think happened.

Soup
Mom wanted to use a chicken for a soup. Guess what color the chicken was? Indigo-colored. It was really really small, small as in slightly larger than a large mango. And the chicken that we used wasn't just a thigh or a leg or a breast. It was the entire chicken: body, wings, head, feet, talons.  The only thing that was missing was the guts. Dad took a big pot full of water, put the entire chicken in (after partially defrosting, washing the chicken to fully defrost it), put the lid on, and started heating it. He said: "With soups, you first put the water and the meat in first, wait for the water to boil and the meat to cook, and then you add vegetables and other things in and cook it again, because vegetables cook really quickly."

The 'vegetable' was white and tuber-like, cylindrical, about a foot in length and two inches in diameter. I'm not sure how long it had been living in our refrigerator. My dad didn't know what it was either, though mom possibly did, because she told Dad to treat it like a potato. He used a peeler and peeled it, then cut it into little wheels about an inch thick, and discarded the ends. I watched him chop it. It sounded crispy, like cutting an apple (or uncooked potato) and it also had this weird starchy liquid that would follow the knife. I don't know.

Leftover Pineapple Fried Rice
Microwaved on a microwave-safe plate.


Peas and Eggs
I didn't actually watch him make this, but it's related to one of the few things I knew how to make before all this started (fried rice), so this is how I would make it:
Buy package of frozen peas.
Put a little oil on pan. (Or, use non-stick pan?)
Turn on fire.
Crack eggs into the pan.
Stir eggs around until half cooked.
Pour peas into eggs.
Stir until eggs fully cooked. (Peas should be unfrozen by now.)
Serve.


Shrimp and Cucumbers
These were cocktail-size shrimp, and they were probably made about the same way as the peas and eggs, except you had to un-shell the shrimp first, and wash and cut the cucumbers into wedge-shapes.

This all seems really simple, but it's a really satisfying dinner, and simple is ideal for the academic year. You can skip the soup and the leftovers, and unless seafood makes you swoon, even the shrimp and the cucumbers. I highly highly recommend that you try peas and eggs, if you can.

Under Adult Supervision: Day 3: Avocado Fritters, Guacamole, and Leftover Pasta

DAY 3: BREAKFAST
I did not wake up before noon, so I assume everyone had leftovers or bread or coffee.

DAY 3: LUNCH
I drove my brother to In n Out. I don't know what Mom had.

DAY 3 (today/last night): DINNER



Avocado Fritters
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/corn-fritters/

Ingredients

• 3 cups oil for frying (I used 3 tablespoons. Misread. That actually explains a lot of what happened subsequently)
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon shortening, melted (Not sure what shortening is, didn't want to go shopping.)
• 1 (12 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained 1 avocado, smashed

Directions

1. Heat oil in a heavy pot or deep fryer to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C).  Heat oil in little pan that you have just washed. Become frightened at the tiny explosions that are taking place on the pan. Dad: That's what happens when you heat water and oil. Wait for the water to evaporate. 
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat together egg, milk, and melted shortening; stir into flour mixture. Mix in the corn kernels avocado.
3. Drop fritter batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil fry batter like pancakes, and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Cauliflower
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/simple-cauliflower-recipe.html


Ingredients
2 - 3 heads of small cauliflower (or 1/2 head large) (I have no idea how much I used)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
a couple pinches of sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small bunch of chives, chopped
zest of one lemon clementine
freshly grated Parmesan
a bit of flaky sea salt


Procedure: What really happened. 
1. Chop off a bit of cauliflower from the gigantic head from the refrigerator. Begin to chop up cauliflower. Realize you have chopped way too much cauliflower. Wash cauliflower. Put in a bowl. Look at the tiny pan. Set aside half of the cauliflower.
2. Heat remaining oil from avocado fritters on small pan. Sprinkle in a little salt as per recipe. 
3. Pour bowl of cauliflower into pan. Jerk back as terrifying crackling noises and a three foot cone of flame shoots up from small pan. 
4. Yell: DADDY!!!!!!!!
5. Daddy, who luckily for you is watching t.v. about ten feet away, tells you the pan is too small, that the water and cauliflower had forced the oil over the edges of the pan and into the fire, causing the terrifying cone of flame, takes over the cooking of the cauliflower in a bigger, oil-less pot.


In summary: Big pan, no oil + wet cauliflower = fine.
Big pan, oil + cauliflower(drained) = fine.
Small pan, oil + wet cauliflower = mountain of flame


(Okay, Maya. Now if you say that I nearly burnt down my house, I won't argue. But in my defense, I cooked two whole dinners before this happened, and my house is still standing. No scorch marks.)

Guacamole
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-guacamole/

• 2 1 avocado
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 ripe tomato, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced 2 clementines, juiced
• salt and pepper to taste

Put in a bowl together and mash with spoon.


Toasted Bread
Take the last slices of bread that have been sitting for weeks in the refrigerator. Put in the toaster-oven until deep brown.

Reheated Pasta
I reproduced the sauce, with a little more chicken broth, a little less whipping cream (I was running out) and some milk. It seemed fine. If anything, the sauce was a little lighter, though it possibly congealed after a little while.

If you're wondering why I substituted clementine peels and juices instead of those of lemons (I substituted clementine juice for the lemon juice that was substituting dry white wine in the pasta recipe), it's not anything against lemons. I'd already used up all three that I bought on Day 2. I figured that lemons and clementines were close enough.

Reception:
Brother: Went out for dinner with a friend.
Dad: "I like it. It's simple."
Mom: I think she really liked the guacamole, because she ate the remainder of it with a spoon.

Also, the past two days Mom has been joking/kind of serious about how the money I didn't spend in my $40 a day budget became my "wages." Here is our conversation after today's dinner:

Mom: You didn't buy anything for dinner today?

Me: Nope. (not entirely true. I did use part of the food money to get the In n Out)

Mom: So...basically you made $40 today?

Me: Uh...

And now my budget is $10 a day.

Approval: Day 2: Chicken Pasta

DAY 2: BREAKFAST
My family and I aren't very big on breakfast foods really, so we mostly just had some pineapple buns that my mom had already bought.

DAY 2: LUNCH
I was making tater tots (from a frozen bag) and fried rice (pan, oil, eggs, rice, tomatoes) when my mom and brother returned to the house - I never noticed that they left - with burritos.

DAY 2: DINNER


Thyme Mint Chicken Pasta
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/thyme-mint-chicken-pasta/

After Day 1's dinner, I knew I had to step it up, or my road toward culinary achievement might be forever blocked, and my brother would never stop proclaiming that I was trying to poison him with my cooking.

Why I chose this: My brother likes pasta, and I found two packages of Foster Farm-skinless-boneless chicken thigh in the freezer, so it seemed like an awesome opportunity to try to cook chicken without really dealing with cooking chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package thin whole-wheat spaghetti (The pantry conveniently had at least a dozen packages of spaghetti noodles, four of which were whole wheat.)
• 
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 
  
• 1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into strips
• 
  
• 1 pinch salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 
  
• 1/2 cup dry white wine lemon juice (Substitutes:  http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol6.htm Other sites also said, apple juice, apple cider, milk, and lemon juice, which I used.)
• 
  
• 1/2 cup chicken stock [$3.99] (I looked all over the store for this, and the only thing that I knew about it was that it came in a carton. I don't remember whether it was under the 'canned foods' or the 'vegetables' section. Or maybe it was 'canned vegetables.' It was where a bunch of cooking mixes were. And apparently there is a difference between 'chicken broth' and 'chicken stock.' I don't know - wait. I'm on the internet:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/chicken-stock-vs-chicken-broth/index.html stock is from bone and richer, broth is from meat and...less rich?)
• 
  
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream [$2.59] (All I could find was 'heavy whipping cream.' I'm just assuming it's the same, because the sauce turned out fine.)
• 
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (I found fresh mint and you had to buy it in bunches that were way more than I'd ever use)
• 
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme [$6.09] (I bought a little jar that looked like the things that cupcake sprinkles come in, except 1/4 of the size.)
• 
  
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 
  
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest (apparently 'lemon zest' is the same as 'lemon peel,' so I just chopped up a bit of peel from the lemons I bought.)
• 
  
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar balsamic vinegar (Guide to vinegars:  http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/how-vinegar-works1.htm)
• 
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until cooked through but firm to the bite, about 12 minutes; drain. Toss spaghetti with 1 tablespoon olive oil to keep from sticking together.
2. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken in hot oil until lightly browned and just cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
3. Pour white wine into the skillet; bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add chicken stock; continue cooking until the volume of liquid reduces by about half. Stir cream, mint, thyme, honey, lemon zest, sherry vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt into the liquid; cook until the volume of the liquid reduces again by about half. Stir cooked pasta into the sauce to coat. Return chicken to the skillet and cook until hot, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to serve.

Note: Ready in 45 minutes? This took me a good hour and a half, not counting shopping, defrosting, and planning. Also, I defrosted (Mom: raw meat should be defrosted in the sink, not on the counter where you put things you eat.) the chicken for an hour an a half beforehand, and it should have been defrosted longer - my dad actually ended up taking over its cooking. Also, I didn't really stick to the amount of chicken stock and whipping cream. When I used the correct amount, there didn't seem to be enough, so I just poured in a bunch in approximately equal ratios after it'd been simmering a while.

Other problems: If I followed the recipe correctly, there was way too much pasta and way too little sauce. I made two batches of sauce for half the pasta and that was all my family was able to finish. It is good if you want to cook a batch of spaghetti once and then microwave for the rest of the week, though.

Reception:
My brother complained about the whole wheat part, but he ended up eating a lot of the pasta. My mom and dad liked it. I liked it, but the sauce was very strongly scented, and it was hard to eat a lot of it (enhancing the problem of the excessive amount of spaghetti noodles).