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
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• 2 tablespoons olive oil
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• 1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into strips
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• 1 pinch salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
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• 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.)
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• 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?)
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• 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.)
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• 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)
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• 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.)
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• 2 teaspoons honey
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• 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.)
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• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar balsamic vinegar (Guide to vinegars:  http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/how-vinegar-works1.htm)
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• 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).