Ephinea Cooking Thread

Made a curry soup tonight; chicken, potatoes, and carrots, served over bowtie pasta with some naan to soak up the left-over juices.

I also started a stew for dinner tomorrow... Half a dozen Roma tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, a quartered onion, some fresh rosemary, two peeled carrots, a green bell pepper, two stalks of celery, an Anaheim pepper, and a handful of rough-chopped basil; all of that was lightly coated in olive oil, lightly salted, and roasted for about 25-30 minutes. When it came out of the oven I pulled off the tomato and pepper skins, coarse-chopped the veggies, and chucked everything in the slow cooker.

In the morning I'll be hard-searing a pork shoulder before tossing that in with a few cups of strong chicken stock to simmer all day. Around lunch I'll add some kidney beans, potatoes, 4-5 teaspoons or so of salt, and a quick squirt of lemon juice.

Half an hour before serving it gets a hefty dose of fresh-ground black pepper and enough corn starch to thicken the juices up to nearly- but not quite!- a gravy consistency.

When dinner rolls around the pork will be cooked down enough to shred, after which I''ll toss in a couple knobs of unsalted butter.

Once that's melted, I'll serve everything up over buttered sour dough biscuits on high-rimmed plates.
 
My current cooking project is working out what to do for The Wife's 40th birthday dinner on the 15th. I'm doing a sushi buffet for her and I, as well as the half-dozen other people who are invited... Sort of, lol. I'm mostly providing ingredients, and everyone will just make their own rolls (with help, if they need it) but I'm still nailing down some of the specifics.

Obviously there will be a big basket of rice and nori wraps- that goes without saying. I've got orders in for Alaskan salmon, yellow fin tuna, tiger prawns, and a pound of pre-shelled lobster, which is a solid start, but it's hard to source some other popular things like unagi (eel), sea cucumber, and kalamari (squid) in the super-rural area where we live. I'm going to have a selection of other things to toss in and/or on sushi rolls, too: baked yam, cucumber, cream cheese, two types of marinated tofu, a smoked salmon roe, and others. I've also worked out a deal with a local sushi place to deliver a nice variety of tempura-fried veggies for appetizers and mochi (in coffee, strawberry, and melon flavors) for dessert.

To go with that, I have two bottles each of blackberry mead and plum wine. They're going to get frozen in ice cube trays two days in advance, and the night of the party I'll run them through the blender and serve in glasses rimmed with lime, salt, and jalapeno to make a sort of margarita-inspired frozen cocktail. The sake will be served hot, to offset the frozen drinks.

I've got about $200 left in the budget, so if anyone has suggestions I'll be more than happy to listen!
 
I found a new veggie at the local store today... It's called "8-Ball Squash," and according to Google, it's a cousin to the zucchini. It's a light green sphere about the size of a large fist, with stripes of a darker green. I found them for $1 each and bought a round half-dozen.

I'm going to try cutting four of them into slices of about 3/16" (4.75mm.) The slices from two will be lightly brushed with olive oil, dusted with salt and black pepper, and grilled over charcoal; and the slices from the other two will be done up in a tempura beer batter seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, and then fried. The last two I'll hold off on doing anything with until I see how the first four turn out, and then I'll take it from there.
 
Also... A side-note from my post #184:

I did the dinner as noted, plus drew on some local farms for items that aren't commercially available to make a traditional haggis. (I know haggis and sushi aren't anything like a traditional pairing, but it covers both halves of my wife's family, Scottish and white trash American, lol.) We had a great night, and she has been riding high on the enjoyment of the night for a week- which is a 100% win, in my book, lol. If my wife has a good night, I couldn't give a wrinkled rustic rural rat's rotten rusty unrepentant ass what anyone thinks of my cooking, lol!
 
Talisien said:
Also... A side-note from my post #184:

I did the dinner as noted, plus drew on some local farms for items that aren't commercially available to make a traditional haggis. (I know haggis and sushi aren't anything like a traditional pairing, but it covers both halves of my wife's family, Scottish and white trash American, lol.) We had a great night, and she has been riding high on the enjoyment of the night for a week- which is a 100% win, in my book, lol. If my wife has a good night, I couldn't give a wrinkled rustic rural rat's rotten rusty unrepentant ass what anyone thinks of my cooking, lol!
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Mewish proverb...."Happy Wifey....Happy Lifey~!" No? X3!
 
Harborer of Hope said:
Mewish proverb...."Happy Wifey....Happy Lifey~!" No? X3!
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People, it's nice you want to please your wife and all, but don't subscribe to this method of thinking.

It makes it seem like the husband's or other partner's spouse is not important at all and that you should just be a servant to your wife.

Y'all both should already be happy on your own and strive to increase each other's happiness.

If the only way you can be happy is by making someone else happy, then that is what we call a co-dependent relationship (or maybe you're fully dependent on the other person) and that's NOT GOOD.

Don't have a relationship like that.
 
Sodaboy said:
People, it's nice you want to please your wife and all, but don't subscribe to this method of thinking.

It makes it seem like the husband's or other partner's spouse is not important at all and that you should just be a servant to your wife.

Y'all both should already be happy on your own and strive to increase each other's happiness.

If the only way you can be happy is by making someone else happy, then that is what we call a co-dependent relationship (or maybe you're fully dependent on the other person) and that's NOT GOOD.

Don't have a relationship like that.
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Didn't intend on making it sound like a 90%/10% kinda relationship. But mew had always felt if you give whoever makes you happy %110...and they are shown it constantly, they will feel comfortable giving you %110 back as well. In Tali-kun's case....Happy Wife Tummy....Happy Cuddles later? >=3. Never meant to make the Hubby in any relationship LESS important by reciting some cliche' popular saying. So.......nya~! <3!
 
I'm with Teh Kitteh... I don't consider either my wife or I to be more or less important than the other in our relationship. (Well, maybe she is a LITTLE more important than I am... ;) )

Relationships are very much about finding a balance between the parties in it; and while a massive imbalance can be a problem, what works for any given relationship might not be what another relationship would consider 'balanced'. I point to an old saying... "Never judge your wheat by another man's scale, for you might find he uses another measure all together." A relationship is 100% relative; what works for you might be unacceptable to another, and only one who is party to it can truly make a judgment of its' worth.

My wife and I have been working on our relationship since 2009. We dated online in a purely verbal form for 15 months before meeting in person; we continued that relationship for another year before I moved close enough for us to continue the relationship in a more "traditional" format. We dated another 2.5 years before I proposed; another two years followed before we married. We've now been married almost 7 years, and we STILL consider it a work in progress... We both feel a healthy relationship is ALWAYS a work in progress.

*edited for punctuation and spelling errors
 
Spent the day working on some dishes for a holiday gathering tomorrow.

First, two cheese spreads. One is a combo of cream cheese, smoked goat cheese, blueberries, cranberries, and honey, along with some spices (ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and orange zest). The second is cream cheese, pepperjack cheese, anchovy paste, fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Gochujang, and spices (cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, onion powder, dill weed, and granulated garlic.) To serve with the spreads I have a selection of veggies (carrots, celery, and jicama) and crackers (nothing fancy here, just Wheat Thins and Triscuits.)

I also have a slow cooker filled with apple cider. It's spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, brown sugar, and saffron.

I'd have more going on, but I'm not the host, just a guest. I do have a bottle of rum to gift the host, though. (I know wine is traditional, but rum is his drink of choice.)
 
Tomorrow night I've got D&D (our usual game is on Saturday, but scheduling got borked this weekend.) Since we start play at around 5:30 PM I like to cook dinner for my players; this time I've got a pork shoulder in the slow cooker (about 4 lbs / 1.8 kilos). It spent the last 24 hours or so in the refrigerator marinating in a slow cooker bag with:
1 cup Mirin (an Asian sweet vinegar; you can substitute cooking sherry if you remove the salt later in this mix)
2 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp Mexican oregano
3 medium cloves minced garlic
1 cup diced onion
1 can (6 ounce) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced, with the sauce from the can
6 ounces tomato paste
1 inch minced ginger
1 tsp freshly ground mustard seed
2 packets sugar free instant apple cider mix
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 tsp white pepper

After marinating it was put in the slow cooker on Low with one 32 ounce can of crushed pineapple; it'll cook for about 14 hours, at which point I'll shred it with forks and thoroughly mix it around. I'll toast some potato bread rolls on a flat iron to serve it on. I'll make some fresh tortilla chips and cheese sauce to go with it, and some veggie sticks and a sour cream dip too.
 
Talisien said:
Tomorrow night I've got D&D (our usual game is on Saturday, but scheduling got borked this weekend.) Since we start play at around 5:30 PM I like to cook dinner for my players; this time I've got a pork shoulder in the slow cooker (about 4 lbs / 1.8 kilos). It spent the last 24 hours or so in the refrigerator marinating in a slow cooker bag with:
1 cup Mirin (an Asian sweet vinegar; you can substitute cooking sherry if you remove the salt later in this mix)
2 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp Mexican oregano
3 medium cloves minced garlic
1 cup diced onion
1 can (6 ounce) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced, with the sauce from the can
6 ounces tomato paste
1 inch minced ginger
1 tsp freshly ground mustard seed
2 packets sugar free instant apple cider mix
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 tsp white pepper

After marinating it was put in the slow cooker on Low with one 32 ounce can of crushed pineapple; it'll cook for about 14 hours, at which point I'll shred it with forks and thoroughly mix it around. I'll toast some potato bread rolls on a flat iron to serve it on. I'll make some fresh tortilla chips and cheese sauce to go with it, and some veggie sticks and a sour cream dip too.
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Mew couldn't possibly survive a D&D session with such a scrumptious meal....it'd KNOCK her Da FUK OUT!!! X'D!
 
Well, that's why I used rolls instead of full-size buns, lol... Keeps people from having to deal with their eyes being bigger than their belly! XD

Tonight's dinner is just the wife and I, being Valentine's Day. I've got a rack of pork ribs that's been covered in a dry rub and refrigerated overnight; it's going to slow cook for about 6 hours, at which point it will get a coating of barbecue sauce and passed through the broiler to get a nicely sticky layer of sauce on it. I'm serving it up with some from-scratch mashed potatoes with sour cream, shredded cheddar, and crispy bacon bits; and a side salad of lettuce, red cabbage, celery, carrot, and tomato, served with dressing (Italian for me, ranch for the wife) and some crispy fried wonton strips for texture. I've got a bottle of my wife's favourite red moscato for her to drink, and a nice scotch for me.
 
Talisien said:
Well, that's why I used rolls instead of full-size buns, lol... Keeps people from having to deal with their eyes being bigger than their belly! XD

Tonight's dinner is just the wife and I, being Valentine's Day. I've got a rack of pork ribs that's been covered in a dry rub and refrigerated overnight; it's going to slow cook for about 6 hours, at which point it will get a coating of barbecue sauce and passed through the broiler to get a nicely sticky layer of sauce on it. I'm serving it up with some from-scratch mashed potatoes with sour cream, shredded cheddar, and crispy bacon bits; and a side salad of lettuce, red cabbage, celery, carrot, and tomato, served with dressing (Italian for me, ranch for the wife) and some crispy fried wonton strips for texture. I've got a bottle of my wife's favourite red moscato for her to drink, and a nice scotch for me.
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Awwww YYYiiiiiis~! You Romantic soul you! <3
 
Yesterday was a total cheat! Hadn't eaten anything allllll day so at night while logging on at Midnight, mew made herself one of those cheap TOSTINO'S Frozen Pepperoni pizzas and cut them into pop-able mew sized squares to nibble on while playing~!
 

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Harborer of Hope said:
Yesterday was a total cheat! Hadn't eaten anything allllll day so at night while logging on at Midnight, mew made herself one of those cheap TOSTINO'S Frozen Pepperoni pizzas and cut them into pop-able mew sized squares to nibble on while playing~!
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I'd rarely turn away pizza, so that sounds like a good gaming food to me! I spend so much time cooking and baking that it feels like its all I do, so PSO is my escape from house duties lol. Curry is in; I took a large and well marbled chuck roast, and cut it to steak shape. Using everything I cut off when shaping, I cut that section into small cubes, seared them at high heat to add some texture/flavor/crispiness. The rest of the roast I cut (thickness wise) into two large steaks, so that'll be for another meal. Potatoes, onions and carrots are cut up, and placed in a slow cooker. Potatoes on bottom, then meat, then the carrots and onions on top. I used a Vermont Curry apple base, dissolved it in water, and then poured it on top of everything. Set it to high for 5 hours, then low for 1 or 2; and then you have curry! Just dont forget to make the rice during. Pics will come tonight, but I did take some of the process too.
 
Hanamaru said:
I'd rarely turn away pizza, so that sounds like a good gaming food to me! I spend so much time cooking and baking that it feels like its all I do, so PSO is my escape from house duties lol. Curry is in; I took a large and well marbled chuck roast, and cut it to steak shape. Using everything I cut off when shaping, I cut that section into small cubes, seared them at high heat to add some texture/flavor/crispiness. The rest of the roast I cut (thickness wise) into two large steaks, so that'll be for another meal. Potatoes, onions and carrots are cut up, and placed in a slow cooker. Potatoes on bottom, then meat, then the carrots and onions on top. I used a Vermont Curry apple base, dissolved it in water, and then poured it on top of everything. Set it to high for 5 hours, then low for 1 or 2; and then you have curry! Just dont forget to make the rice during. Pics will come tonight, but I did take some of the process too.
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Just READING this made mew SLEEPY!! lol! Have to be really careful what mew eats before/during PSO...Some foods like Steak, Chicken, Pasta....KNOCKS mew DA FUK OUT!!! ZZzzzzzz~! <3
 
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