Culinary adventures

This week I decided to take spatula in hand and play chef mike d at the House of Rock. There were a couple reasons for this. One, I got a handful of new recipes and have been wanting to try them out. And two, our weekly menus had been downgraded from Thrilling to Dull. In fact, last work week we had some sort of pasta related dish every single night.

I am ashamed.

So here’s a sampling of this week’s menu. Sunday night I made stuffed red bell peppers. They came out pretty well. The tomato and beef based stuffing was flavored with cumin, pepper flakes, onion, garlic, and thyme. And the red peppers softened up very nicely in the oven. Overall it was, a simple, quick, and delicious dish.

Last night was Chicken Paella. I got this recipe from a co-worker and it came out very nice. The chicken dish had fun flavorings of sausage, parsley, paprika, lemon juice, tomatoes, peppers, onion, s&p, and oregano. It also called for Orzo instead of rice. It was enjoyable.

Tonight we’ll be having lemon Asian chicken. Tomorrow pulled slow-cooked chicken. And Thursday something less exciting because I don’t think I’ll be around to cook.

I’m especially eager for Wednesday’s crock pot meal because I will be trying out liquid smoke for the first time.

Ahh foodery. How I love thee.

8 thoughts on “Culinary adventures

  • 5/23/2006 at 11:35 am
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    You made Paella without mentioning saffron? Saffron is what makes the Paella! It’s like making cashew chicken without cashews!

    I’m super hungry now. Paella is one of my all-time favorite dishes.

    Let me know how the liquid smoke stuff works. Seems like an oxymoron to me.

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  • 5/23/2006 at 11:58 am
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    If you really want to show your stuff you should make your own liquid smoke. Good ole AB did this on an episode of good eats. Glad you are making lots of tasty food this week!

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  • 5/23/2006 at 3:17 pm
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    ACTUALLY, this is interesting. The recipe that I have does not call for Saffron. This is especially unusual because the definition of Paella is a spanish dish with tomatoes, saffron, and rice. Not to mention that this recipe used Orzo instead of rice. So, technically, you could say that this was not Paella. Call it what you will, it was delicious.

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  • 5/23/2006 at 3:18 pm
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    Wow. I didn’t even know this stuff existed until a few days ago. Had I known that it’s something I could easily make, I would not have purchased it.

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  • 5/23/2006 at 4:43 pm
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    I think technically it’s not paella unless it’s made in a proper paella pan, but that’s probably a bit impractical (unless you have 50 or so people to feed).

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  • 5/24/2006 at 7:44 am
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    Although you can make it, don’t be fooled that it would be easy. Basically you have to make a smoker to smoke wood chips and then attached a condensor to the chimney to collect the condensed smoke. You can do this with things bought from home depot, but it’d probably take a whole weekend to put together and get enought smoke to use.

    Cheese on the other hand, easy peezy.

    Also a side note, I have a pottery suprise for you, it’s only 1/3 finished though, but let me say, it’s awesome! (Far better than the miserable failure of a mug/bowl set that I made for you two years ago.) Probably won’t be ready till you get back from China though.

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  • 5/24/2006 at 2:40 pm
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    No, you would have said that you could have easily made it and not bought it at all.

    Case in point:

    SALSA!

    Reply

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