What are you cooking?

[coupleonapkins]

Winter is my favorite cooking season, but I'd been unmotivated until a couple I know told me they're going to be producing a baby and when I asked how I could help, they suggested freezing some meals for them. So far I've made

- Garlicky heirloom red beans
- Italian sausage ragu with tomatoes and red wine
- Chicken & potato soup, with mirepoix and tomatoes

And I'm presently cooking canary/peruvian/mayacoba beans with charred tomatillos, jalapeños, and onions and also a can of corn. The ratio of corn to beans is a little higher than I was aiming for but it tastes pretty decent.

Next weekend I'm going to cook my once-a-year chili con carne, and another friend told me lasagna freezes well, so might give that a first shot.

Beanfest: imminent

I think I ate frozen homemade lasagna for a better part of five years as a kid, and do not regret a minute of it. My mom used to incorporate cottage cheese, but that's before we all discovered ricotta.

I tried to eat a raw tomato everyday after binging a few rewatch seasons of The Sopranos, but I quickly figured out I am a ketchup packet man, possibly slow cooked gravy man (on thee show: "Gravy's good 2nite!", sez Vito).

Hennywaze, I suggest preparing enchiladas, bean-centric burritos, ziti, or assorted pasta bakes for yer freezer-centric frenz, w/ manny happy returnz

[mitchelr]

I'll try a shrimp salad today.

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

I've made this twice & think it's so good that I want to share it: https://simple-veganista.com/vegan-irish-stew/

[Kacey Y]

I've been into gluten free baking recipe development, since I got my celiac diagnosis a couple years ago. I'm working on a focaccia recipe right now, playing with the hydration levels, technique, and rise time. This is version 2 of the recipe so far and I've been making progress on getting a more airy interior without losing a nice soft fluffy texture and crisp crust. I'm going to keep pushing it, trying to get some nice big airy bubbles. I'm testing with small 4" round silicone molds that I usually use for sandwich rolls, so the results are making for amazing breakfast sammies

gf focaccia v2a.png (890.8 KiB) Viewed 960 times

gf focaccia v2b.png (938.33 KiB) Viewed 960 times

[coldbrightsunlight]

That's cool! Very good effort, I have mostly given up on making good gluten free bread, except flatbread. Make some decent sweet things, if it doesn't have to rise much I'll try making it So I am extremely humbled by this!

[Kacey Y]

That's cool! Very good effort, I have mostly given up on making good gluten free bread, except flatbread. Make some decent sweet things, if it doesn't have to rise much I'll try making it So I am extremely humbled by this!

Thanks! I don't blame you, gluten free baking is not immediately intuitive and very fiddly! I'm a carbs girlie through and through, so I was very motivated to learn once I found out my beloved breads were the reason I ended up going to the hospital 4 times in 6 weeks lol. It took me over a year to bake gluten free bread from scratch that wasn't an abomination. I went full on autistic special interest on it though and did deep research and methodical experimentation, and figured out all the basics principles from scratch. It's still a challenge with each new type of recipe. I developed 4 different GF muffin recipes last year and a couple of them flat out failed in horrific ways, after I already succeeded with others. The first time I ever made a gluten free artisan loaf that could make garlic bread up to the standards of me and my (very openly critical) children, I felt like I had stolen fire from the gods

[coupleonapkins]

That's cool! Very good effort, I have mostly given up on making good gluten free bread, except flatbread. Make some decent sweet things, if it doesn't have to rise much I'll try making it So I am extremely humbled by this!

Thanks! I don't blame you, gluten free baking is not immediately intuitive and very fiddly! I'm a carbs girlie through and through, so I was very motivated to learn once I found out my beloved breads were the reason I ended up going to the hospital 4 times in 6 weeks lol. It took me over a year to bake gluten free bread from scratch that wasn't an abomination. I went full on autistic special interest on it though and did deep research and methodical experimentation, and figured out all the basics principles from scratch. It's still a challenge with each new type of recipe. I developed 4 different GF muffin recipes last year and a couple of them flat out failed in horrific ways, after I already succeeded with others. The first time I ever made a gluten free artisan loaf that could make garlic bread up to the standards of me and my (very openly critical) children, I felt like I had stolen fire from the gods

Best I've ever managed was non-gluten tortillas (easily the best way to glute w/o gluting), but I do indulge in the occasional slice or two of grilled sourdough just to teach myself that life is fleeting and the joy can somethymmes outweigh d'pain (triple entendre!). But good on you for fighting that fight - nothing beats yeast hitting dough for a few cycles, though, cauliflowers be damned. Zucchini bread is also a deep cut around here, but I try to pawn it off to strangers covertly just so's I can have a few slices for myself.

I'm down to about one meal a day now, so all my cooking efforts are kinda outta wack with most ppl's diets, probably more of a personal 6-course meal, but like every course is some sort of vegetable, then progressively more protein, with a few carbs thrown in at the end like a pair of dice or a cascaron's worth of confetti.

I am definitely on board with Neal Brennan's idea that all food is just a delivery service for sauces & dressings at this point tho


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtwF5kJYoY

[coldbrightsunlight]

Tortillas are great, have made some great tacos, I make a pretty mean gram flour flatbread, there's definitely stuff that's good and doable, just tends to be of the flat variety. Fine with me as I've never actually been able to eat gluten to know what I'm missing out on This probably helps a lot, though even I can detect most gluten free bread sucks so I tend to just not eat bread a lot. There are many other foods.

One meal a day! Interesting approach

[Kacey Y]

I'm down to about one meal a day now, so all my cooking efforts are kinda outta wack with most ppl's diets, probably more of a personal 6-course meal, but like every course is some sort of vegetable, then progressively more protein, with a few carbs thrown in at the end like a pair of dice or a cascaron's worth of confetti.

I am definitely on board with Neal Brennan's idea that all food is just a delivery service for sauces & dressings at this point tho

I'm all for viewing food as a delivery system for sauces lol

Tortillas are great, have made some great tacos, I make a pretty mean gram flour flatbread, there's definitely stuff that's good and doable, just tends to be of the flat variety. Fine with me as I've never actually been able to eat gluten to know what I'm missing out on This probably helps a lot, though even I can detect most gluten free bread sucks so I tend to just not eat bread a lot. There are many other foods.

I have one friend who was also diagnosed (and most likely activated from dormancy through major life/medical stress) with celiac in recent years, and she is on that POV of "oh well, there's other foods to eat, I'm not going to try to replace stuff". I kind of split the different, I buy a few gluten free products, mostly just eat differently now, but the gluten free baking is more a hobby that I enjoy even separate from the results tbh. As long as I have potatoes, I'm ok. If I lose potatoes, I will snap ngl

[coldbrightsunlight]

haha yes that would break me. And don't get me wrong, I wiiish I had the time/energy to work on baking as I'm sure I'd love it if I got the chance to perfect some recipes! Love new foods, love baked stuff. Just not something I find I'm able to prioritise for now. Like everyone else I tried sourdough during the pandemic (using teff flour as the starter if I remember right) and I made a couple of loaves I remember being really pretty good, and fun to make, but then life gets in the way unless you make something part of the List Of Things That MUST Be Done.

[coupleonapkins]

I love potatoes, but my current diet recommends to eat 'em cold? I guess because the starches are less active, hence less of a blood sugar spike (I'm on a blood sugar regulating diet, because of course!). In that form, sweet potatoes are pretty great, even though in olde thymmes I would've smothered 'em in maple syrup.

I found some japanese purple yams the other day, and IIRC I need to spike em w/ a fork & freeze 'em b4 oven roasting them to pull out all the sugars during the cook, which is a method that's used in upper mountain areas for ultra deliciousness. I've probably mentioned this earlier in the thread, but desperation, etc., GIMME YAMS

I should probably add that this madness is also because I'm avoiding most non-additive sugar sources, unless it's way later in a meal (more annoying than it sounds, probably).

[coldbrightsunlight]

Wow that all sounds pretty tricky. Hope you're getting on OK with it. Potatoes can be nice cold if done right (boiled or roast, can be super delicious or even perhaps better than hot...) but it does need more foresight than making 'em fresh!

[Kacey Y]

That's a lot to keep track of! I'm glad I like cooking, so at least having to cook almost all of my meals, to know what's in them, isn't toooo bad

GF Focaccia update: V4 of the recipe, first full scale bake test. I'm happy with it, but I still want to play around with the order of operations and a few little things, to see if it affects anything. If I didn't do anything else though, I'd be happy with the results. My 7 year old declared "I would eat your focaccia forever, it's delicioso!"

gf focaccia v4.png (641.31 KiB) Viewed 846 times

[coldbrightsunlight]

awwww so cute. An appreciative audience makes cooking even more fun

[coupleonapkins]

Looks absolutely beautyful, my goodness