Crispy Green Beans

Crispy Green Beans

It is getting closer to Thanksgiving and I'm starting to experiment with recipes again.  Green beans are not one of my favorite foods, but Guinea Pig likes them.  Last year's attempt was successful.  This year I went a different route and played with texture.  I liked the outcome a lot.  It was probably even better than last year, and that one had bacon in it.  This one is definitely a keeper.

Mini Philly Cheesesteak Meat Loaf

Mini Philly Cheesesteak Meat Loaf

The Guinea Pig has been on a Philly cheesesteak kick lately.  He's even talked about a possible road trip.  This inspired me to make tonight's meal.

I took the usual cheesesteak toppings (minus the cheese), chopped them up and mixed them with beef and egg.  I placed the mixture into silicone muffin forms and baked.  Once done, I topped each one with a slice of provolone and let that melt.

The mini meat loaves turned out pretty good.  They were also very filling.

Chicken Thigh Stew

Chicken Thigh Stew

After braising a fair number of chicken thighs, I decided to make a one-pot-meal with some.  Best way I could do that would be to turn it into a delicious stew.  Obvious additions were onions and potatoes.  Then I went a bit further and went for a little bit of color with carrots, snow peas, and a red bell pepper.  The shiitake mushrooms were a flavor addition.  Red bell pepper pretty much disintegrated while cooking, but it added plenty of flavor.

Braised Chicken Thighs

Braised Chicken Thighs

Weekends are great for meals that take longer to cook.  What's better than smelling a meal simmering on the stove for hours?  Eating it!  Lemon and soy sauce marinade worked wonders on the chicken thighs.  I only added black pepper for more seasoning.  I served the meat with a side of quinoa and spooned the onion and garlic mix on top.  The thighs were literally falling off the bones, but I don't mind.  I'm pretty sure that my Guinea Pig enjoyed.

Baked Scotch Eggs

Baked Scotch Eggs

Once in a while I do something totally stupid.  I attempt making a dish that I've never eaten, simply because I would like to taste it.  This time around the focus was a scotch egg.

Having never eaten one, I didn't realize that it was supposed to be deep fried.  I looked at a few recipes for ingredients, but never bothered to look at the directions.  When the realization hit, I started looking for alternatives.  None were too pleasing.  Pretty much every source I came upon told me that my experiment would not turn out so good and the meat would split away from the egg.  I decided I had to try anyway.

I strayed pretty far from most recipes I saw.  Instead of the pork sausage, I used regular ground pork and spiced it up with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and lots of garlic.  Instead of coating the meat wrapped eggs in raw egg and bread crumbs, I added it to the meat mixture as well.  That was my secret weapon.

I thought that maybe the reason why the meat was splitting away was it's lack of a binder.  Once the fat got cooked off, there was nothing left holding it together.  I was hoping my instinct was right and would pay off.

I watched the eggs bake cautiously, like a hawk watches its prey.  Expecting the meat to split away from the egg inside every time I turned the oven light on, but it never happened.  When I took the cooked eggs out of the oven, not one was affected.  All came out perfectly wrapped in a meat blanket.

As to the taste of the dish, it was great!  The Guinea Pig is already coming up with other uses for the pork mixture, such as pork burgers.

Kale Soba Noodles

Kale Soba Noodles

Today I decided to serve a vegetarian meal.   This was one of the quickest meals I've ever made and super simple as well.  Take half a bunch of kale, saute it with garlic, add soba noodles, season, and top with fried egg.  I added a bit of spices to mine while leaving The Guinea Pig's plain.  I've already been informed I'm going to be making this dish again.

Beef with Bell Pepper

Beef with Bell Pepper

For dinner tonight I made us some beef with red bell peppers that was served over basmati rice.  I started off by getting ingredients for a recipe and then changing it drastically.  It was seasoned with dry mustard, cayenne pepper, chili powder, black pepper, and salt.  I was a bit worried that it might turn out spicy, but in the end it had a nice little bite and was well within the Guinea Pig's tolerance levels.

BBQ Chicken Crostini

BBQ Chicken Crostini

Sometimes I just want a simple, quick meal.  Last night was one of those times.  I threw together a sour dough crostini topped with BBQ chicken, guacamole, and shredded cheddar.

I wanted the texture of shredded chicken, but I didn't plan ahead enough to make it from scratch.  Canned chicken to the rescue!  By itself, canned chicken is pretty bland.  Add to it some BBQ sauce and it starts tasting pretty good.  For a quick meal, it's a real time saver.

To make up for the chicken, I did make the guacamole from scratch.  It came out delicious and served as a great topping for the crostini.  Luckily there was some left over to have as a dip for chips.

Eggplant Dip

Eggplant Dip

We are doing a pot-luck-like thing at work, where every two weeks someone brings a dish starting with the next letter of the alphabet.  My turn is the letter "E."  My first inclination was to make an egg salad with bacon and avocado, but after a trial run I was looking for something else to bring.  After being left on the counter for a little bit of time, the whole mixture turned an unappealing brown-ish color.  This didn't change the taste, but I was worried the color would be a prohibitive turn-off for most of my co-workers.

As I kept thinking of what I could do to improve the egg salad recipe appearance without changing the taste profile, I kept coming up with nothing.  Then I started thinking of what else I could make that started with "E" and would be more successful than the browning egg salad and came up with eggplant dip.

My family has a very delicious recipe for eggplant dip, but I wanted to create my own, as I usually do.  The dip dry run was a success and I will be bringing it in to work in another week or so.  I plan to serve the eggplant dip with some mini-toasts.  I hope that my co-workers enjoy it as much as The Guinea Pig has. 

Prosciutto and Fig on a Bed of Butter Lettuce

Prosciutto and Fig
on a Bed of Butter Lettuce

It's summer time and there is lots of fresh produce to enjoy.  Last night, I raided the fridge and through together a nice, light dinner.  All it took was a few leaves of butter lettuce, a slice of prosciutto, sliced figs, sliced tomatoes, sliced avocado, and a bit of goat cheese crumble on top.  

Salmon Tartare

Salmon Tartare

I've been wanting to make a tartare for a long time.  After finding a new favorite tuna tartare over the weekend, I decided this week was it!  So today was the day.

I came up with a combination of relatively simple flavors I wanted to combine and began dicing.  Salmon, avocado, shallot, and chives later were seasoned with lemon zest, masago, salt and pepper.  Simple yet delicious.

My perceived success made me proclaim that I were a genius as soon as The Guinea Pig walked in the house.  We quickly proceeded to devour every last bite.  The tartare was served with some sliced cucumbers and freshly made crostini.  I have a feeling I'll be making this one again, very soon.

Parsley and Rice Soup

Parsley and Rice Soup

I had a bunch of parsley in the fridge dying to be used.  I figured why not make a soup with it?  I started planning.  At first I was going to use potatoes, but then decided on rice instead.  Onions, carrots, and celery were a given.  Simple seasoning of salt and pepper worked out great.

Broccoli Bell Pepper Salad

Broccoli Bell Pepper Salad

To accompany Guinea Pig's amazing Korean BBQ Ribs, I decided to make a salad.  The dressing for this one envolved soy sauce, peanut butter, and honey.

At first I was a bit worried about the chunks of broccoli and how they would go together with the ribs, but my worries were unfounded.  I almost licked the bowl clean.

Needless to say that I will be making this again very soon.  Good thing I only made half the recipe and still have all the needed fix-ins.

Korean BBQ Ribs

Korean BBQ Ribs

Another turn for the Guinea Pig to cook.  He's been bugging me for something to make on the grill and when I came across a recipe for Korean BBQ Ribs, I couldn't resist.

The Guinea Pig outdid himself this time.  The ribs came out finger licking good.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

New Years Eve Meal

New Years Eve Meal Menu

For the past few years, it's been just the Guinea Pig and me for New Years.  We usually just make a goose.  A wonderfully, melt-in-your-mouth, fall-off-the-bones, delicious goose.  It has always been more than enough food for us and satisfied our needs.

This year, we had a few guests over, 5 to be exact.  One goose was not going to be enough.  On top of that, one guest was a vegetarian, so the goose definitely wouldn't work.  I decided to make another meal.  I made all the sides/soup vegetarian, this way the one guest could eat everything but the goose and I wouldn't have to worry about her having enough food.

Winter Vegetable Soup

I started the dinner with a winter vegetable soup I've made before.  One of the guests was crazy about sweet potatoes, so I ended up putting a few more in the soup.  She loved the addition and it didn't hurt the flavor.  I kept the seasoning to just salt and pepper, not wanting to over power the rest of the meal.

For sides I went with 3 salads - beet, carrot, and eggplant - and a hot side of pearl barley with peas and mushrooms.  All were a hit.  At the end of the night, I maybe had a tablespoon of each left over and was going to toss it.  One of the guests stopped me saying she'll eat them for breakfast, which she did.

Goose and Sides

The goose was perfect, as always.  All four paws went right away and some came back for seconds.  We barely ended up with leftovers this year, which means everyone enjoyed.

For dessert, I let the Guinea Pig make a layered pudding cake.  Finding a recipe for something called "sex in a pan" will brighten anybody's mood.  I added simple gel icing to it.

Pudding Cake

Carnitas Tacos

Carnitas Tacos

Since the first recipe that the Guinea Pig made turned out amazing, I figured I'd let him try another one.  This one required meat to be in a slow cooker for a day.

Unfortunately, I think I ended up taking over too much.  I guess I just couldn't sit and watch something that I knew I would do differently if I were making it.  I ended up putting together the spice mix rub to use on the meat and I cut up all the veggies.

What started out as a Guinea Pig special, ended up being a joint venture.  The outcome was totally delicious.  Next time, the Guinea Pig will do more of the cooking.

Christmas Meal

Christmas Menu

Having successfully put together a Thanksgiving meal, I endeavored to repeat the feat for Christmas.  This time around, I did not try out any of the recipes ahead of time.  Even roasting a duck full was new to me.  It was a calculated risk worth taking.

Knowing that roasting the duck would take the longest, I made the cranberry pie first thin in the morning.  It teased us the rest of the day.  I prepped all the ingredients for the soup, salad, and side dishes ahead of time.  I even got to have all four burners going while the majority of the cooking took place.

Spaghetti and Pea Soup

I chose a light soup to start the meal with.  It was also very simple:  onions, peas, spaghetti, chicken stock with salt and pepper for added seasoning.  After the first bite, the Guinea Pig declared that we are going to be making this soup again...soon!  I guess I'll take that as a very successful starter to the meal.

Chopped Kale Salad

Next up was the salad.  Once again, wishing to keep things light and simple it had few ingredients:  kale, pine nuts, golden raisins, Parmesan cheese with a lemon juice and olive oil dressing.  I think there may have been a bit too much dressing, but that would be my only negative comment about the dish.  All the flavors really came together well.

Oven Roasted Duck

Then came the star of the meal.  As the duck was cooking, it seemed that it was more melting away than roasting.  Having never roasted a duck before and knowing how fatty the breast is, I wanted to see if scoring it would have any effect.  I scored one side and left the other as is.  I was surprised to see that the scored side ended up with more fat under the skin and the other side seemed to have had more of the fat cook off.

I chose a sampling of both light and dark meats to be able to fully evaluate the success of the duck.  I was a bit afraid that having been in the oven for over four hours, the breast meat would be tough.  No such thing happened!  Both types of meat were wonderfully moist.

Toasted Quinoa with Mushrooms

As a side to the duck, I made toasted quinoa with mushrooms.  Mushrooms are always good.  A pound of assorted mushrooms is even better.  Add to that quinoa toasted with garlic in sesame seed oil and cooked with vegetable stock and you got yourself one delicious combination.  While the quinoa was cooking in one pot, I was busy sauteing the mushrooms in a large pan.  It always amazes me how much mushrooms cook down.

Cranberry Pie

Both Guinea Pig and I were being careful not to get too full.  We did not want to miss out on the dessert.  When the time finally came to devour the pie that's been filling the house with delicious smells for the better part of the day, we were not disappointed.  We warmed it up a bit, being careful not to dry it out.  It was a perfect way to end the meal.

Pomegranate Cranberry Sangria

All throughout the meal, and for the better part of the day, the Guinea Pig and I got to enjoy a yummy beverage.  My first sangria came out pretty good.  I made the decision to keep ginger ale out of the mix and add it to order so as not to let all the carbonation out.  I even enjoyed the fruit.

This Christmas meal was another success.  A delicious side effect of making a lot of food for just two people is that we now have enough food to last us the rest of the year.

Braised Pork Belly

Braised Pork Belly

The Guinea Pig has been asking to have a go at cooking something delicious for us to enjoy.  He's off for the rest of the year, which makes this a perfect time to try.  He's good at following recipes to the letter, which makes it the perfect time to try something new and totally out of our comfort zone.

I have to really applaud the end result.  The pork belly was melting at every bite.  The sauce was fantastic!  I think I like this Guinea Pig cooking complex dishes idea.  Especially dishes where the recipe has to be followed as a rule rather than a guideline.

Soba Noodle Soup

Soba Noodle Soup

It's cold outside and a I'm craving a hearty soup.  I found a quick and simple way of making one.  Step one:  stir fry some veggies.  I used carrots, snow peas, onions, and mushrooms.  Step two:  add stock - vegetable for me.  Step three:  add cooked soba noodles.  Step four:   enjoy!  The soba noodles make it a really filling soup.

Avocado Tuna Salad

Avocado Tuna Salad

This one is another attempt to replace mayo with avocado.  It makes for a quick and simple meal with a healthy update.  Mash avocado, add 2 cans of drained tuna, mix.  Serve as a melt between two pieces of wheat toast with a slice of cheese or open faced.