Yesterday I cooked spaghetti carbonara. It's my fav dish.
Easy to do and delicious. We need pasta, eggs, cheese, and bacon. Ready in less than 45 minute

For my wedding, one of my friends from college gave my wife and I some curry and spices from Sri Lanka (where my friend is from) as well as Saudi Arabia. I've made some really fantastic curry chicken in our crock pot with those spices! And it's so easy too. I know crock pots are so stereotypical white-American... but what can I say? Just throw some boneless/skinless chicken breasts in there along with diced onions and peppers, coconut milk, potatoes (this time we did regular/white and sweet potatoes), and whatever spices. Then let it cook all day long while you're away at work and come home to an epic smelling home with delicious dinner ready to be consumed! I love it.

Stereotypical white American my ass! Slow cookers are gods among cooking devices.

Please don't think I'm a generic Zimbabwean but I think using toasters to make toast is just tops.

Hahaha I'm glad someone else understands my adoration for these machines of wonder. My wife loves the food I make with ours, though she also enjoys making fun of them because prior to meeting me, she never saw the use for a slow cooker.

My wife is great at cooking. I'm fond of her homemade burgers and pizza. To work I also prefer to take only homemade food in special containers (found them here http://allinpackaging.co.uk/food-packaging/) to save money. Want to buy a multicooker for her next week. She likes all these new cooking devices.

Speaking of slow cookers, I've been making good use of mine. They're usually crazy expensive in Korea but someone was selling one for cheap in a going back home sale, so I snagged it. Last week I made some chicken chili, this week I've done a batch of chicken with onions, white beans, garlic, cherry tomatoes, herbs and balsamic vinegar. Next week maybe I'll do barbecue sausages, onions and beans. I imagine it's not difficult to do curries as well - gotta see if I can get my hands on the proper spices and give that a shot.

Made a big bunch of awesome homemade falafels yesterday for people in my shared apartment. Good stuff.

I made absolutely awesome baked rosemary potato wedges yesterday evening. I should have taken a pic, but basically, get potatoes with floury texture, cut them into heavy wedges, and boil them for a minute or two. Dry their surfaces by pressing them with a towel, mix in a shitload of finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves and a bit of salt. Add a chunk of butter on top, and put them in the oven at 200 C (639 Mickey Mouse degrees, I think). Turn them over every ten minutes, to make sure the butter gets everywhere, and let them brown for the last 20 minutes. Bake until really soft inside and mildly dry on the surface.

Bloody awesome! They cried and begged for a steak on the same plate, but I didn't have one. Damn.

Rosemary and potatoes go great together. Love it on pizza.

Made some legit chocolate cinammon buns the other day and I wanted to make some again last night. I was out of heavy whipping cream though so I used coconut milk (I always have cans of this in the cupboard) and while it was really tough to to make the dough into something nice, the result was tasty even if it was ugly. I decided to cook the whole rectangle (or almost a rectangle) instead of cutting it into slices first. I did slice after it spent some time in the oven.

Inside: butter, cinammon and choco chips
+ glaze (cacao powder, powdered sugar, milk, some maple syrup)

pork chops on a cast iron skillet rules. especially if you brine 'em for a few hours.

actually all food rules on a cast iron skillet. best purchase i've ever made.

Going to make tilapia with a roasted poblano and pineapple sauce. This may or may not end well.

Always interesting to see/read what people around the world put on their plates!
I'll be having red cabbage with potatoes tonight, seasoned with white wine, shredded apple, black pepper and cumin, all cooked in one pot (my preferred way of cooking in general). A simple, rustic, affordable, healthy and yummy dish.

I've been using my crock pot on and off. Its really a fail safe cooking item for the single guy. Tonight I am going to make chicken pot pie in the crock pot. When its all done, I'm going to put it over biscuits.

Sounds amazing! Mind sharing the chili & chicken recipes?

I recently made a slow-cooker cider pork stew with two pounds of pork shoulder straight from the butcher shop. Will post the recipe when I get home tonight.

I'd get way fancier with this stuff with easier access to more diverse ingredients, but for the chili:

500g of chicken breast
Diced pickled jalapeno
A couple cans of peeled tomatoes, crushed
Chopped garlic to taste
One onion, chopped
A couple cans of kidney beans (more bean variety = better!)
One can corn
Salt, depending on how salty your canned goods were
Chili powder (lots! maybe 1/3 of one of those bigger spice containers)
Cumin (about half of however much chili powder you used)
Hot sauce to taste

And that's it. Put it all in the slow cooker and just put it on low in the morning and it'll be perfect when you get home from work. Top with raw diced onion, cilantro and cheese if you want.

The balsamic chicken is basically the same:
500g chicken breasts
Olive oil - I dunno, a couple spoons?
About 1/3 a bottle of balsamic vinegar
Basil - I dunno, a palmful?
More of those crushed tomatoes - same as the chili
Chopped garlic to taste
One sliced onion
2 cans white beans - would've used chickpeas if I could find them*

Same as the chili. This would probably be good served over rice or couscous or something like that, but I'm trying to limit my carbs and eat more protein, hence the beans in the pot instead.

Don't forget the peas.

I think I've made a big improvement to my sausage pepper rigatoni! This might be my best batch ever! Tried adding a few dashes of paprika lemon & lime spice and oh man, it adds the perfect little extra fresh flavor to this stuff. *drooling noises*

But Crick, what happened to the pasta? All crushed?

Yeah, what on earth did you do to that pasta?

I made bao (Chinese steamed buns) the other day. Stuffed them with spicy tofu, pickled carrots and cilantro. Super delicious, and easier than I thought it was going to be.

I indulged in one of my favourite snacks today: Slices of bread with Sambal Oelek and fresh onions. I absolutely love it and easily consume a whole loaf of bread in one day this way. Downside: Onion breath!

I stirred the hell out of it because its a giant pot and there were a lot of layers to fold in to one another. I actually enjoy the smashedness as well, it makes it easier to eat it with a spoon instead of a fork. Big bites of bits.

Sautueéing (that a fuckin word?) spinach and leafy greens in spices u like is a good way to get dem gross bishes in ya mouth.

Gnudles:



First time I've successfully done a wine reduction. Spaghetti cooked in red wine, then topped with ricotta, slivered almonds and fried leeks. + Homemade garlic bread.

Can I be your second wife, gnu?

I'm vetting Erosion right now, but I'll put you on the waitlist.

Well I'm seeing him next week so there's a big possibility that he's not coming back to the US alive then!

This Great Value sweet and strong mustard is my new culinary discovery. I'll put it everywhere. The first victim is minced ham with minced eggs sandwiches with strong cheddar.

That mustard is good! Great Value fucking sucks 99% of the time but that mustard is good stuff. Man, I want some mustard...

I've been rather neglecting this place as I've not had time for as elaborate cooking for the family recently. At least not as much as before or for taking photos of the display as working and studying both full-time, just takes up way too much time. But as Easter rolled around, I'm stuck on stand-by so no family dinner unfortunately, but just a simple dinner of pulled mutton, hidden underneath a spicy, vinegary tomato sauce and slathering of lo-fat Greek yogurt with sides of roasted asparagus slathered with olive oil and lemon juice and roasted bell pepper. Another side is coleslaw (not pictured). Lighting sucks at this place so...

That sounds great, but I think you got yogurt on your fork handle!

Experimenting a bit: just now I put 1kg of deboned chicken thighs in the slow cooker with 100g of Thai red curry paste, a few spoons of fish sauce, a couple of sliced onions and about a cup of dried chickpeas with some chicken bullion cubes and water to cover. Gonna cook it on low about 6 hours, then take the lid off in the morning to let some of the water evaporate off while I'm at the gym, then when I get home from the gym I'm gonna stir in some coconut milk and greek yogurt, pop in the shower, turn off the heat and serve with fresh basil. If this works well, I'm gonna try some other curries out as well.

Edit: success! Eating it now and it's delicious. I guess there wasn't a lot that could have gone wrong, except for the chickpeas not cooking, but they came out absolutely perfectly cooked. Now that I know I have ready access to cheap 500g bags of cheap ones, they're definitely gonna become a regular part of my diet. Shoulda put more in here tbh.

I need to speak with someone who is from Italy or Sicily. I want to know how they make their pastas.

Well, being encouraged by that simple curry I made last week and how ace the chickpeas came out, I took the long trek over to the Asian mart over in the industrial zone and got a bigass haul of mostly spices and curry mixes. Tried to get a good mix of Thai and Indian stuff. Also got a big box of cumin that I can use for my more Mexican-oriented dishes, since they don't have cumin in regular supermarkets here.

This week I'm gonna try a simple Indian curry, using a pre-mixed curry powder (got a delicious sounding mix of spices in there), some onions, garlic, tomatoes, chicken thighs once again, and more chickpeas. I'll follow the same procedure as last time for the most part, but this time I think I'm gonna do the more traditional way of browning the onions and garlic in oil with some of the curry powder, then browning the chicken pieces in that, then transferring to the slow cooker before adding the tomatoes, chickpeas and remaining curry powder. Then in the morning, again, I'll keep the lid off to let some of the liquid cook out, then add in Greek yogurt (got some better stuff this time) for the last stretch of cooking.

These chickpeas have really been a lifesaver. I was struggling to find a way to add more "filler" to slow cooker recipes that had more fiber and protein rather than eating it with any kind of bread or rice, both as a dietary consideration and to make the cooking process easier, and chickpeas were the perfect fit there. I guess lentils would be great, too.

I have a slow cooker and while I haven't made many different things in it, I really like it.

I made potato salad today, here is my recipe if anyone is interested:

Boil 400g potatoes and cut into small chunks.
Mix it in a large bowl with:
1 Tablespoon mayonnaise/equivalent
1 Dessert spoon horseradish
1 Teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 red onion
A few grinds of sea salt
More grinds of black pepper than salt

Nice and hot without being spicy, if that makes sense. Had it with some lovely bean burgers.

I just made a pretty damn good hybrid of guacamole and a salad, and served it with rice, steamed broccoli and baked salmon with lime. 'twas very nice.

As I read your post, flavours associated with the words coming along were stacking up in my mind and building into a delicious imagination of what you've eaten. Sounds very good indeed! I had another single pot dish consisting of white rice, savoy cabbage and dried pears, also a nice eat.

Good recipe. I'll try to remember to use it next time I want some potato salad.

Here's the pizza I made tonight:
I used a small naan bread (made 2 identical ones)
-Minced cooked ham
-Shallots
-White onion
-Oka cheese (one of Québec' most famous cheese)
- Cream cheese sauce (milk + garlic + salt/peppah + cream cheese)

+ sliced chicken brain (4 pieces)

This week I did a Thai green curry with pork. Fuuuuuck this one's really good. Probably my favorite so far.

1kg diced pork (about the size of the chunks of beef you get when you buy stew beef)
Two medium onions sliced thin
Eight or so cloves of garlic, sliced
Maybe a cup of dried chickpeas
Couple spoonfuls of Thai fish sauce
Couple of chicken bullion cubes
100g Thai green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
Cilantro, Thai basil

Just put everything except the coconut milk and herbs in the slow cooker. Cook on low ~8 hours with enough water to come like 2/3 of the way up it (try to make sure all the chickpeas are down in the liquid). Uncover, turn up to high, stir in coconut milk and stir every few minutes to cook some of the liquid off. Turn off the heat, scoop it into a bowl (or over rice or whatever) and garnish with torn up herbs.

A mother's day dinner:



From left to right that's vegetable stew (tomato, zucchini, bell pepper, garlic in a sauce of balsamic and apple cider vinegar and lager), green salad, herring in creme fil, pickled Baltic herring, roasted vegetables (zucchini, tomato, bell pepper, onion), Thai chicken, chicken Tikka Masala and roasted potatoes hidden in the dish top right.