ODG Eats

 This is the meal that has no end...well, it did end, sadly, but that's why we have leftovers! Tonight, I cooked up some lamb shoulder chops with pasta salad and an assortment of veggies. I'll talk about the lamb first, then the veggies, then the pasta salad. First off, I heated my pan, then added in some butter and olive oil. Once that got good and melted/hot, I dumped in a few crushed garlic cloves and some mint leaves. I love mint with lamb. I seasoned the lamb with salt and pepper, then started them up cooking. It took a while. Once the bottom was browned, I flipped them and kept on cooking. Eventually, I turned them onto the fat sides for a little while, then on the bone side for a little while, and, eventually, it was done. It took for-fucking-ever because I kept the heat on a medium-low, but I just kept basting it and, eventually, ended up with it cooked medium, which suited me fine. My veggie blend tonight consisted of asparagus,...

 Fried rice is one of my "kitchen sink" dishes: whatever random bits and pieces I have around can easily be tossed in. I'm sure I'll have more of them on here before too long. In fact, the only ingredients I need to make sure I have for making my fried rice are ginger, soy sauce, and, well, rice. Granted, sesame oil is always a perfect addition, and garlic and eggs are important, too, but I can live without them. Tonight was fried rice with tofu, ginger, garlic, shallot, baby broccoli, carrot, orange bell pepper, kale, mushrooms, and eggs. I diced a block of super firm tofu, sliced the mushrooms, broccoli, and most of the garlic, diced the bell pepper, julienned the carrot, and minced the ginger, shallot, and a couple of the garlic cloves. Starting off, I heated my wok up pretty hot and added in some sesame oil. Great flavor, great aroma...it may be my favorite oil, except for the higher price point. Once the oil was heated, I dumpe...

I cook one meal at a time, and I'm only cooking for me. Folks who work commercial kitchens can crank out hundreds of meals a day, which is amazing to me. I decided tonight to try cooking two different dishes at once. Turns out it's something I can do. Sunday is usually my day for getting rid of odds and ends in the kitchen. I hate wasting food, so I have to do something with everything before it goes bad, which means I had a bit of an assortment of things to use up today. Seemed like the perfect time to knock out a few different meals at once. I didn't take a lot of pictures because, as it turns out, keeping multiple pans with different items at different temps really keeps your hands busy, so this isn't a step-by-step of anything. Instead, it's a warning: don't try this without thinking ahead about what you're making. I learned that lesson hard tonight: lots of scrambling, adjusting, readjusting. There were a handful of times I almos...

 I still can't even spell it. My eggs always tear. Things spill, eggs burn, it's overseasoned, it's underseasoned, and don't even get me started on the whole "flipping" disaster.  Today went a little bit better than usual, at least. My vegetable peeler was in the dishwasher, so I butchered the carrot with my paring knife. Along with the carrot-strocity, I grabbed a radish, a baby bella mushroom, a couple cloves of garlic, some red bell pepper, baby broccoli, and a sprig of parsley. I sliced the carrot, mushroom, garlic, and broccoli, diced the radish and bell pepper, and chopped up the parsley. I saved some of the sliced garlic to the side to mince while the veggies were cooking. Cooking order today was olive oil => red pepper flakes => sliced garlic => carrot => radish => broccoli => bell pepper => mushroom. I can't give you cook times; I just threw in the next one when it seemed like the "righ...

 Si puedes leer esto, estás demasiado cerca. I was hungry as fuck tonight, so I almost stopped at my favorite Mexican joint on my way home. However, I was able to exert what little willpower I had and finished driving home, where I had thawed chicken legs and random veggies. So I made chicken and veggies. Tonight's non-chicken ingredients were kale, two radishes, a baby bella mushroom, four cloves of garlic, a piece of red bell pepper, a lime, a few sprigs of cilantro, and the last of my habanero. I stripped the kale leaf off the stem and sliced them up (separately) and diced the mushroom, bell pepper, and radish. One clove of garlic was sliced, one was minced, the the other two were slivered. I don't know if that's a real word, but it's what I call it when I slice it longways instead of across. The habanero was minced, the cilantro was chopped up, and the lime was zested and juiced. Numbered from left to right (small brown => blue...

 I'm still working my way through my habanero. I have a lot of veggies that need to be eaten, and I need to eat a lot of veggies. Seems like a match made in heaven. Tomatoes, mushrooms, kale, red bell pepper, radish, shallot, garlic, and, of course, some habanero rounded out the plant-based side of my meal tonight. Bowl 1 Minced garlic Minced habanero Bowl 2 Chopped kale stem Diced red bell pepper Garlic slivers Bowl 3 Sliced mushrooms Quartered tomatoes (with a little salt) Bowl 4 Chopped kale leaves Diced shallot Sliced garlic Tonight was a chicken breast night. I seasoned it up with some salt, black pepper, and oregano, then started it off in some butter and olive oil. Rather than just making the same thing as last night, I decided to shake things up a bit by adding the habanero in with the protein instead of in the sauce, so Bowl 1 got added in before I flipped the chicken the first time. That way, when I basted, I got nice little...