Strangeness and Charm

It's been a while since I've posted this and I have quite a few to post. So I will be doing several!

54. Baked Spaghetti Squash with Spinach and Cheese

recipe here

A bunch of friends came over and made dinner with me. This was a rich dish, like most dishes with spaghetti squash are. Unfortunately my friends didn't mix everything together once it was in the pan, but it was still really delicious and easy to make. In fact, cutting the spaghetti squash was really the hardest part. It is a bit time consuming as the squash has to cook for an hour before you can shred it, so that plus preparation plus baking the actual dish probably took about 2 hours.

55. Skinny Chicken Enchiladas
recipe here

So, I say I used that recipe but I kind of didn't. What happened was that I realized that I had bought EVERYTHING for the enchiladas except the tomato sauce to make the actual enchilada sauce with. None of my friends had tomato sauce, but I found a recipe that was like, Italian style enchiladas that used spaghetti sauce instead. But because I used spaghetti sauce, I had to chance the recipe quite a bit. Like, I couldn't use a lot of the spices because the flavors would clash. And then for some reason the oven wouldn't melt the cheese, so it was a bit of a disastrous experience all around. Next time, I will definitely make it like the recipe says AND remember the tomato sauce.

56. Spiced Pumpkin Muffins
recipe here
Delicious and easy. I did the option that used extra pumpkin which made it a pretty rich muffin. I didn't have pumpkin pie spice or nutmeg/ginger/clove/allspice so I just used cinnamon and sugar for the topping.

57. Sour Cream Apple Pie with Streusel Topping
recipe here
I got invited to some people's house for Thanksgiving, so I decided to do a test run with some friends of apple pie before making it for guests as I have never made a pie before.

First, we got the kind of dough that you have to roll, which ended up being kind of hard. Fortunately there was enough dough for TWO crusts and this pie doesn't require a crust on top. The first one we baked too long and it burned a bit, so we ended up using the second one, which wasn't quite high enough on the pan but worked well enough.

The filling itself was pretty easy to make. The topping was sprinkled on a bit unevenly. Due to it being our first attempt, very ugly pie but VERY delicious. Would definitely make again, but maybe with dough already on the pie pan that has been frozen to avoid the complications of rolling it and putting it on the pan just right.

58. Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
recipe here
A pretty straightforward cookie to make! It needed a bit longer of a chill time for me. Used every ingredient except for the ginger, the house I was making it at did not have any.

The pumpkin made this cookie very soft, almost more of a bread texture than a cookie. It did solidify a bit more when I left the cookies in the fridge overnight, but still not really a cookie texture. Either way, it was good!

Apple pie muffins here

So, a bit of back story. I used to be ABSOLUTELY terrified of peeling and cutting apples. The way my stepmom showed me how to didn't help at all, where we used a knife to peel. One of my housemates gave me her apples and I'm also not really a fan of just eating them, I need to cut and peel them first. This time I cut and cored the apples first, then used a vegetable peeler. This housemate then asked if I'd make some apple muffins, so I looked up recipes which ended up being a bit complicated as I currently have no mixer and also not some of the ingredients a lot of them asked for. Then I found these!

Basically I just had to make the buttermilk, which I did by putting some lemon juice in milk and letting it sit for a couple minutes. Other than that, had everything! I was distracted to I accidentally put the dry ingredients directly in the wet ones instead of stirring them separately and then combining, but I figured it was no big deal. I also didn't have a sifter, so couldn't sift the flour etc. I also added a bit of baking powder as well as baking soda. Also, the topping wasn't coming out crumbly, more kind of like batter, so I ended up just spooning some on top. BUT THESE CAME OUT REALLY GOOD. My housemate even had 3 when they were just from the oven :D

And yay, I know I can use apples now! My fear of cutting them is over ;)

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies recipe

I'm moving into a new apartment in a few days with 3 other girls. One I know pretty well, one I've only met once, and one I've never met before. I decided to bake some cookies as a welcome gift with some extras to give to old friends as they return. I decided on snickerdoodles, since I have all the ingredients.

These were an adventure, considering how easy they were. I think the butter was too soft because first of all it was hard to form them into balls (and at that point I should have realized and stuck them in the fridge or freezer or something but I didn't think of it) and then the cookies ended up being pretty flat and all clumped together even though the amount I used was TINY and they were far apart. I experimented with size and cooking time for the batches and ended up taking pictures. Since each batch had fewer than I normally would for regular dough, it took more batches. Improvement each time, though, so it was worth it!

They were soft and delicious, but I would like to try them again sometime with the dough being a lot better. I'm curious how it would be if not quite as thin. The butter was my fault, as I had skipped over the egg part so when I creamed the butter and sugar, it was hard to do. I heated the butter up a bit more before realizing that ooops, no eggs which I then added. If I had added them originally, I think it would have been the right texture and I wouldn't have decided to melt the butter further.
( pictures of each batch )

Chicken piccata recipe

My sister cooked a chicken stir-fry a couple nights ago and didn't cook all the chicken, so there was still one piece left in the freezer that I decided to do something with. I spent a lot of time looking at recipes, but unfortunately most either used the oven (which I'd prefer not to do for a one-person dish during the summer) or used ingredients that I didn't have. So it was nice when I found this recipe, which was cooked using the stove, had simple ingredients that I had around, and didn't require too much adjustment to change portions.

This was good. Easy to put together and cook. Unfortunately for once we didn't have freshly grated Parmesan, so I had to use the store-bought kind. Next time I will have to try the other way! I used the white wine option, and it took me slightly longer than it said for it to cook the whole way through. She said 3 minutes for each side, I probably did about 6 or 7.

It was also my first time doing (and hearing about) the butterfly cut, but once I found the right knife to use it was pretty easy to do. All in all, her estimate of 20-30 minutes was actually accurate in my case. I'm used to being much slower than they say but this was simple enough.

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
I've been in the mood for muffins lately and was planning to make some glazed lemon muffins using lemons from the back yard. Only, the lemon tree had another idea as there were none ready to pick! So I decided to make these instead.

I'd made these muffins before, but that was back when I was first learning how to bake. In fact, I'm pretty sure this was the first thing I had ever baked by myself. So I decided to try it again now that I have a bit more experience. The mix was SUPER easy to make, only took me about 7 minutes to put together. In all it took about 25 minutes from start to finish.

So, some changes: I used vanilla yogurt instead of plain yogurt, as it was what I had and I figured it wouldn't make too much of a difference.
I added some cinnamon to the batter which was an AMAZING CHOICE!
I also accidentally messed up on the topping. I wasn't paying too much attention when melting the butter and, instead of putting the cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl, I mixed them in with the butter. I tried one without the topping and then put it on the rest, sprinkling a bit of extra cinnamon-sugar on top after. I found without a bit better than with but both were good. Without I could taste the cinnamon in the batter a bit better, with it was much sweeter and the cinnamon was a bit more subtle.

Definitely a keeper recipe!

I made green beans last night. No recipe, just sort of made it up! But here's what I did:

First I put the green beans (after cutting off the ends, of course) into a plastic bowl, put a little bit of water in it and covered it with plastic wrap. I heated it up in the microwave for a minute and 30 seconds.

Then I got out a pan to saute it, put some olive oil and minced garlic and added the beans. I put a little bit of soy sauce (very little! Didn't want it to be too salty), some sesame seeds, sesame oil, and red wine. I sauteed it for about 5 minutes.

It was very good! I was planning to put some onions in it but unfortunately forgot to chop some so that will have to wait. Next time I might also try to experiment with spices a bit.

rolled sugar cookies

These turned out really great! My friend and I made a much smaller batch than listed, 14 cookies. We also pretty much just checked to make sure I had all the ingredients and didn't read all of the steps, so it turned out that we had to let the dough chill overnight. But in my opinion one major thing about cooking and baking is being able to improvise a bit because I tend to make minor mistakes. We put it in the freezer for about half an hour which seemed to work well. We also made our own frosting using confectioners sugar and water and just stirring until it thickened. No food coloring, so it was just white frosting. These were so good, we both agreed that we thought it was like something we'd get at a bakery.

hot cocoa cookies

I made these with another friend! We pretty much managed to follow as is without any major mistakes until the end, when we had put the dough balls on the first pan and realized that we forgot to mix in the chocolate chips and decided to put extra mallow bits on top along with the ones mixed in. After that we mixed in dark chocolate chips and forgot to put the extra mallow bits on top, though they were still pretty marshmallowy. I tried one of each and surprisingly liked the ones without better. The ones with were slightly harder and the chips made it so that it was hard to taste the flavor of the actual cookie. The one without was really nice and soft and fluffy and had a really nice flavor. Definitely making these again WITHOUT chocolate chips.

My family is having a pretty busy week, so my sister and I were each asked to cook dinner for one night. I was more than happy to do so. Usually I just make salad to go with the meal, but I was asked to make an actual side dish, so a different veggie it was!

brown butter chicken linguine

This recipe took a little bit longer than I expected. I'm still new to cooking, so I can be a bit on the slow side, especially with preparing and chopping everything. I started an hour and 20 minutes before we were planning to eat (7:20) and we actually sat down to eat closer to 8. The recipe itself is actually pretty simple, it was complicated only in that you have to keep a close eye on the instructions because there is a lot of swapping what cooks on the skillet at a time. I also somehow missed the "cut into pieces" part of the chicken directions, so I ended up heating them up in a microwave for a few minutes and cutting them then, before adding it to everything.

I used red wine instead of white, and didn't have parsley to garnish. But this dish is INCREDIBLE. Really flavorful and rich, but not over the top and still a bit subtle. It's what I call a grower: you put it in your mouth and don't taste much at first and then all the sudden it's "oh my god, this is so flavorful and delicious!"

Definitely making this again.

sugar snap peas with mint and lemon

This was good too! Really simple to make. I used lemons and mint from our garden, which made it a convenient dish. Don't have too much to say about it.

These two worked pretty well together!

I haven't updated this challenge for a while, mostly because I either haven't been cooking much, have been remaking some things like the turkey burgers I've posted before, been making super simple things, or just haven't gotten around to it! So I have a few to update. I'll post another one tomorrow, hopefully.

Now, normally I wouldn't post a grilled cheese sandwich on here (unless it was a gourmet complicated one) because mostly it's just bread, cheese, oil or butter, cooking a few minutes on each side. But this time was actually a bit more experimental for me. We didn't have any cheese in the house except for grumbled goat cheese, and I wasn't too sure how that would turn out. And actually, it turned out really well! I pressed the cheese down so that it wouldn't be quite so thick and slow to melt, and spent about 5 minutes on the first side, since I didn't want to flip until it had melted enough, and 3 minutes on the second.

lentil stew with ayib

Well, this certainly was an adventure. To start, the store I went to didn't provide any red lentils, in a can or bagged, so I got green instead. I'd never cooked lentils in a bag before and followed directions, but it never mentioned draining. Now that I think about it, it makes sense, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of extra water. Well, when I added the 6 extra cups of water, it was TOO MUCH but I thought that maybe some of the water evaporated. I ended up having to pour out some of the water, and guessed the extra amounts of tomato paste and spices to make up for that. So this wasn't a porridge like so much as LENTIL SOUP! It seemed to be a hit with my family, though I personally thought it was a bit on the bland side (and looking back, although she listed the garam masala in the ingredients, I didn't see anywhere to put it in so I hadn't noticed I never used it until after), though I liked it much better the second night.

The cheese was easy enough to make and did add a nice flavor to it. I'm not fond of cottage cheese outside of lasagna, but I didn't mind.

I'm definitely getting better at cooking and being ok with not following a recipe exactly, but it certainly makes me laugh when I'm reminded how much of a newcomer I am. But that's kind of the fun of cooking too: having to improvise when things don't go exactly right. And when it tastes good after, it really feels like an accomplishment.

Today my friend came over and we made a huge brunch type spread. So 2 of these are recipes we've followed, and one of them is my own recipe (for scrambled eggs, which I have perfected by now)

french toast sticks

These turned out REALLY badly. I don't think it was the recipe so much as it was us. We planned out the meal yesterday and so I had only gotten to the store yesterday, and I bought a banana as I didn't have any. It was pretty much the only one not green and the recipe called for a really ripe banana. Also the recipe suggested cinnamon raisin bread, which we got, but it was a bit on the thin side and the batter didn't really stick to the bread at all and it cooked weirdly and blegh. I didn't even try it because my friend took a bite of hers and told me to not even bother. Recipe fail!


apple pie muffins

These were pretty good. The apples didn't really shine through though, like, you couldn't really taste them at all. I'm not sure what kind of apples they were (my friend is the one who brought them over) but the recipe didn't specify, so. The brown sugar crunchy top was amazing, however! In fact, the muffins tasted more like brown sugar than apple. I only had one, so maybe they'll improve with further tastings, sometimes I will feel meh about something only to really enjoy it later on.

Now I'm off to the gym to work off all that plus the sausage we consumed for breakfast.

And then Scrambled Eggs.

Usually when I make them, I make them just for me so I use 2 eggs. Since there were 2 of us today, I used 4.
I either mince 1 clove of garlic and then mince some red onion and put them, along with a little bit of salt, in a bowl of whisked eggs and mix them together. Sometimes I will grate the garlic and melt it with the butter (I only do the previous if I decide to use oil instead of butter for the pan) and then put the onion/egg combination in. Occasionally I'll put in a very small dab of cream cheese to make it creamier. Today my friend wanted cheese, so I grated some sharp white cheddar.

Then I put it on the pan and put it on medium low, and constantly stir the eggs, maybe for about 5-7 minutes.
Today I just minced and mixed everything, even though I used butter for the pan.

THESE ARE AMAZING!