I was going to go for a pizza chicken packet that I’ve read about. The idea was chicken, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, onions, peppers in a packet. I was getting the things together and pulled out the pizza sauce. I opened it up, and there was something that wasn’t pizza sauce on the top of it. It might be possible to remove it and go from there, but I’ve got this ingrained idea of food back when I worked at a Boy Scout camp. The commissary rule was “If in doubt, throw it out.”
Peppers, Bamboo and Beef
March 10, 2008 Food No comments bamboo, beef, tin-foil
I had pulled out the beef the last night and poured a little bit of teriyaki sauce in the bag and put it in the refrigerator to thaw. Its nice having the meat marinated, adds more flavor.
A layer of white onions (using the last of them, back to red onions). Then the beef, and then a bit of red pepper flakes on top of that. Those peppers were very noticeable in the ultimate flavor. Then the second half of the can of bamboo, a few pearl onions (well, more than a few, the rest of them), and then a small red pepper on top of that. The teriyaki sauce that I had was then poured over to it and then a little bit of ginger. I couldn’t quite pick out the ginger in the flavor. Next time, I’ll try it with no red peppers and instead just ginger to see if I can detect that flavor.
Mustard Chicken
March 8, 2008 Food No comments chicken, mustard, tin-foil
I have a fondness for mustard. Simply said, it is the greatest of condiments. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity and guidelines to mix that into the recipes I’ve worked with. I found a recipe for honey mustard chicken, but I wanted to try something with some more zing to it (especially after the bamboo and beef).
Bamboo and Beef
March 7, 2008 Food No comments beef, tin-foil
Being a little bit more adventurist, I tossed a few items together. The first was some onions. Red onions are less tear inducing than white, but white have a nice zing to them that red just lack. On top of that was some beef from a round cut. The meat was precut for a stir-fry. Then some teriyaki sauce on top of that. Over that was half a can of bamboo shoots and then two small red peppers.
The beef and the bamboo had a nice flavor combination together, but overall it lacked something – some zing of some sort. Maybe some red pepper on the meat? Dunno. Something to think about, but it worked nicely, just a bit bland.
Pineapple Chicken – Take 2
March 3, 2008 Food No comments chicken, pineapple, tin-foil
Learning from previous experiments I tried this again while it was still fresh in my mind. Mixing the sauce beforehand and doing it as a sauce rather than separate ingredients lead to flavor that stuck to the chicken which was very good. The pineapple and peppers where there, and I didn’t put any pearl onions on top, though I did add a good amount of water chestnuts on top.
As I said, the flavor stuck and the meat was prepared well. I’ve got to get a oven top grill to work that some time. All in all, it was good.
On portion sizes, I’d have to go and look at sizes agin. Something to pay attention to in the future. I’ll probably go get more groceries tomorrow (I’m down to one salmon fillet).
Pineapple Chicken
March 2, 2008 Food No comments chicken, pineapple, tin-foil
I have two bags of chicken fingers in the freezer. Now one… Safeway had some chicken fingers that where reasonably small that I could split it up into two freezer bags that were about one portion each. From what I’ve had, thats about right.
Peppers and Potatoes
March 2, 2008 Food No comments peppers, potatoes, skillet
Its been awhile since I worked with the skillet. I wanted something with some vegetable matter. One of the first recipes I saw on PBS while getting ready to start cooking for myself on a regular basis was something that had potatoes and peppers and onions. I wrote it down on an index card somewhere, but I’ve currently misplaced that. Looking on I found this recipe.
Steak and BBQ
February 29, 2008 Food No comments steak, tin-foil
Continuing on the marinade sauce while thawing, I tossed some BBQ sauce that I had sitting in the refrigerator while thawing. At the end, I rapid thawed it with hot water for 10 minutes (proper vacuum sealed bag).
Once it thawed, pulled the steak out and put it on foil. I pulled out a small bit of cayenne pepper and paprika with a dash of salt. This was thinking back to that BBQ sirloin I tried a bit ago, but much, much less spice. Then I started going through my vegetables to see what I had sitting around. Some scallions, green and red peppers, and then some pearl onions.
It made for quite a stack of vegetables on top of the steak.
Cooked it for a standard 15 minutes at 450 F.
Lemon Pepper Sole
February 28, 2008 Food No comments skillet, sole
I’ve previously messed up thawing some of the meats in the freezer the other night. I picked up some chicken fingers (and tossed them in a proper bag into the freezer rather than that saran wrapped foam tray) and a fillet of sole.
There was a recipe I saw that I thought I’d give a try. In theory it asks for halibut, but there was none at the store so I went with another flat fish – sole. Its either sole, catfish, or salmon and this isn’t a catfish or salmon recipe.
Take a serving (I made about two servings worth) and put it on the foil. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice over it. Then 1/2 teaspoon of lemon pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of basil. 20 minutes at 450 degrees.
It worked quite nicely. I’m thinking butter might be a better choice – something to try next time. It crumbled a little as I pulled it out, but that wasn’t a bad thing.
Steak and Sauce
February 24, 2008 Food No comments steak, tin-foil
I’m just trying a simple steak and teriyaki sauce marinade. Two tablespoons – thats it. I’ve put this in a vacuum sealed bag and have it in the refrigerator thawing. I took moved the steak from the freezer to the fridge last night to start it thawing. Now that it has, I’ll let it sit and finish thawing. I tossed a few red pepper flakes in there to see if I can detect the flavor when it comes time to cook it. Planning another pepper steak.