Esculent Endeavors

What to make for breakfast?

2005-10-09T02:08:00.000-05:00

Crustless Herb Mushroom and Sausage Quiche
This is probably one of my more exotic dishes. I considered making a souffle which isn't as hard as some people think it is but I didn't have a container to bake it in. Apparently souffle requires a specific ceramic bakeware mostly only for souffles. The sides should be straight to let it rise.
Anyways, I could have added a crust but that would me A) I have a unbaked premade piecrust which I didn't or B) I make one from dough which was far too much effort on a saturday morning. So I made what's called a "crustless" quiche. Mostly basil, parsley, and sage. Still lack thyme and rosemary but I did get a new spice, nutmeg that I was able to use in this recipie. Also I got a new measuring cup so now I can actually measure my stuff instead of approximating everything. Anyways, the aluminum around the pie pan is due to the fact the pan is a bit messed up. I sprinkled parsley along the sides and bottom before pouring the mixture in. I used mushrooms and cut up more of the summer sausage we had. I wasn't entirely sure how it was going to turn out but it was pretty filling and definately pleasurable to eat. Just for good measure I had also sprinkled some parmeasen cheese on top while baking. I know it's early but it gives my mind a break.

That's good stuff

2005-10-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

Herb Roasted Chicken

This worked out surprisingly well. Before I would just pop chicken into the oven and usually it came out very uninspiring, somewhat dry. But this time I added a sage, parsley, garlic mixture with a hint of tabasco and lemon juice, rubbed it all over the chicken and under the skin. Also I rubbed salt all over it and even oiled it lightly with olive oil. It turned out excellent, juicy and flavorful. The recipie called for thyme or rosemary but I had neither. I really need to get those. That ghastly gash in the chicken is from my checking to see if it was done. I would have been more discreet about it but at the time I didn't feel like it. The green garnish is parlsey leaves and I used Kosher salt for rubbing into the chicken.

Cobbler you say?

2005-10-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

Apple Cobbler by my friend

Apparently my cooking adventures and now that I have them recorded somewhere, has inspired other people to try cooking as well. A friend of mine sent a picture of an apple cobbler he made. It's one thing to make muffins, it's an entirely different thing to make a fruit filled pastry so kudos to him for making a complex dish. I bet it tasted good but unfortunately it doesn't keep very well in the back of a USPS truck.

Who would have thought?

2005-10-04T21:33:00.000-05:00

My girlfriend happened to take some of the jambalya with her for lunch. She felt that the missing taste was disturbing so she decided to try to replace and strangely, with some mayonnase it worked, it seemed to fill in this "void" in the flavor and complete it. I was skeptical at first but surprisingly she was right, who would have guessed mayo with jambalya?

Dinner

2005-10-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

Chicken Jambalya

It was quite good but unfortunately the taste still wasn't quite right. Something was noticeably missing. I suspect it was from the fact that didn't have fresh parsley on hand and had to use dried parsley flakes. Also I didn't happen to have thyme either. At least it was very filling and it'll last us another day or two along with providing lunch. Also noted, medium grain rice (sticky rice) doesn't go as well with jambalya as long grain (what you're supposed to use). I didn't have any other type of rice on me. My Joy of Cooking book actaully failed me for the first time, there's no mention of tomatos anywhere in the Jambalya recipie! I was shocked so I had to add in tomato paste. I noticed it didn't have enough chicken flavor as well. Some recipies call for chicken broth which I'm going to use next time.

Past meals

2005-10-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

I've decided to take some pictures of some past meals that whipped up that I still have to fill in the emptiness at the moment. Some of them were quite tasty though.

Mushroom Stuffed Eggs topped with parmesan cheese

I whipped these up while looking at a recipie for normal stuffed eggs. Pretty delectable but the mushroom flavor was somewhat masked by the heavy spices used to make stuffed eggs. The eggs had to be boiled first, then baked.

Sage Rubbed Roasted Pork Loin

Very complex flavor but the pork turned out to be much drier than I had anticipated. Still it was good. I also went too light on the spices. I really should have used more to rub the outside of the pork as well.

Eggs Benedict (poached eggs with hollandaise sauce)

Again it turned out to be very good tasting. I used slices of a summer sausage since we didn't have any canadian bacon or ham. The hollandaise sauce was difficult because it involved certain ingrediants I had never used before such as clarified butter. Also poaching eggs takes a while.

it begins

2005-10-03T12:03:00.000-05:00

My first and possibly only blog, not a big fan of blogging but I figured this might be a way to let people know I'm still alive and at the same time provide a way to contact me. I do a fair amoutn of cooking so I figured why not share it with everyone. Good food on a student budget should be useful to some people. Anyways, I'll be uploading some pics in a short while when I find some space on the web for them. I'll post first my most recent creation.

Cheese Popovers
I found them fairly delicious, good both hot and cold. Very good for a quick breakfast and the cream cheese I used definately put a pleasent but slight sourness. Anyways, I do feel that the outside is a bit flavorless and next time I plan to sprinkle some chedder cheese and basil into the batter. I also noticed the outside of these popovers tasted interestingly familiar and I realized that if I had replaced the filling with whip cream instead of cheese, I would essentially have a cream puff. That'll be next weeks project. Very quick and easy to make.