The Smells in My Kitchen

Talk about anything under the sun or stars - but keep it civil. This is where we really get to know each other. Everyone is welcome, and invited!
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Luet
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Postby Luet » Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:47 am

I want to rearrange them so bad.
Other than wanting to eat them, that is the first thing I thought of. I would put the solids in the four corners and then in the middle row center two.
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Postby powerfulcheese04 » Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:00 pm

Haha.. I did consider putting them in the box in a pattern, but I tried to make it as un-OCD looking as possible. And, by the time I got them in the box I was really just ready to be done with it!

(My Friday was spent like this:
8-noon: class
noon-1: research meeting
1-5: anatomy exam
5-6: grocery store
6-10: bake 1.5 dozen cupcakes, 2 dozen cookies, decorate cupcakes, decorate box
10-10:05: put baked goods in container)
-Kim

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locke
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Postby locke » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:58 am

there are few culinary awesome combinations of perfection like eating piping hot pasta tossed with freshly made pesto so that the heat from the pasta is melting the cheese in the pesto into gooey strings of amazing flavor and texture. yum yum yum. even five minutes later it is not quite the same. still, sooo very tasty. :)
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby Young Val » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:41 am

This weekend David and I made pasta from scratch (SO GOOD). And I made a loaf of Challah bread (my kitchen has never, never smelled so amazing).

French Toast on Challah bread (the most decadent way to eat French Toast. The ONLY way, as far as I'm concerned) for breakfast this morning. YUM!
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Postby Petra456 » Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:46 pm

Fudge brownies and a hawaiian sweet bread.

While they're both out of a box, they very good! I found out how cool it is to use a bread machine again.
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And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
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Postby locke » Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:02 pm

I forgot to brine the frozen chicken last night, but I can't wait to combine it with my latest experiment.

melt about two T of butter. put on low heat. add about ten mediumish sage leafs and a stalk of rosemary, let brown (flipping sage) until crisped. remove. Add the chicken salt and pepper and sear each side.
add sherry or vermouth or white wine. add meyer lemon zest and about half the juice from half a lemon. add a cup or so of chicken broth/stock. cover and turn down heat, let cook about thirty-forty minutes. remove chicken. and then proof arrowroot powder in some water (or starch/thickener of your choice) add to remaining liquid and turn on high heat, cook until it thickens to desired consistency. pour your fancy sauce over chicken and devour. :D

if I had fresh fennel that'd probably be a good addition too.

I'm thinking of doing something like this for shrimp, but with a fennel sauce. :D
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby ender1 » Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:16 pm

Fudge brownies and a hawaiian sweet bread.

While they're both out of a box, they very good! I found out how cool it is to use a bread machine again.
They were very yummy, indeed.

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Postby Young Val » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:41 am

This week I made challah bread, pita pockets, chicken caesar salad (and dressing!), lemon tarts, hummus, and pancakes from scratch!

Next week I can't wait to try out all my new flours!
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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locke
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Postby locke » Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:25 am

I was at the japanese grocery store, Mitsuya eating some of the best ramen in america from santouka and I forgot to buy a bamboo steamer for my wok. :(

anyways, I stirfried some frozen veggies, made pecorino crackers (I really need to get a silpat! parchment doesn't broil so well) cooked some steaks in sage butter and then added a red chilean wine to the drippings, brought that up to high heat and added some arrowroot (dizzolved in water) to thicken it into a sauce. num num num num sooooo freaking good! I george foremanned four frozen shrimp to make it a surf and turf dinner. :D The foreman does a great job with frozen shrimp in terms of allowing all the fishy tasting water to drain away leaving you with a fresher tasting shrimp. unfortunately it also pretty much overcooks the shrimp as well as drying them out a bit too much. I may experiment with thawing them and then foremaning them and seeing how that works.
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby buckshot » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:30 pm

I'm learning to make proper jerky, my uncle came out and built me a cedar propane powered smokehouse . Its about as big as 1 and a half phone booths, insulated with vents a low pressure burner and an old cast iron skillet for apple chips. I destroyed the first 2 batches but it gets better every batch. The best part is the whole farm smells good and if the wind is just right I can smell it in the house.
"nothing runs like a deere"

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Postby locke » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:03 am

spaghetti with hamburger and tomato sauce was one of the first two meals I learned to make. I was six, and I got two kids cookbooks for christmas (iirc), from which I made spaghetti. I learned words like basil, oregano and garlic and the difference between t and T, I was a bit put out that it wasn't tsp. because I knew that was "one teaspoon" from watching Sleeping Beauty.

Anyway, I remember quite clearly the tomato sauce was made from a 1lb brick of frozen hamburger. since this was pretty much under mom's supervision, she probably cooked the meat that first time, but I got to add the tomato sauce and stir it up. anyway, we made this often enough that soon enough I was doing everything. and the way I started cooking the burger was thus, I would just put the frozen brick in the pan and then flip it, scraped off the cooked layer, flip, scrape off the cooked layer repeat until brick has been fully cooked. I started adding water too, when the burger would stick to the pan so it sort of steamed too--my first cooking technique. I mainly did this, iirc, because we were probably using deer burger instead of hamburger most of the time. heck of a lot cheaper. ;)

I've not made spaghetti like that in years, because, mainly you don't get bricks (or tubes) of frozen hamburger anymore, at least not out here in Cali. :-p and anyway, since I got the Essentials of Italian Cooking my freshman year of college I've been making meat sauce in the bolognose style as Marcella Hazen instructs.

so today I made spaghetti with meatsauce old school. but this time I brought some alton brown techniques. since water doesn't bring anything to the table, flavor-profile wise, I instead used some vegetable broth and sherry. :-p otherwise pretty similar, though I now know to add a 1/4 of pasta water into the sauce just before draining the pasta. and I now use fresh garlic instead of garlic powder. :)

anyways it was all very very delicious. lip smacking good. :)

Damn it was good.
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby buckshot » Sun Mar 08, 2009 3:09 pm

Have you ever made your own fresh pasta to go with your sauce ? We do this time of the year when our hens stick us with too many eggs. It takes about 3 seconds with a good processor and one of those cheap hand crank pasta roller machines and the results are damn fine! :P

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Sun Mar 08, 2009 4:24 pm

I made gnocci once. It was one of the best meals I've ever eaten. It might become an Easter/holiday dish to replace the traditional turkey, it was that good. And I love turkey.
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Postby buckshot » Mon Mar 09, 2009 11:25 am

Gnocci is totally the best stuff there is I could give up spuds for it!

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:15 pm

Currently the smell is that yeasty bread-rising smell. I have plans that require both croutons and breadcrumbs, and I think it would be silly to buy either when I have a handy bag of flour. Plus, it's been ages since my last PB&J (a rare treat for me here).

Earlier it was stir fry. I'm still so pleased that it turned out edible that I had to post about it. Onion, carrot, zucchini, and peas fried in olive oil with a bit of chili sauce and a sprinkle of liquid smoke.

For lunch it was tamarind lentils with a side of fried okra. The lentils were sweet and tangy and the okra were salty and fried-mustard-seed-y. It was a delicious contrast of flavours. It should be noted, however, that fresh turmeric stains even worse than powdered.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby locke » Mon Mar 09, 2009 11:03 pm

homemade chicken soup
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:01 pm

I made Caesar dressing tonight. I cannot describe how epically good it was. Epic. I ought to compose a poem to it or something.

O dressing with your eggs and oil
I will eat you before you spoil.
Garlic, capers, elbow grease...
You made for me an epic feast!

Anyway. If you've never tried homemade Caesar dressing, I recommend the experience for your Bucket List.

I also made the croutons and roasted some cloves of garlic. The only thing I didn't get right was the lattice of toasted parmesan, but I suppose that just gives me something to strive for.

Someday I will host a fancy party, and I will serve this and the gnocci and ragu. Then I'll finish with saffron ice cream. It will be a glorious day.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby buckshot » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:35 am

I got a letter and note from my GP. Dr. yesterday exclaiming my bad cholesterol is finally down , way down in fact. So ever the blood thirsty carnivore, I'm having a fat steer butchered right off, it's gonna be 2.5 in thick porterhouse smelling up my grill ASAP! :D

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Postby elfprince13 » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:55 pm

We've been boiling maple syrup all week, and we always finishes our batches off inside where we can keep a closer eye on them (when it gets down to a couple gallons), so our kitchen smells lovely right about now.
"But the conversation of the mind was truer than any language, and they knew each other better than they ever could have by use of mere sight and touch."

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Postby buckshot » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:45 pm

Elfprince- how many trees do you have to tap to make say a quart of syrup?

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Postby elfprince13 » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:07 pm

Elfprince- how many trees do you have to tap to make say a quart of syrup?
We have 34 taps on probably 25 trees (a small enough operation that we still use buckets and not tubes/vacuum extraction) and make around 5 gallons on a good year. The 2 other people who rent tap-space on our land have about 900 taps between them and pay us with a couple more gallons each. It takes 45 - 60 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup depending on the sugar content of the sap (which can be hard to predict...it has to do with how much its been raining, the size of the trees, and if you don't know your trees and accidentally tap a red maple). For any given run we will get between a few quarts and 2 gallons from a bucket, depending on how well we placed the taps w.r.t. being under branches (gets you more sap) and being on the colder side of the tree (gets you less sap) and the variance in temperature between the night and day.
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Postby elfprince13 » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:50 am

yesterday my friends Jessie and Lucia, and my old physics teacher, Mr Tailer, made chocolate-chunk pancakes and had apple cider for breakfast before our day of doing site visits for VSHI.
"But the conversation of the mind was truer than any language, and they knew each other better than they ever could have by use of mere sight and touch."

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Postby starlooker » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:44 pm

Made-from-scratch spice cake!

I'm so proud. I never cook. It looks and smells wonderful.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby locke » Mon Apr 06, 2009 3:39 am

I made crab cakes. they are very tasty. :)
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby starlooker » Sat May 02, 2009 8:25 pm

After spending almost $7 today on a fancy health food sandwich, I decided that was ridiculous. So, today, I made my very own red roasted pepper hummus from scratch. Including roasting the pepper.

Also, just made margarita pizza. Good stuff.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
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There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby buckshot » Mon May 04, 2009 9:46 am

Fresh smoked lake trout straight from the smoker, yum! 8)

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Postby Gravity Defier » Tue May 12, 2009 5:25 pm

I am just about finished with an experiment; I decided I wanted to try making barley and roasted tomato risotto (because it sounded cool and I needed more stuff to keep busy with, honestly). It smells nifty and looks harmless enough. We'll see about the taste in about 10 minutes.
Se paciente y duro; algún día este dolor te será útil.

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Postby Luet » Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:12 pm

I made my second homemade loaf of bread today. The first one was a whole wheat sandwich bread and the one today was a white Italian bread. We had it with ravioli and the first salad from my own garden! I also got asparagus at the farmer's market this morning which was sooo good. And for dessert? It's going to be two small tarts (chocolate and strawberry rhubarb) from the farmer's market with vanilla ice cream.
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Postby Rei » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:09 pm

So I made a fry-up this evening. Canadian bacon, fried eggs, brown beans, and toast, all fried in the same pan. And had a cup of Earl Grey. If I'd been thinking, I would have had hashbrowns, too. That way I'd have gotten all four food groups: sugar, starch, fat, and burnt crunchy bits. As it is, I can feel my body crying out in horror, but such a delicious horror it is.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.
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Postby locke » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:51 pm

damn. now I want some burnt crunchy bits... perhaps I'll let tonight's sweet potato fries go a little longer in the oven. but true BCBs come from bacon or fried steak/pork. :/

smells in my kitchen are chicken vegetably. I put two frozen chicken breasts in a pan with some olive oil. dumped a quart of stock/broth over it. added a cup of higamai rice and three chopped up carrots and three chopped up sticks of celery. salt, pepper, stir, bring to a boil, cover reduce heat. I am guessing about fifty minutes, hopefully it won't take much longer than that, for I am hungry. I've no idea how it'll turn out, but at least it'll provide a second meal for tomorrow. :D
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:11 pm

Earlier, it was onions caramelising for French onion soup. It was quite divine.

Then, it was apple crisp. Hooray for husbands who bake!
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby thoughtreader » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:32 pm

Hooray for husbands who bake!
I want one of those...

Mine just does laundry, cleans the bathroom, sweeps, vacuums, washes the dishes, and generally takes care of the whole house... ok Mine is rally good too!

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Postby buckshot » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:39 am

My whole house smells of vinegar, Julie is pickling everything! Even my basement workshop has a big crock of pickles or something bubbling away in the corner :x

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Postby buckshot » Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:44 pm

I (Julie and me ) bought a 4-h pig at our local fair and just got it from the butcher yesterday Yay! and now there is a big smoked ham in our big crock pot (that we havent used till now) and man I am telling, It smells extremely good in my house! I hope I don't get sick of ham before it's gone! :)

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:56 pm

Curry. There's a dal in the stockpot, vindaloo in the wok, and mulligatawny in the next biggest pot. The vindaloo doesn't smell *quite* right yet, but the others are taaaaasssttyyyy.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII


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