wherein Liz makes some progress on her to-do list

[edenfalling]

Cards are all done except the one for which I need to check the address. (Hmm. Do I call Susan and hope she has Cat's address, call Cat's parents, or call Cat herself? The latter ought to be most sensible, but Cat stopped answering my phone calls over a year ago so it will probably be futile. I'd feel odd calling her parents without arranging some kind of visit over Christmas, but I'd like to talk to Susan and my family before doing so, because otherwise it might be awkward. So Susan it is!)

Gifts are in boxes, but not wrapped; I will get to that tomorrow or Friday.

Bed is made; laundry is not yet put away. I should go do that.

No futher Yuletide writing progress, but I am learning a lot about... well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? Suffice it to say that Google's book scans are currently my best friends. *pets the internet and offers it cookies*

And dinner happened. :-)

Tonight's attempt at cooking involved baked chicken thighs with Italian salad dressing seasoning (which is both delicious and idiot-proof, thank goodness; you just shake some dressing onto the chicken, dump it in a Corningware dish, cover it, and stick it in the oven for twenty minutes at 350F), and a mix of green beans and pearl onions that were more-or-less boiled. (By which I mean I used just enough water to cover them, brought them to a boil, then lowered the heat and clapped a lid on to trap the steam... but the pot was damn full and required a lot of water, so I think it still counts as boiling rather than steaming.) I also threw in my last tiny jalapeño peppers, which means that now neither pepper plant has a reason to still be alive and I can toss their dying remains out into the yard where they will fertilize other plants come spring.

Au revoir, peppers! You did good. *sheds a single tear*

Anyway, the vegetables were a bit bland so I doused them with salt and butter while eating. This is my default solution to flavor issues, but one cannot fix everything with salt and butter. Therefore I should invest in some spices if I am going to continue cooking from scratch rather than living entirely off of microwave dinners and takeout.

I used to cook more, years ago. I'd make tacos, or porkchops drowned in applesauce, or random fish-in-butter, with noodles and various steamed or stir-fried vegetables on the side. But I quit almost entirely for a good long while. I'm not sure why. I wasn't getting more tired, and I wasn't getting more annoyed at how long cooking-from-scratch takes -- my annoyance at the tedium of cooking has remained consistently high from as far back as I can remember. But for whatever reason, I basically gave up on doing the meat and vegetable and starch thing. I didn't even make freaking ramen noodles very much, or Chef Boyardee mini ravioli, or hardboiled eggs, and those are the most minimal you can get while still claiming to actually cook something -- you know, pot on stove with flames underneath.

I started cooking again this year because of my peppers, but I'm enjoying the end results, if not the process, and I would like not to fall out of the habit again. So last week I chucked out the disgusting freezer-burned pork chops that had been languishing in my freezer for nearly three years (seriously, since January 2011; I'm not kidding about that) and now, as previously mentioned, I am thinking about spices. Maybe I will even haul out the giant heirloom cookbook my mom gave me last year and try some official recipes! *gasp*

Okay, probably not, but still. Baby steps. Pearl onions were new for me before tonight. Perhaps in January I will try porkchops again, and this time add some onions to the applesauce before sticking it in the oven. Yeah. I think that could work...

But first, laundry.

Comments

[heliopausa]

Plus lemon (or lime). ie to add to the butter and salt. Also butter, soy-sauce (instead of the salt) and a squeeze of lemon or lime. (This is great on plain white-fleshed fish, too.)

Kudos for impressive achievement re: gifts and cards!

[edenfalling]

I find butter and soy sauce an off-putting combination. I'm not sure why, but they just taste really weird and vaguely wrong together, at least for me. Lemon/lime is delicious on fish, though!

[tephra]

I really like my slow cooker. I just chuck in meat and veggies and my seasonings of choice and leave it alone for 6-8 hours on low. I make sure to layer the veggies that take longer, like onions and carrots, on the bottom and put potatoes and mushrooms on the top with meat in the middle. I find that if I want rice it's better to cook that separate and I have a microwave rice cooker that handles that for me in about 10 minutes.

Lentils are very tasty and work great in a slow cooker. Some onions, can of diced or stewed tomatoes, and some coriander and cumin is my favorite way to make them, sometimes with spinach (frozen or fresh baby leaves) stirred just a bit before eating (just a few minutes for frozen, maybe ten for fresh).

Dried beans are also great in a slow cooker, there's no need to soak them. I rinse them and put them in the night before and let them start cooking and then stir in the other things in the morning. I've made chili that way and "baked" beans with ham. The one time my black beans and chicken came out a bit too soupy I turned it into black beans and rice by adding rice at the end and letting it go about another hour. Just remember to check on the rice, it goes from cooked to mush pretty fast. Brown rice might hold up better.

[edenfalling]

Hmm. Adding in walking time and such-like, I am probably away from home for 9 hours at a stretch most working days. But that shouldn't matter for soups and stews. Perhaps I will ask for a crockpot for my birthday.

I am not much for tomatoes in general, but lentils are indeed tasty, and onions make most combination meals better. :-)

[tephra]

Most meats and firmer veggies work fine on low for 10 hours easily. :) Fresh chicken breast cooks very fast so it's more chicken threads if you leave it that long, which if you want pulled chicken is actually a handy thing. Chicken thighs hold up a bit better. You can put in frozen meat and leave it longer without hitting the disintegration point so quickly, but it does add more liquid to the pot so it's better for soups and stews rather than things you want drier.

Broccoli is a sad thing in a slow cooker, unless you are intending to make cream of broccoli soup, in which case you won't need to puree it. :D

This household would not survive without onions. Which reminds me to put stew beef and more onions on the grocery list, we're over due for some onion soup. That's a really easy crock pot recipe. Pack the crock with onions and as much or as little beef as you like. Season with Worcestershire sauce and fill meager space between onions with beef broth. That one is definitely best for when you have 10 or 12 hours to leave it on low.

[edenfalling]

I typed you up a nice reply and the internet ate it. Woe!

To summarize, I prefer dark meat and like soups, so those issues shouldn't be a problem. Overcooked broccoli is indeed sad, but broccoli soups are intriguing. I've never had cream of broccoli, but I've had broccoli cheddar soup and that was lovely; have you ever tried it? And while I will never like peeling or slicing onions (oh god, my eyes), I have come to appreciate them greatly as an adult; they are truly the kitchen workhorse.

Finally, I must mention that onion soup recipe to my mom, since I think my dad would like it. He loves Worcestershire sauce on steak, you see. :-)

[autumnia]

+1 about cumin, coriander and soy sauce from above. I also suggest a bottle of oyster sauce (great for sauteeing veggies and meat) and paprika.

I love spices, they can flavor a dish so much better without adding more salt. I haven't cooked with lentils before though there's a simple Dal recipe I found the other way that I'll attempt to try at some point. Maybe store a can of chickpeas in your pantry too -- great in soups, baked with spices as a snack, or use with meat to make a tagine.

[edenfalling]

I use soy sauce pretty much every time I make stir-fry, for which it is excellent. :-)

I will look into chickpeas; thank you for mentioning them.