What are you cooking tonight?

I just bought a very expensive smoker, dammit! Why are you all trying to pressure me into something new?!?

 

I had not considered the part about the senses being not part of it. That will indeed be weird. I really am thinking about doing the sous vide thing though. Thinking it might be great when my kitchen is crazy hot in the summer. (No central air in my place.)

ETA: As to the question of the thread, I just got home after a month away and haven't cooked yet because I need to get groceries. (I have the essentials: coffee, chocolate, and bottled water.) Tonight I had a burger delivered (no fries--just the burger).

 

Well, you made me look. That same model that @Laurin Kelly got is ~200 bucks here, but there are other brands in the ~100-150 dollar range.

Nope, smoker and slow cooker for now, thanks.

And pressure cooker, when pressed for time

 

I wonder how many here would be as interested in the various cooking methods and complicated recipes if they, like me, cook for one? It does, I think, make a difference.

 

I cook better food when it's just for myself.

My ex didn't care about food and would just eat junk food every day if he had his way. So cooking for him was usually something simple that I already knew he liked. When it comes to myself I can test new recipes and healthier versions of food. I don't do complicated things per se, but I spend more time and though when it comes to cooking for myself than I did back when I was cooking for two.

 

Dude, I'm a Marine, here's our hi-tek MRE sous vide:*



*article timeline is off though, I used those in the fall of '92

 

Built my first one out of flower pots, dunno where that stands. I'll take a picture of my "pit" for you sometime, but most of the above assume property, not 1m wide balcony space.

 

I fought with an ECB (fully modded) for a couple years. Charcoal is a problem here, it's sold in much smaller (1kg-6kg) bags, and it's generally of a variety meant to produce a fairly intense heat for a shorter time for yakitori (chicken skewers) and yakiniku (thin sliced beef grill). Used to dread having smoking, actually, but now I'm trying to ration doing it so Mrs. A doesn't get sick of it.

 

It can, but it doesn't have to. The wonderful thing about cooking for just myself is, experimentation and no picky eaters. The complexity varies from day to day and depends on the time of year. (In summer, my kitchen is too hot for doing much, so yes, I have those "bowl of cereal for dinner" nights.) I never cut the number of servings back to one or 2, though. Leftovers mean less time in the kitchen later, which allows me to focus on cooking things I really want to make.

 

Dark beer slow cooker beef curry and rice with caramelized oni0ns, maitake and champignon mushrooms. Pics later.

 

Oops....

 

Anybody tried one of those "we send you food and you cook it" services, like Blue Apron? Seem like a lot of money to save a trip to the supermarket, but ...

 

I've used it - thought a Swedish version, so I can't suggest and specific.
To us it got more expensive, so we only used it as "everyday luxury" when we had a bit more money, and to get inspiration for new foods. We used test boxes (with foods, vegan candy and such) in the same way. Expensive and a bit unnecessary, but a bit of fun if you got the money for it.

As I'm back on a tight budget I'll stick with the supermarket.

 

I cooked farro with caramelized vegetables, but I'm not entirely certain it'll taste good so we're going to eat it tomorrow as a side dish. I'll be cooking chicken for my dad for the main portion and I have no clue what I'll make for myself.

Anyway, tonight's dinner turned into pizza rolls.

 

She made chicken kebab wraps. But I only ate two...and then a pudding, Bakewell tart thing w cream, and some wine, a beer earlier. Kippers in bread at lunch-time.

 

We do Plated meals twice a week for very much the same reason. Sometimes after a full day of work it's just too exhausting to think of what to make, buy the ingredients and then make dinner; by that time it can be close to 8pm at night. With Plated the first two steps are taken care of, so all we have to do is pull the ingredients out of the fridge and start cooking. We were doing a lot of takeout before, and Plated is much healthier at roughly the same cost or maybe a little less even.

It's also been great for teaching my husband and daughter to cook. It's been hard for me before because I don't usually follow recipes other than for baking, and you really have to start with that because someone who's learning to cook doesn't have any experience or instincts to fall back on. When my daughter's home from school we'll make dinner together, and when she's back on campus my husband and I cook together.

This too. I have a pretty stocked pantry, but even I don't want to have to buy a bunch of full bottles/jars of ingredients that I might use once in a blue moon. We've also discovered some new dishes I'd have never thought of making - there's a wide variety of ethnic entrees and vegetarian meals in the weekly rotation. Last night we had Szechuan Pork Noodles with Chile Oil and Garlic Chips and it was soooo delicious.

 

My wife is on her semi anual health kick, which means she's on a diet, which means since we're married so am I. Tonight I made a chicken cordon blue with a lemon honey mustard sauce and steamed broccoli. According to the recipe and assuming I did it right it should have been about 410 calories. Tomorrow is our cheat night-Smashburger.

 

That sounds delicious. I was super lazy, so I had the remains of the coffee I made this morning, some microwave popcorn, and a packet of Twinkies I found in the back of my cupboard. Odd thing is, I can't remember the last time I bought Twinkies.