The deadline for the first pass edits of Emerald Blaze is Monday. I still have a lot to go. We edit separately, because while we write together, editing at the same time is too fiddly. The matter is a little bit complicated by the fact that I am exhausted. I lock my private Facebook, otherwise all of you would be subjected to incredible freakouts regrading this and other things. We had to cut 3,000 words, then put them in in a new way. Bunny has a cameo in this book and every time I try to edit that part, I cry.
Don’t worry, Bunny doesn’t die.
Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it or the book. Too hard. You get cooking talk instead.
I’ve cooked something every day this week and most of the last week. Somehow cooking has fallen by the wayside in the last year. We’ve been ordering takeout way too much. The weird thing is, I like cooking. I’ve been thinking about it and realized something odd: it’s not because I am too busy or too tired. It’s because I stopped doing the prep.
For years, we would go to the store and I would buy roughly two weeks worth of meat in bulk. Large trays of cut up chicken, two or three shoulder roasts, skirt steak, ground beef, etc. Then we’d get home and I’d break out plastic wrap and ziploc bags. In thirty minutes all of our purchases would be broken down into dinner portions, wrapped, ziplocked, labeled, and stored. At any given time, I knew exactly what I had in our freezer.
Knowing what was in the freezer opened a variety of options for me. If yesterday was stew day, than today could be a chicken day. I could marinade chicken in Italian dressing. (Most people over-marinade. Really for chicken, an hour or 2 and you’re good, so for me it was a same day decision.) I could do the mayo/Miracle Whip coat. I could do teriyaki. I could do honey mustard. Then, once the recipe for the chicken was determined, I would look at my sides. Miracle Whip chicken goes well with everything, so my options could be rice, potatoes, corn, or salad. If it’s teriyaki chicken, I could take it off the bone and turn it into chicken fried rice. Italian dressing chicken goes best with salad. Southwestern rub with lime would give me meat for fajitas.
By not buying for two weeks, I broke this process. I stopped repackaging and sorting, since I only bought for a week or less. I just threw stuff into freezer. I would open the freezer door and hit decision paralysis, because I wasn’t sure what we had and what we did have didn’t go over well, because we had something similar yesterday.
I guess I’ve just trained myself to do this over the last two decades and I can’t undo it now. Looks like the garage freezer is going to stay even after lock down.
Other lessons learned this week: Instant Pot is awesome. It makes amazing pot roast in an hour and fifteen minutes. It makes pantry vegetable soup. It makes great carnitas. I wouldn’t use it for stew, however. Stew needs to naturally thicken, so some of the water would have to cook out of it, and I just don’t see it happening. I mean if you did it in the Instant Pot, you would have to saute it for the last thirty minutes to get the broth to the desired consistency.
Before anyone asks, here are the recipes. It’s nothing Earth-shattering but it might give you some new options on the menu. 🙂
Miracle Whip chicken.
Enough chicken to feed the family.
2-3 tablespoons of mayo/miracle whip.
1 tsp dry dill
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 375. Mix spices and mayo/whip in a small bowl. Coat the chicken. You don’t want to have blobs of the mix sitting on it. It should be just coated. Pop in the over at 375 for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the chicken pieces. This recipe does yummy things to chicken skin, but even on skinless chicken breasts it will add interesting flavor.
I often pair it with yellow rice. Traditional yellow rice uses saffron, which is expensive and quality saffron is kind of difficult to get. You can buy saffron in the States – I did – and despite using the right amount, I couldn’t taste it. Maybe they store it for too long? It’s just not the same. So I went with turmeric and seasoned salt. I put rice into rice cooker, add about 1/2 tsp of turmeric per two cups of rice, sometimes a bit more, add 1/2 tsp of Lawry seasoned salt, mix, then add my water and cook as normal. Once done, I pull the chicken apart into bite sized pieces, skin and all, toss it in there, and mix. I also add a little bit of butter or a little chicken grease to it, to make it extra delicious.
It also pairs very well with baked potato or roasted potatoes.
Pantry soup
Requires Instant Pot
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 largish potato
1 sweet potato
1 small butternut squash
2-3 largish carrots
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cumin
Oil for cooking
1 carton of chicken broth, about 4 cups
Peel everything. Mince onion and garlic. Chop everything else into inch size pieces or so.
Set the Instant Pot on saute, pour some oil in, and toss in onion and garlic. Cook until smells good and stuff is sort of transparent, maybe 4-5 minutes. Pour in broth. Dump all the veggies in. Dump all the spices in. Stir. Cover, press soup. Walk away laughing.
Let the soup cook and let it stand for maybe 15-20 minutes. Then open the pot, ladle the whole kaboodle into the blender and blend on lowest speed for about a minute. Should be the consistency of apple sauce.
You could do this with a slow cooker. I would say high heat, maybe 6 hours.
Homemade Teriyaki sauce.
I found this recipe online. And now I can’t find the original source of it. I’ve seen several people copy it and claim it, but that recipe was from a Japanese chef, who patiently explained that American teriyaki sauce tastes like corn syrup. It does. After making homemade one, it’s night and day. Gordon now turns his nose up at the bottled teriyaki. So this chef came up with a variation on Japanese recipe that would appeal to American palate. Translation: It’s sweet. You can try reducing the sweetener, although I don’t know if it would thicken properly. That’s why I only make it in small quantities. A little goes a long way. .
So not my recipe. I wish I could find the link.
Equal quantities of soy sauce, sweet rice vinegar, sake, and brown sugar. Throw everything into a pan or a pot. Cook until the sauce naturally thickens.
Now, I have messed with this. You can use sweet balsamic vinegar instead of rice vinegar. I’ve also used cherry wine instead of sake with great success for slightly different flavor. I’ve tried honey instead of brown sugar, and I don’t recommend it. It didn’t thicken right.
Cook the meat and the sauce separately, then combine in the last few minutes of cooking. If you’re baking chicken, brush it on and bake for 5 minutes more. If you cut up meat or veggies for stir fry, add the prepared sauce into the pan in the last minute and stir to coat. If you attempt to cook the sauce with the ingredients simultaneously, you will end up with vegetable mush, overcooked beef, and burned chicken.
Well, my break is over. Back to editing and deciding what’s for dinner.
Thanks for the recipes. I devoted myself to hunting up budget friendly recipes that sound yummy as well as somewhat healthy. It’s important as neither I or my husband will have any income for the duration. The Instant Pot is a dream for the less top shelf meats and died beans, which we both love. There will be a lot of them in the future.
Thanks Ilona, And especially, thanks for the link to the medical masks.
Something we all need to keep in mind every day is that roughly 805 million people go undernourished on a daily basis. We should never allow ourselves to feel bored
about our food choices. If we have any food in our cupboards and are well, are wealthy in the only ways that count. Think of the poor single parents that are scrambling to feed their kids, and or elders in their household, especially with so many out of work. I grew up in a house where if we didn’t like what was being served we could be excused from the table, while being reminded that we were the lucky ones, because
we never went to bed hungry. So, take care and share.
Me too – if we didn’t eat what was served then we had to wait until the next meal. We never had a lot of money but there was food on the table and love in the house ????
For those on a budget check out the Budget Bytes website. They also have a section on 15 pantry recipes https://www.budgetbytes.com/. They have lots of types of recipes, including vegan
Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.
We all need it!
Ilona and Gordon- thank you for your craft as they are a blessing to us. Good luck with your edits and please get some rest. Lastly thank you for the blog as they are such a treat as the topics are great and I love everyone’s input too! Helps me be distracted for a time. Take care and God Bless!
I’m hungry now after reading this and I wasn’t before. Sigh. I guess it’s tome for a second breakfast. Weee!
We’ve been self quarantining (in Chicago) for the last three weeks cause of our age. So what happens..our oven dies just when I want to make comfort food like mac and cheese, casseroles, bread, etc. While waiting for the replacement stove I ordered online to arrive, I made a trip to Costco. What is with everybody?!? They’re acting crazy. Bottled water was sold out (my faucets work just fine), all the paper products were gone, as were canned tomatoes, beans, 50 lbs rice sacks not that I buy that much rice),. I had just used my last can of diced tomatoes and last can of creamed soups–no luck buying them from Costco as usual. I then went to a large grocery store where they had everything I needed and toilet paper but much more expensive than I’d like to pay. I bought some anyway. Now I see empty shelves everywhere when I venture out to re-stock our produce. Folks must have food stored for a MONTH. I worried about folks who couldn’t stock up. So….I just sent a check to our local food depository. I’m not going to restaurants or movies so give someone my disposable income who needs it to eat. I urge all of you to send a check big or small to help feed others laid off with the closings.
Now, I’m worried. If Bunny doesn’t die, who does?
I can understand the grumpiness for having to cut out words. I would take them all and be grateful. Long book = good!
Thank you for sharing Edge Burger recipe. Made it last night as I had left over rice. We now have a new family favourite…
Sharing the link to the following site https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-pizza-crust-recipe/
which has an excellent and easy to make pizza dough. My family prefers it to any restaurant pizza. You can cover it with pizza sauce, tomatoe paste with some herbs and spices added (I like either oregano and pepper, or basil depending on the topings) or pesto. Top with whatever you have on hand (last night I had onion, mushroom, and summer sausage) and add your favourite grated cheese – mexicana mild works well.
The best part is that it’s quick to make. Step 1 iand walk away for 10 to 15 minutes and do whatever you want. Come back and complete step 2 and start step 3 (takes about 5 minutes). walk away for 1.5 to 2 hours. Then punch down the dough and preheat the oven while you finish making the pizza. If you have a small family you may only use half, and the other half freezes well to be pulled out at a later time. You do have to plan the second one a bit as it needs to thaw in the fridge overnight.
Stay safe all.
All that sounds wonderful and I am so hungry right now. I used to cook like that all the time but now that I’m alone, I don’t, it’s too much food. I have relearn to cook for one again. Time for google search. Hope you all are doing ok in this crazy time, just remember to take it easy and breathe, this to shall pass.
Thanks f0r the recipes! I am going to make the chicken and tumeric rice this week – it sounds delicious and I need a new chicken recipe.
Update: I made this and it was delicious!!
Bleh! It’s never somewhere easy, is it? Good luck getting all the shards! I dropped a jar a few weeks ago, scrubbed the whole floor and *still* found a shard of glass yesterday. No idea where it had been hiding…
That was supposed to be for a comment that mentioned dropping a glass….
Thanks for the recipes! I like the mayonnaise chicken (no miracle whip over here) idea, I’ll have to try it.
I do make stew in the instant pot; thickness is an issue, and it isn’t as tasty as stove top, but much faster. I usually use shin of beef, cheap but tough. I flour and brown the meat and onions, and put the meat and liquid (sometimes water and stock cube, sometimes beer), some spices and about 1/2 cup barley on for about 45min hile I prep the veg. Then I steam the veg in the microwave until not quite done, then add just the veg to the meat–adding the liquid too can make it too sweet and hides the beef flavour. Then pressure cook another 15min or so. At that point, if it’s not thick enough I scoop out some of the veg and mash it. If it’s *still* not thick enough I’ll either add some flour an water or serve it with bread or dumplings and call it ‘stewp’. Lol
I also have been cooking or baking every day, trying to do something else besides work, worry, and keep peace in the house! We are not used to have the three of us home 24/7, with no options for getting away for a bit, or doing our normal sports/hobbies/visiting. At least our freezer is now restocked, and I do not have to grocery shop as often. I am also reading much more than usual, going back and revisiting some series from the past. Stay safe everyone!
Bunny reminds you of your fur baby ???? Sending hugs ❤️
Thanks for these, I just bought an instant pot and used for first time…love it and noe I have extra recipies to try x
When we were in college I started a weekly menu using the grocery ads. As time passed and children arrived I started doing 4 week menus. Bought what I needed each week but didn’t have to decide what to cook. Next grocery visit will do for 2 weeks as I don’t want to go out more then necessary. Of course some weeks totally change but at least there is an idea where to start. Perhaps all of us will find new favorite recipes.
With all methods of cooking chicken, adding tarragon gives the bird a flavor kick. A plus to the several suggestions on finding good saffron at an Indian or Middle Eastern store. Just remember a very little saffron goes a long way. When I first tried saffron, the recipe said a couple of strings, mmph I’ll use four. I was overwhelmed with yellow and too much flavor.
I love my Instant Pot. I was a big fan of slow cooker/crockpot cookery for decades, and this just adds a new dimension.
Do take care; blessed be.
I’m in a house with three retire/ex chefs..all the food is good, I;m now turning my tiny front patio into a mini garden just for something to do other than cook/dishes..with everyone home its one or the other constantly.
Cooking has fallen by the wayside for society in general:
I was out at a Walmart yesterday and this is exactly what happened.
I was pushing a cart down a pretty much empty isle, there were two younger women, I guess in their early to mid 20s talking together.
1rst- Don’t cry, if you cry I will. – no cart
2nd woman- hugging a box of cereal to her chest, no cart, looking at the empty shelves with a look of despair.
1rst- It will be fine
2nd- We are going to starve.
Now, while there were no instant meals on the shelves, there was plenty of things left to eat, they just needed to be cooked or prepared. I am a 50yo white male, from the farming country and have been cooking all my life with whatever was handy.
I stopped to talk to them because I thought that it might be a matter of funds, and if so I was in a position to help and would have. It wasn’t. I explained a few meals that could be readily made from what I saw just in that isle, and at a reasonable cost per meal per person{ I was thinking about how much I would have to spend to make sure they could eat for at least a week based upon what I saw was left in Walmart. Not petty, I am not rich but was not going to let people starve if I could help it. I am a good person and citizen of this country and we all need to stick together.}
me: You can grab 3 cans of green beans, some carrots, a couple cans of mushroom soup, and some of that brisket over there and make a casserole. Cut up the brisket in thin slices and it will last a week at least.
2nd woman- Then I just stick it in the microwave?
Me: No, this is generally baked for 45 minutes at 350 degrees in the oven.
1rst woman : Oven I don’t know how to use that.
Me: How long have you had one in your house.
2nd woman: It’s that thing we cook pizza in, but they only need to be in there for 20 minutes. Why is this 45?
1rst woman: Whats a casserole dish?
Me: There are still some frozen pizzas in the next isle, you should buy those.
And I walked away.
This is what I fear is going on across America right now.
I’m smiling and laughing at what you wrote Anton because I’ve come across that a lot over the years. I love to cook when I have the time. I get a lot of looks from people when I shop for groceries because of what I have in my cart.
Since I love to cook, I get really good pots and pans. When a friend of mine and her husband moved to Fort Worth, I invited her to my place. When she saw my kitchen she told me she wanted her kitchen like mine. ????
Some people don’t know how to use a can opener…
https://youtu.be/yQbmjKCbFLE
Just sayin
Chuckling about this! No wonder my son was well liked on his dorm floor!!! He and another guy cooked on the weekends in the kitchen on their floor! They made most things from scratch – including homemade chicken nuggets, chips, etc.! BTW – their floor was coed and none of the girls cooked!
Sounds like the house my oldest son lives in. One of his roommates came in from work while my son was eating dinner…
“What are you eating?”
“Spaghetti”
“Where did you get spaghetti?”
“Uh… I made it…”
“You know how to make SPAGHETTI?”
“Yes. It’s pretty easy. You just brown some hamburger and onions and garlic, add italian seasonings, tomato sauce, and boil up some noodles.”
“Wait, wait… you know how to COOK?”
“Yeah, don’t you?”
“Nope.”
So now, instead of paying rent, he makes dinner 4 days a week. His roommates buy the groceries (whatever he tells them to buy) and he cooks. We bought him an Insty Pot for Christmas.
His little brother is a chef… he knows how to cook “fancy” stuff so gets called for recipes because coming up with something to feed a whole house on a daily basis is “hard” (yeah, kid, I get that) Especially when some of them are fussy.
The youngest is learning to cook because he likes the idea of trading cooking for rent, when he gets that old… (and because he’s fussy and I quit trying to cook for him… I just make stuff I like and he can eat peanut butter if he doesn’t like what I make.)
My first thought was that something happens to Bunny. Thanks for that spoiler so we don’t worry. Bunny is a great character. Memories I’d our pets stay with us always.
This might be the Teriyaki recipe you’re referencing. It’s a Japanese guy who talks about the origin of Teriyaki sauce, then goes through and details why you should not add all those extra ingredients commonly found in teriyaki recipes: https://norecipes.com/best-chicken-teriyaki-recipe/
Regarding saffron, I also wondered why there were differences among brands as well. It turns out that some saffron brands include the yellow portion of the stigma in addition to the red and seems weaker by comparison. Even from the same country there are different “grades” based on this. Removing the yellow portion by hand of course drives the price up. I’ve had to buy online to find the best saffron which I reserve for special occasions. For every day use I head to Trader Joe’s.
I used to do the breaking down thing too and let it fall by the wayside. And, I’ve also been cooking this past week and a half. It’s been good. I don’t know what will happen when this is over (please let it be over), but it’s been nice to get back to the nuts and bolts of a preparing a meal again.
I love reading your blog posts. They’re a spot of happiness in the day. Thanks for sharing!
I was ready this while tired and under-caffeinated, so at first glance, I read “Other lessons learned this week: Instant Pot is awesome” as “Other lessons learned this week: Pot is awesome” and thought “OMG, she is LOSING it! Must call her asap!” 🙂
Ugh, see, I AM tired and under-caffeinated! Meant “I was reading” this above, not “I was ready this”
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate these recipes! My boyfriend is moving into my tiny little 1 bedroom apartment temporarily until the virus passes that way we can “shelter in place” together and I kind of feel like I should do more for dinner than just cottage cheese and a small bowl of rice like I do most nights. Especially since he prefers a more varied diet and doesn’t like cottage cheese. Which reminds me; I should make more rice.
Thank-you for all your hard work and the recipes, recommendations, and crafts you pepper through you blog!
Re: stews — if you’re used to slow cooking stews anyways, the IP still has that ability.
The thing I like about it is if I’ve set the slower cooker setting too late in the day, but it’s been cooking at least 1-2 hours to get that “proper stew flavour”, I just switch to the pressure cook setting for another ~30/45 mins and you totally have the best of both worlds: slow cooked flavour & fast stew! Same kind of applies for any other kind of slow cooked meals I’ve found. It kind of puts it in the category of “fast slow-cooking”?
We use our Instant Pot to do homemade yogurt. It is so much better than what you can buy in the store.
The pork carnitas recipe was fantastic. I used it in soft tacos and enchiladas The hubby said to keep that recipe.
Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing your chicken ideas. I’ve saved the teriyaki recipe. 🙂
Would you mind sharing some of your go-to recipes for those beef cuts? This feels so dumb, but I didn’t learn how to cook meat until after I moved out of my parent’s house. I could bake anything and chop a mean vegetable, but my Mom did not have us do any stove-top cooking or handle raw meat. I taught myself to cook chicken, ground beef, and NY steak (literally just those) but apparently so did every other clueless person in the world, and now those sections of the grocery store are completely bare and I’m left looking at the “weird stuff” like brisket and skirt steaks. I thought to myself – I have a mixer with a meat grinder attachment, I can make my own ground beef!! Well, 4 hours later I have enough ground beef for now, but I also learned that it would be much faster to just figure out how to work with those cuts the way they came.
I love my Instant Pot too!
Jeffrey @ Pressure Luck has some great recipes. Beef stew: https://pressureluckcooking.com/recipe/instant-pot-beef-bourguignon/
I also enjoy Amy & Jacky (husband & wife cooking team). I discovered umami seasoning from them (Trader Joe’s sells it). Their beef stew:
https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-beef-stew/
You guys (& Jeanine Frost too) are my favorite authors!!! Thank you for wonderful stories.????
Thank you. We have been warned over and over about a huge earthquake that is 300+ years late hitting the Oregon Coast and we must be prepared to survive on our own for 4-6 weeks. So we are. I buy in bulk and do the food saving system of vacuum packing meats (dated for turn over) and preventing freezer burn. We have 3 freezers and 2 generators to insure when the power goes, we won’t lose the foods. We are in a valley, between 2 rivers and far enough inland that the predicted tusnami will stop about a half mile from us. We are prepared, but we are old and have self quarantined before the Governor told us to stay home. Social distancing is not a problem as our closest neighbor is about 500 yards from the house. Local eateries are doing takeout depending on what they have in stock. Everything else is closed. Very scary times right now.
Last night while reading White Hot, I remembered that Bunny was a doberman. I suddenly recalled this post and put some pieces together. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to write or edit anything about dobermans or dogs, in general right now in the wake of your recent loss. I am so sorry for the pain that your family must be going through and as all dog parents, dread this inevitable day. May the passage of time bring you comfort.
My grandpas Macaroni and Swiss cheese
I make small portions with leftovers.
2 cups of macaroni
2 potatoes halved and sliced. (Thicker than a scalloped potato but not too thick).
Butter
Shredded Swiss cheese to taste
Cook macaroni, add sliced potatoes till tender.
Drain, add butter and cheese and mix till it’s melty and stringy.
Sprinkle with maggi