Kitchen adventures

Sigh.  So maybe i can shoot for once-a-month posting.  Maybe that's a realistic goal.  Definitely more so than weekly...

So, it's June.  The year's almost halfway over - how did that happen?  I feel like I've been thinking too much about how quickly time has been moving.  Maybe it's time to focus on something else.  What's been tumbling about in my brain that's not time-related?  Hmm....  Somehow, right now it feels like just about everything is in some way related to time....

Well, okay - here's something that's a bit less so than most: cooking.

Sure, it takes time and whatnot.  But that's minor.

So, since I got married - partly because I'm the first one home from work - I've been doing a heck of a lot more cooking than ever before in my life.  Whenever I was living more or less by myself (though thankfully that was often with lovely folks who enjoyed cooking and enjoyed sharing that talent with others), whenever I was fending for myself in the dinner department, I would most often end up subsisting on a bowl of cereal, or a couple scrambled eggs, or a microwave-cooked hot dog, or maybe Annie's shells & white cheddar if I was feeling particularly fancy.  That doesn't cut it so much any more.  Maybe once in awhile, sure - but for one thing, my Benzoid-husband just needs more food than I do.  And I find that I care about providing him with foods that are (at least somewhat) varied and (preferably more than somewhat) tasty.  And really, it's just easier cooking for two.  I've always rather hated cooking for just me.

So it started mostly from necessity.  He does make dinner from time to time - and he enjoys it.  But unless it's something fairly quick...most of the time I'm not going to want to wait for him to get home and do whatever needs to be done.  That's a lot of waiting.  I might fall asleep.  And then I'd be all groggy and not good for much at all the rest of the evening.  Silly me.  So I set to work as soon as I get home to keep from sitting down.  Because as soon as I sit down, I realize I am tired.

But by now, I've discovered I actually really quite enjoy this whole process (or at least most of the process, most of the time).  And it's a new creative outlet.  I love having the basic idea for a dish and then tweaking it based on what I feel like might be an interesting twist and/or what we happen to have on hand.  I love finding a balance of convenient and interesting.  I love those meals that are basically all cooked up in the same bit saute pan (plus rice/pasta/couscous - I have learned that my boy needs starch, or he's hungry again in half an hour - and/or salad/Steamfresh veg/whatever).  And I love that I pretty much never make them the same twice.

Last night, for instance: I had decided to throw together some sort of Asian-inspired saute (I probably would've called it a stir-fry if we had a wok - but that's yet to come).  I honestly don't end up doing a whole lot of thinking ahead and meal-planning most of the time.  So pretty much, I'd happened to pick up some scallions when they were on sale, because they were on sale.  And I had Benzoid-husband pick up mushrooms the other day, again because they were on sale, and also because we tend to use mushrooms fairly often, so I wasn't too worried about them hanging around too long (because I seriously have to be careful about that with some veggies - out of sight in the crisper bin has meant out of mind for most of my life...).  So I actually remembered the other day (I think it was probably Wednesday I was thinking "What shall we do for dinner on Thursday?") that we had these scallions that were hopefully still good.  And we had the mushrooms.  And we had chicken.  And I had a basic teriyaki-style sauce recipe on a sticky note that I half-remembered, half-invented a little while back.  (Oh my goodness, this story is going on and on...)  So anyway, I threw that all together and got it to the point where it was mostly done, just simmering all together, and I'd started the rice.  And I tasted the sauce.  And it wasn't feeling just right to me.  But suddenly I had a stroke of experimental brilliance.  I had opened a can of coconut milk for some reason or another a couple weeks ago, and the rest was in a jar in the fridge.  So I stirred in a couple tablespoons...and then a couple tablespoons more...and suddenly it was awesome!

And now it's bugging me that I seriously can't remember what I had used that coconut milk for originally...

Anyway.  That was my moment of culinary brilliance for the week.

I've also discovered fairly recently that lasagna is easy and fun to play around with.

And I very recently discovered that I can be perfectly comfortable dealing with (i.e. cooking) raw shrimp - as long as Benzoid-husband peels them for me.  (Oh my goodness.  Shrimp alfredo.  And saucy shrimp soft tacos.  Killer stuff.  So delicious.)

So that's what I've been up to in the kitchen, more or less.  Making discoveries.  Learning and growing.  I think I've made maybe one dish that I wasn't particularly thrilled about.  And I can't remember what it was.  And it doesn't even matter.  I'm having fun.  It's pretty exciting stuff.  (:

Kitchen adventures of your own?  Share 'em!