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Yesterday was awesome, but overwhelming. We opened most of the windows downstairs and had a cool afternoon/evening while repeated rainshowers swept the neighborhood and I alternated between cooking, reading, and kitchen maintenance. I made a batch of spaghetti sauce from a recipe from Mom that turned out deliciously, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that were fantastic, and my very first ever pandowdy. While it was a little overkill, I can maybe see myself getting to where I'm not completely burned out after a day like that. (The combination of reading interludes and not having to do much else in the way of work contributed a great deal, I think, to my overall sanity)
I've had tom kha at restaurants before and it was delicious, but I had feared that it would be overly complicated to actually make it well.
Despite this suspicion, I searched around for a recipe last weekend and gave it a try with a few modifications since certain ingredients were not available at the nearby grocery store. I discovered to my immense satisfaction that my prior impression was incorrect; it was not, it turns out, too complicated for me to make it well enough for it to become my new favorite soup to make.
I can't remember the original sites that I found the recipe on, but if you Google for tom kha you'll find several options. ( This is the one that I cobbled together from the pieces of the top few that I looked at. )
* For all you exceedingly precise types out there, just ignore the 'ish' suffix and the word 'about' and use exactly the amounts indicated.
** It's hard to screw this one up too badly. Keep going and see how it comes out--and keep notes; you may have discovered an even tastier version!
Despite this suspicion, I searched around for a recipe last weekend and gave it a try with a few modifications since certain ingredients were not available at the nearby grocery store. I discovered to my immense satisfaction that my prior impression was incorrect; it was not, it turns out, too complicated for me to make it well enough for it to become my new favorite soup to make.
I can't remember the original sites that I found the recipe on, but if you Google for tom kha you'll find several options. ( This is the one that I cobbled together from the pieces of the top few that I looked at. )
* For all you exceedingly precise types out there, just ignore the 'ish' suffix and the word 'about' and use exactly the amounts indicated.
** It's hard to screw this one up too badly. Keep going and see how it comes out--and keep notes; you may have discovered an even tastier version!
Well Dang.
Sep. 11th, 2008 10:12 pmFirst truly big failure of cooking in a very long time tonight. In what I consider to be good news, it happened because I was experimenting in ways that seemed just this side of Likely To End Badly. Turns out, they were just that side.
Things I've learned in the process:
I have enough ingredients to try this again. I'm not sure I have enough cope though...
Edit: It turns out that the additional cope is unnecessary, as the majority of it is still food. It means I have a little bit of a mess on the bottom of my oven with which I will deal later, for now I have dinner! ~NOM~
Things I've learned in the process:
- The yeastless pizza crust likes to stick to things (will probably try adding just a touch more flour next time)
- I cannot pick up a personal-sized pizza of this crust with just my hands.
- Especially if it is loaded with toppings.
- This crust is not strong enough to maintain the weight of itself and its toppings on an oven rack
- It is a good thing that I put that cookie sheet in underneath it
- Too bad I didn't do it before I put the pizza in.
- Nesting multiple levels in HTML lists is fun!
I have enough ingredients to try this again. I'm not sure I have enough cope though...
Edit: It turns out that the additional cope is unnecessary, as the majority of it is still food. It means I have a little bit of a mess on the bottom of my oven with which I will deal later, for now I have dinner! ~NOM~
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Holy Crap I'm Learning How To Cook!
Feb. 3rd, 2008 09:56 pmApparently all of this practice stuff that I've been doing in the kitchen is paying off. Among what feel like my biggest accomplishments so far are: 2 batches of chili, one spinach pie (including crust), and tonight I just finished a delicious beef stew! (Yeah, it's a little late for dinner, but it made a delicious snack and, I suspect, will be great for lunch tomorrow. I had some trouble getting off the ground, and I managed to christen my kitchen pretty thoroughly with red wine, but everything came together beautifully in the end ^_^)
Win~!
Win~!
