adam @ 404

The 2007 cooking series has slowed down as of late, but do not fear, it will be restored sooner than later. This entry was actually cooked in late January. Grandma Kramer knows how to make some amazing homemade mac and cheese, unfortunately I do not, and I cannot blame the lack of any secret recipe. I think my use of generic cheese was a big factor in the results of a bland and sometimes sour tasting macaroni concoction.

The boiling cauldron of doom
cooking/DSCF0002_002.JPG

It’s bright.
cooking/DSCF0004_002.JPG

Saturday evening, in preparation for Sunday’s ski trip, I decided to stay-in and prepare some haute mexicana. Yes, I’m fancy and classy. This was my best creation to date. I call it Enchiladas Kramer. Enchiladas! E-N-C-H-I-L-A-L-A-D-A-S! Baked steak and cheese, corn tortilla enchiladas! E-N-C-H-I-L-A-L-A-D-A-S!

After the fish disaster it wasn’t hard to recover, but damn they were good. And anyway it’s generally hard to screw up mexican.

Naked Enchiladas
cooking/DSCF0001_001.JPG
Clothed Enchiladas
cooking/DSCF0003.JPG
Baked Enchiladas
cooking/DSCF0004_001.JPG
Angular Enchiladas
cooking/DSCF0011.JPG

This entry into the cooking series comes directly from reader comments. Thanks Chenny and Amychka. The meal consists of baked maple-glazed salmon, steamed asparagus and shvekla. Due to my own inexperience, I couldn’t figure out how to ’shred’ something for the life of me, although the answer was right in front of my face. The peeler shreds, Adam, the peeler shreds. So I ended up cutting the beets, and nothing can beat that for hard things to do. Budumchahh! I’m ashamed, to say the least - I ended up cutting myself. Next time I’ll shred and I won’t end up gnawing on beets and bleeding.

The salmon looks better than it tasted. I think I either overbaked, didn’t marinate long enough or the salmon sucked to begin with. I’ll guess it was the salmon that sucked. Atleast the asparagus was good.

cooking/DSCF0007_001.JPG

I couldn’t tell if I had blood or beet juice on me
cooking/DSCF0006_001.JPG

The cooking series begins with a special treat. This evening’s preparation is a pancooked ribeye steak with bleu cheese and roasted rosemary red potatoes. Ok, I forgot the rosemary, but made up with garlic. How inhumane, you say? What about the cow? In that case, it’s free range.

Step 1: Clear the table
cooking/DSCF0001.JPG

Step 2: Set the table
cooking/DSCF0002.JPG

Step 3: Bring the food out (apologies for seriously amateur photos)
cooking/DSCF0005.JPG

Step 4: Eat
cooking/DSCF0008.JPG

It’s the fancy life for me.

I’ve been cooking better meals this week, due primarily to the fact that I actually went grocery shopping during the weekend. Traveling, getting settled and eating out too much gave me too many chances to not cook for myself. In an effort to rid myself of this habit of laziness, I’m trying to cook atleast 4-5 dinners per week. I mean “cook” as in prepare food from fresh ingredients. I’ve got a pretty good track record of oven and microwave prepared Trader Joe’s meals, but that’s not what I’m shooting for.

To help spur on my cooking bug, I’d like anyone with favorite dinner recipes to send or post them. Half the time spent cooking is finding what you want to make, and its generally most of the inspiration. Looking in cookbooks is fun, but personal recommendations should turn up alot of gems.

In a related eating out note, I added a link box to the sidebar of all my yelp.com reviews which happen to be all restaurants. Go figure. I plan on adding more restaurant and non-restaurant reviews since I’ve found the site to be indispensible in a new city. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to eat at many dinner restaurants in town. [Personal Ad: Looking for attractive, fun woman to take out on dinner dates for sole purpose of reviewing dinners. Honest.]

Final Thought: Last Friday a pigeon sh*t on my head. I mentioned this to Amy and she said it means I’m going to have good luck. Good…. I thought it meant God hates me.