Sometimes, I have some ingredient left over from a previous meal, or I’m looking for new inspiration in the kitchen, and I want to use a specific ingredient. That’s when I turn to my favorite cooking app. The app for Allrecipes.com comes with some great features, but the main one I use is the search feature. Now, I’m sure plenty of cooking apps have that option, but I’ve been using this app for a couple years now, and I’ve built a nice little collection of “favorites” to try.

Monday night, I had about a pound of boneless pork loin. We also had an abundance of peanut butter. So I searched in the app and found a recipe for pork in peanut sauce. I had most of the ingredients, but the recipe called for fresh, minced ginger. I hadn’t worked with ginger before so I bought a small piece that I hoped would cover the two teaspoons I needed. Dinner turned out great, but I had probably three teaspoons of the ginger left over and no idea what to do with it.

Last night, I had ground turkey, potatoes, and the ginger. Most of the results for all three required whole turkey, so I decided to just search on turkey and ginger. When two different recipes came up for turkey burgers, I decided burgers and fries were the order of the day. I made a few modifications, so we had turkey burgers seasoned with garlic and ginger, topped with horseradish cheddar, balsamic ketchup, coarse ground mustard, and mixed greens. On the side, there were tangy baked potato wedges. I made one mistake when I read the recipe and accidentally added the oil to the burger mixture instead of the pan. So I used our grilling pan with the raised ridges and everything turned out fine.

I was missing a few ingredients here and there, but Cathy and I didn’t really notice. I did have fun reminding her about the fact that all I do lately is cook from scratch, so she should be more appreciative. While I was just entertaining myself with teasing her, I was also fascinated with the notion, that I have come to a point where I rarely rely on ready-made, packaged food anymore when I’m cooking. That’s actually kind of exciting. More work, to be sure, but liberating as well. Enjoy!

Last night, I decided to take the homemade meal a step further. I decided to course it.

The appetizer was chips and homemade guacamole. Cathy and I caught up a bit, and started into our bottle of red wine for the night, a Malbec/Petite Verdot blend from Cooper’s Hawk. This gave her time to unwind and settle down.

Then I served the warmed arugula salad. This was my big gamble. Taking inspiration from the idea of a warm spinach salad, I made a hot dressing to toss in the arugula. The liquid part was a balsamic reduction with honey and coarse ground dijon mustard. It could have used just a bit more honey, but I didn’t use measurements, so I’ll have to experiment in the future. I threw in sauteed onions, garlic and diced mortadella and sprinkled in some fresh cilantro. In spite of the need for just a smidge more sweet, it was delicious!

Entree course was a baked chicken breast with bacon, smothered in bbq sauce. That was straight from a simple recipe, so I saved it for last, confident the meal would end on a high note.

I’m getting better at winging it all the time. I’m also getting better at portioning for two, which means there were no leftovers last night. Now that I’ve proven to myself and Cathy that I can craft a multi-piece meal and not just single-skillet concoctions, it’s getting to be pretty exciting to have the opportunity to cook at home. Enjoy!

After a recent single skillet dinner I whipped up for the two of us, my wife asked if I could whip up a more traditional meal of entree and sides. Only happy to oblige, I put together a lovely meal as shown.

I started with pork cutlets, pounded out and rubbed with Galena Street spice mix from Penzy. After those were cooked, I topped them with a balsamic reduction. Sides were savory seasoned green beans with a drizzle of the reduction and cilantro lime rice. I consulted a recipe for the reduction ingredients, but the rest was off the top of my head.

The only mistake I made was failing to keep the pork warm while I made the sauce. Another lesson for next time. That’s what I love about cooking. There’s always going to be a need for food, so there’s always going to be a need for a next time. Enjoy!

Last night, when I told my wife I would be home to cook dinner this evening, she made a simple request. “I’d be really happy with just a salad.” So the wheels began turning.

At first, I thought about what I had at home, and started making a list of all my usual, favored salad fixings. Then I headed off to work. Chatting with a coworker led me to an idea. I reviewed the salads we offer at work, to see if any inspired me, based on the ingredients I wanted to use.

As a result, I made a delightful mixed green chicken salad with avocado, almonds, dried cherries, grape tomatoes and crumbled blue cheese, topped with a honey mustard dressing.  It turned out great, and we were both very happy with the results! From now on, I’m going to pay more attention to what’s on the menu at my favorite restaurants, since it just might inspire what’s on the menu at home. Enjoy!

Cathy and I hosted Jamie and Lindsey Bougher tonight for dinner. She commented on a recent post that she wanted to be next to enjoy one of my efforts in the kitchen, and according to her and her husband, I did not disappoint.

I modified a recipe for Italian-style country ribs to give it more substance, by adding grilled bell peppers and onions, and we served it over corn/quinoa pasta, with a mixed green side salad tossed in pear-lime vinaigrette. Appetizers were gourmet cheeses and chips with homemade guacamole.

It was a bit time-consuming but rewarding to hand dice and chop everything. (I just need to learn how to dice jalapeño so that my finger tips don’t tingle for a couple hours afterwards.) I also did a better job of planning than usual, anticipating shared ingredients between appetizer, salad and dinner, to decrease the chance of waste later on. It was always challenging to cook for one when I was single. Now, I have the benefit of cooking for two, and that has made purchasing and using fresh ingredients more enjoyable and less wasteful than in the past.

Obviously, I still have plenty to learn. I’m getting better with each new endeavor, though, so I look forward to the next time I can host friends for dinner. So who’s next? Besides having more mouths to feed to rate my efforts, having guests over forces me to keep the apartment cleaner than normal. So drop me a line and give me a reason for one of my next “Kitchen Feats.” Enjoy!

Last night, I whipped up another stovetop dinner from scratch. While the wife and I were enjoying it, I asked her if she realized she’d married a cook. She countered by asking if I realized I was a cook. “Not a clue!” I replied, and it’s true. This whole blind cooking, successfully, really started to happen in just the last six months.

I could always use recipes before (though not always perfectly), and often still do. Yet I’m becoming very skilled at just whipping things up. Give me a protein, a starch, and a few odds and ends and I’m making tasty dinners for two, with a little leftover for Cathy’s lunch, consistently. Plus, they are getting better, simply by what I’m learning about flavor combinations from following other recipes. For example, I was making a dish last night, and knowing what I knew from a recent recipe, I added a proper amount of properly reduced tequila and butter to add that extra wow factor.

Tonight, I followed a recipe, with a few adjustments based on ingredients at hand, and made a killer shrimp and avocado salad, with pear lime vinaigrette. I didn’t have “sweet onions”, so I grilled the chopped onion a bit to make it sweeter. So very “yumptious”. That’s right, it was good enough for me to invent a new word.

I have no idea what doors this new ability will open up. I want to keep growing and trying new things. For now, I have a happy wife. Maybe soon, my friends will get to taste what I’m doing in the kitchen and be happy, too. Either way, I know I never ate this good at home when I let Hamburger Helper decide what went in the pot. I’m actually excited to get into the kitchen. I can’t wait to experience what I discover next. Enjoy!

… Or, Man, I’ve got to remember to take a picture!

In-laws came over for dinner today at our apartment. Cathy wanted to make Shrimp & Scallop Scampi, so I jumped at the chance to finally try making Mexican Drunken Shrimp at home. For those who don’t know the appetizer from Cooper’s Hawk, you’ve no idea what you are missing. (The only change I made to the recipe from their Celebration cookbook was leaving out the jalapeños in deference to sensitive stomachs.)

I now have a new found respect for our line cooks at the restaurant. Cooking time alone was easily 20 minutes, but they manage to churn this dish out in 10-12. Beyond that, my version was a big hit with everyone. Probably could have made a double batch and they would have still been gobbled up.

It was fun putting the elements together, successfully. The dish is a bit pricy to make at home more than occasionally, takes almost as long to prep as to cook, and makes a mess of a more than a fair amount of dishes. I can’t wait to make it again. This one actually called for a double reduction and i pulled it off. Maybe next time I’ll remember to take a picture.

On a side note, I helped Cathy with her prep since she helped me with mine. If you’ve never minced shallots before, be prepared for a new level of crying. Holy shallot, those things had me bawling! Enjoy!

One of the coolest things about my current employer is the nature of the cuisine and it’s strong relationship to wine. None of the restaurants I’d worked at previously offered the quality and diversity our menu does. I’ve already gleaned a lot about cooking by building relationships with the executive kitchen managers, aka the chefs.

Tonight, the restaurant hosted an event for its wine club members called, “Cooking with Wine.” Because I work there, I don’t get to go to these events, but I’m always trying to hang around to see what I can pick up, because the menus for these events are specialty dishes served exclusively to the attendees. What set tonight apart was the inclusion of a demonstration by one of our chefs. Afterwards, I picked his brain for some takeaways from his presentation.

He cooks chicken with vermouth, much like his french grandfather did. He said it’s like white wine only with higher alcohol content and longer shelf life. He reiterated what we’ve often heard from the company’s chief winemaker and head chef, that one should never cook with wine one won’t drink. Specialized wines like Marsala and Madeira are an exception. He talked about deglazing, and the reasons to use stainless steel pans rather than non-stick. One tip he offered for entertaining was to cook the pasta the day before and simply heat it up when the sauce is ready. He might have had more to offer if I hadn’t needed to get back out to my tables, but that was plenty. I appreciated his willingness to take the time to share the tidbits with me. I look forward to picking up some vermouth to keep on hand just in case. Now I just have to remember to ask if he prefers sweet or dry… Enjoy!

I never really succeeded creatively in the kitchen until I was willing to fail. Since I started taking risks and stopped cooking from a box, surprisingly tasty things started to happen.

Tonight, I made a Skyline chili and potato casserole topped with 4-year aged cheddar. Not only did I not use a recipe, I used the oven! The fact that it tasted very good was just the icing on the cake. Want the recipe? Just ask. Enjoy!

(Now, if only I could remember to take pictures…)

To kick off my Kitchen Feats category, I think I’ll start with an overview of my approach to cooking.

In most cases in the past, I’d mess up some detail about the recipe. That was my most common mistake, and sometimes still is. For example, there was the time I tried to make an enchilada casserole and forgot to grease the baking pan. The only thing that saved me that time was having switched from corn to flour tortillas. Thankfully, flour tortillas are less clingy when it comes to metal. Or the time I read “1 canned chipotle pepper” as “1 CAN chipotle peppers” and made the hottest posole known to man.

Along the way, I’ve learned a few important tips about cooking. Read the recipe. Prep the food before you turn on a single burner. Read the recipe again. Learn the basics of cooked food appearance so you’re not such a slave to the cooking times. Don’t just watch the cooking shows for the recipes; look at how they set up their kitchen and pay attention to the little utensils.

Because sometimes you won’t have everything the recipe calls for and sometimes you’ll want to use a different ingredient. Once you understand some of the basics, breaking free from the confines of the recipe can be very liberating… and successful. More on that later. Enjoy!