Peter's Cooking Diary #2

Well this week will be a bit shorter of a session, as I only cooked one main dish, but there was also a side dish to go along with it.

This week, I really didn't know what to make, so to jump start my brain I looked at the local grocery store ad. Ground beef was on sale, so i thought i would do something with it, I don't use beef that much, but I looked through my cook books, I came across a sloppy joe recipes and that is what I decided on.

The recipe was call smokey joes, so there is a little bit of heat, and they are a bit smokey, I actually adjusted the recipe and removed the brown sugar, I am sure it would have been fine in the mix, but I just didn't want to extra sugar involved. I probably should have tried the regular recipe before I change it. I just like to make the recipes as I would like though.

To go along with the sloppy joes, I made some chili lime corn to go along as a side dish which is one of my favorite simple recipes.

I use frozen corn for this recipe, but fresh would be more ideal. If you did have fresh corn on the cob, I would love to grill it and get it a little bit and get it caramelized. I cook the corn in some butter in a large pan. I used about 2 pounds of corn for my recipe, but you can scale this to your own needs. I used one small can of fire roasted chiles, to add a bit of a different flaver to combination, added salt and pepper to taste, and finished with the juice of a whole lime for some acidity. I love the sweet corn with a little bit of tang. It is a good side dish for anything that I would normally grill, or really anything at all in my mind.

One last little tip that I have for this week, involves making  my own pizza at home, but not completely. I love taking one of the fresh made pizzas from a grocery store, I prefer getting a cheese pizza and just making it my own. I have done this with frozen pizzas too, I especially like it with Digiorno garlic bread pizzas.

One sample pizza that I made is a cheese pizza that I topped with canned tuna(I know it is weird, but I love it, give it a try some time!), sliced kalamata olives, chopped fresh garlic(you can saute it first if you would like), chopped fresh basil, a sprinkle of both oregano and red pepper flake. It makes it into a great experience with fresh ingredients, without the time it would take to make a pizza completely from scratch.

Til next time!
Peter

Pain & Gain

This is definitely not the type of movie that I would normally see in the theater, it isn't even the type of movie that I would watch on HBO given the chance. I wanted to check to see if I could still dislike a movie that I saw in the theater, the last movie I saw and hated was another Michael Bay movie, Transformers 2. I gave the movie the benefit of the doubt, it seemed like it had the potential to be entertaining, and I liked the trailer with Thrift Shop playing in it. Well here is a spoiler, THRIFT SHOP ISN'T EVEN IN THE MOVIE! Sorry for yelling, but this is not going to be a positive review.

I will start off with a similar issue that I had with Transformers 2, this movie is at its most boring when the action is happening. Michael Bay has mastered the art of turning action into intelligible crap! Once again, similarly to Transformers 2, the action shots cut too quickly and are not generally well shot that my eyes just tend to lose focus on the movie. I think that is something that is not just happening to me, he doesn't understand ho optics of the eyes work in relation to movies, just not good at life.

The story in itself was not bad, it was presented as a true story, not sure how much has changed, but it would appear that the elements have not changed all that much from the story to the screen because the story is just so mundane and boring.

I liked a lot of the actors in this movie, Mark Wahlberg has made some great comedic movies in recent years so I tried with this one, and I just couldn't like it. The Rock was my favorite part of the movie, but it was more because of the silly things they have him wearing than his actual performance. Its all "Hey look the Rock is wearing a funny shirt!" for the most part. I love Rebel Wilson, but her character is hardly in the movie. Her funniest scene comes right before the credits. There are  some other character actors in the movie, but no good performances compared to other films in their careers.

I think the sound track was the best part, with lots of songs from the mid 90's Ganster's Paradise was the one that I remembered, but I enjoyed that part at least.

My advice is to not spend a cent on this movie, save your money for something better. Don't see it in a theater, budget theater, don't even pay to rent it, wait for HBO or cable if even that.

Peter's Cooking Diary #1

Well this is an idea that I had pop into my head, write a little bit about my cooking, and other things related to cooking, with some pictures worked in as well, as always I would love feedback on this. Its just me looking for something to write about, and this is something I enjoy quite a bit. Not sure if this will be a weekly thing, or maybe a little bit less often, when I have something interesting to write, I guess as it is right now, it is a work in progress.

The first thing I wanted to mention is how much I like the products available at Aldi, you can't always get everything on the grocery list there, but I really like what they do have, and the prices are usually much cheaper that other grocery stores, just make sure you bring a quarter for the cart!

They really have great products for parties, summer sausage, some great quality cheeses which are very cheap (I got a $2.99 gouda this last weekend and it is great), cheap dips and hummus as well. Most canned goods that they have most canned goods regularly as well as staples like milk and eggs. There are also cheap frozen foods, but I don't but too much from that area. They also have a variety of more upscale products, an example of that from this week was the whole wheat gnocchi that I got this week for $1.50 for a similar product that would cost about $4 at a different grocery store.

I cooked the gnocchi and it was really quite good, just a little bit of whole wheat flavor which I don't mind at all, they cooked up really quickly as the instructions indicated, they would be good just in some butter with some Parmesan, but I made some sauce that I will mention below to go on them. I just think Aldi is a good place to find some new ingredients to try to cook with, I am all about experimenting with making food.

Today was a big day of cooking for me, as Sundays usually are.

The first thing I started this morning was a modified version of an Italian pot roast recipe from my favorite cooking book Slow Cooker Revolution

I also took an element learned from my favorite cooking show, Good Eats with Alton Brown, and I browned the roast on both sides, which the recipe in the book does not say to. I tried a little bit of the roast this evening, and it sure was delicious, if there is one thing I know how to do, its cook for my tastes. I liked the recipe because it does not have potatoes, while I enjoy eating potatoes, I am trying to go back to my low carb roots and lose some more weight.

The next thing I made was my version of Puttanesca sauce, which I think I may have learned from my days of watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals, which is full of good ideas for quick cooking. The sauce consists of crushed tomatoes(I am lucky enough to have a mother who grows her own, and turns extras into sauce. i am sure she will read this, thanks mom!), onion, garlic, dried oregano, dried parsley(also from my mother), red pepper flake, some tomato paste for a little sweetness, kalamata olives that I hand crush into the sauce the vinegar adds a little bit of acidity to the dish, and the final ingredient is canned tuna. The sauce if made in an authentic way would likely have capers and anchovies in it as well. I don't really care for capers, and I completely forgot to add a little anchovy paste that I bought. I like the sauce pretty chunky, with a lot of the liquid evaporated out. Gnocchi might not be the best pasta for the sauce, but I really enjoyed it a lot.

The final thing I cooked today was some roasted cauliflower and carrots. I did the 2 veggies on separate pans, at separate times, the carrots were supposed to cook at a lower temperature, I believe it is because they have a higher sugar content and can burn a little easier. Roasting them is very simple, the cauliflower was with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. The carrots were with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley. I thought of this while I was sprinkling the parsley on, its kind of weird to season carrots with their close relative parsley, strange thought to have. The veggies are going with the pot roast, with a little bit of the pot roast juice with them.

I tasted a little bit of everything for dinner tonight, and it was all good! Well this is the end of the first installment of my cooking diary, please provide some feedback if you have any, ideas for things to talk about on here are always welcome as well.

Life Update 04/18/2013

Well it sure have been a long time since I have written anything on here, but I have recently felt the urge, even if it is a short post, I will likely be writing a bit more frequently in the near future.

Well the first thing to update on here, I am no longer in a relationship. I still feel like I am transitioning into my own place, but that is only because I haven't been here long enough. I don't really want to get into this too much, but if you know me personally I will gladly discuss it that way.

Anyway, so since the breakup I have been allowing myself to indulge with food, which of course has always been my biggest weakness. I do feel that I need to really establish some plan, especially one that does not have as much sugar in it. I guess I just felt that writing it out on here would help me stick to it more.

The main exclusions from this plan are no white starches, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. Now there are some exceptions to these exclusions that will be made occasionally. I am planning to make pot roast over the weekend, and I think that pot roast should have some potatoes along with it. I am planning lean protein and vegetables, similar to what I had done before, but I would also include fruit and yogurt on top of that. I don't think I need sweets on a day to day basis, especially if I incorporate a few natural sweets on my own. I really just need to recommit myself to this type of thing. Exceptions will be made, but I need to get out of the attitude of being able to eat junk all of the time, I need to focus on something that is sustainable.

Its not that I am desperate to lose weight or anything like that. I like the feeling of progress, and the feeling of being able to lose some weight, I would love to get down below 300 lbs by the end of the year, so that is the goal I am setting right now. I want to keep going in the positive direction. I really wish this weather would be better outside, so I could go running outside, but the weather this "spring" has just been lousy. I have been walking a lot at work, and I will be playing on a softball team this spring, but there is just something about running outside that is so therapeutic for me.

I guess just post is less about my life, and more about me recommitting to cutting down on the sweets, and trying to continue to improve myself.

Thanks for reading, I am planning to get this thing up and running more frequently again soon.