Wow so it has been a little while since I have written about my cooking, but this time around I do have a ton of pictures to share.
We will start with something that I did a few weeks ago, it wasn't as much cooking as it was using up my leftover chili.
First I am just reheating my leftover chicken chili on the stove.
Next I added some cubed up Velveeta, which is really difficult to work with, its like putty, and sticks to a knife like nothing else!
This is the final product, cheesy, creamy, chili cheese dip, I dipped all sorts of things in it, mostly veggies, I baked some frozen waffle fries, and I also just had to dip my finger in. It was delicious and is definitely something I would make for a party with others.
Then we get to what I did today, it was a big day with lots of cooking, I decided I would do all of the chopping and prep work before I started cooking, so the first steps would be to separate all of the things for the different items I was making.
First I have the mushrooms, onion, and garlic that I was cooking in bacon grease that I would reheat with bacon and mix in with my eggs for breakfast every morning. I also found another use for it lower in the post.
Next we have the onion, garlic, and red bell pepper which were going to be cooked with some seasonings as the flavor base for my meatloaf.
Finally I set aside some garlic to go with my roasted broccoli, which would be the side dish to my meat loaf for my lunch during the week.
Another technique learned from the cook book, creating a sling in the crock pot with foil, to help remove the meatloaf when it is done cooking. There is also what is referred to as a collar underneath that help to even out the heat inside so the meatloaf doesn't burn on the side next to the heating element.
Most of my days cooking start with the cooking of bacon, this is done to provide me with some fresh bacon grease for the other cooking I will be doing. It also just makes my apartment smell amazing and bacony, and the bacon will be used for my breakfast with eggs during the week.
Its quite steamy in the picture, its the mushrooms, onion, and garlic cooking through in bacon fat, it also helped to clean up the little bits left in the pan by the bacon, I added a little red pepper flake for just a little bit of heat. These got so nicely cooked down, and smelled delicious.
This is the end result of the mushrooms, onion, and garlic, they really did smell amazing, and were delicious, I added just a splash of soy sauce to the pan for that added depth of flavor.
From my favorite cook book, this is a technique used as a binder and thickener in things, bread mashed in milk, white bread seems to be the only bread that works for this though, I have actually been buying the soft burger buns from the bakery at the local grocery store, they are quite delicious, and mash up quite well.
I made some delicious blueberry corn cakes.....I am only kidding about that this is actually the bread and milk mixture, along with a can of black beans that I rinsed, and mashed all together. It was what the recipe told me to do, I guess it just added to the binding ability of the ingredients.
This is one of my favorite ingredients, I put them in my chili every time, they add some fruity and smoky pepper flavor to everything, so even though they weren't in the recipe, I wanted to add them to the meatloaf I was making.
This is the cooked down bowl of onion, garlic, and red bell pepper, along with the first roasted chiles, dark chile powder, oregano, and a drained can of corn.
Added the bean, bread and milk mixture, to the veggies from above. I added the 2 eggs and meat and started mixing to combine it all together.
The only way to mix meatloaf is my hand, this is my meatloaf hand!
The meatloaf nestled into the slow cooker.
Topped the meat loaf with bbq sauce per the recipe, I love bbq sauce on everything, so you can see why i chose this recipe.
This is the meatloaf when it was finished in the slow cooker, the sauce was nice and caramelized.
I used the sling for its intended purpose, to easily remove the meatloaf and put it on a baking sheet to cool off and set up.
So much broccoli!
I actually had to do a total of 3 sheets worth of broccoli for roasting, I would normally do something with cauliflower, but it was expensive this week and the heads were very small, so I just did a bunch of broccoli. I drizzled some oil on them, some salt, and some garlic before baking them off.
This is what the finished product looks like, a little browned and softened, not too soft, but not too hard.
I put the broccoli in a container and sprinkled with some grated Parmesan cheese over them.
The final thing I cooked today was pizza. The grocery store I usually shop at, Festival foods, had their sale on different pizza fixins, so I decided that I would make some, and I really loved the results. This is their whole grain pizza dough that I believe they mix in house, I spread it on a greased baking sheet. I have done this before, and I had stretched it to the corners, but the corners were a bit too toasty for my liking, I left it like this and it turned out very well.
I spooned sauce over the dough and left it intentionally uneven on the crust, I think it makes bites of pizza a little big different, you just have to beware of the exploding pizza sauce.
I sprinkled all of the remaining Parmesan on top of the sauce, it added a nice salty base for the pizza.
I sprinkled a variety of other cheeses on top, I like my pizza quite cheesy.
The last things that I added were some deli smoked ham, and some of the onion, mushroom, garlic mixture I cooked in bacon fat before. I sprinkled a little red pepper flake and oregano over the top for a finishing touch to the pizza.
The last picture I have for the post is the finished pizza that was amazing, some of the best pizza I have had. I loved the nuttiness of the whole wheat crust, I love the smokiness of the ham, and the sweetness from the onions and mushrooms. The oregano added a wonderful smell to the pizza too, the red pepper added just the right level of heat, and the pizza cost about 5 bucks to make.
I had a great day of cooking, which is something I really love doing. I need to write on here more often about cooking and other food related items, they are things that I truly do have a passion for.
