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.

Randomness

It has been over a week since I last blogged. Since the last post, my little brother graduated from college, and I have really been suffering through a cold. I am feeling much better now.

Yesterday my my brother, who is staying with me for a few weeks, made a ton of food. We fired up the grill, and I figured since we were heating it up, we should get the most out of it. We grilled burgers, brats, hot dogs, and some peppers and onions for good measure. On top of that we boiled some corn on the cob, which I have since removed from the cob. I made some of my dad's BBQ cole slaw, it is like a normal creamy cole slaw with some BBQ sauce and pickle juice mixed in. I think it is my favorite cole slaw ever! And last but not least I made some yukon gold oven fries with garlic, olive oil, and italian herbs. They might be my best potatoes I have ever made. We have leftovers that should feed us for a lot of the week.

I am not ashamed to admit that I really like Oscar Meyer hot dogs, just the regular cheap ones. I like them better than the natural casing hot dogs that have the crisp to them. We grilled a few packages of Oscar Meyer hot dogs, but the coals were really low, before they died out, so they pretty much go smoked in there. They taste so wonderfully smoky. I like to have a hot dog and put some of the BBQ cole slaw on top of it, which is friggin amazing.

So while working today (Memorial day) I was just thinking about how some people really fall for the different tactics that grocery stores employ to sell products.

For those that don't know me, my night and weekend job is as a cashier at a grocery store. As a side note a lot of the topics that I write about on here ccome to me while I am working, others while I go on my long walks at night.

Grocery stores use the package price to get you to buy more items than you actually need. In the vast majority of cases you don't have to but all of the items to get each item for that price. Just make sure you read the sign, if it doesn't say you must buy all of them, then don't feel obligated to.

Buy one get one free is not always a great deal. Lots of times items are cheaper when they are on sale, that each item costs in a buy one get one free deal. People love to get stuff for free, but they don't notice that sometimes its not as good of a deal.

Smaller items that are on sale, can still be less per ouce than the larger items which are not neccessarily on sale. Stores know people will lean towards an item that has a sale tag even if its not that great of a deal. That is why they put so many of them out there.

The one item in a grocery store that actually makes me lose a bit of respect for people is Tropicana 50. For those who don't know Trop 50 is its orange juice that has half the calories and half the carbs of regular orange juice, that comes in a smaller container that is more expensive than normal orange juice too. Now how do they make orange juice that has half the sugar and calories? They add water! Why not buy the regular orange juice and dilute your own, you would be making so much more juice for yourself. This is such a weird thing for me to rant about, but I really think people need to think more when they buy things. Its got half the calories, it must be better right? well in this case absolutely not!

Well I think that is all for that rant. I just needed to spill a lot of that stuff. I would like to write more often, but I just never have the inspiration when I want to write haha. I am going to start backlogging some different posts so hopefully that will help me post more often.

I just wanted to say that I really think that Foreplay is my favorite song by Boston. Its the prelude song that leads to Long Time, and that song just plain rocks! It rocks more than Long Time itself. I know, another unsolicited thought from me.

Well thanks for stopping by.