canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2021-09-21 05:11 pm
canyonwalker) wrote2021-09-21 05:11 pm
"So what are you making with that scale?"
"So what are you making with that pasta?" my sister asked me after I extolled the virtue of an inexpensive digital kitchen scale in a text conversation a few days ago. It's been a while since I've blogged about cooking so I figured I'd share it here.
"Red sauce with ground lamb," I answered.
"Ooh, that sounds fancy!"
"Enh, not really," I explained with another picture. The base sauce is from a jar of Prego. While ground lamb is fancier than ground beef, it's just leftovers. I had ground lamb that I used to make burgers for dinner days earlier. I browned up the remainder of the package so it would last longer and to use in a quick lunch recipe such as this.
But wait, there's more!
I made cheesy garlic bread. Okay, now it's getting a bit fancy. But here, too, I struck a balance between really fancy and convenient. I didn't make the bread. Baking fresh bread would be fancy— and way too much work for weekday lunch! But I also didn't buy a pre-made garlic loaf from the store. I bought a half dozen fresh sandwich rolls the week earlier, froze them, and defrosted one in the microwave for this meal. I brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled it with garlic powder, and gave it a quick toast in the broiler. Then I topped it with shredded mozzarella cheese— I used pre-shredded cheese this time to save effort— sprinkled on oregano, and melted it together under the broiler for another few minutes.
As I remarked above it's been a while since I've blogged about cooking so I figured I'd share this. Why haven't I written much about cooking lately? It's because cooking has become old-hat. Earlier in the pandemic it was an old skill turned new again because suddenly I needed to exercise it a lot more. Now it's something I do often enough that it doesn't feel blogworthy. Also, I think I don't attempt as many fancier meals as I did a year ago. I figured out a bunch of meals that taste great without requiring crazy amounts of effort and I make them repeatedly. Perhaps when the weather turns cooler I'll trot back out the recipes that require running the stove for an hour.
"Red sauce with ground lamb," I answered.
"Ooh, that sounds fancy!"
"Enh, not really," I explained with another picture. The base sauce is from a jar of Prego. While ground lamb is fancier than ground beef, it's just leftovers. I had ground lamb that I used to make burgers for dinner days earlier. I browned up the remainder of the package so it would last longer and to use in a quick lunch recipe such as this.
But wait, there's more!
I made cheesy garlic bread. Okay, now it's getting a bit fancy. But here, too, I struck a balance between really fancy and convenient. I didn't make the bread. Baking fresh bread would be fancy— and way too much work for weekday lunch! But I also didn't buy a pre-made garlic loaf from the store. I bought a half dozen fresh sandwich rolls the week earlier, froze them, and defrosted one in the microwave for this meal. I brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled it with garlic powder, and gave it a quick toast in the broiler. Then I topped it with shredded mozzarella cheese— I used pre-shredded cheese this time to save effort— sprinkled on oregano, and melted it together under the broiler for another few minutes.
As I remarked above it's been a while since I've blogged about cooking so I figured I'd share this. Why haven't I written much about cooking lately? It's because cooking has become old-hat. Earlier in the pandemic it was an old skill turned new again because suddenly I needed to exercise it a lot more. Now it's something I do often enough that it doesn't feel blogworthy. Also, I think I don't attempt as many fancier meals as I did a year ago. I figured out a bunch of meals that taste great without requiring crazy amounts of effort and I make them repeatedly. Perhaps when the weather turns cooler I'll trot back out the recipes that require running the stove for an hour.