Cooking Pet Peeves

I love to cook! I like being in a kitchen, turning on the radio and just making something yummy and awesome.

I enjoy making food. I really like it when I have people enjoying the food that I made. I appreciate feedback.

However, I have some pet peeves . . . (I talked this over with Turtle and Zeroman, and they agree.)

I hate cooking with people who do not know their way around food or the kitchen. (They can’t even wash a simple dish. I don’t mind serving them, but they can stay out of the kitchen if they do NOT want to learn.)
Or people who think they know it all, because they have watched two cooking shows, but try to serve raw chicken. (The Food Network is amazing, I have so many show I love on there, but you need to know the basics first because imitating someone else’s cooking style.)
Picky eaters. . . (I hate cooking for hours at a time for someone to nick-pick my food. I think you should learn to cook for yourself)

Cooking is an exploring science. (Yes, most who know the kitchen, may not measure, but I always suggest taste as you cook, especially herbs, seasons, and sauces. Even the most studied chef will experiment with seasons, meats, veggies, and flavors.)
Baking to me is precise science. (You really need a recipe and to measure to get the brownies, cookies, cakes, or pastry exactly the way you need them. Measuring cups and spoons are baker best friends.)

If you don’t like to cook, then find friends who do.

If you are picky on your food, find people who are just ask picky.

Leafy Salads

I knew if I just posted “Salads” that someone would say there are so many out there. . . (from leafy to protein like chicken or tuna to potato and pasta etc.) I love many different salads.

However over the weekend we made an awesome leafy salad. . .

I had few salad mixes. . . it ice-burg lettuce, Kale, greens, spinach, shredded carrots, and red cabbage. We added tomatoes, mushrooms, green pepper, and shredded pork and shredded cheese.

We have a south-western ranch or Italian dressing.

When I go to a restaurant, I don’t mind a simple salad before my main meal. However when I am at home everything is in my leafy salads. . .

I love fresh spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, snap peas, black olives (sliced), shredded cheese (prefer white cheeses), sunflowers, flavored croutons, and whatever else will work. Plus I will cut up lunch meat or cube or shred chicken. My salads usually become a huge part of the meal. I even love having bacon in my salads.

Whenever I make a salad and my family is home, I usually end up making them salads too. I like to think of myself as a creative salad. . . I’m not sure if I am to master level yet. LOL

Growing up, whenever I would visit my grandparents for dinner, they could always have some kind of salad with dinner. My grandma got me into sprouts, poppyseed dressing, and adding chopped nuts in salad. I love the crunch and freshness.

I try to eat salad at least once a week.

Easter Dinner (Happy Ham Day!)

Happy Easter! Or Happy Ham Day!

Over the weekend, we have been cooking ham and other goodies to celebrate the holiday as we have done in past traditions.

Sandwiches. . . growing up we joked because we would make our sandwiches “Bleed” as we had an egg Easter bread, beet horseradish sauce, ham and cheese.
Cvikla s Chrenom – Beet and Horseradish Relish (http://slovakamericankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/04/cvikla-s-chrenom-beet-and-horseradish.html )

Easter bread: Paska (https://dcslovaks.org/slovak-easter-traditions-paska-bread/)

Easter Cheese: Veľká noc Cirák (https://slaviccooking.com/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/)

We kept it simple (we didn’t make Cvikla s Chrenom, Paska, or Veľká noc Cirák but do remember them as a kid.)

We made three hams (actually my friend and my brother made the hams.)

I focused on the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

What is awesome is that with ham. . . there are so many things you can do with the leftover. . .

You can add it to scallop or augrutin potatoes.
You can add into bean or split pea soups.
Add it to Mac N Cheese
Yes of course you can just keep it simple and make a bunch of ham sandwiches.

Note: Ham has a lot of salt, so make sure you drink a lot of water to get a lot of the salt out of your system.

This ham is addicting that I’m dealing with a stomachache from eating too much. So I am taking a nap now.

Beef Stroganoff

I had sliced beef pieces, mushroom, sour cream and egg noodles. So I spiced everything up and made beef stroganoff. I marinaded the beef with ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

(I currently cannot handle onions with my stomach, but I have seem people add onions, and pepper to it.
I’ve also seen people use hamburger with it, but I prefer beef chunks.)

However it a hit a spot and it was eaten so fast, that I forgot to grab a picture.

It is so easy, but I usually never have the left over sour cream. (We had steak tacos Sunday and fish taco Monday, so I had left over sour cream today.)

Noodles are one of my comfort foods.

Cabbage and Noddles with bacon

I was at the store and they had cabbage for .59 cent a pound and bacon that was normally 6.99 for 2.99 (save 4.00). . . thick cut too.

(By the way, I love bacon. The crispy sweet yumminess. )

I cooked the bacon and cooked the cabbage in butter and bacon grease. Yum. Then I made enough to share with my neighbor.

I love this dish, because it taste good, filling and you can share with many people. This is why many people usually has this dish as parties or picnics.

Baking: cookies and cakes

I love to cook, and I usually cook at least one meal 5-6 days out of the week on average.

However I also love to bake. Usually those around me have to exercise or they end up gaining weight.
I used to make a joke if I can’t lose weight, I will just make everyone else around me weight more.

Seriously I enjoy baking cookies. My favorite cookie to make and eat are my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. (I’ll give you a secret, I use the “The Joy of Cooking” Oatmeal cookie recipe. I just add a lot of chocolate chips. ) They are soft, chewy, and or course have chocolate.

I also love to bake cakes. I prefer chocolate, but I have made layered cakes and even pineapple upside down cake.

I will be honest though I’m not that great at decorating cakes, but family are just happy that is edible, not burnt, and tastes good.

Pollack Fish with Lemon Sauce

Today I made with the planning of my brother Turtle. . . Pollack fish with lemon sauce and avocado and lemon rice.

Both dishes are very easy to make.
However with fish, especially as fragile and flaky as Pollack you need to focus and make sure you don’t over cook the fish. I only cooked each batch (which I had two batches I made for three people) for only about 5 to 7 minutes once the butter started to bubble and the pan was hot.

I cooked the fish in a fry pan with butter, fresh squeezed lemon, chives, salt and pepper.

cooking lemon pollack

After I took out the fish, I used the butter with lemon juice and made a sauce. I let the pieces of lemon cook in the sauce and added tablespoon of sugar and butter as it was a bit tart.

I cooked the rice (2 cups of uncooked rice to 4 cups water) and once the water was gone and rice cooked completely added 3 smashed avocados and 1/4th cup of the lemon-butter sauce. I also salt and peppered to taste.

Finished plate

lemon pollack (2)