So anyways, thought I'd give this a shot, blogging that is, as I've watched my house get built via the Blog that my Girl Friend, now Fiance started 2 months ago when we purchased a house together.
So a little about me, and by me I mean us. She travels a lot for her job....eats out too much. I work(live) in a restaurant, don't want to go out and eat in them any more. So we decided to start cooking as much as we can, not only from the flavor stand point, but the variety, the health, and the cost. So to make this even feasible to do with the life style that society has these days, go go go go go go go, we try to do a few things to make this possible. First, we set the menu for the week, we picked Sundays to do this, just because by then we know what the week is going to bring, have a decent idea of nights that we just might not be able to actually cook something, and days we'll have more time to be more elaborate. Second, get that list together and go shopping for it...that night, found out the first week, it took a couple of trips, forgot to do side dishes, couldn't find this or that etc..., added more stuff to the menu. It sucked a bit but as we get used to doing this it is going to get easier, plus we'll start having a stocked pantry instead of having to buy everything every time we want to cook. Also, sometimes coming from a smaller community compared to other parts of the world, might not find everything you need in one place.
So as for the travels part, thought it would be fun to put together menus each week that are based on a region of the country, or the globe for that matter. A chance to get out and explore the community you live in, and a chance to try food you've never made before.
The first week we selected Mexican fare, mainly because I was looking through a cookbook saw a recipe for Chile Rellenos, had just recently had them at a new place, and wanted to give them a shot. We added a Mexican rice dish as a side and put these together on Tuesday night. Learned to not be scared of roasting peppers, let them get black, much easier to peel, and, learned that we need some gloves when working with said peppers. They were very good, and tasted great. Problem though, we made 8 stuffed chilies, and we were stuffed after 4, so the rice went into the bottom of a baking dish, and the chilies on top, with some extra cheese, supper for Friday.
The only other night we had a chance to really cook was Thursday, I gave tamales a chance. Will have to say they were the best tamales I ever had...never had them before. I had a little inspiration from my cooking idol, Alton Brown. Love the guy, and the show, part of the reason I did tamales, and it doesn't take that long to actually roll them, but would do a full batch and freeze them next time. Added some re-fried pinto beans to the mix and it was a great dinner. Desert, we roasted some plantains with a little cinamon, rum, vanilla, and brown sugar. Mental note: Gotta let the plantains turn at least a little bit yellow before eating them. The flavor was good, the texture was just pretty rough.
Oh yeah, Friday night, left overs, great idea, peppers were wonderful, rice was moist, and cheese, well that's always good.
Hoping to add more detail to each meal as I get used to doing this, just wanted to start one up, see if I spark anyone's interest, and want you to just try cooking...what's the worst thing that can happen (burning down your house doesn't count as that is just stupidity)? It sucks, taste like crap and you end up ordering a pizza.
Next week teaser - German food(heck she made Knoephla soup for us today as a starter). See ya Tuesday night.
s as of now.