Sandbox thread for cooking, nutrition nazis, your fucking lunch, etc.

pork roasts and loins are awesome and easy to make. citrus marinade works well with them.

I braised a whole duck at thanksgiving, the braising liquid was:

-soy sauce
-chicken stock
-hoisin
-agave nectar (or honey)
-a couple of cloves (supposed to use star anise but i couldn't find any)
-red wine
-garlic
-carrots
-onions
-celery

1. trim fat off of duck and freeze the trimming + giblets for soup stock
2. brown duck on all sides
3. remove duck and cook carrots, onions and celery in duck fat
4. drain most of the fat
5. add all ingredients and duck, making sure you have enough liquid to almost cover bird
6. simmer until done, maybe two hours
7. remove duck (covering it with foil) and cook the liquid way down to a thick consistency
8. spread glaze on duck and brown in oven for 15 minutes
9. die

9. die

seriously that duck sounds rad

i don't cook meat often mostly for guests. thinking lamb for nye

yeah, the duck was good!

i forgot- peel an orange, section it and drop into the liquid

mmm duck
a friend was telling me abt his work's holiday party at a chinese restaurant and how because half the people were vegetarian he ended up eating like his weight in peking duck. because when peking duck is there you just have to eat it.

One of our main Xmas traditions here is a huge breakfast after the gift-opening. Usually it's standard fare like pancakes & bacon or biscuits/gravy/grits/fried eggs, but this year I made Eggs Hussarde and home fries. So good...still stuffed, five hours later.

Dayyyyyum

i ate abt 15 tamales yesterday:

pumpkin spice...like pumpkin pie in a tamal :D
broc and vegan queso...YES
black bean and cheez...ALSO YES

got myself all geared up to use this week to expand my cooking repertoire to more than 3 dishes, and went to go grocery shopping -- realized it was raining harder than I thought & now I'm back inside... :/

i'm making coq au vin in my fabulous new le creuset french oven!

gonna make paella in my new ceramic casserole dish

these two posts have inspired me to try again to get some damn groceries.

always been intimidated by baking but gonna try the focaccia from this alice waters cookbook i got at xmas.

alice's rap is pretty heavy but the actual recipes seem simple, straightforward i.e. just my speed.

i also found out there are le creuset and calphalon outlets in kittery, maine and they are magical places. i got a $200 calphalon sauce pot for $40! i'm thinking of stopping by the le creuset outlet on my way out of town and buying some pretty casserole dishes.

Took some of the marchand de vin sauce I made for Xmas breakfast and some of the leftover smoked turkey from Xmas Eve dinner and turned them into a wondrous combination for turkey po-boys tonight.

I got a free half gal of vanilla coconut beverage from work and then I picked up some kale, bananas, and frozen strawberries on the ride home. Smoothie time!!

NEW VITAMIX

HOLY SHIT

my coq au vin turned out rather beautifully:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-o2Cb7EZU4ks/TvqyRTmcqPI/AAAAAAAAAPc/7k3irbRQ7dE/s640/photo-4.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xjF0L98xxnI/Tvqxz5ncBHI/AAAAAAAAAO8/vA4n4QFvqI0/s640/photo-8.JPG

very purple chicken:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JKnasgil0z0/TvqyL5gswaI/AAAAAAAAAPU/RhRc8coIQRg/s640/photo-5.JPG

yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum

looks gorgeous!

yum @ purple coq

i'm starting the tagliatelle with lamb ragu from the frankie's cookbook that i got my mom for christmas (but secretly wanted for myself) today, it takes too days to cook.

i'm reheating some osso buco broth with white beans and pastini for lunch.

next week i will go back to not gorging myself of rich foods, hopefully!

too = two, gah

new food processor is awesome. no more annoying whining noise. it's very quiet and fast and i've used it yesterday and today! i minced garlic and ginger for thai curry yesterday and today i ground fresh herbs and grated parmesan for a chicken coating i just invented. i'm going to invent so many things.

well not grated, i put the cut up cheese in with the herbs and turned it to dust

my dad used all the bread flour while I was away and I never actually made any bread with it

I just bought more bread flour today tbh

Shit, now that my dishwasher is working, I should use my food processor for TONS of stuff instead of dicing or micro-plane grating it all! Curry with pulverized onion mash coming right up!

Bring it!

did i already brag about scoring a mini cuisinart from my sister's cast off pile yet? i am so excited to make pesto.

actually i want to make pesto pistachio butter

pistachio butter? gtfo that sounds awesome

in related pistachio news: the lindt pistachio milk chocolate is delicious.

My boss sent me a big package of calories from Trader Joes, incl some toffees that are coated in dark chocolate and rolled in crushed pistachios. They look like lumps from the cat's litterbox, but they taste GREAT.

I gave a box of those to my mom for Christmas! Rave reviews all around.

They are really, really good -- I need to mention those to my boss so she'll remember them at the next gifting time.

The Lacey's Cookies are good too.

oh god lacey cookies are like crack to me - i can easily eat a whole package in one sitting without even thinking twice

I find they're a little too much toffee per bite, wish they were in smaller pieces so they could have more chocolate and pistachio on them. Otherwise no complaints.

After 10 days in MI, during which I desperately tried to get in enough spinach, kale, brussels sprouts, radishes, salads, quinoa, etc to keep on track, some tastebud-reset was inevitable when everything comes with ham and cheese, or beef and potatoes. Last night I went a steak too far--a hanger steak, to be exact, and now I have a meat hangover.

So today I'm on green tea and some quinoa with tuna, lemon, spinach salad. Until further notice.

also in nut-related tj's news the dark chocolate almonds with sea salt and turbinado sugar are a++++

ahhh lol at "a steak too far".

literally all we have around the house is rich food (leftover osso buco, leftover coq au vin, chocolates, the lamb ragu i braised yesterday) and i think i am going to need to OD on beets and kale next week.

i think this is the recipe my mom used to make with salmon and pesto pistachio butter:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Salmon-with-Pistachio-Basil-Butter-1103

Oh god, bell, those dark chocolate almonds with salt are my favorite non-cheese thing in the whole world.

i disappeared a box of them over the last few days

now I have a meat hangover

i'm feeling like a human spare rib today. sweated BBQ sauce doing pilates this AM, grossing myself out. brussell sprouts & farro for dinner tonight

could probably do with a week off meat myself, but, b_g's coq au vin photos and brownie's duck recipe both looking goooood

(bonus of duck recipe: we accidentally have two nearly full jars of cloves, so any clove-featuring recipes are much appreciated currently.

we tried mulling some wine, in a half-assed "which of these random ingredients we happen to have in the cupboard seem like they might possibly go in mulled wine" sort of way, but then had to admit that neither of us much liked mulled wine even when made by people who know how to mull wine)

if anyone is interested this is more or less the recipe i followed for coq au vin:
http://cookware.lecreuset.com/cookware/product_Coq-au-Vin_10151_-1_20002_20065__

yes, it calls for 2 cups of bacon. i used slightly less than that but just about.

i added celery and carrots to the sauce and substituted pearl onions for shallots in the glazed mushroom mix because it's what i had on hand.

i really have to stay on track with my whole "lower my cholesterol" plan. my breakfast this morning was the french fries that came with the hoagie i ordered for dinner last night.

the hardest part is cutting back on red meat, cheese, and egg yolks. my diet has basically been turkeychickentunaturkeychickentunaturkeychickentuna. today it's tuna for lunch and fish tacos for dinner (the fish is probably cod or haddock).