More chicken mole

Soundtrack: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty audio book narrated by James Marsters

Tonight I heated up the chicken mole left over from yesterday. I also added a bit of ground cayenne pepper for some heat. This did help a little, but not enough for me to try this recipe again in the future. Hopefully I will get a chance to experiment with different versions soon.

Chicken mole

Soundtrack: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty audio book narrated by James Marsters

My friend Ben suggested we eat lunch at Taco Deli, a local restaurant serving soft tacos. He mentioned really liking their mole tacos, so we all purchased one of those. They were indeed quite delicious! Jump to this afternoon when I was paging through my cookbooks looking for dinner ideas. A recipe for chicken mole from the South Beach Diet Cookbook stood out in my mind. It seemed fairly straightforward, so I decided to give it a try. My house was smelling great by the time the sauce had completed simmering! Sadly the sauce turned out to taste rather bland. I guess that is what I should have expected from the simple recipe, but I had gotten my hopes up. Oh well.

Stuffed salmon

Soundtrack: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty audio book narrated by James Marsters

Tonight I wanted to steer away from chicken after eating it the past few evenings. I was able to leave work at a reasonable time which allowed more cooking time than some nights. I decided to bake feta-spinach stuffed salmon along with the recommended companion little mama's side dish. You may have noticed this is a meal I frequently return to. The only negative is the baking time required. It is not something I can quickly whip up when I am hungry, so it was nice to have the free time to enjoy it today.

Dijon tarragon cream chicken

Soundtrack: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty audio book narrated by James Marsters

Tonight is using up the last chicken breasts I purchased a couple days ago. Since I did not enjoy last night's bourbon cream recipe, I decided to cook dijon tarragon cream chicken as it is a known winner. Nothing else too interesting to add here. I did steam some broccoli and cauliflower for a side. There was some extra sauce which I poured over the top of that.

Bourbon cream chicken

Soundtrack: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty audio book narrated by James Marsters

Yesterday's shopping trip yielded enough chicken for several meals. A bit of browsing Google results produced a new bourbon based chicken recipe to try this evening. This one uses cream as a sauce component which I was looking forward to. It also called for igniting the bourbon to burn off the alcohol. That was quite fun. Unfortunately I was not as happy with how the sauce tasted. I ended up increasing the cream, onion, and spices to help offset the bitterness. Everything tasted okay in the end, but this is not a recipe I will be trying again. There are plenty of other bourbon and cream based chicken recipes available for future experiments. Hopefully those are more enjoyable.

Bourbon pecan chicken

Soundtrack: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty audio book narrated by James Marsters

It was another fairly long day at work today, but I was in the mood for a richer meal this evening. I decided to cook pecan encrusted chicken breasts with a bourbon sauce. This is a recipe I found a couple years ago when I craved a pecan based meal for some reason or another. Turns out I enjoyed the bourbon sauce more than the pecans. Funny how things work out sometimes. Back to tonight's dinner now! In addition to the chicken, I steamed some cauliflower and broccoli as a side. There was a bit of extra sauce, so I poured it on top of the vegetables.

Blackened salmon

Soundtrack: None Shall Pass by Aesop Rock

Freedom from chili con carne! I enjoy that dish, but I am also happy to introduce some variety into my dinner again. To that end I chose to stray away from a standard meat entree. A long day at work did not leave me in a mood to prepare an elaborate meal this evening. Instead I purchased some salmon and spinach on the way home for blackened salmon. This let me cook everything in one pan for a simple yet tasty result. While the fish and spinach finished cooking through, I decided to whip together some mock mashed potatoes too. These only take a few minutes to prepare, so it timed out perfectly.

Chili con carne

Soundtrack: None Shall Pass by Aesop Rock

Don't worry. I am getting as tired of photographing chili con carne as you probably are looking at the results. Thankfully I finished off the last bit of leftovers tonight. Here you can see some monterrey jack cheese melted on top of a bowl of chili con carne. I heated them both up together in the microwave before assembling another soft taco type meal as seen in last night's post. The original recipe results in far too much food for a single meal as I am sure you have noticed. I usually only make a full batch if don't mind eating leftovers for several days, though I sometimes eat it for lunch while cooking new dinners.

Omelet and chili con carne

Soundtrack: Definitive Jux free sampler

Here is an extremely rare image of food in actual sunlight. Generally my dinner is ready long after the sun has set, so I took advantage of the light streaming through my kitchen window after preparing an omelet for breakfast. This one wash packed with turkey sausage, diced red and green bell peppers, diced red onion, and some white mushrooms. Some shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese was also melted on top. My original thought was including this picture would help to break up the monotony of chili con carne shots. I realized afterword there are quite a few photos of omelets during the previous week, so it might not be as effective as hoped.

Dinner was more of the leftover chili con carne. This time I took a photograph of the final soft taco sort of construction. There is some monterrey pepper jack cheese melted on top to add a little kick. Also added was shredded lettuce, diced red onion, and a bit of sour cream. (I used the last of my avocado last night.) It was quite nice to have some food which could be heated up quickly tonight. I spent most of the afternoon shopping for yarn with a friend who asked me to knit a hat, and this evening was spent at an Aesop Rock concert. That did not leave much time for actual cooking.

Chili con carne

Soundtrack: Definitive Jux free sampler

As expected, the chili con carne's colors became much more muted after cooking. I included an avocado, sour cream, and diced red onion toppings in the background to help offset that. All of this went together as a soft taco sort of thing inside tortillas. There was also some shredded lettuce which did not make it into the photo. Not too exciting, but there it is.

Chili con carne

Soundtrack: iPod set to random Jimmy Buffett

Despite our weekly trek to Rudy's BBQ for lunch, I was still in the mood for beef this evening. This time I had a hankering for vegetables mixed in somehow. All of this coalesced into cooking a batch of chili con carne for dinner. I have had great luck using ground turkey and chopped portabella mushroom to replace the ground beef in the past. That would not be satisfactory tonight! Cheeseburger in Paradise was selected on my iPod, and I dug into the prep work.

This recipe makes plenty of food for several meals. That means there will be multiple photos of the cooked product over the next few days. Tonight's picture was taken just after adding the chopped vegetables in with the meat. The colors popped much better at this stage compared to after cooking. Adding all of the spices also helps to dilute the color palette. Hopefully this will assist in avoiding monotony in the coming posts.

Late night omelet

Soundtrack: iPod set to random Jimmy Buffett

Today was a very long day of work. I was far too tired to be interested in shopping at the grocery store. In the end I just headed home to see what could be sorted out for food. It turned out there was plenty of vegetables to fill up an omelet. This time I used red and green bell peppers, red onion, and white mushrooms. Only cheddar cheese was utilized in this instance. Overall it tasted pretty good considering it was thrown together while I was tired. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for my finishing technique. The omelet basically split in half as it was being transferred from the frying pan onto a plate. It was not up to my usual standards but also not a huge tragedy.

Blackend salmon

Soundtrack: Restored by Jeremy Camp

I wanted to have something different than the egg based meals which are so prevalent this week. Blackened salmon is not a dish I have prepared recently, so that is what I went with. I also appreciated the simplicity and speed of preparing this meal. (It was a rather long day at work and quite late right now.) Basically you brown both sides of the salmon, turn down the heat, and throw spinach and black soy beans into the pan for another few minutes. Measuring out the blackening spices is the most time consuming part, but I have a container storing a large batch ready to use. While that was finishing cooking, I also threw together some mock mashed potatoes.

The food components had a large range of color and brightness. That lead me to try another HDR picture tonight. I am still experimenting with the Photomatix software. It seemed to turn out alright in the end. One of these days I need to actually purchase the full version of the software to get rid of the watermarks.

Using up the sausage

Soundtrack: iPod set to random Jimmy Buffett

I was feeling a bit paranoid after the turkey sausage went bad last week. There was a link left over from the fritatta I baked a couple nights ago. Tonight I decided to cook an omelet to put it inside. There was also some diced red and green bell peppers and red onion. A bit of Monterrey pepper jack cheese was also left over after making stuffed jalapeno peppers, so I grated some of that along with my usual cheddar cheese. It added a nice creaminess along with a little heat. This is a combination I may have to experiment with again.

Shorter than expected

Soundtrack: Portishead by Portishead

It has been quite a while since I needed to read the frittata instructions. At least that is the conclusion I reached after unsuccessfully attempting to locate them today. I will keep an eye out for the magazine clipping between now and the next time I bake one. Hopefully I can post the recipe at that point.

Otherwise there is not much to post about today. Dinner was the last pieces of the frittata I baked last night.

Finally frittata

Soundtrack: iPod set to random.

I was still in the mood for a frittata since Thursday night's debacle. I purchased fresh turkey sausage from the grocery store yesterday, so tonight it was on!

Perhaps I will post the recipe I follow tomorrow. It was found in a magazine dedicated to low carb cuisine a number of years ago. This was also at the height of Atkins craziness, so the instructions do not skimp on the fat. Mine include a few modifications to help reduce the fat content.

The first change was to utilize Egg Beaters instead of eggs. I find the flavor of Egg Beaters to compare well against standard eggs. Their texture after cooking is not something I generally enjoy though. Experiments have proven that using them in a recipe where they are not the main texture component does not bother me.

My other alteration is to use reduced fat cheese. Kraft makes at tasty sharp cheddar cheese with reduced fat. I prefer to purchase my mozzarella pre-shredded, but most companies only offer bland, watery fat free options. Luckily HEB sells their own brand in a delicious reduced fat variety. Efforts to locate a lower fat option for cream cheese have all resulted in utter failure. Instead I simply reduce the amount placed into my frittata.

Stuffed salmon

Soundtrack: Break Out The Battletapes by Wired All Wrong

Tonight I was in the mood for some fish. Stuffed salmon is a dish I enjoy, so that is what I went with. This time I stayed true to the original recipe. It was just spinach, green onion, feta cheese, and cream cheese between two pieces of salmon. Oh, there is also a bit of olive oil drizzled on top.

In the past I have experimented with adding lemon juice into the mix. This was inspired by a crepe from Flip Happy Crepes with similar ingredients. There crepe had a nice hint of citrus acidity. My attempts have been mediocre at best, so I went old school tonight.

Little Mama's Side Dish is the recommended supporting actor. One change I made a while ago was to purchase sliced olives with jalapenos included. The small amount of jalapeno pepper added another level of flavor with just a hint of heat. Unfortunately they no longer stock this item in my grocery store. I have taken to utilizing a bit of crushed red pepper. This brings back the heat component, but I miss the jalapeno flavor.

I'm back!

Soundtrack: Middle Cyclone by Neko Case

The big holiday season always throws a wrench into my diet. It also indicates more eating away from home, whether a restaurant or friend's house. An additional wrinkle was my last minute plan to drive to Fort Lauderdale for time with my family. Long road trips do not usually equate into fine dinning experiences.

There will be an effort toward including add additional information about my culinary experiments in answer to reader comments. Generally I listen to music while preparing a meal, so I decided to provide the artist and album which accompanied the cooking.

My plan, formulated while heading home from work, was to bake a frittata for my big return. Unfortunately the sausage I had purchased over the weekend did not look so hot. Performing a quick inventory of the available supplies produced ingredients for an omelet.

The filling was all vegetables since that is what was on hand. They included red and green peppers, yellow onion, and mushrooms for filling. I also had some chopped tomatoes remaining from a salad last night, so I added those as garnish along with sliced green onion.

Cheddar cheese was included as usual. Additionally, some Monterrey pepper jack cheese left over from making stuffed jalapenos also worked its way in. This added a creaminess along with subtle heat. There may be some future omelets which include both cheeses.

Overall the meal was pretty good considering the lack of planning. My omelets have greatly improved since watching an episode of Good Eats about omelets. The main change was not flipping the eggs to cook both sides. Alton recommended simply cooking them in an oven proof pan and using the broiler. I do follow his instructions for frittata egg preparation. His preference to leave the interior layer of eggs uncooked is not as appetizing for me.