F'ed up fish n chips

I was making fish n chips with frozen bake em in the oven curly fries and tilapia I was chopping into chunks and battering myself. Well, I got the huge pot of oil going, and then realized I didn't have the cornstarch called for in the recipe.

I was annoyed from tearing apart the pantry for forever, so I quickly mixed together the dry ingredients, adding extra flour to replace the cornstarch, and poured the beer in.

Well, the recipe said I was supposed to reserve some of the flour and dust the pieces after I battered them. With thinner batter that had cornstarch. Somehow it turned out awesome.

Yum. Crunch. Evil.

click to embiggen the blurry photo. Sorry, I was eating when I took it.

Can I haz cheeseburger?

Heather from Home Ec 101 was asking about convenience foods. I think I found the scariest one.

Canned, entire cheeseburger. With bun, lettuce, tomato included. And a year shelf life.

(h/t Fark.com)

A little twist with a peel

Ha, wow. My puns are as bad as my photography.

We had some orange marmalade that was a little tart for us to handle on toast. I have a dinner I call the 3 P's dinner (I can't believe I have never posted it here) that involves pork (usually country ribs), pineapples (usually fresh precut but canned will work in a pinch, and you may certainly choose to wrestle a whole one), and peppers (usually fresh sweet mini peppers but yellow and orange bell peppers work beautifully.)

Anyway, I am trying a twist on that recipe tonight.

I browned salt and peppered country ribs in a big pan with a few glugs of olive oil. I added chopped onions, and peppers. In a pot, a put I about a cup of pineapple juice (left over from the inauguration party) and most of a jar of orange marmalade with lovely slivers of orange peel. I added a scant half a cup of sugar. That reduced at a lively simmer into a syrup while the pork browned.

I poured the syrup on the pork after the pork browned on all sides. I added a bunch of minced garlic and chopped fresh basil.

Wish me luck. I may post reviews and pics.

ETA



It was a tasty, huge success. The schmutz of onions, peppers, garlic, basil and onion peel was scrumptious.

And as for the review, S suggested I take an "after" photo:

Easter supper

I am making ham steaks with sage tangerine glaze and baby carrots, based on this recipe but quickie style. Hope it works!

I am also making macaroni and cheese and green beans. Yum!

Sundae and cupcakes planning

Yellow and chocolate cake cupcakes (Homemade)
Cream cheese and chocolate frosting (Homemade)
Decorating icing
Various sprinkles
Mini gummi bears
Mini M n Ms
Shredded coconut
Chopped nuts
Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream
Hot fudge topping
Caramel topping
Marshmallow topping
Whipped cream (store bought)
Bananas
Cherries

Whew!

Now to make a shopping list.

Party planning

I am planning a build your own party for Sebby's 10th birthday. Build your own pizza, build your own nachos, build your own cupcakes, and build your own ice cream. I am making decisions right now as to what I am going to cook from scratch and what I am going to make.

I am thinking I will get the premade pizza crusts, and not make my own. I struggled to come to this decision, but I think I can live with not making pizza dough from scratch. I know it would be tasty to do that and make it on the new charcoal grill that I have fallen in love with. But, I don't have to do that for twenty ten year olds. I will do that for the family some time. I will chop up all the toppings (OK, I may buy presliced olives and mushrooms). I will buy commercial sauce and preshredded mozzarella and Italian cheese mixes. I'm (gasp! shudder!) going semi homemade. I am buying the tortilla chips, not frying my own. Too messy. Too many kids. I love it when my mother in law fries her own, but I am not going to do it.

Sebby has specifically requested ham and pineapple so he can make so called "Hawaiian style" pizza. I will have toppings that can go on nachos or pizza on one table. Here is a list (I am using this for planning, so this may get edited):

Ham
Pepperoni
Bacon
Mozzarella
Italian Cheese Mix
Mexican Cheese Mix
Pineapple (Can go on ice cream too, I suppose)
Banana peppers
Chopped up tomatoes
Olives
Refried beans
Ground meat (w/ chili powder in it)
onions (in rings and chopped)
Basil
Shredded lettuce
Hot sauce
Mini sweet pepper rings
Sour cream
Guacamole

OK, I will be back with toppings for sundaes and cupcakes.

Venison stew and a new piece of hardware!

Picky bought me a beautiful Le Creuset oval French oven in flame, to match my collection.

I am supposed to be studying, so I decided to stall by making venison stew. My wonderful, generous hunter neighbor shared some wild boar and some venison shoulder with us. I roasted the boar shoulder intact, but I boned the two venison shoulders, and decided to try to make a stew.

I pieced together some recipes and this is what I ended up with. Pictures and a review to come. Right now it is just stinking up the house with lovely smells.

I put a few T of oil in the French oven (any heavy lidded oven safe pot will do)
I made a roux with some flour (next time I may wait to add the flour)
I added the cubed venison and browned it
I added two onions, thinly julienned, let it cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally
Added about a cup of chopped carrots and three stalks of celery, chopped, and cooked a few more minutes
I added two cups of red wine, two cups of chicken stock (I would have used beef if I had it) and two cups of water. I scraped the lovely brown bits with a wooden spoon
I added a few T of concentrated tomato paste, a few springs of thyme, and four peeled, whole garlic cloves
I let the whole thing come to a boil, and put it in a 300 degree oven with the lid on for two hours
I am making egg noodles to spoon it over. Hope it's a hit!

Edited to add: It was a big hit. Dee-licious. It wasn't especially photogenic. I may add the photos at some point, but I haven't uploaded them yet, and I really really should study.