A Question About Master Stock and a Note About Facebook

First, has anyone ever made/used master stock? It's a Chinese thing where the same liquid is used to braise things over and over, in China some are claimed to be hundreds of years old apparently. I'm starting one as I type this but I was wondering if anyone had any tips.

As for Facebook, it can now officially bite me. My account seems to have disappeared, I can't log in or even get it acknowledged that it exists. So if you've been trying to contact me through there I won't be getting it. However I'm still here, so if you have something to tell/ask/whatever this is the place to do it. Thank you for your time.

So. Also Omelet Quesadilla

Right, I don't think I'm even going to pretend I'm going to update regularly for the foreseeable future. Too much going on, not much of it fun or of any relation to this blog. But, I'll still post occasionally, maybe even with recipes. Heh.

In the meantime, this is that omelet quesadilla I posted about the other day. It's wicked easy, you just take tin foil, lightly grease it, put a tortilla on it and shape the foil so it makes a shallow dish like an upside down frisbee. Doing all this on a baking sheet is a good idea.The fillings, I just went with cheese.

And whisked eggs (although you could leave them whole, if you like). I found that two eggs fit perfectly into an 8" tortilla with a 1/2" rim.  

Then it's just into the oven at 425 for about 5 minutes, fold it over and ta-da. 

It even gets a little brown and crispy on the bottom, good times. 

So easy, so quick and you can make as many as your oven holds at the same time, so it's perfect for a fast breakfast. Well, even one would be perfect for a fast breakfast, but I think you know what I mean. 

Anyway, I'm off to do things that don't involve food or cats and therefore have no place here. Heh.

A Few Things, Plus Some Stuff

So I've done a few things lately, plus I have some stuff my brother made that I really need to post. But am I actually doing that?

No.

Instead I'm just going to put up a few random pics, taunt the internet with a lack of recipes and then go play Ghost Master all day.

In that spirit, meatballs in a ninja turtle?

Yep. But what could they be for? Or are they ready already? Who knows?

Remember that pot roast I wrote about a while ago? Here it is!

 It was wicked good, the whole meal done in one pot. Remind me to tell you the recipe some time.

This was breakfast today. As you can see there's eggs, a tortilla and cheese.

 It's wicked easy too, you could even make a bunch all at once for a group of people. Yeah, it doesn't get much better than quick, easy and delicious.

Anyway,  right now I'm making this.

 I can't tell you how it turns out since I'm not yet at that moment in time. But so far so good, at least it smells great. Heh. Hopefully I'll get good shots of it and will be able to post it sometime. In fact, I should probably be tending it instead of blogging...

Some Rice and an Upcoming Pot Roast

So here is the reason I haven't been posting so much lately:

This is pretty much what I've been eating. Sometimes the meat is chicken instead of ground beef, sometimes there's vegetables. Sometimes there's no meat and it's not pilaf, it's jasmine rice or something. There's usually cheese.

But some variation of this is what I've been cooking these days. Not very inspiring. But then this weekend I made this:

Pot roast. I like pot roast. I'm actually chilling it overnight, so as of this post I'm not sure how it turned out. I'm not terribly concerned though. If it works out how I want I'll have pot roast, potatoes and gravy all from one pot.

Just in case anyone is wondering what the Real Bob has been up to, this is pretty much it.

 But if I bought him a cat bed he wouldn't use it.

Sunday Critters #4

What?

Oh.

  Careful, she's vicious!

 And  now she's done.

Something To Do With Leftovers: Crispy Pot Roast Hash

Here's a quickie, I had a chunk of pot roast in my freezer that I was wondering what to do with. Then I realized that the answer was pretty painfully obvious, fry it up with potatoes and call it breakfast.

 Look at that steam coming off of there, makes you want to mow down the whole thing, doesn't it? Heh. I know it's not as smooth as hash typically is, but "fried pot roast and potatoes" doesn't really have the same ring to it in my opinion.

 I fried the potatoes separate from the beef and onions since the wouldn't have browned well in the medium sized skillet I used, but the up side of this was the potatoes browned in the beef fat. This is a good time. I've found that doing the potatoes on medium/low give a better texture than on a higher heat, but your mileage my vary. The only seasonings I used was a little salt and a lot of pepper, but some garlic, basil, rosemary and/or oregano would be delightful.

 This was, quite possibly, the best thing I've ever had with leftover pot roast. Crispy, rich and all around tremendous, the next time you make one definitely save a chunk for breakfast. You won't regret it.

Sunday Critters #3

Spent some time this afternoon in the presence of this young lady.

Always fantastic, as is this distinguished gentleman.

And since the third was so happy to see me I won't put a picture of her, she hates cameras.

Mmmm, Meatloaf

And I had been doing so well with the posting. Such is life. Anyway, meatloaf. I made this while I was house-sitting for some friends (mostly dog sitting, really) and I tried a different way of mixing it up. I used fresh bread crumb, that I toasted. Then I mixed the chopped raw onion and garlic in the crumbs with some spices and hot sauce.

Then I toasted them again, after which I added an egg and mixed it all up. The onions put out some liquid and the whole mess became this awesome flavor base. When I added the beef I mixed it together with a knife which seems to have kept me from overworking the mixture and making it tough.

I do meatloaf free form, too, more browned bits and less grease. This is a good time. I've also found that a little hatching on it increases browning and helps glaze stick.

Mmm, glaze. This is ketchup, cider vinegar, brown sugar (all in about equal proportions) and more hot sauce. Oh and black pepper.

Gotta have pepper.

But yeah, I know it's not a recipe but the whole thing worked out wicked good. Look at how moist it is!

Made killer sandwiches.

I used some of the leftovers to make mini shepherds pies, I'll cover that another time. Another cool thing about meatloaf is it freezes well, that's always nice. Anyone have any meatloaf secrets they want to share? This was awesome, but I'm still perfecting my technique and will take any wisdom the nets have to offer.

Sunday Cats #106

So tired. So very tired.

Crunchy Lemon Pepper Tilapia

I don't have a recipe for this or really very many shots, but I'm trying to keep my posting momentum going so I figured I'd share. Plus I got a couple decent pics and it tasted awesome. I whipped it up on the spur of the moment because I was trying to figure out what to do with this tiny egg. It was in a half dozen fresh farm eggs my brother gave me but it was too little for baking or scrambling or anything. So I breaded fish with it. The breading was just fresh crumbs, dry lemon peel, lots cracked black pepper and some salt. Basic flour, egg, crumbs deal, then I let it chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes or so. I've found that really helps it keep the coating. But then just a little oil in a hot anodized aluminum pan (perfect for this, I love those pans), fry, flip and lunch. A little homemade tartar sauce on the side and I was a happy camper. The only thing I was missing was some kind of side dish, maybe a salad of some stripe. Ah well, next time.

Speaking of upcoming times, I have a whole bunch of cool stuff to post about once I get my long post writing mojo up and running. My brother recently made eclairs, I've got a killer meatloaf and some mini shepherds pies to name a few. Maybe now that the heat is lessening I'll be less inclined to hibernate. Heh.

Fried Tamales

Yeah, you heard me. Want to make tamales even better? Brown them up in a skillet. With a non stick one you only need a little oil and the crispy, corny, browned masa mixture is awesome. This is, of course, done with already made tamales. In my case straight from the freezer, which is always convenient.I don't think frying instead of steaming would really work well as the initial cooking. But it is a great way to thaw/reheat them, it adds great flavor. As it turned out, I was making some beans that were in a very Mexican style when I was taking these pics so I poured some of the liquid from them over the tamales after the first flip. Then I poured some more on after I plated them. Because really, why the hell not? The ... dough? Casing? Enrobement? What is the outer layer of a tamale called, anyway? Whatever it is, it soaked up the sauce like a sponge and made something that's already awesome even better. So, in closing, fry your tamales. You'll be glad you did.

Sunday Critters #2

Right, I know. I've been neglectful. But let's not dwell on the past, shall we? I know I'm sorry, you know I'm sorry. Bygones should really be bygones. But, I will offer up the following pictures as evidence of my sincerity.

I've posted once before about my friends pups, but I house sat for them a couple weeks ago and got some good pics. Like this one of Zelda sitting on my outstretched legs. Although, to be fair, if it comes out clear pretty much every picture of her is good. And Suki, of course. He's another one that doesn't really take bad pics and I like the lighting. I was particularly pleased with this one of Obe (cat) loving on Angel (dog). Angel is terrified of cameras and Obe doesn't often make with the affection. So there you go, dogs and cats. Living together in harmony. I also got some pics of the food I made in their enormous kitchen, I'll post about that this week. Probably. Heh.

Camera Cleanup #12

I know, I know, I'm a bad blog guy. I haven't been posting like I said I would and this time I even have a few things I could post about. But instead it's more random pics I'm afraid.

This was a buffalo chicken pizza, it was fricking awesome. I had a roasted chicken breast in the fridge and I just pulled it into chunks and tossed it on some pizza dough with buffalo instead of tomato sauce. And some onions, because why the hell not?

This was a sub I made for breakfast, I'm working on using up the last of the bacon I have in the freezer since I'm really not supposed to be eating it much anymore. But I'm not throwing it away, that would be criminal. It's cheese, sauteed onion, a couple sunny side up eggs and bacon. So very good.

Well, that's it. With any luck next week I'll be feeling it a bit more for writing and will post about the steak sandwich with greek yogurt sauce or maybe green chili shredded pork and bean casserole I made. They were both wicked good, I really should share.

Camera Cleanup #11

Wow it's been a while, sorry about that. Although these days there's so much good food reading on the net I suppose I don't need to apologize. Heh. Anyway, I haven't been posting because I haven't really been cooking much. Too hot mostly, but I also don't really like cooking for one. I mean there's only so many sandwiches a dude can post, especially since they aren't always as creative as some I have made. I doubt folks really want to hear "ate another turkey sandwich. It was pretty good", you know?

I've also had some writers block, although that sounds a bit too grand for referring to blogging. But there it is. Anyway, I do have some pictures, why not share them?

Let's start with breakfast, that seems appropriate. Mmmm, pecan sticky bun. This is another pizza dough thing, but what I did was make a rope of dough that I coated with sugar, apple pie spice, pecans and a little butter. Then I coiled it, put it in a covered bowl and let it rise in the fridge over night. The next morning I baked it and it was awesome.

For lunch, how about some fish I made. I think it's tilapia, if not then it's mahi mahi, those are the only fish I've had lately. I remember using Mexican spices, I think maybe even the same ones I did this with. The rice was some leftover white rice I had that I tossed in to the pan after cooking the fish making a kind of fried rice thing. Oh and I put some cilantro in it, seemed the thing to do.

I thought this was kind of weird, see the size difference in the yolks? Well the little ones on the left came from the same egg, which was itself shaped strangely. It was wicked long and narrow. Yeah, it's not really that exciting. Heh.

And for dinner? Might I suggest some roast chicken? I pretty much used the same method for this as I did for the roasted half chicken. The big difference being, clearly, this was a split breast and not a half a chicken. It was, however, fantastic.

Alright then, there it is. Hopefully this is indicative of me getting my groove back. Is that something a white guy is allowed to do? Perhaps I should get back on the horse, but I'm no equestrian. Maybe put my shoulder to the wheel? I don't know, something. Start posting again, anyway.