culinary experiments and explorations

Being home and not feeling too well, I returned to old habits and decided to make myself some comfort food. I paged through Emeril's Potluck until I came across something that looked tasty (and that I had most of the ingredients for), on page 55: ( Helen's Sausage-Stuffed French Bread. )

As mentioned above, I ended up with a bit of leftover sausage-cheese mixture. Not wanting to entirely spoil my appetite, I tried a little bit with a chip or two -- excellent all on its own! It's got quite a bit of heat to it, though; right now my lower lip and mouth have the vague feeling of sunburn that comes from spicy food which isn't necessarily temperature-hot. The loaves'll be out in about 45 minutes; I'll post my reactions and picture then.

Overall, quite tasty -- meaty, with plenty of molten-cheese goodness and plenty of spicy heat. The picture above really doesn't do it justice; I'd definitely make this again for a party or get-together.

In wandering the grocery store recently in search of recipe ingredients, I came across the aisle with all the packets of premade spice mixes. You know -- instant beef stroganoff, chili mix, and (naturally) sloppy joe mix. I remembered how much I'd like the sloppy joes my mom made when I was a kid -- I haven't had any in years, I think -- and decided then and there to try and research a recipe for them.

It turns out there are more than just a few out there. But none of this "buy a spice packet" stuff for me. And nothing that starts out with the ingredient "2 cups ketchup". *shudder* No, I was determined to make it pretty much from scratch as much as I could. All things considered, it turned out pretty well, and surprisingly tasty.

( Sloppy Joes (with Picture) )

Tasty, messy, and sweet with just a touch of heat. Great comfort food, and easy to prepare.

Crossposted from Kitchenklutz.

For my birthday yesterday, prior to my weekly poker game, I didn't go out to dinner. Nope, I went to the bookstore and bought (among other things) two cookbooks -- Emeril's Potluck (149 recipes) and Martin Yan's China (101 recipes). 250 new recipes in all, to try out.

Anyways, I had a thought along the lines of the book/movie "Julie & Julia" -- why not see how many of these recipes I can make in one year? 250 recipes in 365 days is definitely doable. Of course, this means I'm going to have one hell of a lot of leftovers to give away, as most of these dishes are meant for more than just a few people, but ... really, why not?

It'll be fun, and I'll vastly expand my culinary horizons. Plus I can post my reactions and critiques, if any. So, a goal!

Day: 1.

Recipes completed: 0/149 (EP), 0/101 (MYC).

Crossposted from Kitchenklutz.