Catching Up-1

Now that the holidays are over I can get caught up with this blog, which I have not written for in far too long...Most of these will be pictures with descriptions of what they were, as opposed to actual descriptions of the cooking process. My goal, in fact it's one of my New Year's resolutions, is to set aside one day a week to play catch-up with what I've cooked over the past week. That way it'll be less massive and easier to remember what I've actually done. So, here we go, round one: Things I cooked since the last post that weren't holiday-related.

I made German food. Pork chops with sauerkraut, onions, and apples, very tasty, as well as a side dish of roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and bacon. Also very tasty, though I have learned that Brussels sprouts really do not reheat well...

Also experimented with homemade fried chicken. I found a simple recipe online and tested it. I think it was very good, however the chicken was underseasoned. Definitely needs to be marinated first. Next time I'll use buttermilk flavored with spices and lemon juice. Should be very delicious. The crust was very crispy which is what you want. I browned it on the stove first and then put it on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and finished cooking it off in the oven. The cooling rack allowed all sides to continue cooking and not get wet on the bottom side. It also allowed a lot of the oil to drip off onto the pan below.

And just last night I tried out homemade macaroni and cheese on the stovetop. I made a simple roux out of butter and flour, then thickened it with milk. To that I added a bunch of different kinds of shredded cheese, though cheddar was the main one. I didn't finish it off in the oven because I think that just dries it out and takes too much time. I didn't use a recipe for this one, I just made it up as I went along. My sister helped by cooking the pasta, which I used up the ends of about 4 different types of pasta. It was actually fun to eat something that had so many different shapes and textures to it.

Ok, there might be more explanations here than I thought there would be at first. Apparently I am remembering it better than I thought I would...!