Buffalo Chicken Chili.

Kevin

Scalloped Potatoes and Chestnut Stuffing.

Cottage Pie.

Decided to try a different spin on cottage pie, using sliced potatoes on top instead of mashed potatoes, mainly because I could never get a good crust on my mashed potatoes. Turned out pretty well. The sliced potatoes roast up better and lets more of the gravy through to glaze over the top.

Bolognese Sauce.

Never made a a bolognese sauce so I tried the one from Closet Cooking. I used a lot more celery and carrots since I don't eat many vegetables and minced them myself instead of running through the food processor. Turned out pretty chunky. I thought it was weird to use both canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Should be a better way to do that. Pretty tasty. Camera is way busted now.

Minestrone.

There's not really a lot soups I like. Stews, chowders are ok. But I was never a big fan of chicken and noodles or even chicken and stars when I was younger. Too much broth, too salty, and ultimately not enough quality substance.

I had couple cups of tomato puree leftover that I needed to use along with some celery. I forgot to buy stuff for cabbage rolls and I also didn't feel like putting forth the effort for them so I opted to make minestrone.

I like my soups on the thicker side so I only used 2-3 cups of beef broth (much deeper than chicken broth) and about 2 cups of tomato puree. I thought that I might have chopped too many vegetables (a couple stalks of celery, 4 carrots, 2 cubed Yukon potatoes, half a zuke, half an onion, lightly sauteed) but the broth was just enough to cover. Some oregano, basil, garlic, a lot of parsley, some salt and pepper, simmered for about 40 minutes. Tastes good with some dashes of Frank's and plain crackers.

Also, I guess I forgot to take a picture.

Addendum: This picture is from a recent pot I whipped up, probably March 2011. I used a cup of merlot, and it was pretty good.

Bean Salad.

From Elise. I don't eat celery often. I only take it in Cajun food and in stews and even then, not often. Like carrots, I basically only eat it if it is soft enough to mush. I do realize celery can be used like a spice. I just don't like it, generally.

So having a cold dish that uses celery is nice to have around. The dressing is vinegar and a surprising amount of sugar (equal parts) and a little less of a part olive oil. I used much less olive oil since it sounded like a lot to me, and I like my bean salads tart.

Holy cunt. Is that some fucking paella?

Obligatory. No, it's jambalaya.

Ref'd here and here. Eh, you know, you just start flippin' all those pages and throwing stuff around. I used my last two chicken thighs and chicken stock and shrimp. I also added, dare I say, too much black pepper. I wonder how much white pepper changes the flavor. But yeah, I'm eating celery for once. Weird. I should think of something to make with the other bunch before it goes bad. Needs more than one bell pepper. And I added bacon. Everything is better with bacon.

Yeah, a bit spicy. I added some Frank's to my bowl, and the pepper was still just...something else. Maybe I'll try it with the sour cream to tone things down.