HTCEB: Oatmeal

I'm not crazy about oatmeal, never have been. But, I'm systematic, and would I genuinely be cooking through a cookbook if I didn't try things I knew I wasn't crazy about? Maybe Mark Bittman's version would be better than the other 4 or 5 times I've tried the recipe, I thought. And it was better this time, not because the recipe was bad, but because I got better tasting oats this time.

I'm not saying everyone should invest in Whole Foods, or limit themselves to higher-cost goods out of snobbery. I grew up blue collar, and the holier-than-thou, "All MY food is organic free range non-GMO non-processed..." yada yada attitude really rubs me the wrong way. I grew up on canned, frozen, and less than great food, and I think a truly skilled chef should never look down on any ingredient. She should be able to take anything, whether it's quality is up to your standards or whether or not you like the way it tastes, and turn it into something delicious. Refusing to work with working class ingredients doesn't make you better, it makes you an out-of-touch asshole.

Having said all that, I was impressed with the taste of the oats I got from Whole Foods, compared to the ones I typically get from the grocery store (both are rolled, non-instant oats). I didn't realize the humble oat could have so much variance. There's absolutely no shame in humble ingredients and working with what you've got, but there's also no shame in working with the best you can afford (it becomes a problem when you refuse to even consider certain products, such as canned or frozen, because of an unwarranted, over-inflated ego).

I adjusted the recipe portion to be a bit smaller, enough for one bowl. I used about a quarter cup of oats, covered it with water (about a half cup), threw in a pinch of salt and let it boil.

Then I lowered the heat, stirred it often, and let the water absorb. Then I stirred in some butter (about a half a tablespoon), removed the pot from the heat, put a lid on it, and let the butter absorb.

A few minutes later, I stirred up the oatmeal, which was looking surprisingly tasty at this point. I added a splash of 2% milk, some cinnamon, and some candied walnuts and grapes that I had laying around. These add-ins surprised me; I thought the candied walnuts would be the real treat, but they turned slightly bitter over time, I'm guessing from the heat of the oatmeal. The grapes, however, were such a nice contrast with how bright and juicy they were. They did get a little weird from the warmth of the oats by the end of the meal, though.

This recipe is:
-Vegetarian
-Vegan (swap the milk and butter for nut milk/imitation butter or omit them completely)

This is the 3rd recipe I made from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: Basics.

HTCEB: Croutons

The other day, I was still riding the hype train of being able to cook at home, despite it being 90 degrees with no air conditioning. I decided to prep my croutons that I'll be putting on top of salad later in the week (Boyfriend had a great idea to throw them on top of the gazpacho later as well).

There's an awesome local bakery in Detroit, Avalon International Breads, and I was so thrilled to see some of their products over at Whole Foods. I selected an Avalon Italian-style bread to use for my croutons.

 I took 8 slices, including the smaller end piece, and slathered them in room temp butter.

 I cut them with a bread knife into approximately half inch/one inch chunks. I spread them in an even layer on a baking sheet and popped them into a 400-degree oven.

I tossed them, initially, after two minutes, which was way too soon. They were still really pale white and just barely toasted. for the remainder of the 20-minute cooking process, I waited 5 minutes between each toss. In the future, I would probably take them out closer to the 15-minute mark. Either way, when I took them out, they had a nice deep golden color. When I put them on a salad later in the week, they were beautifully crisp and a great topping (spoiler alert: they were great in the gazpacho, too).

Keep an eye out for posts featuring the salad and the gazpacho, btw.

This recipe is:
-Vegetarian

This is the 2nd recipe I made from How to Cook Everything: Basics.

HTCEB: Brownies

My trip to Whole Foods took up my afternoon, then I worked throughout the night. And all night at work, all I could think was, "I want to go home and cook!" Anyone who's worked in the back of the house in a restaurant may say that cooking for money vs cooking for pleasure have feel different (to me, they both feel good, but I was definitely itching to cook for myself in my new place for the first time).

By the time I got home at 11 p.m., I decided I was going to end the night by baking brownies, my dessert item for this week. Seemed appropriate to end the night with the typically last meal of the day. (Typically for whom, I can't definitively say.)

The first step was preheating my oven, and mixing very dark chocolate with butter while I waited. The recipe, from Mark Bittman's cookbook How to Cook Everything Basics, called for unsweetened chocolate. I couldn't find any, and figured the bitterness from the darkest chocolate I could find (85% cacao, I believe), would have a similar effect. I swirled it together over low heat with a whole stick of butter (a very small, chubby stick that swears its a whole 8 tablespoons) over low heat. When it melted, it had lovely, brilliant shine, like an edible chocolate lacquer.

A lot of my stuff is still in boxes, and to my surprise realized that I misplaced the (apparently) one mixing bowl I own at my old house. Not sure exactly where in the old house, and not willing to drive 30+ minutes in the middle of the night to go look, I decided to use a tupperware bowl to mix my ingredients. (In my hurry to bake something, I forgot to take pictures until the very end.) Into the tupperware went this lovely shiny butter-chocolate mix, then sugar (which immediately had a seized, crystallized effect that smoothed out gorgeously), then 2 eggs, one at a time. The eggs really lightened up the mixture and took it from that cacao dark color to a more familiar milk chocolate color, and thickened it up some as well. The real thickening came with the flour, and salt and vanilla extract rounded the ingredients out.

Once the flour and adjacent ingredients were added, I was left with this beautiful, fudgy batter. I tasted after every ingredient addition, and this final, pre-bake stage was promising. I used a rubber spatula to pour the batter into a pre-buttered baking square (as you do), and popped it into the oven for 20 minutes.

The house smelled lovely, which is one of the true joys of baking, the free, cozy scents. After passing the clean knife test, Boyfriend and I let them cool for 10-15ish minutes. They were still warm slightly when we cut into them, but they cut perfectly. They didn't stick to the pan. I've made this recipe in the past, and often, they had turned out stuck to the pan and falling apart, to my disappointment. Apparently, the pro tip is to be generous with the butter in the "grease the pan" stage. Like, hella generous. Go crazy.

I noticed immediately that these brownies were somewhat flat. They didn't have a ton of rise. They did have a nice color and crust with a denser, more moist interior. If you look at the cross section, the exterior is a lighter brown while the inside was dark and chewy. The texture turned out delightful, moist and flavorful, but not nearly as fudgy as the initial batter alluded to. Also, the very dark cacao lingered, and while tempered by the baking ingredients, still left a chalky bitterness. Perhaps going down to 70% would end up with a more balanced brownie.

These turned out delightful, and I'm happy to have them around for a quick thing to snack on (having a second one as I finish up this post). They pair amazingly with a cold glass of milk.

3 oz 85% cacao dark chocolate: $3.75
1 stick unsalted butter: 87 cents
1 cup cane sugar: 41 cents
2 eggs: 50 cents
1/2 cup flour: 17 cents
Total: $5.70 for 9 brownies (63 cents each)

The recipe also includes a pinch of salt and a half teaspoon of vanilla extract. I was gifted some salt and extract, so I couldn't accurately include the costs of each. But, these are generally common ingredients in most people's pantries. I'm confident that the combined cost for those two ingredients is less than 75 cents, still keeping our grand total under $7.

These brownies are definitely tasty and comforting in a familiar way. They don't take long to make, taste good and are easy to eat. Gotta love it.

This is the 1st recipe I've blogged from HTCEB.

Week One Menu: June 27th 2019-July 4th 2019

I generally prefer to grocery shop on a week to week basis, loosely planning a vague menu that checks off the breakfast, lunch, and dinner boxes. This is my first week in a new apartment(!) and today was also my first visit to Whole Foods (coincidence? I think not). In my typical fashion, I went through the cookbook I'm working through (which is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Basics, and I've been working on it since my last apartment in 2016). Taking one recipe from each section, in proper numerical order (as in, the first of each category), I ended up with a proper shopping list.

I did skip the recipe for popcorn (since I have made it before and I didn't trust Whole Foods kernels to be affordable) and steaks (because I've made them before and they sure as hell weren't affordable-$23 each was the sale price!)

So throughout the week (and maybe bleeding some into next week), I'll be making the following things (in no particular order):

Breakfast

Homemade Oatmeal
Eggs 

Lunch
Tossed Salad w/ Homemade Dressing + Croutons
Gazpacho

Dinners
Pasta Aglio e Olio

Seared Chicken Breast with Boiled Rainbow Chard
Seared Tilapia

Dessert
Brownies

I wasn't given much freedom to cook at my last place, so I'm thrilled to be exploring my passion again (in my spare time as well as at work, I'm a professional cook). 

Stay tuned throughout the week to see how these dishes go, as well as updates from my delightful trip to Seattle earlier in the month. I'll be cooking through my ever-growing collection of cookbooks on this blog, and can't wait to share how the recipes turn out.