I've Been Bad...

...at least as a blogger. I just burned out for awhile, on the issue of writing here. Been busy, had plenty of stressful things going on at times. I let the cooking contests slide to the wayside, too.

Things are calming down enough that I'm looking at the contests again. We are laying down plans for entries in the Build a Better Burger Contest, and the Scharffenberger Chocolate contest. There will be more besides those.

I've been doing a lot of cooking, at times, but just haven't taken the time to jot things down. Night before last we had breakfast for dinner, and we used some of our homegrown Kennebec potatoes to make hashbrowns, along with grated onions, seasoned salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. I pan-fry them until they build up a nice brown crust on both sides. The Kennebecs were great, and so tender in the middle. Gina likes hers with a bunch of melted sharp cheddar on 'em, while I like mine with chile ketchup (ketchup + Sriracha hot sauce...lol).

I've taken an interest in the food of Central Asia, especially Uzbek and Uighur-influenced food. For lunch, I made some noodles...somewhere between lagman and chow mein. I stir-fried some chicken tossed with a Central Asian-influenced spice mix (black cumin, black and Sichuan peppercorns, crushed Sichuan chilies, powdered garlic and ginger, and a couple other things), and some fresh aromatics (garlic, ginger and scallions), lots of onions, green beans, sweet red peppers and carrots. The sauce was flavored with dark soy sauce, rice wine and some smoky black rice vinegar. I used the fresh, thick, yellow Chinese wheat noodles, boiled briefly and added to the chicken and veggies at the last minute. Good stuff. Ideally, there should have been little bowls of fresh cilantro and scallions, chilies, vinegar, fried garlic and chopped peanuts for the diners to add to the noodles, but I just made it as a quick lunch dish. Still quite tasty. Different from regular Chinese food, because of the spicing.

Last night was Gina's request: my Swedish-style meatballs with gravy, garlicky mashed potatoes (more of the fresh Kennebecs from the garden), and quick-pickled sliced cucumbers (again, from our garden) flavored with dill. These meatballs are one of her favorites. I like fixing her things she enjoys so much. And between yesterday's dinner and lunch, I have some pretty good eating here at work today...lol.