Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Does anyone have any resolutions they'd like to report?

This year, I want to:

Be more calorie conscious
More meatless days; we ordinarily have meatless Friday, but maybe meatless Tuesday.
Try 2 - 3 new foods a month.
Learn how to put together non-sandwich lunches.
Keep up my inventory.

I also want to add more veggies to my meals. And eat something sous vide as I am feeling extremely left out. And plan ahead. And, and, and...

Mary

All,

I resolve to learn to write "2011" on my checks this year before February.

KSS,

I think we can help you with that resolution. Maybe you should start a thread looking for ideas ...

I've been looking for a 12" flat bottom carbon steel wok for over a year and finally found one at the grocery store for $10.99. So, I'll start my Chinese cooking attempts again. I'm determined to master at least a few recipes.

Eat more grains as I've discovered we really like the ones we've tried.

Use recipes instead of cooking "off the top of my head."

Use the freezer for more than ice cream and ice cubes.

Fitzie

Fitzie,

Grace Young's Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge is pretty accessible. You may want to look at it for inspiration.

Amy

I hadn't really thought about it until this thread was posted, but I guess I'd like to resolve to expand my repertoire. I'd like to do more Indian, Chinese and Japanese. Something of a challenge given my limited access to ingredients living in the middle of nowhere. And like KSS, I want more meatless meals...although that will be more difficult now that I'm cooking proteins almost exclusively sous vide...they're just so good that way.

That and get another bookshelf for my seriously growing cookbook collection.

Amy

Question, Amy. What does beef/chicken/pork look like when you cook sous vide? How does it brown or does it still look raw? I've never seen it.
Fitzie

It doesn't brown sous vide. The meat frankly doesn't look incredibly appetizing when it comes out, but searing takes care of both looks and creating a nice Maillard crust.

The "standard" practice is to remove it from the bag and dry it off, and then do a quick sear in a very, very hot pan, preferable something like cast iron. There are other methods, but that's the one I prefer. The sear usually only takes about 30 seconds on each side, so you really aren't cooking it that much more.

Amy

I will aspire to either clean my house more often or find an inexpensive cleaning person. Chances are slim that either will happen. Slim - now that is something else i could work on.