Quests & Challenges

Lol in the middle of the night it occurs to me that I never put the entry form details back in. Sorry about that. Next time then! I'll probably delete that first post later and hopefully before the event ends I'll try those two again and get a nicer picture

[b]Hollypox[/b] [b][center]HODGEPODGE SOUP[/center][/b] [b]waste makes taste: while a rotisserie chicken might not be the most frugal or the least wasteful meal for a single person at face value, I like to make it a true hero by using The Whole Bird in the age-old tradition of making homemade stock! The rest of the ingredients except for the spices are all leftovers from other dishes aswell![/b] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/723367689224978525/988703519928377364/20220620_151107.jpg[/img][/center] [b]ingredients:[/b] The Soup Base: the carcass of a rotisserie chicken (or any chicken carcass picked clean of the good meat) the green part of a large leek a wilted carrot allspice, dried, whole thyme, dried one bay leaf frozen chopped spinach salt The Fried Stuff: brussels sprouts left in the fridge for months balsamic vinegar honey Paprika that's looking a little sus halfway freezer damaged Halloumi cheese Dumplings for extra filling: All-purpose flour milk (or any liquid) one egg honey salt (optional) soft cheese Method: bring the frozen cheese out to thaw begin by making the soup base! put the chicken in a large pot (gallon or more) and pour water over it until the whole bird is covered. Bring to a boil. Add the spices and let simmer for half an hour minimum. Add the leek and simmer for another half hour. Add the carrot and simmer for yet another half-hour. Strain through a colander into another pot or bowl, rinse the pot and then strain the stock back into the pot through a sieve. Add salt to taste. Pick the carcass clean of any leftover meat and chuck it back into the pot. Careful not to burn your fingers! Add the frozen chopped spinach. Simmer while you make the rest of the stuff so it reduces a little. prepare and chop the fried stuff! chop the sus paprika into chunks, peel the wilted layers off of the months-old brussels sprouts until you get to the still good centre and slice in halves. crumble the freeze-dried halloumi with your fingers. begin by frying the halloumi (note: i still had bacon fat from lunch in the frying pan but any frying fat will do) until crispy and golden-brown. take out and put aside. Add the paprika and fry until the skin has a good sear on it. take out and put aside. add the brussels sprouts, when they begin to color, sprinkle some balsamic vinegar and honey over them and fry for another few minutes. take out and put aside. Dumplings: in a medium bowl, crack an egg and whisk lightly, add salt and honey and then liquid and flour until you get a sticky dough. with a tablespoon gently take some dough and plop it into the simmering soup. Keep going until you've used up half the dough. Stir the soup, when the dumplings float to the surface they're done. to the rest of the dough keep adding flour until you have a dough you can knead. Fry this dough in the frying pan for some fun texture differences. optional to add leftover soft cheese in the middle of these before frying. combine to get a hearty soupy meal! This soup lasted me a whole week of workplace lunches

Alright let's do this right this time. No danger today but couldn't help preparing this in a word document first [emoji=skull size=1] [img]https://i.imgur.com/TeUN67C.jpg[/img] [b]Username:[/b] FableTheWolf [b]Entry Title:[/b] Baked Spaghetti [b]Theme:[/b] The secret special part about the spaghetti is: salsa I don't buy or cook with real bell peppers, but spaghetti without some spice really sucks. And one day it was like "you know what has peppers in it and is tomato based?" And it works very well, as long as it's not weirdly acidic stuff. I use mild salsa because total baby, but when there's a bunch kicking around that we're not going to use it's spaghetti time. I think using it this way is far better than it's actual purpose. [emoji=coatl winking size=1] Sometimes you just gotta open your mind and change your ideas on what food can be used for. Nothing too off brand here. Store bought sauce but always add in extra spices like oregano, basil, garlic, chili powder and black pepper. Using yellow onions (but I've always wanted to try some red onions if anyone here has done that before and can tell me if it's good) and hamburger meat. And of course the salsa which has to have peppers in it or the point is kind of void. The brand I use has both red and green in it. ---- Not entirely fitting for my own restrictions, except for cheese being yellow I suppose (SO MUCH CHEESE). Spaghetti is nice because it lasts us 5 meals in our portion. Day 3 of spaghetti is usually fun for my husband because he gets to order something out that I don’t like (usually chinese food) so it’s great meal planning at work. It’s a lot of fun to make spaghetti here because it’s a dish that neither of us can do alone so we have to cook together. A bumpy first year for sure before we stopped yelling in the kitchen [emoji=coatl tongue size=1] The salsa additive is also nice because there's less prep involved in an already lengthy process. I always hear spaghetti/lasagne is a bit of a pain to make but my "recipe" is very streamlined and less involved than other food I make at home. This is pretty much the laziest you can make it, but it's still destroyed my ability to order spaghetti in a restaurant. I always go "man I could have made this better at home" and for far cheaper.