(no subject)

[geekchick]

Today is Prickle-Prickle, day 15 in the season of Bureaucracy, 3269.

Since I had to go to the store anyway to get fresh veggies for Pig-Yet-To-Be-Named [edit: Veggies for the guinea pig to eat, not for garnishing a pork roast. Heh.] I decided I wanted to cook last night rather than heating up frozen stuff or ordering out. Since that urge rarely happens (I'm tired when I get home, and C. never gets home before 9:30 anymore, sometimes it's well after 10.), I picked up a bunch of stuff to make a real dinner. I made jumbo shrimp, sliced mushrooms and asparagus tips sauteed in a mix of extra-light and basil-flavored olive oil with minced garlic, butter, a whole lot of crushed red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning, all served over whole-wheat fettucine. No specific measurements on anything, mostly "add until it looks right". I sliced up a yellow and a green pepper to add, but decided against it and just nibbled on them by themselves. (PYTBN seems to like green peppers, which surprised me since none of the others ever did.) The shrimp turned out a little bit overcooked, but the asparagus was perfect. Mmmmm...

Speaking of PYTBN, C. thinks after having held him for a bit yesterday that he's a little younger than he thought at first, possibly around 6 weeks. That's a little young I think to be sold, but it could be right...he's very small. It could also be that he was the smallest in the little herd in the cage and just was last to the food bowl.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

No specific measurements on anything, mostly "add until it looks right".

That was the biggest hurdle for me to overcome in the kitchen trying to cook anything beyond boiling water or using a microwave oven. I was getting to anal about recipe measurements/directions. Now, I treat it like my black & white darkroom work - it's an art not a science (baking, on the other hand, as I understand it, is more like color darkroom work :-)

[geekchick]

If I'm using a recipe, I tend to follow it pretty strictly (unless it calls for an ingredient I don't like ;) ), but on the rare occasion that I'm just throwing stuff in a pan and seeing how it turns out, I'm obviously a lot more relaxed about how much of what goes in. I think next time I'll get uncooked shrimp and marinate it for an hour or so before cooking it, so that it doesn't get overcooked.

Baking, though, is not one of those things I feel comfortable experimenting with yet. =) Recipes all the way, baybee.

(BTW, the print is on the truck for delivery. Squee!!!! ;) )