Fried Rice

So, I haven't had much time to cook with everything going on. However, today an opportunity presented itself! Last night, Jeff and I had warmed up a Hornell Roast thing.....I forget which kind. I cooked up some potatoes and carrots to go in it and it was nummy. To use the leftovers, we mixed it up with rice and some scrambled eggs leftover from the morning. I cooked the rice with bouillon cubes instead of just water and then fried it in bacon grease. That was delicious enough! But then I tossed in the eggs and the meat with all it's juice/gravy and fried that up together. There was a whole ton of it--but so delicious no leftovers remain. Just warm full stomachs. :)

Lasagna Soup

So, you may have noticed, if you've been around me at all this past week-and-some, that I've been obsessed with soup and sandwiches. Well, today is the first REALLY cold day (for me). Wunderground says it's 42 degrees out! So, soup seems to be an appropriate theme. Warm soup, that is. And I REALLY wanted to get rid of all that leftover mac'n cheese from Jeff's Meaty Mac'n Cheese.

I checked out several lasagna soup recipes and adapted them to my I-refuse-to-go-to-the-store criteria. Here's what I came up with:

Cut up 1/2 an onion and a clove of garlic
Saute them along with your meat (I used some precooked sausage and bacon grease)
Add broth (I used 2 cups of water and a chicken and a beef bullion cube)
Add tomatoes (I used a can of "Italian Style stewed" and chopped up a fresh one)
Add seasonings (2 bay leaves, 2 tsp oregano, a dash or two of garlic salt and pepper)
Heat to a boil
Stir in pasta (I had probably a good.......4 cups of leftover mac'n cheese)
Boil until pasta is tender or heated.
NOM

And ta-da! With the ingredients that I used, it didn't taste too much like lasagna. However, with ground beef and an 8oz can of tomato paste added, I could see it working just fine. To serve it in real lasagna-style, the recipes have you add a dolop/serve the soup on top of a mixture of cottage cheese/ricotta and parmesan/mozzarella. I can see that being delicious!

Potato Soup

What do you do when you don't want to go to the store, but you want to use up potatoes that are going bad and other scrapings of the cupboard? You make soup! I was going between a simplistic recipe that was basically "boil potatoes in water, then add milk, salt, and pepper. Heat until warm" and a much more involved potato soup recipe that involved baking the potatoes first, then adding them into the soup last....Confusing. Basically, I started out dicing all the potatoes I wanted to use, a half an onion, one pork sausage, and some garlic. I sauteed the onion and garlic in butter. When they were "limp"/clearish, I added in a cup or so of water and all of the potatoes. I boiled them for maybe......10 minutes, then added in almost 2 cups of milk and the sausage (pre-cooked). That didn't seem to be thickening, so I mixed up some water/flour slurry and added that. Kept it on the heat, stirring it and not letting it boil. I ended up adding some more of the flour slurry, and it eventually thickened up. For taste, I added garlic salt and.....some random things. A little dry mustard, paprika. Maybe some basil and parsley. What really was a good idea that I added was a little dill.

The dill taste really stood out in the end, I liked what it did. Maybe because I heated it too long trying to get the soup to thicken, but the meat seemed to have very little taste. I wish that it had more flavor to it. I liked the taste it added to the soup, but I wished the chunks had more. My mother gave me a thought--don't start out with water, but a broth! That would probably add a lot of overall flavor. Bacon would also go well in this. ^^ And maybe some celery? Oh! I served it with some grated cheese on top. Might be fun to stir in a cup or so before serving.

Random Soup

I made delicious soup today! I started with a base of beef bouillon, then threw in some onion, carrot, and potato. For meat, I cut up two hotdogs. With some leafy spices like....ummn. What did I use? A little basil, parsley, a smidgen of paprika. Maybe some oregano. Boiled it all together......delicious. A bit....loose? Maybe something to give it a little more body? I'll look into this. Oh! Bits of seaweed, like in miso? Would be amazing! 

As it was, I made some herb-y rice to go with it. Rice, butter, spices, a half splash of soy sauce, and garlic salt!

Meaty Mac'n Cheese

Jeff came up this weekend and made me a delicious! We made two FAMILY SIZED boxes of Kraft Mac'n Cheese. (This is not too easy. It FILLED up my biggest pot!) While I was making that happen and practicing my amazing mixing skillz, Jeff was creating a pile of delicious MEAT. He browned up a pound of ground beef in a bunch of bacon grease, cut up 3 hotdogs, and tore one piece of bacon (all that remained from that morning). Then we took our bowls and mixed up some deliciousness.

Salmon Fillets and Herb Rice

So this morning I got it into my head that I needed to cook the salmon before Jeff left (why would I cook it just for me?). I'd bought some at the market on Saturday. I looked up a few recipes, ran to the store for a few things, and voila! Delicious! As a side, I made some herb and butter rice. Sooooooo full but yummy.

To make the salmon, I greased a baking pan and put the fillets in it. Then I mixed up a sauce--3 tbsps each of butter and lemon juice, 1 and a little tbsps of fresh dill paste stuff, 1 tbsp of sour cream, and a bit of minced garlic--and poured that over the fillets. Added a little pepper, covered it in foil, and baked for 20 mins at 375. It was great! Jeff thought it was a bit too lemony, but I liked it. More of a sour cream base would be interesting; that tasted really good with the dill.

To make the rice, I just boiled 2 c. of water, one tbsp of butter, and one chicken bouillon cube. When it boiled, I added the rice, a little soy sauce, and several random herbs--basil, thyme, chives, a little onion--and cooked for 15 mins. It went really well with the salmon. ^^

Yay for a successful first time cooking fish!

Brown Rice Soup

So today? Definitely caught the cooking bug. I snuck into the community garden and picked some chives and basil--did you know basil grows on TREES?! I didn't. Well, it might be a tree-like shrub, I'm unsure at this juncture. Also, I picked a baggie of blackberries.....Should figure out something delicious to do with them that's not "drown in sugar" or tarts. XP Sick of making tarts. Another pastry, perhaps?

But back to tonight! I was suddenly in a soup mood, so I asked my mommy what kind of soup had chives in it (member? I picked them!). She suggested wild rice and gave me some vague instructions(this all through texting). SO! I attempted to make some wild rice soup......using brown rice.....and making ingredients up. I'm glad I had a few vegetables in the fridge. I should buy some more this Saturday at the market, perhaps.

Cooking word I learned today:
Roux--Wikipedia describes it as a base for a kind of French sauce, a mix of fat and butter. Apparently, if you let the soup boil, it can "break." I assume that makes it less of a thickening agent.

I cooked up the brown rice. Interesting thing, I'm horrible at cooking brown rice, but I found these directions that said to mix 1 c. rice to 1.5 c. water, bring to a boil, then put the lid on and simmer. After 20 mins, uncover it and let it sit. It actually worked pretty well! I was worried because there seemed to still be a lot of liquid left when I got to the "turn off the heat and let it sit" part. But ta-da!

I pan-fried the chicken, cut it into bits (I do this in the pan while it's cooking. Keeps me occupied 'cause otherwise I get bored), and set it aside. I made up chicken broth from bouillon cubes and chopped things up. I'm out of butter, so I used delicious bacon grease (that is delicious) to saute some onion, carrots, garlic, and celery. Then I mixed in the flour to soak up the extra grease (the roux!). This took a lot of stirring. Then I added in the chicken broth, brought it to a simmer and kept it there as I added the rice, chicken, a dash or three of dry mustard, and my chives(!!!!). I mixed it up CAREFULLY. My frying pan was very, very full. Then let it simmer for 25 mins, then added some milk. Now it's simmering for another 20 minutes.

It had developed a kind of crust on the top and the bottom, so I stirred it up when I mixed in the milk. It tasted very much of onions and salt before and after adding the milk it tastes more creamy and less chicken-brothy. Maybe next time I'll try it without. However, it was almost too salty before the milk. Using bacon grease and having three vegetables from the onion family probably didn't help. Maybe use butter next time, or less milk. I think bacon bits in it would be amazing. I'll see how it turns out. Oh! I should make bread to go with it!

Oops...San Francisco!

So, funny story. We need to move Jeff's car.....but there's no room on the hill for an easy park. It's hot, so we decide to drive to a fountain, but lazily scanning for parking turned up nothing. So, I threw up my hands and said "Screw it! Let's go to the beach!" On the way to the beach, we stop at the river. I fall in crossing slippery rocks and get completely soaked. We break apart shale and then continue our drive. But, we get to Tilllamook but it is all cloudy and misty and cold! Jeff drives south to try and get around the weather.

Nomnom dinner! All you can eat Sunday chicken!

He makes the comment that he hasn't been much south of Newport. So, we go south of Newport. Then I get the idea..."Lets go to California!" Jeff's answer? "We need a map......."  So we get a map! Going down the coast, we find a road that goes over to I5. It is dark and windy and crazy.

And when we stop for a break.....it is pitch black except for the headlights. Yay blasting metal and sitting on the hood of the car and pretending that you wont get eaten by animals in the darkness!

We found some really nice rest stops. Jeff was so excited for the fancy hand dryers. XD

So much California, so much driving!

But we make it! To I5, to California!

But, a rest stop is a boring place to end an adventure. And, of course, we have to go to Weed. So we do.

And it's the middle of the night. And Jeff is disappointed by it, but now he has his bragging rights. But we have to end our trip in a proper city! So we head to Redding. We go up and up and up, perhaps over Mt Shasta, which may have had a spectacular view in the day light. All we saw was darkness and semis. 4000 feet, the sign said. And us, starting from literally sea level! Then came the interesting part. 6% downgrade for the next 7 miles---with semis piled up behind us! The sun began to rise and we got a little view of the view of the lake we'd missed.

'

Oh well, too tired to care. Randomly get a motel--it's a DUMP. 

With blood on the pillows and crack pipe stains/burns on the sheets, we slept on top of the bed.

Awww! Dangerously close to IN the bed, though...

Jeff was really excited to see palm trees

But it had a bed and it wasn't moving and it had a shower! Now, did I mention that we didn't plan this trip? So, we didn't have much in the way of anything at all. I bought a toothbrush and some detergent and washed my clothes in the sink--the second time in two days I was going commando and waiting for my underwear to dry (so weird!). Jeff also didn't have his phone (we were just going to park!) and mine was off most of the time to conserve battery....until I lost it.....So exhausted; not enough sleep. I'm a bad sleeper in the daytime, however.

It did have sidewalk fish, though....

Redding was another disappointment and Jeff determined that we were NOT ending our adventure in that spread out desert town. So, to Sacramento it was! Again, we drove at night and saw very little but long, straight roads and darkness. Upon entering Sacramento, we saw their 5 sky scrapers (one of which was pulsating blue light and music from the top four floors....) after driving about a bit, seeing the capital building and some other things, we determined that, at 1 am, there aren't many people out. 

Jeff, still excited about the palm trees

So, there wasn't much to do and we didn't know where to go. We were just the right amount from San Fransisco that we'd get there just as daytime started happening. So what did we do? Back in the car! Jeff delt with the crazy driving and the small lanes and the fast fast cars. And we made it! We started our tour through Oakland. Jeff's a Raiders fan and couldn't resist. Happy as a clam, that made him. 

Then we accidently funneled onto a toll bridge! 

but we made it and saw our first glimpse of the city. Finally, a place to be satisfied with! 

We walked along the Piers from 1 to 14 and then back to the car. 

Big boat 

At the end of Pier 14 looking at the bridge we came over

Pier 14 is loooong

View of the city. All those tall buildings!

This interesting, europe-esque building we never got to investigate....

Drove around through the city and onto the hill where there was every color and kind of small cute house. 

So many streetcar lines!

But the driving was wearing on us. We headed to the airport, where there were bathrooms, hotel information, and payphones. 

We spent so much money trying to get those things to work, bought a useless map, and got useless information from the information people. We were both  getting a little hysterical from over stimulation and lack of sleep. I called my mommy to  look for places for us to stay, but Jeff decided that we were just going to stay in a hotel close. And it was $100 but wonderful with clean things and a safe bed and a diner attached to it so we didn't have to look for food. Also, it was close to the water and we walked along there for a bit. 

An airplane landing!

I found a raccoon!

Jeff went back to rest, and I went to go find him a beer. Though exhausted too, I felt he deserved it and wasn't going to let a silly thing like a gas station defeat me. except it was way farther than I thought it'd be. and gas stations didn't seem to have beer, I had to go across the highway and to a 7-11. I was really exhausted by the time I got back. But lots of nice sleep, then more walking along the bay--Which was the only ocean we really saw the whole trip! 

They had silver fire hydrants!

Then back into the car for the driving home! I had to work Friday and we were supposed to be headed back to Walla. 

So, we drove over the Golden Gate bridge! 

But it was mostly fog. we hung out at the stop on the other side, but twas still covered in fog. So, we moved on and drove back to Redding. We found out we didn't miss much on the drive over, it was all flat desert scrub and dead sunflower fields. And so hot. We got to Redding in the late afternoon and stopped at an aquatic driving range. The guy running it was very nice and gave us a bucket of free balls and we didn't have to pay to use the drivers of anything. Jeff still has blister bits he's picking at from that. I sucked at it. XD I found out that I'd had my phone all along, but my mom had already turned it off! Then we continued to drive on this scribbley road through the mountains. The sun was setting, but there was enough of it for a while to see the pretty scenery. Then back into darkness. We were going to go through the redwoods, but we were so tired and the driving was going to be so long....that Jeff drove back to I5 and up through Grants Pass. I fell asleep and woke up next morning parked at a rest stop. After that, it's mostly lots of driving. We detoured slightly to go to the animal safari. And that was a lot of fun. However, it was getting hot, so we returned to our path and then made it back to Portland in time for rush hour. XD But, this time, there was a spot for Jeff on the hill.