A farewell.

So, the continual feast that has been this summer is finally coming to an end. A really anti-climactic ending. I was planning on a huge dinner to end it all, with all sorts of tasty stuff in it. Unfortunately, I realized how much food I accumulated this summer, and my final week in the apartment is being dubbed as "feast week" as I finish off my stores of food. Sadly I don't have anything left to cook except troves of canned soup.

However, it has been a great summer - a really delicious one too. So as I look back at all the good food I ate, it has been fun writing and photographing my food. Most importantly, it has been fun eating and cooking it as well. I hope I've inspired at least one person to enjoy a tasty meal, or at least made your mouth water.

May you eat decadently,
    -Chris

Garden Fresh

Some Fresh Cucumber from my mommy's garden. Also featuring olive oil, salt and pepper.

Spelt Pasta with Garlic Alfredo Sauce, mixed with garden Tomatoes and Basil

My weekend was awesome. My family came to visit me, and brought gifts! Along with a great weekend in Boston, they gave me a bunch of food from my mom's awesome garden. To start off this summer supper, I sliced some garden cucumbers and topped them with a drizzle of olive oil, some course salt, and ground black pepper. Crunchy, cool, delicious.

My main course was a very simple dish. I used some garlic alfredo sauce from the store on top of some spelt pasta, and added in an extremely flavorful garden tomato. To top it off, I shredded some basil leaves off the small plant I have growing on my windowsill. All in all, this was a simple dish and salad, but it was fresh, tasty, and fit in well with the summer weather.

Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken

Chicken Thighs, herb roasted, covered with Thai Maple Peanut sauce

Chicken Thighs without the sauce: Olive Oil, Oregano, Pepper, Salt

This was a simple meal. After waking up sore from a workout the day before, I craved protein. My shakes weren't cutting it - I needed real meat. So I picked up some thighs and made them perfectly, but simply. After rinsing them, I drizzled them with olive oil and rubbed in salt, freshly dried oregano, and lots of freshly ground pepper. In my cast iron pan, I cooked it at 425 degrees for around 30 minutes. I took it out, made a quick slice to ensure it was cooked, took a temperature reading for doneness, and put it on a plate. I poured on some Thai Maple Peanut sauce that I bought from a local farm, and dug in.

Apart from this delicious form of protein, I found a great way of eating a salad - raw and with a decadent meat dish. The meat was so rich that I didn't need a salad to go along with it. After eating some meat, I just took a bunch of washed lettuce in my hand and bit into it. It was a great pairing! The savory meat played with the sweet maple syrup-based peanut sauce. This all contrasted with the bitter, fresh, aqueous taste of straight lettuce. Did it look classy eating four chicken breasts and biting into handfuls of lettuce leaves? No. But it was a delicious dinner for a starving guy.

I Make Shit Up

Beans, Basil, Beef, Butter. Also, some Mushrooms and Elbow Pasta

So. I know it's been a while since I last blogged. A few lazy nights of soup, and then some captivating episodes of Breaking Bad left me looking at my camera and promising to myself, "I'll definitely write up the blog for that tomorrow". Yeah right. I am very decent at lying to myself. But I didn't lie to myself when making this dish - I just put in whatever I thought would be delicious.

It had been a couple of nights of non-cooking, and I was in the grocery food store staring at the boxes of instant Mac & Cheese and my hand was starting to gravitate towards them. Then, like a good guilty conscience, the image of that box of raw elbow macaroni in my pantry popped into my head. I had to make Macaroni and Cheese myself. But no- it wouldn't be any ordinary Mac & Cheese, it would be Chris's awesome version of Mac & Cheese.

So, I embarked upon a small journey of cooking an eclectic Mac & Cheese variant, using mostly ingredients I already had. I started off by defrosting a half pound of ground beef, browning it in the pan as it warmed up from a frozen block. When I could break it apart, I added a bit of butter and sliced mushrooms, letting them all cook together, blending flavors. After a few stirs, I added a can of drained black beans. I let it simmer until most of the water had evaporated Finally, I sliced up the entire block of cheddar and placed the slices on top of the concoction, letting it melt through as the steam and food heated it from below. After the pasta was finished cooking, I mixed it in with the sauce. With some salt and pepper, and enough basil leaves to de-leaf half my little basil plant, the dish was finished. What a meal.