To Those Who Claim They Can't Cook

All of you who claim you can't cook - I'm calling you out. That's nonsense. One year ago I started cooking with nothing more than a cookbook, and a hungry belly. Honestly, most of cooking is about following directions. So, here's a meal for those who are living off of ramen noodles. It's cheap, it's easy, and it's damn right delicious.

Dry-rubbed chicken with coconut rice. Honestly, this takes 10 minutes to prepare.

This meal you can't mess up. The rice is coconut rice. Buy one can of unsweetened coconut milk, and mix it with 1 3/4 cups of water in a pot with 2 cups of rice. Add a pinch of salt and two pinches of sugar. Give it a stir, put a cover on, and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat down to barely nothing. Let this sit for 20 minutes, simmering gently after you reach a boil. At around 20 minutes, check on the rice. Stick a spoon in, and stir around. Most of the water should be gone. If it is, good, take the pot off the stove (it's done!). Otherwise check back on it in 5 minutes.

Ok, the chicken. Buy some chicken thighs. Preheat the oven to 350. Mix up a dry rub- equal parts of spices: oregano, ginger powder, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, salt (slightly less than an equal part), and paprika. Add some chili powder if you like it spicy. Rinse the chicken in cold water, pat it dry, then rub the dry rub all around it. Then, peel back the skin and rub the spices underneath the skin. Replace the skin. Drizzle with olive oil, rub it it, and place it in a pan (cast iron preferred).
Place the pan in the 350 degree oven and pull it out after 50 minutes. Perfect.

Plate the rice and chicken, and drizzle all that chicken juice from the pan onto the rice.
Wasn't that easy?

Baby, I'm Back

Sliced Skirt Steak flash fried to a crisp atop a thick mixture of cremini mushrooms and onion in a rosemary red wine reduction.

A bonus picture. Iceberg lettuce on bottom for a crunch, with tangy spring onions from the farmer's market.

After nine months of cafeteria food at college, I'm back in the kitchen making everything I desire to ingest. I'm back, and I'm hungry - get ready, it's going to be a wild summer.

Coming back from Ultimate Frisbee tonight, I knew I needed something delicious, absolutely savory to top my evening. So I fired up two burners, crisping up sliced skirt steak in a pan with olive oil at a high temperature. In the other skillet, I mixed equal parts of red wine and beef broth, reducing it with an onion that I sliced. As that simmered off I sliced a bunch of cremini mushrooms, sold to me at a farmer's market by a hippie claiming that his mushrooms were the "freshest". They were pretty fresh, but the hippie could have used a shower.

Anyway, I sprinkled some rosemary into the sauce, some salt and pepper, and a bouillon cube because I was out of stock. I spooned in some mustard to give it a bite,  then after tasting it, I realized a touch of cumin would neutralize the overwhelming floral taste of rosemary. After adding some milk and a pad of butter, I let it all reduce into a delicious mixture. I threw it all onto a bed of iceberg lettuce for a crunch, and sprinkled some tangy spring onions on top. I may have made up this entire meal, but it was great. The meat was crispy but juicy and a little pink inside. I left it unflavored, so it could be mixed with my onion and mushroom cream sauce. Offsetting all the richness was the crispy lettuce and tangy green onions. With a smile, I ate contently tonight.