The Kitchen Report

With the extra time I have right now I've been experimenting in the kitchen...

Sure I've burned a few things and some stuff hasn't come out as great as I'd hoped, but it's relaxing and I feel like I'm learning... learning at my own pace even.

I've fallen in love with garlic. I've always loved garlic, but I'm ashamed to say that I've always just bought those big containers of pre-minced garlic at Costco. It just seemed so much easier that way. Recently, however, I've discovered how satisfying it is to peel and mince a clove of garlic, then to sauté it in some olive oil. It makes me happy.

Tonight I decided to make some soup with stuff that I had lying around the kitchen. With the help of Laurie, who always has great culinary advice, I managed to make this:


Okay so it looks kind of awful in the picture, but it was actually pretty good. I started off sautéing some garlic and onions in olive oil, then I added some rice, then water and vegetable bullion cubes. Then I added some potatoes, pepper and oregano, then finally some TVP (texturized vegetable protein, AKA fake meat). With the current temperature in Porto Alegre dipping into the 40s (Fahrenheit), it was a great night for soup.

Another experiment that I came up with last week turned into this:


To prepare this one I drained a block of tofu overnight (wrapped in paper towels and then in a clean dishtowel in the fridge). I sautéed some garlic and the tofu in olive oil, then added onions and a couple of cans of basil tomato sauce. I added some oregano, pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes and then cooked it for a while while I boiled some penne, then I mixed it all together and, to my delight, it was actually good. Of course there was so much that I ended up having to put a lot in the fridge, and something like this is never as good the second time around, but I still enjoyed the leftovers the following afternoon.

So that's the kitchen report. If you have any great ideas for more culinary experiments I'd love to hear them!