For Costume Party, which was the latest food party. Most of you won't know anything about it, because most of you aren't people we talk to, really. Of course, most of you don't actually read this blog either.

I made some french fries. I made 3 sauces. 1 sauce is a ketchup; the other two sauces are not ketchup. I should have done more sauce to really sell the effect, but I didn't.

I know I haven't posted anything in a while. Shut up. Shut your mouth.

Ketchup:

4 quarts tomatoes
2 quarts vinegar
6 chopped red peppers
4 tablespoons salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons dry mustard
3 tablespoons allspice

Peel tomatoes and place in a kettle with vinegar, chopped red peppers, salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and allspice.

Green:

2 C mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. curry powder
2 T scallion (minced)
1/2 tsp. (or more!) jalapeno pepper (seeded, minced)
1 T lime juice
1 T cider vinegar
2 T fresh parsley (chopped)
2 T fresh cilantro (chopped)
1/2 tsp. salt

Yellow:

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder

1 cup Ranch dressing

Oh man, I got to stop doing Vittles and Mangia posts in bulk. Here is another 4 meals I've been backed up on.

This one is a standard meat and veggie dish. I brined the chicken and used the rest of my uncles mushrooms he sent me. I used the first half previously on the Pork roast with mushroom mashed potatoes.

2 chicken breasts
1 handful bolete mushrooms
kosher salt
worchetershire sauce
garlic powder

1 chicken gravy packet

broccoli
potato
cheese
butter
salt and pepper

To brine the chicken, I added the mushrooms, worchestershire sauce, garlic powder and a healthy amount of kosher salt to enough water that would cover the chicken, and left that in the fridge over night. The dried mushrooms really released a lot a flavor into the brine that mixed in with the chicken.
To bake, I added the chicken to a cast iron skillet, with the mushrooms and a little bit of the brine and covered with foil. Essentially I braised the brined chicken in a 350 oven for an hour. At the same time I put a few potatoes in the oven to bake. The broccoli was just steamed.
At the end of the hour, I pulled the chicken out to rest and used the cast iron skillet to make the chicken gravy. And I topped the potato and broccoli with some cheese. Easy peasy.

A bowl of mush with white stuff on it. but it tastes good. If you add smoked ham hock and sausage to anything it'll be good.

1 lbs 10 bean mix
2 smoked ham hocks
1 case italian hot sausage
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, diced
3 branches celery, chopped
water
Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

The bean mix my mom sent me from Sprouts, but I'm pretty sure you can get it mostly anywhere that has bulk bins. I soaked the beans over night. Then earlier in the day, I added all the ingredients except the Parmesan with enough water to cover the beans. Half way through cooked I added more water. After cooking even, I added more water. Anytime I let the stuff sit, it would thicken up and so I added more water. It was almost a never ending bowl of bean soup. Anytime I took some out to eat, I would replace it with water, and I on my 5 bowl it still wasn't too dilute. Anyways, I'm off track. To cook the stuff, I just kept it on a low heat for about 4 hours. Right before serving, I pulled out the ham hocks, tore off all the skin and meat and fat, chopped it up and put it back in. I saved the knuckles for Einstein who gladly ate them all up. I also pulled out the sausage and chopped it up and but it back in. To top each bowl off I added Parmesan, salt and pepper.

I think next time I make this, I might skip the sausage. The flavor was rich enough without it. Instead I might add some hot pepper or maybe chipotle with adobo sauce to increase the smokiness.

And from Thailand we move a little west. Here I tried my hand at an Indian lentil curry. As with the Biryani chicken curry thing I made a few months ago, the main seasoning came from a jar of Madras curry paste that I got from the international market a few blocks away.

1 lbs yellow lentils
1/2 lbs split peas
1 bag frozen peas
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 handfull spinach
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 Tbsp Madras curry paste
water
rice
salt

Also like the green Thai curry, the left overs were much more curry like. Given time the split peas and the lentils broke down some more and made a better sauce. To make this, I added the fresh veggies to a pot and sauteed them in the curry paste. Then I added the lentils and peas. Before the lentils burned, I added the tomatoes and enough water to cover all the ingredients. The lentils and peas both soaked up a lot a water and thickened the whole thing up. The rice was just standard rice. In the future if I make this again, which I should because I only used half the jar of curry paste, I'd use a lot more stewed tomatoes. They were by far my favorite part of the dish and there was not nearly enough there.

Yeah, so the pictures doesn't much look like a curry. What ev's. This dish tasted like a curry, and the left overs were much more curry like. This picture is from the first plate I made. The curry sauce was still very hot and liquid and soaked down into the rice. In the leftovers, the curry thickened up just right.

1 chicken breast, cubed
1 corn, shaved
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 handfull spinach
1 onion chopped,
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbsp Green Curry paste
2 cups rice
1 pinch saffron
salt

Since moving in with Michelle, I've made this green curry a few times. It's very easy because she has a large jar of green curry past and you need very little of it to season the whole dish. To put it all together, I mixed half the coconut milk with the green curry paste and brought that up to a simmer in a frying pan. Then added the chicken, stirred for a few minutes, and added the rest of the veggies. The rice was easy as well. We have a couple small containers or saffron that doesn't' get used much, so I figured I'd toss it into the rice. It was good. Just added the saffron in when I mixed the rice and water. If I had jasmine or basmati rice, this might have been even better then it was, but I didn't. I think I'll buy some basmati rice next time I need rice.