What's cooking?

That looks awesome. I am salivating at the picture.

I made some meatballs on Tuesday - I hate fiddling with lots of tiny meatballs so I made them a little bigger.

Looks good!

I don't eat much anymore and the 1/2 bowl of stew I had for a late lunch almost convinced me to not even bother with supper. But I made myself a green salad and dressed it with balsamic and walnut oil.

Made a cheesecake in the Instant Pot, it turned out great.  Delicious

Wetting the grounds for my morning coffee.  So nice.

Apple pie. Very much it is pleasant to children.

That looks good and very different than what I think of when the words "apple pie" is spoken or written. I had a piece of one that was similar and it was quite good. Can you share the recipe?

I did a bunch of cooking over the past few days.

With my very strict diet that I have myself on I severely limit my sodium and sat' fat and cholesterol. How does one make a sandwich with cold cuts and under those constraints? It's not possible, so I make the innards myself.

Yesterday I cooked up a mess of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and today turned some of it into chick' salad. Yes, breast meat is tasteless, but I have ways to make it tasty w/o using sodium. Simultaneously I had a very lean "roast" in the sous vide bath and today finished it off with the torch and reducing sugar, then thin sliced it for sandwiches. Also today I made strawberry sorbet. Ice cream is off my diet, but sorbet is OK.

It's snowing outside, but in here we're cozy with peanut butter cookies and Midsomer Murders on DVD from the library.

Made a cheesecake in the Instant Pot, it turned out great.  Delicious

Damn Fine Shave! I mean Damn Fine Looking Cheesecake!LOL.



Happy Shaving!
49erShaver

I've wanted to try this for years and either forgot to or wanted other bread. This w/e I made a recipe of ATKs thin crust pizza dough. It makes 2 13" pizzas. In a few days, after it's long fermentation (for flavor development), I'll do my best to turn it into a loaf of bread. Fingers crossed.

I've had a hankerin' for seafood chowder for quite some time now. So toward that end I bought some pollack and checked recipes for fish chowder. Now I must interject something here. I really like New England chowders, but I can't do dairy anymore so they were out of the running. So I went online to find Manhattan style chowder and picked one from Cooking Light. I had previously cooked the fish and last night made the chowder. My idea was to add a piece of fish to the bottom of the bowl and ladle the hot soup over it. Nuked gently to bring the soup back up to temp' worked great.

Then the light went off in my head, as it sometimes happens... The chowder w/o fish tastes great all by itself. So why does it need to be fish? Why not any seafood? Precooked mussels, clams, lobster, crab, and of course fish would all work in it, done exactly the same way. Of course it could also be eaten as is without any protein added since it tastes so good.

One note about bottled clam juice. I used Bar Harbor brand which is made within 100 miles of my AO (Area of Operation) and the sodium is 20mg/ 1/4 cup. I grabbed a bottle of Cento and if memory serves it had 100mg/tablespoon. So of you're on a low sodium diet, as I am, definitely check the nutrition labeling. If you have access to the makin's for your own seafood stock, by all means make what you need.

The original recipe follow with my notes that make it healthier for low sodium and low sat' fat diets.

Manhattan-Style Fish Chowder

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 2 cups)
March 2003
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

You can use any firm whitefish in this classic tomato-based soup.
Brians note: or precooked shellfish, or crab meat or lobster

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter (sub’ oil)
2 3/4 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3/4 cup chopped celery (use the leaves also if present)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup tomato paste (I used the entire 6oz can)
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups chopped peeled red potato
2 cups water (I omitted this for a thicker and tastier chowder)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt (omit)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (8-ounce) bottles clam juice (or lobster juice if you prefer, check for sodium content)
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained (no sodium added)
1 bay leaf
2 pounds halibut fillets, skinned and cut into 1-inch pieces

Brians note: I measured nothing. I also added a mess of fresh chopped parsley which worked. I also added extra garlic which I won’t do next time. I added red pepper flakes which didn’t hurt, but it’s definitely optional. I added maybe a tsp of red pepper. Of course I didn’t add the salt, and the tomatoes were of the no salt added variety. The recipe calls for diced tomatoes. They contain calcium chloride which won’t hurt anyone, but that firms up the dices and they will never soften. I used whole tomatoes and coarsely chopped them right in the can.

How to Make It

Step 1

Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to pan; sauté 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Stir in wine; cook 1 minute. Add potato and next 7 ingredients (potato through bay leaf); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 30 minutes. Check the veggies for tenderness and cook longer if required.

Step 2

Add fish. Cover and simmer 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Discard bay leaf.

Brians note: What I do (now) is to make the chowder base and add the precooked fish of choice to the bowl, then ladle the chowder onto it and gently nuke it to bring the temp' back up. So virtually any seafood can be used, or add no seafood and just have the veggie soup. It’s tasty enough to stand on it's own.