NERF THEOFANNY!!1!Follow

I've been to busy at work to spam like crazy. That and trying to remember to think more about framing and focus length while taking pictures. I had a really cool picture that wasn't quite right because I missed that.

I did take this http://grab.by/6YoF which I like.

Edited, Oct 21st 2010 4:32pm by Xsarus

what do you have on hand food wise?

One thing that I like to do is buy pizza crusts from a store, because it saves so much time, and then I just put whatever I want on it.

classic pizza obviously, but you can also do pesto with tomatoes and mozza, or any combination of any food really, so you can get a fast snack/meal that's super easy but also can be very healthy.

Sadly I currently lack an oven...

Cube 1 can of spam and 2 potatoes.

Fry them in a pan until done.

Sprinkle Basil and Oregano.

Eat.

This.
The day I voluntarily eat spam is the day hell freezes over.

And thank you for the recipe Xsarus, rate yourself up for me.
Also, I have a pretty good Turkish store next doors so I have access to cheap peppers and other vegetables of which I don't even know the name.

And baclava, but baclava is ungodly expensive... but soooooo good.

If you like indian food but don't want to fool with spices, there are pre-made curry sauces (green, yellow, etc) that you can buy (at least here). It's an easy way to get all the flavours without having to be a spice expert. Probably more expensive though.

I really miss Nasi goreng and the noodle version from when I was in the Netherlands. I also missed falafels, but I found an amazing falafel place here, so I don't miss that anymore.

Fresh pasta is really good, but it's a buttload of work.

1) make dough
2) let it sit for quite a while
3) run it through the pasta press over and over and over again.

I'm assuming a bit on what the pasta maker is like here, is it like this?. If you're interested I can get you a good dough recipe, but I don't have it here.

Simpler is making ravioli or something like that which you can just roll out. It's all about the dough. I also have a good recipe for dumpling type rolled noodles, which are really good.

Edited, Oct 22nd 2010 11:24am by Xsarus

one or two person recipe:
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil
mix

no noodle maker
knead until smooth and elastic
and let rest if possible
roll out as thinly as desired, cut into strips

If using noodle maker
don't bother kneading - just pass it through the machine on the widest biggest setting a whole bunch of times

doubling the recipe is good for three people
5 people with some leftovers use 4 eggs.

With the noodle maker resting doesn't really matter. Just run it though the large setting until the dough is nice and smooth, and then start making it thinner bit by bit. You'll probably have to separate the dough into parts to do this nicely, otherwise they get to long. When it's the right thinness for you you can swap to the cutting tool and run it through one more time. Get all your pieces to the right thinness first though.

For sauces, I don't really have a recipe, my tip is to keep it simple. pick one or two elements and one or two seasonings, and go from there. You can do it over and over so experimenting is good. I'll give a few starting points though.

saute onions, garlic and peppers on medium heat until they are nice and soft, then blitz(blender). Put it back into the pan and pour in some creme. simmer for a bit. You can add the basil at any point. Keep some aside through and chop it, you can sprinkle this on top of the dish as it's served. You can also add a little white wine to this, or red I suppose, add it in after the peppers are soft but before you blitz it. You don't have to blitz all the peppers/onions if you want some texture, or you can just add something else. Play around with it.

You can also replace the peppers with tomatoes for a more classic tomato sauce. Other interesting things to play with are condensed milk for a sweeter flavour or coconut milk for a coconut flavour. Curry based sauces also work, and can be used with either base. Play with other herbs as well. you can always add a stock to a sauce as well.

If you want to do it with meat, use the method I talked about a few posts back taking the pan that was used to sear and bake the meat and making a sauce at the last minute.

For photoshop, I've been playing around with lightroom a bit, which is photoshop with only photo stuff, but There are a lot of dials and options, so I've been focusing more on learning my camera first. I have photoshop too, but that area still seems overwhelming.

Edited, Oct 24th 2010 6:46pm by Xsarus

Lightroom is supposed to be photoshop with only photo related stuff, and a photo organizer function added. I also have photoshop proper though, so that's fine.

so inspired by this thread I made the following today.

2 cloves of garlic
2 peppers (red and orange) (bell peppers)
1 onion
3 strips of homemade bacon (stronger flavour)
chop all this stuff. don't worry about making small pieces though, a rough dice will do.

saute till soft and the bacon is cooked.

added in some turkey stock and some triple sec as well as some evaporated milk, which I happened to have. I didn't have creme or I'd have used that. Evaporated milk is actually nice because it's thicker and richer, and lasts forever in the can so you can always have some around. I also added pepper and basil, not salt, as the bacon provided that.

Reduced, and then puree'd in the blender. If you puree and it's too thin, just put back in the pan and simmer some more. If you notice chunks toss it back in the blender later on.

Something that will help thicken up sauces in a pinch.

Take 1/2 cup of margarine, melt. Mix with 1/2c of flour or more to form a thick paste, and form into a tube. Wrap in saran wrap and put in the fridge. Slice a piece off and drop it in the sauce to thicken without lumps. You might have to refrigerate for a while before forming so the margarine cools down a bit.

oh and pvp and stuff.

Edited, Oct 25th 2010 11:01am by Xsarus

For my sauce I used a red and yellow bell pepper, it wasn't spicy at all. A little smokey from the bacon, and with undertones of sweetness from the peppers and triple sec. I wouldn't use a hot pepper as a base, add some in if you like spice, but you want the bell peppers as a base.

Edited, Oct 25th 2010 11:01am by Xsarus