Farmer Jon
Sous Chef
Wife's Swedish meat balls and mother in-laws chicken and dumplings. I literally have to make myself stop eating or I will get sick.
Best thing I ever ate in 2014
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Cooking4to
Senior Cook
I hate to say the best meal I ate in 14' was something I made myself. One night last January we were supposed to go out and eat with a couple couples of friends, so we all met at my house, BUT the weather turned fast and it was snowing and raining and freezing. Since they drove so far {both couples were around 50 miles away from home} we knew they were going to end up spending the night and it was too risky to leave for a restaurant..
I had just bought 5 lbs of boneless sknlss chicken breasts, so I was going to bread them and make parmesan, But didn't quite have enough mozz... So I decided to do a marsala. The same recipe I have always used, {sherry and cream sherry}...
I was rushing and worried the power would go off from the storm, so I threw a batch of italian bread in the mixer I did an 8lb batch so they could take a loaf home and we had some for breakfast.
As that was mixing I got the chicken going and the dredge, when the bread was mixed I through a batch of an egg heavy pasta in the mixer. I had plenty of help for cutting mushrooms and dredging chicken so I even though the dough wasnt ready I through a fast flat bread bruschetta together using some salsa I made a the night before...
I sheeted the pasta dough a little thick and cut them into pappardelle, I made 2 lbs of pasta, while that was drying by the oven, the bread was in the proof box, the bruschetta was being eaten, and I was about ready to add the wines to the chicken.
I dropped the pasta in {I would have liked it to dry more}, lowered the chicken/mushroom heat and put the bread in the oven {I rolled dinner rolls so they would cook fast}. I mixed up some sweet butter for the bread, and everyone had the table all set for dinner...
I did all that while making my wife {who is a vegetarian} a garlic flat bread {I used the same bread dough just mixed in some garlic powder and red pepper flake}, with hummus and fresh spinach/goat chz wrap, making a pitcher of mai tai's, and desert...
I don't know how I pulled it off, but I made one of the best dinners I ever made in just over an hour!!! I couldn't believe it and at the same time was very nervous that it wasn't going to be good, after all I rushed the dough {and added a bit more sugar and yeast than I normally do and the oven was no where near as steamy as I normally make it}, I rushed the chicken {I normally like to get all the pieces the same size and pound them out nice and uniform}, and I rushed the pasta {I normally like to let it dry a while before dropping it}... But as I bit into the first bite, I could tell it was the best marsala I ever tasted, even the bread rolls, that I was scared were going to taste "beery" came perfect, the outside was flaky and crispy and the inside was heavy and doughy...
Everyone was eating in amazement, I have never cooked for them before and they could not believe the food came from a residential kitchen, lol...
For desert right before I sat down to eat I through a coconut milk mixture that I mixed up fast while cooking and stored in the freezer, into the ice cream machine {self cooled machine makes hard ice cream in 25 minutes}. As we were eating the ice cream machine started to beep, no one knew what I was doing except my wife and I went in and got desert ready, I made frangelico ice cream on a warm blondie brownie {my wife cooked them earlier in the day}....
So I don't know if it tasted so good because I was expecting the worse or if it just came good because I rushed it and didn't obsess over every ingredient amount, but it was great. Everyone ate more than I would have imagined {I good thing I made a ton of it}, and to this day still bring up that meal when we talk...
I had just bought 5 lbs of boneless sknlss chicken breasts, so I was going to bread them and make parmesan, But didn't quite have enough mozz... So I decided to do a marsala. The same recipe I have always used, {sherry and cream sherry}...
I was rushing and worried the power would go off from the storm, so I threw a batch of italian bread in the mixer I did an 8lb batch so they could take a loaf home and we had some for breakfast.
As that was mixing I got the chicken going and the dredge, when the bread was mixed I through a batch of an egg heavy pasta in the mixer. I had plenty of help for cutting mushrooms and dredging chicken so I even though the dough wasnt ready I through a fast flat bread bruschetta together using some salsa I made a the night before...
I sheeted the pasta dough a little thick and cut them into pappardelle, I made 2 lbs of pasta, while that was drying by the oven, the bread was in the proof box, the bruschetta was being eaten, and I was about ready to add the wines to the chicken.
I dropped the pasta in {I would have liked it to dry more}, lowered the chicken/mushroom heat and put the bread in the oven {I rolled dinner rolls so they would cook fast}. I mixed up some sweet butter for the bread, and everyone had the table all set for dinner...
I did all that while making my wife {who is a vegetarian} a garlic flat bread {I used the same bread dough just mixed in some garlic powder and red pepper flake}, with hummus and fresh spinach/goat chz wrap, making a pitcher of mai tai's, and desert...
I don't know how I pulled it off, but I made one of the best dinners I ever made in just over an hour!!! I couldn't believe it and at the same time was very nervous that it wasn't going to be good, after all I rushed the dough {and added a bit more sugar and yeast than I normally do and the oven was no where near as steamy as I normally make it}, I rushed the chicken {I normally like to get all the pieces the same size and pound them out nice and uniform}, and I rushed the pasta {I normally like to let it dry a while before dropping it}... But as I bit into the first bite, I could tell it was the best marsala I ever tasted, even the bread rolls, that I was scared were going to taste "beery" came perfect, the outside was flaky and crispy and the inside was heavy and doughy...
Everyone was eating in amazement, I have never cooked for them before and they could not believe the food came from a residential kitchen, lol...
For desert right before I sat down to eat I through a coconut milk mixture that I mixed up fast while cooking and stored in the freezer, into the ice cream machine {self cooled machine makes hard ice cream in 25 minutes}. As we were eating the ice cream machine started to beep, no one knew what I was doing except my wife and I went in and got desert ready, I made frangelico ice cream on a warm blondie brownie {my wife cooked them earlier in the day}....
So I don't know if it tasted so good because I was expecting the worse or if it just came good because I rushed it and didn't obsess over every ingredient amount, but it was great. Everyone ate more than I would have imagined {I good thing I made a ton of it}, and to this day still bring up that meal when we talk...
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
The best thing I ate in 2014, hmmmm. I think it was the candy-cap mushroom ice cream, or was it the candy cap sweet rolls, or maybe it was the umami soup. There were a couple of righteous steaks cooked on the ole Webber that came out just nice, you know, melt in your mouth with great, rare, grilled over fire beef flavor as well. But then there was that deep fried naked steelhead trout that was exceptional.
Aw rats. you ask the impossible. I could never narrow it down to any one thing. Why do I even try this game?
A perfect BLT on rye is as good as the best steak, or the best maple malt, or the best piece of steaming hot, homemade bread, slathered with butter, and maybe a little strawberry freezer jam. Don't even get me started on cookies, or chocolate, or fresh picked berries, right off the plant. How can such a question be asked, or answered? It's impossible.
Wait, I've got it. The best thing I ate in 2014 is the same as the best thing I ate about 13 years back. This last year, it was a double handful of freshly picked wild blueberries with my granddaughters, out in the woods. 13 years back, it was the same, but with Sprout. And then there were the fish kabobs that only P.A.G. and I shared that was the best thing I ate that year.
in 1978, it was rib eye steaks and easy over eggs at a hotel in Mission Gorge, where DW and I spent our wedding night.
And the foil-pack brookies with sliced potatoes when camping in the high Sierras with my family, that was up there as well.
Yep, those were the best things I ever ate.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Aw rats. you ask the impossible. I could never narrow it down to any one thing. Why do I even try this game?
A perfect BLT on rye is as good as the best steak, or the best maple malt, or the best piece of steaming hot, homemade bread, slathered with butter, and maybe a little strawberry freezer jam. Don't even get me started on cookies, or chocolate, or fresh picked berries, right off the plant. How can such a question be asked, or answered? It's impossible.
Wait, I've got it. The best thing I ate in 2014 is the same as the best thing I ate about 13 years back. This last year, it was a double handful of freshly picked wild blueberries with my granddaughters, out in the woods. 13 years back, it was the same, but with Sprout. And then there were the fish kabobs that only P.A.G. and I shared that was the best thing I ate that year.
in 1978, it was rib eye steaks and easy over eggs at a hotel in Mission Gorge, where DW and I spent our wedding night.
And the foil-pack brookies with sliced potatoes when camping in the high Sierras with my family, that was up there as well.
Yep, those were the best things I ever ate.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
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