Dinner!

[algeh]

I'm absurdly proud of myself for cooking dinner tonight. Partially, I'm just proud of myself for not eating a big bowl of ice cream (which was my first idea) and for instead eating something resembling dinner. Mostly, however, I'm proud of myself for making up a sauce and ending up with something edible. I "cheated" a little bit and followed some (but not all) of Joy of Cooking's directions for white sauce, then added it to shrimp, scallops, and squid that I had cooking in a combination of olive oil and white wine, then served it over pasta. I told myself if it really sucked I could order pizza, but it actually came out pretty good (if a little bland). I think next time I'll leave out the butter in the white sauce since I'm combining it with the olive oil later, and possibly throw some garlic and/or onions in with the seafood. I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt improvised around what I had on hand, though. I really need to have a range of pasta sauces, because I tend to live on pasta since it keeps better than bread, and I've only found one packaged sauce I like that doesn't have anything on my "no" list (Newman's Own Vodka Sauce). The only thing this one requires me to have that needs to be bought fresh regularly is milk (the seafood is a frozen mix from Trader Joe's), so I should always have the stuff for it lying around.

Of course, now I have an almost-full bottle of white wine to get through. Maybe I'll make fondue. Or invite the neighbors over and see if they like wine, although that would involve locating wine glasses. (This is the $3 a bottle Trader Joe's wine, so I won't be that upset if I end up "wasting" part of it.) I suppose I can try adding a bit to everything I cook until it's gone and see what happens. It'd probably be kind of weird with beef, but I assume it wouldn't be *that* bad, and it should be fine with the lemon and ginger chicken I'm vaguely planning for tomorrow night (assuming I still have a chicken breast in the back of the freezer).

Comments

[giapet.livejournal.com]

Yaaaay! White sauce sounds good, especially with gaaaaarlic (yumyum). If you ever decide you've got a good solid recipe, I'll ask for it.

For the record, every time I come out with a decent bowl of fried rice, I feel the same way (especially since I make a much healthier fried rice than your average Chinese restaurant).

[diantha.livejournal.com]

I cheat with my milk. Since I'm mildly lactose intolerant, and too broke for lactaid type milk, I can't keep around milk becaues it will spoil long before I touch it. So, I use condensed milk. It has an odd texture, but I can't really tell the difference in backed goods or stuff that is cooked (it's gross to drink straight, though)

[qousqous.livejournal.com]

White wine is excellent for cooking chicken.

[unkle-social.livejournal.com]

how would you know?

[qousqous.livejournal.com]

i hear about it a lot. and it seems the sort of flavour combination that would be good.