Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Time Passes. Magz Gets Over Her Beef(s)..

And Starts cooking!  Like real  Food!
That's kind of an unusual ocurrence nowadays,  since I just don't get all that motivated anymore to actually build good 'Home Cooked' meals from scratch,  for a couple of reasons.

Reason # 1 is simply that I live alone and eat alone,  so snacks or instant food meals are just (like they say)
More Convienent.

Reason # 2 is a bit more 'involved',  since it has everything to do with the fact that after my last BIG wreck-on-horseback almost 4 yrs ago now,
  I Lost My Sense Of Smell,  and Taste.

Yeah, I worried about it, a lot.  I did beaucoup Research both online and off,  trying to re-connect  my
nose to my brain, and I failed all the way around.
That was sad,  and it still sucks if I think about it much.

So I don't, mostly.  Think about it anymore.
  Still?  It left me at a loss,  and actually mourning my poor old, good old, TRUSTED  3rd and 4th senses that got wiped out in an instant.  It's changed my entire perception of Food,  and  other scents.  It's changed all of my Habits about eating,  though it didn't happen all at once.


 (See Above:  Cooking, and Real Food)

  Hehehe,  the whole point of this post is to tell anyone reading about how today turned into a 'chef's special' day.
I KNOW y'all like recipes, and juicy details about food so I thought I'd share mine!

  Today was a total 'Foody' day, and it started when I browsed my refrigerator and realized that I had way too many fresh eggs, compliments of all my chickens.  I hard-boiled 2 dozen,  and then made a pretty good egg-salad mix with ranch dressing, sweet pickles, onions, and celery.  (I left 8 hard-boilies for later, when I feel like making Deviled Eggs.)

Then I started frying chicken.  LOTS of chicken parts,  all coated in my own mix of herbs & spices, and perfectly fried in 100% fresh corn oil.  (I have cold chicken for DAYS now!)
I make good fried chicken, if I say so myself.

That motivated me to dig deeper, deep into my own refridgerator.  I found a large package of high quality
Bratwersts that I'd bought and frozen awhile back,  so I defrosted them carefully..
(I actually didn't particularly enjoy eating the 1st one as a hot dog kind of thing on a bun,  so I studied my pantry,  fridge, and freezer for another idea of how to prepare them)

I came up with a really great idea!
 It started with raw rice laid on the bottom of a large baking pan.  With butter, and a little water.
Then a big layer of Bratwursts-  must be 15 of them fit in that pan. A healthy squirt of Honey BBQ sauce on top, a layer of fresh Hatch, New Mexico Chilies, then a half pint of my Garden Fresh HomeMade Salsa, Hot Style.

It looked pretty juicy, and weighed about 4 lbs so I put it uncovered into the oven at 325 degrees,  thinking it would take awhile to blend and mix and cook down.  45 minutes later, it seemed to be drying out too fast so I added some of the homemade Marinara/Spagetti sauce I always have hanging around, and spooned some of the salsa/BBQ sauce mix over the top. 


Shortly after that, an unexpected drop-in buddy came by, and the first thing out of her mouth was "OMG!!
What's cooking?  Smells GREAT!" 
(I had to tell her I didn't think it was ready yet,  and served her some fresh fried chicken instead)
I wish I could smell it,  but I'm here to say that another hour later, after my buddy had left,  I finally sat down and served myself a heaping helping of whatever-ya-call that Bratworst dish..  and It Was Good.
So am I,  and now I'm full.
Stop by tomorrow,  there's LOTS of leftovers!

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