Robbie, A Cooker @Alamantus@kitch.win

I found a recipe for chocolate mug cake that works super well and takes only ingredients you're already likely to have in your pantry and cooks in just over a minute in your microwave! And if you don't already have the ingredients, they're easy to get and then you can make mug cakes every day for like a year or something.

https://www.tablefortwoblog.com/the-moistest-chocolate-mug-cake/
(Apologies in advance if there are ads/trackers on the page—I use a blocker so I don't know.)

I substituted oat milk for regular and it still worked fine, and I found that the half-scale recipe is probably the best serving size for how rich it ends up tasting. Also, there are some other notes below the recipe card that are worth reading before you start cooking to help you understand what's going on. For example why the recipe is eggless and that regular sized cake recipes take 1–2 eggs so putting a whole egg into one mug cake is comparatively overkill. (Side note, I derived from that note that if you're making 2+ mug cakes worth of batter, mixing 1egg in there can get you a slightly spongier texture in your cakes if that's something you like.)

The page also links to other mug cake recipes derived from this one like vanilla, espresso chocolate, and apple spice, which is why I decided to try a matcha cake! It turned out really well, but next time I'm gonna borrow some ingredients from the apple spice recipe (namely, apple sauce) to make it a little less bitter and maybe use coconut milk to make it a little creamier/coconuttier. I bet a sugar frosting would be nice on the matcha cake, too, but that's more work that I'll ever personally put in for a mug cake...

One final note, the recipe says to mix the batter in a bowl before transferring to the microwave-safe mug (a 14 oz mug is ideal for the single serving, an 8–10oz mug worked great for the half serving). I successfully mixed everything directly in the mug with a fork, but I made sure to get all the crevices and stuff mixed in so there were no dry ingredients left at all. So keep that in mind if you want to dirty fewer dishes 👍

You know how peanuts have shells? You can just eat those fuckers! One place deep fried them whole and flavors them and they're actually pretty good! (They're fine plain, but there's not much flavor.)

Today I learned that you can cook eggs into a satisfying little puck in the microwave in about a minute:
https://eggs.ab.ca/recipes/basic-microwaved-eggs/

I cooked mine in a microwaveable coffee mug with cooking spray and salt as recommended in the article (piercing the yolk and white is pretty important, too), but just covered it with a paper towel instead of plastic wrap, then I sprinkled a little pepper on it.

It came out fully cooked after the 40 seconds on high and a 30 second rest, but I flipped it for another 10 seconds to firm up the yolk a little more. (My microwave is 1000 watt—the higher yours is, the less time you'll need and reverse for lower wattage.)
It's a cooked egg, but in a manageable puck form without any extra kitchen tools for shaping it in a pan! I'm definitely gonna be using this method for breakfast sandwiches and such in the future.

I believe this will also work if you scramble the egg in the container before cooking it, which could lead to some interesting results, but I haven't tested it.

Hell yeah, that's way better. Japanese curry over rice with all the fixins: onions, beef, carrots, and potatoes. It was amazing and I'm a very happy guy.

My partner is out of town so I'm on my own for food, which means I can make stuff for myself that I don't usually eat when I'm with her. I went to the supermarket to get some ingredients for beef stew, but found this beef roast kit instead with a powder for the sauce and decided that was better because I hate putting a lot of effort into my own food! I just plopped the whole thing into my pressure cooker, took a walk with the dogs, and 45 minutes later, it came out pretty nice, if a bit plain. It smelled good though.

I decided to make a night of it and grabbed one of the cheapo cigars I got from this deal I found online and a little bit of my 12 year Glenlivet scotch, sat outside in the nice night weather, and listened to My Brother, My Brother, and Me while I enjoyed.

Gotta say, this sort of spread is really not my thing. The only cigars I've had before the one tonight were ones I brought home from Cuba a couple years ago, and this one was not great by comparison (which is probably not a fair comparison, but still). Plus I didn't want to waste it so I smoked the whole thing over the course of a little more than an hour, even though I should have definitely stopped half an hour earlier than I did. The aftertaste and I guess a nicotine rush(?? I got lightheaded and slightly shaky and a teensy bit nauseous?) kinda soured the whole experience for me. I had to wash to get the smoke off my hands and out of my beard, but the aftertaste is still lingering in my mouth after a thorough brushing and swishing... I think if I stopped earlier I could have spared myself some of the negative experiences and enjoyed a more appropriate amount of tobacco. (I'm no expert, but maybe going from zero tobacco to a full cigar in a relatively short time is not a great idea.)

To make things worse, the scotch did not pair well with the food or the cigar like I thought it would, which is a bummer. But you can't win them all. Live and learn or whatever.

So yeah, I'm gonna be sticking to things I know I for sure like the rest of the time my partner is gone: Japanese curry with white rice, peanut butter and jelly, and Taco Bell. My digestive tract will be in shambles by the end, but I'll be a happy man!

Why have I been repeatedly told that using oil doesn't cause pasta to stop boiling over when it CLEARLY DOES??

Like literally look with your eyes! Watch as the oil immediately stops it from boiling over!!!

As ugly as it got, it was still somewhat pretty and it tasted amazing!

Oh no

I'm attempting a puff pastry-wrapped baked brie with a Kahlua-macadamia-maple sauce right now... wish me luck! I'll post pictures if it goes well and I don't forget.

@rrix@cybre.space Puerh teas are so nice for re-steeping! Their flavor lasts practically forever! But there really is something about oolongs and greens. It's nice to have a variety at your disposal 😊

Well, I didn't take a picture of it because I was hungry, but I was able to use some HelloFresh recipes I got for free in January to make pistachio rice with some paneer tikka masala! I didn't have some of the things in the original recipes because they were special things like "shawarma spice" and "cream sauce" so I used some of my own spices and figured out that the cream sauce was just a béchamel sauce! I remembered that Binging with Babish had a "Basics" episode on different styles of macaroni and cheese that included a béchamel sauce recipe as a base for one of the cheese sauces, so I used that to make the béchamel, and it turned out good!

Anyway, I was worried because at first the masala sauce and the spices in the pistachio rice didn't taste good, but I just needed to add more spices to the masala and some salt and chicken broth to the pistachio rice! After that, it was delicious. 😄

I'm sorry that I'm too lazy to write the whole recipe and process right now, but I wanted to write about it at least a little because I was happy with how it turned out.

What do we do when we're hungry late at night? Random stuff stir-fry!

I had some leftover rice fried in some coconut oil and sesame oil, an egg I accidentally cracked last week, some of the bell peppers I grew that I still haven't eaten, a green onion I got from HelloFresh last month, some full-sodium teriyaki sauce we don't use anymore, and some red chili paste! No precise amounts allowed!!!

Plus bonus pickled plums from a friend that have been in my fridge for too long!

#recipe #leftovers #stirFry

@gnomon That's a great question! I wish I could help.... maybe somewhere can deliver it?

Is there any actual tangible difference between grated cotija and Parmesan cheeses?

#cheese

@Louisa @Sissas I interacted with the 2 of you most on toomanycooks.social, so I wanted to let you know that kitch.win recently opened as a replacement of sorts in case you hadn't already heard!

I think you should be free to spread the word if there are others you think would want to know, right @guysoft? 😊