Reflections

Since I started this blog, and took up my Chef Clueless chef’s hat, I’ve done more cooking, and more varied cooking, than I’ve ever done in my life. I feel it’s appropriate for my last post, to look back on my experiences in cooking, and look back on the food I made, and compare the results.

 

The first dish I made was fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli. For my first dish, I was really impressed with this one. I wasn’t expecting it to come out nearly as well as it did, but it was a fairly simple recipe. I’ll definitely be making this one again in the future. A good starting point, for sure In fairness, I probably cooked the noodles a bit more than I should have.  Still one of the high points of the entire little experiment though.

My second dish was jalapeno and cream cheese stuffed mushrooms. I prepared these for a party, and in all honesty didn’t try them, because I like neither jalapenos or cream cheese or mushrooms.  I did hear good things about them however, and lots of people had them and none of them threw up, which I’m going to take as a compliment.

On wonderful Turkey Day, I was given the honor of preparing the Thanksgiving Turkey. I Was a little nervous to have such an awesome responsibility, but it wasn’t quite as complicated as I originally expected, and I was happy to drown all of my food in it.

This one, I’m going to be honest, wasn’t great. Probably the low point of blog actually. It wasn’t bad at all, but it really didn’t blow me away by any means. I’ve tried making hot sandwiches on the stove before, but this one was the first time I had used turkey, or a roll instead of regular bread. I wasn’t able to fully cook the center of it without burning the bread. Oh well, it was a lesson learned, and a tasty one at that. I ate it happily.

The broccoli and cheddar soup was one of the more complicated dishes I attempted, and I’m not sure how well I executed it. I felt like it was a little bit bland, just a little tasteless, or maybe I’m just not a fan of the recipe. My girlfriend claimed she liked it though, so it may have just been me. I don’t think I’ll be attempting this recipe again in the future.

The last recipe I attempted was the shrimp fried rice, and my lord was it good. It was a challenging recipe, with lots of steps and ingredients, so I feel like it was a good dish to finish on. I think it came out wonderfully, I don’t think any part of the dish got screwed up, which is out of character for me. The rice and the veggies were good, and the shrimp were delicious. This dish was a 10/10 and without a doubt the best of the whole project.

I had a great time doing Chef Clueless. I am glad I did, and I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and for making so much good food for me and my girlfriend. I feel that it was great essential cooking experience, and looking back, I feel like I finally have some confidence in the kitchen.

Fried Rice With Shrimp

I like Chinese food a lot. For my last meal, I wanted to make something Chinese, and I decided that fried rice would be the best option. I also decided to get fancy and try to do shrimp with it as well.

First, I diced an onion for the rice, and put in in a pan over the stove on medium, along with a pack of frozen diced carrots and peas.

 

 

While all this fun stuff was going on, I had some peeled and de-veined shrimp marinating in teriyaki sauce.

Once the veggies had cooked a bit, I added the egg, I cracked a few into the pan, and then beat them until scrambled.

 

Then, I added some rice that had been cooking for a while to the mixture, we used brown rice, and added soy sauce and stirred it all together. 

 

While I left the fried rice to finish cooking, I cooked the shrimp that had been marinating. I put them into a pan of hot oil, let them cook for about a minute, and then flipped them. 

With everything cooked, all that was left was to sere!

The final product. This dish was delicious and I was very happy with it! My girlfriend is a vegetarian, and had some other grilled veggies instead of shrimp.

Cheese and Broccoli Soup

Tonight, I wanted to get a little bit Panera Bread-y for dinner, so we found a recipe for my favorite thing to get from Panera, Broccoli and Cheddar soup.

First I diced up a head of broccoli, to be put into the soup.

Then, I cooked the broccoli in a pot with butter until it had softened.

 

After the veggies had cooked, I added in vegetable stock, milk, whipping cream and flour, along with salt and pepper. 

Once the broth had thickened, after about 10-15 minutes, I added a whopping cup of cheese.

 

 

A short amount of stirring later, and the soup was done!

I was pretty impressed with myself on this one, if I say so myself. It wasn’t super difficult and still made me feel like I know how to cook!

 

Here’s the recipe I used

https://www.shugarysweets.com/2017/01/copycat-panera-broccoli-cheese-soup

Leftover Turkey and Cheese Hot Sandwich

Today, I didn’t have my girlfriend to walk me through cooking anything, so I had to try something extra simple but would still be a challenge. It was also an extra challenge that I had to take the pictures myself while I cooked. This is challenging for someone who doesn’t know how to cook.

The first thing I did was assemble my sandwich. Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey with American cheese, on a sesame hamburger bun. I buttered both buns and put a sprinkle of garlic powder on top. 

 

Then, I started cooking the sandwich in a pan on the stove top, set to medium. I knew to butter the buns because I’ve made grilled cheeses in the past

Then, I flipped it, and allowed the other side to cook

At this point, I started struggling to keep the sandwich together, as it was made from loose chunks of turkey, instead of nice, cooperative slices. It also didn’t help that I didn’t have a clean spatula, so I had to use a long cheese grater thing.

Is it pretty? No. Is it tasty? Very.

Serve with 

Serve with chips, and feel proud of yourself! (Maybe)

Turkey Day Gravy

On Thanksgiving, I helped my family prepare the gravy that would be served with our dinner. I was particularly intimidated by this dish, as watching my mother cook thanksgiving dinner has always inspired awe in me. Helping her cook, was a daunting task, but I was confident that I could handle gravy.

 

 

The first thing I had to do was scrape all the pan drippings from making the turkey into a blender. We then put the blender in the freezer for 20 minutes to let the fat separate. Then I poured off the excess fat which was about as pleasant as it sounds. 

Then, I mixed 3 cups of chicken stock into the blender, and blended the life out of it.

Next, I poured it all onto the stove, and brought it to a boil, while stirring it constantly with a weird stir wand, that I was told not to let unsubmerge from the gravy if I didn’t want to be scalded.

After the boiling and stirring,  The gravy was further cooked on the stove, and served.

Stuffed Mushrooms

A classic American favorite, tonight I made jalapeno stuffed mushrooms. These make great bar food style appetizers, for those that can stomach the taste of mushrooms and jalapenos. The first step in the process was to cut out the center of and hollow the mushrooms.

Next, I had to cut the stems off the ends of the jalapenos, to prepare them for mincing. I was explicitly told to go to the bathroom before cutting them if I had to go.

To cut up the rest of the peppers, we put them into a contraption which had a rip cord that felt like starting a lawn mower, and pulling spins the blades of doom contained within the glass, cutting our peppers into lovely little bits.

Next, I had to mix together the jalapeno bits with some cream cheese, along with minced garlic and mash them together into a bowl. I found this part very unpleasant, the textures and scents grossed me out.

Then, I took spoonfuls of the gross stuff and stuffed them into the hollowed out mushrooms. 

Then the whole thing is loaded into the oven, and is cooked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chef Clueless

Hi! My name is Adam, and I’m a 21 year old human male who has never cooked anything in his life. Maybe that’s not true, but it depends on what you call “cooking”. I can make a mean ham and cheese sandwich,  noodle soup cup, or even ready rice! I’ve made Velveeta shells and cheese and have only destroyed 1 colander doing it! I wanted that to change though. For this blog, I will be cooking dinner for myself and my girlfriend with her guiding me through it.  For my first meal, we decided to do fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli. Simple enough, or so it has been explained to me.

Most of it’s supposed to miss the pot, right?

I was 100% certain that this sauce was not going to be edible

It turns out that boiling water is very hot

Time to cross my fingers and serve!

Turned out better than expected!

Even my daughter wanted to try!

I believe I stumbled through my first meal with flying colors! This experienced has opened my eyes a lot about cooking, particularly how long it takes for the essentially water that is the beginning of the alfredo sauce to cook and eventually turn into the thick creamy and delicious sauce. I also only missed getting about half of the noodles from the box into the water. Not bad!

https://flouronmyface.com/easy-homemade-fettuccini-alfredo-sauce/

Here’s the recipe we used

Montage Project, Adam Zubek

The world’s greatest kitten was discovered in Brandon Florida recently, living in the home of a lowly college student. The student, a University of Florida attendee, received the treasure as a housewarming gift from friends in June of this year. The kitten is a medium-haired princess named Rosie, who has a cloud-like black mane, bright green eyes and manic mood swings that keep every day exciting. Rosie was born roughly around April of 2017. The feline has grown exponentially in the few months she has been owned by student Adam Zubek, much to his disbelief.  Rosie, who has brightened the lives of every person she has come into contact with, was unavailable for comment at press time, as she is a cat and cannot talk.