I usually cook when I am not on the road, so that means I am going pretty much in the kitchen 'round the clock now. I follow a grain-free, sugar-free, nightshade-free diet, but that hasn't stopped me from scratch cooking some really good things. Almond and cassava flour tortillas (tortilla press was best kitchen tool I ever bought), green plantain tostones, soaking dried garbanzo beans before pressure cooking them for hummus, 30-hour sous vide pork shoulder (so tender!), whole roasted turkey, and a lot more, including no-sugar, 90% dark chocolate almond flour walnut brownies! Today's schedule is another batch of hummus (beans ready to go), lamb chops, and cauliflower fried rice. Bon appetite!

Ok, what is a "nightshade-free" diet? I was under the impression nightshade was a deadly poison...presumably we are not eating it I hope!

We eat lots of it. Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant ... the list goes on. I used to grow tomatoes and touching the plants made my skin burn to the point of wanting to rip it off. Cooking nightshades helps the toxicity for those that are sensitive. And I am.

I decided to try and replicate Chipotle burrito bowls at home. Marinated steak cooked medium-rare. Cilantro-lime rice. Pico de Gallo. Corn salsa with jalapeños and fire-roasted poblano peppers. Guacamole. All imitation recipes prepared from scratch. Delicious... way better than Chipotle... I hadn’t realized just how much the bold freshness of their ingredients has changed since they started to prepare some of their ingredients in central kitchens. But I think it took me close to 90 minutes. Now it’s back to spaghetti.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedhttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedhttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedhttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedYeah, I don't know if I'd be up for grilling in 4c degrees. Thankfully, here in Sydney only in the dead of winter just before dawn would it ever get near that.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedI feel your pain on the smoke when cooking indoor. I don't have an extraction fan on the range just one of those filter things which seems to just spread the smoke around. I much rather cook outdoors. And the beauty of cooking with charcoal, as opposed to gas grills, is clean up is just putting a load of coals in there and lettin' it rip to 300c+ and the fat burns away.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedFirst, your post made me laugh as it felt like I was looking in the mirror.
But more importantly, you drink bourbon in your Old Fashioned??? If you live in Wisconsin, there's really only one choice -- do you want your BRANDY Old Fashioned sweet or sour? :)

And for those who think it's crazy...I love good whiskeys and bourbons and drink both regularly. But just try a brandy old fashioned (I prefer sweet, but depends on my mood), especially at the bar in a Wisconsin supper club, and tell me you don't love it.

I've always enjoyed cooking but my repertoire has changed. I now shop exclusively at the farm store, which is strong on its own meat (I do have to stare the cow or lamb's sister in the eye as I'm walking back with my meat), and its own vegetables. It has fabulously expensive store cupboard items (but I'm not eating out any more, so that's a huge saving). Otherwise, any other ingredients need to come with online delivery as I don't want to set foot in a supermarket.

In many ways, my diet has improved. The quality of the meat and vegetables is beyond compare, and I'm using nearly no additives. This allows simpler cooking as the flavours of the prime ingredients are so much more intense. The celeriac I had yesterday was like none I've ever bought from a supermarket.

How true! Simple dishes using honest and fresh ingredients. What can go wrong?

BTW, I think you need to update your 1K status to 2022! ;)

Homemade is always better than in a restaurant, IMO. For the real fast food junkies, this guy has some great hacks of famous dishes:

https://topsecretrecipes.com

Why? Most of the things you made can be made in volume - enough for a few meals, and not necessarily the "same meal in a bowl." While you're watching water boil for the spaghetti, you could make half the meal.

I've always loved and preferred cooking at home vs going out so the stay at home orders have had minimal effect on my dining habits. However as me and my wife are trying to minimize trips to the grocery store its becoming a challenge sometime to make food when we are lacking all ingredients and trying to find substitutions instead. Like the other day for lunch I wanted something quick so was going to do a BLT, but we are low on bread so I just made a BLT burrito instead and it was great.

Next trip to the grocery store I'm going to pick up some brown sugar and lemon juice, its the only things I need to be able to make the Hilton Doubletree cookies at home.

Comfort food to a lot of us, the Doubletree cookies, now can be made at home!

https://newsroom.hilton.com/static-d...kie-recipe.htm

Similarly we’re accessing recently established delivery services for high quality local veg, meat and fish.

Most of the suppliers I get the impression didn’t sell to retail pre Covid, they relied primarily on high end restaurants but now needs must and they are doing what they have to to survive. So we’re getting access to day boat caught fish, live lobsters etc. which would’ve been very difficult to get before, not least because of the hours we worked in the office.

I suspect even at high volume the suppliers are not making anywhere near the money they made selling large orders to restaurants (and in many cases they are swallowing the delivery charges) so if/when that business starts again and crucially everyone isn’t home all day every day to receive the fresh food packages I wonder will it fall away.

But as it stands, we’re cooking more, with better ingredients and expanding our repertoire of dishes.

we also have a local Michelin starred restaurant which is doing “complete at home” meal kits which we’ve tried a couple of times. They provide detailed instructions for finishing the dishes along with Instagram pictures and It’s been fun getting the tweezers out to place the edible flowers and smear the various sauces and gels on the plates.

So true. I find myself making Mexican or Tex-Mex often because it's flavorful and fast. javabytes - you'll likely get faster each time you make it, the first time I make anything always takes longer. Instead of marinating the meats, try a rub instead (chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper is a simple one that works well on beef or chicken, not quite as good on pork but still works). I will often make that rub, with some variation, and store in my kitchen to have it handy. And buy a good quality salsa as another shortcut. I like several of the Frontera salsas, if you have them available.

All that said, there are no shortcuts for good guacamole!

An emphatic "yes" to the question posed by this thread! I've been a keen cook for about 7 years now, but haven't always found regular time for it, between running my own small business and all my other life commitments. Right now, with all this home time, I am powering through 2-4 recipes per day. This week, I've even upgraded my kitchen setup by investing in a fancy bluetooth-enabled Vitamix A2300i blender, plus a KitchenAid mixer (the "Queen of Hearts" centenary edition) and a Cuisinart Elemental food processor.

As a lifelong vegetarian, my cooking obviously focuses on vegetarian and vegan food. For tonight's dinner, I made a slow-cooked onion and apple cider soup served with Gruyère croûtes (using a delicious block of Gruyère which I had brought home from Switzerland).

Other interesting things I've made recently include: "sopa seca" Peruvian pasta bake (in which the pasta is fried, cooked, then baked); choc chip rosemary sea salt cookies; tortilla soup; chocolate pâté topped with toasted fennel seeds and EV olive oil, served with toasted baguette; Sriracha tempeh alfredo pasta. I also enjoy making drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic ;) e.g. in the past week, I've made raspberry-basil lemonade; jalapeño lime-ade; sangria; mulled wine.

Tomorrow, I'm going to make horchata (one of my all-time favourite drinks), as well as vegan mac n cheese.

If I can't travel physically...then I will travel through my cooking and eating! On that note, I think that travelling all over the world and trying the best food at every destination - from Michelin-starred fine dining to Italian delis to taco trucks - has been the very best culinary education that I could have ever asked for. Whenever I cook at home, I think back to all of those amazing flavours and I try to hold myself to those standards.

I made a banana / chocolate chip bread today for the first time ever. Super yummy. NY times cooking. Omg.
I’m very pleased with my cooking and baking work.