The Lazy Gourmet

[Rusty Edge]

-Which a bachelor cooking for himself does instinctively - but if the wife don't like mushrooms, you probably shouldn't be putting mushroom soup into everything.

Kind of my problem, coming from the top mushroom producing state. I'm always thinking how this or that could use mushrooms of some kind, but not only is my wife allergic to mold and fungus, she thinks they taste like dirt.  Same with much of her family.

[Buster's Uncle]

You are my mom and I am the wife.  Funny I used that example.

[Buster's Uncle]

Just put on the chicken to boil for a suppertime chicken and rice, as recipe'd pages back.

I recall taking earlier in the thread about bullion being a pretty essential supply for any cook, especially lazy gourmets/bachelors, and I should also mention lemon juice (or at least vinegar; they can be used for a lot of the same things in a pinch, with vinegar making up for not tasting as good by being much cheaper and almost never going bad).  It's another thing not expensive to keep around, and as I said recently, one trick a good cook learns is (easy) ways to add variety to the same ol' thing.  Sometimes a touch of lemon is just right for that.

Invest in a few basic spices beyond salt and pepper for the same reason.  Find what you like, change up the proportions occasionally.  I went a little heavier on the garlic than usual this time...

[Unorthodox]

Invest in a few basic spices beyond salt and pepper for the same reason.  Find what you like, change up the proportions occasionally.  I went a little heavier on the garlic than usual this time...

I've noticed new packages at the store.  A little card that has 3-5 blister packs of seasoning and instructions to make some kind of meal with them.  They'd be a good way to figure out which spices you like, then buy those spices in the bottles. 

Another thing I did when first starting out is read the actual ingredients on pre-packed blends I liked.  That "Cajun spice" is good, what's in it? type thing, then try them separately. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I worked mine out by going through my sister's spice rack reading descriptions on the labels and trying everything that was supposed to be good on chicken.  The whole set I settled on is also great on pork and beef.

[Buster's Uncle]

I just had to do some of that there, whatchacallit, improvising.

I was cooking because Momma is gone over to Aunt Wanda's house for something, and she was going to cook the same thing (had boiled and frozen chicken and broth last week for this sort of occasion) which I had been craving for several days and had meant to suggest.  She told me to go ahead and cook my own small batch.  What the heck.

Yeah; I pull the chicken out to bone and go to get the rice before I measure the broth- and no rice.  Not even in the pitiful emergency cache in the basement.  She knew I was going to make same, but forgot I needed rice to do it, and that Wanda surely had plenty on hand.  And I couldn't even find nearly enough of the squiggly noodles to substitute.  A handful.  I found a couple of packs of instant ramen, and made do with one and a half of those on top of what squigglies I had.  (why there's never any macaroni noodles in this house, or flat noodles that are actually flat is a mystery to me.)

[shrugs] Eating at the keyboard.  It's not bad...  I should have looked around for spaghetti noodles, though...

[Buster's Uncle]

There were no spaghetti noodles after all.  Momma admitted when she came home that she realized she'd short-sheeted me when she was putting in the rice at her sister's house...  Oh well.

I added several items to the grocery list, including rice for the basement emergency supplies - those get rotated more often than we expected; we DO sometimes save ourselves short-term privation or an extra grocery trip, and usually remember to replenish...

[Buster's Uncle]

It absolutely not LAZY gourmet stuff, and it's not even a recipe; rather, a philosophy - but any interest in The Way of the Pizza God?

[Rusty Edge]

Why not?

One tip or new idea could prove useful.

A couple years ago we finally found a local place where we both loved the pizza, but they morphed into a bistro, and the pizza selection and options is pretty small now. In the process it also morphed into someplace we're indifferent about. We can eat there, but we wouldn't make an effort to go there.

[Unorthodox]

I'll say little caesar's deep dish is surprisingly good. 

[Buster's Uncle]

It is.


The TL;DR first:  MOAR!  Always put as much toppings on a pizza as is physically possible w/o them ending up on the bottom of the oven burning.  -And Chicago-style, because a thick crust is the only part besides the sauce that isn't hideously expensive.

People LOVED my crusts back in college.


I'll expand on this later...

[Unorthodox]

Ok. 

REAL Chicago style, or the mass marketed anything with a thick crust = Chicago style?

[Unorthodox]

Uno's speciality of late is a French bread pizza. 

Owing mostly to the fact that breads elude me (so no pizza crust, I'll buy a premade French bread thanks), and the fact I'm REALLY good at tomato sauces. 

[Unorthodox]

....now I'm hungry and don't want to be here. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I've never had Chicago style - just, what I'm led to understand it is sounds much like what I worked out for myself in college.

It's not so far as a pie or a casserole, but it's thick, very thick, and all about overkill.  Pizza is not a health food, ever, so why front instead of going delicious and a lot of it?

If you can eat more than one piece at a sitting, you're a pig or have a superpower.  It's a lot of cheese and meat and bread, and I've only known two people to eat three slices at a go; Mike is 6'3", 300 pounds and a pig; my little brother is a big guy and has an eating superpower when he feels like indulging.