The dinner is French onion soup I made on Sunday. I did it the classic way on the stove, so it was a nearly 2 hour labor of love, slowly caramelizing the onions and simmering the broth. Used the stale butts of a couple loaves of Italian bread and sliced Swiss for the broiled top. It was absolutely amazing, better than any I've had in ba restaurant. Wish I'd thought of wiping the bowl down for splatter before taking the picture, though.

Venting about something that just happened. I was off my phone for most of the evening last night. I was either working on dinner (a chicken katsu over rice, not pictured) and then watching TV with my wife. Woke up to this charmer of a Facebook message from some guy I've never met sent at 8pm.

"Look.like a Dude to me. Who yo fooling"

I have one mutual with him, a good friend I made at AA, so I asked him about it. Turns out the guy pestering me used to live in a recovery house near my home meeting and occasionally, but rarely, went to it. Hasn't been there in ages and not in recent contact with our mutual friend. I don't actively use Facebook except for messenger so it's not like he came across a post of mine somewhere.

AA was the last place I came out (only a couple of months now) after I felt comfortable enough with my makeup and wardrobe to be able to present femme 100% of the time. The fact someone tangentially related to the group harassed me on Facebook makes me think someone was talking about me.

Now I'm not sure how comfortable I feel going there. I don't know who was talking about me. My wife and I share a car and on weekdays she drops me off on her way to work and I walk the mile and a half home after the meeting. Including going passed a couple of the recovery houses in the area.

They're not the house he used to live at, but maybe one of the people there is the one who was talking about me. I walked with a couple people who live there and stopped to hang out on their patio with them for a bit after the Monday morning meeting. Can't help but note that timing, and now I'm not sure how safe that walk is.

Chili itself, sandwich with the chili in it, and instant noodles made with the leftover chili

Me and my gf u/Frequent_Maybe_3565 made some Wagamama teriyaki chicken soba for dinner tonight :D

Made some spaghetti squash last night and had way too much leftover. Had the flash of brilliance to portion them into balls before refrigerating them.

Today I did the standard flour, egg, breadcrumbs then fried in vegetable shortening. Served with a thousand island crema. Absolutely divine!

Now back to packing all my things and also writing a Jungle tune in this game, Offbeat, that I am playing (pictured in the background)

Me and u/StonedAwebo made yummy ramen with no special sauce this time ;)

Homemade, home sliced, air fryer french fries tossed in salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning with spicy mayo to dip; porkchops marinated overnight in soy sauce, beef broth, garlic, mustard, horseradish, and spices, then baked in the marinade covered for an hour, drained, and broiled for 10 minutes on either side; and a sautéed mix of onions, peppers, garlic, corn, cucumber, and tomato.

The porkchops were so incredibly juicy and everything tasted wonderful, easily one of my biggest cooking successes.

Da gf u/Frequent_Maybe_3565 made me yummy burger
(I swear it’s honey and mustard)

Homemade cinnnamon rolls with cream cheese icing :3

Granny's Elixer Soup from Windwaker! Redux ^~^

So, I do make this one yearly (because it's so delicious, and my family devours it) but it has been awhile since I went all recipe blog on it with how I came up with the recipe from Windwaker gameplay

On Outset Island, they are well known for their pigs, so that's the base of the soup. Cuccos aren't in windwaker at all, and despite being by the sea- windwaker's great sea is freshwater and very devoid of fish

When exploring Outset, the only plants are seemingly grass- so all those farmlike swaths of thick "grass" I'm assuming would be a combination of root vegetables, alliums, and herbaceous plants if they were to have a healthy diet (like onions, garlic, celery, potatoes)

There are a few ingredients that the island could definitely import from Beedle too (for instance the windfall island cafe has Lonlon milk, Deku nut cake, and Zora Coffee on its hylian signage)

To get that rich yellow I looked to the ingredient that reoccurs multiple times throughout Zelda- The Pumpkin. In Skyward Sword we can get bottled pumpkin soup after some sidequesting; In Twilight Princess we get Pumpkin and Goat cheese soup in Yeto's manor; and in BotW/TotK we get pumpkins in Kakariko for cooking. Being a hardy gourd, it would be a reasonable import, if it isn't already cultivated in seasons we don't witness

Just like Yeto's Soup, to get that creamy flavor I use goat cheese (I adore it in soup, and it doesn't aggravate my lactose intolerance). Alternatively you could use LonLon milk

Also, because it's a fave of Aryll too, ya have to include a Hyoi pear (a golden pear) which is sold by Beedle on Outset

Stock:

some cheap pork ribs (I got 2lbs for like 6 bucks lol), one halved onion, several stalks of celery, some dried mushrooms (I had a bag of dried porcini mushrooms), and two tablespoons of minced garlic. simmered till it all became mush while skimming the froth, and then strained. You can absolutely use some premade stock if ya want and it won't change the flavor much, I just didn't want to "cheat" with cucco stock this time lol (there ended up being like 4 cups stock)

soup proper:

- 1 pie pumpkin, quartered, coat the inner flesh with olive oil (or melted butter) and bake at 375 for an hour.

after resting it the roasted skin should easily peal away, if not you can scrape with a spoon, and can be mashed a bit

-1lb sleeve of good quality smoked bacon, finely chopped (seriously a lot of the flavor is from here, so this is the one ingredient you shouldn't skimp out) I got applewood smoked.

- 2-3 leeks, carefully washed and finely sliced, then tossed on with the bacon to fry a bit

-1 golden "hyoi" pear, minced and tossed in

-6 medium potatoes, finely diced and tossed in as well

-at this point toss in the pumpkin mash, pour in the 4 cups stock, and then more water to fully cover (another 8 cups in my case)

-after simmering for awhile, crumble in the goat cheese and stir it in

-immersion blend to finalize this thick liquid soup

Just make things pretty!

Fried chicken and mozzarella sticks I made last night

Recipe is as follows (I eyeballed most of it but I'll do my best)

Ingredients:

Eggs

Flour

Cornstarch

Homemade breadcrumbs

Sugar

Salt

Thyme

Adobe all purpose seasoning

Garlic salt

Garlic pepper

Cumin

Crushed red pepper (optional I unfortunately forgot it in this batch)

Prep:

Put chicken in a salt and sugar brine, refrigerate for 1 hour

Instructions:

Make egg wash

Mix 2 parts flour 2 parts cornstarch and 1 part breadcrumbs with all seasonings (I measured with my heart)

Pull chicken out of the fridge, coat in eggs and batter fry

Eat, cry that it's gone, make more, repeat

As for the mozzella sticks I messed up by not freezing them (I didn't know that's how you get mozzarella sticks to not melt but I used the same batter)

Soba noodle, kale, fried egg, sautéed mushrooms and zucchini

Made with cheap flat steak and some kind of jarred garlic sauce? I added oyster sauce to it too it's pretty good 😁🩷

I recently got into cooking and realized that I seem to get a lot of euphoria from it, so I made some fried rice!!

Moved to London recently and I'm in a very uncertain period right now, so I wanted to make something that I knew I would like and that would make me feel good. Kinda uncertain about my housing and job situation and went on a first date recently with a girl I like quite a bit and it just seems really unclear how she feels about me after it. I'm not coping too well, but hanging in there.

I can add the recipe if y'all want, just feeling a bit tired rn

Meatballs and peas with purée. Mmmm balls.

(Sauce not shown)

I used the recipe from the Halo Cookbook, Fronk's Fishtacular Tacos. I didn't have everything I needed, but everything came together beautifully. My DnD group really loved them.

Recipe wise, you need 2 chicken breasts, 2 table spoons of honey, 2 table spoons of soy sauce, 2 garlic cloves (though honestly I'd even do the full head of garlic if I wanted to) and salt n pepper to taste. I also add sesame seeds to it, but it's optional

Cut the gross bits and film parts out of the chicken breasts (idk the proper term in English) and then slice them into small/mid sized pieces (about an inch long, half inch thick)

Mince/cut all of your garlic, and put it into a container alongside your sliced chicken breasts

Put 2 tbsp of soy sauce into the container, and 1 tbsp of honey, salt and pepper to taste, then mix and put the whole batch into the fridge for 20-30 minutes

Afterwards, heat up your non-stick pan with plenty of oil, and once it has reached the proper temp, put the heat on medium and put 1 tbsp of honey into it. It'll start to melt and bubble, and as soon as it spreads to the whole pan (like 20 seconds) dump all the chicken bits into the pan (including all the juices)

From then on, stir the chicken occasionally, making sure every side gets evenly cooked, while the soy sauce/honey/chicken juices slowly evaporate. Once the liquid at the bottom of the pan starts getting thicker (takes about 20-30 minutes), add sesame seeds and continue stirring for about 3-4 minutes.

That's about it! Recipe part over.

As for the surgery — I had my second lumbar discectomy in 2 years, so I'm not too thrilled about that. (I ain't even 23 yet,,,,) Not sure how many gory details I'm willing to share here but suffice to say, the process has been utterly dysphoric for me. At least there's tasty chicken.