I work part-time in retail, so I'm not exactly making the big bucks at the moment. I like to play with food and make new and exciting things, but for now I need to keep things simple until I get a different job and get enough money to really experiment and go all out with my cooking experiments.
For now, I stick with simple improvements to my dishes. It's easy and I still get to experiment. I've found a few tricks that give my meals a slight kick out of the ordinary meal box.
I've discovered that adding an extract to hot cocoa mix gives it an awesome flavor that ordinary hot cocoa just can't achieve. I've only tried it with two different extracts: vanilla and almond. Vanilla is essential for baking so of course I have it on hand, and I needed almond to make my delicious rainbow cookie cake. I have them both on hand but I don't use them very often. Nothing makes a cold winter night bearable more than a nice cup of hot cocoa, so I've been keeping it on hand. While making it one night, I saw my almond extract and decided to add a drop of it to my cocoa to see how it would taste. I was delightfully pleased. I tried vanilla the next time I had hot cocoa, but I thought the almond gave the cocoa a much more enjoyable flavor kick.
I've decided my favorite potato is the red potato. I buy them all the time instead of other kinds of potatoes. They're small and I've always been a fan of potato skins and they have the best tasting ones. I was bored of just boiling them in salt water, so I decided to add a little kick to them, Once I'm done boiling them I drain them, put the stove on medium and put them back in the pot. I drizzle a bit of olive oil over them and sprinkle them with dried basil (one day I'll experiment with fresh herbs). It's such a simple addition but it definitely makes the potatoes much more special. I've made them for Ben several times and he loves them.
I've gotten bored with regular sandwiches as well, so I like to make my own little versions of quesadillas for lunch. They sell corn tortillas at Aldis that are pretty gross when you don't do anything to them, but have a nice crisp to them when you fry them. I usually just add shredded cheese and some form of meat to them and have this for lunch instead of a regular sandwich. I plan on playing with more ways to make them in the future.
Until the day comes that I can make extravagant meals every night, I'll stick with finding little tricks to make simple yet wonderful improvements to my food.
On another note, I plan on making lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting tomorrow :). I'll let you all know how they come out.
No comments:
Post a Comment