No Recipes Allowed

I just noticed that I have yet to have any posts about my own cooking, which is probably because I'm not the best chef in the world (understatement), but my food is definitely interesting!

Although I am sure my food would be much better if I just followed a recipe, it bothers me that I would be copying someone else's food creation, rather than concocting my own. As someone who is not a perfectionist by any means, the precision of recipes proves to be quite a challenge for me and I usually lose interest in about five minutes.

Instead I like to do spontaneous cooking, usually using whatever strange ingredients I have left in my fridge and pantry. This goes one of two ways, surprisingly delicious, or absolutely terrible. My most notorious mishap was my soba noodle - string cheese combo, better in theory than in practice. My roommates still laugh at me for that one, I don't blame them.

But it's not always bad! Last night Mackenzie and I threw together a last second beef stew that's actually really good. It was a modified choelent, a traditional Jewish dish from Eastern Europe. Choelent usually consists of beef, barley, beans, potatoes, and kishka (a mushy sweet jewish delicacy). This stew was a combination of beef, leftover cajun red beans, carrots, barley, wine, ketchup, mustard, balsamic, and a can of white beans and bacon.... oh yes, tiny chunks of bacon; sacrilegious and tasty. It's a little rich, but great with pasta.