Rag-Lime Literary Cooking Adventure

What’s better than some old classic ragtime and a spicy flavorful chicken dinner? Nothing I tell you! Nothing!

Okay, maybe that was a bit overkill. But this Chili Lime Chicken was pretty damn tasty and relatively easy to make. There were of course a few obstacles here and there, such as the fact that my chicken was frozen, the pan was spitting oil like a cobra spits venom, and my fear of cooking with hot peppers was revisited.

But, in tribute to E.L. Doctorow’s classic novel, Rag Time, I pushed on through the obstacles and emerged victorious with a dish that I’ll most certainly be making in the future. Want to know how to make it for yourself? I’ll bet you do. Scroll on down and check it out! You can find the original recipe at Rasa Malaysia!

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Squash-Stashing and Ham-Hoarding

COOKING ADVENTURE #93: Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

This has quite possibly got to be the miracle of all Cooking Adventures I’ve ever done. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much go wrong with a recipe and yet…turn out to be edible in the end. Literally everything I touched during this managed to go terribly. And what’s more…I was dictating most of what happened to a friend whilst doing it. It was my first “Cooking Adventure Live” attempt…and it proves that any outside distraction can have disastrous consequences. Well, maybe not “disastrous”. After all, they were edible in the end, ha ha. And they lasted me practically a week! I shall now dictate to you absolutely everything that happened during the Great Enchilada Meltdown. Be Prepared.

The Evil Onion Empire

COOKING ADVENTURE # 89: Chicken Spinach Lasagna

This recipe. Oh my freaking word. It has taken me a week longer than usual to just have the right time to sit down and knock this recipe out. Between working crazily on Book 3, working on yet another writing project, work, presentations, birthday parties, and other what not, I wasn’t able to finally complete this one until last night. And, my dear folks, as I’m sure you’re more than likely aware, it didn’t quite come out like it should have due to three cardinal reasons: A.) Laziness, B.) Missing ingredients, and the all popular C.) Time constraints. I really tried my hardest to have everything assembled and to do it correctly. But let’s face it; when you’ve just gotten home after a long day at work, the last thing most of you want to do is slave over a kitchen stove, trying to assemble something that’s going to take another two hours before its done. I didn’t eat last night until close to 10. I basically looked like this. On the upside, I have a bunch of leftovers for the rest of the week. Pluses and minuses, folks. Pluses and minuses.

Olives, Capers, and Prunes: Oh MY!

COOKING ADVENTURE # 88: Chicken Marbella

The title of this Cooking Adventure might give you some idea as to my thoughts when diving into it. This is probably one of the strangest recipes that I’ve ever made with some of the most random ingredients. But, the person who gave me the recipe is a fantastic cook and it comes out of an old cookbook called “The Silver Palate” which is apparently quite renowned. And after making a wonderful Shepard’s Pie and eating the whole thing before I could get a picture of it, I figured this would be a worthy fill-in for my Cooking Adventure post…even a more adventurous candidate. This wasn’t easy. I had to face cooking and eating several foods that I wouldn’t eat at all normally and prepare the entire thing with a level of patience that I didn’t know I possessed. But…and I don’t say this often…it was all worth it in the end.

Measurements Shmeasurments…

COOKING ADVENTURE #81: Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta

You’re probably not going to believe me when I say this but…it actually looks better than it tastes. To most of you, this just crushed some kind of pasta food-baby you were hoping to nurture in the future and I apologize for that. I should also add that I didn’t exactly follow the directions to the letter. I have a feeling though (and this is just my opinion) that this recipe would have turned out badly even if I had followed them. It’s one of those recipes that you desperately don’t want to mess up because it looks so scrumptious…and also because you’re making so damn much of it. End result: I have a ton of this stuff and I can barely force it past my lips half the time. Still probably have enough for two meals in my fridge. Urgh…

A Sea of Quinoa

COOKING ADVENTURE # 73: Blackened Chicken with Lime Cilantro Quinoa and Choco. Chip Cookie (Take #2)

Jeepers. I tried SO hard to pay attention to the instructions on this recipe. I usually have a hard time with finding the ingredients for these adventures. This time, it was just following the simple directions. I assumed that creating this dish was somehow more involved than it actually was. While gleaning snippets of important sentences and stitching them back together all wrong in my head, I managed to turn my kitchen into a minefield of quinoa. Yes. Almost every surface had quinoa on it by the end of this adventure because I over-complicated everything. At least the food tasted amazing in the end. If it had all been for nothing, you’d see a much more self-deprecating post than this. Of course, all was well and good until I attempted to make that personal chocolate chip cookie again that I failed to do a couple Cooking Adventures ago. Why is it SO hard to make this thing?! It’s almost like I need to hire a professional chef in order to make me a cookie. Pathetic.

Nan, I Kneed You!

COOKING ADVENTURE #28: Chicken Nan Pockets

Not going to lie; these Cooking Adventures can be a lot of work. And the last few weeks, I’ve been feeling pretty weak. I thought about getting back into a weekly kickboxing schedule to start building back my strength and just to get more exercise. Well, folks, I’ve found a solution… make Nan. I’m not kidding. My arms are sore. I could imagine just hoisting up a hunk of that bread dough from a chain in the ceiling and then just wailing on it. Or just kneeding it for a straight 10 minutes like the directions say you need to do. Holy moley, by the time I was done, I wanted a beer and a nap. Krikey.

The Chicken, The Whole Chicken, And Nothing But The Chicken

COOKING ADVENTURE #23: Cornish Game Hen With Rosemary and Garlic

 

Don’t tell me. I know what your immediate thought is. The picture above is not a Cornish Game Hen. That is because the place where I saw the Cornish Game Hens at, had an apparent shortage of them. So I grabbed a chicken instead. And it was a relatively small chicken compared to what was there in my opinion, probably a 2-3 pounder. Had it been a CGH, this recipe might have been easier. But instead, it turned violent and quite quickly, I might add. I thought I had everything all worked out when I shoved that stupid bird in the oven. Found out later that the chicken was harboring a secret from me, one which nearly cost me my sanity. [Warning: for those of you with sensitive stomachs, proceed with extreme caution.]

The Hunger Games Cooking Adventure: The Odds Were Never in my Favor

Good evening, readers!

This special cooking adventure can be found on the webpage of my fellow author and friend, Jen Blood. She is the author of the newly-released novel, All The Blue-Eyed Angels, and has been participating in a month-long tribute to The Hunger Games. Currently, she’s involved in a community read project with the local highschool which meets every Monday night to discuss the book. Brilliant, and funny, she also offers several different tips for budding writers! Be sure to check out her website. It’s a wealth of information!

You can find my guest post on her blog here.

Next week’s Cooking Adventure will be Raspberry Almond Coffee Cake with Cafe Caribe. Stay tuned!

~KSilva

Malevolent Chicken Stock Creatures

COOKING ADVENTURES # 10: Chicken Egg Drop Soup

Before I get started on all things chicken, egg, and soup, I have a link for you all. Please do me the favor of clicking on this link. It will open up in a different tab and you will be ushered into what I’ve found is my ideal music for this particular cooking adventure. Enjoy it!

Today’s cooking adventure doesn’t really deserve to be called a cooking “adventure”. No, this was more of a cooking frolic. Frolics aren’t as dazzling and exciting. They are usually done in familiar places and don’t necessarily take as much time. They’re not dangerous or life-threatening. In fact, they sound like something you would do on a Sunday afternoon just before a picnic. But, on some occasions, even the most innocent frolic can hold a surprise.