9

I am going to try something a bit different tonight. I’ve had a lack of motivation to read, write, or do much of anything creative for an embarrassingly long amount of time. I don’t know where my creativity ran off to, but I’d like to chase it down again and make sure it knows it’s loved and needs to come home.

I normally (every few months) post something whimsical or philosophical (not really, but we’ll call it that for now). I rarely post about my day-to-day because frankly, it’s pretty boring. That’s where I’m going to try and mix it up. I’m going to attempt to bring you my boring life in a somewhat entertaining manner. Somewhat. You can let me know how it works out. Here goes:

One thing that I have not lost motivation to do, pretty much ever, has been to bake and cook. It was my biggest stress reliever in college (oh, you’ve got an exam in History and Systems of Psychology at 8AM? Better bake 3 pies – that’ll help (it didn’t)). Sometimes I’m curious as to how many batches of biscuits I baked at 3 in the morning (too many, the answer is too many). There were plenty of times that I’ve had very failed recipes, like the time I thought that beer would be a fine substitute for butter and milk in biscuits (there is no substitute for butter, please do not waste time trying to find one). Or the time I tried to make brussels sprouts mac and cheese a thing. I’m not sure what I was thinking, or if I was thinking at all.

Having said all that though, I’ve had a couple of somewhat successful goes at tasty food. People have been very kind and even asked for my recipes of some dishes. That’s where I run into some problems though. See, I have issues following rules. I tend to follow the rules in my daily life because I prefer to keep my job, my driver’s license and my dignity. However, when it comes to something that I have total control over, I don’t stick to recipes or measuring or timing or weighing very well. This means that I have more failed baking and cooking attempts than most, but I am OK with that. So, while I’d love to give you my recipes, I’m afraid that they wouldn’t be very organized.

Tonight, I made some soup. It’s Broccoli Cheddar. I had the broccoli already, and the cheddar, so it made sense to make it. I did look up a recipe, but it told me to use processed cheese product and I got offended. So this is what I came up with:

You’ll need:

1 large onion (chop that baby up)

2 cloves of garlic (chopped, duh)

1 bag of frozen broccoli (I had that microwave steam bag, and I steamed it…in the microwave)

Butter (I started out with 3 tablespoons, but added more, but I’m not sure how much more – I just added till it felt right)

Flour (2-3 tablespoons – or, as I did with the butter, add it till it feels right)

2 cups of whole milk

Salt, pepper, and garlic salt – to taste

Cheddar cheese (till it feels right – I think it took about 2 cups for me to feel right about it (don’t worry, you’re adding broccoli, it’ll feel healthier)

2 cups of chicken stock

Process: Heat the butter in a large pot on medium heat. Throw the chopped onion and garlic in there and let ’em soften up. Add some more butter. Add the flour. Stir that mixture around really well until the flour looks clumpy and brown (you may need to add MORE BUTTER if the flour is especially floury even after you’ve mixed the heck out of it). Then you’ll add your milk, and start whisking like a mad woman (or man – men can make this soup too). The mixture should thicken to a pudding like substance (you’ve made an onion roux, basically). Here’s where I added my seasonings – and I literally just added till I got the flavor I wanted (“to taste”, I know you know what that means and yet I still felt the need to explain, my apologies). Now, start adding the cheese. Now, add some more cheese. More cheese. Now, take that broccoli out of the microwave, cut the bag open and empty it into your onion cheese pot of heavenly goodness. Stir. Add the chicken stock. Stir some more. Let it simmer on a medium low heat for about 10 minutes. While it’s simmering you should go ahead and put some crusty bread in the oven, but drizzle the bread with olive oil first. Let it get very nice and crunchy.

Ok, you’re done. There it is. Embarrassingly easy, yet very tasty.

 

See why I don’t give out recipes? I’ll just stick to taking pictures of my food and telling you stories about it, sound good?

G’night.