As you can see, I do this meal a lot. It also costs me about $300 every time I do it.
I’m glad you can afford it and have loved ones you can share it with.
Pizza from scratch.
Gumbo
My beef stew. It’s honestly savage.
I make a mean boeuf bourguignon. Assuming it’s not summer and painfully hot out, it might be my go to.
Shakshuka, Japanese curry, or misir wot if I can be bothered to pick up injera for it.
Shakshuka is the easy answer tho. Hard to beat.
I didn’t have someone to impress for years now, so I can’t add much. I just wanted to say that I’d be down for some test-impressing for most of the recipes shared so far, in case you want to try it first. It’s a free service I offer.
i do a mean picatta. The classic (in the US) is chicken but if i’m trying to impress i make it with fish (rockfish ideally since i’m on the West Coast) or chicken of the woods mushroom (in the right season). For anyone unaware, you flatten your chicken (or mushroom, skip this step for fish), season and dredge with flour, brown it a bit in oil, then simmer in a butter/lemon/caper sauce with a little white wine to help deglaze the pan. Top with chopped parsley.
If you are making the COTW mushroom version you need to slice and simmer in broth for an hour before you begin. Any broth works
serve with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. An American classic (by way of Italy like many others).
I buy something, put it in a Tupperware, and act like I made it.
Depends, if I’m cooking Texmex a can of chipotles in adobo sauce.
Sweets? A little bit of vanilla goes a LONG way. And I make my own with everclear and ordered pods split in half.
Chilli. I make it ask fancy and indulgent with beer and ghost pepper and sometimes corn.
But would you be interested to know I made my ex pancakes after our first hookup?
Butter cihicken or Green curry. I make and sell DIY Butter Chicken kit and I make frozen green curry paste.
Lemon curd cookie bars. 2 layers of butter sugar cookie with a thick layer of homemade lemon curd in the middle. Lemon curd is weirdly expensive for something so easy to make. I normally do a huge batch in a 10x15 glass dish (think one size up from a standard 9x13).
One of my kids had a pretty big birthday party once, they were at a very nearby elementary and lots of kids and parents showed up, I had made a cake with lemon curd, and one of the dads looked at me suspiciously while eating it then said "you make this lemon curd? " I said “Yessir” and he nodded like I had passed some sort of test, it was funny. Turned out he really liked to bake, was a good cake-maker himself.
Lunch: I’ll make you the best hamburger you’ve ever had, either on the stovetop or the grill. Sides: Corn on the cob, fresh watermelon, homemade salsa and tortilla chips.
Dinner: Fist-sized meatballs with a heavy red sauce of meat and a ton of vegetables. I also use a high-protein pasta that gets cooked, then cooled in the refrigerator. Finished sauce + cold pasta ==> into a baking dish, bake covered; add cheese atop and finish baking. Serve with fresh bread and salad.
Dessert: I find a lot of American desserts are too sweet, so I make a chocolate and raspberry cake that turns down the sugar saturation and highlights the chocolate and the fruit.
I’m a pretty damn good cook for an American man my age who doesn’t work in a kitchen or similar.
Grilled cheese.
Bread
