When I was first married, I would always use recipes to cook supper. Often there would be something that I didn't like with the food.....too salty...not salty enough.....too spicy....etc. John never uses a recipe....to an extent. For baking, he uses recipes as a guideline, but often tweaks things a little. He taught me how to cook without a recipe. Some things don't turn out quite how I want, but usually it turns out great. Here are a couple "no recipe" things we've made recently that were de-lic-ious.
Apple Crisp
some flour
some quick oats
some brown sugar
some apples
some margarine (melted - he didn't make it with melted margarine, but it would be better that way)
some cinnamon
1. peel and slice apples and put in a pan
2. mix flour, oats, and sugar together and sprinkle on top of apples
3. bake @ 350 for about an hour
4. eat with vanilla ice cream (of course)
It looks a little gross here.....I didn't think to take a picture until it was half-eaten...
Chicken Wings
We don't normally buy wings, but I got them for free when I spent a certain amount at Superstore...bonus!
1. prepare 3 separate "dipping" bowls
1st: 2 c. flour and sprinkle some garlic powder and salt or whatever spices you like in. mix
2nd: eggs. beat. add some salt and pepper (or whatever seasonings you want)
3rd: 1.5 c. flour, seasonings (I used garlic powder and some "garlic plus" spice mix, and of course salt....I love salt), 1 c. cornflakes (crushed), 1 c. saltines (crushed). mix.
2. get oil ready. We inherited a deep fryer, but you could fry them in a pot of oil, or just bake them (probably healthier, but not as crispy).
3. dip thawed chicken wings in the 3 bowls of stuff (1st, then 2nd, then 3rd), then place in hot oil. I did 10 at a time.
4. make sauce. I don't remember exactly how much of everything I put in, so you can just taste it or smell it to fit your liking. It's a sweet and sour type sauce.
about 1/2 c. ketchup
2 T lemon juice
2 T vinegar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. soy sauce
These measurements are all guesstimates. I just dumped stuff in straight from the bottles.....so they are probably a bit off. Just add as much or as little of each as you like.
5. put cooked wings into a baking pan and cover them with the sauce. I put them in the oven for a little bit, just cause, but you don't need to. It just helped warm up the sauce a bit I guess.....I was improvising here. I only put them in for about 5 minutes at 350.
6. Dig in. I made 20 wings.
These were seriously delicious. John said they were the best wings he's ever had. I loved them too. The kids even loved them. Needless to say, they were gone in a few minutes.
We watched "Julie & Julia" on Saturday night. I recommend it to any who have not seen it. It was really inspiring for both me and John to do what we love. John really wants to try some recipes out of Julia Child's cookbook now.....maybe recipes
are useful sometimes......
