Cooking with Goodwin: Chicken Tortilla Soup (Cheater's Edition)

Howdy.

Ever have one of those weeks where you let yourself fall apart? Too much partying? Finding yourself waking up when people are getting off work?

I have.

What I need is to recover. I need to defibrillate my body with vitamins, nutrition, liquids, etc. I need my Tortilla Soup.

Now, I've had people tell me that this is NOT tortilla soup in any way. I tell them that if I wanted their opinion, I wouldn't know what to do, because there is no way I would ever want to know what they ever think. Ever. Be that as it may, this is not a recipe for purists. This is a recipe for people like me who need something that takes almost no effort to make that lasts a good while and tastes delicious. If you want "authentic" soup, go to a restaurant. There are many fine places.

So here we go. Be warned, this will take a while, and it's definitely the most complicated thing I can make. But it's also one of my best recipes.

Cooking with Goodwin: Steak

I know I should be working on something else. I have it open in the background, aching to be noticed. No, not my book. I am afraid I am talking about hideous schoolwork, with its opinions and soul-crushing. But if I don't do this now, I'll never get around to it.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, where we can all spend time with our family at their house with their turkeys and fine china and place settings and, of course, grills.

Seeing as I live in an apartment and hate walking to our community grill (singular, but there's probably two), I am unable to really grill. Yet, I like steak. But without a grill, I am rendered steakless, like some sort of fish (note: fix analogy). This couldn't be further from the truth.

I will show you people how a simple student eats like a champion without having to deal with charcoal or propane or whatever. Keep reading to see how I, the amazing Goodwin, cook a ribeye with a cast-iron skillet. Fair warning, I have heard many ideas and rules on cooking steaks. I will break most of these rules.

Cooking with Goodwin: Pumpkin Bisque

Felt like having something different today. Here's a recipe my mom came up with that tastes pretty decent (if you don't add too much spice. Like I did). It's a pumpkin bisque. Don't be put off by the "pumpkin" part, it tastes nothing like pumpkins.

Recipe and pictures follow after the break.

I know I'm not the only one that thinks this is good

I'm taking a quick break from reading for one of my classes to write some stress relief.

It's not exactly a secret that I like junk food. People around me also know that I like bar food (fried things, tiny burgers, etc.). What always has me wondering, though, is how some places haven't pushed the limits to deliciousness that they are so capable of achieving with things off their own menus!

That Looks Delicious

All right, another fantastic website I frequent.

It's not uncommon for people to start blogs about cooking. I can name about 5 off the top of my head, and honestly, I really like those sites more than the "Food.com" places. The blogs tend to have more pictures and step by step instructions, and you can really get a feel for how the chef does things. I feel that if you can adopt their style early on, I would have no trouble cooking anything they make. Now, if only a site existed where these chefs could submit their recipes, and they were displayed or divided up into nice little categories.

OH WAIT! That site DOES exist, and it is the little gem of the web known as "Foodgawker.com"

This site rules. I'm not sure I have to even describe it. The main page just has all of the most recent entries listed with pictures, captioned with a nice little description of what it is. Clicking on any picture takes you directly to the blog article/recipe/how-to that tells you how to make it. Along with the main page, though, you can choose at the top to give you random collections of recipes, or to give you the most popular entries for different time periods. There is also a search function.

Located at the bottom of any page is the treasure trove. There is a list of the categories that all the recipes fall under, so if you are in the mood for a certain type of food, it's just a click away. There are also categories for what looks like feature blogs, so that's also nice if one really seems to shine above all the others.

If you enjoy cooking, or are trying to learn, Foodgawker.com can be very helpful (I learned how to dice an onion without fucking it up, for instance). If you don't cook, you still might find it enjoyable. Give it a look

My God, It's Full of Carbs!

I routinely spend time online, and I have many sites that I always stop in to check. I figure every now and then I can post about some of my favorites that I check every now and then.

First off, the heart-cloggingly glutton fest, This Is Why You're Fat.com . The website is only pictures of user-submitted foods that are clearly some of the most unhealthy concoctions to ever exist. Unfortunately, I've noticed that as I get older, there is no possible way to imagine myself ever trying anything on there, no matter how delightful it looks. But I can still dream.

Some Highlights:

Eggs: Five Ways. Contains 11 eggs, cooked 5 different ways.

Taco Burger. A Jack-in-the-Box Taco crammed into a Jumbo Jack.

Rubix Cubewich. I.... can't even begin to describe it. Looks interesting.

The Taco Town Taco. From the Saturday Night Live Sketch: crunchy beef taco with nacho cheese, lettuce, tomato and southwestern sauce wrapped in a soft flour tortilla with a layer of refried beans in between, then wrapped in a corn tortilla with a layer of Monterey Jack cheese in a deep fried gordita shell with guacamole sauce baked in a corn husk topped with pico de gallo, wrapped in a crepe, filled with egg, guerre cheese, sausage and portobello mushrooms, all wrapped in a chicago-style deep dish pizza wrapped in a blueberry pancake and finally deep fried with spicy vegetarian chili dipping sauce. Bonus: The Sketch that inspired this monstrosity. (Link)

And of course, My Favorite: The McGangBang. A McChicken Sandwich inside a McDouble.

Most of this stuff is disgusting, but I find myself drawn to some things like a moth to a flame.

Enjoy the heart attack.

Heart-Attack Helper

I used to not care what I ate. I would just eat whatever tasted good, and not care about how bad for me it was. Recently, I've changed my ways somewhat since I'm not getting any younger. I stopped subsisting solely on Campbell's Soup (so much sodium!) and am trying to eat healthier in general. Not SUPER healthy, mind you. I am not interested in becoming a vegetarian at all. I just think I can cut out a lot of processed foods.

Anyway, I was going through my pantry and I noticed I still had a box of both Tuna and Hamburger Helper and I glanced at the back. I used to stretch one of these over two days, but I think I need to cut them completely. I don't feel too bad eating a pound of hamburger over two days (Hamburger Helper's main ingredient), but Tuna Helper might not be much better. For some reason, the box of it I had called for 1/4 cup of butter.

That's half a stick. Of Butter. For one person. And none of it will be wasted, it will be the sauce.

So what's worse? A pound of hamburger meat, or half a stick of butter?

A pound of ground round contains (and this is basic research) approximately 20 grams of fat. Not great, but that's to be expected.

A half stick of butter contains.... get ready for it.... around 45 grams of fat.

Holy shit. Never again.

Mekong River

I love Pho. My friend Doug turned me onto it, and we went to a place recommended by my friend Alex called Pho Saigon. Delicious!

For those who don't know, Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup. It is basically Beef Broth, Pieces of steak, and Ramen noodles. I've had it with bits of onion and cilantro as well, but it's mainly those three things. And it is DELICIOUS. At the few places I've had it at, they give you a plate of things to put in it, like Mint (I think it's Mint), bean sprouts, Jalepeno slices, and a lime wedge.

I've had it from only two other places, but today I went to Mekong River on 6th street according to my friend David's advice. The broth is a very main part of the flavor, and the broth there was one of the greatest things I've ever had. Knocked Pho Saigon out of the park as my favorite place. If you like Pho, go here. No questions asked.