More Attempts at Cooking

I realize I have done a very poor job of following up on my "Cooking in Colombia" theme, but to be honest, I haven't done much really, nothing to special at least.  But here goes my shot at a quick post on what I've been cooking.

Remember those arepas I made?  I was originally practicing them for an actual recipe form the book for Chicken and Chorizo Arepas with Chimichurri.  The filling of the arepas included shredded chicken, avocados, parsley, onions, garlic and a mayonnaise-Dijon mustard creamy sauce topped with slices of chorizo.  To dice the onions I went to my handy dandy Magic Bullet, and ended up with minced onions.  Oops.  Also used it to shred my chicken because I refuse to do so by hand.  Once again I underestimated it and ended up with chicken a little finer than I would have liked, but I wouldn't say it did much to change the taste.  I also decided to take my chorizo out of the casing and cook it ground rather than in slices.  This is what it is supposed to look like:

What it actually looked like:

Not the prettiest, but in all honesty it was darn tasty.  Kind of like a chorizo and avocado chicken salad.  I would definitely make this again, and maybe follow their recipe a little better, if for no other reason than to make it LOOK better. 

Verdict:  Success

More recently I tried to make fish tacos.  My roommates and I used to frequent a bar called Gaslight near our apartment in Lincoln Park for their $2.50 fish tacos and chimichurri fries on Wednesday's, and of course to visit Tessa.  I knew these could in no way live up to my expectations, but went for it anyway and threw in chimichurri fries for the heck of it.  Or maybe because they are one of my favorite foods.  Just maybe.

I decided against the beer batter, but in hindsight, it may have improved them.  I used talapia for the fish and marinated it in lime, garlic and other spices.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find cayenne pepper at the store, which also may have mad a big difference.  The cream sauce was equal parts mayonnaise, plain yogurt and ketchup all of which are readily available here, although I'm fairly certain that "natural" flavored yogurt in Colombia might actually mean vanilla.

I cooked some potato wedges in a pan with some oil and seasonings and then tossed them n a simple chimichurri sauce made from oil, parsley, garlic, oregano and a splash of vinegar.    Pretty easy.  After cutting up some cabbage, the tacos were ready to go!  And they weren't great.  Tasted pretty blah.  I would try it again when I had all the ingredients and maybe try a more flavorful fish or shrimp.  The fries however were delicious. 

Cookbook photo

My photo

 Verdict: Fry success, taco fail

Just last night I tried my hand at lasagna that David has been asking me to make.  After consulting with my mom, I set out for the grocery store, found what I needed including ricotta cheese and no need to boil lasagna noodles!  Score.  I can't tell you exactly what went into it, because very much like my mother, I rarely follow a recipe or keep track of what goes in.  Sure I glanced at a few online recipes for suggestions, but other than that I just threw together some seasonings with diced tomatoes and pasta sauce and mixed cheeses with other spices and spinach for the filling.  An hour in the oven and we had some VERY good lasagna.  Very proud of myself for this one.  No pictures, sorry.

Verdict:  Success

For ladies book club last week I wanted to take something quick and easy that preferably had a fall feeling to it, and apparently I found the prefect recipe:
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/apple-pie-party-dip-688358/. 
So easy and everyone loved it; I'll definitely be keeping this one for future use.

Verdict:  Success

I think that's all I have now, except for my messy attempt at homemade fondant, but more on that after I attempt to make the coolest birthday cake ever.  Until next time.