I cooked dinner tonight. I had fewer guests than initially intended (only two) so I ended up cooking way too much.
Menu:
1) Spaghetti. wheat noodles and spaghetti sauce (from packet)
2) Chicken. Skillet cooked. When the skillet gets sufficiently heated, I pour in some water to create water vapor, and then seal the top of the skillet w/ some foil and a round pizza pan. This heats things up quite well within the skillet and helps the meat cook more thoroughly on the inside. The water vapor also helps the meat remain juicy. It’s still a good idea to turn the meat over a couple times and redo the seal.
For flavoring I tend to improv: today, added salt, pepper, dash of oregano, one beaten egg, “bread crumbs” (fist-ground Ritz crackers), Parmesan cheese, and some spaghetti sauce. It tasted good for improv. (I was roughly following a recipe for Parmesan chicken.
3) Green beans. They come from a can, they were put there by a man.
4) French bread. Sliced, buttered on each side. Note: don’t broil french bread. It starting burning on top in less than five minutes. I need a better way to heat it up for the future.
Results: Although I didn’t have as many guests as intended, the two people who were able to make it had a good time. I had some decent discussion about Christianity, science, and community with Lion. Also discussed work situations and other topics. Nick got here a bit later.
We played a game of Carcassonne. It’s my current favorite board game. It’s tile based and you take turns putting out tiles and placing your pieces. You get points as you reach objectives and keep playing until you run out of tiles.
After Lion took off, played some PS3 w/ Nick for a bit, but I’m not enthralled by any of the multiplayer games I’ve tried so far (Gran Turismo 5, Armor Core 4). Then again, I’m not quite the fiend at video games I was in the late ’90s ;)
All in all, I’m glad I had people over and I’m hoping to do it again on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.