Meal # 1: Baked Garlic Chili Wings and Shrimp Pad Thai

To begin my grand cooking plans of 2010, my friend Eric and I got together and crafted some delicious foods from Jaden Hair's The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. I'd gotten it for Christmas and hadn't really looked into any of the recipes before today, inspired by my desire to cook and Julie & Julia. I'm glad I did, because the first two recipes I tried were priceless.

Our first recipes were the Baked Garlic Chili Wings appetizer with the Shrimp Pad Thai entree. We made a couple variations in there (no lemongrass on the wings, used the marinade as a flavor bonus while pan frying after the baking, white sugar instead of brown sugar in the marinade), but it was mostly the recipe. And DAMN. It was delicious. And filling.

We learned some valuable lessons about cooking. First off, preparation can be just as important as the actual cooking. We found ourselves scrambling in the midst of cooking because of a lack of prep. Second off, innovation is gold. You can turn something delicious into something phenomenal simply by derivating a tad (i.e. 4 teaspons of sriacha? How about 5?). Third off, just because it is an elaborate meal, does not mean it has to be time consuming. Eric and I wrapped up the whole meal in about an hour. That's not bad for two quite tasty meals.

There's something really fulfilling of the crafting and then eating of truly delicious food. Eric and I found that out thoroughly this evening. I'm going to keep cataloguing the elaborate recipes we cook, because there is nothing more delicious than the consumption and then discussion of delectable meals. You may not enjoy it, but at least I can look back and say I did these things and have proof of it. Well, besides the leftover flavor and the memories that support them.