Ryan's Journal

I cooked recently. First I tried a pan-fried bacon-wrapped chicken thigh -- eight of them, actually. No, I didn't eat them all, and yes, I drained the fat off. I mixed in some juice from a squeezed orange to carmelize, and put in a little garlic salt and pepper. It sat and marinated for maybe 15-20 minutes. Most of it was pretty good, moist, flavorful, though mostly from the bacon, but some of the chicken was too thick to cook fully, so I guess I'll have to figure out a better method for pan-frying them (maybe unwrap them halfway through, rewrap them when removed?). I must get better at de-fatting meat too. That's what I get for buying cheap chicken.

I got rid of most of the grease, then poured in a little white wine to reduce the leftover stuff in the pan into a sauce. I suppose I could have poured it over the chicken, but I cooked asparagus in it instead. Not bad, but not particularly special.

I'm making a variant of ceviche now (ceviche being a Latin method for cooking seafood in citrus acid). I sliced some scallops, chopped some onions and tomatoes (and wished I had parsley), and am currently letting it all sit in a bath of lime juice in the fridge for around four hours. I hear you can use sashimi-grade scallops too for less cooked, smoother results. I also added some pepper, salt, and olive oil. Maybe I should have added Tabasco too. It's simple, I'll find out how it tastes in a little while...