Cooking for One? Or Cooking for 11?

I live sort of alone now. My housemates are the dog and my hens. This means, I tend to eat when and what I want to eat. Sounds simple, but isn’t really. Food prices have gone pretty high lately, and disability has never been close to the cost of living. the other issue is I don’t have grocery stores in my area. I have to drive to the closest village over. The grocery store there, while it may have many products, fresh vegetables and fruit are usually withered, dried out or just unpleasant. Meats are overpriced, and I rely pretty heavily on sales. That said, my tastes run from British, Italian, Asian, German, and Mexican. I can make pretty much any dish I want (and have the ingredients for) and have begun doing more desserts. I don’t have a lot of experience with baking though (pictured are various dishes I have made).

Usually at the village market, I bring my jewelry and just sell that. I have been told that I am the new president of the market committee now though, and I thought we needed to attract more people to the market to check out our vendors. I now man the grill. Serving burgers and hotdogs. I have to admit, I suffer greatly for doing this. I haven’t had to stand for this long (4 hours) in a long time, and this is because of the amount of pain it creates in my legs. I do it anyhow, as it is once a week and I ensure I don’t make plans for the next day. Not that I really could. I can barely walk at that point. I have to take a few extra pain medications during these days as well. However, due to this, I have been making a few things for the grill. I made a variation of angry sauce, which has proven quite popular. I pickle my own jalapenos, I had one day with chili burgers and dogs, and I am planning on adding Philly Cheese steak Sandwiches for a one day special.

I tend to make extra, as I have always cooked when in relationships, and it is still hard to make just enough for one. Maybe one day that will change. Someone joins the household, or i just get used to it. The dog benefits from getting a small amount of people foods, and the chickens I have learned, love cow, pig, chicken, bear, deer, moose and more. Ravenous little beasties that they are. (although) they were pretty slow to save me from the snake that charged at me and tried to take me down right in front of them.

From time to time I may add some recipes on here for those interested. Most recently I made my own bacon.

Bacon Recipe

Ingredients:

Pork Belly 1 to 3 lbs

your preferred spices. I used paprika, salt, taekyeong pepper, garlic powder, adobe spice. you can vary the quantity as you like. you really don’t need more than a tablespoon of any.

1 teaspoon curing salt

mix your spice mix and curing salt together.

pat down your pork belly with a paper towel to dry it off

cover every side with your seasoning mix. After covered i then added pure maple syrup all over it. you can choose to skip this part, I just happen to like maple flavor.

place your now seasoned belly into a ziploc bag. (i used a vaccuum sealer) throw it into the fridge and every day just flip it over. You will do this for 1 week.

Day 7. Remove belly from bag and give it a rinse. pat it dry with paper towel. and place uncovered on a rack on top of a backing pan and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours.

Day 8. smoke that belly. I used a little chief smoker and smoked the belly on the top rack for 3 hours using alder. feel free to vary your wood and or time spent smoking to your own tastes.

Cool and slice the belly into strips. I cut the belly in half to make the slicing easier. Cut as thick as you like. then just fry it up like store bought bacon. I may add photos to this recipe the next time I make it, so it is easier to follow.