I've always said that most of the problems stemming from internet and social media aren't inherent to the platforms themselves, but rather the content and the users that are there.  Of course there has always been some sort of gray area, since increasingly (and this of course is part of the problem) it is the platform itself that decides what to show you rather than simply being transparent.  But when I go online and see in my shared spaces a bunch of content that I....really don't care for, I don't really find myself blaming the technology itself, rather just the abstract societal herd that led to this sort of content becoming the norm.

That argument that I used to always make, though, is becoming less and less true, as it becomes apparent that many of these platforms are doing more and more things that could, in fact, be considered inherently bad.  Privacy issues, political agendas, copyright wars, you know the drill by now.  In the older times, these things didn't really matter so much.  These platforms existed to gain users, true, but they carried more of laissez-faire approach to what actually happened with the stuff on there.  Nowadays you can't even choose a web browser or search engine to use without considering who you might be selling your usage data to.

And yet, the herd marches ever forwards.  Someday perhaps there will be a sort of breaking point where I can no longer interface with it.  For it will have strayed too far from the old abodes that I still dare to call home.

I used to think that the reason I don't spout a bunch of opinions ("hot takes" as it were) on here anymore is probably because my social identity has changed (read: I'm less arrogant and actually have friends?), but I dunno...thinking about it again, maybe it's simply because the internet has simply become diluted with these sorts of things.  The last thing anyone needs is yet another random person telling them what they should do, or worse, telling them how they should feel about something.

14th Journey - The One Where I Boosted Up the Tower

Happy 9th anniversary to our beloved game, Journey!

I went on what I will call my 14th journey today, in celebration of the 9th anniversary event.

Every journey brings a different perspective with it, and this one was no different.  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect -- my last journey was something quite special, a chirp-filled exploration with Gilorien as my chaperone/companion showing me all manner of amazing things.

I decided again to don my white cloak for this event -- being in white simply makes flight more enjoyable, and allows for some fun fancy tricks like "chargeboosting" in the first Broken Bridge level, for instance, without the assistance of a partner.

1:30PM hit and I leapt off the entrance to the Broken Bridge level and wandered around for a bit.  I was actually surprised by how long it took to find a companion -- in past events I remember connecting with another traveler quite quickly.

Seemed like I had matched up with a red cloak -- what seemed like a fully embroidered one (?), and I ran up to them with a happy chirp dance at having found a companion.  I could tell that this person seemed more..."normal", for lack of a better term.  They chirped in response, but there was no mutual faceplanting, no extended wiggling around and circling each other excitedly.  They were quick to move onto unlocking the bridge segments and navigating around to each of the points of interest in the level.

I happily let them take the lead and mainly followed them around, chirp chirping along and helping to maintain their flight charge by providing some helpful chirp energy.  But already I could sense that this person...was not as attuned to "caring" about me.  I don't know how else to explain it, but I could tell through their "body language".  Probably the most obvious point was that they did not seem to bother worrying about providing me with chirps to maintain my scarf energy, despite the fact that I was trying my best to do the same for them.  So any brief cooperative flight sessions ended with me dropping to the ground first.  Of course, I can't lie -- I was a bit disappointed that I did not meet some well-traveled companion who would show me charge-boost spots, take me out of bounds, and all of that.  But I was OK with that.  What didn't feel as OK was feeling like I was not really much of a concern to this other player.

But perhaps their negligence was more out of ignorance than malevolence.  I followed them to the Pink Desert stage where something curious happened -- they sat down and meditated at the hill at the very beginning of the level, which I thought was quite nice; it was a nice view after all.  They stayed sitting for quite a while and some strange things occurred, like them sliding down the hill occasionally somehow (was this some strange new sitting technique that I was unaware of??).  After a while I wondered whether they had just gone AFK in real life or something?  I started slowly pushing them away from their original position bit by bit.  Eventually they rose up again and like clockwork, started going off to some of the various locations in the Pink Desert.

I never remember my way around the PD level at all, so I let them lead again.  It was interesting, trying to discern whether they knew their way around the level very well, or didn't...?  They seemed to be hitting most of the stops one by one, but then at one point or another, ran into the level's edge.  We even stopped by the Flower in the desert...yeah, I'm really not sure.  At this point I actually started to develop the suspicion that this was a player that perhaps had some sort of walkthrough or map open, and was trying to reference it -- hence the pausing and goal-seeking.  But it was just a hunch.

Climbing the structure at the end of the PD level was....interesting, as again it seemed half of the time like they knew exactly where they were going and the other half of the time they seemed lost or curious about totally random other places.  It was a bit disorienting, but I don't think there was much I could do after all, they didn't seem like they were responsive to being the one following me around instead.

Watching the history lesson at the end of that level, I began to think on something that would form one of the themes of this particular Journey.  I had just finished writing a letter last night talking about how I am a "being of the past", about how I have never really moved on from many things, and about how there is some sense of feeling "old" or "out of my time" because of that.  Watching the history lessons this time, I began to think a little more about the white "ancestors" in those cutscenes.

These story cutscenes always serve to paint the "backstory" of Journey, of course in a sort of vague symbolic way, since nothing is ever explicit.  But I began to wonder today, as I was confronted with this redcloak who seemed to just be ready to move forward whether I was coming or not, whether my "place" was not here, but with those ancestors.  What would it be like to be one of them, instead?  Not one who travels through the game, but one who came before.  Perhaps that is what I yearned for, at this moment.

What does it take, to become an ancestor?  These figures are tall, wise, and seemingly eternal, appearing to us in our history lessons when we sit and pray at the old stone statues.  They are not agents of the game, well at least not in the traditional sense.  You could argue that they play a part in the penultimate scene of "rebirth" -- the scene where the ancestors bear witness to your struggle, your collapse, and are there to see -- or perhaps to instigate -- your resurgence.  But for the most part, they are not the "players" of the game.  Perhaps to "become an ancestor" means to stop playing Journey altogether.  For then you would no longer be of the (in-game) physical world, but something removed from it.  One who "came before", and one who bears witness to those who would still take the Journey.  Could you call that sense of separation, a type of "enlightenment"?  It's a curious thing to think about.

Anyways, my companion and I eventually made our way to the "Sunken City" level (the one with lots of sandsurfing, and the famous "sunset scene" depicted so often in fanarts).  Here something again curious happened -- as we were sledding through the sands, we missed one of the glyphs near the beginning (it had been a long time since my last Journey, so I had forgotten about it), and at that point I remember seeing them sit down (??).  I wondered if perhaps they had quit out or done a chapter select, since they had missed a glyph and had wanted to collect it.  Maybe they would disconnect -- "dust" -- on me?  I really wasn't sure.  But regardless, I surged forward, free of that responsibility, and went on to the rest stop area.  I felt a bit of a weight lifted from my shoulders at being free of this companion.  It's not a very nice thing to say, of course -- we should be grateful for company of any sort, but sometimes you do end up getting a companion who seems to be more of a burden than a buddy.

I resolved to take my time at the rest stop and play around with some chargeboosting with the carpet flyers there, but before I could do that, I connected again with a red cloak there.  Turned out it was the same person who had rejoined me in the rest stop area.  They activated the flyers, and I decided to stay behind a little bit and see if they would even pause at all to wait for me.  To my surprise, they did, and so instead of playing with the flyers and practicing chargeboosting, I obliged and went ahead with them to the next section.  They left me behind at the second rest stop area, though I caught up to them at the entrance to the UnderGround level.

At the beginning of the UG they sat down once again for a while, and it seemed like they would stay sitting for an extended time again.  At this point I was a bit concerned with the time as I had other plans this afternoon, so I started to push ahead of them, not as concerned anymore with leading the way for them or anything like that.  I tried at least to point out the glyph locations to them, but finally in the section leading up to the "War Machines" I sped ahead and simply lost them (despite turning back once to check).  At that point I simply pushed onwards and never saw them again.

How interesting to lose one's companion in the underground.  Somehow, it was fitting in terms of the emotional undertones of this harsh and dark level.  I sped rather quickly to the end of the level, watched the history lesson, said hi to the two scarf fragments on the right, and then went on to the Tower.

The Tower is a stage where you go around activating switches that raise the "water" level progressively, each letting you ascend to another vertical level of the tower, until at last you reach the top where you watch the history lesson and move onwards.  However, with a faithful companion, you can actually "dry climb" the tower by providing each other with enough flight power to make it up despite not having any of the "water" to recharge your energy or provide a place to land on.  I had done it once before, with raisin.

This time I did no such thing (I had no companion after all), but after activating the very first level of water -- which causes scarf flyers on platforms to emerge -- I decided to try my hand at some chargeboosting practice.  "Chargeboosting" is an advanced flight maneuver in which you "charge" by building downwards-pointing flight momentum, and then "boost" yourself by using that accumulated momentum to sail upwards in the opposite direction.  It's something that doesn't make sense in terms of real-world physics, but for some reason the game engine lets you use downwards "charge" to fly upwards, being propelled seemingly magically.  It's a little easier when there are flyers present since they will help you not only recharge your flight energy but also propel you upwards, which can prolong your "downward" charge.

And this was perhaps the highlight of the entire Journey, as I surprised myself by being able to chargeboost high enough to grab all 3 of the glyphs in the level, and then from there I tried yet another chargeboost -- and this time, managed to boost myself high enough to reach the very top!  What a thrill!  I had previously done long chargeboosts before, but those had always had "infinite charge spots" where you can charge to your hearts content while staying in the same position -- a quirk caused by certain level geometries.  I had never had quite the same skill with continuous-motion chargeboosts, but here I was, at the very top of the tower, after having boosted myself all the way up.  This is something I'll have to try again someday.

The rest of the Journey was rather uneventful -- I contemplated some of the stuff about "ancestors" that I mentioned above, as I went on the death march in the snow stage, and then said a friendly hello to the scarf whales in Paradise.  The last significant thing I did was to do a sliding meditation leap on the cliff right after the final ascent to the mountain.  I don't think I had ever done a meditation sit-jump at this particular spot before, but it's a fabulous one, as you slide off the mountain and fall a long way, all while glowing in the golden "final ascent" light.  Very fun!

Every Journey is different, and this one was no exception.  The behavior of my (admittedly somewhat uncaring) companion made me value my previous sojourns with raisin and Gilorien even more, but also prompted me see the backstory of the game in a way that I had not before.  I was struck particularly by the history lesson in the Tower.  This is a grand cutscene in which you see the entire "story tapestry" as a panorama around you at the top of the Tower.  This tapestry chronicles the travels of two red-cloaks (representing you, and a companion), as you make your way from the Broken Bridge, through the Pink Desert, through the Underground, all the way to the base of the mountain at the snow level.  Very grand, very epic, and the music always moves me every time.

But this time it was different.  This was not the first time I had seen this cutscene in white, but for some reason my mind saw this cutscene and saw the tapestry not as representing my own journey, but as representing the journey of someone else.  Those red cloaks in the tapestry =were not me=, for I was in white.  I was an observer, much like those ancestors in the cutscenes.  I would stand and watch as the others traveled forward, in the continuous cycle of birth and rebirth.

They say that to observe something is to become detached from it.  Perhaps it is a bit lofty to claim that I felt myself as being one step closer to enlightenment when I saw myself as an observer, not a participant.  But these are the things that I had on my mind, during this 14th Journey.

I always feel like I'm no longer blogging as often, but oddly enough, I made more posts (120) in 2020 than any other since 2013 when I migrated from Xanga to Blogger/Blogspot.  It's probably because I'm comparing things back to the period before then, from 2004-2013 when I made 3,780 posts; that's an average of more than one a day across 10 years.

You might think it's an unreasonable standard, comparing myself to what I used to do over 10 years ago, when presumably my life was entirely different from what it is now.  If you think that, you simply just don't understand who I am in the slightest.

We may all be alone, but I'll always still be here, if you will, too.

Or even if you won't.

Sometimes it really scares me, just thinking about how much easier it is to destroy than to create.  I don't mean that in like an abstract "Wow, the world is just heading towards evil, look at how power leads to corruption and how difficult it is to fight for the right thing when so much is against you", but rather, the same sort of fear that you might feel if you were standing near the edge of a cliff.  Rationally, there is no reason you'd ever step off the edge, yet being confronted with how easy it would be to throw yourself off, is unsettling.

In the same way, I look at things other than myself sometimes and am deeply unsettled by the power we have to destroy.  We can take lives, both ours and others.  We can destroy what took years to build.  We can erase history.  We can say words that can never be taken back.  Even though you know that rationally, you won't willingly do any of these things, or at least you'll try your hardest not to, it's still unnerving to see so clearly that possibility.

That fear, I think, feels more paralyzing than a fear of death, which somehow is a little more abstract.  The fact that within my body I have the power to do so much harm not to myself, but to others.  And it's a very real fear too, because we have all had experiences where we have, knowingly or unknowingly, done just that.  Perhaps we did not take the life of another, but we have caused anger and grief.  We have made mistakes, or caused accidents.  Maybe it is not really something that can be taken lightly.

And yet, despite all of the harm that we have done, and all of the mistakes that we will continue to make, we must continue to hold hope, for without that there is no way forward.  Living life paralyzed by the fear of mistakes is the "easy" way out, but it does no one any good at all.  And so we continue to struggle, to do our best, and to be afraid of everything going wrong.  But to still walk forward in spite of it.

Sometimes we may stumble, and some days we may stop altogether.  But we still carry forward our hope.  If not for ourselves, then for each other.

Quarantine Cooking Report

Felt like writing something, so here's a quick run-down of new dishes that I've tried over the past year or so as we've been in quarantine.  I'll split them into some different categories:

Easy to make, great results

Ultra-Smashed Cheeseburgers

Easy, fun, delicious

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/ultra-smashed-cheeseburger-recipe-food-lab.html

Burgers are surprisingly easy to make at home and extremely straightforward -- assembling the burger itself is something even a young child could do.  The only tricky part is cooking the meat, and these "smashburgers" are pretty lowrisk as you're aiming for a well-done burger in the first place.  Oh, and they taste great.

Notes:

- You'll want something you can SMASH with.  I use a metal spatula, and then the mortar from my mortar and pestle set to apply weight to the surface of the spatula.  The mortar actually works surprisingly well for this as it is both heavy and provides a nice "pocket to protect your hand completely from any heat.

- Really nice if you're cooking with two as one person can be in charge of cooking the patties+cheese and the other can assemble the buns

- Ground lamb burgers are yum

New Orleans-Style Red Beans and Rice

Hearty soul food.  Less effort than making something like gumbo.  Leftovers are great too.

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/05/new-orleans-style-red-beans-rice-recipe.html

This is what I'm going to make now when I'm feeling too lazy to put together something like jambalaya or (my more recent obsession) gumbo.  I've sort of mastered putting together a great gumbo but the recipe sort of has a few too many moving parts and steps to be an every-week sort of meal.  This on the other hand is extremely easy and you don't have to worry about screwing up a roux or anything like that.  You end up with a great creamy meaty sauce that goes great with rice.

Notes:

- After you try the recipe once I feel like it's pretty easy to scale it up if you want to just make food en masse and have a big enough pot / dutch oven.  It's surprising how fast this stuff disappears

Chicken Yakitori (thighs, hearts)

Fun, really tasty, not too hard either

Recipe: https://www.justonecookbook.com/yakitori/

If you have a grill these would be great to do on that, but I don't, so I just use an oven broiler instead and it's perfectly fine.  You can use a blowtorch to get some extra char, if that's desired.

Yakitori can go pretty deep (like ramen) -- check out "yakitori guy" on youtube -- but fortunately even a half-assed "easy mode" effort can taste delicious.  Start off with chicken thigh pieces and green/red onion slices (maybe some mushrooms as well) and it's pretty hard to screw up.  Making the teriyaki glaze is trivial (or you can even just buy some premade one) and the actual cooking process is easy too.  The only part that really takes any work is cutting up the chicken parts and sticking them on the skewers, but it's not too bad.

Notes:

- Make sure you don't leave much of the skewers exposed.  They will burn.

Oven-Baked Buffalo Wings (or Xi'ian spicy Wings)

Tasty chicken wings without deep frying

Recipes: 

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/the-best-buffalo-wings-oven-fried-wings-recipe.html

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/hot-and-numbing-oven-fried-xian-chicken-wings-recipe.html

Pretty standard oven fried chicken wings, but with the addition of baking powder to help crisp them up.  You can build a standard buffalo wing sauce out of frank's redhot and butter, or you can go for something different too.  Wings aren't really an "every week" sort of food for me but I can't really argue with the low effort required here, the oven does pretty much all of the work for you.

Lamb "Carne Asada" Fries/Nachos

You too, can make food truck food

Recipe: No recipe, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9knyeE3YN4 will give you the basic idea.

Sometimes you just gotta have food-truck style food.  There's a reason it's so popular.

Basically, take your skirt steak or flank steak, cook it, slice it, then throw it together with fries/nachos together with cheese, guac, tomatoes, salsa, green onions, spicy mayo, and whatever else you'd espect to see out of a "loaded fries" food truck.  I've taken to doing this with lamb flank steak because...lamb tastes awesome, but for a more traditional approach you'd probably use beef.

You could also do this with some chorizo, or even carnitas.

Notes:

- Don't bother making your own fries.  Just get frozen ones lol

- I usually don't bother making a legit cheese sauce.  I just sprinkle shredded cheese on and microwave it a bit.

Harissa Shrimp

This is just a great flavor combo

Recipe: There's a recipe at https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2018/04/harissa-and-beer-broiled-shrimp.html, but honestly I go for something way simpler.

We already know shrimp goes great with butter and garlic, and even hot linsk and spicy cajun seasonings and stuff like that.  Well, you can buy some storemade harissa sauce and throw that in and it tastes great.  That's it.

This can be as simple as thawing some ez-peel frozen shrimp, peeling them, then throw them in a hot skillet with some butter/oil, garlic, and harissa sauce, and they cook extremely fast and you've got yourself some tasty shrimp.  Serve with some sauteed onions, oh yes.

Cacio e Pepe / Carbonara

Classic creamy pasta dishes

Recipes:

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/02/spaghetti-cacio-e-pepe-recipe.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Np28NnP40

I know for a lot of us, making "pasta" actually means "pasta noodles of some sort, with meat, cheese, tomatoes, some sort of premade tomato/alfredo sauce, etc".  There's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes it can be nice to make something a little simpler and a little less "throw a ton of stuff together".

I'm grouping these two dishes together because the basic concept is the same -- form a creamy (not clumpy) cheese sauce out of parmigiano/pecorino and some starchy pasta water (and in the case of carbonara, some eggs), and serve it with pasta, along with black pepper, and some cured pork.

Notes:

- If you're not sure you like sheep's milk cheese stick with the parmigiano instead of pecorino

- Just use bacon in place of the pancetta, no big deal.

- Be sure to get the bronze die cut pasta for this, as the extra starch content is important to help emulsify the sauce

- Make sure to avoid scrambling the eggs (too much heat) for the carbonara

- If you're feeling fancy I often like adding some shrimp or mushrooms so it's not so plain of a dish

Pear, brie, and prosciutto crostinis

As simple and tasty as you would imagine

Recipe: You don't really need one, but https://www.savoryexperiments.com/prosciutto-pear-brie-crostini/ or similar for a basic idea

What you see is what you get here.  It's extremely intuitive to put together and you just stick it in the oven and it's great.

The only thing to be aware of is that this is an awkward recipe if you don't make enough servings/feed enough people, as you're going to end up with leftover french bread that is gonna go stale.  I guess you could use the leftover bread for garlic bread or something?

Notes:

- The recipe linked says to drizzle honey but I like to do olive oil instead

- Topping with a small piece of fresh basil works really nicely if you have any

"Bruschetta"

Not really though, more like "tomatoes on bread", but it's a great snack

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/08/fresh-tomato-bruschetta-recipe.html as a guide

So y'all probably know what bruschetta tastes like.  It's actually extremely simple to make -- just make some toast with some olive oil, dice up tomatoes, and add olive oil, salt, and a little balsamic vinegar and spoon it on.

And it turns out even if you're just using not-perfectly-in-season-tomatoes and plain-old-bread and whatever, it's still pretty tasty.  This is the kind of thing that's super easy to whip up as a midnight snack if you've got the munchies.

Hard to make, but worth it if you're up for it

Real-Deal Ramen

Takes a ton of effort, but of course is awesome

This wouldn't be on the list if it weren't for quarantine, since ramen takes quite an investment of time/effort to make properly and it's much easier to have a shop do it for you.  Unfortunately while takeout ramen is decent, it just isn't the same and I was craving that rich hearty miso/tonkotsu broth...

I'd recommend this only if you really really miss real-deal ramen and are willing to put in a substantial effort to get there.  There are a LOT of components here -- tare, chashu, toppings, broth, noodles, and they sort of all have their own preparations.  You need access to a lot of ingredients that you might not find at your everyday grocery store -- pork bones, fresh ramen noodles (or make them yourself), pork belly, menma / etc.

This one has a whole book, not r recipe:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qLPoLxek3WLQJDtU6i3300_0nNioqeYXi7vESrtNvjQ/edit

Notes:

- When doing the pressure cooker tonkotsu, skip the parts where you open the pressure cooker and stir and then close again, I find that the extra stirring midway through is a hassle and unnecessary

- Borrow a friend's pressure cooker so you can make the broth en masse.  Making a double batch is way less than 2x the effort and the broth freezes well

- Sun noodles are a standard good tried-and-true brand of fresh ramen but can be hard to find.  Remember fresh noodles will be in the refrigerated section, not with all of the other dry noodles.

Sushi/Nigiri at Home

Kind of a lot of work for whoever is the sushi chef, but good raw fish is delicious if you can source it

Recipe: This isn't really a recipe more as it is a set of food and techniques.  Look up your favorite sushi rice ratio and watch some videos on how to form sushi.

This one is first and foremost predicated on having access to good-quality raw fish.  Don't risk anything that you don't trust -- in the middle of a pandemic is really not the time when you want to get food poisoning or parasites.  Or you could start something completely safe like vegetarian rolls (oshinko rolls!) or unagi (grilled eel)

Cutting up raw fish properly is extremely challenging and a real test of your knife, plus you probably won't have access to nicely shaped raw fish blocks and will have to make do with thin oddly-shaped slabs.  So be prepared for nigiri which....don't look too great.  They'll still taste fantastic though.

Unfortunately this is a lot of work if you are making nigiri as each individual one needs to be assembled by hand, and for the nonpracticed (i.e. us) there's going to be some amount of fumbling around.  I'd recommend recruiting some help in the kitchen.  Also, good raw fish can be expensive.  So this is more of a once-in-a-blue-moon thing.  Still great fun though.

The one notable exception is easy hosomaki rolls, my favorite of which is oshinko rolls (picked radish).  Those are easy enough to make on a somewhat regular basis.

Notes:

- It's essential to have a lukewarm rice vinegar solution to dip your hands in while working with sushi rice, otherwise you'll end up with a ton of rice all over your hands

Mei Cai Kou Rou (Steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens)

Unique sort of dish that tastes great

Recipe (I referenced some others too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYgaL7KZR4

This is something I still need to iron down, as I've only made it twice, so I haven't yet trimmed down my recipe to be efficient yet.  It's really difficult to describe the exact flavor of this dish if you haven't had it before, but it's got pork belly in it so you know it has to be delicious.  You'll need access to mei cai (dried preserved mustard greens).  Basically you steam the pork belly together with the mei cai and some soysauce-based liquid and it ends up all tasting delicious.

Unfortunately there are multiple steps as the recipe calls for boiling the pork belly first and that seems like something that shouldn't be skipped.  Again, I'll need to try and trim down the steps a bit as I get more experience.

Notes:

- Make sure you allow for a significant amount of time to steam the pork belly.  It will still be chewy/tough if you don't let it go for long enough.

- Most legit recipes call for shallow-frying the pork belly's skin in oil.  I'm sure this is great but it also causes a veritable oil explosion and sounds like a lot of hassle, so I sacrifice and just skip that step altogether.  I guess you can torch the skin a bit to see if that helps?

- I got pre-cut mei cai but I'm actually thinking the non-shredded ones may be easier to work with as you can rinse/drain them more easily and then just cut it yourself more easily?  Not sure yet.

- Make sure you have a proper steamer setup to do this.  Mine wasn't big enough, so I had to improvise a bit.

- One recipe I saw suggested dry-frying the mei cai before steaming it.  I'm not sure if this is necessary, I'll have to experiment.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip Toast

Imagine a cheesy spinach/artichoke dip, spread over French bread and baked until nicely browned.  Yum.

Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/282716/baked-spinach-and-artichoke-toasts/

If you like spinach/artichoke dip you're probably already sold on this just by the description or the pictures.  The thing about spinach/artichoke dip is that it really needs to be homemade -- all the storebought stuff just....never really compares to the real deal.

Unfortunately this does take a lot of effort as you've got to drain the spinach and artichoke, chop it up, and fold it in with a bunch of cheese -- cheese that needs to be grated.

Notes:

- DO NOT overbake the bread, I found that the timings given in the recipe were way too long especially for the first bake (probably in part because I use convection)

- I tend to end up grating a significant amount more cheese than the recipe calls for to balance the amount of veggies, that's maybe because I'm using a microplane grater and volume measurements are super imprecise for irregular shredded things

- You can adjust the ratio of artichoke to spinach if you like/dislike artichoke particularly

Undecided / "Decent" Recipes

Creamed Cod and Potato Gratin

Creamy fish and mashed potatoes!

Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/283008/creamy-cod-and-potato-gratin/

This actually came out pretty well!  It's obviously a very heavy dish with cream and potatoes, but the sauce does certainly taste good and I'm always looking for more ways to integrate fish into my cooking.

It took more work to put together than I'd like for a regular meal but I've only ever made it once so I'm sure I can bring that way down if I tried again.

Clam Chowder

Nuff said

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/new-england-clam-chowder-recipe.html

I've only made this once and I was cooking the clams separately due to someone with a seafood allergy so I don't really have a good impression of exactly how much effort it ought to really take or adjustments that need to be made.  It sure tasted good though.

Potato and Leek Soup

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/best-potato-leek-soup-recipe.html

This is a fine recipe, it's just that potato and leek soup isn't something I tend to have a real craving for.  It's not a TON of effort but you do have to whip out the blender which is always a pain (even immersion blenders need to be cleaned afterwards, etc).  I do have a very tall pot which I'm starting to use for these immersion blended soups to avoid having to pour into a separate container, so that should help, but still, this is never gonna be on the shortlist.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/02/easy-creamy-mushroom-soup-quick.html

This is definitely something I'll be trying to make again.  I love mushrooms but unfortunately my first attempt at a cream of mushroom soup (following a more complicated recipe) was a disaster and that sort of scarred me for a while.

I'm happy to report that that time was just a fluke.  Cream of mushroom soup IS actually as delicious as I thought it would be.  It's another one of these immersion blender recipes, and I still have to optimize my workflow on those.  This could make it into the shortlist if I get enough practice with it.

Stuff that I don't think I'd make much again

"Quick" Fried Chicken Sandwich

Pretty dece, but honestly just a bit too much work for my tastes

Recipe: https://www.ethanchlebowski.com/cooking-techniques-recipes/the-20-minute-fried-chicken-sandwich

I honestly probably just need to optimize my workflow for this one, but honestly anything that involves dealing with deep frying just still takes too much effort for my tastes.  You gotta use extra dishes for breading, then there's having to drain the oil afterwards, and store it, and blahblahblah..... you've already gotta deal with sauce, toppings, etc.  It's just one too many things going on, to be honest.

It's just not something I'm super practiced with and honestly, I can live without.  I might try this recipe just as a "quick an easy thing to try to deep fry" but I don't often crave fried chicken sandwiches in particular, so whatever.  Plus, I don't often have milk or buttermilk on hand for the breading.

"Ba'corn" Cheese Corn

Too heavy / flavors didn't really work for me

Recipe: https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2019/07/bacorn.html

You can pretty much figure it out from the name.  This recipe throws together bacon, cheese, corn, and even heavy cream, so this is definitely not a recipe for the light of heart.

It was a fine recipe, just the resulting flavors ended up not really being for me in the end.  I think overall the dish is just too heavy (as you can imagine), though I can see how this is popular drinking food.

Salmon Chowder

Surprisingly I wasn't a fan

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/02/easy-creamy-one-pot-weeknight-salmon-chowder-recipe.html

I thought it'd be a sure-fire win.  Chowder sounds great.  I love salmon.  What's not to like??

To be fair, I only tried this once (and used way too much dill), but I just don't think boiled salmon is super great?  Just, compared to pan-fried or broiled/grilled/roasted salmon (or raw salmon, lol) it just doesn't seem as enticing, plus you don't get to really do anything great with the salmon skin.  Plus I feel like any of the fattyness of the salmon doesn't really gel well when mixed into the soup.  I feel like I'd rather just cook the salmon separately and then have a different sort of soup on the side like one of the aforementioned ones.

What have y'all been trying out these days?