Freelancing backfires

[JayhawkSD]

I was making jambalaya yesterday and discovered I was out of creole seasoning. So I just made my own, grabbing bottles from the spice rack and throwing shit in the pot at random. It turned out awesome, better than it does when I use my usual Zatarain's, but now I have no idea whatever what I put in it. I don't mean how much of what, I mean what the hell it was that I put in. Next time take notes, fool. Oh well, back to Zatarain's.

Yes, I do know the recipe for creole seasoning, but that isn't what I did. I used some of each of what is in that recipe, but there was other stuff too, I think.

[angstlessk]

1. IF I made Jambalya (can't really spell it)

I would never know what ingredients I did not have!

[Dalai_1]

2. My husband and I had a restaurant

..,in an 1800's Victorian house .. He had used Tony Chacheres Original
Creole seasoning when he cooked in Louisanna and Florida.We were in NC when we opened our restaurant.He could not get Tony's here In 1985. He made his own seasoning .. The recipe you provided looked familiar .. He preferred to use granulated garlic .. No oregano or thyme.. I am sure there were other seasonings I would have to think a bit more as to what they were.
About a month after we opened he found an outlet in New Orleans he had dealt with that shipped us Tony's by the case...
He used Tony's with most of our entree's ,eventually ,a grocery store in our town ordered it for us.

His Jambalaya was one of our customers favorite entrees...,

I just remembered ,he used Lawrys seasoning and no salt when he made his first seasoning..
He always used the granulated garlic / thought he could get more flavor with better salt control since Lawrys had salt as did Tony's..

[rusty quoin]

3. I have done something like that many times.

[Tab]

4. That's the problem with improvisational cooking

As I got older, I got better in my choice of spices and could roughly remember what I put in, but certainly earlier I didn't have any idea; I tossed in things that sounded flavorful or spicy, and sometimes I had a hit, but othertimes, an inedible mess.

I've moved to more simply seasonings - just salt and pepper (or maybe garlic salt) for a quick steak rub, other stuff I like to take an applewood rub, mix it with brown sugar and some cinnamon. If I get too more complicated than that, without knowing exactly what I'm intending to put in, I can be asking for trouble.

[JayhawkSD]

5. improvisational cooking! Thanks.

That's the word I was looking for. "Improvisational cooking" sounds so much more elegant than "grabbing bottles from the spice rack and throwing shit in the pot at random."

I'm actually doing more cooking and more "improvisational cooking" since I retired. I usually try a new recipe once as it is published, and then change it to suit my taste, but sometimes I can see from the git go that changes are needed. Experimenting with seasonings is half the adventure.

[dem in texas]

6. My worst big fail

Adjusting the seasoning is easy going if you have enough different types on hand. My worst cooking disaster was trying to make spinach queso. We'd eaten at a Mexican Restaurant that served this dish and we loved it. This was many years ago, I was fairly green to cooking then. I bought spinach, Monterrey jack cheese, green chiles, I had milk, butter and flour on hand. Don't know where I went wrong, but I had a huge mess, couldn't even stir it with a spoon. I ended up pushing down the garbage disposal, boy did my husband tease me.

I never tried the recipe again, but now writing about makes me want to try it, I am a much more seasoned cook now. Think I should use white cheddar and some swiss in it. I am adding these items, plus some spinach to my grocery list for this week's shopping.

[JayhawkSD]

7. Hahahah. Reminds me of my sister.

Her first attempt to make dumplings, and it was not going well. I don't recall the details; the dumplings were supposed to float but were sinking, etc. She was getting more and more pissed off, and her husband and I were in the family room, which adjoined the kitchen, being quiet and trying not to laugh. She finally threw the batter at the wall and it stuck, just hanging there on the wall. Brother-in-law and I lost it and had to flee the house.

[grasswire]

10. I see a lot of recipes on google for spinach queso..

...including one copying Chili's.

[Glassunion]

9. We've all done it. We acchieve our chef-d'oeuvre...

Our masterwork, magnum opus, piece de resistance, the greatest of our creations. But have no clue what we did to achieve it.

I made a seafood bisque once. My MIL is not a fan of fish. It was a hit, to the point of even now, nearly 10 years later we still discuss it in hushed tones of great reverence. It was truly the finest of dishes. Yet I cannot recreate it. I was literally piecing it together with no regard for measuring, or writing down my ingredients.

That soup was my white whale.

I know it contained prawns, muscles, clams, tomato, leeks, and stuff... Lots of stuff. I check the supermarket from time to time, but the folks there look at me like my head is on fire when I ask where they keep the "stuff".