I'm pretty sure the best sunny side up seasoning is sea salt, black pepper, smoked paprika and savory. So delicious.

Oh, and if it matters, I had brown rice, too, which I cooked in chicken stock with tarragon, basil, parsley and chives. It was okay.

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About the author: A prolific contributor to Jul with some 2382 posts published, Sofi better fancies herself as a cinema geek, a composer, an occasional gamer, a budding fashionita, an absolute cooking newbie and a general life enthusiast-satirist. She is responsible for a number of notable discussions about meteorology and current events and may be contacted at any time through private messaging.

Yesterday, I made steak to practice for next week when I have to cook for someone. Yeah, the steak came out pretty great—it was marinated in oyster sauce and soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and everything. I ended up putting too much red wine in the sauce, though, but it's not a big deal. Anyway, that's not why I'm posting here.

I'm sure you all remember when I decided to add start adding smoked paprika to my sunny side up eggs (by the way, it is like still totally the grooviest spice ever). To balance out the colors, I'd add parsley which made the dish visually appealing but contributed little flavor. But now, there's a new green spice in my life, a spice that was a mainstay of European cuisine for over two millennia. A spice that despite its versatility I could only find at a local family-owned farmer's market turned mega grocery store.

The spice is savory and it is awesome.

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About the author: A prolific contributor to Jul with some 2390 posts published, Sofi better fancies herself as a cinema geek, a composer, an occasional gamer, a budding fashionita, an absolute cooking newbie and a general life enthusiast-satirist. She is responsible for a number of notable discussions about meteorology and current events and may be contacted at any time through private messaging.

Yesterday I got these two huge portobello mushroom caps. Seriously guys, these were huge. When I cook with mushrooms, I usually just use baby bellas. They're so much smaller and easy to fit into a dish. What the hell do you do with a gigantic mushroom cap?

Well, for me, that wasn't too hard to figure out. I made a veggieburger. It was pretty cool. I was supposed to marinate it in balsamic vinegar according to the recipe I used, but I didn't have that. Oh well. It still tasted awesome, especially with some cheese melted on it plus some ketchup and Dijon mustard. Yum.


Click to enlarge.

But what I really want to talk about are my chicken drumsticks. These were all-natural Trader Joe's drumsticks that came in packs of five which a lot of companies seem to do and kind of weirds me out. Two to three hours before cooking, I marinated the drumsticks in a plastic bag with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and minced onions. Then later I took them out and dipped them in flour seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, white pepper, red pepper, smoked paprika, fennel seeds, savory, thyme and basil and then in a beaten egg and then again in Panko breadcrumbs with the same seasoning.

I melted about half a tablespoon of butter on a pan and then melted it in the oven preheated to 425°F and then I put the chicken in the oven covering the chicken with tinfoil and baked it for half an hour, turning it halfway through and adding about a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the pan. Then I took the tinfoil cover off, sprinkled the chicken in Parmesan cheese and baked it for another 8ish minutes until it reached 185°F.

This is definitely the best "fried" chicken I've made so far. A lot of it is thanks to the marinade combined with the freshness of the chicken, but the skin (which if you ask me is the best) also came out totally crispy and flavorful. But I feel like more can be done, like maybe I can add some spices to the marinade. Or maybe I'll try to go full-Provence with some sage, rosemary and marjoram.


Click to enlarge.

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About the author: A prolific contributor to Jul with some 2393 posts published, Sofi better fancies herself as a cinema geek, a composer, an occasional gamer, a budding fashionita, an absolute cooking newbie and a general life enthusiast-satirist. She is responsible for a number of notable discussions about meteorology and current events and may be contacted at any time through private messaging.

I made my oven-fried chicken with Provençal herbs again, this time with rosemary, sage and marjoram added, too. Oh, and I put some olive oil in the marinade. My friend was over and he got to try some of the chicken and, of course, he was like, "Sofi, this is delicious."

My French/Southern United States fusion cuisine dish wins again.

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About the author: A prolific contributor to Jul with some 2400 posts published, Sofi better fancies herself as a cinema geek, a composer, an occasional gamer, a budding fashionita, an absolute cooking newbie and a general life enthusiast-satirist. She is responsible for a number of notable discussions about meteorology and current events and may be contacted at any time through private messaging.

This morning I made some oven-roasted home fries. They were tossed in melted butter with rosemary, thyme, parsley and sage and then baked at 450°F for 40 minutes. They were delicious, especially dipped in the equally delish yolk of the sunny side up eggs. Yum.

I'm practicing for this weekend when I have to cook for someone besides me almost every meal.

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About the author: A prolific contributor to Jul with some 2401 posts published, Sofi better fancies herself as a cinema geek, a composer, an occasional gamer, a budding fashionita, an absolute cooking newbie and a general life enthusiast-satirist. She is responsible for a number of notable discussions about meteorology and current events and may be contacted at any time through private messaging.