Cooking with me Mum!

Mi madre visited me all the way down in Tucson! I think it's nice that she'll take time out of her life to come visit her youngest poor lonely college child.... Alright so she didn't come just to visit me, and I don't live alone but still, it was awesome of her.


Anyways, we did a little cooking together!  Now when I say 'we' I mean she did the cooking while I complained about my camera battery being dead and having to snap pictures with my phone. (That being said prepare yourself for the photos.  My little phone did the best it could.) Now the reason for this little cooking session was because my mother wanted to surprise my dad with a nice meal. Bunch of love birds those two. We made goulash, rice and cucumber salad. 


And this is how the story begins...

Now, first things first. I can not start any solo cooking adventure without my moo mixer drink! (I know what you're thinking, "This isn't a solo adventure Alixx, you nincompoop".  Well I knew my mother would be doing most of the cooking so I drank it for her. So there.)

So the first thing we cooked, was goulash...

First get some garlic cooking in olive oil. Caution: It will smell delicious. 

Then my mother cut up the onion. I don't do onions.  They terrorize my eyes.  

Put that in with the garlic... and while this is getting its groove on... 

CUT UP THAT BEEF! 

Until it looks like this! 

Remove onion/garlic mix and brown that meat! 

Then put that back all together and add the spices! Salt, Pepper, and Paprika.  Now here is where my mother and I messed up some... not enough paprika, but no worries if this happens to you throw it in later. Just want to get a really rich red/brown color going on.  According to my dad we also forgot to add thyme and other spices.

SPOILER: It still turned out fantastic.

Liquefy that baby with some good ol' H20 and just let it sit. That's it!! So simple.

      
Now for the extras:
Rice!

Get some rice cooking in a rice cooker. Best invention ever. Pour rice, water, some olive oil, and garlic powder. Then just sit and wait.

 Next, the cucumber salad:

Just cut the cucumber and onions and put in some vinegar and water and set in fridge to chill til everything is ready to eat!

Now, brace yourself. I did not take a picture of the final product the night of. I know so anti-climatic of me. I apologize. Please don't give up on me yet!!  That being said, it turned out quite delicious and I have this picture off the interwebs of what it should look like.

So just imagine I cooked that.... without the peppers of course.  

I would give a more, add blah-blah teaspoons of blah... but this recipe is more an add what you want so it tastes good kind of thing. Or maybe I'm able to cook things without any worries of measurement.  (Which if you've read the pizza bars recipe you know that I can not afford to be creating recipes as I go)

The moral of this story: My mother loves me and to prove it she makes [me] delicious food.