Yesterday I reached a cooking milestone: I cooked a full, fairly original, tasty meal without recipe! I'm recording that here so that momentous event is not lost to the annals of history.
We had mackerel filets (skin on of course) which had been cured in miso for a day or so then roasted. This was my first time cooking mackerel (h/t Hungry Monkey book) and it was really easy - mackerel is very forgiving and hard to overcook. Since Savannah is growing a baby, we did a bit of research and determined that the mackerel we were eating was an Atlantic mackerel, which is fortunately quite safe and has a low risk of mercury. There are a few other kinds of mackerel out there that are less safe and presumably more carnivorous. This mackerel was very bony, so It might be good next time to learn to de-bone them, assuming that is possible.
We also had a half kabocha squash with olive oil, salt and pepper, roasted in the oven until it was a bit too dry. I think next time I would put a little water on the roasting pan or not cook it quite as long.
Finally, and this was what I was most proud of, we had a little veggie stir fry based on fresh shiitake mushrooms (about 10), which I chopped into fingernail-sized pieces and cooked down in a little oil, salt and water, then stirred in some green onions (white bottoms half cooked, half not cooked, then green tops also thrown in at the end, with a half a head of chopped cabbage and cooked lightly and finished with a little lemon juice (1/2 a lemon), rice vinegar (just a drip) and miso (about a tablespoon). Most of the measurements were eyeballed, though I would probably measure things out if I were to make it again.
All these ingredients came from the local Japanese market, which is our closest(!) grocery store.
Oh and we ate all this with rice. That I have admittedly been able to cook for quite a while.