SSelfMadeCook

Kitchen Notes

The stuff between the recipes — technique, pantry, and what I've learned filming all this.

September 14, 2026 Egg Fried Rice: Built From Whatever's Left in the Fridge Bacon, two scrambled eggs, and three sauces stacked at the end — the fried rice I built to beat takeout, and why the protein is negotiable but the order of operations isn't. September 14, 2026 Puerto Rican Rice: Do You Really Need to Rinse It? Yes — until the water runs clear. The one step people skip on Savory Puerto Rican Rice, and everything else that goes into the pot before the lid does. September 7, 2026 Cajun Fried Steak: The Diner Classic, My Way Cajun seasoning goes into the dredge and the gravy, not sprinkled on at the end — how I build a diner-style chicken fried steak with cube steaks from the international market and a Creole-finished gravy. September 7, 2026 Three Chicken Pastas That Punch Above Their View Count Chicken fajita pasta, chicken spaghetti, and parm-crusted chicken spaghetti aren't the biggest videos on the channel, but they're three of the ones that overperform on engagement. What the three builds actually share, and where they split. September 3, 2026 Feeding a Crowd: Sliders, Egg Rolls, and Candy Bacon The dishes I actually reach for when I'm cooking for a crowd instead of just dinner — chicken bacon ranch sliders with candy bacon, three different fried egg rolls, and the prep order and yield math that keep game day from turning into chaos. August 31, 2026 Steakhouse Dinner at Home, Without the Steakhouse Bill Three versions of steak night I actually cook — a lemon Parmesan cream sauce ribeye for date night, a thermometer-guided skillet breakfast, and a cube-steak route for when ribeye isn't in the budget — and the small habits (room temp, the salt test, not touching the pan) that carry across all three. August 27, 2026 Set It and Forget It: Pot Roast for the Sunday You're Too Busy to Cook A crockpot pot roast with potatoes and carrots, built the way I actually build it — a sweet-leaning seasoning blend, a hard sear before the pot ever turns on, and vegetables stacked on top instead of buried underneath. August 24, 2026 Dirty Rice, Red Beans, and the Southern Rice-Pot Family Tree Four rice-pot dishes in the rotation — dirty rice with sausage and ground beef, its oven-finished chorizo cousin, a three-hour red beans pot, and a Puerto Rican side — and what actually separates one one-pot rice technique from the next. August 17, 2026 Date-Night Seafood: Crab Cakes Over Scampi Pasta Two big crab cakes, baked not fried, set on a white-wine scampi that gets its body from "burning out" the wine — plus a bonus stuffing trick borrowed from a sister recipe. August 17, 2026 Two Shrimp Curries: The 30-Minute One and the From-Scratch One Two shrimp curries in the rotation, built two completely different ways — a 30-minute one-pan version and a from-scratch one that makes its own spicy puree. August 13, 2026 Fresh Salmon Patties — Not a Can in Sight Real salmon from the seafood counter, baked and flaked instead of canned — the mix, the chill, and the triple dredge that hold these patties together. August 10, 2026 Lasagna Three Ways: Skillet, No-Boil, or Stuffed Three different lasagnas — one never touches the oven, one skips boiling the noodles, one is stuffed inside garlic bread. August 6, 2026 Six-Ingredient Ramen Upgrade: Creamy & Spicy A pack of ramen, two leftover sausages, and cheese — six ingredients and one pan of drippings turn instant noodles into a creamy, spicy weeknight dinner. August 3, 2026 Copycat Egg Rolls, Taco Fries & Chop Cheese Three restaurant-and-bodega classics rebuilt at home — Southwest egg rolls, loaded taco fries, and a bodega chop-cheese egg roll. What makes each work. July 30, 2026 Fried, Air-Fried, Smothered & Stuffed Wings Four wing builds, one kitchen — Flamin' Hot Cheetos, Southern smothered, mac-and-cheese stuffed, and honey glazed. Here's what changes between them. July 27, 2026 One Pound of Shaved Steak, Three Dinners One cut of shaved steak, three builds — cheesesteak tortellini, spring rolls, and a chop-cheese egg roll spin-off. What changes and what doesn't. July 24, 2026 Smothered Chicken and Rice: The Original The 551,000-view Short that put this channel on the map — the exact browning, roux, and simmer behind the recipe people keep asking me to re-shoot. July 21, 2026 What I Cook Everything In The two pans in nearly every SelfMadeCook video: my cast-iron skillet, my Dutch oven, and what I'd buy first, plus the care habits I actually use. July 20, 2026 The $2 Kitchen MVP: Southern Fried Cabbage One cheap head of cabbage, a stick of butter, and the brown-and-bring-back trick that turns produce-aisle change into a full skillet dinner. July 17, 2026 The Roux, Without Fear A calm walkthrough of the gumbo roux: the heat, the stirring, the color to wait for, when to kill the flame, and how to keep it from breaking. July 16, 2026 Marry Me Chicken with Skin-On Thighs My marry me chicken uses skin-on thighs, not breasts — the seasoning paste, the sear, and the sauce that made it worth the name. July 13, 2026 How I Build a Southern Swicy Sauce The sweet-and-spicy Cajun honey glaze I build on the stove and in the air fryer — the exact ratio, the timing, and the mistakes that break it. July 6, 2026 My Cajun Pantry: The Staples I Use Most The Cajun seasoning, trinity, garlic, oils, and pantry staples I reach for on camera again and again — what each one does and where it shows up. July 5, 2026 My One-Pot Weeknight Dinner Rotation The real system behind my one-pot weeknight dinners: which dishes I rotate, the brown-and-bring-back move, my prep habits, and fixes I learned on camera.

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