OK, now give us the recipe for the last thing you cooked.494 responses total.
The recipe for the crust I made is very simple.
1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening
or
2/3 cup shortening
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cold water (more or less)
Add the butter and shortening to the flour and salt. Cut with a
pastry blender or work it with your fingers until you get pea-sized
pieces. Add the cold water a little at a time and toss mixture with a
fork to mix evenly. Don't add too much water; you only want enough to
get it to stick together. If it's too soft to roll right away, stick
it in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes.
Well, my pea soup started with a "Bean Gourmet" kit (Thick as Fog Pea Soup), but I left out the ham bone they ask you to put in, and I put in slightly less garlic, plus onion, celery and carrots. Then I adjusted the seasoning with a little extra salt, plus freshly ground pepper, a bunch of cumin, and a bunch of summer savory. Oh yes, I also added three vegetarian boullion cubes in the early stages of cooking (to sub for the chicken broth the package asks for). At the very end I threw in a handful of whole wheat elbow macaroni. Makes a nice, very filling soup.
one frozen toaster waffle
(my favorite brand is "Downeyflake Buttermilk Waffles")
one toaster
place waffle in toaster. push down button. wait until waffle pops up.
if the waffle isn't browned fully, push back down. stop the toaster half
way through, or the waffle will burn. burnt waffles don't taste very good.
place waffle on plate. smear with favorite waffle flavorings.
my favorite is covered in peanut butter, and drenched in fake maple syrup.
A recipe for our times.
hey, I'm a man of our times! B-)
<that's scary :)>
This if for you, Valerie, and anyone else who wants to cook an absolutely
delicious and healthy meal in a pot. Don't be put off by the length of
the ingredients, once you get them all together and chop them up (similar
to cooking chinese food), the dish is practically made.
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic (I use two or three)
4 cups chicken stock or 2 cubes with 4 cups water
1 large can Italian plum tomatoes, chopped in chunks
2 cups garbanzo beans (drained)
1 large celery stalk, diced
1-3 medium carrots, chopped or sliced
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
Dash cayenne pepper
black papper to taste
salt to taste
1/2 cup small pasta seashells or macaroni, uncooked
I also included a parsnip in chunks but you can use a
potato in chunks if you'd like
You can vary the vegtables abit, include a can of drained navy beans, and you
can vary the spices, adding or omitting spices like oregano, etc.
In a very large pot, heat the olive oil, fry until light yellow, the onion,
celery, throw in the carrots and garlic. Add the stock, tomatoes and all
of the vegtables. Bring to a boil, add the spices, lower to a simmer for
15 minutes. Then throw in the pasta, bring to a renewed boil. Add more
chicken stock, if the spirit moves you. Stir occasionally. Boil for 30
minutes. Meanwhile, bake a great french bread in the oven. What a meal!!!
Sounds heavenly, Audrey. Thanks!!!
(except for the chicken stock, I assume?)
That's easily substituted for. :)
Are you a vegetarian, Valerie? No meat or chicken or fish? What about dairy products?
(Well, if she's vegetarian, by definition she doesn't eat meat, chicken, or fish...)
actually, i get the impression that the word "vegetarian" means something different to each person who calls themself vegetarian. i'm technically an ovo-lacto-vegetarian because i eat eggs, milk, and vegetables/grain/beans/nuts/fruit/bread/pasta/etc/etc/etc. i aspire to one day become a vegan: someone who uses no animal products, but that's difficult to manage. i try to lay kinda low on telling people i'm a vegetarian (says valerie in a conference that's open to the whole world) because i've met people who seem to think that there's no overlap between the two groups "vegetarian" and "people worth listening to". i'd rather be thought a "person worth listening to" than a "vegetarian". there are some awfully preachy vegetarians out there.
There are some awfully preachy carnivores, too. Small arms fire, that's the ticket. There's a humorous letter in this month's _VT_ dealing with the problem of people who are vegetarians-but. The writer suggests that we use "vegetarians" to refer to people who we now call vegans, "ovo- lacto-vegetarians" for those who eat milk and eggs, "avo-vegetarians" for people who occasionally eat poultry or eggs, "crusto-vegetarians" for those who allow themselves shrimp, crab, etc., "mollo-vegetarians" if the diet includes mollusks (clams, oysters), and of course "crusto-mollo-vegetarians" for shellfish eaters in general. "Mammo-vegetarians" are those who also eat red meat (mammals), "porco- vegetarians also eat pork, and "bovo-vegetarians" eat beef. "Omno- vegetarians" are those who eat anything they like, whenever they like.
....but anyway, last night I made risotto. I didn't have white wine, but I did have some fresh oranges, so I made a sort of orange-onion risotto. 1/4 cup onion 1 clove garlic Olive oil 1 cup arborio rice 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth) Juice of 3 oranges (I guess about 1/2 cup or so) 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Basil and pepper to taste Combine the broth and orange juice. Heat until very warm but not boiling. Pour in a lot of olive oil, at least enough to cover the bottom of a medium saucepan. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the rice and stir to coat. Turn the heat to medium-low and add 1/2 cup of the broth. Stir and allow the rice to almost completely absorb the liquid. Continue adding the broth mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, adding more only when the liquid has been almost completely absorbed by the rice. When you are out of liquid, cook until the rice looks creamy and has absorbed almost all of the remaining broth. Turn off the heat and add the spices. Add the cheese and stir well to let it melt.
That sounds pretty good..
Indeed!! What's arborio rice? Lately i've been using basmati rice. Is arborio rice similar?
It's a kind of short-grain rice used in risotto and Italian dishes. You can get it at the Produce Station and at Zingerman's. Argiero's Market also probably carries it.
In response to at least one request, here is.... My Sister's Recipe for Nutroll (makes four rolls) To 1-1/3 cups of milk add 4 teaspoons dry yeast and 4 egg yolks (save the egg whites for the nut filling). Beat together. Mix like pie dough: 1-2/3 pounds (about 5 cups) flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 2-1/2 tsp salt, and 2/3 cups butter or margarine. Add milk mixture to flour at a steady pace. Add more flour if dough is too soft. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for an hour. To tell you the truth, I use a food processor for the above. My sisters recipe actually calls for scalding the milk and proofing the yeast, but I don't bother with that. To make the filling, combine 1-1/3 pounds of chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup soft butter or margarine, 2 egg whites and 1 cup sugar. Add a little milk, if it looks too dry. If the dough's been sitting for an hour, punch it down and divide into four hunks. Roll out on an 11" x 14" non-floured surface. Spread about a half pound of the filling on the dough, leaving a half inch on the short edge to seal. Roll lengthwise, rubbing water along the sealing edge. Lay rolls on sealed edge on a greased cooking sheet. Let rise for a half hour. Before baking, brush the tops of the rolls with a mixture of 1 egg, 1 tsp sugar, and 1-1/2 tsp milk. Pierce tops with a fork to allow steam to escape. Bake at 340 degrees for a half hour, turning the pan in the oven after 15 minutes. Cool on rack. You can also use a poppyseed filling for these rolls. in this case, obviously, they become poppyseed rolls. The trick with poppyseed rolls is to use ground poppyseed. I've tried using regular poppyseed and they don't come out very good. You can get ground poppyseed in Hamtramck, or I found a can of ground poppyseed filling at Meijer near the canned pie filling.
In the quest for a perfect vegetarian soup stock, I think this one is nearly there: 16 medium sized, dried shiitake or chinese black mushrooms 4 carrots, well scrubbed 8 whole scallions 6 outer lettuce leaves--any kind but iceburg 1 tsp salt 1 tsp Chinese soy sauce 2 tsp toasted sesame oil .25 tsp sugar Rinse the 'shrooms quickly in cold water. Rinse and scrub the carrots, leaving 4 inches of carrot greens on the top, if possible. Combine the 'shrooms, carrots, scallions, lettuce, salt, and 5 cups of cold water in a 4qt pot and bring it to a boil. (You don't need to chop the veggies any smaller than they need to be to fit in the pot.) Once the water is boiling,cover the pot and lower the cooking heat. Simmer it for about .5 hours. Strain the veggies through 3 layers of cheese cloth, and discard all but the mushrooms. (The mushrooms can be stored in the fridge for a while and used up in other dishes.) Boil the stock down to 4 cups. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. Mix and check the seasoning. Adjust to taste. This stock can be used to make lighter flavoured soups. It's good with leftover veggies and rice tossed in, for instance--a quick and easy vegetable rice soup! Also good for corn with egg soup--which is where I tried it.
Here's the recipe for the last thing I cooked. My notes are in [square
brackets]. This took an hour or two to cook, including making ghee. It
turned out wonderfully delicious -- one of the yummiest and most unique
things I've tasted in months.
From Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, page 432:
Sweet Buttery Bean and Rice Pudding with Raisins and Nuts (Shakkara Pongal)
for 6 persons
1 1/2 cups long-grain rice [I used brown basmati]
3/4 cup split yellow mung beans (moong dal)
2 tablespoons yellow split peas [I didn't have yellow, so I used green]
1 cup usli ghee [recipe below]
about 2 1/2 cups boiling water
3 cups milk [I used Edensoy Extra original flavor soymilk instead]
1 1/2 cups packed jaggery [Indian sugar] or light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom [buy this whole and grind it when
you are ready to use it -- this may make or break the recipe!]
1/4 cup seedless dark raisins
1/4 - 1/2 cup unsalted roasted cashew nuts, coarsley chopped [I used
walnuts instead]
1. Rinse and drain the rice. Pick clean the beans and peas. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the ghee in a large saucepan. Add the mung beans
and split peas and fry, over medium heat, stirring, for 3 minutes or until
very lightly colored.
3. Add 2 cups of the boiling water, stir, and lower heat and cook at a
simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Add the rice and the additional
1/2 cup water, and stir. Cook covered, at a low simmer, until the liquid
is absorbed and the rice is almost tender (15 to 20 minutes).
4. Add the milk, bring the mixture to a boil, and cook, stirring often to
prevent sticking but being careful to keep the rice grains whole, until it
is thickened and the rice is cooked (about 15 minutes). [I added the
raisins along with the milk, to give the raisins extra time to soften.]
5. Add the sugar, cardamom, and raisins, and continue cooking for 3 more
minutes. Stir in the remaining ghee 2 tablespoons at a time, and most of
the cashew nuts (save some for a garnish).
Let the pudding rest, covered, for 15 minutes before you serve it. Serve
warm, at room temperature, or chilled, either as a dessert or as a snack
all by itself.
Clarified Butter (Usli Ghee)
To make 3/4 cup clarified butter (usli ghee), place 1/2 pound (2 sticks)
sweet, unsalted butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and put on a burner.
Keep the heat low until the butter melts completely, stirring often during
the process. Increase the heat to medium-low and let the butter simmer
until it stops crackling, thus indicating that all the moisture has
evaporated and the milk residue is beginning to fry. [STIR **CONSTANTLY**
while the butter is simmering and crackling, or it will *not* cook and will
splash little geysers of grease out of the pan.] As soon as the solids
turn brown (10-12 minutes), turn off the heat and take the pan off the
stove. Let the residue settle to the bottom of the pan, then strain the
clear butterfat (usli ghee) into another container.
(fed some to rob this evening. he didn't like it. o well.)
darn. I wouldn't include the nuts, but the rest sounds tasty ... got any leftovers to give away??????
I will NOT pick out the walnuts, btw.
re 21: I made ghee again tonight, with a different brand of butter. It didn't need constant stirring this time. Hm. Also, the recipe says to cook until the milk solids turn brown, but i found i couldn't see the milk solids until i turned off the heat and let the ghee sit for a while so the solids could settle to the bottom of the pot. The rest of the butter kind of changes color after a while, though; it looks sort of clarified instead of milky. Which makes sense, since it's called *clarified* butter. :)
At the Grex picnic yesterday, someone asked me to post the recipe for the salad [or dip as it was also used for] that I brought... This is a combination of suggestions that my sister-in-law had along with something I had tried at a restaurant in NC. To make maybe 4 cups maybe... I used: 2 avacados, diced up About 8 plum tomatoes About 4-5 ounces feta cheese 1/2 to 1 tablespoon Olive Oil Fresh Basil, salt and pepper, to taste. Dice the first 3 ingredients to bite or dip-sized pieces. Add remaining ingredients, mix, and refridgerate to blend seasonings... Oops, I did forget to metion: add the juice of half a lemon to keep the avocado from discoloring; we also diced up a slice of lemon and added that to the salad, too. :-)
Testimonial: Denise's salad was *wonderful*! This evening i made a sort of an eggplant dip that someone fed me when I was visiting Chicago last weekend. It's yummy stuff, even if you're not sure you like eggplant. Pierce one Big Honking eggplant with a fork and nuke it for 5 minutes, 'til it seems likely to be mooshy inside. Let it sit for a while to cool. Peel off the skin and mush up the eggplant flesh. Stir in 1-2 tablespoons of parsley, 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. The original recipe says to add a bunch of oil and some sliced tomatoes and onions, but i skipped all that and ended up with yummy dip anyway. This is great as a bread spread or as a chip dip.
Hey, how about more recipes!!?? :-)
By request and in detail for those not familiar with the dish:
Lasagna
Ingredients:
48 ounces of your favorite spaghetti sauce
2 lbs. mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
30 ounces ricotta cheese
1 box lasagna noodles
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, ground
1/4 tsp. white pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Preparation for assembly:
Mix together all ricotta, 1/4 lb. mozzarella, 1/4 cup
Parmesan, egg, pepper, nutmeg, parsley. Set aside.
Cook noodles as directed on package. Don't overcook!
Rinse in cold water and toss with a few drops of oil
to keep the noodles from sticking together.
Assembly:
Lightly oil a 10" x 13" x 2 1/2" pan. Spread a scant layer of
sauce, then a layer of noodles side by side to meet the edges
of the pan. Drop dollops of the ricotta mixture along the
noodles, squishing them slightly using a lightly oiled spatula
Sprinkle over a layer of Parmesan, then mozzarella. Repeat
these layers (sauce, noodles, ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella)
until the pan is 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the top, ending with a layer
of sauce and keeping 1/4 cup Parmesan and 1/2 cup mozzarella
aside. Mix this Parmesan and mozzarella together and sprinkle
over the sauce as the topping.
Bake:
350 degrees, uncovered, for 1 hour if starting from a room
temperature casserole. If the lasagna was prepared ahead of time
and refrigerated, cook at 350 degrees *covered* for 1/2 hour then
45' to 1 hour uncovered. The top should be slightly browned, the
corner edges even a little crisp, and sauce bubbling around the
edges. Serves 10 to 12.
Tips:
When placing the dollops of ricotta try to vary their placement
on different levels and don't worry much about spreading it thin
and even - trying to do this will only squash the under layers. Just
give it a try to get them cookie shaped and all will be well.
Each layer of noodles should be placed in opposite orientations,
either crosswise or lengthwise. This keeps the layers more stable
when being cut and served. After a while you'll get to know how many
layers your pan will allow - then you'll want to end with lengthwise
top layer placement as this looks the best. (That last hint is
mostly directed at Type A personalities.)
After removing the casserole from the oven don't cut into it
for at least 15'. This will make the cutting easier and allows
the layers to firm up.
Feel free to add layers of well drained and chopped spinach, sliced
mushrooms, use a white sauce, or whatever. The basic recipe adapts
well to whim.
In the specific batch I brought over to the Andre's I used a good
bottled spaghetti sauce - Neuman's Sockaroni. I've found using
bottled sauce in lasagna is far more forgiving than using it on
plain pasta.
sounds like this recipe would be great using my mom`s homemade sauce.
Aa8ij, how about sharing your mom's recipe [if you have it and she wouldn't mind]? :-)
I'll try, but things like this are hard to get out of her.
The last thing I cooked was "Use up the leftovers this week".
Recipe: Get out the 1-quart casserole. Put in 2 layers each of leftover
millet loaf [q.v.] and diced fresh apples. Cover with leftover applesauce
and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon sugar. Bake (covered with lid) in
microwave until done.
Millet loaf recipe: Cooked millet, from 1 c. millet simmered in 4 c. water
for 40 minutes or so (until water is gone).
1/2 c. peanut butter
about 15 oz. Enrico's spaghetti sauce, or functional
equivalent (I don't remember what spices I used to put in)
up to 1/2 c. soy sauce
any fresh vegetables you want to chop up & put in
Mix all ingredients, put in casserole dish and microwave or spread on
a jellyroll pan and bake in oven until crusty but not burned.
Ok, rice glorp:
4-5 cups cooked rice, perhaps dryer than usual
1-1.5 lbs of ground beef, browned, drained, rinsed
1 can peas
1 can chunky/stewed/spiced tomatoes
2-3 cups of V-8 (+very+ important, use a variety of V-8, not TJ)
Mix well, and microwave mixture for 10-12 minutes @ 75% "heat" range.
Add, if needed (taste spec here) margarine, oil, butter - whatever.
That'll get you started - adjust proportions to suit your preferences. It
ought to be a little bit "sloppy," kinda like a slurry.
This is not only a main meal, but phenominal for seconds -
Oh, mixing in some shredded cheeze, of your choosing, isn't against
the "rulez." But, the shredded cheeze works best if it is a topping
after the fact.
Tortellini with Walnut Pesto
1 lb. cheese or cheese and spinach filled pasta
(tortellini, ravioli, agnolotti)
4 oz. walnuts
2 tsp. crushed garlic
1 scallion, finely chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy cream (I used Half-and-Half)
1/8 tsp. ground white pepper
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
Toast the walnuts in a 400 degree oven until they are golden brown.
Using a food processor blend the walnuts into a fine crumb. Add
the Parmesan cheese and white pepper and pulse until well
blended.
Saute the garlic, onion, and mushrooms in a small amount of butter or
olive oil.
Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
Slowly heat the cream in a heavy saucepan. Add the walnut mixture
stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. (It will go from
thin to thick quite quickly as it reaches the point where the
cheese melts.) Don't let it get too thick or boil!
Add the sauce to the pasta along with the mushroom/onion/garlic mixture.
Toss well. Garnish with fresh parsley or basil, or with a few thin
slices of sun dried tomatoes.
Serves 4. Adapted from _Rose Reisman Brings Home Pasta Dishes_
The recipe is from Spiaggia, Chicago, Ill.
Poulsbo Bread
(Makes a 1.5 lb. loaf in a bread machine)
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup 7 grain cereal
2 Tbsp. powdered milk
2/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 tsp. salt
2 2/3 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp. oil
2 2/3 Tbsp. honey
2 tsp. yeast
Bake on light cycle.
From: _Bread Machine Cookbook III_ by Donna Graham
the tortellini with walnut pesto sounds amazing!!
Thanks much for the recipe, Mary!!
anybody try the glorp?
Baked Garlic-Stuffed Antipasto Bread
10 large cloves of fresh garlic, minced (or 5 tsp. pre-minced)
1 large loaf of unsliced French bread
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed, and squeezed dry
1 14 ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained and coursely chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp. capers
1/2 tsp. dried tarragon
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. coarsely ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
Cut top off French bread lengthwise. Carefully scoop out
inside of loaf, tearing bread into small pieces and placing into
large mixing bowl. (I found a grapefruit knife to be helpful with
this process.)
In large skillet, melt butter and add oil. Heat until slighly
bubbling. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Don't allow to brown.
Add spinach, artichoke hearts, and parsley. With a wooden spoon,
lightly stir. When thoroughly mixed, add bread pieces and toss until
well blended with garlic-spinach mixture. Add cheeses, capers and
seasonings. Again, mix well, but gently.
Pack mixture into the hollow bread crust. Replace the top and
wrap in aluminum foil. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Unwrap top.
Lightly brush top with olive oil and bake, uncovered, for 5 or 10
minutes. Allow to cool for 30 minutes then slice and serve warm
or at room temperature.
The original recipe also calls for 2/3 cup of sliced green
olives to go in with the artichoke hearts. I leave these out as
John doesn't like olives but if you do you might want to leave them
in.
It's yummy!
That sounds really amazingly good!
Hot Cocoa: 1 heaping spoonful of unsweetened cocoa powder 2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar milk 1 spoonful of vanilla Mix cocoa, sugar, and a small amount of milk in a mug. You might heat it some at this point, to get the cocoa and sugar to dissolve. Add the rest of the milk. Nuke on high for 1 to 1.5 minutes (or heat in a saucepan) until it is the right temperature to drink. Stir in vanilla. Laugh at the cold. I use a teaspoon for the spoon, above. The silverware kind, not the measuring kind.
chelsea, that was the GREAT stuff you brought to popcorn's NY Eve party, wasn't it? Thank you, thank you for the recipe. I'd probably put in the pimento-olives, cause I like them on anything, ... and remmers can just pick em out if he wants. Actually, chopped pimento-olives are great with mayo and tomato on a veggie burger, or hamburger. World famous, local, hamburger heaven in Flint taught me that taste treat. Queppies, or something like that (sounded like that).
Dave Barry says he's always suspicious of olives because they look to him like giant frog eyes. (You wanted to hear that, right?)
I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this since I have not tried
it, but here goes. This is a recipe for the chicken pies once served at
the downtown Hudson's store in downtown Detroit in the 1950's and 60's. I
for one remember this well, because my mother once was a frequent patron
of Hudsons and usually fed us there when she was too tired to cook.
1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
3 tablespoons chicken fat or butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
12 oz cooked chicken breast cut into strips
1/4 cup tiny frozen peas
1/4 cup diced cooked carrot
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Have ready four individual cassaroles woth
1-1/2 to 2 cup capacity each. Cut circles from pastry to fit the tops of the
cassaroles. Make 2 one inch slashes in the center of each pastry. In a medium
skillet, melt fat or butter and stir in flour. Cook 1 minute, stirring.
Add broth, whisking until smooth. Heat to a boil and cook 1 to 2 minutes,
until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken, peas and carrot.
Divide mixture among the cassaroles. Top with a pasrty round, tucking edges
in. Bake 22 to 27 minutes until puffy and golden brown. serve hot. makes 4
pies.
Nutrition details per pie.
Calories-----653
% of Cal from fat--59%
Fat---------43gm
Protien-----33gm
Carbohydrate-31gm
Cholesteral 96Mg
Sodium-----883 mg
note- cholesteral is expressed in milligrams. That is just a typo.
Dang, they sure did extensive nutrition analyses in the 50's...
This analysis is from the Detroit Free Press. I posted in the interest of those who are on diets/regimens.
I've been trying to find recipes for pasta dishes that end up
being loaded with flavor but not floating in a heavy sauce.
I found this in an old issue of Bon Appetit and it fits the bill
nicely. And it's great as leftovers.
******************************************
Mediterranean-Style Penna
10 bacon slices, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 small eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups chopped, peeled and seeded tomatoes
(or 1 28 ounce can of plum tomatoes: coursely
chop the tomatoes and include the juice)
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
(or 2 tsp. minced garlic in oil)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled or rubbed
1/4 cup drained capers, rinsed
1 lb. penna pasta (or rigatoni)
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 ounces of feta cheese, crumbled
Cook bacon in heavy casserole over med-high heat until crisp.
Transfer to paper towels using slotted spoon. Add onion, garlic,
and eggplant to drippings in skillet. Saute over med-high heat
until eggplant is tender and golden, about 15 minutes. Add tomatoes,
vinegar and thyme. Reduce heat to medium and cook 5 minutes. Stir
in capers. Season with salt and pepper.
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender
but still firm to the bite. Drain. Transer to large bowl. Toss
with olive oil. Mix in eggplant sauce and either serve individual
portions with the feta and bacon sprinkled on top or mix all together
for a self-serve group.
Serves 4 to 6. From: Bon Appetit
*******************************************************
Stupid question of the day: what is penna pasta (or rigatoni)?
Rigotoni are small macaroni sized pasta shapes. Penne is also pasta but in the shape of large rice so it has a different texture wqhen you chew it. I have never seen tomato sauce on penne, usually butter and cheese or oil and mushroom sauce. Rigotoni frequently is uded in pasta based casseroles.
I guess penne pasta must be available at places other than yer reg'lar supermarket...
Actually, penne is not rice-like. You may be thinking or orzo? What this recipe asks for is a type of pasta fashioned like a section of tubing. There are a number of types such as penne, rigatoni, ziti, or mostaccioli. Some are slightly larger, or thicker, or ribbed, or with the ends cut on the diagonal or straight. Any would do. Ziti and mostaccioli are readily available almost everywhere pasta is sold. The most important part is not really what type of pasta shape is used but that it isn't cooked into mush. Cook it in an ample amount of salted boiling water so that after you add the dry pasta it won't take but a few moments to return to a boil. Then check it in five minutes and every minute thereafter. What you're looking for is when the color is consistent all the way through yet it's resistant to the bite. When you get there immediately remove the pasta from the boiling water by pouring it into a colander. If the pasta is to be used in a recipe that's served cold or one in which you don't want the sauce sticking to the pasta then rinse it in cold water. If you want the sauce to adhere or will be serving the dish hot - don't rinse. That's probably more than anyone wanted to know about cooking pasta but hey, I was on a roll. ;-)
Thanks for the info. I was wondering if penne pasta was something special (like made from a different flour), or a really strange shape, etc. I've probably got something on the shelf here that would work...
A simple, not heavy sauce (of a sort) for pasta, is: Balsamic vinegar Olive oil White pepper Salt (if you wish) Feta cheese Fresh spinach Wash and stem the spinach. Mix the oil and vinegar (2:1 or 1.5:1 usually) to tasts with the pepper. (Read that to taste) Pour the vinaigrette into a food processor and start mixing in feta and spinach until a pale green, smooth textured, light consistency is attained. Voila! (Chop extra feta and spinach to add after mixing the pasta and sauce, throw in some olives, some water chestnuts, etc. Yum!)
Dinner yesterday was: Chop and cook a bunch of broccoli. While it's cooking, mix up batter for a double batch of cornbread. Spread a thin layer of batter on the bottom of a baking pan. Drain the broccoli well, and add it to the pan. Pour the rest of the cornbread batter on top, making sure all the broccoli is covered. Bake. Optionally serve with cheese on top. Rave reviews all around.
Oops! I forgot the garlic. Lots of garlic, in number 54 above. How could I forget the garlic?!!
Err, make that #55!
Sauted Seafood and Vegetable Salad
**********************************
2 Tbsp. olive oil
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, sliced
8 ounces crab or lobster meat, chunked (fake works fine)
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried chopped oregano (1 Tbsp. fresh)
* Saute onion in 1 Tbsp. olive oil until tender. Add the
mushrooms and saute until tender. Set aside.
* Saute peppers in 1 Tbsp. olive oil until tender crisp.
* Add crabmeat and saute until lightly browned and heated through.
* Add onions and mushrooms to the crabmeat and peppers. Pour
dressing over and toss.
* Serve over a bed of lettuce or stuffed into pita bread.
Serves 4.
This was tried in the Remmers kitchen last night and is recommended
when you're looking for something ultra quick and on the lighter side.
That looks delicious...now I'm hungry...thanks
It *was* delicious.
...and there were these leftover red and yellow peppers so I decided
to make kebabs, with chicken, using a recipe in this month's issue
of "Eating Well". The marinade is touted as "classic Moroccan" and
can be used on either fish or chicken. I tried the chicken and found
the recipe quite good.
**********************************
Charmoula Chicken Kebabs
Marinade ingredients:
1/2 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup freshed squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsp. olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
Chunk for kebabs:
1 1/2 lb. skinless chicken breasts
1/2 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 red onion
8 ounces mushrooms
1 zucchini
Marinate the chicken (or fish) for 30 to 60 minutes before
assembling the kebabs. Baste well with remaining marinade
before broiling approx. 5 minutes per side, until chicken is
just done.
Makes 6 kebabs.
It was *wonderful*. Another winner!
Here's the recipe for Bread Machine Pudding. I actually got the recipe from a kind soul responding to my post in rec.food.recipes. To: danr@umcc.umcc.umich.edu Subject: Re: REQUEST: Bread Pudding Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes Organization: Homewood Academic Computing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, USA REALLY Easy Bread Pudding: 3 cups bread "pieces" -- torn up slices, odds & ends, etc. 2 cups milk 1/4 cup butter/margarine 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp ground cloves scald the milk and butter in a small saucepan. Beat the eggs and sugar together and add to the milk, along with the spices. Mix well. Tear the bread into chunks--about 1/2" cubes or so--and put in a 9x13 or 9x9 pan. Pour the milk mixture over the bread and stir around until all the bread is coated. Bake 350F for 40-45 minutes. Notes: The spice measurements here are very aproximate. I started making bread pudding with my Mamaw, and she didn't OWN measuring spoons! :) Just add to taste. Excellent additions include one or more of the following: raisins, fresh berries, grated lemon peel, chocolate chips. Add a 1/2 cup or so to the bread before you pour in the milk. Enjoy! sarah watson_s@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (preferred)
Thanks for posting this Dan. I'll try it soon.
This definitely isn't the *last* thing I cooked. It's a recipe I discovered last winter. I haven't had a hamburger in at least six years, so I may not be remembering accurately what they tasted like, but this tasted surprisingly hamburgerlike to me. When I found the recipe I thought it was low in fat because it has no added oil or butter. However, it turns out that between the walnuts and the wheat germ it's not at all a lowfat food. Though it probably is lower in fat than real hamburgers. In any case, these are *good!* _Walnut Oatmeal Burgers_ from _Laurel's Kitchen_ and adapted by me 1 to 1 1/2 cups walnut pieces 1 cup rolled oats 2 eggs, slightly beaten 1/4 cup skim milk 1/2 teaspoon sage pinch of salt pepper to taste wheat germ 1 1/2 cups water Grind walnuts in blender or food processor and combine with oats, eggs, milk, sage, salt and pepper. Add wheat germ until the mixture seems non- sticky enough to make patties. Form 2 or 3 patties. Brown patties in a non-stick or lightly oiled skillet, then pour the water into the skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. Serve on buns with "the fixin's" or crumble and use as you would hamburger in chili beans, spaghetti sauce, etc. As an alternative to boiling, put the browned patties on a microwave-safe plate, add as much water as you can put on the plate and safely carry it (maybe to half the depth of the patties) and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Here's a gem I found when I was looking for things to eat during the
last heat wave. Couscous is Moroccan pasta; it looks like spaghetti
that's been through a blender. It cooks quickly and is a yummy
alternative to grains such as rice. I've adapted this recipe from
_Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home_ by the Moosewood Collective.
Couscous with Artichoke Hearts and Walnuts
===========================================
1 3/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups organic whole wheat couscous from the co-op. (Reduce the water
to only 1 cup if you use regular couscous).
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 6-ounce jar of marinated artichoke hearts, preferably Cara Mia
1/2 tablespoon olive oil (optional, especially if you use the marinade
from the jar of artichokes in the recipe instead of throwing it away)
1 large clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon dried)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
salt and peper to taste
Boil the water. Put the couscous into a large heatproof bowl. Use a fork
to stir in the water. Add the salt and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
Drain and half-heartedly rinse the artichoke hearts. (Optionally drain the
artichoke hearts into the couscous instead of throwing the liquid away.)
Chop the artichoke hearts into long, thin sticks. Mix all ingredients into
the couscous. This is good at room temperature, or warm, or cold. It makes
a unique and good one-dish meal on a hot day.
Here is a recipe I adapted from one in _Laurel's Kitchen_. I think it's probably quite low in fat (haven't done the calculations to check). It's yummy. The crust is especially neat -- I intend to remember it and use it for other pies. It tastes like toast. Summer Squash Pie ----------------- 2 cups whole grain bread crumbs (I created these by running my food processor on old frozen bread ends from my bread maker) 6 cups summer squash (about 2 medium squashes), cut into cubes 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cloves garlic, chopped or squeezed or whatever 4 egg whites (or 2 whole eggs, but all the bad-for-you stuff in the egg is in the yolk so I've been replacing each yolk with a second egg white) 3/4 cup cottage cheese 2 tablespoons cornmeal 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon dill weed tomato slices, pepper slices, for garnishing Preheat oven to 350. Press bread crumbs into a liberally buttered 9" pie plate. (I used about a teaspoon of butter. This is a ton of fat, and I plan to use less next time.) Nuke the onion in a big, covered bowl (I use an inverted glass plate as a bowl cover) for a minute or two. Add the cubes of squash, stir, and nuke, covered, for 4 or 5 minutes, until the squash seems cooked. Drain off the liquid. Stir in all the other ingredients except the garnishes. Pour into the pie crust and decorate with tomato and/or pepper slices. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, until set. Let stand at least 10 minutes before cutting. This makes 6 slices, which ends up serving 2 or 3 people.
This sounds wonderful. I'll try it and report back.
<valerie faints> You mean... someone actually *uses* the recipes here in this conference?! Coolness! Please let me know how it comes out!
I've made quite a few, actually. Your choco-chip pumpkin bread being one of my favorites.
Yep, there ARE a lot of cool recipes here, that's for sure!
Has anyone recently cooked egg rolls or spring rolls? I'm going to try making some (probably bigger than egg rolls, though) and could use a recipe (I'm starting from total scratch) if you have one to share. Thanks.
I have one. let me dig it up.....
Thanks! I'd like to see how it compares to what I made the other day (by looking in about six cookbooks and mixing and matching with the ingredients I had on hand). I will say, though, that making egg roll skins from scratch is a royal pain. I also tried the store-bought kind of wrappers and they worked fine and with much less swearing.
(I *almost* said that, but I figured you knew what you were doing.) :)
Everyone seemed to like the bread I brought to the potluck last saturday,
so here's the recipe you asked for!
Rye Bread - Makes three loaves
1 pkg yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups sifted rye flour (I use medium)
3/4 cup dark molassas
1/3 cup shortning
2 tsp salt
2 cups boiling water
6 to 6-1/2 cups flour (all purp?)
Soften yeast in the warm water. Combine the rye flour, molassas,
shortning, and salt. Add the boiling water and blend well. I use an
electric hand mixer to save my arm for later. Cool to lukewarm. (very
important) Add the softened yeast. Gradually add the flour to make a soft
dough. Mix well. Turn out onto a floured surface, cover, and let rest for
about 10 minutes. Kneed until dough is smooth and satiny, adding flour as
needed. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double. Punch
down, cover again for about 1/2 hr or so. Divide into thirds, and place
onto cornmeal dusted pan(s). Let rise about 15 minutes. Brush with
slightly beaten egg. Bake at 350 deg. 35 - 40 minutes. Try to let it cool
(on a wire rack) before you eat it all!
That was great bread!
hmmmm. i wonder if i can adapt that to my bread machine. i'll give it a try...
But it won't be the right shape!
Well, I'm not exactly the right shape either, so it's OK. :-)
Hello. I am told that I can make a pretty mean spicy tomato soup. It is really easy. Saute half a cup of onions in a stock pot with two tablespoons of olive oil. When the onions are tender add a pinch of salt and a generous pinch of freshly ground black pepper. As well, add three medium minced cloves of garlic and two tablespoons of dill. Then add two cups of water and a can of crushed tomatoes. Sometimes I add a can of tomato paste too. As this is simmering it is nice to add a tablespoon of honey. I also add one or two fresh tomatoes without the skins which I removed by putting the tomatoes in boiling water for 10 seconds. Within half an hour to forty five minutes this soup is ready to delight you taste buds. I think it was from the Moosewood Cookbook that I got most of the ideas.
Welcome to Grex, Blake! That soup sounds *good*! Grex doesn't word wrap, so it's a good idea to hit enter when you get to about the 75th column or so.
Thanks for the welcome popcorn. I will take your advice from now on. I was wondering if anyone knows a good recipe for a stir fry sauce that isn't too sticky or heavy. I would be greatly appreciative of such a sauce. I just can not find a recipe that is right.
like something tocook it in, or to pour on top? we've got this stuff at work (too damn expensive, but really wonderful anyway) called asian oil, that is a mix of sesemae oil, peanut oil, soy sauce, toasted sesmae seeds, and rice wine vinegar...we fry in it, and then add a little on the top, with some chili oil. i would heartily suggest that you make your own, and NOT buy it for the price factor.
I made a neat little dish tonight, of my own creation. 1 eckrich smoked sausage 4 oz sliced mushrooms 1 med vidalia onion 1 plum tomato Slice the sausage into bite sized pieces along with the mushrooms and onions, and tomato. drop a little butter in the pan and add the onions first and saute them till golden brown, then add the mushrooms, cook for a little longer (2 mins) then add the sausage and tomatoes, and cook for about 4 mins. Drain and serve over noodles, or plain. Serves 2 or 3.
Well, this isn't the *last* thing I cooked, but it's the yummiest thing I've cooked recently. This is the house dressing at the Moosewood Restaurant, an awesome vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca, NY. Since I made the salad dressing, we've been going out of our way to eat tons and tons of salad, just to have an excuse to eat some more dressing -- it's *that* good. I'm planning to try making this next time with nonfat yogurt instead of both the oil and the buttermilk. That should improve the fat content of the dressing by a lot, and I think the result may be similar to the (truly awesome) Anna's Nonfat Creamy Garlic Yogurt Dressing that you can get at the Spaghetti Machine. Anyway, here's the recipe: L.D.'s Creamy Green Dressing Yields 2 cups 1 cup vegetable oil 2 tablespoons cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice [I used cider vinegar] 1 teaspoon honey or 2 tablespoons apple juice [I used honey] 5 or 6 spinach leaves 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley [I used dried] 1 teaspoon fresh basil (1/4 teaspoon dried) [I used dried] 1 teaspoon fresh marjoram (1/4 teasspoon dried) [I used dried] 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 garlic clove, pressed 1 cup buttermilk Blend all of the ingredients, except the buttermilk, for one minute. While the blender is running, slowly pour in the buttermilk. As soon as the dressing thickens, turn off the blender or the dressing will separate and become runny. It should be thick and creamy. Chill at least 30 minutes so the flavors have a chance to meld. Other herbs can be used to vary this dressing. Dill, tarragon, oregano, a dab of Dijon mustard, and freshly ground black pepper are all possible additions or substitutions. Fresh herbs in season are always our choice when available. Yogurt or sour cream may be substituted for buttermilk. However, buttermilk makes the most creamy and stable (non-separating) dressing. Refrigerated and tightly covered, it will stay fresh for up to a week. If the dressing separates, reblend.
I found this in a coffee and tea book at the library. It might be useful
with this hot weather. A pitcher lasted a coupla hours around here!
LIME TEA
2 cups boiling water 2-1/2 cups lemon lime soda
2 tbs loose tea (oolong?) skins of two limes
1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup lime juice
2-1/2 cups ginger ale 1/2 cup corn syrup (I used less)
Pour boiling water over tea and steep for 5 minutes. Strain. Add sugar and
lime skins and let stand for one hour. Remove skins from tea and add
remaining ingredients. Serve chilled over ice.
Wow, I think I'll go make some more!
i'm not that big on teas, but that sounds grezat!!!!!!!!! :) well, i made chili the other night...it had ground beef and corn and*WAY* too many kidney bens...:) yummers!@!!!!!!!!!!
Re 87: I tried making the Moosewood salad dressing recipe with nonfat yogurt replacing the oil. It was good, but not the amazingly awesomely wonderful stuff that the exact recipe in #87 produced. I'm thinking I should have cut down on the amount of yogurt in the recipe, so the other ingredients were a larger portion of the total.
well, i just got a new cookbook..."the new basics cookbook". i haven't had time to really play with it yet, but the first things to come out of it will be corn fritters with dried cherry chutney, and chiken with sausauge, prunes, and apples...and there are SO many other things in there that i'm just itching to try.... and i'm also in the process of making my own chili oil....
For a summertime treat, try covering a tray with overlapping slices of tomato and mozzarella (both sliced thin) and fresh basil leaves. Tomato-basil-mozzarella, tomato-basil- mozzarella, etc. Then drizzle (funny word) expensive olive oil over it and, if you like, sprinkle a bit a dried oregano. It looks, smells and tastes wonderful. Enjoy it outside in the sun with a bottle of nice red wine. Imagine yourself in a garden on Tuscany hillside, or sitting under an umbrella on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean.
it works (and tastes!) best if you use fresh mozzeralla... (well, at least that's the way that i've always had it....:) and purple bas(oops...) and purple basil is fun! :)
Hmmmm. Gotta try purple basil next time. The *very* best mozzarella is imported from Italy, if you can find it.
my aunt does a lot of catering, so that's the only way i've had it. (this of course means that i've only had it about twice, as she lives in fl...but, heh,...at least she was feeding us the good stuff...:) also, balsamic vinegar (NOT alot, just a drizzle) is a nice addition...
Meg, you just gotta try the reddened catfish out of _Basics_. It works.
ummm, i most likely will not, as i generally can't stand fish...:( but tonight i did cook the chicken with sausage, prunes, and apples out of that book....it was WONDERFUL!!!! and actually, i made enough to bring along to the picnic...:)
I got inspired to try this recipe at least party because bmoran posted
a bean recipe the other day. This recipe is from the cookbook _Moosewood
Restaurant Cooks At Home_, a wonderful book of quick, vegetarian, yummy
recipes. If you have cooked rice on hand, this recipe is definitely quick,
vegetarian, and yummy. I left out scads of ingredients and still ended up
with a very yummy dish.
Black Beans And Rice Salad
==========================
2 cups drained cooked black beans (or a 16 ounce can) [I used the can]
3 cups cooked brown rice [I used brown Basmati rice]
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1/4 cup sliced Spanish olives [I left this out]
Dressing:
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 cup chopped scallions [I left this out]
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro [I left this out]
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange peel [I left this out]
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley [I used around 1 tablespoon, dried]
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
salt and ground black pepper to taste [I left this out]
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts [I used whole walnuts, toasted in the
microwave]
a few fresh cilantro or parsley leaves [I left this out]
In a mixing bowl, combine the drained beans with the rice, celery, and
Spanish olives. In a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing
ingredients. Pour the dressing over the beans and rice mixture, and stir
thoroughly. Top with the toasted walnuts and the cilantro or parsley.
Michael, I've had te tomato/mozzerel/basil dish awhile back at a restaurant and thought it was wonderful... Thanks for eminding me to give it a try at home!! :-)
You're welcome. Hope you enjoy it. I've made many trays over the years, and I have to say it's the one dish I make that there's never anything left of at the end of the meal.
From the September 1995 issue of Cooking Light Magazine
Basil Pesto (lower-fat version):
2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted
2 Large garlic cloves (I used 4)
3 cups. fresh basil leaves, packed
2 Tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (I used 1 1/2 Tbsp.)
Drop pine nuts and garlic though the food chute with
the food processor on, and process until minced. Add
basil, cheese, and lemon juice; process until finely
minced. With processor on, slowly pour oil through
the chute, process until well blended. Store in an
air-tight container in the refrigerator.
To serve, just spoon whatever amount onto hot pasta,
toss well, and serve.
Makes 16 servings, ! Tbsp. each.
Nutritional Info: Cooking Light's version / My changes
Calories: 35/28
% Calories from Fat: 87%/80%
I somewhat disagree with their idea of a serving. I made a
double recipe and half nicely covered one pound of pasta, so
I'd say this recipe makes more like 6 - 8 servings. Still
not a whole lot of fat or calories. Does anyone know how
it compares, in terms of calories and fat, with standard pesto
recipes?
Standard pesto recipes tend to have about a cup of oil... wait, I looked up a pesto recipe. 2 cups basil leaves, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese 2 tablespoons Romano cheese, 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts, 1/2 cup olive oil, and salt and pepper. The yield is about 1 cup. Your recipe cuts way down on all the many high-fat ingredients (oil, cheese, nuts). I don't know the numbers, but I'd guess your recipe compares *very* favorably.
Well, this lower-fat recipe isn't as moist and slippery as the traditional recipe either. But the flavor is quite good and it covers the pasta evenly, mixing well. I splurged and bought better quality pasta to try this out - purchasing the imported linguine sold at Zing's in the brown bag. I've thrown away the package at this point but Zing's only sells two brands of pasta, the Martinelli and this one. Try it, there is a difference.
Mary, thanks for this item! I grew a vast amount of basil this summer and didn't know quite what to do with it all (it just smells so nice in the garden). We tried this tonight; it was great!
does anybody have anby grand ideas of what to do with lemon basil besides smell it on your fingers and feed it to the doggie? :)
Lemon pesto? Feed it to the valerie? :)
what is the difference between lemon basil, lemon mint, and lemon balm?
i know that i have NO clue....:)
I'm glad you liked the recipe, Susan. I've found Cooking Light magazine, in general, to be quite a good resource.
Gee, I'm an "omni-vegetarian", but here is the latest that I made...My kids and friends are constantly asking for this sauce...my own recipe... Freida's Spaghetti Sauce I make a 22 qt. kettle full and freeze in smaller containers for later, quicker use. 1 lb sweet sausage 1 lb hot sausage 2 lbs ground beef Brown all meat together, chopping into small bits as you brown it. Place into colander and rinse well under very hot water...this eliminates the fat...and squeeze dry. Set aside. In a food processor, finely chop the following ingredients together... 5 medium onions 2 lbs carrots 2 lbs spinach 1 medium head of cabbage 5 cloves of garlic 4 medium green peppers 1 lb mushrooms When all is finely chopped, mix with meat mixture. I use canned tomatoes, but you could substitute fresh ones. In the food processor, whir 4 to 5 #10 cans (restaurant size) of peeled tomatoes. Mix all ingredients and simmer for about 4 hours. During the last 1/2 hour of cooking, add (you can use 2X the amount of fresh instead) 1/2 cup basil 2 TBS salt or taste and season accordingly. I developed this recipe because my kids loved spaghetti, but hated veggies. I tried making it with chunks, but they picked them out...so I took to turning everything to mush and not telling them what was in it...results? They loved the sauce, got their veggies, and the flavor and consistency were improved with the mush. Let me know what you think!
Omni-vegetarian meaning you eat everything that eats vegetables? >8)
(meg thinks that she might now have to try this rdecipe...:)
I made applesauce. Recipe: Core 7 apples and chop them into big chunks. Boil with 1/2 cup water and a handful of raisin, until stuff is mooshy. Eat. Yum!
omni-vegetarian does not describe omni ;)
Re 113: Valerie, no spices? Really?
Really. Pretty shocking, eh?
This response has been erased.
I forgot to include celery in the recipe, destrung of course...also, Valerie, If you take the onions, mushrooms, peppers, celery, and other like veggies and saute them til they are just brown, then continue making the sauce, I think you will find that it is a wonderful vegetarian sauce that you would like and get allyour vitamins from too! Don't forget to add a sprinkle of greshly grated parmesan cheese! Yes, it means I eat meat...critters that eat veggies and other critters.
I adore spiking spaghetti sauce with various veggies, and maybe pine nuts and artichoke hearts and tofu, too. :)
RE:lemon basil, etc. Lemon Balm, Basil, and Thyme are all members of the mint family. Balm and Thyme are perennials, Basil is a (very) tender annual.Lemon balm is used fresh as a hot or iced tea, thyme to season chicken, fish, soups, PASTRIES and DESSERTS. (caps to get grexers to notice), and basil is used with tomato dishes, like sweet basil. So as not to drift too much, last night I used some dried lemon basil in a one-pot onions, carrots, rice dish that came out pretty good.
Tuesday I made the classic Valerie tofu-bulgur-and-broccoli dish. This time I spiked it with a jar of drained marinated artichoke hearts. It's heavenly!
Here is the recipe Denise requested for Mexican Lasagna:
** Mexican Lasagna **
1 lb. extra lean ground turkey
16 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
4 1/2 oz. canned chopped green chilies
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
5 "turns" of freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup eggbeaters (or two eggs)
2 cups non-fat cottage cheese
2 oz. non-fat mozzarella cheese, grated
10 non-fat tortillas
1 17 oz. can corn, drained
2 cups. shredded lettuce
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
4 green onions, chopped
Optional toppings: non-fat cheddar cheese, salsa,
fat-free sour cream, chopped green onion.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat in a vegetable oil sprayed
skillet. Add tomatoes, green chilies, and seasonings and simmer x5
minutes. In a small bowl mix mozzarella and cottage cheese and the (eggs)
eggbeaters.
Spray a 9"X13" casserole. Arrange the 6 tortillas over the
bottom of the casserole so that the entire bottom is covered and the
tortillas stick up over the edges by about 1/4" (in places they will
overlap each other quite a bit).
Layer corn, 1/2 of the meat mixture, 2 tortillas, remaining
meat, 2 tortillas, and top with the cheese mixture.
Bake, uncovered, 45' to an hour, until the top is starting
to brown and the center is hot. Allow to cool for 15 minutes
before serving. Garnish as desired.
Serves 6, generously. 375 calories per serving with less
than 10% of the calories from fat.
-----------------------------------------
Sounds delicious; thanks Mary!! :-)
One mistake in the ingredients - 1/4 cup Eggbeaters is equal to one egg, not two.
Deer Minestrone Soup 3 cups cubed deer meat 8 - 10 carrots diced 1 medium onion diced 2 cups celery diced and including leaves 4 -5 potatoes diced 2 large tomatoes diced 1 can of chicken broth (12 ozs.) 1 cup of chopped spinach 1 handful of frozen corn par boil deer meat...about 2 -3 minutes of boiling. Pour off scum and all water. Cover meat again with water and bring to a boil for about 3 minutes. Drain. Spray a skillet with vegetable spray and sautee meat, onion, celery. When onions are transparent, pour in large pot and add chicken broth. Simmer with spinach and carrots for about 40 minutes. Add 2 - 3 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, corn and tomatoes and simmer until done...about 40 minutes. Serve alone or add biscuits and a little freshly grated parmesan cheese. Mmmmgood!
Sounds great. And any leftover deer meat makes excellent Bambiburgers! (Sorry, couldn't resist that...)
** Greek Lemon and Chicken Soup **
8 cups of chicken stock
3/4 cup orzo or other rice-shapped pasta
1 boneless chicken breast (1/2 lb.) cut
into 1/4 inch by 1 inch pieces
3 eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (uses approx. 1 1/2 lemons)
1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
In a large pot, bring the stock to a boil.
Reduce the heat to a medium and add
the pasta. Cook, uncovered, approx. 15 minutes
until the pasta is tender. Add the chicken and
turn the heat to low.
Place the eggs in a mixing bowl. Wisk the eggs while
slowly pouring in the lemon juice. Stir in the zest.
While wisking continuously, slowly pour a ladleful of the
hot stock into the egg mixture. Then, while stiring
the soup, slowly pour in the egg mixture. (The whole
idea here is to not allow the egg mixture to curdle by
adding it too quickly to a very hot soup.) With the
addition of the lemon/egg mixture the color will change
to a pleasing yellow and the soup will thicken.
Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Serve,
garnished with parsley.
Serves 6. From: Williams-Sonoma's _Soups_.
s/shaped/shapped. Grrrr.
The only change I'd make to this recipe next time around would be to reduce the quantity of pasta to maybe 1/2 cup. Or maybe not. Very rich flavor for not a lot of fat.
thanks chelsea...I'll be trying it soon and let you know what I think!
Surely this should be "*Geek* Lemon and Chicken Soup" after being posted on Grex?
Dave, go clean your room.
Only after I wash my mouth out with soap?
That, or wash it it with soup?
I ventured into the realm of non-chocolate cakes this evening. It's Rob's birthday. I knew he likes oatmeal-raisin cookies, so I was looking for a similar tasting cake. This one does indeed taste similar. And it's *good*. Even without any chocolate! This is from _Joy Of Cooking_. It's possibly the yummiest thing I've ever cooked from there. Comments in brackets are mine. _Date Spice Cake_ 1 cup dates [I used floured date pieces from Whole Foods or the co-op] 1 cup boiling water [I used room temperature water] 1 1/2 cups cake flour 1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder 3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1 cup raisins 1 cup broken pecan meats powdered sugar Preheat oven to 325 degrees. [I used 350 and still had to bake it extra. But my oven is screwy.] Combine dates and water. Cream butter, sugar, and egg together. Mix everything together except the powdered sugar. Bake in a greased or non-stick loaf pan for about 45 minutes. [I baked it for 55 minutes, because at 45 minutes I poked in a knife and got liquid batter on it]. Dust with powdered sugar. Tip: Don't dust a cake with powdered sugar and then ask someone to blow out candles in it. Potentially very messy.
"Good" is an understatement...mmm-MMM. :-)
A ways back headdoc entered a recipe for pasta which had a garlic-based sauce and lots of veggies. I can't seem to find it here or in item #8. Audrey, it was a recipe you either got from your daughter or from a restaurant in the Seattle area. Anyhow, I'd like to try it if I could find it. Help? But the good news is that in re-reading this item I've found a number of dishes I meant to try and didn't. I've now indexed them for future use.
Hey, I found Audrey's recipe. It was in item #8, response #312. I plan to make this sometime this week.
I forgot about it, Mary and haven't made it for awhile. Thanks for the reminder. Let me know how you like it.
(Another option is that the recipe has already made it into the recipe archives. Type "recipe" and then "chicken" and then the recipe is "Seattle Angel Hair Pasta With Veggies - headdoc".)
Wow. I tend to forget about that archive. Thanks for the reminder.
It was rather out of date. I'm in the process of working my way through the conference to update it. But it'll be a while yet before all current recipes are listed there.
As per Valerie's request: Orzo and Portobello Casserole 1/4 cup dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes 1/4 cup boiling water 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups thinly sliced leeks 2 cups diced portobello mushroom caps 1 cup quartered domestic mushrooms 4 cloves of garlic, minced 2 cups (uncooked) orzo, cooked as directed 2 cups tomato juice 2 teaspoons dried basil (or 2 tablespoons fresh) 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tablespoon fresh) 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon paprika 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded provolone cheese 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the sun-dried tomatoes and the water in a small bowl and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Drain and chop the tomatoes. Heat the oil in a large skilled or dutch oven. Add tomatoes, leek, mushrooms, and garlic. Saute 5 minutes. Combine mushroom mixture, orzo, juice, basil, oregano, vinegar, paprika, and pepper and add to the pot. Mix well over low heat. Spoon mixture into a 13 X 9 inch baking dish that has been sprayed with vegetable or olive oil. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cheeses and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes until melted and bubbly. Serves 6-8. Calories (for 1/6) 381 with 24% from Fat.
Thank you, Mary. This looks wonderful and I will try it next time I have to cook for 6.
Last night we had basil marinated pork loin chops and vinaigrette marinated vegetables and potato packets, all done on the grill. The basil recipe was one I got from a recent Kitchen Port Demo by Kerrytown Bistro. The vegetable marinade was in last night's paper and comes from Jane Fonda. The potato pockets are an old trick from my camping days. The whole meal was one Good Thing. ;-)
D'accord.
Creamy Zucchini and Rice Gratin
Recipe By : Cooking Light July 1997
Serving Size : 4
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup Vidalia onion -- chopped
5-7 cups zucchini -- grated
2 teaspoons fresh garlic -- minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup short-grain rice -- (raw) Arborio
1/2 cup parsley -- chopped
1/2 cup egg beaters (or two eggs)
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Cook rice as directed on package. Heat oil in large frying pan
or wok. Add onion and saute 3 minutes. Add zucchini, garlic, salt
and pepper; saute 10 minutes until almost all liquid reduced. Spoon
into a large mixing bowl and add rice, parsley, egg substitute, feta
and thyme. Mix well. Pour into an 8'X 8" casserole which has
been sprayed with vegetable cooking oil. Sprinkle breadcrumbs
over and spray bread crumbs. Bake 375 degrees, uncovered, for 45
minutes.
Recently on a Saturday walk I mentioned this recipe. Mary said she would be interested in seeing a copy of it. So here it is. This has been my main dish at Thanksgiving for the last several years. You'd think that would mean that this is a complicated recipe, but actually it's surprisngly simple. From the original Moosewood Cookbook, with some adaptations by Valerie: Stuffed Squash ============== 2 decent-sized acorn or turban or other sweet winter squashes 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 large clove of garlic 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage 1/2 teaspoon thyme 3-4 tablespoons butter (I cut this down to 1 tablespoon &/or use oil instead) 1 cup coarsely crumbled whole wheat bread 1/4 cup chopped walnuts 1/4 cup sunflower seeds 1 stalk chopped celery juice from 1/2 lemon (I usually leave this out) 1/2 cup grated cheese (I've used mozzerella, provolone, cheddar, whatever) salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Split squashes in half lenghthwise. Remove the seeds and microwave for 10-15 minutes, until squash is soft. You'll probably want to rearrange the squash pieces part way through the baking to distribute the heat evenly. Careful, the squash gets very hot. Alternatively, you can bake the squash in the oven for 30 minutes or until tender. While the squash is cooking, saute onions, garlic, celery, nuts and seeds in butter. Cook over low heat until onions are clear, nuts are browned, celery is tender (in other words [says Mollie Katzen], cook until everything is perfect). Add remaining ingredients, except cheese. Cook, stirring, over low heat 5-8 minutes -- until everything is acquainted. Remove from heat and mix in the cheese. Pack stuffing into squash cavities. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. After that, if needed, heat under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. Mmmm! This is one of my all-time favorite recipes.
"...until everything is acquainted." Love it. I'll most certainly be making this sometime this week. Thanks a bunch for entering it, Valerie.
Ya, I enjoy reading Mollie Katzen's cookbooks. Who else would say "until everything is acquainted".
Oh -- My sister doesn't like walnuts, so I often make that recipe with pine nuts instead.
Here's what Jan and I made for yesterday's Grex pot luck. We think it's a wonderfully yummy recipe. It's from the _Horn Of The Moon_ cookbook, by Ginny Callan: Oriental Salad: ============== Marinade: 3/4 cup sunflower oil 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1 tablespoon tamari Salad: 1 square tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (1/2 pound) 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root 1 tablespoon oil 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon tamari 1 5.3 ounce package Chinese-style rice noodles 1 1/2 quarts boiling water 2 tablespoons sesame oil (do not substitute any other oil) 2 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately 1/2 lemon) 6 scallions, chopped 1 cup snow peas, sliced in half on an angle 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley 1 red pepper, sliced in thin strips and cut in half Combine oil, vinegar, and 1 tablespoon tamari in a medium-sized bowl. Add tofu to marinade mix and refirgerate. This should sit for at least 2 hours, but a day is fine. Then drain. Saute the tofu and fresh ginger in 1 tablespoon oil. When tofu is browned and crispy, pour 1 tablespoon tamari over it and stir for 1 minute more. Cook noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes until just done. Do not overcook. Drain quickly and pour into bowl. Add sesame oil and lemon juice immediately. Stir in, tossing with forks. Add remaining 1 teaspoon tamari and rest of ingredients. Toss well and serve. 4 to 6 servings Valerie's notes: * Use extra-firm tofu. (I use the bulk tofu from the co-op). * I add a few teaspoons of sesame seeds. * The grocery store was out of snow peas, so we substituted green bell pepper instead. * Stir the tofu occasionally while it is marinating. The tamari sinks to the bottom and misses some of the tofu if you don't. * We use whole-grain rice Udon noodles from the co-op. Boil them according to the package directions; 3 minutes would be way too quick. * 8 ounces of noodles is fine; no need to stop at 5.3 ounces. * We use whatever oil is handy, not necessarily sunflower oil. * The toppings all sink to the bottom of the bowl no matter what you do. Clever serving tactics can help mitigate this. Though it's no great loss to end up with the toppings at the bottom of the bowl; they're good even without noodles.
Healthier Maryland Crab Cakes 8 ounces of crab meat (or fake crab meat) 1/2 cup bread crumbs, divided 4 small green onions, white and pale green only, thinly sliced 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley 4 squirts Clancy's Fancy hot sauce (approx. 1/4 tsp.) 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 2 eggs lightly beaten (or eggbeaters) 2 Tablespoons light or non-fat mayo 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated (non-fat is fine) 1/4 cup bread crumbs 2 Tablespoons olive oil Combine first 10 ingredients and form into 6 thickish patties. In a shallow bowl mix the 1/4 cup bread crumbs and grated cheese. Carefully coat the patties in the breadcrumb mixture. The patties will be quite loose and need to be handled gently but it can be done. Brown the patties in olive oil on medium heat until browned on both sides (approx. 3 minutes per side). Add 1 tablespoon of oil to start and the second when flipping the patties. I think a non-stick pan would be essential with this recipe as the patties are fragile and couldn't take a lot of abuse. Serve with lemon on the side. This is one of those really quick meals that can be on the table in 15 minutes if you have some leftover rice pilaf on hand. It goes great with a side of salsa too. The recipe is mostly from Zanzibar with a few changes to make it lower in fat.
Ignore the "divided" after the 1/2 cup bread crumbs.
thanks, Mary
Dinner tonight was Chicken Fingers 1 chicken breast (skinless) 1-1 1/2 c Fryin' Magic oil Cut chicken into strips, moisten with water, put coating mix into a plastic bag with chicken. Shake to make sure all pieces are coated. Heat oil to 350 over a moderate flame. Cook chicken 5-7 mins or until golden brown. Serves 2. Serve with mustard, bbq sauce, honey for dipping.
Potatoes au Gratin
Recipe from: Weight Watchers, "Simple Goodness"
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
5 ounces milk, 1/2%
1/4 cup broth
6 ounces reduced-fat cheese, grated
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup sour cream, non-fat
1 pound hash brown potatoes, thawed, Southern Style
1/8 teaspoon paprika
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a heavy medium-size saucepan with
vegetable spray and place over medium heat. Add the onion and saute 3 to
5 minutes or until tender and lightly golden. Stir in the flour, mustard
and salt. Saute, stirring constantly , for 1 minute. Remove from heat
and gradually stir in milk and broth until blended. Place saucepan over
very low heat. Slowly add the cheese, stirring constantly until melted
and incorporated. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream and pepper.
Mix well. Stir in the raw potatoes. Spread the mixture in an 8' x 8"
sprayed casserole. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and bake for 35 minutes.
Uncover and bake an additional 35 minutes. Allow to rest for 10
minutes before serving. Serves 4 generous portions.
Per serving: 262 calories, 7 grams fat (23.5%)
Note: I like Sargento Light Mexican cheese blend in this recipe.
What on earth is non-fat sour 'cream' made of? Is vegetable spray lecithin?
Don't know but I like it a whole lot, especially on baked potatoes.
I am curious, does it list ingredients on the container? The flavor from sour cream comes from things other than the fat, just wonder what they used for bulk. Buttermilk tastes pretty similar, same microorganisms ferment it. Have you tried buttermilk on the potatoes?
Okay, here are the ingredients for fat free sour cream: Grade A pasteurized cultured skim milk, milk, modified food starch, nonfat milk solids, whey protein concentrate, propylene glycol mono- ester, artificial color, kosher gelatin, sodium phosphate, natural flavor, agar, xanthan gum, sodium citrate, locust bean gum, potassium sorbate, vitamin A palmitate. 2 Tbsp. = 20 calories, 0 Fat, 3 Carb., 1 Protein. Haven't tried buttermilk as a substitute. I'd think it would be a bit too thin and have less flavor.
The above is buttermilk (cultured skim milk with some powdered milk and extra whey added, whey being a byproduct of cheesemaking) and a lot of thickeners (food starch, gelatine, agar, xanthan gum, locust bean gum), potassium sorbate as a preservative, and vitamin A and artificial color to make it look yellow. Sodium phosphate may add acidity, along with sodium citrate (citric acid), don't know why the propylene glycol, may affect the texture. The taste is probably similar to buttermilk with a bit of citric acid added (more sour). Commercial sour cream usually also has a lot of thickeners added, the natural stuff is more liquid.
Buttermilk has an astounding amount of fat in it.
This isn't exactly the *last* recipe I cooked, it's more like 3 things ago.
It was so yummy I found myself fantasizing about how soon I could cook more.
From _Diet For A Small Planet_ by Frances Moore Lappe'
Pasticcio 3-4 Servings
=========
1/2 pound macaroni
1 cup lentils
1 small onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped or grated
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
2 1/4 cups water
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used "organic white flour w/ germ from the coop)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 cup low-fat milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
bread crumbs (I ground up 1 slice of good wholegrain bread in the food
processor)
Cook macaroni, drain, and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a saucepan, cook lentils with 1/2 cup onion, carrots, garlic, soy sauce,
rosemary, and water until water is more or less absorbed, about 20 minutes.
In a bowl, combine cottage cheese and flour and add the rest of the onion
and the Parmesan cheese, egg, milk, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Pour half the macaroni into a (very deep!) 9x9 inch baking pan or casserole.
(We used a 9x13 inch lasagne-type pan instead.) Pour over it a third of the
cheese sauce, then make a lentil layer, topped with another third of the
sauce. Add remaining macaroni and top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle on
bread crumbs for a crusty texture. Bake for 35 minutes or until browned.
Yum!
Wow, that sounds wonderful. When scanning a new recipe I tend to zero right in on the seasonings, and if wimpy amounts are listed I avoid trying it. I figure they were written for folks who like to eat the same food they serve their toddlers. ;-) Re: buttermilk. Wow, I'd always heard buttermilk is an amazingly healthful choice, naturally low in fat even if it isn't marked so on the carton.
That's what I'd heard too -- until I entered it into the "What Am I" contest and noticed that it has an astounding amount of fat - something like 70% of calories. I asked at the co-op if they could stock a low-fat type of buttermilk. They told me that fat is an inherent part of the definition of buttermilk and so low-fat buttermilks don't exist. So, currently, I'm puzzled.
Seems that the Kroger buttermilk i buy occasionally is, and is called, low- fat. I seem to remember that it has starch/gum thickeners in it, though.
From _The Complete Book of Food Counts_, C. Netzer: Milk Grams Grams Grams 8 fluid ounces calories Protein Carb. Fat -------------------------------------------------------------- buttermilk, cultured 99 8.1 11.7 2.2 whole, 3.3% 150 8.0 11.4 8.2 lowfat, 2% 121 8.1 11.7 4.7 lowfat, 1% 102 8.0 11.7 2.6 skim 86 8.4 11.9 .4 About the only place I purchase buttermilk is at Krogers and I've found their buttermilk to pretty much follow the nutrition profile as above. At times the carton will be labeled, prominently, as low fat, and sometimes not. But either way the nutritional content showed it to be a low fat product. I'm not doubting there may be high fat buttermilk products out there. I've just never found one the few times a year I buy buttermilk.
I thought buttermilk was the liquid left over after butter is made. You'd think that would be pretty low fat.
Sounds like making butter removes less fat than the modern process of making skim milk, which probably does not involve waiting for the cream to rise and skimming it off, but rather centrifugation. This week we had the flu, and Jim was feeling a bit better so cooked mung bean soup with lots of garlic. Next time around he added seaweed and pickled lime, and then barley and miso, and then beet greens and boiled wheat. Today he served what was left on rice. It kept improving.
Yet another incarnation of Mac and Cheese, and this time it was perfect. 1 8oz pkg cheese cubes, or shredded cheddar cheese 8 oz macaroni, can be elbows, or anything you have in the cupboard. 2 1/2 tbs flour 2 1/2 tbs butter 8 oz milk In a 4 qt pot, boil the water with 1 tsp salt. When the water boils, add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and make a roux. Whisking constantly, add the milk in a stream until there are no lumps in the sauce. Bring to a boil. Add entire quantity of cheese and whisk until cheese is totally melted and incorporated into the white sauce. Lower heat and simmer being careful not to burn the sauce. When pasta is done, reserve 1/4 c of the pasta water in another vessel. Drain, but don't rinse the pasta. If the pasta is sticky, add a little of the pasta water until it doesn't stick. Add the cheese sauce to the pasta and place in a gratin dish. You can add breadcrumbs or parmasan cheese and bake it in the oven @ 350 for 10 mins. You don't have to bake it. Yield 4 servings.
When's the next potluck? Sounds like a perfect contribution to one.
Here is a very good soup recipe.
Tarascan Soup
Recipe By : Cooking Light November 1998
Serving Size : 6
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large Vidalia onion -- chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
28 ounces tomatoes, canned & undrained
29 ounces pinto beans, canned & undrained
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
14 1/2 ounces chicken broth (or veggie broth)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used reduced fat)
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the chopped
onion and garlic; saute 3 minutes until onion is translucent. Stir in
chopped tomatoes with their juice. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Place
the beans in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the bean
puree, chili powder, cumin, hot sauce, salt and broth. Bring to a boil,
reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat
and slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Makes 9 cups of soup.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fried Chicken which is very simple and very good. Find one chicken and cut it or have it cut into 10 pieces. Save the back and the other meatless pieces for the "freezer bag". You'll use this for soup or chicken stock. Rinse all pieces and pat dry. Get a large bowl and put in 1 1/2 ro 2 cups of flour. Add 4 tsps salt and 2 tsps pepper, and anything else you might think you like. Paprika adds some nice flavor and you might want to drop in a teaspoon or two. Mix well. In another bowl, add 2 eggs and a little milk. Mix well. set aside. Get a large pan and add 1/2 inch of oil, vegetable oil works best. put it on the stove and crank up the heat. Now, turn your attention to the chicken. Coat all pieces in the following manner. Flour, egg, Flour. Make sure all pieces are well coated, so be sure to use enough flour and really big bowl. When all pieces have been coated, add to the pan skin side down. Arrange the thighs, drumsticks and wings around the edge of the pan. Place the breasts in the pan first. If your pan isn't big enough use 2 pans. Fry uncovered for 5 minutes. Get a timer and make sure it is 5 minutes. When time is up, flip the pieces over, turn down the heat and let it cook for 25 minutes, covered. Meanwhile, get with the biscuits. In another bowl take 2 cups of flour, 3/4 tbs salt and 2 tsps of baking powder. Mix the dry ingrediants well. Add 6 tbs of crisco or shortening or cold butter to the flour. With your fingers incorporate the shortening into the flour mixture. When it is all incorporated, add 1 cup of milk, and mix well. When the batter is all mixed, crank up the oven to 450 degrees. (You might want to do this before you rinse the chicken. A hot oven that has been hot for 10 minutes bakes better than one that has just been turned on.) Drop the mixture on to a baking sheet or 2 and bake for 10-12 minutes. When the chicken is done, remove from the pan and set on a rack on a cookie sheet so it can drain. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the pan. Add 2 tbs af your coating mix to the oil. Crank up the heat and make a roux, being sure to deglaze all that wonderful fried coating from off the pan. Add 2-3 cups of milk, slowly, constantly whisking. Season and serve. Take the biscuits out when the timer goes off and enjoy. You could also make cornbread instead of the biscuits, but that is a personal choice. enjoy!
I need to stop reading this conference while I'm living in the dorms. THe kitchen here is skanky enough that any temptation to cook is a Bad Thing.
Omni, would you want to collect grexer recipes and publish a grex cookbook,
to be sold to users to raise additional income? If you were to test out all
the recipes first and write them up in the nice detail that you did here, it
would be a masterpiece.
Jim's nephew put two of his recipes (we invented them on the spot,
something with carob) in his church cookbook. Uncle Jims carob bars.
I could see about getting some recipes from India and Bulgaria.
Photos?
Grex could also sell electronic copies, to be downloaded and printed
by the end user. (Without photos).
Or supply free (electronic) copies to paying members, along with the
handbook?
Easy Baked Salmon Put 1/2 T butter, 1 1/2T lemon juice, salt, & pepper in the bottom of a small baking dish (i used a 6"x6"x2" deep glass-ceramic one). Pop into the oven, set to 350 degrees. Unwrap fresh salmon (i got a 2/3 lbs. tail- piece for under $2.00 at Busch's), dry with paper towel, and cut to about 3/4" thick. Remove dish from oven when starts to boil, push salmon pieces around in bottom to coat with butter/lemon/etc. mixture, arrange, and put back into the oven for about 12 more minutes. Remove, push pieces around again to re-coat, and serve. Yummy!
I think the grex cookbook idea sounds great. Suggest it in Agora and see what happens?
First I wanted to see if omni had the time and interest to handle it. He is obviously interested in food and cooking and was talking about resigning as Sat lunch planner so might have some free time. And he writes well. Omni, let us know. We have a few color ribbon printers if you want to do images on paper copies.
Well, I don't have the cooking facilities available to help out much with recipe testing, but I'll lend a hand on writing and assembling it if Omni's also interested.
It would depend on how many recipes we're talking about, If the recipes are indeed public domain, and how good they are. Someone will have to test them to make sure they are foolproof. I would be interested but this will be a very slow process. As for production, I was thinking of putting it all on a disk and taking it to Kinko's or another print shop. The cost could be recovered from the sales of the books. The more professional they look the better they will sell. I'm still thinking about the lunch planner thing, but that will not affect this project. The lunch thing only takes 15 minutes once a month or two.
I expect that lots of grexers have good printers and could help with the printing. The grex handbook looks fine, as printed by amateurs.
Talk to Danr about publishing a cookbook. I've enjoyed reading about his family cookbook for years, tho I understand it might be published any year now.
A couple of months later: Was this subject dropped entirely, or taken elsewhere? What an excellent idea!!
re resp:183: LOL! Any year now is right! My snickerdoodle recipe follows.
Snickerdoodles When I got married, lo these many moons ago (23 years in January), my mother held a bridal shower for Silvia. For this event, my mother got many of the attendees to write down on a 3 x 5 card one of their favorite recipes. These were presented to us as one of the gifts. While it's a treasured posession, we really don't use many of the recipes, as they're just not our taste. For example, I don't think I've ever consulted the recipe for Jello salad. This recipe for snickerdoodles, however, is one of the winners. I have always loved cinnamon, and it's a very easy cookie to make. Here's the recipe exactly as my mother wrote it down: Mix thoroughly: 1 c shortening (part butter or oleo), 1-1/2 c sugar, 2 eggs. Blend: 2-3/4 c flour, 2 t cream of tartar, 1 t soda, 1/4 t salt. Stir in. Shape dough into 1" balls. Roll into mixture of 2T sugar and 2t cinnamon. Place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees 8 - 10 minutes. They puff, flatten, and crack. My comments: I generally use a half cup of shortening and a stick of butter or margarine. Don't skip the cream of tartar--it's the ingredient that gives the cookie it's distintive look.
Thanks, Dan. I'll try 'em out real soon.
(So okay, what's the deal with cream of tartar? I mean, what _is_ it? Does it _do_ anything, or what?) Squash Elimination Gumbo (we bought far too many butternut squashes on sale, and subsequently realized that there's not much you can do with butternut squash. This was a dense but tasty attempt at getting rid of some) Cook a winter squash. (I just microwaved it for about 20 minutes. You could probably bake it or steam it too.) Combine in a food processor, or otherwise moosh together, 1/4" chopped fresh ginger, 5 cloves garlic, 1 tsp. chili paste, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 3-1/2 tbsp. sugar, 3-1/2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, 3 tbsp. sesame oil, 3 tbsp. hoisin sauce, and 5 tbsp. water. (This sauce is a worthwhile recipe on its own, by the way. Tweaked differently, it's good on almost anything.) Moosh squash and sauce together. Serve over rice.
Squash can be treated like pumpkin, too. Cream of tartar is a common name for some chemical (don't have my Joy of Cooking handy) that is one of the ingredients in baking powder.
Yup...we use squash and liberal amounts of nutmeg to make pumpkin pie...tastes much better than pumpkin.
I don't know how accurate this is, but it was interesting to read (and
agrees with #189 about cream of tartar being used for making baking
powder):
http://www.wackyuses.com/wf_cream.html
(for truly disturbing only recipes, check out http://www.twinkies.com for dozens of recipes involvings Twinkie Snack Cakes.
Uh...thanks...I think not....
If you're putting this in the "last recipe I cooked" item, Scott, does this mean you've tried some of these disturbing recipes?
No, it just seemed amusing. And the recipes are scary indeed. Maybe when I was 10 I could deal with that much sugar...
Well, I now own Cream of Tartar. Can Snickerdoodles be far behind?
We make Snickerdoodles for Christmas every year. They're nummy. =)
I just made chili-lime chicken...YUMMY!!!!
The Snickerdoodles are just wonderful, Dan. Chewey and light and not overly sweet. I think my dad (in the hospital) will enjoy them a whole lot. Thanks!
We are definitely running behind on our shopping, so most of the food in the house at the moment is bottled condiments that you use very slowly. Our last few meals have been on the principle that anything tastes like a meal if you put it on noodles and add sesame oil and soy sauce.
We are still trying to use fresh locally grown vegetables. Anyone have any good ideas (vegan) for potatoes, onions, mustard greens, white and red winter radishes, and cabbages? The last meal (prior to potatoes for breakfast) was cabbage soup made with cabbage, garlic, red winter radishes, seaweed, wood ear fungus, and raisins, and flat bread (flour not locally grown). Have not had the time to process corn and soybeans.
I'd second the request for recipes with cabbage in particular. Spider brought home a gargantuan cabbage from her dad's farm, and we're all a little intimidated by it. (We thought of making sauerkraut, but it sounds like a pretty unpleasant process, and none of us are big fans of sauerkraut).
I used to make Russian cabbage pie. A non-sweet pie crust, then some fried cabbage and fried onion and chopped hard boiled eggs (and I think a few raisins) and bake it until the crust is done. A thick crust, that is the filling part of it. And lots of oil to fry it.
My mother makes a faboulous beef barley soup, and adds cabbage to it. I also really like it steamed. And stuffed cabbage is always a treat....you can make a bunch, and then stuff them in the freezer for later!
Tofu curry with cabbage. Cole slaw. We're about halfway through it now....
I made a roast chicken last night, with a cornbread and sausage and cranberry stuffing. YUMMY!
Got a big salmon fillet (on sale at Busch's - $3.99/lbs.), melted a bit of butter into plenty of lemon juice in a ceramic dish, mixed in a bit of salt & pepper, slopped the fillet around in the liquid, the baked for ~18 minutes at 350 (thick fillet). Yummmmmmmy!
(Grandmom's Cherry Crisp) (2-3 cans of cherry pie filling) (1 box cake mix [white recommended, but yellow works, and I'm planning to try German chocolate cake at some point]) (1 stick of butter [or margarine], soft) (blend butter and cake mix in bowl until crumbly. in 13" X 9" pan, spread cherry pie filling on bottom. sprinkle crumb mixture over it. bake in 350F oven for 15-25 minutes [until top is golden brown]. can serve warm, but still delicious cold. serves one.) ;)
I made Carrot Cake today. :)
Tomorrow will be Lasagna. :)
With homemade pasta. :)
<knows where she's going to stop for food if she ever visits A^2> :)
You know that you are more than welcome to. :) Sooo....when was the next time you guys are going to be around.....? :)
Yahoo! Maps claims a 10 hour drive. Uh...I'll have to get back to you on that.
Remind me...one of these days when I'm not feeling lazy, I'll post a recipe for the lasagna....it's kinda easy, and super nummy.
Glad to hear the snickerdoodles came out well, Mary. I know this is a bit late, but someone asked for a cabbage recipe, so here is yet another recipe from the yet-unpublished Romanchik Family Slovak Cookbook. Romanchik's Halusky Rhere are many ways to make halusky, which is a small dumpling. In the Romanchik family, we always made halusky with potatoes and almost always ate them with fried cabbage. When you fry cabbage in butter or margarine, its natural sweet ness comes out. My grandmother liked halusky. She would often cook a huge pot of halusky and bring it over to our house. She would always say it was because she couldn't eat the whole pot herself. While this was true, we knew she did it mainly because she wanted to see us. Dumplings ------------------------ 2 medium potatoes 1 egg 1 teaspoon salt about 2 cups flour Fried Cabbage ----------------------- 1 small cabbage 1 small onion butter or margarine To make the dumplings, first peel and dice the potatoes. Put the potatoes into the blender with about 3 ounces of water. Blend on grate speed for only a second or two. Don't puree the potatoes; you want them to be a little chunky. Pour into a bowl and quickly break the egg into the bowl. This keeps the potatoes from turning dark. Add flour and mix to make a stiff dough. In a large pot, boil two or three quarts of water. Drop small spoonfuls of the dough into the boiling water. Boil the dough for eight to ten minutes, dump into a colander, and rinse with cold water. NOTE: If you make this dish often, you might want to invest in a spaetzle maker. My grandmother bought one for my sister and me, and believe me, with this gadget, you can make a potful of halusky very quickly. Another nice thing about the spaetzle maker is that the size of the halusky is very consistent. To make the fried cabbage, you simply dice the onion and saut<\i> in butter or margarine in a large pot. Next, chop the cabbage and add to the pot. Cover the pot and fry the cabbage slowly for about 20 minutes. Combine the cabbage and dumplings and add 1/3 cup browned butter or margarine. Add salt and pepper to taste. My grandmother would also eat halusky with cottage cheese instead of cabbage. To serve it this way, crumble the cottage cheese onto the dumplings and stir in 1/3 cup browned butter or margarine. In Slovakia, they also serve halusky with a goat cheese, called bryndze, and bacon. Unfortunately, here in the United States, this goat cheese can be hard to find. Slovaks in the U.S. probably used cottage cheese as a substitute for bryndze.
By the way, Dan, I entered your Snickerdoodle recipe in our orchestra's contest for best cookie. It came in second and only missed first by two votes. The winning cookie had everything but the kitchen sink thrown in. Except for nuts. Our conductor goes into anaphalactic shock if he eats nut products. Such an episode is what landed him in ER and got the whole LSO thing going.
Interesting story about the origins of LSO. Too bad the snickerdoodle didn't win. It should have gotten extra points for simplicity. I was thinking of making some today, in fact. I'll have to make some tomorrow instead.
We have tried various combinations of disabling all but the hard drive controller on the controller card and disabling the hard drive controller onboard, and having floppy and hard drives and sound cards unplugged, and cannot get all the pieces to work together and Bill wants to get some sleep and will take home his computer without a sound card in it. Any ideas on why it looks at the B drive for 60 sec and then times out (I cannot get answers to what happens next) would be appreciated. There is a BIOS extension card that is needed or it will not recognize the 1.2 G C: drive. THere is a 81M D: drive. Video, sound, CD-ROM plugged into the secondary onboard IDE controller rather than the sound card (since it won't boot with the sound card plugged in). A modem. IRQs the same as on two other computers. Floppy drives A: (boots from this with sound card out), B: - needs to have this in or it will not boot at all - cannot unplug it or tell BIOS it is not there. I think this card worked outside of this computer, with one hard drive and two floppy drives. I don't know if we tried it with one hard drive in this computer. We did nto try it before with a sound card or CD-ROM drive. Anyone interested in coming over some time to help? "It just kept getting worse and worse". He took it home in a nonbooting condition. The board worked with another hard drive and floppy drive (not from this computer). We will try again with one component added at a time.
(You might have wanted to post that in another cf, keesan.)
Oops! I certainly did. Walter, want to help us with a 486 to pentium conversion? Do you think moving the previous post to some other place would actually get us any useful help? If so, I will figure out how to do so.
Plainish Beef Arm Pot Roast Food & Drug Mart was selling nice-looking about-brick-size hunks for $1.49/#, so i decided to try something new. Browned it in a dutch oven with a bit of olive oil, salt, & pepper, then threw in a chopped-up big yellow onion & got that a bit cooked, then added water & simmered it. After a couple hours i pulled off the big/obvious fat with a fork (threw away) and added more water. Couple more hours and i ate some (tender & yummy if needing a bit more salt & pepper). Now i've got a dutch oven in the fridge with ~1.5# of pot roast & ~24 oz. of yummy juices... Eat it plain for a few meals with bread to get the juices? Back to the stove & add potatoes, etc. to dress it up?
My mother made pot roast in a pressure cooker. That is the only thing she knew to make in a pressure cooker. It was much faster and tasted the same. We have extra cookers if you want to try one.
I'd be interested in pressure cooker, Sindi.
Our extras are aluminum only, is that okay with you? We cook all our beans and grains in them, also potatoes. Bring up to 15 pounds (or 5 for potatoes in water) and turn off. The residual heat on the electric burner cooks things the rest of the way.
How old are your spare cookers? The new designs are supposed to be a lot safer than older ones.
The unsafe ones were pre 1950. Ours all have safety features. (The little rubber stopper is designed to blow out if the pressure gets too high). There were lots of companies getting into the pressure canning act during WWII (victory gardens) and they did not all design well. Presto has been making good cookers for fifty years now and that is what we have.
Glad to hear it. ;-)
Presto pressure cookers rock, end of story. What my folks have, what my friend who is my parent's age uses, and gave to us. Very reliable. It's been unbeatable for cooking small meats.
(this is a recipe for a blueberry pasty. most of you who are familiar with pasties know them as the meat pie carried by immigrant miners during the early days. recently, a business in Marquette sponsored a contest to develop blueberry pasties of both the sweet and savory variety, not necessarily with meat. this was the winner of the sweet division.) --- Carson's Blueberry Pasty Pastry: 1¼ cup flour, chilled 2 tbsp shortening, chilled, diced ¼ tsp salt 8 tbsp butter, chilled, diced ¼ tsp cinnamon ice water (about 5 tbsp.) Combine flour and salt in food processor. Add shortening and butter and pulse until crumbly. Add ice water, a tablespoon at a time, pulsing between additions, until dough holds together when pinched between fingers. Shape dough into four balls, then flatten into discs and refrigerate. Filling: 2 cups blueberries ¼ cup water ½ cup sugar 1 tsp lemon peel ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp allspice cream cheese, diced (optional) Granny Smith apple, diced (optional) golden raisins (optional) Combine blueberries, water, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, and allspice in saucepan. Bring to a boil, then boil and stir for about 8 minutes. Set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 375º. Roll out pastry discs into circles about 1/8" thick. Add 2 or 3 tbsp of blueberry filling to center, along with cream cheese, apple, and raisins, as desired. Fold pastry over topping. Seal and crimp, then pierce with fork. Place pasties on cookie sheet, then place in oven. Bake at 375º for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve hot.
That looks really good. I'm saving this one.
Thanks, Carson =) I chose to save this one as well, since I'd like to see if it's as delicious as it looks =)
(I wish I could say how well it tastes, but, honestly, I haven't tried it yet! I can vouch for the filling. however, I was in such a rush to get the pasties in by deadline that I didn't have time to taste-test the finished product.)
Do you have the savory winner? That sounds intriguing as well.
I will totally have to try to make these someday.
Er, how do you dice cream cheese? These do sound pretty tasty, though.
Carson, if you still have the blueberry pasty recipe, could you repost it? On my screen, the version you posted has unprintable characters for some of the measurements. For example it says <BD> cup sugar and <BC> cup water. I'm guessing you cut-and-pasted it from a program that used a different character set.
Lately at my house we've discovered various veggie loaf recipes. Out of the two we've tried, both were yummy. Now I'm wishing I'd tried making veggie loaves years ago! Here's what I cooked for dinner yesterday. This is from the book "Friendly Foods" by Brother Ron Pickarski, O.F.M. -- a wonderful and fascinating cookbook. Millet Loaf =========== 1 1/2 cups millet 3 3/4 cups water 2 teaspoons sea salt 1 1/2 cups peeled and finely diced carrots (I used the food processor to make two carrots into "carrot rubble") 1 cup finely diced celery 1 cup finely diced onions 1 clove garlic, minced 2 tablespoons sesame oil (I used the yummy toasted kind) 1 1/2 teaspoons dill weed 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 cup pistachio nuts or sunflower seeds (optional) (I used chopped pecans) 3 tablespoons unbleached flour 3 tablespoons gluten flour (I substituted bread-baking flour for both flours) Rinse the millet and put it in a medium saucepan with the water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. Cook the millet, covered, over medium heat for about 30 minutes or until soft; the millet should absorb all of the water. (If the grains are too moist, the loaf will not bind properly.) Saute the carrots, celery, onions, and garlic in oil for 6 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Add the seasonings, including the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Mix the cooked millet and the vegetables together, along with the nuts or seeds, if you wish. Mix the two flours together and add them to the millet mixture, blending it well so the loaf will hold together. Lightly oil and flour a large loaf pan. (I used a nonstick pan and skipped oiling and flouring.) Press the millet mixture into the pan and bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F for about one hour. (If the millet mixture is warm when you put it in the pan, reduce the baking time to about 45 minutes.) Allow the loaf to cool for 10 minutes; then carefully remove it from the pan. To avoid breaking the loaf, you may wish to slice it while it is still in the pan. Serve with ginger dressing. Creamy Ginger Dressing ====================== 1 1/2 tablespoons peeled and chopped ginger (we got a really amazing ginger root at Whole Foods, peeled and chopped it and stuck it in a ziplock bag in the freezer for later use, so I simply broke off about the right amount of ginger for this recipe) (I'm not sure what makes one ginger root amazing and the rest of them all ordinary. Best guess is that it's freshly harvested.) 1/2 cup peeled and chopped carrots 1/4 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup peeled and chopped onion (I skipped this) 1/2 cup canola oil 1/2 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup white miso (I didn't have white on hand, so used barley miso instead) 2 tablespoons tomato paste (we have one of those toothpaste tubes of tomato paste, so squeezing out this amount was easy) 1 tablespoon Sucanat (a sugar replacer -- I skipped this and didn't miss it) 3 tablespoons lemon juice (I used red wine vinegar instead, because we were out of lemons; using genuine lemons would probably have been better) 3/4 teaspoon dried basil 1/4 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns (I used a bunch of ordinary black pepper from our pepper grinder instead) Place all ingredients in blender (I used a food processor) and blend until the dressing is smooth. This will take about 5 minutes. (The dressing turned out to be a bright red-orange color -- not what I'd have expected of something called "creamy ginger dressing". Actually, it reminded me of ketchup. Well, maybe really amazing gingery gourmet ketchup.)
You can also get fresh ginger at Chinese or Indian food stores.
Cold symptoms in full force today - sore throat, and oncoming runny nose. So, I decided it was time to save a little money and figure out to make my own ginger tea instead of buying it at Eastern Accents. ~4 cups water about 1/4 cup finely sliced fresh ginger root 2-3 teaspoons honey Get water up to boiling or thereabouts. Add honey and ginger, remove from heat. Steep at least 15 minutes, probably an hour would be a bit on the long side. Nice and strong!
I would die from that concentration!
Well, I find it tasty. :)
I love really strong ginger drinks. I think I would love scotts tea.
I used to keep the ginger in the hot water for hours, bringing the concoction (decoction, actually) just toi a boil each time I wanted a hot cup. Keep adding water until it gets too weak. Then start over again waith a handful of new ginger.
Scott's recipe sounds pretty good to me. The nice thing is, hypersensitive people like keesan could always dilute it. Sigh. I miss Kana's ginger tea.
I'll have to give that a try. I have some fresh ginger root that I bought this weekend for a Thai dinner I made. I could use it up with Ginger tea!
One thing I forgot to mention: this ginger tea will store in the fridge just fine. Nuke up a cup at a time; the flavor is completely unaffected.
Re 244 (from last December) -- you can chop up spare fresh ginger and store it in the freezer in a ziplock freezer bag. Then break off a hunk when you need it for a recipe.
That's a good idea -- but you can also *plant* ginger in a pot of sandy soil, and keep it alive, breaking off pieces when you need one.
Re 247: Planting ginger? Interesting!! I'd had the impression that it was not easy to grow. Joe: I'm curious how the taste of ginger from your own flowerpot compares to ginger from the store. I've noticed that once in a while -- like maybe once every few years -- I'll get a completely amazing ginger root from the store. I wonder if that ginger is really good because it is unusually freshly harvested. If that's true, then I wonder if planting ginger and breaking off pieces as needed would make truly amazingly awesome ginger.
I have had good ginger plants going a couple of times. Unfortunately, they don't seem to survive small children or cats very well. I plan on trying again when we get the kitchen remodeling done. I am hoping to have a big bay window over the kitchen sink which the cats won't be allowed near (mouse traps with the springs loosened keeps them out of where they don't belong), and the children aren't small anymore.
Re #248: I dunno. We haven't tried it yet, but we're planning to. It
might turn out that the amazing flavor you're talking about is
due to special soil, and home-grown ginger tastes awful for all
we know... ;-)
All-Beef Soup
Got ~2.5 pound hunk of econobeef ("chuck roast" or some such - about 2"
thick, no bone but fair amount of fat & tissue). Smeared liberally with
thick mix of olive oil, salt, & black pepper & let sit out half an hour.
Turned a big burner to high & set a freshly-seasoned cast iron dutch oven
on it. When the bottom started smoking a touch, carefully laid the meat
in it & loosely covered. Turned the meat after about 4 minutes to brown
the other side good. Chopped up a medium yellow onion & several cloves
of garlic, threw them in when the flip side was browned, and lifted the
meat to lie on top. Started the oven heating to 350. Waited until it
smelled well-browned on the bottom of the chopped stuff, then added a few
cups of water, covered tightly, brought to a fast boil, and moved in the
now-hot oven to cook for several hours (about 4, checking & adding water
as needed to keep the meat mostly covered). Pulled out when the meat was
resonably cuttable with a spoon.
I just cut off hunks of meat & spoon the broth over 'em to serve. Easy
to keep & re-heat for several meals, too.
I know I dont know you but if you ever want to invite me over for dinner, I would accept. ;) That soup sounds GOOD.
Time to kick life back here. :) One of the things we've been eating alot lately is Sweet Potato Enchiladas. I first had them at Seva, and while I liked them, I thought I could do better. I did. :) There are no measurements....I've always dome them freeform. Boil up sweet potatos. In a fry pan, saute sweet red peppers and onions. I use Chile Rojo oil, which has hot peppers in it, and it gives them a really nice flavor and slight bite. Smush peppers/onions into potatos. Add salt and smoosh all together. Roll mixture into flour tortillas. Put in oiled 9x13 pan. Dump salsa around the edges and between enchiladas. Top with shredded Montary Jack cheese, stick in oven at 350 for about 1/2 hour, or until cheese is melted and yummy looking. I'm making them almost every week!
How many potatoes make how many enchiladas?
Probably be less soggy with corn tortillas.
I've had no soggy ones yet. Um, last time I did 4 med. size, and made 9 enchiladas. Added 2 peppers and 2 onions. 2 Jars of salsa (I've been using Frog Holler) and 2 8oz packages of cheese. Wasn't quite enough salsa. Made 2 9x13 pans worth.
Thanks. Sounds like an interesting recipe. Although I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes, I'm guessing this might be a lot different than eating them plain ;)
I detest the traditional mashed sweet potatoes with orange juice and with marshmallows on top, but have found a ton of other uses for them. I make a fantastic Sweet Potatoe Pancake. :)
Pronounced chorba de burta This is an old eastern European sour soup recipe. When you serve it, its customary to put a dollop of sour cream to melt in the middle and a basket of bread on the side. Ingredients: 500 grams tripe yellow onion bulb 1 lemon or vinegar 1 DL cream lovage herb celery soup vegetables (celery, carrots, parsley) 6-8 garlic 1-2 eggs 300 grams calf bone parsley root Boil tripe (in thumb sized pieces) for 2 hours with bones in 3 liters of water with 1 tablespoon of salt along with soup vegetables (celery, carrots and parsley root) and add an unchopped onion bulb. Optional after 2 hours: Take out vegetables and bones. Simmer soup and salt it while adding lemon juice (or vinegar) Slowly stir in egg and cream with fork (separating is normal...). Add approx. 2 big spoons of oil and pressed garlic. At the conclusion, add fresh herbs (above all add chopped Lovage herb). Side notes: Bors is normally used i.e. a sour soup boullion (pronounced Borsh). Knorr or Maggi make them as "Bors" or "Bors Magic" but they're not easy to find in the USA so I listed lemon juice or vinegar which works almost as good. Don't confuse bors with borscht(beet juice) Also, if you can't find lovage herb (also known as maggikraut), you can use a combo of chopped celery leaf with italian parsley.
Can you use sorrel instead of lemon/vinegar?
I've heard of people using steamed sorrel with lemon juice together actually. That's a good idea that I'll have to try.
Basic Cashew Milk 1/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews 1 quart or liter hot water, not quite boiling Optional: honey or maple syrup or other sweetener (I usually add ~1 tbsp honey) a dash of vanilla cheesecloth Pulverize the cashews using your favorite method. Be careful not to make cashew butter. Aim for somewhere close to the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Put the cashew meal in a blender. Add the hot water and any sweetener or flavoring. Blend for 2-5 minutes depending on how powerful your blender is. Pour into a container with a lid. The milk keeps in the refrigerator for five to seven days. Shake before using. Other notes: If you don't want cashew meal particles in the end product, let the milk steep a while longer, then strain through cheesecloth before refrigerating. If you want to use any other variety of nuts, use a half cup instead of a quarter because they are not as rich as cashews. Raw almonds and hazelnuts can be skinned before making milk, or the skins can be left on for darker color and more intense flavor. If you want thicker milk, use more nuts. For thinner milk, use fewer.
How do you use the particles after straining them? We have made soy milk and the solids that are left are the best part. We cook them with rice.
The last thing I cooked was chili: -browned ground meat, tomatoes, onion, kidney beans, and a bit of corn thrown in for more color. Plus chili powder, italian seasoning, a bit of salt and pepper and a secret spice.
Cocoa?
re resp:263: I don't usually strain mine. The particles can be used to make a kind of cheeze, though. Recently I discovered that oat milk tastes just the same in black tea as dairy milk. So I think I'll start making my own oat milk. The last thing I cooked was 'maters and sprouts for yesterday's dinner: ~1 to 1.5 lb Brussels sprouts 1 30-oz can diced tomatoes with onions and garlic 1 15-oz can white beans (I used cannelini yesterday), drained and rinsed Dried sage to taste Wash and trim the sprouts. I cut a 1/4-inch-deep X in the bottoms, but I think it might have been better if I had simply halved them. Put everything in a pot. Bring to a slight boil, then simmer till the sprouts are done. Serve. Yesterday I needed to add an extra 15-oz can of tomatoes because I had more sprouts than I thought I did. This dish also makes a pretty good supper served with a salad and good chewy bread.
Hmm, what's oat milk?
Light-colored liquid made from oats that can be used as a dairy milk substitute. Like almond milk, soy milk, or rice milk. Pacific makes a pretty good oat milk, but store-bought stuff always costs a boatload more than what you can make at home. See resp:262 for a recipe for homemade cashew milk. Here's a link to Pacific's grain and nut beverages: http://www.pacificfoods.com/products-nut-grain.php I am looking for a recipe for oat milk using steel-cut oats. All I have found so far are recipes calling for rolled oats and I have none of those on hand.
Seems to me that extracting stuff from oats would be about the same process, no matter how they had been milled. The main difference between rolled and steel cut is that the steel cut are not mashed down, so access to the starchy part is protected by the bran more. You may have to physically push on the steel cuts more than you would the rolled.
Made some oat milk tonight: 1 C rolled oats 5 C water Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Pour into a blender, blend, and then strain. It turned out very thick. I'm not sure I like it. Next time I won't blend, I'll just strain off the liquid.
I made a veal ragu last night for dinner. The recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_22275,00.ht ml?rsrc=search It's a fabulous recipe and would have been great had I not totally TORCHED my batch. If you like Osso Buco, you'll love this. It makes a bunch and is really tasty.
Bummer, I can't seem to get that link to work. I really like rustic dishes, like ragu. I'm planning to make this recipe tomorrow: http://tinyurl.com/yk97d6 The last thing I did cook was a slow cooker chicken noodle soup. Very traditional. Nothing unusual. Very good.
Since its almost dinner time and I brought the stuff, I'm going to make some stew this evening. Things like stew, chili, and once in awhile, soup, I don't use a set recipe for. I just buy the appropriate meat [if used in the dish] and whatever good vegetables I find. Add some seanonings [again that varies from time to time and I don't usually measure it] and simmer for awhile. Taste adjust seasonings, if needed.
Hmmm. I suppose I dont get to count the frozen pizza I had for dinner last night, huh? ;) The last thing I actually cooked was a bacon and cheddar quiche.
Try this one - it might work: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_22275,00.ht ml?rsrc=search
shoot...I know what's wrong... http://tinyurl.com/y9znt8
I like that recipe except for the part that says "Cook the alcohol out of the wine" WHAT!? ;) That's just crazy
Heh....well in my case last night, I more than succeeded..burnt the living crap out of it...which is a bummer, as it's so tasty.
Thanks for the link, Brooke. It does look good.
Hmm, the last thing I made was Sunday dinner- whole wheat spaghetti with DeLallo spaghetti sauce (tomato and basil) with my own assortment of herbs added. Hubby made 'Stuff' yesterday for lunch, which is something like a shepherd's pie- but it's his own creation. Ground sirloin, onion, corn, gravy and mashed potatoes on top. We think it's yummy.
I made a soup last night that I took from Weight Watchers and changed a bit. Chicken broth, some roasted chicken from a chicken I cooked a week ago, some chopped frozen spinach thawed and squeezed out, and when it was close to serving time, cheese tortellini in it. Sprinkle a bit of shredded parmesan on it and it was tasty.
Anne, your husband's 'stuff' sounds good! :-)
For dinner it was the recipe I mentioned in #272. I'm pleased and will be making this again and essentially ditching my family's recipe for goulash. Sorry mom. The only change I made to the linked recipe is I substituted lean "stew" beef instead of the chuck, and I served it over couscous instead of the dumplings. The slightly healthier version was still plenty rich. Yummy stuff.
The stew I made on Monday evening includes the stewing meat [browned first], then added a can of onion soup, crushed tomatoes, diced potatoes, chopped onions and chopped onion. Also added was a bit of salt and ground pepper, Italian seasoning, cumin and tumeric [they smelled good and I hardly ever use them; I brought them for a particular recipe, but i forget what the recipes are]. Then let it all simmer for awhile. It was good but needed a bit more salt. Oh, and sometimes after reheating the stew, I add a bit of sour cream and stir that in to make a creamier broth. Tuesday evening, I made cheese quesidilas.
Stew is rich winter comfort food. In fact, having the opportunity to eat a steamy bowl of stew while an ice blizzard rages is why I'm not living in Key West. ;-)
That's true, Mary; stew IS a good comfort food, though as a kid, I hated the stuff! In my response in 284 in my list of ingredients, that should be chopped onions and chopped green peppers [not onions and onions].
resp:286 I dunno, I like the original typing better. ;) Especially as green peppers and I don't get along. resp:282 Yes, Stuff is yummy. :)
What was in the canned onion soup that you did not also add? Canned soups are mostly salt and water.
I added the soup for a little bit of liquid.
Water is cheap, and has less salt in it.
There's a whole "lack of flavor" thing though...
I drink lots of water, so in the stew, I wanted a bit more flavor. And I don't go overboard with my salt intake in general, so that's not much of an issue. There ARE a few things that I believe salt enhances the flavor of and since I don't have problems with my blood pressure, I do use it from time to time. All in moderation. :-)
Read the label of your can of onion soup. YOu can probably add whatever is in there other than the water and salt, much cheaper and better, such as using fresh vegetables, herbs and spices instead of canned ones.
Potato-fennel soup: 2 fennel bulbs, sliced 8 or so smallish potatoes, scrubbed and cut in smallish chunks Water Plain soy milk Dill Rosemary Soy sauce Adobo seasoning Nutritional yeast flakes Saute the fennel in the bottom of a soup pot. Add everything else but the nutritional yeast flakes. Bring to a boil, then simmer till the potatoes are done, stirring occasionally and adjusting the seasonings to taste. Add the nutritional yeast flakes close to the end of the cooking time, stir in, and adjust seasonings again if needed.
Sindi, I *did* use a number of vegetables in my stew along with some herbs and spices. I don't have a full cabinet of herbs and spices, though, to use in my recipes. I'm sure there are lots of things that people use to cook with are not what you would use but are still ok. We do what we can with whatever time, resources, and money available, again, in moderation. I *have* been doing better with my cooking and food choices of late. And I do enjoy food and eating--and want to be able to fully participate in these discussions without having t o defend everything I use or don't use. I do appreciate your concern for other people's health and well-being, so I hope you don't take offense with these comments.
I did a quick and easy dinner myself last night. Sprinkle an envelope of dried onion soup on the bottom of a baking pan. Place two chicken breasts on top. Roast for 45 minutes. Remove chicken breasts, stir sour cream into the drippings. Serve chicken breasts on brown rice, slathered over with sour cream gravy.
I too use dried onion soup mix, Lipton, and really like the results. It makes for a mean pot roast. Note to Denise: Let it flow on by.
I had heard a friend of mine describe something he apparently gets at Trader Joe's called Soycotash - using edamame instead of limas, so I tried to put together my own batch last night. I used canned corn that I wanted out of the house - ran one can through the mini processor, tossed it into a pan with a can of drained corn and the cooked edamame. Added a bit of butter and about a half cup of fat free half and half, salt and pepper. It had a good flavor and I figure it's a bit of a protein boost with the edamame. Or I could just be deluding myself.....
Last night was fairly simple- chicken breast cut up and browned in a tidge of olive oil with salt & pepper, served over brown rice with DeLallo Tomato and Basil spagehtti sauce. :)
That sounds good. Do you use regular brown rice or instant? I have a hard time with brown rice because I can never get it done enough.
Regular brown rice. I'm a measurer and use the same water for white or brown rice, and then boil it, turn down the temp and cover it and then ignore it for at least 45 minutes. ;) Sometimes it turns out, sometimes not... last night it worked out.
I left an ingredient out of resp:294. Here's the corrected versions: Potato-fennel soup: 2 fennel bulbs, sliced 8 or so smallish potatoes, scrubbed and cut in smallish chunks Water Plain soy milk Dill Rosemary Soy sauce Adobo seasoning Instant mashed potatoes Nutritional yeast flakes Saute the fennel in the bottom of a soup pot. Add everything else but the nutritional yeast flakes and instant potatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer till the potatoes are done, stirring occasionally and adjusting the seasonings to taste. Add enough instant mashed potatoes to thicken the soup to a consistency you like. Add the nutritional yeast flakes close to the end of the cooking time, stir in, and adjust seasonings again if needed.
Batch o' Bachelor Leftovers (or Spicy Spartan Geek Chow if you need a fancier name) 1.5 lbs. ground round - start cooking & breaking up in a 3 Qt. pot with: 1/2 T olive oil 4 oz. water - meanwhile, chop up: 1 medium yellow onion 2 thai peppers (+/- to taste) 1 lb. firm tofu* - when the water's mostly gone, add the onion & peppers, and keep stirring until things are well-browned. Then dump in: 3 C water 1 C brown rice 1/2 t salt - plus the *tofu, stir to a boil, then drop to a simmer, cover, set a timer for 30 minutes (but stir occasionally), and get out: 1 lb. frozen green peas - when the timer dings, reset it for 15 minutes, dump the peas into a seperate pot, and start heating with a few ounces of water. As soon as the peas are thawed & boiling (target ~7.5 minutes), dump & mix them into the main pot. Let rest 10 minutes after the timer dings again, then into the fridge or freezer it goes to be quick-e- microwave main dishes for about a week. I've usually added black pepper and Worchestershire sauce just before eating.
Sweetie found this recipe in a magazine. I'm going to make it for the first time tomorrow: Leeks stewed in wine with figs 1 C dry figs, coarsely chopped 2 C ripe tomatoes, chopped 6 fresh bay leaves 2 Tbsp virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp garlic, minced 1 lb leeks, cut into 1-inch pieces 1/2 C dry white wine Salt & pepper to taste Pour 1 C boiling water over the figs. Soak till soft, ~25 min. Pour softened figs and water into small saucepan. Add tomatoes & bay leaves. Cover & stew till tomatoes are falling apart, ~20 min. Remove from heat and set aside. Heat oil in a skillet or saute pan. Add garlic and leeks. Cover and saute for 3 minutes, then uncover and add wine and tomato-fig mixture. Continue cooking over medium heat till liquid is reduced to a thick sauce, ~20 min. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot or at room temperature.
We just made matzo dumpling (kneidle) soup. First the soup - frozen bok choy, thawed in a bit of warm water, add some dried daylilies and chopped salted radish (which is sweet). Then beat one egg yolk (extra large) and add 1/2 cup matzoh meal from our friendly neighbor and 1/2 cup hot water, add one stiffly beaten eggwhite, refrigerate at least 15 min (it says 30 - 60 min), shape into balls, heat the soup to boiling (it says to wait another 30 min in Joy of Cooking), put in the kneidle's and boil 15 minutes. Add red brewer's yeast for salt and vitamins, eat with bread or rice and beans. Not quite like my mother's chicken soup but I suppose you could add a chicken.
I took the turkey carcass from the turkey I cooked on Monday (big New Year's gathering) and boiled it down for soup. It's good and I love having stuff like that to take for lunch.
I love making turkey soup after having cooked a turkey! Good stuff. :-)
For dinner today, I decided to get creative with last weekend's leftover crown pork roast. I took the pork off the bone and chopped it in chunks. I then sauteed garlic and onions in some veggie oil (not sure why I didn't use olive oil), then added the pork, a can of stewed tomatoes and some chicken and beef broth. I've been letting it simmer all day, and when it cooks down, I add more broth or water. It's awesome. I'm going to throw a can of hominy in, to create a funky posole/southwestern corn stew.
How'd it turn out, Brooke? Sounds like it could be good!
One chopped onion, one pint frozen tomato and zucchini from 2 summers ago, one half bag of corn ditto, on rice with olive oil drizzled over and also the last of a box of tomato soup from the neighbor for salt (an ounce goes a long way). Heat on low until thawed then 5 minutes long, while rice is pressure cooking. Sort of similar to the above in ingredients.
What is corn ditto? Though I'm picky with my cooked veggies, the above sounds pretty good to me.
I enjoy hearing about Brooke's kitchen adventures. I'm one of those who finds comfort in working off a recipe. One with a picture is even better. A couple of nights ago dinner was a grilled lemon and thyme marinated chicken thigh thingie and last night was shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce over fresh linguine.
ditto = left over from 2 summers ago.
Re 312 I know what you mean about pictures. It goes a long way towards if you're working to the right end or not. As to the adventures, I read a lot of cookbooks (I'd venture that 40% of the books I get from the library are cookbooks I'm trying to decide if I want to buy) and I'm a devotee of Food TV, especially Iron Chef. I'm not sure why, but watching them go way out on limbs helps me to venture a bit myself. (Though I'll be grateful when they get that witch Karine whatever off as a judge.) The stew is *good*, though Dave didn't like it as much as I did. I also left the hominy out, as when I opened it up and tasted it, it didn't taste right to me and I didn't want to risk it fouling up what I had. Tonight is a turkey shepherd's pie. I'm going to chop up the remaining turkey, add the saved gravy and some veggies, put it in a pan and cover with mashed potatoes and bake. I love getting rid of leftovers in a different way.
I just changed my leftover red-beans-and-rice by adding a bit of cheese [added after the rice mix is heated in the microwave; the cheese still melts]. Easy! And adds a bit of dairy/calcium to it, too. :-)
Wasn't Karine whoever from "Grace Under Fire"? She played Grace's best friend Nadine? No? Rachel Ray's my inspiration for now. I like the concept of 30 minute meals. Made Shepherd's Pie the other night - all of 20 minutes.
While grocery shopping earlier today I stopped in the magazine section. There I spotted a Weight Watcher's magazine that is simply a collection of minimal ingredient recipes. I spotted one for veggie soup that took only 20 minutes, start to finish. I was intrigued. I can easily spend that long chopping veggies for soup. It called for pre-seasoned canned chopped tomatoes, Rotel (spicy) tomatoes, frozen veggies and canned broth. A dump recipe. The only "hands-on" part was where it called for a diced onion to be sauted. Know what? It turned out much better than any canned veggie soup I've had. Not quite home-chopped, broth from scratch good, but we're talking a lot of soup whipped up in less than 30 minutes and no real work to speak of. Cool.
I was impressed by Weight Watcher's cookbook - lots of healthy recipes from common ingredients that also taste good.
What I like about Weight Watchers is their attempt to make foods I love more low in fat/calories. Their beef and broccoli is great, and I love to make their pastitsio.
I have some issues with Weight Watchers but compared to pretty much every other for-profit weight loss seller, they actually generally advocate healthy eating. They also have a lot of resources to help people choose nutritious foods and their recipes are often really good. Good enough even for people to eat when they arent trying to lose weight and just want to eat something tasty.
The Mexican-style meatloaf we're having tonight is an old WW recipe. I agree with others here that their recipes are often lightened in a way that works. I'd try that pastitsio recipe, Brooke, if you'd care to share it.
My cold spicy noodle recipe that everyone loves started out as a Weight Watcher recipe. I just changed the garlic and cayenne that it called for into the Lan Chee Chili Paste with Garlic for a more authentic flavor. I also use natural, peanut only, peanut butter rather than the Jiff or Skippy most people would use. Most of the time I also make it with water rather than chicken broth, especially when it is going to a pot luck; started that for Grex pot lucks at our house so that vegetarians could eat it.
Re 321 As soon as I get the cookbook back, it's a deal.
I'm into comfort food lately (winter thing) so last night I tried a recipe for Beef Stroganoff out of an Eating Well cookbook (from the library). How do you lighten this dish while keeping the rich flavor intact? They did it by using flank steak that's thinly sliced and added at the very end, used light sour cream, bucked-up the seasonings, and used portobella mushrooms. Served it over whole wheat noodles.
And it was yummy!
Last night I made another recipe from Eating Well - meatballs in a spicy red sauce, served with orzo and sauted spinach. 'Twas good. The meatballs consisted of half ground turkey and half ground lamb, corriander, cumin and chopped fresh mint along with the usual garlic, onion, etc. The sauce was nicely spiced. Recommended - from the latest issue of the magazine.
Another new (to me) recipe last night, this time from the latest issue of Cooking Light. It was Cincinnati Chili! Wow. Interesting flavor and it stood up to a base of whole wheat spaghetti.
Did you have it "three way"? :-)
No, ma'am, I did not. It was a two wayer. It was Cooking Light, afterall. ;-)
Oh, and I have not forgotten that I need to get you my pastitsio recipe. I think you and John would like it.
If you get it to me I will make it. Promise.
Is it true the Cininatti Chili has cocoa or some sort of chocolatey ingretient in it? Or is that just a myth perpetuated by Skyline Chili?
It has cinnamon in it. It's tasty. Chicken mole (pronounced like mo-lay) is a Mexican dish with chocolate in it, but it's a savory dish, not a sweet dish.
I had chicken mole once and was not impressed. It was like eating biscuits and gravy without the gravy.
Then you didn't have good mole. ;-)
I wrote that wrong.
What's Cincinnati Chili all about [how's it different from ordinary chili]?
It calls the cops on you if you read Hustler.
Well, I'm no expert, but it seems to be seasoned differently, and the end product, although very flavorful, isn't really all that hot. At least the recipe I made wasn't particularly hot. Some of the spices I added were garam masala, cinnamon and nutmeg. It's served on top of spaghetti and topped with cheese and maybe onions. The sauce is about equal parts meat and beans. The "ways" have to do with how many traditional toppings are used. "Three way" is with cheese and four is onions. Wikipedia has an article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_chili (Damn, I LOVE wikipedia.)
Five way is with kidney beans added... If you're ever in the DC area, I highly recommend Hard Times Cafe. They do a wonderful cincinatti chili.
And um, EW about reading the definition for a six-way!
I just read a recipe for Skyline Chile - People were right - the recipe uses chocolate
I made this soup for dinner tonight. I added only half the chickpeas she suggested. I also used the Israeli couscous. Yummy. http://tinyurl.com/2wegpb
I finally got around to making that no-knead bread I've been reading so much about. It came out great. I'll leave a link to a blog post I've made that includes the recipe. Needless bread - too cool. ;-) http://tinyurl.com/yw4vfp
I made this yesterday to bring for lunch. I had plenty for two servings. Took some frozen mahi mahi filets (2) from Whole Foods, thawed and poached them in a mixture of wine and water. Let them cool and flaked them. Added them in with chopped tomatoes (2), fresh basil and drizzled it with balsamic. Ate it with some pita chips.
Last night for dinner it was: http://tinyurl.com/yvnhtl I used Asiago cheese, and 1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes, and whole wheat orzo. Excellent recipe.
Mary, that looks good minus the shrimp [but with chicken or something in its place; I don't do seafood!]. :-)
So *that's* what happened to my asiago cheese! :) (The results were well worth it, I hasten to add.)
The last thing I cooked was Ina Garten's French potato salad, the recipe for which I think I've already posted.
I have made about three of her recipes and they all ended up being favorites of their type. She's good. It makes me sad that she's being beat-up some because she has no formal chef training. I guess being a famous foodie isn't as easy as it looks. ;-)
And yet Rachael Ray is everywhere? That makes no sense to me.
Rachael Ray is the most annoying thing ever to emerge from Food Network.
She is kinda loud. And sometimes I think that anyone that bubbly must go home and drown goldfish in Listerine as a release.
Hahahahah!!!
re #353 It's an Italian thing. That's why she can cook and you watch.
I promise not to tell Lidia Bastianich and Marcella Hazan you said that.
Do they watch Ray?
Clueless. ;-)
I made turkey pumpkin goulash for dinner - it's a recipe I got from Bon Appetit that looked good. I've sampled it from the pot (dinner is in 30 minutes) - it has a nice flavor and is a fairly lean dish. I've also started baking for Christmas, so I have about 10 dozen peanut blossoms and 3 loaves of pumpkin bread in the freezer. My house has smelled *awesome* this weekend.
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The goulash sounds wonderful. What a nice fall meal. Speaking of fall, WHERE IS IT? It's so hot and humid here and I'm so ready to go into soup-making mode. Tonight we had a mustard glazed pork tenderloin, served with roasted asparagus. Nothing new there. But intead of the usual pilaf or roasted potato I paired it with a pear salad. (It had to be said. ;-) ) Adapted from Eating Well's web site, it consisted of chunked ripe pear, celery, chopped pecans and dried cranberries. The dressing was a mixture of bottled fat-free raspberry vinaigrette and honey. So simple but it worked.
That's a great salad combo Mary. I've been thinking about Waldorf salad. Haven't had it in years, but something put me in the mood (apples, celery, walnuts, mayo dressing). But the pear salad knocked that right out of my head.
Ok - I loved the goulash - Dave hated it. As in, "I can't eat this - it's too strong." As in, he opted for microwaved Hebrew Nationals instead. Guess who's eating goulash for lunch? ;-)
Sounds excellent! I made Hungarian goulash for dinner last night - love it, though my daughter picks around the onions. Ah, well. Egg noodles do *not* reheat well once they are mixed with the goulash.
In Wednesday's Ann Arbor News there was a recipe printed for Cottage Pancakes. I tried 'em this morning, making a few substitutions, and it worked. They're rustic and crunchy but not heavy. Here is a link to the same recipe courtesy of the Washington Post: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2007/10/03/cottage-pancakes/ My substitutions: Whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose Skim milk instead of 2% I halved the recipe but used the whole egg. I used a whole granny smith apple and finely chopped it.
I like pancakes [my mom used to fix them for us all the time] but I've never made them for myself [for whatever reason]. Though this recipe sounds like a keeper and one that I may try some day. Thanks, Mary!
I made some 'vegan brainless banana pancakes' (except the things I used- cow milk not soy milk made them not vegan...) and they came out great. I'll have to find the recipe.
Last night I made a sausage and pasta dish from _Everyday Pasta_, Giada's latest cookbook. I don't really follow her show or have any of her books but a blogger I respect had good things to say about both and linked to this recipe. It was excellent. I made it as directed except for using about half the pasta and using Barilla Plus penna. I did add the optional hot pepper flakes. http://tinyurl.com/2v9mre
I need to get back into a cooking mode again. I haven't done much in quite awhile and my freezer supply of leftovers is dwindling and needs to be restocked.
It's cold and white outside. Brrrr. But inside the windows are steamed- up and it's a soup and sandwich dinner. A big pot of minestrone is simmering and the bread is Whole Foods 12 grain. It's what you call making the best of a dark and wet November day.
Sounds good! I've got split pea with ham sandwiches on the menu for Thursday.
We made soup from ornamental kale, leeks from the garden (they survived when the kale froze), green tomatoes, a runner bean root, some unripe bean seeds, and olive oil. Time to take things out of hte freezer again.
I just took out some homemade chicken and rice soup from the freezer and will have it tomorrow. Mary's right, it'll help overcome [somewhat] this dark and dreary day. Though the little bit of snow fall was kind of pretty. [I don't like the cold and snowy winters here, though. I just wrote a little blurb about it in my blog a couple hours ago.]
I'm liking that blog, Denise.
<blush> Thanks, Mary!
We made some *fantastic* tomato-rice soup with roasted garlic. It was heavenly. The recipe came from a new cookbook called the _Veganomicon_.
That sounds wonderful; can you post the recipe?
Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans (from _Veganomicon: the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook_ by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero) 2 bulbs garlic 1 tabespoon olive oil 1 medium-size yellow onion, diced as small as possible 1 cup long-grain brown rice 2 bay leaves 2 teaspoons dried thyme 1 teaspoon dried marjoram 2 teaspoons salt Several pinches of freshly ground black pepper 2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes 1 (15-ounce) can navy beans, drained and rinsed (about 1 1/2 cups) Preheat the oven to 375 F. With a heavy, sharp knife, slice off approximately 1/2 inch of the entire top of the garlic bulbs, exposing the insides of the garlic cloves. Drizzle abou 1 tablespoon of olive oil onto the top of the bulb, making sure the cut cloves are covered with oil and some oil sneaks into the spaces between the cloves. Wrap tightly in foil and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until the cloves are very soft and turned a deep golden color. (void's note: one of my garlic bulbs came apart on me, so once I had it pretty much reassembled I gave each oiled-and-foiled bulb its own compartment in a muffin tin to make sure the one wouldn't come apart again while roasting.) Preheat a soup pot over medium heat. Saut the onions in the olive oil for 5 to 7 minutes, until translucent. Add the rice, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, then fill up the can with water twice and add the water (that's 56 ounces of water). Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove the garlic from the oven. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skin and into a small bowl. Use a fork to mash the garlic to a relatively smooth consistency, then add to the soup once the rice is nearly tender. When the rice is completely cooked, add the beans and heat through. Then it's ready to serve -- just remove the bay leaves beforehand.
So what do you do on a very snowy Sunday morning when your usual routine of going out for breakfast doesn't look doable? Make waffles! Big, thick, fluffy and crunchy banana oat Belgium waffles, to be exact. I made two changes to the posted recipe. I didn't have buttermilk so I substituted 1 cup of skim milk and 1/2 cup light sour cream. I found this tends to work both in terms of consistency and flavor. I also added 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract to the batter. http://jumboempanadas.blogspot.com/2007/11/easy-like-sunday-morning.html
I'm harnessing up the huskies!
I had a big bowl of oatmeal. I used quick oats. I poured oats into a bowl with apple that I chopped up into little pieces and then poured boiling water on them. I covered the bowl with a plate and let it sit for five minutes or so. Then I added a spoonful of sugar, a dash of cinnamon and some milk. I know I dont cook much and that bowl of oatmeal doesnt really count as cooking. But I spent all day yesterday deep cleaning my kitchen so I could eat at home again now that I have gotten rid of the mice. And I went grocery shopping because I knew it was going to snow. Anyways, that bowl of oatmeal was sooooo GOOD!
(Mary toasts Lynne, high-five bonking a waffle into her bowl of oatmeal.) Comfort food rules on snowy days.
pssst slynne, hate to tell you but....... That counts as cooking.
Let's see... it's been a busy day in the kitchen. For tonight's dinner it's grilled cheese sandwiches and tortilla soup. Then there's that batch of brownies for a gathering a little later. For tomorrow I'm bringing a tossed mandarin salad, and ambrosia salad, a triple chocolate bundt cake, cherry cobbler and a pumpkin pie. It's the biggest cooking holiday of the year and I love it. Come Wednesday I'll be happy to let everyone help themselves to leftovers. And there will be leftovers. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Chicken lo mein tonight with tiny corn and snap peas Happy Chanukkah! ;)
I made two appetizer dips - one is beer cheese - a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar cheese and beer. The other is a carmelized shallot blue cheese spread. I'm making sweet potatoes tomorrow. I'm also making french toast for breakfast tomorrow, using Zingerman's challah. The only way to make french toast, IMO.
Oatmeal for supper, with apples we picked ourselves that needed using up. Breakfast was leftovers. We packed up oatmeal, millet and split peas to take along on our five day adventure to Warren (we can put leftovers on them if we want salt) and oranges and cookies for lunch on the train. THe local dollar store has $1 spanish cookies that taste just like animal cookies but are much larger, 13 oz in a package.
There's a train to Warren?
There's a train via Dearborn and Detroit to Royal Oak (and Pontiac) and a number 740 bus which runs Sundays and holidays every 60-70 minutes to a mile south of where we are going. We will walk the mile, much warmer and probably faster than trying to find a connecting route and waiting for another bus. I hope they take dollar bills since the bus station is closed. The Royal Oak train stop consists of a few benches with a wall behind them and a short roof over them. The train is for some reason always one hour late in both directions to Royal Oak, so we are taking lots of warm clothing. At least the bus station near the train stop will be open on the way back. We are leaving in an hour to walk to the 2:09 train which usually comes around 3:10. Ann Arbor has a train station with heat. Jim is bringing two PDAs to amuse us on the train. I copied the instructions to memo files. He wants eventually to port his text editor to palmos. There are palm compilers for asm and C. We are bringing Spanish cookies and oranges for lunch.
That sounds like a nice adventure, Sindi. Happy holidays to you both.
While it's not the last thing I cooked, I have been wanting to post it some place, and no better place than the kitchen conference. While at Zingerman's Bakehouse, I picked up a brochure about the different classes that they offer. I saw that they offer two different week long seminars on baking, one for pastry and one for breads. I've decided to come home and take the pastry class in June. I'm pretty excited. I was going to take some of the life insurance money I got from Dad and buy a nice bag and a piece of jewelry, but I've decided to do this instead. It's actually more appropriate, and I'm genuinely excited to be doing something like that.
I volunteer to eat up all your practice bits. I'll give good feedback too. Pick me! Pick me!
All I know is that I got a chocolate chess pie to have for dessert today and it had to be one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. Good lord their stuff is amazing. Hopefully I'll learn how to make one. How about I come to happy hour and pass out goodies? ;-)
Wow, a pastry class. I can't even put a nice drizzle glaze on a bundt cake. I'm so jealous of baking talent. Regarding that Happy Hour - I'm there! What is chocolate chess pie?
Oh yeah, I'll be sure to make that Happy Hour too!
Chocolate chess pie - think pecan pie without the pecans and the filling is chocolate instead. When well made, think "little piece of heaven".
I just love the holiday leftovers! Alas, none for me from Thanksgiving or any of the Christmas gatherings. :-( Guess I'll have to go fix my own. About the french toast mentioned about, yep, Zing's challah bread is the best. But this is the time of year to make egg nog french toast. If you like egg nog, you'll love this, too.
We just made it back safely from the train station after spending a few hours at the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is not nearly long enough. We picnicked on the train - millet and vegetables which I cooked there, and some leftovers from Tuesday as topping. Jim enjoys eating unhealthy a few days a year and finished off a pie in the train. We also cooked split pea soup. I packed as if for a camping trip and Jim's sister contributed vegetables. They tried the split pea soup and said it needed salt and pepper. We tried their cooking and it was full of salt and pepper and needed diluting with millet and split peas.
In 7 Samurai, the peasant eat millet so they can afford to pay rice to samurai for protection. Everyone laughs at them because millet has no nutrition.
Millet I think has more protein than rice. Cold millet is not as appetizing as cold rice. Millet grows in colder and dryer areas than rice. It cooks faster. There are different grain species all called millet - small round grains.
Tonight was a heavy cooking night,kmaking three dishes I'd never had before. I made a cold pea salad, that you put a shallot vinaigrette on, and it had small pieces of swiss cheese in it. Dave and Debbie (visiting stepmother) loved it, I was not too keen. A chicken manicotti, with a creamy chive sauce. This was really good, and ridiculously easy. I made a shells stuffed with crab, with a spicy tomato sauce. It was good, but I think I'd adjust the recipe again if I were to make it again. You mix the crab with ricotta, chopped parsley and both orange and lemon zests, then stuff the shells and bake it with the sauce. The flavors were good, but the crab broke up too much. Still, a nice dinner. Oh, I made the chicken dish because Dave hates crab.
Sounds delicious, Brooke. Each dish has a different twist, it seems. Neat. Tonight I made this chicken curry dish. The recipe worked as written. http://sundaynitedinner.com/braised-chicken-curry-yams/
Opps, not quite as written. I used regular curry powder so I did indeed add 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper, as she suggested in the notes.
Yesterday I made a big pot of chili. Besides 2 kinds of meat, those red kidney beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce and a variety of spices, I also added a bag of [frozen] a pepper blend [red, orange, and green peppers and some onions] and a frozen bag of chopped onion. Several containers of the chili are now in the freezer for consuming sometime down the road. I had some for dinner last night as well as tonight and have one more serving in the fridge for another time soon.
Pumpkin stew - spaghetti pumpkin (it has long strands which are orange), onion, chickpeas, dried apricots from our tree, on millet with wood ear. We froze a large pumpkin. A bit of lemon juice and sesame oil helps. Jim says he does not like pumpkin so I add flavor - last time it was curried.
curried pumpkin sounds like it would be really good!
There's an Afghan dish that is pumpkin which I love. I think it's called kadu burani. It was the first time I realized pumpkin didn't have to be in a pie.
I am thawing another quart of spaghetti pumpkin. What goes in the Afghan dish? This stuff stays in strands so won't make soup. As potential ingredients we have a cabbage, some frozen apple sauce, dried mushrooms, laver (seaweed), potatoes, onions, frozen okara (solids left from making tofu), frozen mustard greens and green beans, cooked millet....
Is it spaghetti squash? I've eaten that a great deal. The Afghan dish is chunks of pumpkin that is cooked to be somewhat sweetened and then continued cooking in a spicy tomato sauce, then served with a yogurt sauce. It's tasty.
This was a big orange pumpkin with the stringy trait.
Garlicky black beans over baked sweet potatoes.
Yum!!! I roasted sweet potatoes last night, spraying them with canola oil first and then sprinkling them with cumin, garlic salt and chili powder. Tasty!!!
This is, bar none, the best homemade bread I've ever eaten. The recipe is from the December 2007/January 2008 issue of "Mother Earth News." No-Knead, Dutch Oven Bread 1/4 tsp active dry yeast 1-1/2 cups warm water 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting (you can use all all-purpose, whole wheat, or a combination of the two). 1-1/2 tsp salt 1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the flour and salt, stirring until blended. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at least 8 hours, preferably 12 to 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees F. 2. The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 15 minutes. 3. Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or to your fingers, gently shape it into a ball. Generously coat a clean dish towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal. Put the seam side of the dough down in the towel and dust with more flour, bran, or cornmeal. Cover with another towel and let rise for about 1 to 2 hours. When it's ready, the dough will have doubled in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 4. At least 20 minutes before the dough is ready, heat over to 475 degrees F. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven and if off the lid. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. The dough will lose its shape a bit in the process, but that's OK. Give the pan a firm shake or two to to help distribute the dough evenly, but don't worry if it's not perfect; it will straighten out as it bakes. 5. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove he lid and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned. Remove the bread from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing. Yield: One 1-1/2 pound loaf.
I have made this and I agree.
Made another loaf of no-knead today using Bob's Red Mill white whole-wheat flour. It didn't rise as much as the last loaf. Next time I'll try adding a couple tablespoons of gluten flour or maybe some honey and see what happens.
I made whole wheat vanilla pancakes for breakfast this morning and they were light and fluffy and flavorful. This recipe is a keeper. I'm especially fond of the fact it doesn't call for buttermilk because sometimes I want pancakes without having to go shopping first. Know what I mean? I did make two substitutions - the usual ones. When a recipe calls for whole wheat flour I use whole wheat pastry flour. And I freely substitute light sour cream for yogurt. This morning I had the sour cream so that's what I used. The link: http://tinyurl.com/4l285x
Milk and vinegar might also work. Baking soda needs an acid.
I don't want to make cheese - I've done it and I just don't want the hassle. I'm only home for a brief time and I'm going to have fun enough just being sure I get the groceries.
This recipe is from _The Garden of Vegan_ by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. It's fantastic! Hayley & Ian's Peanut Butter Pasta dry pasta (enough for 2 people) 1/3 C peanut butter 1/4 C hot water 1 Tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos (soy sauce works if you have no Bragg's) 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp cayenne 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp dry sweetener 3 cups broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces 1/2 C peanuts, dry-roasted In a large pot of water, boil the pasta. While pasta is cooking, in a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter and hot water until smooth. Stir in the Bragg's, Worcestershire, garlic, cayenne, salt, pepper, and sweetener. Set aside. When pasta is almost done, add the broccoli to the pasta and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. Drain and return to pot. Pour in peanut sauce and toss well. Garnish with chopped peanuts. Makes 2 servings.
YUM!! I totally want to make this!!
This one comes from _Lean Bean Cuisine_ by Jay Solomon. This is really good. White Bean and Sweet Potato Salad 4 cups diced sweet potatoes (about 2 large potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled) 1-1/2 cups coked or canned navy or great northern beans, drained and rinsed 1 cup shredded mustard greens or dandelion greens 1/2 cup slivered red onion 1/2 cup chopped celery 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley 1/2 to 3/4 cup vegetable oil (I used olive) 1/3 cup red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon salt Place the sweet potatoes in boiling water to cover and cook for about 15 minutes, until they are easily pierced with a fork (check them at 8 to 10). Drain and chill under cold running water. Combine the potatoes with the remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend thoroughly. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving. (I mixed the oil, vinegar, sugar, thyme, pepper, and salt separately before adding it to everything else.)
That should be 1-1/2 cups *cooked* or canned navy or great northern beans...
For breakfast yesterday I made cherry scones. It was a celebration breakfast. By candlelight. Enjoyed al fresco. What was the special event, you ask? OUR DECK WAS FINALLY REFINISHED! It was a challenging problem the details of which would bore most sane people to death. But know nailing the problem is sweet. And scones were in order.
Tonight, dinner will be my first shot at Chicken Curry. Cross fingers, everyone. ;-)
I'd love to see your scone recipe. I make them fairly often after the bake class, and the smell alone puts me in a happy place. Good luck with the curry! I have no doubt you'll do great.
Cherry Scones 2 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 3 Tbsp butter chilled and chopped 8 oz yogurt (I used Stonyfield cherry) 1 cup dried cherries 1/4 cup cherry preserves (optional) Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and soda & salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the yogurt and cherries stirring until the dry ingredients are moistened. The dough will be sticky. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. With floured hands knead the dough 4 or 5 times; do not overwork. Pat into an 8" circle on a lightly-oiled baking sheet. Score dough into twelve wedges. Make a slit in the center of each wedge and place a tsp of jam into the center of each slit. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes until golden. Recipe (adapted) from Seva, Ann Arbor. The end product's texture is somewhere between a biscuit and a traditional (dry) scone. It's a reasonably healthy version coming in at 200 calories per.
I'll ignore that comment about it being healthy. :)
Those sound yummy, Mary.
I am in love with the website www.smittenkitchen.com. I made this recipe a few times this week: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/kefta-and-zucchini-kebabs/#more-539 It's a kefte ball recipe - I made the meatballs for a baby shower and I formed it into patties and we ate it in pita bread with greek salad tonight. It's TASTY. (I used turkey, not lamb). But if you like to cook, I encourage bookmarking the website.
Ooooh, this sounds good. Thanks for the pointer. And I'll second the recommendation to follow this blog.
The scones do sound good, Mary... And I assume you had some good tea tyo go with those scones? And how did the chicken curry turn out??
I'm actually missing having something homecooked for dinner lately. But I'm still in my partial hospitalization program and usually don't get out til sometime between 5-8:30, depending on how long I have to wait to see my dr. So I'm too wiped out to fix anything more than a peanut butter sandwich or something similar. But we do get lunch served every day, though [usually various kinds of deli meat, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, couple kinds of brread, soup, salad, etc At least I'm doing better at getting in my protein...
Tea? I knew I was forgetting something... ;-) Actually, the scones were consumed with good, strong coffee. Although tea sounds delightful. I'm most pleased with the curry recipe. It was out of Everyday Food Cookbook. What drew me to this particular recipe was its ease and the fact it didn't contain coconut milk or sour cream. I made some couscous dressed with lemon juice, chopped scallions and apples, and it was a good fit for the sauce. I'll most certainly be adding this to my favorites collection. By the way, I froze all but the two scones we had from that recipe and have now tried 'em only to find it they taste as good as day one. Nice.
We are very busy freezing cherry tomatoes from the garden, picking grapes before the critters get them, and now cutting up and drying the good parts of the best of the pears from three trees in the orchard down the street, which does not leave time to cook meals. Bread and pears. Bread and grapes. Bread and tomatoes. Bread and microwaved green beans. Bread and red peppers. For a change, microwaved potatoes and tomato salad (black, green, and orange, and four colors of cherry as well). Crumbled spearmint on the tomatoes. Microwaved early sour apples.
I had a bagel bought the other day from Barry's. I froze it, but thawed
it in the toaster.
I'm planning on making chicken soup on Tuesday.
It's really easy
You need:
1 pot
1 whole chicken, cut up or not, depends on how lazy you feel.
1/2 bunch of celery or celery hearts
1 onion
1 small bag of baby carrots. If you don't like em, don't use em.
Several gallons of water. Ok maybe only 1 or so. It really doesnt matter
too much. Just don't let it boil away.
Put the chicken in the pot, add the veggies. Turn on TV watch for 1 hour
while chicken and veggies cook. It might be a good idea to add some bay
leaves, or whatever spices you'd like inc salt and pepper.
When show is over, retrieve pot from stove. Remove chicken to a bowl. At
this point you need 1 ziploc bag and your hands. Sit down on sofa in front
of TV and begin picking every piece of meat from the bones. Caution, chicken
will still be a bit warm, so let it cool, willya?
Add bones to ziploc bag and freeze. You'll need them for the batch of soup.
You should save all your bones from bbq, KFC, whatever. Bones=flavor.
When you have picked all the meat off the bones, it's time to add the meat
to the broth. Add dried noodles if you have them, but if you don't, don't
worry. Add new spices, add some new veggies if you like, and simmer for 30
mins. When you cannot stand it, turn off the stove and eat your soup.
This is another one. I was inspired by the GEICO cavemen.
CaveMan Soup
1 caveman... oops, wrong recipe.
5 potatoes
1/2 bunch of celery
1 onion
2 cups milk (the good stuff, like from Calder's and not that lowfat crap,
OK?)
3 cups water
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter (the good stuff again, and don't cheap it out by using
margariene)
Make a roux. If you don't know how, it's easy. Melt the butter in the
bottom of a small saucepan. Add the flour and stir while over high heat. It
should be a paste, but don't let it burn. When 5 mins has elapsed, set it
aside.
Boil the taters in the water, and when they're done cut into small pieces,
or you could just cut the taters before you cook them. My mother once said
that if you cut them first they cook faster. Your pick on this one.
When the taters are done, add the onion that you have chopped into fine
pieces along with the finely chopped celery. Add the milk and the roux. Stir
well, let it simmer for about 20 mins, or until the celery is tender. The soup
will thicken upon standing, that is IF it lasts that long. Add salt and white
pepper from Pakistan at your discretion and enjoy.
Mac and Cheese from a box.
This one works well.
Background:
We all know how nasty Mac and Cheese from the box is. Maybe if someone made
it right, it would be served more often.
The secret is the cheese powder mix. Think gravy.
It would be silly and gross to pour powdered gravy mix over your potatoes.
But this is EXACTLY what you're doing when you make mac and cheese. So...try
this
you need
3/4 c milk
2 tbs butter
cheese powder
Combine in a small saucepan the milk butter and cheese powder. Mix well,
leaving no lumps. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly over med heat. When
the sauce cools, it should be thick. Add pasta (mac) to the sauce and enjoy.
If the sauce binds up, add more milk, but just little amounts at a time.
This works with any brand from the cheapie walmart brand upto the Kraft
dinners. You will never make it like the box says ever again.
It was a pretty decadent morning here on the patio at Chez Remmers. I made a blueberry bread pudding that was rich and yummy. It reminded me a whole lot of the kind of dish that's often served at a good bed and breakfast. Anyhow, here's the link. I made two changes. I used 1 1/2 cups of blueberries as I have loads of 'em and substituted half and half for the milk, just because. ;-) http://tinyurl.com/6gvrom
what? no comments on my recipes? set vain=off
Breakfast this morning was very simple. Granola/Kashi 7-Grain mix with homemade almond milk, whole wheat toast with Earth Balance and blackberry jam, and coffee. I have found a new method of making almond milk which I like better than the old one. This method is recommended by Christopher Hobbs: Soak raw almonds in water overnight (or for 8 hours), remove the skins, and put the skinned almonds and soaking water in the blender. Blending time depends on your blender -- 1.5 minutes in a Vita-Mix, or 3-5 minutes in any lesser blender. I also added about a tablespoon of honey. I used a heaping 1/3 cup of almonds and a quart of water. The resulting almond milk is thicker than 2% but not quite as thick as whole milk. Shake before serving.
Omni, I make up my chicken or turkey soup in a similar fashion as you do. And when I do, I make a big pot and freeze leftovers in smaller containers to have some other day when I don't want to cook... Void, I',ve never had almond milk but just recently, I heard about it; it sounds like it might be good. Mary, when are you going to open up a weekend bakery? :-) I love bread pudding and I bet the added blueberries would be awesome. Oh, I meant to ask the other day when talking about your scones--of course tea is a necessary drink to go with the scones [even the queen thhinks so]. But do try a bit of devonshire [or clotted] cream and/or lemon curd. I prefer to have one or the other on an individual scone [or a bite of one], but I've seen people dollop them both on the same bite. Some people also use some kind of jelly or preserves but hey--for me and my scones, I want something a bit more unordinary. :-)
We had a potluck at work last week and I tried this pork dish and had to have the recipe. The sheer ease of it will astound you. Take one pork loin. Stick it in the crockpot. Pour over top 1 jar of salsa (about 2 cups) and 1 cup of brown sugar. Kind of mix the sugar/salsa up. Put lid on. Turn on crockpot for 8-10 hours on low, until pork is pull apart tender. We had it as simply a main dish, but I know you can make sandwiches from it too. Good stuff. Correction, GREAT stuff.
Wow, easy. I'll have to try this.
me Too!!! Thanks for posting.
I'm going to make a dirty confession. Last night I made a chicken casserole using Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. I remember it from my childhood as being creamy and full of goodness. My Aunt Jenny made it all the time. So I went to the Campbell's website, made the dish, and couldn't eat it. Way too salty and I like salt. The chicken legs look pale and unappealing. It lacked color. Did I say it was very salty? Now, the whole time I'm slapping this together my head is saying, "brown the chicken"and "add peas", "maybe some broccoli bits". But I wanted the traditional version. Dinner bombed.
Today, it's batch two of Eve's Original Applesauce. Good stuff.
Could you use 1/4 as much salty soup?
did you try the low sodium version?
No, I used the 99% fat free cream of mushroom soup. So I'm going back to Ina's chicken and biscuit recipe. Ill get my 50's & 60's fix watching "Mad Men". ;-)
Alas, no more Mad Men....so sad. Ina does have a fantastic chicken and biscuit recipe. I'd definitely go for that.
I've found every single recipe of Ina's I've tried to be a keeper. So the other day, looking to find a fried chicken recipe that was good but not an aorta buster, I made her version. Starts with a long buttermilk soak, then flour, then a flash browning in oil but then moved to an oven to bake until done. Wow. Very moist and flavorful. As an aside I found myself trying to figure out how to judge the temperature of the hot oil. She suggests 360 degrees. I don't have a high heat thermometer. But I found a suggestion on the internet that if you put a kernel of popcorn in the oil, it will pop between 350 and 365 degrees. Worked like a charm or at least it appeared to as the chicken immediately seared and very little oil was lost in the cooking process.
Our electric frying pan is thermostatically controller for temperature. We fried potato pancakes at 250 but they did better at 300.
I'd imagine. If your oil isn't hot enough, it's simply going to soak up the oil.
How would hotter oil not get soaked up, by hardening the outer layer? The frying pan has labels for each temperature but there were none for potatoes, just various species and parts of animals, sandwiches, pancakes, and eggs (fried) 300. We put an egg in the pancakes so I picked that, figuring that potatoes needed longer (therefore cooler) cooking than pancakes (where were around 390). I covered the pan to keep the grease in it.
I just read that McDonald's fries its potatoes at 340 deg F. The author of the posted article also claimed that water and oil combined to make soap. (Alkali and fatty acids make soap).
The hotter oil sears the outer surface on contact, thereby sealing the interior from soaking up oil. I learned the overnight soak in buttermilk, dredge in seasoned flour chicken from Alton Brown. It is a staple here at Chez Andre
I used to cook oven baked fried chicken at ASH basically the way mary describes in 449. I always thought it came out very well. And if *I* can do it, anyone can do it.
So we need a recipe!
Here is the recipe I made. One itsy-bitsy change was to use a dozen drumsticks instead of assorted pieces. We're a dark meat kinda family. http://tinyurl.com/9m8m2h
Thanks Mary... Somewhere along the line, I'd like to find a fairly easy oven baked chicken recipe; I need a change from what I'm currently using [where I coat/sometimes marinate my boneless/skinless chicken breasts in zesty italian dressing, then bake]. This recipe works fine but sometimes I'd like something a bit different. In general, I do need to expand on the things I cook up for lunches and dinners; I'm getting bored with the same few things.
re #453 LOL! :)
As Mary and I are both Ina Garten fans, her is the recipe for baked blintzes with blueberry sauce that I made this weekend: http://www.nationalpost.com/rss/story.html?id=1097160 It was fantastic!! Great for a group.
Oh, my, that looks good. Thanks for the link. Let me think, what recipes have I tried recently that worked? Three come to mind, all worked quite well: Curried Couscous with Apples http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001509.html White Bean Dip http://tinyurl.com/apqkbs Broccoli and Cheese Soup http://tinyurl.com/cxn3zx
Three Bean Soup: 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 onions, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced (or more, if you like) 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice 1 (19 ounce) can kidney beans, undrained 1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, undrained 1/2 cup lentils and 1.5 cups water (because canned lentils are icky) 3 tablespoons tomato paste 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon salt Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Cook the onions till soft and translucent. Add the garlic in the last couple of minutes of onion-cooking so it doesn't burn. Add everything else. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes or until the lentils are done. (I prefer to add the salt and black pepper at the table, since sometimes the canned beans are salty enough that no extra salt is needed, and cooking black pepper that long can make it bitter.) Serve with salad or cranberry-almond slaw and good crusty bread.
I saw a recipe in Real Simple for slow-cooker pork tacos that we had for dinner. Mix together 2 cups salsa, 2 TB oregano, and 2TB cocoa together in the bottom of a crockpot. Take a pork shoulder/butt (about 2.5 lbs) and put in crockpot, flipping it so there's sauce on the top. Cook on low for about 7 hours, high 4-5. Heat oven to 350. Stack corn tortillas and wrap in foil. Bake tortillas for about 15 minutes. While they are heating, shred the pork with forks. I served it with shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, queso fresco, sour cream and lime wedges. Dave loved it. And his shirt is covered with juice from the pork.
Get one crate of mixed frozen green beans, scallions, and dark green leaf lettuce. Sort the beans (save only the seeds of the overgrown ones) and chop and freeze. Remove the very old scallion (green onion) leaves, chop, fry briefly. Chop up one lettuce (remove stem), add to pot, stir, cover, turn on low while you answer the phone, chat with a friend who has not called for 10 years, turn off the pot, add cut-in-half frozen cherry tomatoes from the garden, let sit until they thaw, add sesame oil and soy sauce, serve over leftover rice. It looks like stir-fried Chinese cabbage but tastes much milder. The lettuce was quite chewy. Not bad. Put the rest of the lettuce back in the garage and hope it does not get over freezing again for a week. We might chop it smaller next time and make soup, with the bean seeds and some lily flowers and kelp and shiitake.
Well, I don't have a meal or recipe to share here, so I'm about to drift this item, slightly. I ran across a short piece written by a foodie that succinctly demonstrates how food and emotion play so well together. I thought it was a real jewel and well worth the read. Hope the link works. http://www.eatingwell.com/news_views/opinion/winters_fruit.html
Great article!! Thanks for sharing that Mary!
I thought it was a good read too. It almost made me wish the author was breaking up with me!
Wow, if she can come up with something so creative and good when she's mad or breaking up with someone, what are the other things she can come up with when she is in a cooking mood?
That might be her cooking mood. Cooking can be very meditative.
Here's a set of pictures for how I spent my weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25693201@N06/sets/72157613870551336/ Dave's car club works at one of the auctions, and to thank the members, a party gets hosted. Dave and I have hosted the party for the past 4 years, with me doing the cooking for the past three. The first two years I did Italian food (lasagna, sausage and peppers, etc.). But this year, I wanted to stretch a bit. And stretch I did (I actually thought I'd break a few times). The menu was like this: Appetizers: Veggie plate Spinach spread with crackers Seven layer dip with chips Hummus and pita chips Deviled Eggs Little sausages in white trash sauce Dinner: Grilled beef tenderloin with horseradish cream Grilled pork tenderloin with a tamarind sauce Grilled vegetables Sundried tomato/balsamic tortellini salad Red coleslaw with jicama and orange in a citrus dressing Scalloped potatoes Slow roasted tomato caprese salad Dessert: Cream puffs with hot fudge sauce (bought) Apple/raspberry pie (bought at Costco, but I baked) Fresh berries Cookie plate with homemade macaroons and biscottis
Well it looked great!!! Everything go smoothly?
I think someone has a job in catering should she care to go in that direction. Sounds ambitious and delicious. Kudos.
Everything went smoothly enough. It went extremely fast, that's for sure. We had appetizers up and running at 2, had dinner out at three, and dessert was descended upon at 4. And I was replenishing the dinner stuff. Things I learned/was surprised at: How well the grilled veggies went. I mean, SERIOUSLY well. How amazing the roasted tomato and mozarella salad was. I highly recommend that dish during the winter when all you can get is roma tomatoes. How 13 pounds of beef tenderloin becomes about 9/10 pounds after trimming and tying, and how absolutely disgusting and annoying trimming that much tenderloin is. How much a pain in the ass it is to try and find tamarind sauce if you don't know where to look. You can never have too many cream puffs. And that once again, cream puffs are the easiest "fancy" dessert you can have. Ziplocks are a caterers best friend. Prepping everything beforehand as much as possible is really truly the only way to go. I had stuff about 90% cut up, and I was still regretting not having the other 10% done. (I mean this in terms of trimming/cutting up all vegetable.)
Your party food sure looked good. I'll bet it tasted good too :)
Wow, what an amazing spread; I bet you were exhausted when you were done!? I think Mary's right, you could easily find work in the catering business if/when you're so inclined. But then, would doing this kind of thing all the time make it less fun for you to do?
I am tired today, and last night I went to bed at 9:30 and slept until 8:30. Though to be fair, I'd been getting about 5 hours a night for the past few nights and that is just not enough for me. I could do this for a living. I love it. I love making good food. I love feeding people.
That's some good-lookin party food, Brooke! I made this for dinner last night: Ridiculously Easy Veggie Curry 1 medium-to-large onion, diced 3 Tbsp curry paste 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained 1 can diced tomatoes Whatever chopped veg you have on hand Saut the onion in the curry paste. Add the chick peas and chopped veg and saut a few minutes more. Add the tomatoes, cover, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve over rice. I used diced potatoes and a package of frozen spinach, which made for slightly longer cooking time. It was scrumptious. I also have plenty of leftovers. The curry paste was some hot Madras-style from the grocery store. It's very good but I think I need to learn how to make my own, both Indian and Thai.
I don't know that I could give any real recipes, as most of what I do is pretty off the cuff. One of our favourites lately, though, has been to fry up tempeh in a sesame oil & soy sauce mix with some wasabe, and serve with edamame. Super easy and way yummy! I've also done a few rounds of maple-glazed tofu (based on a Rachel Ray recipe, I'm afraid to admit), which has come out smashingly well. With the Farmer's Market starting to get more goodies in, I should be able to start busting out some killer good veggie stuffs soon!
I've never cooked with tempeh although I like it when served at Seva or Sidetrack. I should give it a whack. Thanks for the suggestion. The last two dinners I've made have both been from new recipes. One, for butter chicken and the other for a shrimp in tomato & feta sauce. Both were quite good and will be made again. Links available on request. ;-)
What's the butter chicken like, Mary?
Butter chicken is a traditional Indian dish with the usual array of spices, ghee and yogurt. This version substitutes grapeseed oil for the butter. It's the first time I've used grapeseed oil and I like it. Nice flavor, higher smoking point than olive oil, and reasonably heart healthy. http://christie-corner.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-butter-butter-chicken.html Hope that doesn't wrap.
I've got lots of recipes and lots of pictures at my cooking blog, http://simplyfrugal2000.blogspot.com/
I've been following Colleen's site for a while now. It's an incredible resource for those on a budget or simply watching their food dollars. Check it out. Thanks, Colleen.
re #482 Wicked cool!
Nice
This is a cool website, Colleen; thanks for sharing it with us.
I made this the other day when I was in a hurry and it turned out much better than I thought it would: 2 10-oz cans Ro*Tel 1 c white rice 1-1/4 c water 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed Put everything except the beans in a pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the beans and cook, covered, about 10 minutes more. Eat.
What is Ro*Tel? A kind of phone?
Ro*Tel is a brand of canned tomatoes with green chilies. I picked up a case at Costco recently. Why would you think I cooked a phone into a batch of beans and rice?
My quick go to along those lines is cooking a can of black beans with salsa, and pouring them over brown rice, serving it with some lettuce and tomato and some queso fresco on top, along with a tortilla. Very quick like a bunny.
Tonight I made this butternut squash & spinach dish - a recipe from Whole Foods. I followed the suggestion to substitute feta for the blue cheese. It took a bit of time and work to bring it together but worth it. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2612
I made something for the very first time and it turned out pretty well BBQ Ribs 1 6 lb package of country style pork ribs lawrys salt 1 qt apple juice bbq sauce of your choice, I used Sweet Baby Ray's cut the ribs in half, or not. Salt liberally. Arrange in a pan. Hot box should be 250. Pour apple juice over the ribs until they almost cover. Place in oven, and walk away for 2 hours. At the 2 hour mark, check on the ribs, turning them over. Add more juice if needed. Close the door and walk away for another 2 hours. Remove from the oven and discard the juice. You can use if for something, but I just tossed it. Apply sauce to the bottom of the pan. Roll the ribs in the sauce, and then apply more sauce. Increase temp on the hot box to 500, or you could at this point broil them, but since I do not have a working broiler, this will have to do. Return the pan to the oven and let cook for 15 mins, flip them over, resauce and 15 mins again. After that, remove, and enjoy. You can pull the pork from the bones and shred it for sandwiches or serve with mashers and gravy. I think it came out pretty well, and it only cost like 6 dollars including the sauce.
That's sounds wonderful, Jim. I love ribs and always figured that they'd make great first date food. You know, weed out the guys who take themselves and their clothing too seriously. ;-) For Sexto de Mayo I made this recipe for vegetable enchiladas. It avoids canned enchilada sauce and carried a good amount of heat but not over the top. I took the option of using feta instead of queso fresca, as it's what I had on hand. The recipe is from the folks at America's Test Kitchen, via this blogger. I suspect the filling would be wonderful in quesadillas too. http://tinyurl.com/3vhgube
thanks. And ironically, I cannot find a woman, not that I'm looking too hard. ;) Quesa fresca is plentiful here, and cheap, about 2.50 for 12 oz. I have found it to be good for snacking on, in addition to various applications.
You have several choices: