mmm... Food... (1 Viewer)

[Adam_S]

This is a thread that was sorta inspired by the Pasta and college meal threads which have had some very good food ideas and recipes posted in them. Just post any particular vittles (Ive always believed in that spelling more than victuals for some reason, just the shape of the word is more food friendly) that were especially good, bad, or perhaps even indifferent. Supply recipes or just a description, try to get us salivating and inspired to go concoct something.

Nothing special for me today, just an organic baby banana and Trader Joes crackers for breakfast/lunch (I wasn't really hungry).

Dinner however was good, homemade chicken vegetable soup on it's second day (which is always a superior culinary experience with soup) This soup was very nummy, we boiled a chicken leg/thigh for a few hours with bay leaves and about half a head of garlic and a big white onion. pulled out hte chicken, let it cool while we added veggies (carrots, napa, kale, celery, cream corn, tomato sauce), skinned then deboned the chicken tore the meat into small pieces and added back to the soup. cracked some fresh pepper in it added a slight amount of boullion and about a third a container of Trader Joes Butter Nut Squash Soup (which is dang good on it's own, but makes this soup rich and thick and nummy) then added some rice and fideo. Very nummy soup that is just so wonderfully satisfying to eat. since it was cream corn and baby carrots instead of real carrots and sweet corn the soup lacked some of the punch our last batch had, but the end result was still quite wonderful. The soup was thick and mild, with a rich yet subtle array of flavors, unlike some soups it wasn't coated with herbs,msg, or salt (the benefit of homemade!) to disguise the poor flavor/texture of the veggies, but instead the quality of the natural elements shown through beautifully in a simple and pleasing meal.

(and here some of you probably thought I was overly verbose when it came to movies!)

Since after midnight it became Genette's bday, I took her one of the few remaining slices of the boysenberry-cherry pie we made over the weekend as her birthday 'cake'. It's one of the better pies we've made, incorporating many of our discoveries into it. Many filling recipes call for a lot of cornstarch to be added, we only used 1Tbsp rather than the 3, plus about 2/3 a pack of knox gelatin, we also cut the sugar down by a third by using washed raw sugar (which also complements the fruit better, imo, than refined sugar), and cooked the pie an extra 10-15 minutes covered in aluminum foil to give the bottom crust a chance to finish cooking (a two crust pie problem even in a convection oven it seems). We also experimented with the crust by using a half shortening half butter mixture rather than both, which gave the flakiness you get with shortening and the flavor from butter, very good and very nice.

not much else to report today other than that we had a midnight snack of laura scudders ripple potato chips eaten with a very ripe avocado that the chips cut through like a hot knife through butter (we didn't have time to make guacamole).

Adam

 

[MikeH1]

That kinda made me hungry

 

[David Williams]

You want salivation? I'll give you salivation! This is the best cheesecake I have ever had outside of a restaurant and it's dead simple to make.

AUNT MARYANN'S SOUR CREAM CHEESECAKE

Filling
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups Sour Cream
2 tbsp Butter (melted)
1 lb (2, 8oz pkgs) Philadelphia Cream Cheese (soft, cut into pieces)

1. Put eggs, sugar, vanilla and sour cream into a blender. Run on high until liquified, about 15 seconds. (NOTE: Blender is imperative to the success of this endeavor, TRUST ME!)
2. With the blender ON, remove cover and gradually add cream cheese and melted butter.
3. Pour mixture into pie pan/plate and bake in preheated oven 325 F for 35 minutes or until set in center. Filling will be soft but will firm as cake cools.
4. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours (try to go for 4). Usually the longer you refrigerate, the more intense the flavor will be.

(NOTE: I usually skip this next step and go with a Keebler already made Graham Cracker pie shell. If you use this method you will have more pie mixture than pie shell, so you could use the mini individual pie shells for the extra.)

Crust
15 Graham Cracker squares (crushed)
1/4 cup Butter (melted)
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine ingredients for crust and press into buttered 8" or 9" pie pan or plate. Chill until ready to fill or bake in 400 F oven for 6 minutes. Cool before filling.

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As for toppings, I use either pie filling or berries in syrup (I've also used strawberry glaze without the strawberries in a pinch). Maraschino cherries also work (you can even put a bit of the juice into the pie mixture to give it that added sweet cherry flavor).

 

[Mike Wladyka]

Ok, i will give away my brownie secret...nothing complicated just regular pillsbury brownie mix, but during the mixing process add about a cup of hershey's syrup to the mix. once baked top with chocolate fudge frosting. These brownies are mighty tasty...

 

[Geno]

for alfredo/mushroom lasagna, basically instead of marinara, use alfredo sauce/ground beef/ cremini mushrooms and the follow the typical recipie for lasagna. dam good

for bbq fish, mix just about every type of bbq sauce you can think of with dijon mustard and a-1 and worshteser[sp]
and whatever. BROIL the fish with this basted on top. its dam good too

i dont own a microwave and you shouldnt either, shop organic.

 

[Lew Crippen]

). We also experimented with the crust by using a half shortening half butter mixture rather than both, which gave the flakiness you get with shortening and the flavor from butter, very good and very nice.

Try this for your next crust Adam. For shortening use lard. Don’t mix with butter or any other shortening. 100% lard. You can find lard in the freezer section of many supermarkets and at almost any Mexican grocery (it won’t be in the freezer section), as lard is a vital component of refried beans.

I know that this may seem gross to today’s generation, but for flakiness, tenderness and flavor it can’t be beat.

I can’t defend the choice on health grounds, only on producing superior pie crusts.

 

[MarkHastings]

My old girlfriend used to pour Italian dressing into her tomato sauce. It sounded gorss, but it was actually pretty good.

 

[Adam_S]

oh I know all about using lard for pie crusts Lew, my various grandma's and great-grandma's I've knownn used nothing but. The problem is you have to buy lard in big two pound blocks at our mexican grocer, and I don't have the fridge space to keep it.

Btw I bought the Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan tonight, can't wait to dig into some good recipes!

Today was Genette's birthday and I took her to Todai (one of her favorite restaurants) for dinner. Hands down, the dinner buffet was superior. I really enjoyed the sushi this time and ate quite a lot of it. favorites were the one with the avacado and cream cream cheese and the one with a huge slice of avocado tied on top of a rice log. I'm not much for raw fish (and neither is genette) so I for the most part avoided the sashimi, but more than made up for it with the salads and hot foods. They had beautiful, huge snow crab legs, and another smaller crab leg variety I'd not seen before, which were very yummy, they also had small lobster tails on the buffet that were butterflied and served with some pesto on top. Mmmmm. As always the desserts were phenomenal, I had two cream broulets and tried the tiramisu, key lime pie, various strawberry/mango confections, cream puffs and the exquisite chocolate lovers cheesecake delight (with a slice of strawberry on top). The problem was I ate too much sweet desserts on top of all the other food (and having finally gotten adroit with chopsticks I actually ate quickly with them for once) and spent an uncomfortable thirty minutes or so digesting all that amount. Still, a very good food night.

Adam

 

[JohnE]

Well since I'm not the most competent cook, I tend to revert to the old barbecue grill for a lot of meals year round. Mostly I just grill up a few pieces of chicken I've marinated for a couple of days and add to that a pot white or brown rice and I have dinner for a couple of days.

This weekends marinade (also know as throwing together whatever I can find in the fridge or on the shelves) consisted of,

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 brown sugar
1/4 cup 7-UP
garlic powder to taste and a generous helping of tobasco sauce. Marinate over night and grill.

I end up using this one quite a lot and it really goes great with a dish of white rice covered in Johnny's seasoning salt and a cold IPA.