Today I Made:

[poxic]

A simple, heartwarming snack that brings back memories of comfort and home: steamed Brussels sprouts with a bit of cheese.

For those whose parents weren't awesome, wartime-rationing-trained cooks, go ahead and skip this post. For the rest, a quick recipe.

Wash the sprouts, peeling off the suspicious-looking outer leaves.
Cut off the stems, up to and including a bit of the lower big leaves.
Cut into quarters through the stem*.
Put the desired amount of sprout quarters into a small bowl and add a dab of butter.
Cover. Nuke for a minute (for a single side-dish serving, longer for a larger bowl).
Remove cover, stir. Add a dusting of Parmesan.
Nuke for a further 30 sec to a minute, again depending on serving size. The sprouts should be bright green-yellow and al dente (not mushy, not crunchy).

Cool briefly and eat with alacrity. Thank the universe for nutritious and tasty foods.


* Cutting through the stem is important, according to Mom. If you leave the sprouts whole, make sure to still make an X-shaped cut up through the stem with a small knife before cooking. This lets the stem cook faster, removing the bitterness that many people associate with sprouts.

[raike]

Today evening's tea-time snack: A nutella-raisin-grape jelly-strawberry jelly-three bread sandwich.

Top of bottom bread: Grape jelly
Underside of top bread: Strawberry jelly
Both sides of middle bread: Nutella
In both layers: Raisins

It was good, though I feel a bit ashamed of myself for eating all that sugar...

[ExplodingHat]

Tacos! (All day, every day!)

Spoiler:

Turned out great, despite my untimely lack of cheddar.

[Aiea]

Yesterday I raided the fridge and pantry and made Turkey Noodle soup. And it was good! I even went and wrote up how we did it just because we liked it so much. Heck, even my two year old liked it (then again it had pasta, he likes pasta).

Spoiler:

Chunky Turkey Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
½ lb bacon
16 Oz Chicken Broth
3 Cups Water
1 Cup White Wine
1 Can tomato paste
Balsamic vinegar
Poultry seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
2 Bay Laves
1 whole piece of turkey w/ bone and skin (i.e. leg or wing)
1 Onion
Celery
Carrots
Baby Leeks
Green Beans
Peas
Corn
3-4 cups of leftover turkey broken into chunks
1 lb pasta (shells)

1) Cook Bacon in the oven until crispy.
2) In a large pot combine broth, water, white wine, tomato paste, and balsamic vinegar. Add poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. Add bay leaves and the piece of turkey. Bring mixture up to a boil.
3) Chop up onion and celery, carrots and add to broth mixture.
4) Add bacon and grease to the broth mixture. Cook soup mixture for 10 minutes at a low boil.
5) Chop up leeks and then add leeks, green beans, peas, corn, and turkey, to the soup mixture. Adjust any seasoning as needed, cook for an additional 10 minutes.
6) Remove the whole piece of turkey from the soup, add pasta and cook for length of time as listed on the pasta box.
7) Remove bay leaves and serve.

Notes: This was first done using a frozen mix of carrots/peas/corn/green beans and was added during step 5. When cooked there was next to no broth left and it was more of a sauce then a soup. Our other thoughts were that it could use more color. Taking this into consideration and considering the amount of leftovers this made for us, I think reducing the pasta to ½ a pound would be beneficial and leave it slightly more of a soup, though I still liked it chunky but I would have liked a little broth. The vegetables were not enough and the carrots were not crisp enough. I think if a fresh carrot was used that would mitigate the carrot problem. I also think if there was more beans/corn/peas added it would also be good, but that could be done by either adding fresh vegetables or separate bags of beans/corn/peas instead of just one small bag of vegetable mix. One other thought might be to use a can of tinned tomatoes instead of the tomato paste, or even fresh tomatoes chopped up. I’m also not sure if the whole piece of turkey actually added anything to the soup so could possibly be left out.

I think I've been watching too much masterchef australia...

[dubsola]

The day before yesterday, I and a number of other people made Christmas dinner. I roasted a pork loin, and it was spectacular. The crackling was crackin'. The key is to get the meat from a really great butcher.

[PAstrychef]

Salmon with a honey-lime glaze and fancy baked potato fans with sauteed zucchini and mushrooms.

[PictureSarah]

On Monday night I made my best clam chowder to date! Some day I hope to make clam chowder with fresh clams instead of canned.

[roband]

I hope to be posting here a lot more now that my first slow-cooker has arrived. Suggestions for first recipe to make?

[Decker]

I hope to be posting here a lot more now that my first slow-cooker has arrived. Suggestions for first recipe to make?

What a coincidence. My brother just gave me an awesome recipe.

Buffalo Chicken Dip
4 boneless chicken breasts, butterflied.
12 oz of Franks Red Hot Sauce
1 medium onion chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp butter
Half cup Rootie's blue cheese
Half cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salt to taste (Remember that tortilla chips are also salty)
Paprika
Celery salt or celery seed
2 packets of splenda (or equivalent amount of sugar)
Half package dry ranch dip (Like...one ounce package or something. It was just an envelope.)
Combine 1-2 tbs of flour with boiling water to thicken (optional)
Throw everything in the slow cooker EXCEPT FOR the butter, cheeses, and flour (I imagine he left the ranch out too, but it doesn't say that). Cook on LOW 3-4 hours until done.
Chop/pull apart chicken to speed up the "Falling apart" process. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Cook another hour, mixing every once in a while.
Eat with tortilla chips
Serves A LOT.

I have not tried making this myself, but I had it at my brother's house and it really is very good.

[roband]

That sounds badass. However, I don't get Frank's Hot Sauce, as I live in the UK. I'll try to google the ingredients, or is there an alternative you know of?

[Decker]

To Franks? I'm not sure. We're swimming in it here so I've never needed an alternative. I suppose any Cayenne pepper based hot sauce will do. Try to find something like "Buffalo Wing sauce" if you can.
The thing about Franks is that it's not horribly hot. It has a nice flavor.

Edit: Also, it seems to be at a couple different places in the UK. I've seen Tesco and Whole Foods mentioned here I think?

[roband]

Looks like it's in London only, which is about 60 miles away.

I am headed into Birmingham later this week, so could check some of the stores there (as it's a larger city than any near me) and cross my fingers!

[roband]

Is this the stuff? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000 ... B004CP8FYC

I could treat myself to that, if it's as good as you say

[Decker]

That's the stuff. I think it's worth a try anyway.

[roband]

Awesome, the price here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Franks-RedHot-O ... _grocery_4 is a lot more value, so I might as well get a big one

[Decker]

I got one of those for Christmas once. I used it to keep refilling the same bottle. Lasted me almost the entire year. Are you sure you want to buy that much if you've never had it before?

[roband]

I think I'm prepared to drop £18 on something that I've heard a LOT about. I'll taste a little when it arrives, if I don't like it, I'll seal it back up and give it to a friend for Christmas!

[Nath]

Franks is a perfectly good sauce, but it's nearly identical to other vinegar-based hot sauces. They're just cayenne powder, salt and vinegar. Tabasco might be too thin, but any other similar sauce will work just fine.

[Felstaff]

Frank's Hot Sauce is pretty prominent in superstores here, even outside of London. I have a nearly-finished bottle sat next to me, which I swig from time to time, but I find that Maggi (extra) hot sauce (which you can get anywhere with a high Asian population, so... definitely Birmingham) serves as a welcome, slightly burnier (yet sweeter) taste to it. Or you could get store-brand generic hot sauce (usually inoffensive & sweet) and mix with drops of Chuck Norris' Eye Drops Tabasco to give it a similar kick to Frank's.

And thank you, Decker. My slow-cooker is still sat in its packaging at the back of my cupboard, along with a '200 Slow Cooker Recipes' recipe book, also unopened. I think when I finally get around to taking its virginity, I will give your brother's recipe a shot.

The problem is I rarely have >3 hours to cook stuff, and I'm usually not around on weekends (as that's when all my Superhero chores are done), so I have a tendency to make sub-one-hour recipes (thank you, Nigella Lawson).

Yesterday I made Steak Diane, with the largest piece of Ribeye steak I've ever dealt with. I was satisfied with the outcome, but it doesn't have the wow factor that more intricate steak sauces can give. It was really simple, however, but I can't help but think I could have just made a small pot of mix'd-up mustard, Lee & Perrins, and garlic, and just had in on the side as a dipping sauce.

[PAstrychef]

The great thing about the slow cooker is that you start it and then you walk away for the rest of the day. To get a better result you might have to do more prep than just dumping everything in, but you don't have to hang around once you have.
I often make dishes/meals in mine that get started before I go to work-when I have a job-(or bed, when I worked nights) and are ready 8-10 hours later. If you put a timer on your slow cooker you can even guarantee that it won't cook for too long, turning everything into mush.

[Decker]

Franks is a perfectly good sauce, but it's nearly identical to other vinegar-based hot sauces. They're just cayenne powder, salt and vinegar. Tabasco might be too thin, but any other similar sauce will work just fine.

Tabasco is a completely different animal than Franks.
But yes, I agree that any CAYENNE pepper based hot sauce would probably be similar enough.

A warning to anyone who make that recipe. It makes a lot of dip, but the stuff refrigerates and reheats nicely. I'm not sure how long it will stay good for though, so you might want to get some friends to help.

[poxic]

I finally tried the roast cauliflower idea mentioned in another thread. Cauliflower, leeks, endives and garlic all chopped, dabbed with a bit of butter here and there, then wrapped in foil and baked for 1/2 hour. Blenderize slightly with water and add to heated spices (bit of bouillon cube, some cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom).

Not too shabby. There was less vegetable than I was expecting so it was a bit overspiced. Added a few spoons of crushed tomatoes. Not too shabby at all, and just enough of the veggies were caramelized to add a good depth of flavour. Mmm.

[cerbie]

Not Jjajangmyeon. Turns out that widely available black bean sauce is a completely different beast than black bean paste (chanjang), rather than being a prepared version of it. Still, it turned out mighty tasty.

A few days ago: macaroni, cabbage, carrot, celery, onion, and garlic soup, with broth made from the Thanksgiving turkey.

[Axman]

Do any KFCs outside of the U.S. carry KFC hot sauce? It has the viscosity of Frank's, as well as a similar acidity, but is quite a bit hotter. A tiny bit sweet, no more than a Worcester sauce, though.

It's good enough that I actually stock up and fill bottles with it. If they just sold it, I'd buy it like that. As it stands, I find no shame in taking a pound or so in packets whenever I go there. IIRC French KFCs do not. Their presence in France is hilarious to me as you just do not need to speak French to patronize them in the least.

Actually, their U.K. site is pretty entertaining, too. A Kentucky Jack is chicken fingers with barbecue sauce, Monterrey Jack, all on a ciabatta roll.

To be fair, I've never been to Kentucky...

[raike]

Dum Aloo. Granted, my mother did most of the work, and modified the recipe to her liking, but I did help! It's good to be at home...

[PAstrychef]

Polenta. Which is tasty fresh from the pot and tasty after it has chilled, been sliced and fried in butter until crispy.

[Axman]

Polenta rancheros. It's like huevos rancheros but with fried polenta instead of tortillas. Bonus if you make the polenta with minced green chile, roasted or canned.

I don't know why, but as a side dish or under a main course, I don't really like polenta; the exception is if it's under meat that's super-juicy. For me, otherwise it's just shitty grits. But leftover, congealed gritloaf, fried crispy? Boss.

[cerbie]

I don't know why, but as a side dish or under a main course, I don't really like polenta; the exception is if it's under meat that's super-juicy. For me, otherwise it's just shitty grits. But leftover, congealed gritloaf, fried crispy? Boss.

I always make polenta the day before, and pour it straight into a lined baking dish, for just that reason: reheated with oil (fried, or dipped-then-baked), and seasoned or other stuff, it's 10x better than when just cooked. I like it other ways than just topped with meat, but recooking with extra fat is a must.

A few days ago: pasta salad, with a sauce of olive oil, milk, cream cheese, black pepper, and garlic. I'm now 99% of the way towards reverse-engineering my favorite from a now-defunct restaurant (ladies who run restaurants never want to tell me how they make their good stuff! ).

Today: cabbage, mustard green (on sale), garlic, and green onion salad, with eyeballed soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, and sesame oil ratios.
Also, trying out bread made with egg for the first time.

[PAstrychef]

Sticky buns. Just felt like doing a bit of baking. We used to make cinnamon buns with my mom every year as a holiday thing. After 15 years as a professional baker I mentioned to mom that they were fun, but not the best cinnamon rolls ever made. She agreed.

[PictureSarah]

For Christmas we made:
Creamy Kalamata olive dip and baba ganoush (served with pita chips for snacking)
lemon cream cheese cookies
gingerbread cookies
Deviled Eggs
Kale Salad
broccoli
pear crisp
stuffing

I totally forgot to make the herbed rolls, and felt bad, but we were all stuffed, so I guess it's ok.

[Bakemaster]

^Also I butterflied the shit out of a turkey. Couldn't get the keel bone out, maybe that's just a turkey thing? It went just fine anyway.

[cerbie]

Half whole wheat Sally Lunn bread, risen overnight (see previous post).

Unnamed casserole, that's pretty much a leftover (the best kind!) turkey and shrimp jambalaya, melded w/ baked macaroni and cheese.

[PAstrychef]

A mushroom and leek strudel.
Filling of mushrooms, onion, cream and parmesan, baked in a shell of puff pastry. I was stupid and forgot to assemble it in the pan I was baking it in, so I had to mess about with the dough being soft and stretchy when I moved it. But it looks great and the filling was very tasty.

[semicharmed]

Finished a quadrupled batch of oatmeal-walnut cookies this morning - I have an old, old 1970s Soviet stove, which is missing a back panel. Much smoother than the quinting of a pumpkin bread recipe I attempted over Christmas; only 2 of the loaves came out edible as bread and the rest are in the fridge/freezer, waiting to become French toast.

But I was baking the cookies in a round pizza tin and on my 10L pot lid. And could only do 7-8 at a time. Made the whole house toasty warm and delicious-smelling, though. And since Ukrainians don't bake cookies (lots of cakes, but no cookies), they made excellent gifts.

[cerbie]

Kidney bean [and garlic] soup. Preparing the veggies makes me wish I had a nice small stainless skillet*.

Yellow pea curry with chicken.

* Well, part of the problem is that I'm spoiled with good cookware as old as I am or older. I'll probably end up buying a Vallrath Tribute or Optima, and a lid, before 2012 is over with.

[PAstrychef]

Finished a quadrupled batch of oatmeal-walnut cookies this morning - I have an old, old 1970s Soviet stove, which is missing a back panel. Much smoother than the quinting of a pumpkin bread recipe I attempted over Christmas; only 2 of the loaves came out edible as bread and the rest are in the fridge/freezer, waiting to become French toast.

But I was baking the cookies in a round pizza tin and on my 10L pot lid. And could only do 7-8 at a time. Made the whole house toasty warm and delicious-smelling, though. And since Ukrainians don't bake cookies (lots of cakes, but no cookies), they made excellent gifts.

Truly an adventure in the kitchen! Are there no sheet pans available where you are?

[PictureSarah]

Last night I made cinnamon swirl bread so that I could make french toast with it this morning for visiting friends. It went over pretty well.

[semicharmed]

Truly an adventure in the kitchen! Are there no sheet pans available where you are?

I've never seen them - Ukrainians bake a LOT of cakes and torts at home, and buy their cookies in stores. Which are delicious - even small stores will have a staggering variety of cookies - and so homemade cookies are a total novelty. I would have just borrowed a cake pan, but I know from experience the rectangles don't fit in my tiny oven.

Original plan was to cover my oven rack with foil, and just bake the cookies directly on that... and I could have sworn up and down I had a few sheets of foil. But I had no foil, which I only discovered once the dough was made. And I was baking on New Year's Day, and all the stores in town were closed/had no foil. So: improvisation time.

[lucrezaborgia]

Ground beef with frozen stir-fry mix.

I don't recommend anyone else try that...

[cerbie]

Mushrooms, parsley, garlic and green onion, marinated in olive oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, and misc. dry herbs.