(We had maybe a quarter cup of the sauce left over, so Momma applied it to a pan of chicken to marinate overnight in the fridge for grilled BBQ chicken tomorrow, when I'll have to mix another cup of sauce for good measure. Epicness anticipated.)
No - although I am pretty sure that sage is one of the 11 herds and spices.
No, but I like your way of putting it better...
:mad: I'M invariably creepy :mad:
...Grilled ribs again, and this time I was able to keep on top of the charring... ;nodTonight it was baked boneless skinless chicken breasts coated with dry bread crumbs, olive oil, basil leaves, grated parmesan cheese, and garlic :).
While I'm not personally a chicken enthusiast - that does sound rather easy and tasty.
Put frozen freedom fries in oven for 12 minutes @425 degrees.
Adding chicken broth to rice adds a lot to the flavor. I sometimes do this. :)
Again?
This is an easy, if time consuming recipe.
25 lbs tomatoes. Personally, I like Roma. We grew about half our own last year, hoping to do better than that this year.
Just wash and quarter those and throw them into a nice big stock pot with the following:
1 cup of olive oil
3\4 cup of red wine
1\3 cup of herbs. You can use what you like, We used Rosemary and Basil in ours.
Head of garlic, broken into cloves
2 large bell peppers
1 large onion
Couple of Bay Leaves
Take a potato masher and just crush all that together, then bring it to a boil and simmer it down until a good amount of the juice is gone. The house will smell divine.
Now, if you want to be all traditional like you can run this mixture through a tomato strainer…personally…god made blenders to make such jobs easier. So, strain or blender it into a separate bowl.
Once it’s all strained/blendered simmer some more if you are too runny, or can/preserve it via your most comfortable method.
There you have a fantastic base to make into pasta, pizza, or other sauce.
They were inside the chicken parts when they showed up, I'm afraid.
Not really trauma just a long slow growing dislike for skin and bones. Since fowl seems to be the most common thing people eat with skin and bones still attached, a growing dread for turkey day...??? This makes very little sense because you build models of creatures with bone analogs. I cannot deny that sawing bones emits a repugant odor.
I mean I COULD carve a turkey if it was needed for practical or etiquette purposes. I would hate every minute and probably not be able to eat, but I could. hEt's kind enough to boil the monstrousity that is left behind after turkey day while I'm gone.
One of these days I might do it myself and articulate the skeleton afterwords as therapy, since hEt ruins the bones.
While we're discussing corn...
If you're only cooking for one or two, you can use the microwave to cook an ear of sweet corn in the husk. 1 ear, 4 minutes. 2 ears, 8 minutes.
Use a glove or oven mitt to remove it, it will be hot.
Use a knife to cut of the butt end of the ear ( cut so as to remove the first ring of kernels )
Squeezing from the silk end, you can push the ear out through the cut.
Gourmet because it tastes great, Lazy because it's the easiest way to completely de-silk an ear of corn. As you probably know, cooked corn silk tastes like lawn clippings smell.
...We did an experiment with grilling unshucked corn about a month ago. Not setting fire to it is tricky, but leaving it laying on the upper shelf on some aluminum foil while the ribs grill was too slow. Mylochka pronounced the end-result definitely worth further research. Not that lazy, and likely nothing grilled counts as gourmet, but M sez delicious...
That was interesting. There's something about the early stages of social organization that I find appealing..HEY, I think you have good insight, there. That just has that ring of a thing that when you hear it, you know it's true/right.
Perhaps it's uniting the wandering tribes into a CIVILISATION!
Anyway, While it could have taken years to build, if it was the site of an annual gathering/festival ( reminds me of the mountain men's annual Rendezvous in the American Rockies in the early to mid 1800s ) , they could agree to build it, and have everyone carry one river stone up the hill while they are there. That would be very symbolic. Or turn it into a strong man's contest, to see who could carry the most head sized stones up the hill in an afternoon. Same kind of thing with digging. With prizes and libation, that could be fun. Much the same as a barn raising.
Extended families are able to do massive amounts of work in a single day, like replacing a roof or butchering. Communities can clean up a river. If it's something done by and for a community, it wouldn't have to take years to build.
I'm fairly non specific -- whatever looks like it would spoil first goes into the pot. Sometimes it becomes a decent meat & vege stew.
If I buy Rotini, I get the three color kind. :)
Attempting a crock pot chicken curry today. Made last night, cooking all day, will taste tonight.Turned into a passable Murgh Mahkani (spelling) Indian butter chicken.
Are put-on-and-leave-cooking-low-for-two-hours recipes right for this thread? I've mostly posted about grilling, 'cause that was what I did constantly this summer, but I specialize more in leave-cooking dishes...
-Which a bachelor cooking for himself does instinctively - but if the wife don't like mushrooms, you probably shouldn't be putting mushroom soup into everything.
Invest in a few basic spices beyond salt and pepper for the same reason. Find what you like, change up the proportions occasionally. I went a little heavier on the garlic than usual this time...
Should land somewhere between Korma and Masala.
Well, it turned out being lazy, I got a shepherd's pie. Someday when my wife is making pie crusts, maybe I can talk her into making one from scratch, so that I can make a shepherd's pie from scratch.
Well, it turned out being lazy, I got a shepherd's pie. Someday when my wife is making pie crusts, maybe I can talk her into making one from scratch, so that I can make a shepherd's pie from scratch.
Does not compute...
I've always known shepherds pie to be sans-crust. Mashed pot over meat/gravy/veggies in a casserole dish. You seem to be referring to some kind of meat pie/pot pie.
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=99&v=M_GNznvIN1E#)
Bacon is the ultimate food. -I'm pretty sure the basic inferiority of Mom's Disciple Peter Pizza is not putting a whole pound of bacon on like I taught her.The ultimate food remains tofu because people can make it into a variety of meat substitutes that have a lower fat and calorie content and a comparable quantity of protein.
see the delight that exudes from a tofu steak.I see burned cheese.
BBQ ribs
I just had a little steak for supper - no bone at all.What have you done to deserve the allocation of expensive food on silver trays?
What have you done to deserve the allocation of expensive food on silver trays?Aluminum.
The allocation of that aluminum could have gone towards the production of hats that protect us against the invasion of mind aliens.What have you done to deserve the allocation of expensive food on silver trays?Aluminum.
Beef bourguignon is my go to comfort food mostly because it tastes good and is easy to make. Once the prep work is done it is mostly just simmering and letting the flavors marry.
Beef bourguignon is my go to comfort food mostly because it tastes good and is easy to make. Once the prep work is done it is mostly just simmering and letting the flavors marry.
Hm. Red meat, but looks like one I could stomach. In general, I need to learn French cooking. You have a particular recipe you follow?
Briefly, how do you make it?
(PLEASE get an avatar or ask me for something...)
They do sell anchovy fillets which are bone free.
They do sell anchovy fillets which are bone free. Like unorthodoxed I also like pho.
They do sell anchovy fillets which are bone free.
I've never seen the like here in the desert. Admittedly, I've never looked all that hard either.
Momma was going to fry burgers for lunch, so it wasn't taking a bullet to volunteer to grill them instead and have them good. I'm in serious danger of getting the burger grilling down to where it's just 20 minutes low effort and pretty dependable.
However, towards the end I commented through the kitchen door that I wasn't getting quite as much grease fire flareups as I'd hoped, and she laughingly apologized for buying better quality ground beef lately. -It's true that the cheap fatty stuff in tubes grills better...
Momma was going to fry burgers for lunch, so it wasn't taking a bullet to volunteer to grill them instead and have them good. I'm in serious danger of getting the burger grilling down to where it's just 20 minutes low effort and pretty dependable.
However, towards the end I commented through the kitchen door that I wasn't getting quite as much grease fire flareups as I'd hoped, and she laughingly apologized for buying better quality ground beef lately. -It's true that the cheap fatty stuff in tubes grills better...
Fish n chip Friday tonight. We hold to certain ways from the Motherland. :)
Never heard of Cholula - I'll pass that along to Momma to look out for, though; I don't mind a touch of heat to the BBQ, but her stomach's turned against it.
Try Cholula. Really. It's actually less spicy than tabasco so should be more up your alley.Momma brought a bottle home. We haven't tried it yet, but it has a cute bulbous wooden lid, and we'll be keeping the bottle one way or another...
Made butter chicken tonight
Made butter chicken tonight
As in indian?
Made butter chicken tonight
As in indian?
Yeah, Indian butter chicken. I missed getting a photo of it. Got devoured pretty fast by the ravenous vultures we call kids.
Made butter chicken tonight
As in indian?
Yeah, Indian butter chicken. I missed getting a photo of it. Got devoured pretty fast by the ravenous vultures we call kids.
Got a recipe for that one?
Dunno how to make the sauce by hand.
Dunno how to make the sauce by hand.
You should try it once, not terribly difficult.
Simple method: Sautee onions and shallots in butter, add the chicken and garam masala (spice) and fry, add some tomato sauce. (you'll probably need salt too)
Longhand method: Sautee onions and shallots in butter, add tomatoes and garam masala and cook down to a paste. Add chicken and fry. Add water, coconut milk, yogurt, or cream to the dish to get the sauce the consistency you want.
The TRICK is either making or finding a good garam masala.
Dunno how to make the sauce by hand.
You should try it once, not terribly difficult.
Simple method: Sautee onions and shallots in butter, add the chicken and garam masala (spice) and fry, add some tomato sauce. (you'll probably need salt too)
Longhand method: Sautee onions and shallots in butter, add tomatoes and garam masala and cook down to a paste. Add chicken and fry. Add water, coconut milk, yogurt, or cream to the dish to get the sauce the consistency you want.
The TRICK is either making or finding a good garam masala.
Thanks Uno, I'll have to give this one a try! Have you tried adding a bit of natural yoghurt, as we normally add it to the kid's plates to calm it down for them?
BTW, does the sauce keep all right? We have lots of afternoon things on (Scouts, sport, working late some days) and our preference is to use bottles simply because of speed. Spag bol sauce can go in the freezer of course, I assume this can too?
Uno's Fajitas:
Dice up ye chicken
Slice up ye bell peppers and onions
add celery salt, olive oil (so it don't stick to pan) and cholula (Or hot sauce of your choosing, prefer cholula for this. Omit the olive oil if using the grilling basket on the grill)
Optional garnish: Sliced tomatoes, cover with basil, salt, garlic and onion. Sautee in olive oil.
Mylochka would like that a lot - I may pitch it to Maw...
Wikipedia had claimed cholula was a lot hotter than you did, but direct tasting indicates you had it right - I've found I need to be less careful to not overdo it.
Bump. It was on page two, Rusty, near the top...Thanks!
Nutmeg is a traditional booster for white cheese sauces, esp. Swiss. My sauce works okay with Swiss, except the cheese doesn't really melt properly so you have lots of little semisolid lumps. I know it can be done; it might involve using different kinds of Swiss or perhaps grating it finer.
Nutmeg is a traditional booster for white cheese sauces, esp. Swiss. My sauce works okay with Swiss, except the cheese doesn't really melt properly so you have lots of little semisolid lumps. I know it can be done; it might involve using different kinds of Swiss or perhaps grating it finer.
Thanks, I had no idea. The only cooking applications I could of think for nutmeg were pumpkin pie, egg nog, and a Painkiller cocktail.
Beef and chicken bullion are not an optional cooking supply, and not expensive or any trouble to add. Many boiled dishes can benefit, including vegetables.
My brother discovered that trick about 25 years ago - I kept wondering why the green beans he was boiling smelled so good. This one is especially essential for bachelors and college kids and the like, who don't spend a lot of money or effort on cooking at home - also nutriments added to pastas..
I got my mother doing this with the noodles in the stroganoff, and it improved the quality dramatically (cooking the noodles together with the meat/gray on low for an hour or two is also key fir more than one reason).
Also? Sometimes you just crave a quick microwave soup at night (or for someone sick) w/o fooling with opening a can. This is cheaper, too. -I totally kept bullion on hand in my renfair camping days, when I was living on not much more than peanut butter sandwiches
Congrats. Our new kitchen is going in slow - hoping to get counters in next week, then sink, backsplash and little bits of odds and ends and then done.
I recommend that everybody who's serious about being lazy and/or impatient in the kitchen get a pressure cooker. My wife got one called "Instant Pot" (it's Japanese or something and does not, to my knowledge, involve marijuana) off Amazon; it's a pressure cooker, slow cooker, and plain ol' ordinary cooker all in one. You can set it to sautee and fry onions in this thing, and since it's heating from every direction but up it cooks onions, bacon and the like quite fast.
Tonight, fresh corn.
Our corn is delicious, but it was late becoming available. It must have been too cold/wet for planting this spring. I processed and froze one bushel, I'm thinking about doing another the end of this week.
I grilled steak for supper - and salmon in some marinade for Mylochka, who's been on a diet and not eating with us for months. -Just flamed 'em on somewhat-high until they were only slightly under done, to finish off in the microwave, as always. Delicious.
Well, no corn freezing this weekend. The person who I normally deal with at the farmer's stand was off, and the sub wouldn't sell me any substantial quantity. I should have planned ahead, but it's not a special weekend for us, so I don't think of it as a holiday.Forgetting the name, but came across a french method of cooking those 'new' potatoes/baby potatoes. You fry them in butter and seasoning just enough to get the outside a little crust, then finish in the oven. They are fantastic.
Had leftovers yesterday, and mixed grill today. Supposed to be the wife and I plus 2, but had a no-show. I grilled 3 chicken filets, 2 beef filets, a boneless pork chop, a pineapple and some fingerling potatoes. I was pleased with the potatoes being basically mini baked potatoes, but next time I'll start them before the meat.
Congrats. Our new kitchen is going in slow - hoping to get counters in next week, then sink, backsplash and little bits of odds and ends and then done.
Congrats on becoming an adult. ;)
How does that sound to you guys?
Been feeling like crap since Halloween.
Made biscuits and gravy as something of a comfort food last night.
Man everyone else's sausage gravy is so bland...
If my ex was still alive
That tomato tortellini soup thing was a bust. The flavor profile was fine, but trying to cook everything together made it more of a pasta & sauce dish than a soup. I added more broth, but it just sponged it up. I think it could be great assembled in the bowl like a lobster bisque, but lazy it ain't.
I'm still mastering the subtle alchemy of the cream sauce. Different cheeses have wildly different outcomes in sauce. Shaker parmesan seems to disappear. Cheddar is straightforward. Jack adds little flavor but some gooeyness. Shredded mozzarella is immensely gooey and doesn't incorporate fully; it forms a peculiar sort of matrix within the sauce. And now Swiss.
(For mac and cheese of the conventional type, I highly recommend a mix of smoked cheddar, sharp conventional cheddar, and jack for goo. Small traces of mustard and even curry powder boost flavor)
That tomato tortellini soup thing was a bust. The flavor profile was fine, but trying to cook everything together made it more of a pasta & sauce dish than a soup. I added more broth, but it just sponged it up. I think it could be great assembled in the bowl like a lobster bisque, but lazy it ain't.
I don't know if I've posted here previously about my 'crock pot lasagna' that kind of takes advantage of this. You get the sausage and tomato sauce in the crock all day, then 30 minutes before eating, dump in the cheeses. 15 minutes before eating, you dump in pasta and some water (I actually prefer to use the shells for this)
The shells soak up a good portion of the mixture. If you let it sit too long, though, the shells will soak it all up and you get a kind of mush. Tastes fine, but mush.
But for the tortellini soup specifically, I'd suggest pan frying the tortellini first.
I don't know how to call it. hEt and I liked it (hEt LOVED it), Alec (never had stuffed pasta before) and Talia (thinks Chef Boyardee mini raviolis are the best) tolerated it.
Pan seared sausage. Added onions and bell peppers to sautee in the grease. Removed that mixture and added the tortellini with a little olive oil to pan fry, just a quick browning on each side. Added about 1 1/2 cup of water with a minor deglazing of the pan and a good bit of basil, and covered that for about 2 minutes to ensure the rest of the pasta that hadn't hit the pan got cooked. (I considered using a wine, but wasn't sure how the pasta would cook with just wine.)
Added the meat mix back in with a can of tomato sauce (soup can) and sliced grape tomatoes. (they didn't have the brand tomatoes I normally use and these were rather meh, unfortunately) Unfortunately, had to transfer to a bigger pan, so my whole one pan idea got ruined. Stirring that in, it barely coated everything. Added salt to taste and enough cream to just get a bit of sauciness.
I think I'm going to make a Jaeger Schnitzel next Sunday. Not exactly lazy, but I plan to take the lazy approach and use a store jar gravy & serve it in a gravy boat, instead of making a pork roast first and saving the juices. The Mrs. is mildly allergic to mushrooms, so I'm planning to do them as a side dish for myself rather than incorporating them into the gravy. If I fry the cutlets with a couple shallots, some butter and a little garlic, then deglaze the pan with white wine or sherry, she'll be happy to have that jus all to herself, and figure she got the better bargain.
She says her mother would prefer Spatzle ( I'll get that from the store, too. ) , and we'll go with glazed carrots as the vegetable.
Now I want to buy some Spaten to go with it.
Momma, of late and in a spontaneous development in which I take delight, has been occasionally cutting up 'taters into strips and frying instead of her traditional lame waste of 'tater trying to bake french fries.
This is anti-diet, mind, 'cause I gots the scarey-high triglicerides - but I can't help that my occasional craving for french fries has been sated lately, and being happy about it anyway.
I’ve been on a new diet since being in the ER 2 weeks ago. (We don’t know still other than not heart, liver, or diabetes, meaning likely gall bladder)
Fairly radical departure from my previous daily on one hand but easy so far with the exception of cold turkey soda withdrawal. Immediate thoughts of “success” for weight seem to even out the second week.
That fits nicely with the book I'm reading, "The Plant Paradox" by Steven R. Gundry, MD.That theory fuses nicely with the anti GMO crowd since thats one of the things they target is increasing a plant's production of said proteins. Corn one of the worst offenders.
Essentially it blames most of our health issues on leptins ( of which gluten is one) . They're proteins created by plants to fight predators. They tend to attach to cell receptors, and block or confuse information within the body. This results in a multitude of
maladies, including arthritis, autoimmune disorders, and many diseases that aren't caused by infections or deficiencies. New world plants are worse than Old World plants on the whole because we haven't been exposed to them for as many thousands of years.
But, you can take that with a shaker full of salt. https://nutritionstudies.org/the-plant-paradox-by-steven-grundy-md-commentary/
The diet I'm following is based on his 2008 book, " Diet Evolution" which is anti-grain on the basis of- grains are what we use to fatten livestock. We shouldn't be surprised when they work on us, too.
D@mn, Corn Syrup is practically in everything these days...
I'm trying to increase my water consumption, because I'm basically pissing away the pounds. I'm supposed to avoid things that even taste sweet. Not as bad as it sounds because I rarely sweeten my tea. Maybe honey when I have a sore throat.
I started using unsweetened True Lime in my water today, and that helps.
Have you tried Stevia sweetner or True Citrus flavorings?
https://www.truelemonstore.com/True-Citrus-Beverage-Sampler-p/81-1076.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6tqtn--k2gIVRLbACh2O5wwJEAQYAiABEgL_t_D_BwE (https://www.truelemonstore.com/True-Citrus-Beverage-Sampler-p/81-1076.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6tqtn--k2gIVRLbACh2O5wwJEAQYAiABEgL_t_D_BwE)
I think my BBQ sauce recipe misses a little something without basil...
It's atop page two...
Laziest of meals in my repertoire tonight: Baked potato bar.
My mom used to have a set of Aluminum (call them baking nails if you want) that would be inserted length wise into the potato. She (and myself when I made them) would wash the spud, cover in foil, inset nail and put into oven. Can't remember time or temp.
The Aluminum of the baking nails would transfer heat into the spud and allow the inside of the spud to be fully cooked (for your larger baking potatoes). Less cooking time for one thing... Skin still moist, too...
I would have one for myself with lots of butter (not margarine). The skin was the best, after finishing the inside. Have later used some cheese and bacon as well as a bit of Sour Cream, but it's almost always been lots of Butter to start with... And I take lots of time getting it ready for that butter, too...
IIRC, when Rusty and his wife had me for dinner (at a restaurant in the Pointe Orlando Complex on International Drive), when he was in Orlando, I had Steak and Baked Potato.
2 months-ish of systematically removing all traces of corn from the diet, aggressive portion control and trying the many small snacks as opposed to large meals approach to eating and I’m down a size of pants, and they are loose. No real numbers.
The cheese sauce, I've had better luck with flour than corn starch, myself. But I don't want sweet in my cheese sauces. And adding more cheese is always an option to thicken a cheese sauce.
I like how I inadvertently spawned an immortal thread here. Not cooking much ATM, since Michael knocked out most of the grocery stores. At least we have power, and enough ingredients hauled down from my BIL's in Alabama to avoid eating yet another "nutrition bar," or whatever they're called.
Trouble is trees tipping over still can dig them up and they're harder to fix.Especially, when they have to tunnel dig the lines, the tubes can be within a tree(s) root complex, which all gets displaced when the tree is knocked over (and not broken).
Though there's the cursed building at work that has a cat's ghost possessing it. Cat somehow got into the main relay box outside. Nothing's been right since.Revenge for leaving the box accessible to the cat to try to take a nap, likely thinks it was a trap...
I had a rather great lazy week last week.
Doesn't start out lazy:
Chicken Cacciatore. The local grocer had these boneless/skinless massive chicken breasts on sale buying in bulk. So, I bought a bunch, and Monday made Chicken Cacciatore out of 9 of them in a giant roaster pan with a ton of peppers, onions, and tomatoes.
As that takes hours to finish in the oven, I made a nice side of fettuccine alfredo.
So, all the work now done...
This gave us leftovers Tuesday.
Wednesday I thinly sliced the rest of the breasts, separated out the veggies, and most of the broth, keeping some with the chicken.
I then used the broth as a base to make home made ramen broth (mixing with some fish sauce, soy, and wine), reheating the now sliced chicken as a topping. We froze a bunch of the ramen broth for later.
Thursday, hEt working, made french dips as a break from chicken.
Friday, used the sliced chicken and leftover alfredo to make a chicken alfredo bake.
Saturday I thinly sliced the veggies, mixed back in with the sliced chicken, and reheated the lot with some cilantro and lime to make Fajitas.
So, big meal Monday ended up feeding the family for the week, with 2 meals worth of ramen broth in the freezer to boot.
We just use the Mae Ploy pastes--their green is indeed hotter than their red.
Since you brought up bacon, I'd like to add that it goes great with mac & cheese as well; I cooked bacon bits in the saucepan before starting the roux--I'd have subbed bacon grease for butter if I had a good way to measure it, but our tablespoons are plastic--and it added a smoky note that went very well with the cheddar.
I haven't tried provolone. I have tried mozz, and the results were so gooey as to be borderline terrifying. Now I add a sprinkling of shredded mozz to any white sauce I want to goop up.
We, as a society, focus too much on taste at the expense of texture. I think this might be because we're scared of fat and fat gives things a better mouth feel.
I used to be a gas grill guy. I liked the easy ignition, the temperature control and it was easier to operate in the wind and rain, and not having to get dirty handling ashes and charcoal.
When I got married my wife bought me a Webber charcoal grill. This was non-negotiable. There was a learning curve. I agree that it tastes better. That's the point of grilling, isn't it?
My cousin has one of those egg grills that uses pellets, and seems to get impressive results with a variety of fish, game, and store meats on facebook. Those Treager wood pellet grills look pretty impressive on infomercials and at televised competitions, but I've never tasted any of it. Those are pretty expensive.
Love some pics of your setup.You're in luck; Momma asked me to grill steaks, and I remembered to grab the camera...
yeah, but not too bad...
Did the pics bork the forum width for anyone else?
My wife is the grill operator in our family; she was a total pyro as a kid, and still basically is. She does a magnificent jerk-seasoned pork chop.
I have my own pasta sauce recipe that is stupid easy to do.You should try Extra Virgin Olive Oil for this, better overall health and weight wise...
Any sort of meat, can be hamburger made into meatballs or steak cutlets, whatever you prefer. Cook it on the side.
Get a clove of garlic, mince it pretty finely.
Canola oil, or really any sort of cooking oil will do. Put a bit of oil, not too much, into a pot and the minced garlic. Let it fry for a bit.
Add crushed tomato, fresh or canned, don't really matter.sounds good
4 teaspoons of sugar.
4 good shakes of salt.
4 good shakes of pepper.
Slice an orange into about a third, squeeze all the juices in and just throw the whole crushed thing into the mix. Stir, and let it slow cook for a bit as you do. Add more squeezed orange juice for a citrusy flavor or a bit more garlic depending on preference.
Throw in the meat, and you got yourself a nice and easy sauce for spaghetti.
Alright, it's grilling season, and with the house being torn apart, I'm looking at plenty of it over the summer (winter for Dale).
So, let me hear about your burger secrets.
First, IMO, there's two ways people try to make a good burger. Fixins or mixins.
Fixin wise, the most Utah thing out there is:
Blue Bacon Burger: Utah original (fairly well documented), though some national chains are making poor knockoffs lately. Basic burger patty, thick bacon, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and Blue cheese dressing.
Mount Ogden Burger: The other claimed Utah original, seen it much more widely across the country, Patty, ham, swiss, lettuce, tomato, "Fry Sauce" (this is a totally Utah thing, but thousand island dressing is a common substitute)
It's the mixins I'm more interested in.
A little history with me:
We were dirt poor, and mom approached burgers as an economic way of feeding the family. Anything that would extend that meat was fair game. Thus, for most my childhood burgers were closer to meatloaf. Always a package of lipton onion soup mix was going to be in. Most common other items to mix into the burger were zucchini and carrots. Oats, bread crumbs, etc were never unheard of. Add an egg or two if they don't want to stay stuck together.
By comparison, the prepacked patties they now use are tasteless.
About 20 years ago, I found a pile of recipes in my grandma's trash bin. Among these is a depression era recipe for hamburgers, and it's become the basis of my own tinkering since. Though, I've yet to take it all the way to it's ultimate step.
It goes thus:
The recipe calls for getting castoffs from the butcher, with certain cuts to look for to run through your meat grinder. Jumping it into today, you want equal parts ground sirloin and ground chuck. This yields a fairly lean burger.
Mix that together, and smash it all as flat as you can make it. To this, you're going to add your spices. Now the recipe gets lost here with pieces impossible to reproduce ('grandpa's mustard' and 'moms chili paste' are just nowhere to be found). But the gist of it still lives.
Make a paste out of liquid and dry spices.
Last night, I used Dijon mustard with a bit of soy sauce and Cholula hot sauce mixed with garlic salt, pepper, minced onions, and thyme.
Anyway, spread the paste evenly across your flattened ground beef. Roll it up into a loaf, and knead it until mixed. Spread flat and repeat.
Make your patties. This is where I break from the recipe, make thick burgers and grill.
The recipe calls for thin patties. WHICH YOU THEN ROLL IN PEANUTS and fry. (Peanuts at the time of the great depression were extremely economical and would have been a great way to extend your meat) One of these days I'll work up the courage to try the peanuts, but I don't know how that'll fair on the grill, and I don't care for fried burgers much.
Afraid I can't help much with bonez. I don't eat off bonez, just collect clean ones. But generally chicken is a low and slow cook. Try wrapping in tin foil and cooking, then unwrapping and sear/sauce the outside at the end.
However, my Brother-in-law is trying to get a new type of grill on the market. I'm not allowed to say much. They have a prototype and are looking for a distributor. He and I do things MUCH differently on the grill, let's leave it at that for now, but they want me to be a tester if a production model gets made.
I'm down for cricket meat.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/582709292659113985/621118360645533696/image0.jpg)Made chicken shawarma and roasted veggies for dinner. Came out great.his recipe that he followed was here
https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-chicken-shawarma/
This is the laziest sort of gourmet. Today my wife made me a Key Lime Pie! ( Not on my diet, but I'll eat it and enjoy it anyway )
I've been toying with the idea of a Thanksgiving feast flavor profile riff on a Shepherd's pie. Dressing, gravy, turkey, corn, mashed potatoes. Cranberry sauce would be a side dish. Not exactly lazy, until you compare it to a Thanksgiving feast.
This is the laziest sort of gourmet. Today my wife made me a Key Lime Pie! ( Not on my diet, but I'll eat it and enjoy it anyway )
I've been toying with the idea of a Thanksgiving feast flavor profile riff on a Shepherd's pie. Dressing, gravy, turkey, corn, mashed potatoes. Cranberry sauce would be a side dish. Not exactly lazy, until you compare it to a Thanksgiving feast.
What, ground turkey instead?
let me know how it turns out. We have someone whom makes a Shepards Pie at times and if it comes out good, I'll see if he wants to try it with the leftover turkey that we will be having...
And since someone will ask - cheddar, mozzarella, monterey jack, gouda, provolone, muenster, romano and parmesan are what I remember off the top of my head.
They're all white or orange, and it's not a bad idea at all to segregate colors and do something decorative when applying toppings. If you have bell peppers gone green yellow and red, likewise for those - I improvised a very pretty one with peppers a roommate chipped in a few years after college. Also, really delicious with a lot of bell peppers that time...
Sounds fun. Anything of interest?
I figured out satisfactory egg-drop soup last year... Did I post about it?
I thought you were supposed to make a sourdough starter.
Ultimately I decided that bread is best used as a treat, rather than a staple. It's calories without much micronutrients.
Our Easter dinner was steak teriyaki and baked potatoes. Best flavor ever.
My wife prefers the Weber to the Traeger for steaks so that's what I used, but I improved the flavor this time by waiting until the coals were perfect for cooking, and then adding a handful of Traeger oak pellets for smokiness. Caution, there is a minute or two of flare-up when you add the pellets.
Cambridge Professor Tries Out Recipes From Ancient Mesopotamia That Are Nearly 4000 Years Old
With the lockdown and a lot of free time on our hands (not to mention flour, yeast, and effs enormous home supplies), we all started to cook. Most of us, sadly, with little or no success (which doesn’t prevent us from sharing the dishes online).
Some people take this process to completely another level. One of them is Bill Sutherland, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Cambridge.
He decided to try to create meals from 3770-year-old recipes carved on a Mesopotamian tablet. It is claimed that the dishes like Elamite broth and lamb stew “are the oldest recipes existing.”
Alright, it's grilling season, and with the house being torn apart, I'm looking at plenty of it over the summer (winter for Dale).
So, let me hear about your burger secrets.
First, IMO, there's two ways people try to make a good burger. Fixins or mixins.
Fixin wise, the most Utah thing out there is:
Blue Bacon Burger: Utah original (fairly well documented), though some national chains are making poor knockoffs lately. Basic burger patty, thick bacon, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and Blue cheese dressing.
Mount Ogden Burger: The other claimed Utah original, seen it much more widely across the country, Patty, ham, swiss, lettuce, tomato, "Fry Sauce" (this is a totally Utah thing, but thousand island dressing is a common substitute)
It's the mixins I'm more interested in.
A little history with me:
We were dirt poor, and mom approached burgers as an economic way of feeding the family. Anything that would extend that meat was fair game. Thus, for most my childhood burgers were closer to meatloaf. Always a package of lipton onion soup mix was going to be in. Most common other items to mix into the burger were zucchini and carrots. Oats, bread crumbs, etc were never unheard of. Add an egg or two if they don't want to stay stuck together.
By comparison, the prepacked patties they now use are tasteless.
About 20 years ago, I found a pile of recipes in my grandma's trash bin. Among these is a depression era recipe for hamburgers, and it's become the basis of my own tinkering since. Though, I've yet to take it all the way to it's ultimate step.
It goes thus:
The recipe calls for getting castoffs from the butcher, with certain cuts to look for to run through your meat grinder. Jumping it into today, you want equal parts ground sirloin and ground chuck. This yields a fairly lean burger.
Mix that together, and smash it all as flat as you can make it. To this, you're going to add your spices. Now the recipe gets lost here with pieces impossible to reproduce ('grandpa's mustard' and 'moms chili paste' are just nowhere to be found). But the gist of it still lives.
Make a paste out of liquid and dry spices.
Last night, I used Dijon mustard with a bit of soy sauce and Cholula hot sauce mixed with garlic salt, pepper, minced onions, and thyme.
Anyway, spread the paste evenly across your flattened ground beef. Roll it up into a loaf, and knead it until mixed. Spread flat and repeat.
Make your patties. This is where I break from the recipe, make thick burgers and grill.
The recipe calls for thin patties. WHICH YOU THEN ROLL IN PEANUTS and fry. (Peanuts at the time of the great depression were extremely economical and would have been a great way to extend your meat) One of these days I'll work up the courage to try the peanuts, but I don't know how that'll fair on the grill, and I don't care for fried burgers much.
[EDIT]
In this case I got tired of that awkward shaped rack of ribs sliding out every time I took something out of my freezer.
I so wanted to be cooked and eaten...
I've been experimenting with old french style braising quite a bit lately. Chicken, pork, Beef. Just generally playing with the concept.
One of the better ones, however, was a mish mash that I ended up making insert mexican dish chicken out of. (tacos, enchiladas, whatever).
Rub chicken breasts with a good spicy rub. I used a garlic chile rub. Do a quick pan sear on it and remove to a roaster pan. Cover the chicken in a mix of tomatillo salsa, chicken broth, onions, and bell peppers. Bake on 350 for 3 hours. Shred the chicken.
how was that not a go-to from the get go?
My mom was a very simple cook...salt, pepper, maybe some minced onions or garlic salt. UnO eased me into spiced and spicy foods...it took a few years, but now pretty much everything he makes I not only eat, but enjoy. Plus, everyone at work is always jealous or the amazing leftovers I bring to eat.
Here's one in the original spirit Elok started the thread for: got some stir-fry and rice on your hands, and wanna make it really Chinese? A third to half a can of frozen orange juice melted over it, and orange sauce. Mixing in some soy and/or sweet-and-sour sauce helps a little, but optional. It's more than adequate orange sauce straight out of the can. I used this one just today at supper to doctor up the last of Mom's so-so stir fry - it might be that I just don't go for teriyaki.
-Also? What I said on page one or two about bullion being necessary supplies bears repeating - you can enhance most all your noodle/rice/boiled vegetables with bullion, cheap and easy.
I've pretty much only dealt with store-brand bullion...
-Also? What I said on page one or two about bullion being necessary supplies bears repeating - you can enhance most all your noodle/rice/boiled vegetables with bullion, cheap and easy.
I invented a kind of chowder when I discovered I didn't have a casserole for scalloped potatoes. Slice up some taters, chuck them in the Instant Pot and pour on enough milk to cover. Cook it on the "rice" setting. Meanwhile, cut up an onion or two and sautee it in butter, and cube some slices of ham. When the potatoes are done, throw in the onions and ham, add salt and pepper and some shredded cheddar or whatever cheese is handy. It's very filling.
Try running rice through a blender?Per your suggestion, I ran a small sample of uncooked whole white rice through a blender this morning. The blender on a medium to high speed created some coarsely ground rice. A blender on low speed simply shook the rice around the container. This process might suffice for future recipes calling for ground rice.
Alright, pulled pork round 2 is on tap for the weekend.
Round 1 was really good...but not quite 'there' as I really had to crank the heat just to eat on time and I think that hampered it a touch. Didn't quite get the bark right. Planning several extra hours this time.
I'm using a mustard based bbq sauce that's really kinda funny. It's not a good sauce on it's own, but it blends REALLY well with chicken and pork.
Might even try some pulled chicken on the side while we're at it.
[pronounced ohkree, btw]
At supper today, we were discussing the seasoning of the chicken and rice we were eating, and Buster's Gramma articulated an important spicing principal.
"You can add more later, but you can't take away."