What's Cooking?
 

Anybody making dinner tonight? What's on the menu?

I have some extra time during finals week, so I'm the chef tonight - we're having Tuscan potato and kale soup with Italian sausage. Smells good so far.

Ahh, love that eye-talian sausage. Monkeyboy recently made a vat of polenta with bits of sweet sausage mixed in. It was good for breakfast, too.

we ate out


BUT!

jinx made my lunch for tomorrow......boneless chicken tenders fried and then doused with buffalo sauce. i look forward to getting on the outside of them tomorrow.

I made chicken fajitas last night. I marinated the chicken in:
white wine
lime
garlic
chili powder
parsley

Then served them up with:
guacamole
sour cream

On:
corn tortillas

fuck. i got all drunk and ate that chicken last night. now i have to order lunch out.

:notworthy:

everybody on this damn board is a freakin' cooking genius. doesn't anybody do Campbells soup or fake mac and cheese or just a pretzel or something? everybody marinates this or marinates that or chops scallions or twice-bakes or [i]something[i] or sautees baby greens and makes homemade wilted bacon sauce or what have you.


god, I must be too lazy to live. at times, opening the can just doesn't seem worth it.

I'm eating a pretzel right now. It was trouble opening the bag, but I managed.

ROLD GOLD? :) those bags can be pretty tough to open.

are you dipping them in mayonnaise? that's the best.

oh yuk.


try scooping tunasalad with them, tho....that's not bad.

Mustard. Plain old regular yellow mustard.

The thin Rold Gold ones. Classic style. They are good. I think its the hint of sugar in them.

No dipping. I only do that with a real pretzel. You know, one of those bread style one. Then I dip it in a spicy mustard.

I often get home from work and have a bowl of cereal for dinner. Then I have another bowl of cereal for breakfast.

I've lost eight pounds in two weeks on this diet (I gained ten pounds in the previous two weeks, so I'm still up by two).

Today is our building holiday party. There are all kinds of good things on the menu - lots of meat, that is. Unfortunately, no alcohol this year.

Ugh. I made penne in a lobster sauce last night (which was really just a fancy bisque that I bought to go from a cafe, plus some stuff) and although my husband said he liked it a lot, I was completely unable to eat it, or even stand the smell of the plate in front of me.

I had a bowl of cereal later that night. But I think there must have been an underlying medical issue, because these days I typically eat a bowl of cereal late at night after I've already eaten dinner, but last night/early this morning I wasn't hungry at all.

Lentil and sausage soup with a side salad and a roll. Soup's from Costco. Simple and effective, in this nasty weather.

Last night I had bourbon for dinner. It was gooood.

Tonight we are actually cooking. Stir fry from a bag that includes a little package of sauce, and we get to add the chicken! Actually quite yummy. Although, we haven't had the Teriyaki yet, I am sure it will be just as good as the Szechwan.

How about a nice salad? 1/5
 

I can whip one up right away!

pic 01 -- The blank slate

pic 02 -- A bed of torn iceberg lettuce

How about a nice salad? 2/5
 

pic 01 -- thinly sliced red cabbage

pic 02 -- diced yellow bell pepper

How about a nice salad? 3/5
 

pic 01 -- chunked carrots

pic 02 -- chopped green onions

How about a nice salad? 4/5
 

pic 01 -- quartered mushrooms

pic 02 -- pan fried chicken

How about a nice salad? 5/5
 

pic 01 -- a sprinkle of pine nuts

pic 02 -- a splash of sesame ginger dressing

Delicious!

raw mushrooms are not good for you

Depends on the mushroom and depends on the you, wouldn't you think?

We had indian for dinner last night. This morning my farts are pretty rich and plentiful.

Cooking is one of my great stress releases. I really love coming home, pouring a glass of wine, chopping things up and putting them on a fire. It helps that I love eating.

Exclude the peppers but keep the mushrooms.

Culinary delights tonight. From bigbox. Bake-n-Bite chipotle chicken sausage with green mans broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots in a maybe cheese sauce. The nutrition facts I'll leave out.

Iceberg? Srsly? :headshake

Ate half a bag of rice crackers tonight. Very bad (not bad for me, just outta routine)

But have Aduki, Mung beans and brown rice in soak for tomorrow.
Very important not to lose focus before Christmas.

HM out tomorrow night so may very well post results of dinner.
No, not results... I mean just dinner.

Nothing. Patrick is cooking tonight at Chinnok's. BigV and I go on Friday's for mussels, foccaccia bread, pomegranate martinni (me), club soda (V). Date night.

Why not?

Nothing much tonight; we ate at Panda Express -- a Chinese steamtable chain. I like their Black Pepper Chicken, and tonight I got it fresh out of the wok. Even better!

Mighty fine salad there, V; we'd do it with romaine/green lettuce, as we account iceberg about as bland as ice chips and go for something a bit more intense if at all possible.

Griff, are you allergic to peppers also?

I'm allergic to peppers. and chilis. and all in between.

Haddock Florentine.
Poach haddock in milk
Put spinach in bottom of dish, put poached haddock on top
Make cheese sauce out of milk used to poach haddock and pour over the above
Put grated cheese on all of the above
Grill (broil?) until brown and crispy on top.
YUM

I've got two pork shoulder (butt) roasts smokin' on the Q to make pulled pork sammiches for dinner. mmmm!!

Nah, I'm just not a fan unless its a hot pepper.

I went light tonight.
Greek salad
olive oil
lemon juice
onion
cukes
tomatoes (still from the garden!)
sundried tomatoes
feta cheese
garlic
salt
pepper
oregano

I am having breakfast for dinner. Some fake eggs, fake bacon, english muffin, and a little cheese - voila, a fake mcmuffin

skirt steak, mashed potatoes (real ones), beans with parmesian and vino!

Tomato Basil soup serves 24

Disclaimer: I am a cook, not a scientist in the kitchen. I consider recipes guidelines, not commandments. I use approximate measurements, adjusting, tasting as I go.


first make the basil pesto

2 pounds of fresh basil
1 pound of pine nuts
2 heads of fresh garlic, peeled, chopped
1/2 pound parmesan (or mixed romano, asagio, parmesan) cheese, grated fine

2 cups olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

++

Remove stems from basil, discard.
Chop leaves finely, combine with pine nuts and olive oil and cheese in blender/food processor. I use the blender, so I make smallish batches (quart at a time) and then remove it, then continue until I'm done with the basil. The pesto should be a thick paste, dark green. The oil can be used to thin the mixture, and more cheese will certainly firm it up.

I decant the mixture into quart ziploc bags (or smaller) and smooth them flat and freeze them. A couple batches carries us through a season (by batch I mean a couple of two pound bags of basil.. that's a lot of basil). For the soup, I didn't have fresh basil available in quantities greater than $4/ounce or some such insanity, so I just raided the freezer and pulled out five 3"x6" ziploc bags (snack size) of pesto to flavor the soup. Worked great.

On to the soup.

1 #10 can of tomato sauce (this is the BIG can, ten inches high, eight inches across, don't know the weight or volume)

2 regular sized cans (6" high, 3" across, not the tiny 3x1.5" cans) of tomato paste (thickens soup)

A couple cans of chicken broth

some olive oil

Some butter

salt pepper

half gallon ultra heavy cream (yes, the whole half gallon)

Into large pot, pour the tomato sauce and the tomato paste, stir until well mixed. it will be thick. Add the pesto from above. Stir on medium heat. There should be the rare bubble forming to pop the surface. This soup will scald and taste burned. Don't burn it.

Add a little chicken broth to thin it to work it nicely. Add the cream. The red tomato soup turns a rather ugly shade of green/orange when the pesto is added. The cream brightens this considerably to a cheery orange. Add enough chicken broth to make the soup thin enough to stir easily. You should be tasting along the way. Make the soup the way you like it. The salt and pepper go in about now. As the soup is nearing the end of the assembly phase, all ingredients in, and it tastes good, add some butter, quarter cup, half cup, or more, and you get a lovely glossy sheen on the soup, and a beautiful mouth feel.

I let it cool overnight (after an immediate meal with grilled cheese sandwiches). The consistency resembles pumpkin pie filling, and almost that color too, but redder. I spoon it into quart ziplocs (for individual servings, but into gallon ziplocs for family meals). I fill the ziplocs full enough to fold half over empty and have the bag be about an inch and a half high. This size/shape stacks neatly in the freezer. I get about five or six bags from this recipe.

Feeding an army?

Curry Chicken over white rice. Yum!

Not with this batch. More like.. siege mentality. I like to cook some foods in big batches, and freeze portions. Spaghetti works well this way, as do many soups. I have used this recipe to feed a scout troop. I did have to scale it up by a factor of five or six though.... It was delicious!

We had fajitas on Monday, and I made the best Strawberry Margaritas ever. Ever. In the history of the world.

1 package of frozen strawberries
fill the rest of the blender with party ice
fill 2/3 of the blender with tequila, and 1/3 with Triple Sec

Drink until your head explodes with awesomeness.

Fried rice, sweet and sour chicken.....the fortune in the cookie better be good!:p

pumpkin soup

Thick grilled Pork Chops tonight! Sweet Potatos cooked in the fireplace. Fresh steamed broccoli.

For my boyfriends birthday the wish is for chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting.I'll probably do layers possibly with raspberry filling. I can handle the chocolate cake part but I want to make a perfect frosting. I want the perfect stiffness and peaks.

SO anyone have good tips for fool proof whipped cream frosting?

My wife is cooking fish n' chips tonight!

I have to pick up some beer for the batter...does it matter which kind? I'll probably just get a 6-pack of Miller Lite...regular beer beer.

Fusilli alla Caprese. It's almost not cooking -- okay, you cook it but briefly.

Here's a salad edition of this dish -- good for weight-loss, carb-control, or bodybuilder chow. It may also be served as a hot entrée.

Like this. The mozzarella definitely goes in last, with the chopped basil. Adding it in when the tomatoes and garlic are still quite hot will mean the mozzarella will stick goopily to your serving spoon. But it's quite nice if your cheese cubes are a little soft and rounded about the edges.

It's a light, fresh'n'bright-tasting pasta meal. Variations on it would be about endless: add in sliced black olives, sliced mushrooms, some varieties of firm sausage.

Hey, Bri' -- the reason we take up the wooden spoon of culinary mastery is because we've opened cans -- peeled the wrapping off of American cheese Singles and snacked on a dozen at a sitting -- eaten plenty of microwave burritos and canned mac-&-cheese. If we were once military, we ate in chow halls -- think of school food, sometimes especially high in calories. And we've bloody had it.

And hard snackfood pretzels bore us about as stiff as the pretzels.

But now, there are cookbooks. Now there is Food Network, where any newbie-nerd can!!

Now there are two powerful, opposing trends: food out of factories that produce anything from Tater Tots to Purina-yuppie-chow, and a huge population of newish private cooks either making some real use of their stoves (or doing rent-a-kitchens), cooking for themselves using ingredients nobody else has messed w... er, processed.

It's a pain in the ass to make all this food, but when you compare it to the frozen/factory/institutional versions, they all suck, and suck really bad. In fact once you make food the right way for a while, you can't eat the shitty stuff any more because you realize how foul it really is.

I like Spaghetti-o's, Hamburger Helper, and frozen macaroni-and-cheese.

Chicken and dumplings

Creamed ground beef
(comfort food masquerading as a diet recipe from the Alli website)

(recipe was for *one* serving, so, of course, I had to scale it up by a factor of four. Please. One?)

12 oz lean ground beef
8 tbsp choppped green onion
8 tbsp margarine
8 tbsp flour
32 oz milk
2 cups frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste

Brown beef and onions, drain well, set aside.

Melt margarine in skillet. Slowly add flour, whisking continuously. When all the flour has been incorporated, making the roux, turn the heat off.

Slowly add the milk to the roux. It will become quite thin but thicken upon reheating. Once it is all added, making the gravy, turn the heat back on medium. Add the meat mixture and the peas. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over toast. Delicious.

:sick:

glatt: hahahahah.... more for me! In fact, I brought leftovers for lunch, lovingly packed for me by Tink!

I will say she's no fan of peas, though. Perhaps this is your complaint too.

Whoa. That's an Alli recipe? I thought you were supposed to NOT eat fat when you're taking it.

3 oz lean ground beef: 16 gms fat

I guess you can use skim milk, no fat, but I'd think the gravy would turn out weak.

1TBSP low fat margarine (which it didn't specify low fat, but I'm guessing): 9 gms fat

Hmm, but it sounds kind of good.

My reaction too. To be fair, I was going by memory about the recipe. I do remember, now, that the text said "Extra lean ground beef". Maybe the fat content is lower there too. And the margarine did say canola based, la la la... something... I went with what I had in the fridge. And it did say skim milk, which is all we drink at home anyway. Except when I'm making that tomato soup.

I did have a large portion, between 1 and 2 servings, and an Alli pill, and I haven't had any "treatment effects" as they euphemistically put it. It was a good meal.

Are you having success with the Alli? I've cut out so many carbs just by hardly ever stopping for beers, but I'm still stuck at a plateau. Maybe I need the added boost of cutting the extra fats out of my diet? (Maybe I just need to get my fat ass on the treadmill.)
I will try that recipe, too. I would think, with what I've heard about Alli, that you would notice if there was too much fat in it by those pesky treatment effects of which you speak. :)

today I'm making profiteroles to take up to Dad's for the weekend.

Choux pastry is really simple and tastes great. Fill the little pastry puffs with custard then top with chocolate. Yummo.

Sometimes I fill them with chantilly cream, but I think custard is better when there's kids about.