Weekly Cooking Thread ~ February 26, 2011

FreeRepublic Cooks | February 26, 2011 | libertarian27

[libertarian27]

Welcome to the 12th installment of the FR Weekly Cooking Thread.

Looking for something new to make or made something new that came out great?

Please share a 'tried-and-true' recipe or two for fellow FReepers to add to their 'go-to' recipe stack of Family favorites?

Here's the place to share and explore your next favorite recipe.

[libertarian27]

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

~Jim Davis~

February 26 - National Pistachio Day

February 27 - National Kahlua Day

February 28 - National Chocolate Souffle Day

March 1 - National Peanut Butter Lover's Day

March 2 - National Banana Cream Pie Day

March 3 - National Mulled Wine Day

March 4 - National Pound Cake Day

[libertarian27]

Weekly Cooking Thread Ping List

Recap of Last week’s Recipes:

Dessert* 24 Poorman’s Toffee
Dessert* 27 Cinnamon Graham-Apple Crisp
Dessert* 40 Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls
Dessert* 49 Trillian’s Crack
Ingredient* 30 SUBSTITUTE:PHILLY CREAM CHEESE, OTHERS
Meal* 25 Adobo Chicken with ginger
Meal* 28 Almond Butter Chicken with Orange Sauce
Meal* 29 BBQ Pork Tenderloin with Apricot-Ginger Sauce
Meal* 43 Adobo Chicken
Meal* 59 Sauerbraten
Meal* 61 Best Basic Meat Loaf
Side* 23 Sweet Cole Slaw
Side* 37 Butternut Squash and Scallion Risotto
Side* 37 Parmesan Swiss Chard
Side* 53 Pasta and Kidney Bean Salad
Side* 60 Red Cabbage and Apples

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2676360/posts?page=62#62

(To be added/deleted from this Ping list - please FReep Mail me or request in the comment section)

[Liz]

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest chocolate---chocolate is a bean.

OREO TRUFFLES / simple, but tasty.
So very rich, make them small w/ small cookie scoop or
melon baller. Dip some in milk chocolate, some in bittersweet.

START Finely grind entire box of Oreos. Mix with softened 8 oz cream cheese.
Form into small balls. Chill before dipping. FINAL Dip balls into fave melted
chocolate. Chill to set.

[mylife]

I hate to admit this, but after panning Bill's Easy Chili, I found myself making a couple of chili dogs with chili out of the can (Austex brand) I toasted the buns and added cabot seriously sharp cheddar as well as fresh diced white onion just to make myself "feel" like I was cooking.

OMG those were good! LoL

[who knows what evil?]

Looks tasty as long as you have your glasses on...no glasses; not so much.

[who knows what evil?]

OMG...there’s a ‘National Kahlua Day’???

[Alice in Wonderland]

I just bought a bunch of smoked sausage. We’ve made some Sausage with Beans and Rice (which is tasty) but I’m looking other recipes. Any suggestions?

[poobear]

Cut sausage on the diagonal and brown in a little oil, remove to a plate.
Add:
1 diced onion, 3 stalks of diced celery, 1 bell pepper (Holy Trinity)
Saute in the sausage drippings and remove.
Add a little butter and about 1/2 cup of flour and brown over med. heat (careful not to burn rue) Keep is loose by adding more oil or butter.
Add slowly chicken or fish stock and wisk. I use shrimp shells for my fish stock. Add Old Bay seasoning to taste and hot sauce to taste.
Add about half of a package of frozen non-breaded okra,
2 14oz. cans of diced tomato and all of the Holy Trinity and sausage and simmer 20 minutes.
Add 1 lb. of peeled shrimp, 1 lb of diced sturdy fish and 1 package of fresh oysters (optional)

Serve over white rice and enjoy! Don’t forget a basket of crackers and hot sauce on the side.

[doodad]

I made sausage sandwiches the other day with Italian sausage. Poached them until the water dried and then sauteed them with garlic, shallots, tomatoes and peppers. Sliced the sausage in half and put the pepper mix and sausage on a toasted hoagie roll with melted cheese. Simple and fast.

[libertarian27]

OMG...there’s a ‘National Kahlua Day’???

I KNOW! Right?!? - Who Knew?

In honor(I should make this again)
From the 1986 Kahlua Recipe Book

Kahlua Creamy Fudge

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 jar (7oz) marshmallow creme
2/3 cup evap milk
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup Kahlua
1/4tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet choc pieces
1 cup milk chocolate pieces
2/3 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp vanilla

Line 8 in baking pan with foil. In 2qt saucepan combine:sugar,marshmallow, milk, butter, Kahlua and salt
Bring to rapid boil, stirring constantly for 5 min.
Remove from heat; add all chocolate, stir until melted.
Add nuts and vanilla
Turn into prepared pan - Refrigerate until firm.

Makes 2 3/4 lbs.
That much? Maybe I shouldn't make this again!
20 years ago - no big thing to gorge on fudge - now? not so much...

[bboop]

I think I’ll go git me some AlkaSeltzer. Those look like they could do you right in.

[bgill]

Heads up! If you're going to stock up, do so YESTERDAY! Prices are skyrocketing in my grocery store. They've been rising but this week was the worse. Roma tomatoes went from .82/lb last week to $2.32/lb this week (no tomatoes on the tacos I'd put on this week's menu). Yellow squash is at $2.48/lb. Canned veggies have gone up 20%. And meat, well, is out of this world though I did get some limit 2 boneless chick thighs for $1/lb so need to go back for more but I'm not going to waste gas to make a special trip.

FYI, the thighs were preseasoned with Mexican spices but you can always rinse them off to remove some of the flavor or use them as is in a Chinese dish as those flavors blend well enough. I passed up the bone-in thighs for limit 2 $1/lb but some people wouldn't realize it wasn't the same savings what with having to pay for the bones.

Over the past few months, I've noticed that my HEB store (only store in town) is always out of some of the weekly ad specials. It used to be a good local chain but something has changed. Yeah, HEB, I'm calling you out. The same store over in the next town is also having that problem so I don't know what's up. It's a not only aggravating that it's not there, but when so many around here live in the country and have to limit grocery runs, it a real pain. This week it was $1 cauliflower.

[Free Vulcan]

My great-grandmother’s oatmeal cookie recipe. Do oatmeal and walnuts count as vegetables?

Grandma D’s Prize Oatmeal Cookies

Cream:

2 c sugar
1 c butter
2 eggs
1 tsp soda (baking powder)
1/8 tsp salt

Add: 1 cup raisins or chocolate chips (or 1/2 and 1/2)

Mix: 2 c oatmeal (or 1 c oatmeal & 1 c walnuts)
2 1/2 c flour

Cream the first group, add the raisins or chips, then mix the oatmeal (and walnuts if substituted) and flour together and add to rest.

Roll into balls, flatten, bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Decadent.

[CarolinaGOP]

Please add me to your ping list. Thank you!

[bgill]

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

Love zucchini bread but it's pricey this time of year (nearly $2/lb). If you were wise and picked up after-holiday sales on canned sweet potatoes, you can substitute those for pumpkin in pies and breads as the taste is practically identical.

[bgill]

Regarding last week’s notice of Canned Goods Month - nope, never did see any sales. Did anyone?

[libertarian27]

A friendly heads up on pre-seasoned meats in ‘some’ grocery stores....’some’

Many meat departments, instead of reducing the packages of fresh meats getting close to code (or if they have too much at once hitting a date)- will open and pre-season the meat to cover the ‘getting close to funkiness’ smell. Same with fish departments.

I’ve witnessed it done in the backrooms many times.
Again - in some chains and more rampant in small operations.

A hint to watch out for - if the store randomly has pre-seasoned meats (instead of a dedicated section daily with a nice variety)it’s most likely going on.

[listenhillary]

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/old-settlers-baked-beans/Detail.aspx

[listenhillary]

The Old settlers beans recipe that I posted has way more sugar in it than I would use.

[mylife]

I had forgotten just how good something that simple could be!