Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Weekly Cooking Thread ~ February 26, 2011
FreeRepublic Cooks | February 26, 2011 | libertarian27

Posted on 02/26/2011 6:54:03 AM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Food; Hobbies; Reference
KEYWORDS: cooking; food; recipes; weeklycookingthread
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 221-230 next last
To: Netizen
I get a lot of mix, from Viet,Cambodian,Thai,Lao,Hmong They share a lot of dishes.

Be careful with Lao and Hmong, when the guys are drinking. They eat some weird stuff. LoL

Tom Sam (Green papaya salad) is awsome. I have seen Thai and Lao make it. You can omit the peanuts

This is great with Larb Gai and sticky rice.

81 posted on 02/26/2011 10:03:11 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: Liz

I have a similar recipe set aside to make, they look so good! I’ve never tried them before. One is for one just like yours and this is the other:

Cool Mint Oreo Cookie Balls

What You Need
6 oz. (3/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 pkg. (15.25 oz.) DOUBLE STUF OREO Cool Mint Creme Cookies, finely crushed (about 4 cups)
2 pkg. (6 squares each) BAKER’S White Chocolate, melted
6 drops green food coloring
2 Tbsp. chocolate sprinkles
Make It

MIX cream cheese and cookie crumbs until well blended.

SHAPE into 40 (1-inch) balls. Mix melted chocolate and food coloring until well blended. Dip balls in chocolate; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan. Top with sprinkles.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm.

I don’t know if I should make the plain or mint first. I do know I plain on dipping either in melted ghiradelli dark chocolate.


82 posted on 02/26/2011 10:04:20 AM PST by Trillian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: mylife

LOL I have that written on my sugar container.


83 posted on 02/26/2011 10:07:38 AM PST by Trillian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Netizen

Try the lemon basil with seafood.

I usually only use rosemary on lamb.

Strip the branch, chop the rosemary, mix with dijon mustard, garlic, olive oil and cracked black pepper.
Wisk into an emulsion. Marinate the lamb and then skewer on the rosemary branches.

Broil that on high heat but serve med rare


84 posted on 02/26/2011 10:09:12 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: Netizen

I haven’t had the pleasure of trying those cuisines.


85 posted on 02/26/2011 10:10:47 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Netizen
I noticed that with the shredded cheese when I made Lasagna this past week.

Lasagna is a sore spot with me, and has been for a number of years. I'm obviously like you and make it from scratch, heck I've even been known to make my own noodles for it. However, so many people can't be bothered and just by the frozen stuff (Stouffer's is good, I will admit that) which is so much more expensive by portion. A couple years ago I offered to teach a woman I know how to make it (and a lot of other things) herself in order to save money. To this day she still buys all prepackaged crap and people wonder why she and her kids are obese and her husband has heart problems. She just refuses to learn how to cook. If it can't be thrown in the oven or the microwave she doesn't buy it.

She has a 12yo and a 7yo. The 7yo outweighed my 12yo when she was 4, and now outweighs me. Her 12yo outweighed me when she was 8 and outweighed my husband by the time she was 10.

And people wonder why I make so much from scratch, rather than prepackaged.

We use the Costco/Kirkland brand. I did the math on it and it is WAY cheaper to buy that in bulk there.

Unfortunately, I live out in the boonies and have no easy access to any of the "club" stores. The nearest Sam's Club is 50 miles and Costco is over 100 miles. I do what I can with my local supermarket and WalMart.

86 posted on 02/26/2011 10:12:27 AM PST by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: Trillian

LoL!

I like the cut of your jib!


87 posted on 02/26/2011 10:13:16 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: Gabz

Hint.

The Mexican markets make excellent mozarella and farm cheeses similar to ricotta and sell them cheap cheap cheap.

They also make some nice german style cheeses as a lot of German Mennonites(Mennonita is actually similare to provolone) settled there.

Queso anejo is a decent substitute for Romano at a 1/4 of the price


88 posted on 02/26/2011 10:19:28 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: mylife

Lol, Larb is the Thai dish I didn’t care for. I couldn’t think of the name though. Not sure if it was the sauce or what but it tasted odd. I’ve tried most of the curries and found that I like them.

Love the black rice with mango.


89 posted on 02/26/2011 10:21:28 AM PST by Netizen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: Gabz
What else is happening is the downsizing of packages. What used to be a 9ounce box is now only 7.5 ounces.

That drives me batty - especially with recipe ingredients - you just stand there trying to figure out how to add more ounces to the recipe, and if you want to make something different - instead of buying one box of something you have to buy two(to equal the amount on a recipe)

If they start downsizing dry yeast packages - it's all over! lol

90 posted on 02/26/2011 10:22:32 AM PST by libertarian27 (Ingsoc: Department of Life, Department of Liberty, Department of Happiness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Gabz

BTW, Making your own noodles is easy.

I dont even use a pasta machine.
Thats for show.
Gotta rolling pin and a knife? Yer good to go!


91 posted on 02/26/2011 10:23:57 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: mylife

We started making our own mozarella from this recipe.....it is so great when made fresh....

This recipe is a quick, simple, easy recipe to make a 2-lb block of mozzarella cheese:

Ingredients:

1. 2 gallons of cool milk, either fresh & raw or pasteurized and cooled.

2. Citric acid powder. 2 1/2 very level teaspoons of citric acid powder dissolved in 1/4 cup of cool tap water. Mix into the cool milk for 2 minutes.

3. Heat milk to 88 degrees F. This is not an error. You are not trying to pasteurize the milk. If you get it too hot or too cold, the rennet will not take make curds.

4. Rennet: 1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet (or 1/2 tablet regular rennet OR 2 junket tablets). Dissolve rennet in 1/4 cup cool tap water. Add this into the milk and stir for 14-20 seconds. Cover your pot with a lid and allow milk to remain still for 12-15 minutes while it coagulates.

5. Cut the curd into cubes, around 1/2 inch in size. Let cut curds remain undisturbed for 5 minutes. Apply low heat and stir gently so as to keep curds separated. The curds will shrink as the whey is expelled from them in this step. Slowly heat the curds to 108 degrees over about 10-15 minutes time. Then shut off the heat and continue to stir every few minutes for an additional 20 minutes.

6. Drain curds in a colander for about 15 minutes. You can dip or pour them out of the pan and save the whey to make ricotta if you wish, or save it for the pigs or chickens, or throw it out. After the curds sit for 15 minutes, they will be stuck together in a colander shaped clump. Cut this into strips about 1 inch by 1 inch cross section. Lay the strips in a criss-cross fashion in a large bowl.

7. Mix 1/4 cup salt in 1/2 gallon of water and heat to 170 degrees. I always heat this water up while I am stirring the curds for that 15 minutes in step 5 above. Add the salt water to the bowl with the curds in it, make sure it is enough to cover the curds.

8. Using a wooden spoon or a pair of them, begin to stretch the curds in an upward motion (sort of like stretching taffy only stretch it with the spoons). It will begin to get stringy and will look plastic and shiny. Stretch it for about 10 minutes, then place the whole thing on a board and knead it just like you would bread dough, shaping it into a ball. This takes the excess moisture out of your cheese. Place the cheese in a plastic mold . You can place your plastic mold in a bowl of cold water until it’s firm and cold or just put a lid on it and place it in the refrigerator overnight. It’s now ready to eat. You can eat it in chunks or slices or grate it and cook with it.

To store, place in zip-lock bag or plastic wrap and refrigerate.

NOTE: If you want salt-free cheese, you can stretch it in the hot water without the salt, but the flavor is better with the salt.


92 posted on 02/26/2011 10:23:58 AM PST by illiac (If we don't change directions soon, we'll get where we're going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: Netizen

So you must object to the fish sauce.

I think it is great and not at all fishy when prepared.

http://www.importfood.com/recipes/spicychicken.html


93 posted on 02/26/2011 10:27:38 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: libertarian27

Generally I cook to taste, but package sizes are a major problem for baking.

Proportions need to be just so.


94 posted on 02/26/2011 10:29:17 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: illiac

Good for you!

Its not hard.


95 posted on 02/26/2011 10:30:17 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: Gabz
I tried a new lasagna recipe this past week. While it gave the ingredients for making the sauce, I had already purchased a sauce and use that, but the next time I will do the recipe's sauce. I tried this recipe because they did something different with the noodles. I was leery of it, but it worked. They have you soak the noodles in hot water for 15 minutes, then proceed to put the lasagna together.

You don't have to boil them. I know they make no boil noodles, but I always found it to taste starchy or pasty. This didn't. I think its because the 15 minutes of soaking in hot water released some of the starch.

Lasagna

1 lb of sweet Italian sausage
1 lb of ground beef
1/2 cup of chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
2 (8 oz) cans of tomato sauce
2 (6 oz) cans of tomato paste
1/2 cup of Water
2 T white sugar
1 tsp fennel seed
2 tsp fresh basil leaves chopped
4 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped, divided
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/2 tsp ground pepper
23 oz of ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg 
1 egg
1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
12 lasagna noodles

Brown the ground beef, Italian sausage, onions and garlic in a pot at med low heat.  It takes about 6 to 9 minutes to brown the meat.   Add the following: tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, 1/2 cup of water.  Gently stir this into the cooking meat. Add the following: white sugar, fennel seed, basil,  2 T Italian parsley, salt, Italian Seasoning, ground pepper.  Gently stir these seasoning into the sauce.  Cover the pot and let the meat sauce simmer. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Soak 12 lasagna noodles.  The lasagna noodles need to be soaked in hot tap water for 15 minutes.
 
While the noodles are soaking you can make the cheese filling.  Put the following in a mixing bowl: ricotta cheese, nutmeg.  Add the following: 1 egg, 2 T Italian parsley.  Mix these ingredients together with a spoon.  Now we start building the lasagna layers.  Use a 9×13 inch baking pan.  Spread 1-2 cups of meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Remove your lasagna noodles out of the water bath.  Shake water off wet noodles.  Lay 6 noodles across the layer of sauce.  Spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the layer of noodles.  Spread 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta layer.  Sprinkle half of  the Parmesan cheese over the mozzarella layer.  Spread 1-2 cups of meat sauce over the cheese layer.  Lay down the next layer of noodles.  Spread the remaining ricotta mixture over noodles.  Spread the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses saving some cheese for the top of the lasagna.  Put the last layer of meat sauce on the cheeses.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Cover with foil.  Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 25 minutes.   Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for approximately 15 minutes.  Serves 12


96 posted on 02/26/2011 10:35:07 AM PST by Netizen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: mylife

Baking gets thrown way out of whack with packages shrinking -example: I made these rum balls over the holidays with Nilla Wafers (I never buy those)- well the recipe called for a whole box (whatever the ounce was-forgot) but all the boxes I saw were smaller - had to buy two. Now I have this partial box of Nilla Wafers sitting around (I don’t particularly like them)

It’s a conspiracy!/partial sarc...


97 posted on 02/26/2011 10:36:57 AM PST by libertarian27 (Ingsoc: Department of Life, Department of Liberty, Department of Happiness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: Netizen

Oh BTW, Marinate red potatoes in that before adding the lamb, then bake those potato’s

Some green beans or asparagus on the side...

Yummy!


98 posted on 02/26/2011 10:38:03 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: libertarian27

It totally screws with a recipe for nanner pudding LoL


99 posted on 02/26/2011 10:39:20 AM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 ~ Halfbaked: 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: lysie
Glad you like it. Here's another chocolate truffle special---a beverage.

Rum Truffle
Blender ½ oz dark rum, ¼ oz creme de cocoa, ¼ oz hazelnut liqueur,
generous portion chocolate ice cream. SERVE topped w/ whipped cream.


100 posted on 02/26/2011 10:39:31 AM PST by Liz (A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 221-230 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson