Weekly Cooking Thread ~ April 16, 2011

FreeRepublicCooks | April 16, 2011 | libertarian27

[Netizen]

I think B&B are sweet enough and like you I add heat.

[Flamenco Lady]

I really agree with you about salt. I wish they would just leave salt completely out of spice mixes. I don’t know of any household that doesn’t have salt, and most people that do a lot of cooking prefer to add the salt themselves to their own taste.

[rightly_dividing]

I fuly agree on the salt. With me, salt is not a health issue, it is the taste, I dont like salt. That is why I don’t use very many spice blends in cooking or at the table. I only use a little Tony Chachere’s or on occasion, some Greek seasoning blend. Black pepper is my table season of choice.

[rightly_dividing]

I have been looking at Penzey’s prices on pickle spices and chili spices. Gotta go there.

[Netizen]

I can tell when we go out to eat, my feet swell up the next day.

[Netizen]

Black pepper used to be my favorite too, but I’m real partial to cayenne now.

I’ve found that I don’t hate ginger or nutmeg, I just need to really use small amounts of it.

If you can find the Mrs Dash in the 21 oz container, for some reason the larger container has a stronger black pepper taste, which suits me!

[Netizen]

I see Penzey has a salt free pickling spice, though I’m not sure about some of the ingredients. I’m not keen on juniper.

I order ancho chili powder in my last order because it is cheaper than buying it in the little bottles. I can arbol in the store pretty cheap, but, find I use enough of the cayenne that I may as well get a larger amount. Needless to say my chili rends to have a real kick! lol

I also got some dried chopped jalapeno peppers and some sesame seeds to toss into a loaf of bread.

[Flamenco Lady]

My feet and ankles sometimes swell after eating out as well. Take out pizza also does this to me.

Several people in my family including myself are allergic to Juniper (a lot of people are) so that pickling spice would not work well for my family.

My chili has a really good kick to it too! In my house it just isn’t chili unless it is very spicy.

[rightly_dividing]

The three grain rice pilaf was great. It took several tries at several stores to locate the stuff needed, but after that everything was great. Wife says we make a double order next time. We had grilled shrimp marinaded in herb and garlic marinade with extra garlic and some rosemary added, Roasted brussel sprouts, and the three grain pilaf.

[Flamenco Lady]

I wish I was I was at your house for dinner tonight! Shrimp and brussel sprouts are two of my favorite foods.

My family also told me to make a double batch of the pilaf next time.

We just got back to the house from shopping so I have to go fix our dinner quickly. We’re having home made chicken salad sandwiches with smores pizza for dessert tonight.

I did pick up a small container of saffron today for those of you that were interested at my Indian store. It was priced at $39.95 but since she knew me she sold it to me for $37 for 2 grams. The best price I could find elsewhere around here was $40 for 1 gram, so she was still cheaper than everyone else around here for that quantity.

She told me the price really jumped with her last order. She said she sold her last 1 oz. box like I had purchased before about two months ago and it had been priced at 48.95. That same size box would have more than tripled, so she switched to carrying the smaller 2 gram size since the economy is so bad and realized that people would not be apt to spend that much at one time these days.

It would still be cheaper at the Spice house out of Chicago where it is $149.95 for a 1 oz. tin, but I can’t afford to spend that much right now and this will be plenty to last us for quite a while. Hopefully by the time we use all this I will be able to afford to order the larger box from the Spice House.

[rightly_dividing]

We have never bough saffron, and since the price is higher than gold now, I guess we won't be using any.Homemade chicken salad sandwiches sounds very good. I may have to put that on our try soon list. I am looking forward to today's thread and whatever new recipes that it may bring.

PS... Today is my wife's B-day. She was an Easter day baby back then. I asked what she wanted to do? She said she wanted to go into Houston to the Penzey's and look around and then go to the big produce market there. My wife! I just have to love her!

[rightly_dividing]

bough=bought... spell check missed that one.

[libertarian27]

Recap of this week’s recipes

Dessert* 11 Roulage (cream filled chocolate roll)
Dessert* 17 CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (diabetic)
Ingredient* 62 Cajun Seasoning
Ingredient* 62 Salt Free Cajun Seasoning (various)
Ingredient* 62 Salt Free Chili Powder (various)
Ingredient* 62 Creole Seasoning
Ingredient* 62 Salt Free Taco Seasoning
Ingredient* 62 Burrito Seasoning (Salt Free)
Ingredient* 62 Salt Substitute
Ingredient* 62 Curry Blend
Ingredient* 62 Dry Rub
Ingredient* 62 Herbal Salt Substitute
Ingredient* 62 Seasoning Blend
Ingredient* 62 Magic Dust Spice Blend (various)
Meal* 3 Albia’s King Ranch Chicken
Meal* 7 Pork Gravy for a Large Gathering
Meal* 13 Tuna Kimchi Jjigae (stew)
Meal* 18 Balsamic Caramelized Onions with Golden Raisins Sauce
Meal* 42 Breakfast Casserole
Side* 19 Cauliflower Gratin
Soup* 29 Mulligatawney Soup

(please don’t add any new recipes here - they won’t be categorized for reference)

[libertarian27]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2709393/posts?page=1
Weekly Cooking Thread for April 23rd

[Jamestown1630]

That’s a good recipe. Broccoli and Cauliflower are the main veggies in our house; I’m always looking for new recipes.

-JT