Posted on 08/27/2011 9:01:07 AM PDT by libertarian27
Welcome to the 38th installment of the FR Weekly Cooking (Recipes) Thread.
Looking for something new to make or made something new that came out great? Please share a 'tried-and-true' recipe or eight - or all of them:)! 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.
But you need to have special dishes for Pots Du Creme — cute little pots with lids. If I owned a set of those, I’d be obligated to make it often.
That's all we have in New England - it's hard to find yellow/orange sharp cheddar - we are white cheese people (is that racist?lol)
We've got sharp - extra sharp - extra/extra sharp and a store around here sells extra/extra/extra sharp (which smells like old gym socks and tastes over the high-tops stinky/stinky...but some people like it - not me!:>)
(it's a "I dare you to eat it" cheese)
I have one daughter who would be very happy with a diet of water and potato chips for quite a while! She would be in even better shape with the bread as she has been known to make potato chip sandwiches too! LOL!
The rest of us however prefer to eat something more substantial, especially the guys in the family. We don’t have the luxury of a gas stove at the moment, so we have to either go outside and cook on the BBQ or cook inside in and around the fireplace when the power goes out. We almost always have our power outages in the winter months, so it is nice to be able to cook inside in the fireplace instead of having to go outside in the cold to cook on the BBQ.
I have a big cast iron spider style pot, so I can set that inside the fireplace with some of the embers underneath and on top of it and cook just about anything you could make while camping. When the power goes out I try to use up all the stuff in the refrigerator first, although if I have a bit of notice I can freeze lots of ice ahead of time so I can usually keep things cold for quite a while.
I can easily make a large batch of beef or chicken stew in the cast iron pot and some cornbread or biscuits in my cast iron skillet. For variety I can cook up pasta in my wide mouth thermos or another cast iron pot and we can serve any leftover stew over the top of the pasta.
We have an old popcorn cooker we used on my family camping trips as a child, so we can also make fun snacks in the fireplace. I have found that young girls find it sort of a fun adventure to be able to cook in the fireplace, so it keeps us occupied doing something fun together instead of missing the TV, computer, etc.
Whenever we know in advance of a storm coming our way where we could lose power I plan ahead by making coffee, hot water for tea, and hot cocoa in my regular thermos bottles and I can easily heat more water in my camp coffee pot, to keep them refilled and ready for anyone who needs something to drink to warm them up inside.
You can find the written recipes on www.cheflive.com not my company anymore to don’t judge me the current site.
Hubbie Help
If “hubbie” offers his expertise while you are cooking, simply remove your apron, hand him the spatula, pour yourself a glass of wine and walk away.
I saved the link to your videos in my favorites so I can watch them and try to replicate them one by one for my family!
That sounds like a great dish to bring to a pot luck supper!!!
I’d give it a whirl today but I’m not going anywhere near a supermarket today to buy the sauce!!!
Might be good to find recipes that involve cooking methods that involve filling a foil packet and placing on a car manifold to cook as you drive for all the power-deprived folks on the East Coast.
I used to LOVE those as a kid - with lots of mayonnaise! The smoosh of the bread, the ooze of the mayo and the crunch of the chips! Devine:>)
(I still put french fries on top of my hamburgers *snicker*)
I have been cooking a lot of pasta dishes in my electric wok this summer since it is big enough to combine a lot of vegetables, meat, and pasta in one huge batch for my family. I either cook fresh pasta or use leftover pasta to make these dishes as either a main dish or a side dish depending on how much pasta I am using. It is very versatile and can be made into an Asian dish or an Italian Dish depending on the sauce, meat, and veggies you use.
I stir fry all the meat and veggies, then add the pasta and heat through combining everything.
For the Italian version I usually use zucchini and/or yellow squash, onion, peppers, mushrooms, and black olives with leftover or fresh chicken, sliced up beef, Italian style sausage, or bacon and lots of freshly grated parmesan or pecarino cheese. For the sauce I either use an Italian Salad dressing or make a carbonera style sauce with beaten eggs and some of the reserved pasta water.
For the Asian version I usually use an assortment of veggies that may include any combination of carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, bean sprouts, baby corn, water chestmuts, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers and green onions with either fresh or leftover chicken or sliced pork or beef. For the sauce I use a Korean Barbecue sauce, a stir fry sauce, or and Asian Salad dressing.
Most of the time I use spaghetti noodles, but sometimes I use soba or rice noodles. My family absolutely loves this! I like it too, since I can get everything prepped a little at a time during the day and then it takes me less than 10 minutes to throw it all together. when it is time for dinner.
It is a great way to use up leftover meat and poultry too! Sometimes I marinate the meat or poultry in the sauce I use for the dish, and sometimes I don’t, depending on what seasonings were used on the meat or poultry the first time around.
It is a great way to stretch food dollars and to use up fresh vegetables grown in your garden. I was amazed at how many vegetables my family loves cooked this way, that they otherwise would not eat.
But what about chocolate? Gotta have chocolate!
I'm eating stew as I type and it's 108 outside. Nothing easier than going through the fridge and dumping it in a pot.
I washed and dipped a bushel of tomatoes in boiling water to get rid of the skins. Then just put them in freezer bags. They are mush when they thaw and great for chili.
That’s a good idea. I don’t feel like canning. But, why would I need to remove the skins? Couldn’t I just cook them into the suace? More fiber.
Keep the skins...That’s just me...
What one or two other ingredients do I need to keep it simple enough that a guy like me can throw a decent, quick lunch?
I sometimes make these dishes for my lunch using leftover pasta and you can throw them together in minutes with pre cooked pasta. Cook the pasta according to package directions and drain. I drizzle the extra cooked pasta with a little olive oil, so the pasta doesn’t stick together. I store it in the fridge in a tupperware style container or a zip lock bag until I am ready to use it.
Tomato Macaroni & Cheese
For one serving I reheat one serving of the pasta in the microwaive for about 1 minute with some butter and a splash of milk. I add a little cut up cream cheese and shredded cheddar cheese and stir it all together until the cheese melts. Sprinkle the top with halved cherry tomatoes. You can eat it just like this or for and extra indulgence you can throw it into a casserole dish sprinkle bread crumbs, or a little parmesan cheese on top and throw it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top.
Quick and Colorful Pasta Salad
For one serving add a handful of sliced black olives, a handful or two of your favorite vegetables (You can use arugula, fresh spinach, green, red, yellow, or orange peppers, chopped zucchini or yellow squash, broccoli, asparagus, or anything else you happen to have around that sounds good to you. I sometimes add chunks of cheese or salami, ham, or even leftover chicken too. ) Drizzle with Italian, Caesar, or your other favorite salad dressing. I like to top my salad with things like freshly grated parmesan cheese, cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds or some other nut, croutons, and sometimes raisins, dried cherries, or craisins. It is fun to experiment and come up with different combinations depending on what ingredients you have around the house.
Pasta and Peas
(You can easily choose a different veggie if you don’t like peas or leave the veggie out completely)
For this dish you need some alfredo sauce, you can use store bought sauce in a jar, or make your own. I add chunks of cooked chicken, ham, salami or browned sausage to the pasta, add the sauce and a handfull of peas and heat it up in the microwave for another quick lunch. I often halve some cherry tomatoes and sprinkle them on top of the pasta or serve them on the side with a little lettuce, spinach, or arugula as a side salad.
Hope this helps!
Definitely. Thanks.
pinging to save for later
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