Recipes Needed (Vanity)

today | TheMom

[TheMom]

I have grown tired of cooking (and eating) the same meals over & over again. Mostly we eat steak, beef ribs, fried chicken, fried pork chops, tacos, and enchiladas. With the occasional corned beef, spaghetti and (packaged) Chinese food thrown in.

I have several cookbooks upstairs that I was considering perusing, then I thought about the fine folks on FR.

Please add your favorite recipe(s) to this thread so I can start experimenting. The only thing that I will not cook is liver & onions (YUK). I would love to have a tried & true recipe of pot roast and (not-packaged) Chinese food ~ these two things, along with homemade biscuits, have forever rejected me.

I don’t have an aversion to baked stuff ~ it just has not been in my repertoire.

Also keep in mind, we do not have immediate access to fresh seafood.

[Grammy]

;-)

[mylife]

Hmmmm... I always take that off cuz I dont wanna have to remove it.

Makes sense to use it for flavor. I always use shrimp shells to make fish stock.

Do you use a separate pot for those bits? Simmer and discard the flavoring agents? then add to broth to the soup?

Or do you just toss the garlic and onion altogether?
I like Onion in mine

[mylife]

I like my soup a bit rustic

[spectre]

http://www.foodnetwork.com/

[Grammy]

I make the soup in two steps. Broth then soup. I toss the flavoring agents for two reasons. The first is that all the flavor is now gone! Especially with the chicken.

I save the breasts out to add to the soup. I only cook them enough to cook, not enough to extract all the flavor. The legs and thighs and other stuff I cut into about 1” pieces, (including the bones) then toss after cooking. There is just not enough meat left on the bones to justify the work to extract it, and what meat there is has very little flavor left, just bulk. (Trust me, I worked at this for years and finally got smart about it.)

Secondly, I like the veggies in my soup to have some body. If you toss the flavoring agents (which are totally limp and slimy now), then add new onions, carrots and celery to the soup, you have a little bit of fresh new flavor to kick things up, plus a nice texture. I saute them to caramalize them just a bit, and so I don’t have any “raw” onion taste that I have to cook out.

[Umanbean]

I make eggrolls, too. I saw a time saver on one of the cooking shows. Brown 1 lb. of ground pork or sausage with quite a bit of fresh garlic. Drain the fat if there is a lot. Put one bag of preshredded coleslaw mix and the bean sprouts in a large bowl. Add the HOT meat and mix until the cabbage wilts enough. Add whatever else you like in the stuffing. Roll em up and fry. (I got an idea from you two. Five spice will go on the meat after its browned next time.) And I find one wrapper is plenty. Like Nina said, 2 tablespoons of filling.

[mylife]

We are on the same page

[LongElegantLegs]

If I was going to rewire my house, I could do it on my own and learn through trial and error...But I’d rather have someone with experience there to give me advice.

[mylife]

The main trick is having a house full of people to roll them

[TheMom]

Thank you! What kind of noodles to I use?

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I basically do that recipe - shredded cole slaw mix plus bean sprouts - I always use the leanest beef so there isn’t anything to drain. I’m glad you can get one wrapper to work well for you - it may be that I’m putting more stuffing into mine but the second wrapper works well so I’ll continue using it.

[Umanbean]

That’s a good idea. And to eat them. It makes so many.

[Grammy]

Here’s another one you will like.

Veggie Soup

Start with a 2 and a half gallon pot.
Brown a pound of bulk sausage. Add a chopped onion, carrot and celery. Saute for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add a large can of tomato or V8 juice.
Start adding every veggie known to man.... canned and fresh and frozen. I use
Green beans
wax beans
kidney beans
black beans
corn
italian beans
brussels sprouts
red cabbage
zuchinni
broccoli
cauliflower
green pepper
red pepper
lima beans
mushrooms
chili beans
sweet potato
acorn or butternut squash
yellow squash

I add the juice from the cans of the canned veggies. You will need to add more tomato or V8 juice (I usually use 1 can of each) until the veggies are just covered.
Add to taste, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, basil, and a dash of cayenne. Simmer until the veggies are tender. Serve with grated cheddar cheese on top.
Yum.

I usually quit adding things when I run out of space in my big pot. Then I need to find friends to give it to, since it is enough to feed an army. My friends are happy to see it coming.

[Umanbean]

The crunchy wrapper is the best part! Two would be twice as good.

[Umanbean]

The crunchy wrapper is the best part! Two would be twice as good.

[mylife]

Yup

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

And I’m not talented enough to get one to work! lol

[mylife]

Noop! I gotta leave when it comes to Lima beans and Brussels L0L

[mountainbunny]

I love my crock pot!
If you have one, check out this site: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

All of her recipes are awesome to read, because when they turn out well, she tells you, and when they don’t, she tells you that, too. She cooks gluten-free, but you can substitute non-GF ingredients and get the same results (like, she calls for GF pasta, substitute “regular” pasta).

My favorite recipe from there is crock pot macaroni and cheese: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/06/crockpot-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe.html

My whole family loves it, and really, it doesn’t take much more prep time than Kraft Mac & Cheese. I just put all the ingredients in the crock pot, and turn it on and serve it when it is done. They ask for it at least once a week.

Other things I like to make/they like to eat include:
* kabobs with veggies and meat on the grill\
* Vietnamese Summer Rolls, which you can make with left over pork roast, veggies, and frozen shrimp from Wal*Mart
* Spam Musubi, which is Spam sliced and grilled with Teriyaki sauce, served on rice balls. Do a search and you’ll find them. They are massively popular in Hawaii.
* Baked chicken with BBQ sauce, baked chicken with lemon pepper, baked chicken with chipotle salt, baked chicken with just pepper and salt.
* turkey breast, baked and served with cranberries or stewed fruit.
* Fajitas with left overs. Add the left over meat from previous dishes to cooked onions and/or mushrooms, wrap in soft tortillas with a little cheese and serve with salsa.
* Texas Caviar: There are about a zillion versions of this, but I like the one where you make the dressing with sugar and vinegar the best (some use an equal amount of Zesty Italian, which is good but this seems better). This will keep in the fridge forever.:

Texas Caviar

1 can corn (the Mexican-style corn is good) drained
1 can pinto beans (or other canned beans) drained
1 can black eyed peas (or other canned beans) drained
1 can red kidney beans (or other canned beans) drained
1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
2 bunches green onions or one medium white onion, chopped
1 small can chopped green chiles (mild is fine)
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
chopped tomatoes, if desired (Rotel or fresh), drained
a little chopped garlic, to taste
pepper to taste.

Drain corn and beans. Mix all in large bowl.

Whisk together 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup sugar. Heat until sugar is melted. Pour over beans and veggies, tossing to mix. Overnight in fridge. Drain before serving.

Serve with French bread chunks & corn chips. Makes about 8-10 cups (depends on if you add the tomatoes). Also great served over rice or grilled chicken breasts or on baked potatoes.

You can substituting Splenda for sugar, and then you don’t have to heat it. Garbanzo beans are a good substitute for any of the beans above - the recipe is great regardless of the beans used. If I don’t have olive oil, I use whatever I have. Sometimes I add chopped black olives, too. You can leave any one thing (or so) out & it is still great. This was “invented” by Helen Corbitt, the head caterer at Neiman-Marcus back in the 1950’s. I have her cookbook. IMO, her original recipe has too much oil & I like this one a bit better.

Now, Allez cuisine!

[mountainbunny]

We fix a lot of Indian and Asian curried dishes, and I always see this in the store, but never buy it because I don’t know what to do with it!

Thanks for the recipe.