Weekly Cooking Thread ~ May 14, 2011 (Recipes)

FreeRepublic Cooks | May 14, 2011 | libertarian27

[libertarian27]

Welcome to the 23rd 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 two - 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.

[AGreatPer]

Here is a strange one.

I have boiled shrimp in V8 and it has been good.
Last time I fell asleep. When I woke up the V8 was reduced about 30%. The shrimp were over cooked but I ate them anyway.
I saved the sauce and put new shrimp in during the last 8 minutes and it was outstanding.

While V8 is a little bland simply add some hot sauce.
Great finger food.

[rightly_dividing]

That just sounds too easy. We will have to try that soon.

[Vor Lady]

I’m making chocolate chip cookies in just a bit, didn’t know it was the national day though. Whoooo Hooooo! A legitimate excuse for chocolate!

[Vor Lady]

This recipe sounds so much easier than the one I’ve been using. Mine has a reduction that is a pain in the backside. I’m going to try yours next.

[Vor Lady]

This is one of my daughter’s family favorites for breakfast along with chorizo and scrambled eggs.

[mylife]

That’s a pretty hearty breakfast!

[Flamenco Lady]

I bet that would be good. I think they even make a spicy V8 now.

[Flamenco Lady]

They are easy. Another great combination is to use the basic recipe of 1/3 cup water (I actually use coffee instead for anything chocolate), 1/3 cup oil and 1 egg with a devils food cake mix, and add in chocolate chips and chopped nuts. We rolled these in powdered sugar. They remind me of the homemade chocolate cookies that were popular when I was a kid, but better.

[Flamenco Lady]

We’re making these today for a birthday celebration!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chocolate-cupcakes-and-peanut-butter-icing-recipe/index.html

[Fast Moving Angel]

Granny's Sunday Chicken from last week's thread reminded me of the smoked pork recipe that someone posted a while back:

1. Chase pig up hickory tree
2. Burn down hickory tree
3. Have dinner.

[libertarian27]

LOL

Speaking of Pig, went to a Pig Roast yesterday...Oh how I love Pig Roasts - better than steak...and oh, the skin! yummy

[Fast Moving Angel]

Oooooh, a pig roast!!! Lucky you! Some years ago, I was invited to a for-real North Carolina birthday-party pig roast ... you're so right, MUCH better than steak!!!

::: checking flights to NC :::

[rightly_dividing]

Was that an in-ground pig roast? Pig in the ground is something that I would like to do.

[libertarian27]

No, it was an above ground metal firepit.

Around here either they are welded metal or use an old(washed out)oil tank that’s cut in half.

Have a group of guys who will get together to put on pig roasts in the area. We have many Puerto Ricans in the community that have the methods passed down through generations- along with awesome rice and black beans (that I still haven’t dragged their recipes out of them ;)

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks. Being from the south, pigs are roasted in the ground there. I have read up on the process, but not done it. I am told there is none better. There are people that specialize in doing pig-in-ground cookouts and will come over and do them for you. I guess that I will just have to get by cooking the pig on the grill or smoker!

[libertarian27]

They pretty much mimic the ‘in-ground’ method with lots of wood and burying the pig inside the ashes,etc. - it’s a yummy mess! The metal boxes are big - probably 5’x4’

Next time I talk to one of the guys I’ll get the scoop on how they go about it - I usually show up when the pig is done :>)and the box is still smoldering away off in the corner.

[Flamenco Lady]

Here’s an update on the Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting we made yesterday from the link at my last post to the thread. The cupcakes were amazing! My daughters said they tasted like their favorite candy (Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups)in a cupcake! We now have a favorite frosting in our family too. It would be great on white or yellow cupcakes as well.

We had some leftover coconut and chopped pecans I had mixed up for the German Chocolate cupcakes, so hubby and I sprinkled some of that on top of our cupcakes. They were good that way too!

Also, I finally found several recipes for baked beans made completely from scratch using dry beans, by going through some old cookbooks from the 1940’s. I sort of took a little bit from each recipe and drew from my own version of baked beans using canned beans, and came up with my own version of home made baked beans from scratch. We had them for dinner last night and they were really good. Everyone liked them better than any of the baked beans we had ever eaten. I still want to make them again and play with the recipe a little before I finalize the recipe, but I will share with you what I did.

Home Made Baked Beans

Ingredients:
1 32 oz. package of Navy beans, soaked in about 16 cups of water overnight.

1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tsp. dry mustard (Coleman’s)
2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 lb. salt pork, cut in chunks (I actually some bacon instead this time around, since I didn’t have any salt pork)

Drain the beans and rinse after soaking over night. Place beans in a large stock pot with enough water to cover the beans completely and go about 1 1/2 inches above the beans. Bring beans to a boil and reduce heat and cook slowly until beans are tender, stirring and checking them periodically and adding a little more water if needed. (This takes several hours so be patient. I cooked mine low and slow for 3-4 hours before they became really tender.

Once the beans are tender, drain them, reserving the liquid from the beans (one cookbook called this the bean liquor).

Transfer the beans to a large casserole dish and mix in the next six ingredients and a little of the reserved bean liquid. (I couldn’t quite fit all the beans in my casserole dish so I just filled it up and used the rest of the beans to make navy bean soup today for our dinner. That was really good too!)

After mixing everything in I added my in my bacon and folded it in to the beans reserving a few strips of bacon to lay on top of the casseriole dish.

I cooked them in a 325 degree oven covered for about an hour and then uncovered them and cooked them another 20 minutes or so, since I had meat and potatoes that needed to cook at that temperature and we were getting hungry! The cookbooks all said that for the best flavor you should cook them covered in a 250 degree oven for about 6-8 hours, adding additional bean liquid or broth as necessary. (My family and I weren’t going to wait that long, yesterday.)

Here is the soup I made with the rest of the beans and the bean liquid for tonight’s dinner. (I sort of cleaned out the last of the fresh vegetables I had left in my refrigerator since I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow):

Navy Bean and Bacon Soup with vegetables

2 cups cooked Navy Beans
1/2 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
1 tsp. minced garlic
Liquid from cooking the beans and/or chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups of shredded cabbage

I threw everything into my soup pot except the seasonings and cabbage and cooked it until the carrots were tender. I tasted the the broth and added my seasonings. (It didn’t need any salt today, as this batch of bacon was really salty.) I had just a little cabbage left in my refrigerator, so I threw that in just before serving so there would be a little bit of added texture and freshness to the soup. It too was delicious!

Hope you all enjoy!

[Netizen]

Spiced Pear Cake
3/4 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour* 1/2 cup sugar 3/4 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp cinnamon	1/8 tsp nutmeg 1/2 cup pear nectar** 3 T egg substitute 2 1/2 cups thinly sliced pears (about 2 1/2 medium) 1/4 cup dark raisins
Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, and spices, and stir to mix well.  Stir in the pear nectar and egg substitute.  Fold in the pear slices and raisins.  Coat an 8 inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Spread the batter evenly in the pan, and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, or just until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool the  cake for at least 20 minutes.  Cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature.   *Whole wheat pastry flour is lighter than whole wheat flour yielding a softer texture and can be substituted with all purpose flour evenly. ** Pear nectar - You can use extra pear slices, well mashed with some water added.   Per Serving: Calories 169 ; Total Fat 0.4 g; Protein; 3.4g Calcium 15g; Dietary Fiber 2.7g; Cholesterol 0;  Sodium 85mg; Potassium 245mg; Iron 1.1mg.

I used 1/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup all purpose flour.  I used 3 well ripened Bosc pears, these have the brownish skins.  The recipe didn't say, so I peeled them.  It took 2 1/2 pears to equal the 2 1/2 cups, leaving 1/2 for the nectar.  When folding in the pears, the batter seemed a tad thick so I added just a little more water to get a batter that could be spread.

We really liked  this.  It isn't overly sweet and I think next time, I may add a pinch of ginger and or clove.  If you like frostings, probably a confectioner's glaze drizzled over the cake would be nice, or even a warm rum sauce.

[Netizen]

Meant to add that it serves 8. This is a very moist cake.

[libertarian27]

That sounds yummy!

A place to find Nectars is in the Hispanic section of supermarkets.

Goya makes Pear Nectar!
http://www.goya.com/english/product_subcategory/Beverages/Nectars-Juices

Their juices and nectars are pretty good and have a very long shelf life (in comparison to mainstream manufacturers)- good for preppers.

*I bet my Mom’s Nutmeg sauce (I posted on the Mother’s Day thread) would be great with this cake.