Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

In last week's thread, V K Lee was thinking about Super Bowl food; and I think that's a good idea for our thread this week.

I don't have a 'dog in the hunt' this year - in fact, I don't even follow football much, unless the Redskins or the Maryland Terrapins are getting hot. But I've decided on South Carolina for my annual bet with my husband - I have some ancestral connections there, and one of my favorite, football-obsessed co-workers wants to see a Panther win.

So, I'm re-posting my favorite 'finger food', this week, along with some other ideas for your Super Bowl gathering. First, an appetizer that has been a hit in my circle for decades (and you can make it ahead, freeze it, and just bake it on the day):

Olive Cheese Puffs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2 Cups grated, sharp Cheddar Cheese (the better the quality of the cheese, the better this comes out; but it's fine with any supermarket-brand Cheddar)

¼ lb. Butter (one stick from a pound)

1 cup of Flour, salted to taste (I usually don't use salt; the olives and cheese are enough)

Pinch of Cayenne

Jar of Pimento-Stuffed Olives

1.Blend together in a food processor the grated cheese, butter, and flour.

2.Process until dough comes together in a ball.

3.Chill, covered, for about 20 minutes before forming puffs. (You don't want it to get too hard. When I've tried making the dough the day before and doing the balls the next day, it's been very sub-par. You want to make the balls the same day that you make the dough, and chill just a bit, to get it firm enough to handle well.)

4.Pinch off a ball of dough, about an inch in diameter, and pat it into a thin disc in your palm; then place an olive in the middle. Pinch up the dough to cover the olive, and roll between your palms until smooth. (Or, dough can be rolled out to ¼ inch thickness, cut into 2 inch squares, and each square wrapped around an olive - but that's too much trouble for me, and usually results in too much dough.)

5.Place puffs on a cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes. ( I usually use parchment paper on the sheet.) Then remove to a wire rack to cool.

(To freeze unbaked, freeze on cookie sheet and remove to freezer containers when hard. When ready to bake, allow 3-5 minutes extra baking time.)

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The next recipe is from the Aldi website; I don't think I've seen anything like it before:

Black Bean Bacon Dunkers

https://www.aldi.us/en/recipes/holiday-recipes/big-game-recipes/small-bites/black-bean-bacon-dunkers/

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Lastly, Super Bowl and other party-food is often so heavy on 'doughy-meaty-cheesy-salty'; and one looks for something Fresh. I suggest having a fruit platter, raw veggie crudites and dip, or something like this:

http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2012/12/party-rye-with-tomato-cucumber-recipe.html

-JT

[lovesdogs]

A medium onion is very flexible. Baking requires exact measurements. Savory not so much.

[Jamestown1630]

Yes.

When you bake, do you weigh or measure? I’m not much of a baker, but I’m beginning to go with the notion that things should be weighed, not measured.

-JT

[leaning conservative]

Tired, but please put me on your ping list. I love this thread! The cheese puffs sound delish. Will read all tomorrow. Nghty night......

[Jamestown1630]

You’re added. Sleep Tight!

-JT

[Darth Reardon]

Serves 800 to 1000

You've got over 100,000 pounds of food there, not including the elephant. And roughly 20 times as much tomato (by weight) as elephant?

[Fai Mao]

I guess but the joke is the last line.

[Darth Reardon]

I JUST SPENT $37,000 ON AN ELEPHANT AND NOW YOU’RE TELLING ME THIS IS A JOKE!?!?!?!

[Mycroft Holmes]

I bake a lot of bread and measure every ingredient but the flour; that you add till you get the proper texture. I'm using a Kitchen Aid and the proper texture is when the dough comes clean off the sides of the bowl and the dough hook.

[Aliska]

I like the square pumpernickel loaves/slices.

Your olive cheese puffs really grabbed me, and I have all that to make them with (if my block of cheddar will give me 2 cups). I can mix some Mont Jack if I have to.

The copy paste monster mushed up the butter. Is it 3 sticks? That would be 3/4 cup. You say one stick from a pound. Or is it one stick? Please clarify.

Incidentally, amazon messed up my order, is very delayed. Among some small things, there should be a plastic pizza cutter. Some recipe blog for fast and easy puff pastry, she used what she called an acrylic cutter. It looks just like the "plastic" one I ordered.

The reason I'm looking for ward to it is I have a nice plastic pastry sheet, and you're not supposed to cut on it with anything but plastic. We shall see.

You are full of good things tonight!

[V K Lee]

Perhaps The stew recipe should be kept for easy access. There might be a number of lost, wounded elephants in the months to come ;-))

[Aliska]

I have, oh my, Bisquick peach cobbler, 2 peach cobblers, peaches and cream cake, slow cooker peach cobbler, a peach custard kuchen, Fresh peaches are the best, but I seldom have good ones. I usually keep 2 lg cans sliced peaches. The last cobbler I made, it was tedious, but the slices were very thick, so I halved each one with a paring knife. Then I thickened the syrup with some corn starch, must have put in a little lemon juice. It would have made a good pie filling.

Anyway, this caught my interest on pinterest the other day: I can't wait, wait, wait to try them. All I need is the Lucky Leaf Peach Pie filling and 8 oz cream cheese. Oh, looks like I need a little milk for the glaze, am always out of fresh milk.

Peaches and Cream Pie Bars on Pinterest

[Aliska]

Yum. Saved the recipe. I will have to plant some cilantro because fresh herbs from the store are expensive and don’t keep well. Tnx for the recipe link.

[Aliska]

I found some artisan bread today that looks wonderful. I won't have to dirty my Kitchen Aid, just mix 4 ingredients and let set overnight or up to 18 hours, covered with plastic wrap.

The kicker is you need to heat a heavy duty casserole-type pot and bake at 450. That is too high for my oven. And several who posted the recipe are using those expensive Le Crueset (sp?) dutch ovens.

My best little enamel coated iron dutch oven I'm afraid I would ruin it cooking that high. The bread looks so wonderful.

I was going to post about my simple bread and cocoa idea, but you guys got me sidetracked here lol.

[Califreak]

You’ll go broke hiring sous chefs!

[Califreak]

Rino Ragout...

;)

[Califreak]

When I buy produce, the very first thing I do upon arriving home is wrap everything that should be refrigerated in paper towels except for carrots and celery. I can make all kinds of stuff go for a month doing that and keep cilantro for a week or two that way.

I use a lot of paper towels but I don’t throw much away anymore. I got that from Alton Brown( Good Eats)

After your cilantro gets used up, let some of it go to seed. It will reseed itself several times.(I’m not a very good gardener, so I’m lazy about it. I throw down some manure and throw everything at it and hope some sticks)

[Aliska]

I saw the paper tower ha ha towel trick on yt and tried it on some Italian parsley I bought, but I let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days first. Plus I think it has to be totally dry. I need to throw it out.

In about 2005, I grew some cilantro and never cooked one thing to use any. Had a luxuriant large pot of it. I'm glad you said it could go to seed and regrow. Do you give it a haircut? The seed packet said to plant in succession, and I thought nuts to that.

It has such an intoxicating smell. I brought it into the sunroom when it got cold. I also grew garlic chives but I wanted the regular ones. Then I grew some Greek oregano but wanted the Italian.

I really want some rosemary, you need a plant that is fairly well grown otherwise you have to wait to use it. The flowers are charming. I don't want to order any now because being shipped in the cold could kill it.

I think everything but the rosemary you can grow from seed. Thyme I see chefs use a lot of that. I don't like the dried but in one recipe years ago.

Thank you for the helpful info.

[Califreak]

We love cilantro. We cut as needed until it’s sorry looking or goes to seed. I guess if you use a lot, it should be planted in succession.

I cook a lot of mexican food, so we use a lot. It’s good in omelets, thai food and those Vietnamese pork sandwiches( yum)

[Aliska]

P.S. Fresh carrots keep pretty well for me, but I do eventually get them rotten. I will cut off all those rooty thingies and use them anyway. Celery I got sick of wasting it so watched a video of Phyllis Stokes freezing a whole stalk. Cuts it up and blanches it. A little tedious. Now I don't know where it is in the freezer but should still be ok.

I also freeze my peppers. Also when I roast them (after I learned I could do that), it leaves quite a bit of red pepper on the ends. So I cut those up and freeze on something that won't stick for 1/2 hour then into a freezer bag, keep adding to it. That is working really well for me. I love red peppers. Also have some green in there somewhere.

[V K Lee]

;-))