The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

Recipes, experiments (successful or otherwise), food you remember from your childhood, eating out. It's all welcome here.

Note to self: The "clear" slice-of-toast icon on the toaster oven is the "toast" setting. The "black-filled" icon is the "charcoal" setting.

-cooks burgers-

-eats them-

-thumbs up-

I still want to cook a nice warm curry...

I want to learn to make my own handrolled pretzels.

I also want to make cookies.

In terms of bakery...scones! -drools-

Reminds me that it's time to do shepherd's pie again soon. I normally make it with ground turkey because several people in the house are beef-intolerant, but I have found a source of boneless lamb at a decent price (Costco near me has it) and I own the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid.

Beef intolerance?

I could actually easily make shepherd's pie with the stuff I have, unless my little bro already ate all the mashed potatoes. Well, I'd have to find a good way to make a gravy without a mix...

Alfredo sauce - butter, heavy cream, some white pepper, dash of garlic, Romano/Parmesan cheese, and some Mozzarella once it's all simmering and stuff. Serve over your favorite noodles.

Yummy.

My only complaint is that it does not reheat well - the butter comes out of the mixture when you reheat it.

Using milk as a substitute for the cream (even whole milk) will prevent the cheese and butter from mixing properly, so all you'll have is a cheesy mess and a lot of butter.

I never really learned to cook so what I made as a child is what I eat now. Crackers, peanut butter and strawberries are my favorite snack.

I tend to go for whatever's readily available when I'm hungry. This causes problems.

With most box cakes, you can replace up to a third of a cup of water/milk with irish cream and it will taste better.

Irish cream?

@Parable: never too late to learn. Just takes a lot of practice, and preferably, desperation (ie, budget).

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Along side Deboss' tip: I will substitute plain Greek yogurt for part of the milk when making cornbread, biscuits, shortcake, scrambled eggs or anything else where a little tang won't hurt. I also use it instead of sour cream in and on stuff.

"Using milk as a substitute for the cream (even whole milk) will prevent the cheese and butter from mixing properly, so all you'll have is a cheesy mess and a lot of butter. " In order to fix this, all you have to do is combine everyhting in the proper order and add flour.

Butter melted, add a tablespoon of flour and mix, while keeping on a low simmer. mix and mix and mix until flour is dissolved (this is called a roux, BTW), add cheese, and melt. then add milk. Voila! Cheezy sauce—no Alfredo sauce granted, but it works, no mess.

^ You get a star for that. I had always wondered how to make a roux.

Yay star!

I'm cheating today since it's an ugly rainy day—crescent rolls and vegetarian sausage sandwiches. omnom!

-was not expecting Ori to eat vegetarian sausage-

I used to work in the kitchen of a natural foods coop and I used to make vegetarian sausage out of tempeh. It wasn't bad.

I still haven't figured out how to properly make homemade seitan. I can cook with it fine if it's premade, but I'd prefer to know how to make my own...

Am very annoyed that I can't find bakers sugar at the moment in any stores. So something that was suggested to me that I shall pass on is grinding granulated sugar so you get a well-blended cake.

Also the cat that likes me the least at home just came and sat on my lap. Awesome.

You can't find confectioner's sugar? What in the hell is wrong with your grocery stores?

In other news, as I anticipated, hickory-smoked bacon works better with peach in an omelet than it does with apricot. I suspect that for the best results with the apricot, I'll want to use applewood- or maple-smoked bacon.