The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

That looks delightful! Thank you so much!

Yeah, we have a standing boycott of Paula Deen in the house.

Let us know how you get on

Is Paula Deen the racist one or the one that got done for stock fraud or something?

edited 24th Nov '14 10:05:12 AM by Achaemenid

Racist one.

Ah well - I've looked at a couple of her recipes and they look like cardiac arrest on a plate.

They don't even look that good. Like her signature hamburger made with glazed doughnuts? Makes me want to cry.

This is why the world thinks Americans are fat and stupid. Because they come up with shit like this, which is A: a stupid idea and B: will make you fat.

People don't really eat like that in the South, do they?

Then again, I come from the land of the deep-fried pizza...

When it comes to food like that, you only really see that in travelling festivals like the state fairs or something like that. That's not a staple or even a common dessert. Regular cheese cake, sure. But deep fried candy bars, pickles, bananas, and what not are mainly sold out of a little white trailer on shady fair grounds.

The biggest "baddies" in the food world I would say here in the south that are most common are:

• Sweet tea. Seriously, they put enough sugar in their stuff down here that you can eat it with a spoon. I hate sugar in my tea. Some people cut their tea with lemonade, which is just as bad. But it's here.

• Fast food burger joints. They're everywhere here and they're really cheap and easy to get to. The south is a different kind of food desert in the sense that it's not hard to go for two hours and not hit a grocery store but you can hit five different fast food burger joints. People down here are poor as hell too.

• Dr. Pepper and an aversion to Diet Sodas: Not enough people drink water down here. And to be fair, a lot of people build an aversion to drinking water because a lot of us are on well water or don't have the best supplies, so yeah, you can taste the iron sometimes. So people drink a lot of bottled crap and it rots your brain and gives you the diabetus.

edited 24th Nov '14 11:32:45 AM by Gabrael

Achaemenid: If by "The South" you refer to state fairs here, maybe. Southern cuisine is generally what you would call "soul food". Stuff like this.

//Anyone who passes through Atlanta needs to eat there.

//Every now and then you will see the big names in the city eating there

I made some ginger bread men for my dad to take to work.

That's awesome!

Made a ham, two kinds of potatoes, dressing, lima beans, rolls and a pecan pie for Christmas. Every thing was good and now I just want something plain and every day to eat. Well not really plain and every day, I'm craving fish cake.

One of my Christmas presents was a cookbook called Thug Kitchen. It's a really a vegetarian cook book. With 'motherfuckers', 'shit' and 'trust' liberally sprinkled throughout. My favorite quote is "Say you are out of diced tomatoes, you go to the cupboard and PUT THE M*THERF*CKING KETCHUP DOWN M*THERF*CKER, THAT AIN'T NO VEGETABLE"

I censored it, they didn't. The recipes are good. Plant based, but good. They don't use any animal products but give leeway so's you can if you want. I like tempeh and tofu but will not use flax seed when I can use a perfectly good egg. Ditto maple syrup and honey. Honey is cheaper even with the bee problems. Maple syrup is prohibitively expensive.

That sounds like an excellent cookbook!

I'm so lacking motivation to do anything wifely or motherly and that includes cooking meals. Last night it wa sa struggle to do 15 minute fajitas.

Need some inspiration.

Sounds like Mamma needs a Me night.

Yeah....too bad my 'me' nights usually involve copious amounts of wine.

Well, I now have money to stock up on kitchen essentials, but I also have no time to devote to any complicated cooking. So my repertoire hasn't changed.

I did notice while buying pasta sauce the other night that there are jarred cheese sauces that are cheaper per unit than the Processed Cheese-Flavored Oil Substrate Log I've been using for macaroni and cheese, and pouring it out of the jar will be a lot simpler to manage than cutting off chunks, softening them in the microwave, and trying to stir it into the pasta while still mostly solid.

Learning to make avgolemono at home has changed my life, Cobs. It's so easy. And delicious. And it uses up a lot of eggs without being custard or omelettes.

Edit: Using jasmine rice instead of a European long-grain rice transforms it from soup to porridge. Still tasty, but not what I wanted tonight.

edited 23rd Jan '15 6:59:57 PM by Leradny

Tried my hand at tuna melts for lunch. The pan took a lot more butter than I expected. They weren't inedible, which is better than I can say for half of the skillet casseroles I've made.

My main problem here is figuring out how to sear them so they aren't burnt on the outside, but the cheese is melted in the middle.

My meal plans are simple. Meat+starch+veggies. Maybe with a sauce or simple gravy made from scratch. My preferred starch right now is regular rice. Not the instant stuff. You have to boil this stuff then let it sit for about half an hour. The missus learned a trick from an Asian food cook about how much water is the right amount. Your rice should cover the bottom of the pan and the water should come up to the first knuckle. Add a little salt and bring to a boil. When it boils stir it, switch off the heat and put a lid on it that traps the steam.

While that is sitting 'Getting Happy' as my missus says I usually cook up and season the meat and make the sauce at that point and then do the veggies and add them in.

Sometimes I do fried rice instead. So far I am decent at the fried rice and most dishes. Both the wife and I do the 15 minute Fajitas when we are tired, sick, or busy. Makes for a simple lunch. I cook supper she cooks the lunch.

My fatty things for cooking are about 2-3 tbsp. of butter or equivalent of olive or coconut oil.

edited 24th Jan '15 11:44:12 AM by TuefelHundenIV

The trick is that you're not searing them. You want it on medium heat at most (precise heat will vary with the stove), so that it browns slowly, allowing time for the heat to permeate the sandwich and melt the cheese before the bread gets too brown.

Speaking as an Asian cook, the ratio for rice to water is 1:3.

Also, if you need it faster, simmer it and stir every five minutes until the water just coats the grains (maybe 15 minutes unless you're cooking a lot of rice), then turn off the heat and let it steam for five minutes.

Or get a rice cooker.

Or par-boil it, then line a saucepan with greaseproof paper, coat the paper with oil and butter, pour the rice in, then seal the pot and leave it for a while over a low heat. Cheap rice cooker.

meh, the sister in law has a 'cheap rice cooker' and it's crap. Granted, I'm probably still screwing up this japonica rice, but I'm not getting the consistency in the steamed rice that I want. At least my last two efforts made for good fried rice once I'd left it in the fridge for a day.

I cant wait till I can get to H Mart and but a proper rice cooker.

I GOT A NEW DINING ROOM TABLE.

ITS HUGE.

this isn't directly food related but omg the dinner parties I will have.

Latest experiment is going to be sauerbraten. I fell in love with it years ago while working at a German restaurant in Wisconsin, the restaurant closed in the 80's. There was a Hungarian place here that served it, then Zoli died. I can get it at Berghoff's in Chicago, but don't get to Chicago as often as I get hungry for sauerbraten.

You make a pickle-y kind of marinade with vinegar, juniper berries, mustard seed, onion and carrot. You marinate the meat for three days and then cook it low and slow. You make a sauce with the marinade and add crushed gingersnaps to thicken it. It sounds crazy, but it is one of my all time favorites. I've always been intimidated by it, but now it seems like something I can do. Tomorrow I make the marinade and start that process.