The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

My new favorite snack: A bowl of wilted spinach with some kalamata olives jarred in red wine vinegar, and a teaspoon of the vinegar. Delicious, quick, and healthy.

Euo: Indeed. My next pie will be a meat pork pie. No not CMOT style but edible. I might put some apple in there.

Yeah apples and pork go pretty well together. It is why my parents usually served apple sauce with the pork chops.

Slow-cooker chicken burrito filling number three is entirely from memory and eyeball and the result could do with less salt and maybe a red bell pepper next time, but a success.

The first time was off a bag of frozen chicken breasts, the second used a recipe found online that seemed close to get the spice portions.

Apple sauce with pork chops always sounded disgusting, but then we made a pork roast recipe that cooked the roast in an apple sauce mixture and I loved it and insisted on apple sauce with pork chops every time after.

edited 10th Feb '17 12:05:48 AM by TParadox

Back when baseball was something to care about last fall, while I was watching a game I saw an ad for whatever mayonnaise brand it was, advocating spreading mayo on your grilled cheese instead of butter. I still think it's badwrong, but the results have been very good.

I saw that too, Paradox. I was skeptical, but I tried it and it really does grill up more evenly, and tastes richer but less oily. You have to use a very thin spread of good mayo (not Miracle Whip!), though.

I'm just using the store brand imitation mayo I keep for tuna salad.

Made tuna melts tonight, since I've been having such good results with grilled cheese.

More slow cooker goodness. Simple corned beef, small red potatoes, baby carrots, and a few boiler onions. I will have to scrape the fat off the left over meat but dinner tonight will be rice with bits of the meal chopped up and dropped into a box meal in my skillet.

My next food project will be a simple one. Making Pastitsio. Basically pasta noodle pie. Two layers of noodles with a usually beef or pork and sauce middle layer topped with cheese. I think I will make an alfredo variant.

I'm interested in trying to use a reusable slow cooker liner but it looks like only one company's makes them reusable and only in one "one size fits most" size that I don't trust. Thin plastic is one thing, but a silicone bag is another.

I found lamb kabob meat in the freezer I'd forgotten about.

TIME FOR LAMB STEW!!

By a total accident, I learned that you can make a damn good sandwich with just vegetables. I tried to make a tuna sandwich, but totally forgot to actually put tuna in. I mean, obviously vegetarian sandwiches have been around for a long time, but never found a combination that appeals to my taste.

The combo is just the usual:

• Whole wheat bread
• lettuce
• pickles
• onion
• tomato

...And that's it. No ketchup, mustard, or anything else needed.

Personally, I consider this an "Eureka!" Moment.

Pickled beetroot sandwiches. Salad greens, horseradish or cottage cheese optional. For me, paprika, pepper and butter are really all I need with my bread-and-beetroot (butter only one of the slices: let the other be the sponge)...

Branston Pickle and salad sandwiches are also hard to beat (you can find homemade recipes: it's basically "dates and root vegetables pickled together with spices"). And, when it comes to cucumber sandwiches, I insist on salad creme over butter or mayonnaise, because I'm a pleb. And, I insist on crusts. More taste. But, given a say, I say "sod the solo cucumber, do you have beetroot, Branston, chutneys or gherkins?".

edited 19th Mar '17 7:44:43 PM by Euodiachloris

How long has this thread been here?

I do most of the day-to-day cooking in my family. And given that I come from a very culinary family, the standard is high. I also find myself cooking for people outside my family a lot. I come from an Italian-American culture where it's proper manners to cook for anyone who comes into your home, and my friends exploit me x_x

For my Saturday lunch (my equivalent to Sunday dinner, where I go all-out with my cooking) I made some four cheese (ricotta, asiago, parmesan, and Bulgarian feta) Greek yogurt ziti alfredo with spinach. And it was good

Yum. Can I come to your house for Saturday lunch next week? (I had a bolona sandwich. Childhood comfort food, but nothing to compare to yours)

As any good cook knows, on the first really warm day of spring you are bound by honor to make the most over-the-top summer aesthetic meal ever. Like pesto with fresh herbs and tomatoes and strawberry smoothies!◊

We had a braai (a BBQ for heathens what don't know) over the weekend. Lamb chops, sausage, potatoes and mushrooms with three kinds of salad on the side. Followed by panna cotta and strawbs.

Today, however: beef and Guiness cobbler (cheese scone version; stew containing carrots, onions and celery) with kale, followed by baked plums 'n' custard. Because of course the weather turned cold.

edited 11th Apr '17 10:58:25 AM by Euodiachloris

Morir soñando: Iced milk with orange juice. Simple, but delicious Dominican drink. Also very beautiful—it's like sunshine in a cup!

My latest experiment was stuffed bread rolls. Uncooked texas rolls were allowed to warm up and expand. I pushed the center in and made them into bow like shapes. Then I ladled in my mix of beef, chopped broccoli florets, and a white sauce made out of fatty coconut milk. Very smooth, creamy, meaty, and of course tasty.

I am going to use the left over rolls to create some sort of wrapped meat packets with veggies as a side but more lean then the fatty stuffed rolls. The plan is to roll out the left over dough of the individual frozen roll balls and then wrap them around a lump of cooked seasoned meat. I may make a low fat sauce to drizzle over the veggies and meat rolls.

That made me think of Morocco. Guess what I found?

Also, a form of curry bunny can be made that way, too. Swap mutton curry out for the kefta. Heck, any thick curry, stew or bredie will work.

Moroccan food is so good. I have a touch of North African in me (I'm part Tunisian) so I like to put a touch of North Africa in my food. Doesn't hurt that I live right down the street from the Little Egypt of NYC

Tossed a couple of sandwich slices of ham in the frying pan instead of snacking on them straight out of the package. Not as good as a ham steak, but something different.

Sounds good! You should keep the grease in the pan to cook something else in. Ham grease is practically bacon grease.

edited 23rd Apr '17 1:25:58 PM by Cailleach

I've been making slow-cooker pinto beans for the past few hours today. Woke up early so it'd be ready for lunch

Man, I just saw a rerun of some Good Morning America-esque show where they were attempting to sell this needlessly expensive cookware. You know those "essential" pans and processors that do all sort of weird things. And the guy attempting to pitch them was cooking while saying, "Some people think they're just bad cooks when they actually just don't have the right cookware," (but if you pay $500 for this special pan, you'll be the next Julia Child!) And all the morning talk show types laughed and nodded along. And I'm watching this as someone who woke up at 6 AM on a Sunday to cook ingredients in the plain pot she got at a tag sale before throwing them in a slow cooker her family's had for the past 20 years getting so irrationally angry for some reason.

I know they were just trying to sell a product but I've discussed cooking with so many people who seem to think it's just a competition over who owns the most expensive cookware...

Heaven is an open fire, some bricks, a grill, leaves/foil/pot/clay, things to poke, chop, and grind other things with when using fire... and time. Some alcohol may also apply.

Gives you meat, veggies (you will eat the greens I put in that pot, or else feel my spoon!), carbs and a pudding if you use the coals right and manage to force the baked fruit down the gullets of the boys.

Oldest trick before recipe books.

edited 30th Apr '17 12:38:50 PM by Euodiachloris

Food is something which inexplicably attracts snobs whether it's ingredients or cookware or the latest fad diet.

I have a two-cup measuring glass, three pots, a frying pan, one knife, one paring knife, one ladle, a whisk, and a spatula. They have served me well.