Fry's had a nice small refurb Cuisinart waffle iron for $20 yesterday so I guess I have a waffle iron now! I wanna try hash browns in it. For now I did a Mad Science and threw a bunch of oats and flaxmeal and yogurt in the batter, and that made a pretty good waffle! But I also learned something very important: not enough batter is better than too much batter. If you have not enough batter you will get a misshapen waffle. If you have too much batter you will get a big mess.
I tried hash browns in it! Handful of loose frozen hash browns, handful of shredded sharp cheddar, handful of diced ham, drizzle of olive oil, a little salt and pepper, mix it all up, dump it in the iron, close it up. Be careful when you open it, because a little ham chunk popped and jumped about two feet straight up out of mine. Jumping ham notwithstanding, it was crispy and AMAZING and I'm gonna do this again real soon.
So I got a little crazy and took the waffle hash browns to the next level. In a saute pan on the stove: olive oil, diced bell pepper and onion, garlic, wine, shrimp In the waffle iron: handful of hash browns, salt and pepper, olive oil, handful of shredded cheddar and parm Contents of pan went on top of crispy cheesy hash browns. GOD THAT WAS GOOD
Made chocolate zucchini muffins out of this cookbook, except using just-cocoa-and-sugar hot chocolate mix we had lying around and with some fossilized baking chocolate we stole from my parents' house grated in. I just took one out of the pan 15 minutes early like a heathen and the hard part is going to be resisting the urge to eat all the rest.
Turkey/chicken burgers! I find this to be a pretty good and reliable recipe. Makes about 6 patties. Roughly 1 lb ground turkey or chicken (turkey seems to make more tender patties, chicken makes firmer ones), whatever fat content you want 1 egg or egg sub 1/4 to 1/3 cup bread crumbs 1/2 tsp lemon juice or zest (if wanted) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1 1/2 to 2 tsps of herb flavorings, roughly 1/2 of each (successful ones I've used: poultry seasoning blend, sage, dillweed, oregano, tarragon, Italian seasoning blend... depends on what flavors you want) Wax/parchment/butcher paper and bags for storage (if you're going to freeze them) Dump all ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly. It can be tough to get the bread crumbs incorporated well, I've found, so maybe be ready for some extra mixing. If storing patties in freezer or short-term in fridge (basically not planning to cook them all right away), cut some wax or other similar food paper into squares larger than you want your patties. You'll want to have at least 10 or so squares. Wet hands, take a scoop of mixture, and form a patty. The mix is pretty sticky, so be prepared. Place patty on one paper square and top with a second square. Make another patty, place on top of the first one, and cover with a third square. I generally don't stack patties more than 2 high, because it can be hard to get them in bags (depends on size of bag). Repeat until all mix is gone and you have 4~6 patties. Pop in freezer or fridge or get ready to cook. Don't store in the fridge too long after making, though: they should be transferred to the freezer after a day. For cooking, you'll probably want to oil your cooking surface, esp if made with turkey, because they tend to stick. Cook until internal temp matches the recommended temp for your meat of choice and enjoy! You can cook them straight from frozen without defrosting if need be, too.
Related to burgers: Garlic mayo. You need two cloves of garlic to 1/4 cup or so of mayo (homemade or plain is best for this recipe imo.) Peel garlic cloves, slice off the root ends and cut the cloves in half. Then place them on a piece of tin foil. Drizzle the cloves with a little bit of olive oil, trying to coat them evenly. Close and seal the tinfoil tightly into a pouch, and then place that on the grill. It takes about 5 minutes or so for the cloves to finish cooking - when the package can be squished gently with tongs its ready. Let it cool for a bit, then remove the garlic from the pouch and drop it into a small mixing bowl to mash with a fork, or put it through a garlic press if you want. Then mix it with the mayo, voila! Garlic mayo. You can add other seasonings and stuff to it as well if you want, i used some very thinly sliced green onions today.
Time: late thirty Obnoxious sugar craving: get Remembers: semi-sweet chocolate chips in cupboard Mood: dissatisfied but resigned Finds: leftover cookout marshmallows ... Knows we have: Cinnamon sugar Butter Sanwich bred Toaster oven ... noms: obtained (*edit* obnoxious image size: apologized for)
I am creating a Tex-Mex abomination of an enchilada casserole. Further details to be provide when I learn how edible it's going to turn out. The base recipe is definitely good, but I. Uh. Had to make some alterations. by which I mean my parents were out of half the ingredients
UPDATE: Abomination level: 40%. Underestimated the strength of grocery store brand "Red Enchilada Sauce - Hot." Definitely should have endured the array of intense doggy stares longer to grate more cheese, but dammit, I'd assumed there was going to be Dad's usual ENORMOUS amount of frozen "Mexican Blend" shredded cheese in the freezer because the freezer has been full of it at all times for like the last ten years and there wasn't. Mom joked that she needed to go buy sour cream so she could eat the leftovers at all.
I tried out making fried potato cakes. Verdict: delicious! Downsides: I burnt the shit out of my thumb. Worth it.
You can make those starting with instant mashed potatoes, too. Beat an egg or two, add liquid you'd use for the potatoes (water/milk) and flavorings, then dump in the potatoes flakes. I like mine with grated parmesan and oregano (and a touch of nutmeg, my grandmother's magic with potatoes).
I spent a couple of hours on my feet tonight making these: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/whole-lemon-bars-3785265 And these: https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/09/peach-shortbread/ but with nectarines They're both cooling, the shortbread looks a good. The lemon bars look a bit dark; our oven runs a bit hot and I should've started checking 5 minutes before probably. Still, I hope they will be appreciated tomorrow when it's my last day in my current job
i made coconut-peanut chicken in a crock pot yesterday it was v good ing: can of coconut milk 1 chicken breast (you could probably use more but i was lazy) peanut butter soy sauce garlic dump coconut milk, a couple big spoons of peanut butter (probably all total 1/4 cup), some soy sauce (mebe a tablespoon) & some garlic (like, a clove or two) into a bowl then mix it all. put in crock pot with chicken. cook for a while (i had 3 hrs on high), then shred it with some forks. nom with rice. also probably add salt this was not a recipe i measured out so the amounts are very general & idk what i'm doing
I gave smittenkitchen's hummus recipe another go and even though it took me three times as long to peel the chickpeas and my tahini was hella expired, I got it done eventually (with cashew butter) and it's. delicious. twice as much as I need, probably, so next time I might try cooking my own chickpeas to control the overall amount.
Hummus freezes pretty well, so you could probably throw some in a bag and then squeeze the air out and save it for later.
I have never met anyone who makes spaghetti quite the way we do, so here's the recipe: Note: this takes two large frying pans, preferable cast-iron, but that's just me. Ingredients: four lbs italian sausage - we use three sweet, one hot, but really just use your favorite one large green pepper* 4-6 celery sticks* a lot of onions (like six? eight?)* 2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes all your favorite italian seasonings to taste, provided you include basil a little garlic 2T(barely) sugar Instructions: take sausage out of casing and divide evenly between the two pans. fry until you feel safe eating them out of the pan. eat some out of the pan. just to, you know, make sure they're ready. while the sausage is frying, chop vegetables fairly small. dump these in as soon as they're ready, dividing evenly between pans. once the sausage + vegetables have cooked for a while, slowly add crushed tomatoes, one can per pan. stir in seasonings, garlic, and sugar, again splitting each equally between pans cook down serve with noodles of your preference Now you've got enough food to feed a bunch of people or yourself for several days! *adjust vegetable amount to taste
I'm doing 'spaghetti with meatballs' by making the meatballs out of sausage meat (Bratwurst prefered because easiest to get/cheapest for me) so using sausage meat for pasta is def something other people use too! Not quite like that but if I ever need to feed my whole family I'm using this recipe!
Thing that turned out better than I expected: melt ~1/2 Tbsp of butter in a pan. Dump in a can of diced tomatoes. Cook until most of the juice is gone. Crack in four eggs, scramble. When it seems cooked, add salt and pepper as you so choose. Put in tortillas, eat. (Other half can be leftovers or food for a second person.) I'm not usually an egg eater, but I'm actually inclined to make this again.
I ordered a little mini tub of exotic mushrooms on my grocery order expecting yellow oyster mushrooms and got shiitakes instead. They're for the fried garnish for a creamy mushroom soup, does anyone who knows their mushrooms better than me know if it'll affect the taste or texture (slimy mushrooms are an instant no.) Also I ordered the large cauliflower and it is freakin' huge. I showed Li one of the florets and he said with a sort of horrified awe, "It's like a sheep's brain". I prepped half a head of broccoli to supplement it, but it hardly fits in my biggest pan. Going to be eating a lot of cauli cheese in the next day or so. Keto Cauliflower cheese Low carb cheese sauce : heavy cream or creme fraiche, grated cheese - Red Leicester and pecorino for us - and Dijon or whole grain mustard. Warm until combined and pour over lightly cooked vegetables, sprinkle with chopped nuts, bit more grated cheese, maybe crumble some crispy bacon over, whang it in the oven for about 35-45 mins until bubbling and brown at the edges.
