Food Pron: Recipes and Techniques.

Thanksgiving is still a couple of months away, but I don't care. I'm making this tonight:




Cranberries, raspberries, and chambord. What's not to like? Directions.

Interesting.

Ok this is a weird one and I don't know why anyone would want to replicate it but it was tasty.

There was an open bag of puffy cheetos. 100% humidity for days, and I was bored.

The microwave we have is for some reason is uber-touchy about moisture content so I might be able to "freshen" them but once they start to dry the thing arc welds. The work around for making corn chips warm is to toss a glass of water in the microwave which would defeat the point of rehabilitating soggy cheetos. I considered a ramekin of oil, but that seemed a lot of work and what to do with the oil while it cools?

So I grated cheese over it and nuked the ever living crap out of it. Then, I covered it with Louisiana hot sauce. Chewy, cheesy, spicy goodness.

query said:

Ok this is a weird one and I don't know why anyone would want to replicate it but it was tasty.

There was an open bag of puffy cheetos. 100% humidity for days, and I was bored.

The microwave we have is for some reason is uber-touchy about moisture content so I might be able to "freshen" them but once they start to dry the thing arc welds. The work around for making corn chips warm is to toss a glass of water in the microwave which would defeat the point of rehabilitating soggy cheetos. I considered a ramekin of oil, but that seemed a lot of work and what to do with the oil while it cools?

So I grated cheese over it and nuked the ever living crap out of it. Then, I covered it with Louisiana hot sauce. Chewy, cheesy, spicy goodness.

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you are a disgusting filthy freak!
I like the way you are taking this


In my sugar fiend mode I've made microwave caramel.

couple tbsp condensed milk
couple tbsp brown sugar
couple tbsp cane syrup
one tbsp butter
pinch of salt

stir between 20 second interval nukes, till light brown and some air bubbles hold their shape. pour it out on parchment paper, cool and cut. or pour the hot caramel over icecream

query said:

Ok this is a weird one and I don't know why anyone would want to replicate it but it was tasty.

There was an open bag of puffy cheetos. 100% humidity for days, and I was bored.

The microwave we have is for some reason is uber-touchy about moisture content so I might be able to "freshen" them but once they start to dry the thing arc welds. The work around for making corn chips warm is to toss a glass of water in the microwave which would defeat the point of rehabilitating soggy cheetos. I considered a ramekin of oil, but that seemed a lot of work and what to do with the oil while it cools?

So I grated cheese over it and nuked the ever living crap out of it. Then, I covered it with Louisiana hot sauce. Chewy, cheesy, spicy goodness.

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I agree! Absolute filth!
(I'm hungry now!)

I guess a hot air gun could be used for rejuvenating crisp-things-that-have-lost-their-crispness too?

I know for sure, that it is fantastic for making roasted marshmallows!

I'm looking a bottle of Olive Oil. 25.5oz or 754ml.

What?

Why wouldn't you pick 24 oz or 3/4 of a liter? That extra 1 1/2 oz or extra 4 milliliters seems odd.

It's like they had a filling machine that they just couldn't calibrate, so they said "Forget it, reprint the labels instead."

query said:

I'm looking a bottle of Olive Oil. 25.5oz or 754ml.

What?

Why wouldn't you pick 24 oz or 3/4 of a liter? That extra 1 1/2 oz or extra 4 milliliters seems odd.

It's like they had a filling machine that they just couldn't calibrate, so they said "Forget it, reprint the labels instead."

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They likely downsized the bottle slightly and kept the shelf price the same. The canola oil I use did this recently too, dropped 4 ounces out of the container size, as I recall.

Hi all, it's been a long time since I dropped in. Anyone making caramel apples for halloween this year? Here are the ones I made last year for Christmas. I am thinking of doing halloween this year though. Caramel from scratch-no don't ask me how much sugar I burned, grrr.

Iceprincess12 said:

Hi all, it's been a long time since I dropped in. Anyone making caramel apples for halloween this year? Here are the ones I made last year for Christmas. I am thinking of doing halloween this year though. Caramel from scratch-no don't ask me how much sugar I burned, grrr.

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Those look lovely! I'm thinking of doing half apples for a bake sale in a couple of weeks. (They have this dumb rule that everything can only cost $.50.) I had to laugh since I was making homemade caramel sauce the other day and someone called me in the middle and I burned the damn sugar. Tricky stuff that sugar napalm.

Iceprincess12 said:

Hi all, it's been a long time since I dropped in. Anyone making caramel apples for halloween this year? Here are the ones I made last year for Christmas. I am thinking of doing halloween this year though. Caramel from scratch-no don't ask me how much sugar I burned, grrr.

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sounds so sweet

Saucyminx said:

Those look lovely! I'm thinking of doing half apples for a bake sale in a couple of weeks. (They have this dumb rule that everything can only cost $.50.) I had to laugh since I was making homemade caramel sauce the other day and someone called me in the middle and I burned the damn sugar. Tricky stuff that sugar napalm.

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You look away for 1 sec...no way to salvage it either. Lasy year I made them with corn syrup and the buttery caramel flavor just doesn't come through. This year I will do it with water, it takes 3 times as long but it's much harder to burn the sugar and the taste is perfect.

Iceprincess12 said:

You look away for 1 sec...no way to salvage it either. Lasy year I made them with corn syrup and the buttery caramel flavor just doesn't come through. This year I will do it with water, it takes 3 times as long but it's much harder to burn the sugar and the taste is perfect.

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Not true... You are 1/2 to making black powder for your smoke pole by then....

query said:

Not true... You are 1/2 to making black powder for your smoke pole by then....

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Haha, next time I'll keep it then!

Crushed Garlic:

I have owned 3-4 garlic presses, they are always hard to clean, leave this fibrous threads I either discard or run my knife through, and they invariably do not last a year. The last one I bought was a Kitchen-Aid one and more or less the press survived, but the toothy bits would want to come apart from the the handle. I lost it years ago.

It's been on my list to replace a long time.

I don't know why.

The way I do it is far superior a result, and less clean-up.

Take a heavy knife, smash the clove lightly with the flat side of your knife. Pick the paper off it. Crush it harder, then run your knife through it to mince it. Add course salt. Grind the garlic to a fine paste with the flat of your knife till it is basically a salty, oily smear on your board. Scrape it up with your knife and into your cooking.

I made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce the other day and seem to be the only one eating it.

The fridge is pretty bare, need to go to the big city. I noticed a container of Ricotta I had forgotten.

I love Lasagna, so I spread some on the plate, covered with Angel-hair Pasta and then a layer of my sauce.

Microwaved it...

Delicious.

Be better baked in the oven with melted Mozzarella and Provolone on top.

Made lasagna with a salad and garlic bread.

sereneone4u said:

Made lasagna with a salad and garlic bread.

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That's what I actually wanted. *jealous*

Sorry to butt in, but I was reading a spectacular recipe for kebabs and all the accompaniments by the brilliant Ottolenghi today and thought I'd share the link. Think I might try these soon.

DesEsseintes said:

Sorry to butt in, but I was reading a spectacular recipe for kebabs and all the accompaniments by the brilliant Ottolenghi today and thought I'd share the link. Think I might try these soon.

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WANT. So much.

DesEsseintes said:

Sorry to butt in, but I was reading a spectacular recipe for kebabs and all the accompaniments by the brilliant Ottolenghi today and thought I'd share the link. Think I might try these soon.

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You are supposed to share such things here.

I am drinking 1/2 a huge bottle of Chocolate Stout. I needed a small bottle for my chilli. I decided since i almost never drink beer to look for a single bottle instead of a six pack. At $6.49 a bottle I am not sure I saved money. It's tasty though.

So far my Chilli con Carne will have:

1 lb of Dried Black Beans. Soaked over night, brought to a boil, then crock-pot. They are taking fo'ever.

2 lbs of really cheap Ground Chuck. Cooked it with Onions, course ground Black Pepper, Greek Seasoning and Seasoned Salt. I drained off most of the 1/2 pound of rendered lard.

One small can of white beans. 'Cause diversity.

One small can of diced Tomatoes in Chipotle

One small can of diced Tomatoes w/ Green Chille.

Chili powder to taste. Probably a coupla tablespoons.

Cumin to taste. Probably one tablespoon.

Lots of White Pepper from my peppermill.

Fresh Oregano. 'Cause it's the only herb that went viral in my garden.

2-3 cloves of Garlic, crushed to a paste.

Whatever is left of the 1/2 liter of Chocolate Stout.

Dash of Vanilla.

Brown Sugar, maybe 1/2 cup. Not sure yet. What makes it taste so good?

A little Mustard. Like a tablespoon.

Big Yellow Onion cooked in.

Minced Sweet Onion to garnate I mean garnish with.

Some Lou'sianne Hot Pepper Sauce sprinkled on top.

It will likely be really good in about 3 days, when I am tired of eating it and have frozen the remainder.

Speaking of food techniques...in the future my method of preparing black beans will be as follows:

Open can.

Heat.

I soaked these overnight. Brought to a boil and have now crocked these for 8 hours. They still aren't quite ready.

Bought them from a high volume store, so I don't think these were found in an Anasazi cave...

On the other hand most people around here cook Sonoran rather than Yucatan and favor pinto beans.

The chili is coming along; relatively tasty if the beans will ever get done. Not sure I can actually taste the $6 beer in there, though.

I need a good tomato sauce recipe, I'm tired of Jar stuff.

I never start form tomatoes, so I assume you mean starting with a jar and improving it (easiest) or starting from canned (pretty easy.)

If you were to start from tomatoes, I'd slice the skins lightly, boil them a minute or so till the skin starts to losen then peel, cut them open, seed them, then dice. I would then saute some onions and sweet peppers, maybe mushrooms add to the tomato dice with some olive oil and use that, rather than cooking it all the way down to sauce.

Key to tomato sauce is cutting the acid. It is done usually with sugar to taste. Onions contain a lot of sugar so if you saute them until they just start to caramelize (brown) that serves to sweeten as well.

I take either a lb of ground beef or a lb of sweet (or hot) Italian sausage or in a big batch for lasagna, a lb of each. Brown that in the pan with onions and peppers. When the onions are translucent, I add some sort of tommato product. I like canned crushed tomatoes.

You can thicken your sauce with a can of tomato paste.

Add some sugar to taste if there is not enough sweet from the onions.

Optionally add mushrooms as you just about finish the saute.

If you go without meat, use olive oil for the saute.

Basil will sweeten the sauce as well. Use plenty. Most people add oreegon (a good add) but leave out the basil.

Oh and garlic. I add a crushed clove with the saute. I also add one to the sauce later.

Often I will add 1/2 the onions to the saute portion then add the rest to the sauce raw. It varies the texture and flavor. You need a couple of hour simmer for that method though.

Mostly I add and taste.

I like adding some Worcestershire sometimes, and a little Louisiana hot sauce for zing.

BBG1970 said:

I need a good tomato sauce recipe, I'm tired of Jar stuff.

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Slow cooker marinara sauce. Easy peasy, tasty and makes quite a bit. It also freezes well.

No pics to post, but I had a lonely baked potato left over from the other night that no one wanted to eat. It's been sitting in the fridge for at least 3 days now.

This morning I sliced it into rounds, sprinkled it with seasoned salt, and sauteed them in a little evoo until they were golden brown on each side. Then tucked them into a warm flour tortilla, and nestled some colby jack in there for good measure.

Probably not the healthiest thing I could have had for breakfast, but it was damn tasty!