Pseudo-cooking

matriarch said:
Liver casserole

Take pigs liver, chop into pieces, brown in a little oil in a large iron casserole pot. Chop and add one onion, carrots, tin of baked beans, some frozen peas and sweetcorn, swede and parsnip diced if available. Finally peel and chunk potatoes and place on the top. Add a couple of bay leaves. Cover the whole thing with water, stir, put on the lid and bake in the oven for an hour.

The tomato juice from the beans, the juices from the liver and the water make incredible gravy.

Even my youngest eats this, and took the recipe with him to college. Apparently he was a great favourite when he cooked it.

I'm not much of a liver fan, but I would imagine you could substitute some other type of meat and it would still be very tasty. :)
 
Cooking is too serious for trash food. :p

No, no, no, no, no!

I tried.

Ken
 
minsue said:
Poor horsey. Come on over, we'll make ya whatever you want. :kiss:

Oh, thank goodness. The SO mentioned reading the thread and being horrified at the thought of being mad to eat any of this. ;)

minsue said:
Cooking has had its own threads. This is pseudo-cooking. Pbbbbt! :p :D

Damnit, you're cute when you do that! And I was going to say the same thing. ;)

Now if it's real cooking you want - I can get seven meals out of one chicken, and they are all good actual cooking. *Dreams of pot pie ... mmmmmm pot pie.* Oh, and if you want cheap, it's hard to beat colcannon - and it will fill you and warm you through the worst winter night. (Ground beef and onion gravy over a mash of turnips and potatoes with steamed cabbage mixed into it.)

Shanglan
 
BlackShanglan said:
Oh, thank goodness. The SO mentioned reading the thread and being horrified at the thought of being mad to eat any of this. ;)



Damnit, you're cute when you do that! And I was going to say the same thing. ;)

Now if it's real cooking you want - I can get seven meals out of one chicken, and they are all good actual cooking. *Dreams of pot pie ... mmmmmm pot pie.* Oh, and if you want cheap, it's hard to beat colcannon - and it will fill you and warm you through the worst winter night. (Ground beef and onion gravy over a mash of turnips and potatoes with steamed cabbage mixed into it.)

Shanglan

very similar to Shepherd's pie....yummy.
 
BlackShanglan said:
Damnit, you're cute when you do that! And I was going to say the same thing. ;)

Now if it's real cooking you want - I can get seven meals out of one chicken, and they are all good actual cooking. *Dreams of pot pie ... mmmmmm pot pie.* Oh, and if you want cheap, it's hard to beat colcannon - and it will fill you and warm you through the worst winter night. (Ground beef and onion gravy over a mash of turnips and potatoes with steamed cabbage mixed into it.)

Shanglan
Mmmmmmm......pot pie. I haven't had pot pie in years. *drools, just a little, honest*
 
minsue said:
Mmmmmmm......pot pie. I haven't had pot pie in years. *drools, just a little, honest*

*grin* Now you really need to drop by here. Pot pie is one those rare things that I will boldly and without a trace of modesty claim to do damned well. ;)
 
BlackShanglan said:
*grin* Now you really need to drop by here. Pot pie is one those rare things that I will boldly and without a trace of modesty claim to do damned well. ;)
I wonder if Mat would mind a swing by the stables on the way to the Love Shack....? She sleeps in the car, she may not even notice. :D
 
minsue said:
I wonder if Mat would mind a swing by the stables on the way to the Love Shack....? She sleeps in the car, she may not even notice. :D

I do not sleep....I rest my eyes.
Love to swing by the stables.....but its your call, you're driving.
 
minsue said:
I wonder if Mat would mind a swing by the stables on the way to the Love Shack....? She sleeps in the car, she may not even notice. :D

Oooh! Oooh! When is that? :D
 
BlackShanglan said:
Oh, thank goodness. The SO mentioned reading the thread and being horrified at the thought of being mad to eat any of this. ;)
hehe - I feel like I've opened up Pandora's box to unleash a horde of ways to make Ramen noodles! If nothing else, I've picked up some really good tips for improvisational cooking. And it just seems wrong to rely on the freezer aisle as much as I do. I always suspected that there had to be a reason they made the regular side of the fridge bigger than the freezer side. :confused:

BlackShanglan said:
Now if it's real cooking you want - I can get seven meals out of one chicken, and they are all good actual cooking. *Dreams of pot pie ... mmmmmm pot pie.* Oh, and if you want cheap, it's hard to beat colcannon - and it will fill you and warm you through the worst winter night. (Ground beef and onion gravy over a mash of turnips and potatoes with steamed cabbage mixed into it.)

Shanglan

Mmmm, pot pie made from leftover turkey is the second best thing about Thanksgiving! (dressing with gravy being the first.)
 
Goulash

At least, this is my Goulash.

Brown a pound of either lean ground beef or beef stew meat in a soup/stock pot with a medium to large onion, either yellow or white, that's been diced into half inch pieces. drain, if needed, and add about four cloves of minced or crushed garlic. let the garlic brown lightly then add in a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, a 4 oz. can of tomato paste and 1-2 small cans of mushrooms. (Mushrooms optional) Add 3 quarts of water to the pot and season to taste with paprika, cheyanne, oregano, salt and pepper. You can also add a couple Bay leaves if you like them and feel like it, or Basil if you want. Bring to a boil and add 4-5 cups of elbow or shell macaronni. Let it cook until the pasta has absorbed all the liquid, and if it gets too dry before the noodles have finished cooking add more water a cup at a time. Remove it from the heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes to give the noodles time to absorbe any liquid that might be left in the very bottom of the pot. Serve and eat like the royalty that you are. :D
 
Huckleman2000 said:
hehe - I feel like I've opened up Pandora's box to unleash a horde of ways to make Ramen noodles! If nothing else, I've picked up some really good tips for improvisational cooking. And it just seems wrong to rely on the freezer aisle as much as I do. I always suspected that there had to be a reason they made the regular side of the fridge bigger than the freezer side. :confused:



Mmmm, pot pie made from leftover turkey is the second best thing about Thanksgiving! (dressing with gravy being the first.)
Do you mean dressing, or stuffing? Dressing being made from a cornbread base where as stuffing is made from a wheatbread base.
 
Tom Collins said:
Do you mean dressing, or stuffing? Dressing being made from a cornbread base where as stuffing is made from a wheatbread base.

I guess Stuffing is what I was thinking of.
Of course, if I knew the difference, do you think I'd have started the thread? :p ;)

Nice Goulash recipe, but.... No Mush for ju!

I am the Mush Nazi! Bwahahahaha!

(sorry, I think my carbs are out of whack or something...)
 
LOLOLOL

Quick and easy meal already set up for tomorrow.

I picked up some cheap ass beef on the way home from Softball Practice tonight. Two pounds worth.

Cubed it then rubbed it with a mix of Cajun Seasoning, Garlic and Meat Tenderizer. Tossed it into a bag and threw that into the fridge.

Tomorrow I'll cut up a Vidalia Onion or two as well as a Green Bell Pepper.

I'll toss the meat into a grilling rack, (A small thing that looks like a narrow basket and is usually used for grilling things like fish or veggies.) and set that on the grill. When the meat is almost done I'll pull it off the fire and skewer it with the veggies before returning it to the grill.

When the Onion starts turning color and the edges of the Pepper are barely charred I'll know the Pinchos are done and dinner is served.

Cat
 
Tom Collins said:
At least, this is my Goulash.

Brown a pound of either lean ground beef or beef stew meat in a soup/stock pot with a medium to large onion, either yellow or white, that's been diced into half inch pieces. drain, if needed, and add about four cloves of minced or crushed garlic. let the garlic brown lightly then add in a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, a 4 oz. can of tomato paste and 1-2 small cans of mushrooms. (Mushrooms optional) Add 3 quarts of water to the pot and season to taste with paprika, cheyanne, oregano, salt and pepper. You can also add a couple Bay leaves if you like them and feel like it, or Basil if you want. Bring to a boil and add 4-5 cups of elbow or shell macaronni. Let it cook until the pasta has absorbed all the liquid, and if it gets too dry before the noodles have finished cooking add more water a cup at a time. Remove it from the heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes to give the noodles time to absorbe any liquid that might be left in the very bottom of the pot. Serve and eat like the royalty that you are. :D


I'll have to dig out my recipe for Goulash Soup and post it here for you. (A bit more involved but oh man is it good.)

Cat
 
Huckleman2000 said:
I guess Stuffing is what I was thinking of.
Of course, if I knew the difference, do you think I'd have started the thread? :p ;)

Nice Goulash recipe, but.... No Mush for ju!

I am the Mush Nazi! Bwahahahaha!

(sorry, I think my carbs are out of whack or something...)
Ummmm...what? What Mush are we talking about? The kind that people in love spout at each other? :cool:
 
Today was Kabobs, tasted great by the way.

Tomorrow, well tomorrow will be a bit of a treat for us. I'm making Chicken Wings again. (Hey I haven't made them for my wife and myself in a while.)

Cut up a family pack of Wings. Discard the tips. (A waste of space on the grill.)

Half fill a stock pot with water, add most of a bag of Crab Boil. Boil the wings for roughly ten minutes. Remove and drain. Rub with Cajun Seasoning and fresh minced Garlic. (I have a mini food chopper so I toss four cloves of Garlic in this thing and make a puree.) Place in a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat Grill with a smoke box on it. Get it smoking nicely then turn the heat off on one side. Place the chicken wings on the side you just turned off. Slow cook in the smoke for at least half an hour.

Turn the heat back on under the wings. Slow cook for at least another 20 minutes, turning every five minutes or so.

Oh are they good.

Cat
 
Results of first experiment

Okay, inspired by other posters, I sorta dove right into a bit of improvisation. Results were only so-so (entirely due to my experimenting), but I learned something for next time.

The base recipe was Cloudy's porkchops with onions, potatoes, and carrots, from early in the thread. I should have just stuck to that.

My experiment:
I included zucchini, because I saw it in another thread; some white wine in the baking dish (because I needed an excuse to go out and get more wine :rolleyes: ); and seasonings that included parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (I thought I would call it Simon and Garfunkel Pork Chops). Actually, I started with sage, because I read somewhere that it was a good spice on vegetables, and then I added rosemary because sometimes I get roasted chicken with rosemary at the supermarket, and then I thought of the S&G song, and the rest is history.

Results:
Pretty tasty. This would have been a lot better if I didn't improvise though, I can tell. First off, I wound up with too much liquid in the baking pan, so the whole thing was more poached than roasted. I had no idea that the vegetables would produce that much liquid! :rolleyes: So I tried to dry it out a bit by opening the foil and baking it longer, which made the porkchops more tough I think. Also, I used boneless porkchops (they were on special!) and they were very lean, and didn't produce much in the way of drippings. I should have seasoned the pork, not the vegetables, which were delicious on their own. Especially the carrots! The zucchini was pretty much tasteless, and mush by the time I cooked them for as long as I did. No wonder you can put them in anything. :cool:

What I'm going to do next time:
I'm going to cook it as Cloudy said to, in which case it would be better, with a more roasted flavor I'm sure. I'll brown the pork chops faster so they don't cook as much on the stove, and use pork that isn't quite so lean. Maybe just stick to adding one spice at a time to see how that works.
The other thing I might try is to drop the zucchini and use apples instead, and season the whole thing with curry powder. I've had apples with pork before and like it, and I like curry together with sweet flavors.

Final grade: C+ due to poor execution on my part I can see where this would be a solid B+ or A- dish without my meddling. Also, it's my first grade, so I can't be too lenient. ;)
 
Another nice thing to do with boneless pork chops is to pound them thin and flat and use them to sandwich a stuffing of bread, sauteed onions and celery, chopped apples, and raisins. Pour a little cider or milk over the pork chops and bake the whole thing, checking now and then to moisten the meat a little or turn it so that the top side goes down in the juices. Thyme, rosemary, and parsley make a good seasoning for it. If you don't mind a little more of a steamed feel to it you can bake it in foil or a covered dish to keep the meat from drying out.

Shanglan
 
ground, shredded, cubed or canned meat or fish
2 cups frozen baby peas and baby onions
1 10 oz can diced tomatoes (don't be afraid to use Italian or chilli style)
1/2 - 3/4 cup water
1 oxo cube (doesn't matter the flavour)
3/4 cup parboiled white rice (raw)

brown the flesh in a large skillet, draining any fat. Return the pan to the burner set on medium and add the peas, tomatoes and water. Stir and heat to boiling, reduce heat to low and add oxo (any seasonings you may enjoy should be added at this point) and the rice, blend well and cover the dish.

Reduce heat to simmer and stir often (about every 4 to 6 minutes) until rice is tender. Add water dribbles as needed to finish rice. (20 minutes or so)

Remove pan from heat and stir in your favourite cheese.
 
nice summer lunch/dinner:

buy 1 kg of sweet cherries
wash them
put them into a dish, take along another small dish for the stones
eat them.

very simple, no cooking required. and it's too warm for anything heavier.
 
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