Food 101

Bacon/egg muffins

First you're going to need this:



This is a recipe I slightly modified, I've made something very similar before and it just wasn't the same, I can only conclude that this seasoning makes or breaks the recipe.. This stuff is awesome on just about every type of meat though.

Anyways...

Broiled Parmesan Tilapia
4-6 Tilapia Filets
Sazon pictured above (1 packet, that box comes with 6)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBSP butter (melted)
1 1/2 TBSP mayo (NOT Miracle Whip or any of the tangy knock offs. Just regular plain mayo)
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/8 tsp each: basil, parsley, salt, pepper, onion powder and celery seed (could just use celery salt, but make sure you use a 1/4 tsp if you go that route, and omit the salt)

Preheat oven to 350, sprinkle both sides of the fish with the seasoning packet. Lube up a sheet pan (I use cooking spray but whatever you use will be fine) and lay fish on it. Cook for 10 minutes.

While it's cooking, whisk together the cheese, butter, mayo, lemon juice, parsley, salt, pepper, onion powder, and celery seed and set aside.

After the fish has cooked for 10 minutes, flip them and cook another 10 minutes. Afterwards pull them out turn the broiler on high. Spread the mixture over the fish, making sure to cover it all (not both sides) broil 6 inches from heat for about 3-5 minutes, or until the mix starts to bubble and turn golden brown.

I've never seen that Sazon stuff. I'll look for it! If all else fails, I bet Amazon has it. They have everything.

Wife got it from Walmart I think. As you can see it's primarily a mexican/spanish thing, so if your local stores have aisles where they stick all that stuff, look there for it.

Love dat msg :Q

Aw bummer, if it has msg we can't eat it. Well, I can eat it but it gives my darling migraines. ;;

I just can't let this thread die gracefully, can I? ;;

Blackberry pie! Summer is berry season, I can't help it.

I didn't take pictures for this one because most of the pictures are already here, in the apple pie post. I used the same pie crust recipe (except I was feeling exceptionally boring so I used water instead of vodka this time.)

For the guts, you will need:

5-6 cups blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice (or just squeeze the lemon til no more comes out because you can't be bothered to measure it, oops!)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (or just grate the lemon until you are tired of it and it looks right because you can't be bothered to measure it, oops!)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons quick-cooking instant tapioca

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Gently stir to mix without breaking or crushing the berries. Let this disgustingly delicious looking mixture sit and juice itself for half an hour. (This is a perfect time to make the crust dough.)

After you've made your dough, arrange half in the pie pan and half in the fridge like with the apple pie. Spread the berry mixture over the dough in the pie pan.

If you want a lattice top, do the same thing as with the apple pie and slice it into thin strips to weave across the top. I'm partial to lattice tops, so I usually do it that way. You can always use a full top too though, just make sure you slice vents in the top to allow steam to escape.

Set the pie pan on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. (That part isn't necessary for the baking, it just makes the cleanup easier. Especially if the guts bubble out a bit during baking. That stuff is awful to scrape up off oven floors!) Set the cookie sheet with the pie pan in the middle of the oven and bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cover the pie pan with foil, return to oven and bake another 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, until crust is brown and filling is bubbly. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve with vanilla or French vanilla ice cream.




But you don't want berries ALL the time! So, this is a fun one too.

I love cookie dough. I eat more dough than cookies when I bake cookies, I'm pretty sure. But raw eggs and salmonella and yadda yadda yadda, you know how it goes.

So I scrounged around and I found a recipe for cookie dough, not to bake, just to eat. Eggless cookie dough. Cookie dough that is salmonella-free, safe for pregnant women to eat, safe to put into kids' ice cream. Oh snap!

Eggless Cookie Dough for Eating

You will need:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4cup milk
1 cup flour
Pinch salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in vanilla and milk. Mix in the flour, salt, and chips until well-blended. Chill in the refrigerator before eating (it's a bit too wet to eat right away), or roll into small balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Freeze in the freezer. After a few hours, remove the dough and store it in the freezer in a ziplock bag.

Not going to lie, the texture is off and grainy. But the taste is there! Woot, guiltless cookie dough!


Edit: Oh, and don't eat all that guiltless cookie dough at once. It might not give you salmonella, but it will sure give you a heck of a stomach ache if you go overboard!

They also make an msg free blend but I've never seen it for sale anywhere besides online c.c

By request of Slip, and because I am apparently incapable of letting a dead thread die:

Idaho Sunrise!



large baked potato (russett or sweet)
1 Tbsp. butter
2 eggs
2 strips bacon, cooked and diced
2 Tbsp. shredded cheese
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Lay the baked potato on its side, and use a knife to carefully cut off the top third of the potato. With a spoon, hollow out the middle of the potato to make a “bowl”, leaving the potato as thick or thin as you’d like. (Just remember, the more room you leave, the more room for eggs, bacon and cheese!)

Place 1/2 tablespoon of butter in the middle of each bowl. Then gently break an egg into each bowl, careful not to break the yolk. Top with bacon, cheese, parsley, and then season with salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until the egg whites are set. Serve immediately.


Potatoes are the best!

This Thread:

When cooking something that needs it and you don't have it, get some powder garlic, onion, coriander. Cut about half a leaf of oregano. Apart, you boil in a bit of oil some Annatto (we call it Achiote) and use the red oil. Then and add salt and pepper to taste. And there you have the substitute version of it.

OH NO! You stayed up late last night, your alarm clock didn't go off this morning, your cat was asleep on your face when you woke up and you didn't have time to brush the cat hair out of your teeth (ewwwww), your hair is a rat's nest, your pantyhose has a run in it, your car won't start until it's exactly a balmy 82 degrees out not including windchill, your mother called you up and said you look like a ragamuffin, and you are ever so late to work! You don't have time for a delicious breakfast! Breakfast is for ninnies! Oh, but that belly grumble just won't shut up. What do? ;;

Why, breakfast burritos of course! Pre-made, frozen, ready to pop into the microwave at a moment's notice. Observe:

You will need:

1 pound pork sausage
1 package of has browns (or other potato-y goodness-- I use Potatoes O'Brien)
8-12 eggs
Milk
Salt and pepper
1 package of shredded cheese (cheddar or Mexican blend)
Flour tortillas

(If you are a vegan/vegetarian, my house is not a good place to hang out. Sorry about that)

Brown your sausage in a humongous electric skillet or in a non-stick pan on the stove. Don't be shy now, you want it good and brown!

Set the browned sausage on some paper towels to drain. Without draining the pot, dump your hash browns/potatoes O'Brien in. (Extra bonus from potatoes O'Brien-- you can tell your mom you had veggies for breakfast! Aw yeah)

While the potatoes are cooking, fetch a large bowl and dump in a quarter of a cup of milk, give or take. Add the 8-12 eggs, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Stir the heck out of it until you get a smooth, well-beaten soup of salmonella. Cook it up in another pot on the stove, or if you like you can stir it right into the same pan as the potatoes. Make sure you cook the eggs all the way through, half-done eggs are disgusting.

When your potatoes are done, add the sausage back into the pan with them. When the eggs are finished, add them back into the pan as well.

Get your cheese, tortillas, and a bunch of plastic wrap. Place a couple spoonfulls of filling on each tortilla and top with a handful of cheese. Wrap the tortilla up burrito-style, then wrap the burrito up in plastic wrap.

Put the wrapped-up burritos in a baggie and stick them in the freezer for future use.

[spoiler] [/spoiler]

Voila! A finished batch of delicious breakfast burritos, just waiting for that day that you are in a rush and don't have time to make breakfast. Or that day when you just crave a burrito, whichever.

To use your frozen burritos, take the burrito out of the freezer. Don't forget to take it out of the plastic wrap! Heat it in the microwave for a couple minutes. You can eat it plain on the bus on the way to work or you can drown the bugger in sour cream and salsa and eat it right at home. Yum yum!

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First turkey ever was a success.

The method is kinda strange, it's taken me a lot of time, practice and flour/yeast to hone my bread making skills and produce something not only edible but something you'd actually want to eat.. This is a recipe I adapted to my 'style' and tweaked to fit my taste buds. If you're wondering why I add the yeast after the machine kneading, it's because the dough can get pretty hot (and could kill off the yeast) in my food processor.

Sweet Rolls

3 1/2 c bread flour
1/2 c wheat flour
1/3 c white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1/4 c warm water
1/4 c honey
1 egg
3/4 c hot milk (to scalding)
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp honey

First 4 ingredients into food processor and pulse to mix. Next 4 ingredients whisk together and proof yeast. Whisk egg in.

Heat up milk and add in 3 tbsp butter and whisk together. Turn food processor on and add milk/butter mix. Add water until dough forms and knead for a minute or so. (This is where if the dough feels too hot, I'll let it rest a few minutes to cool down)

Add in yeast mix, and pulse to combine. Add flour (~1/4 cup) until loose dough forms and dump onto floured counter. Knead for 3-5 minutes. Put dough ball into buttered bowl roll ball around (to coat all sides with butter) cover bowl with towel and let rise 1 hour.

Divide into 12 portions, then pull into tight balls and space evenly on oiled sheet pan spaced ~2 inches apart. Let rise another hour. Cook at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Mix together butter and honey and then immediately brush liberally onto the fresh rolls.

I mentioned in another thread that comfort food in the fall/winter is one of my all-time favorite things. What qualifies as 'comfort food' of course can differ from person to person, but this recipe is my ultimate comfort food.

Chicken Pot Pie

You will need for one crust:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter
5 tablespoons cold water or cold vodka
(everything x2)


You will need for the guts:

2 cups diced potatoes (you can peel them if you enjoy torturing yourself, but the peels are yummy so scrub the buggers and leave them on if you like!)
3-4 carrots, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon pepper
3 cups chicken broth (I use chicken bouillon-- three cups of hot water mixed with three teaspoons of bouillon makes three cups of chicken broth without having to buy huge cartons of it that then sit in the fridge til they go bad. Ick.)
1 1/2 cups milk
2 cups chicken
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn


And off we go! Make the crust first. Place flour, salt, and butter in a large bowl. Mash up the butter with a fork until it forms tiny balls in the flour. Add the water/vodka. Flour your hands and knead until a large dough ball forms. Split the dough in half. Wrap one half in plastic and set it in the fridge. Roll the other half out on a floured surface into a circle a bit bigger than your pie plate. Place the dough over your pie plate and fit it into the plate. Cut off any extra. Place this in the fridge.

Repeat that process one more time, so you have TWO balls of wrapped dough in the fridge and TWO prepared pie plates in the fridge. (If you are awesome you can just double the recipe and do it all at once, but I get tired kneading and mashing with a fork if I have huge amounts of dough to work with, so I prefer to make one crust at a time and then immediately repeat.)

Now for the fun part! Place about two chicken breasts in a pan and cover with water. Boil it. While the chicken is boiling, scrub and dice your potatoes, then scrub and slice your carrots. (If the chicken starts to boil over, lay a wooden spoon across the top of the pan so you don't have to bother with it.)

Place all your diced potatoes and sliced carrots in a pan (NOT the same pan that your chicken is in!), cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and set aside.

While your potatoes and carrots are simmering, gather your onion up and chop it. Try not to cry too much! Place your cubed butter in a LARGE skillet and melt. Add the onions, saute until tender.

While your onions are being saute'd, get your chicken out of the pan. Slice each piece open at the thickest part and make sure they are white all the way through. Chop them into small pieces. Set aside.

Stir your flour, salt, thyme, and pepper into the onions and butter until blended. Gradually stir in the milk and broth. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for about two minutes or until the mixture is thickened.

Add the chicken, peas, corn, potatoes, and carrots to the onion mixture, stir until well-mixed and remove from heat.

Fetch your two pie plates out of the fridge. Divvy up the guts between the two. It should be enough to fill two pies. Set these aside, and fetch the two wrapped dough balls. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to fit the top of the pies. Cut slits in the top of each. Seal the edges.

Bake one pot pie at 425 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Let it stand for a few minutes before cutting. Cover and freeze the remaining pot pie for up to three months, for those nights when you are too busy or don't feel like cooking or unexpected company comes over when you were planning on macaroni and cheese for dinner.

To use your frozen pot pie, cover the edges with foil, place on a baking sheet, and bake at 425 degrees F for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for 70-80 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown.

You can also make the pies and put them both in the freezer for future use, because stocking the freezer for winter is fun!

This recipe is also especially handy if you know a pal who is pregnant and due to give birth in the fall or winter. Immediately before or after birth is an awful time for a woman to be bustling about the kitchen much, so having ready-made meals in the freezer for her is a big help. Stock her freezer, play with her baby til it fills its diaper, hand it off to its mother and off you go!