boilingwater | Recent Entries

I'm a pretty decent cook (and baker) but have no experience with fish other than "buy fish frozen, cook according to directions" or "open can of tuna, mix with mayo etc."

Do you have any helpful fish tips, advice, or instruction? Any favorite fish recipes, the simpler the better?

sasha_feather

1/2 c shortening (1 stick butter)
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c buttermilk or milk
1 c mashed ripe bananas
2 c flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 c nuts or chocolate chips

2 loaf pans, sprayed with non-stick spray

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Pour batter into pans. Bake for 1 hour or until golden-brown.

vass

I accidentally bought some self-raising flour instead of plain. I want to use it up. What would happen if I used it in my bread machine? What adjustments, if any, should I make?

Current Mood: hungry

vass

Hi, I'm looking for advice on bread machines. I have a delicious recipe, which turned out all right the first few times I made it, but has recently been producing bread that first rises then sinks dramatically, causing an interesting inverse parabola effect.

The only changes I've made are brand of yeast, and possibly loaf size setting.

The brand of yeast: I was buying little sachets of the stuff, and I shifted to a big bulk cannister, in an attempt to make it more economical. My goal is to have nicer bread that costs less than a loaf from the supermarket. I tried doubling the yeast, but the bread was still concave.

The loaf size setting: I don't remember which setting I had it on before, but recently I have had it on 1kg. The problem is that there are three possible settings: 750g, 1kg, and 1.5kg, and this recipe calls for 4 cups of flour, which is neither 750g nor 1kg, but somewhere in the middle. But yeah, I might have previously set it to 750g and then forgot that this was the right settinng.

The bread still tastes fine, it's just aesthetically displeasing.

Does anybody know which of these causes is likely to be the culprit, or if it's something else entirely? Thank you.

libitina

Rosemary is delicious, but chewy.

If I'm adding it to things like mashed potatoes or homestyle potatoes or sauteed zucchini or... well, you get the idea...

If I'm adding it to non-roasted stuff, I fry it in just a little oil, first. It might turn brown and not be as pretty, but it will be just as tasty and is now crisp, so it'll crumble apart pleasingly on the tongue.

azurelunatic

Because my chain of bad decisions is educational and perhaps amusing:

Clean the oven regularly.
Wipe the oven down after cooking that juicy roast.
Check the oven before preheating to bake frozen pizza.
Smoke billowing out of oven vents, not normal.
Smoke out of opened door, ditto.
That box fan is efficient.
Wipe the oven down before commencing auto-cleaning cycle.
Flame in auto-cleaning cycle is not normal.
The locked oven door prevents stupid moves.
In an oxygen-poor environment, the fire must needs go out.
Once a fire has expended all its fuel, it must needs go out.
The cleaning cycle takes a minimum of 2 hours, by which time one's eaten something else.

sage

Dear cooks who know more than me,

I've been cooking with dry beans for the last some-odd months to save money and reduce exposure to harmful toxins and such. The cookbooks say:

1. soak beans 8 hrs or overnight.
2. parboil soaked (rinsed, drained) beans at a rolling boil for 10-12 minutes.
3. rinse and cover with fresh water and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on the kind of bean.

Got it. The thing is, after I parboil? I simmer for 25 minutes and the beans are done!

I'm generally cooking one cup of any of these varieties: black, pinto, lima, rattlesnake, kidney, or small red. Chickpeas and chana dal take longer -- much closer to what directions indicate.

Why are my beans done so fast? If I look away for like, a minute, they get mushy and/or burn to the bottom of the pot.

Also, I'm at practically sea level, whatever San Antonio is at, if that matters.

I am so confused. I mean, they taste okay, but I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong! Help?

Thank you!

This is a several-in-one recipe mix-and-match thing, but it's real easy to make. We got it from some Kraft "food&family program guide" club thing

ryan signed up for in years past.

Anyway! It goes like this:

The base recipe calls for:
a 14.5-oz can of undrained diced tomatoes
8 oz uncooked pasta
a large skillet and a pasta pot
A pound of meat (or vegetarian substitute)
About 2 cups or so of vegetables
Half a cup of salad dressing for marinade/sauce
A cup of shredded cheese (for topping)

The suggested meats are:
( meats )

Suggested vegetables to stir in are:
( vegetables )

The suggested dressing-cheese pairings are:
( tasty )

I know all that sounds complicated but they're all just options - feel free to use whatever you want.

So now that you've picked one of each, make the pasta like normal. Cook the meat with 2 Tbsp of dressing in a large skillet for 5 minutes or until it's browned on both sides (turn after 3 min if you need to). Stir in the can of diced tomatoes, vegetables, and the rest of the dressing. [If you're doing beans instead of meat, just throw it all in together here.] Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, simmer for 10 minutes until the meat is cooked. Serve over pasta and top with cheese; let it sit so the cheese can melt. Serves roughly 4, more if you add lots of vegetables.

Pro tip: if you use ground beef, don't pair it with ranch salad dressing. It still tastes good, but comes out looking like gray sludge.

melannen

(that should not, by any rights, have turned out as well as they did.)

I have been trying to use up the "things from the fridge" because I hate wasting food but also never get around to actually cooking them. These turned out not just filling, nutritious and (reasonably) yummy, but also looked really pretty, so I share the instructions!

( Tropical Peanut Rice )

...am I the only one who has, um, quite a few favorite recipes built around leftover white rice from takeout? The key is to leave the rice in the fridge, in its original paper container, for a few days to a week, until the rice is about half-dried out, and then when you reheat it, put it in a covered bowl with something liquid and flavorful to rehydrate the rice, and nuke until there's no standing liquid left. The thing is, I *cannot* get rice from scratch to come out as well using the microwave, so I am tempted to order extra takeout rice just to have some for leftovers.

( Cheesy Potato Soup )

( Lemon Creamsicle )

...this is why I never offer to share what I cook.

rydra_wong

Thanks to

sarah, who posted about this in

omnomnom:

The blog Stone Soup (DW feed at

stonesoup_feed) is giving away a free e-cookbook. All the recipes have a maximum of 5 ingredients and take a maximum of 10 minutes to prepare:

Stone Soup: Minimalist Home Cooking

I've just downloaded it and it looks gorgeous, full of luscious photos, and most importantly, full of recipes that seem easy and do-able as well as tasty.

Hi everyone! I'm new to this comm, and I've got a question. I need to make something for dinner tonight, and I have no idea what--except that I've got six chicken thighs (about 2 pounds) of chicken thighs in my freezer, and I'd really like to try cooking them.

I've never worked with chicken thighs before, only breasts, so I don't even know where to begin. They're not deboned, nor probably deskinned (I can't recall, off the top of my head), and while I can remove the bones and skin, I'd rather not go to all that work today. Does anyone have a reasonably easy (I'm feeling pretty lazy today), flavourful recipe they could recommend? I'd appreciate it so much. ♥

Current Mood: cheerful

angel_negra

This is something I like making up especially during hot weather.

What you need:
- Frozen Fruit of your choice (I love using blueberries, mainly because they're easy to scoop up with a spoon.)
- Milk/cream of your choice (I lean towards my normal drinking milk or my coffee cream if I'm trying to use it up before it goes bad, but any milk or milk substitute you drink that'll freeze will work.)
- Sugar (This is totally optional. If you find your chosen berries sweet enough to eat plain, you can leave off the sugar; if you have a sweet tooth, sugar can be nice.)

Pour some of the frozen berries into a bowl, and then pour on enough milk to cover most of them. Think of it like when you add milk to cereal. Add sugar to taste and let it sit for a couple of seconds. The frozen berries will freeze the most milk into ice-milk and voila! Berries and ice cream. :D

Handy for when you either need to use up the milk/cream fast or you can't get down to the store to buy a carton of actual ice cream.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Techno Podcast

sibyllevance

Hello everybody!
I posted this on my journal yesterday but thought maybe others could benefit from what I've found. I'm 21 and up till October, I lived with my parents, who cook in bulk for all of us so I never had any opportunity to cook for myself. In October I moved to the UK (where I still am) to finish my Master's degree and here I live in a huge house with a huge kitchen that I share with lovely housemates.
Cooking is a challenge to me - I don't enjoy it at all (it's very lonely to go in there and chop and feel hot for hours each week) but I dearly love eating and I can't afford to go out more than once in a while so cooking is nonetheless a necessity.
I've found that since I've had to prepare my own meals, I'm constantly thinking about what I'm going to eat, when I'll have to prepare the food or buy it. It's exhausting, to be honest, but sometimes it's actually rewarding. The following recipes are recipes that worked well for me this year and that I would like to make again.

Mango Chicken Curry - Exact recipe but I substituted the heavy cream with light coconut milk, which by the way I could drink on its own with a bit of sugar if nobody was watching me.
Morrocan Aubergine and Chickpeas Salad - Exact recipe. I think adding grilled lamb meatballs to it might make it a complete omnivore dish, I haven't tried but I will next time I make it.
Falafel Burgers - Exact recipe but for the tomato salsa, since I wasn't sure what they meant, I used grilled diced tomatoes.
Hummus - Exact recipe. Had that with pita bread and on toasted artisan bread with olive oil and diced tomatoes for breakfast one day.
Fancy Macaroni - Exact recipe, don't skip the goat cheese, it makes a huge difference. Got two other cheeses on discount.

There are also countless other dishes which I didn't use a recipe for (that's far more difficult) but that I thought would taste good and they did. For example thick pasta with lemon and a mushroom sauce (mushrooms, cream and various spices that didn't look too different from the earthy taste of mushrooms). Today I had mint lamb (I put lamb steaks in a zipper bag with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and lots of fresh mint and let it marinate overnight) with couscous and some veggies in it (peppers and sun-dried tomatoes).

These tips also worked for me this year: cooking in bulk and freezing is a great method. Dried herbs are my best friends, so are spices, especially if the dish requires the herbs to be cooked. If it's for a salad or some such, better fresh. Some things are worth buying half-ready to use, like diced chicken breasts, some are not (guacamole in a jar, I'd rather be guacamole-deprived, maybe it's the brand I bought but it had 40% double cream, and it tasted horrible). Some things are totally fine by me and have saved me time (example: rice in the bag, teabags, already-washed salad). Old el Paso is not Mexican food, but their corn tortillas are rather good. I personally buy spices in bulk and throw some of each together instead of using their spices mix, too.

I wish I'd known how to use my oven better sooner this year. I learned last week that I could do all the 'grilling' of the recipes in my oven *sigh* Better late than never, I suppose. Turns out the way you prepare something really changes the ingredient. My whole life I thought I hated aubergines, but grilled aubergines are, I find, to die for.

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks

azurelunatic

This is the artichoke. It is equally useful as a weapon and a food.

Materials:
1 large pot, with or without a lid, for holding boiling water and hapless artichokes.
Tough sharp knife for cutting tough sharp leaves.
Cutting board, for cutting tough sharp leaves with a tough sharp knife.
Kitchen scissors, for forcibly de-spining the sucker.
Fork, for stabbing it to see when it's done.
Tongs or a colander, to separate the artichoke and the boiling water.
Spoon, to scoop spiky bits from heart.
Plate or bowl, to set artichoke on while eating.
Small bowl for butter.
Plate, bowl, or trash receptacle, for the gnawed-on leaves.

Ingredients:
One or more artichokes.
Water.
(optional) Butter.
(optional) Salt.
(optional) Lemon juice or vinegar.

The artichoke is a horrible, spiky, dangerous, vegetable in the thistle family. It has spines, and it's not afraid to use them. It can also be used as a spiked club, if you're stuck in a grocery store fending off zombies. It's also utterly delicious, good with or without scary amounts of tasty, tasty butter. They're incredibly intimidating if you don't know what to do with them, but once you do know, they're just a bit fussy.

( Pick your artichoke. Don't pet it. )

sage

Hi! I'm well on my way to wearing out my two main saucepans and I need help. I'm staring at Amazon's cookware pages right now and I'm baffled by the whole aluminum / copper / hard-anodized aluminum / nonstick / stainless steel / cast iron question. There are so many options! I had no idea!

I have a crazy mix of different pots, most of which are hand-me-downs. My favorites are Cuisinart nonstick, followed by the Farberware nonstick, followed by a dented 3 quart copper-bottomed pot I got from Goodwill (it's a great size, even if it lists to one side a little *g*).

Anyway, the fact that there are so many options implies that the different materials mean something important, right? What do you all use? What is best? I cook only for myself, but I'm cooking a LOT now -- more than ever in my life -- and my poor old saucepans aren't coping well with the wear and tear.

Thanks for any advice!

angelikitten

I know this might not sound like a good idea, but they do work. I tried them in

maewyn's iced coffee this morning, and it was awesome - they didn't dilute the coffee as much as regular ice does (I like my coffee really strong) and they added flavour. They'd probably work really well in creamy or milky cold drinks such as milkshakes or Baileys.

( How to make chocolate ice cubes )

maewyn

Hopefully these recipes will come in handy when it gets hot where you are. I'm a bit of a bumbling, inattentive cook, but I love me some sweet summery drinks!

( Iced tea from any kind of tea you like, as long as it comes in bags )

( Iced coffee from a regular drip coffeemaker )

rydra_wong

Note: these are the very approximate proportions I used to make a one-person serving, but it's a good idea to modify it as you go along to suit your individual tastes: whiz it in the blender a bit, taste it, then decide if you want it to be more cheese-y, more garlick-y, and add accordingly.

1 bunch fresh coriander/cilantro leaves (28g, according to the packet), chopped
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 or more garlic cloves, peeled and chopped (I used 3, but this is because I am a freak who likes having so much raw garlic it burns my mouth)
25g grated parmesan (for a vegan version, omit the parmesan and add more nuts)

Throw in a blender, blend until it's a coarse paste, then eat it on pasta. It's a very bright, intense flavour (especially with a lot of garlic) so IMHO it works well with a wholegrain brown pasta.

sky

Hello all, happy Easter to those who celebrate it :)

Does anyone have suggestions for relatively easy/quick recipes that are low sodium? I've gotten really conscious about how much preprocessed convenience type food I eat lately, but the trouble is I barely know the first thing about cooking. As far as dietary restrictions, I'm allergic to peanuts but otherwise I'm up for trying absolutely anything :)

norabombay

In the litany of food stuffs, few things are tastier and easier than Cheese Toast.

What you need:

Cheese.
Bread.
A knife.
A piece of tinfoil.

Take bread. Cut slice. Place on the piece of tin foil. On top of bread place slices of cheese.

Stick in oven or toaster oven for about 5-10 minutes. You can microwave for a minute, but it's not as good.

Watch for the cheese to start to bubble, and it's done.

Eat!

It is also good when served with eggs. Scrambled, boiled, poached. Or with soup. Or a salad.

( Advanced Directions for taking it up to awesome behind the cut )

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Boiling water without burning it

Recent Entries

Fish

Easy banana bread recipe

Another quick bread question

Concave bread

tips & tricks - rosemary

Things we have learned today:

beans!

Pronto saucy pasta skillet

Some Things I Have Recently Cooked

Free e-cookbook!

ideas for chicken thigh recipes?

Quick and easy dessert

A few recipes that worked for me

Artichokes for the Terrified: Boiling

cookware

Chocolate ice cubes

drinks for when it's hot out

Fresh coriander pesto

Easy and low sodium?

The one true meal: Cheese Toast