Joy of Cooking

[LovesLife]

Greetings.

I wanted to start this thread because as the weather starts to cool off I go into cooking mode. I was thinking that as I tried out different recipes that were pretty good I would post them here.

I love soup and the following is tasty and full of good things.

ITALIAN SOUP

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 pound ground beef
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
* 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
* 4 cups water
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 2 teaspoons dried basil
* 2 teaspoons dried oregano
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans
* 1 (15 ounce) can green beans
* 1 carrot, chopped
* 1 zucchini, chopped
* 1/2 (16 ounce) package fusili (spiral) pasta

DIRECTIONS:

1. Brown beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, and spices. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 30 minutes.
2. Stir in beans, carrots, and zucchini. Simmer soup for 45 minutes.
3. Add pasta, and cook until tender. Top individual servings with grated cheese, and serve.

MODIFICATIONS: Use any type of small shaped pasta. Orzo is an excellent one (it is shaped like rice). I've also added frozen mixed vegtables instead of carrots and zucchini.

LL

 

[LovesLife]

Here are two more of my favorite quick bread recipes. BTW: I did not originate these recipes but I can vouch for their tastiness.

Apple Strudel Muffins


INGREDIENTS:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
* 1 1/2 cups chopped apples
*
* 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.


Pumpkin Gingerbread
INGREDIENTS:

* 3 cups sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 4 eggs
* 2/3 cup water
* 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
* 2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cloves
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice and cinnamon.
3. In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

 

[Sheryl]

Excellent idea, LL!

I'm not much of a creative cook, so I'm always looking for suggestions.  I was just thinking about asking Brewer for his salsa recipe...

Reading that he was making some motivated me to use up all my slightly damaged tomatos by making my own.   I was so excited to have all the main ingredients in my own garden!  But I'm afraid it's gonna be HOT!

 

[LovesLife]

Sheryl,

I am hoping that othes join in and post their favorites, too.

LL

 

[Martha]

Hey Sheryl, we wouldn't mind Brewer's salsa recipe either. We have a zillion tomatoes all ripe right now and have to do something fast.

 

[HFWR]

Never actually measure, but...

4-5 ripe tomatoes
1-2 tomatillos (optional)
1 small onion
1 bell pepper
2-4 cloves garlic
1-4 jalapenos
about half a bunch of cilantro
juice of lime/lemon or dash of vinegar

blend or process to desired texture

adjust ingredients per taste... it ain't rocket science!!

 

[brewer12345]

I'll dig the salsa recipe up and post tonight if I get a minute.

 

[Dawg52]

Throw in some no brainer recipes for single guys. 

 

[Danny]

Throw in some no brainer recipes for single guys.

DOG51 - If I'm not barbequeing, I'm using Bittman's How to Cook Everything.
Lots of quick & easy recipes. The family thinks I'm a genius - now they think I'm a great cook. Comments like - Dad, you cooked this?

 

[OldAgePensioner]

I grew up in Los Angeles and a breakfast burrito is dear to my heart. This is so easy I can't mess it up. If you ever fix this for your sweetie, you gottem for life.

Don't need to measure, just make a mess and wrap it in a warm tortilla.

In a large Teflon wok-like pan. Cook in order.

1. Chorizo. The mushy kind packaged in plastic. Cook and remove some of the red grease.

2. Hand full of Brown and Serve (pre-cooked) sausage patties. Crumble up. Heat up.

3. Hand full of Tater Tots. Crumble up. Heat with sausage/chorizo.

4. Several shallots, cut up and put into sausage/taters/chorizo. Just a minute or so.

5. Separate pan. Scramble 6-8 eggs. Beat up to a froth first to make fluffy.

6. Mix eggs with rest of mess and throw in a hand full of grated Jack cheese.


Roll up the mess in a warm tortilla. Wrap in plastic wrap and keep warm. Eat after tortilla softens.

This is on par with sex so be careful you could become addicted.

 

[LovesLife]

OAP,
Yummy, yummy. Thank you for posting.

LL

 

[Nords]

Throw in some no brainer recipes for single guys. 

These instructions have been dumbed down modified for guys with no interest in developing more than rudimentary kitchen skills.  This recipe qualifies for any meal or snack.

Lazy non-gourmet omelettes whose only redeeming values are simplicity & speed:
- Break two (or however many) eggs in a microwave-safe bowl.  Throw the shells in the trash (not in the bowl).  Pick out the shell shrapnel.
- Add spices & condiments like ground black pepper, chopped tomatos, tabasco sauce, salsa, chopped red/green peppers, chopped mushrooms or other veggies, chopped meat or sausage chunks, whatever's in the fridge or cupboard, use your imagination.  (No cheese-- that comes later.)  I stick with the first two.  Adding more takes longer to cook, if that's an issue.  For two eggs don't add more than a few spoonsful of stuff.
- Whip the resulting mess mixture with a fork for about 20-30 seconds to add plenty of air.
- Microwave until puffy (way above the rim) and no longer liquid, but it doesn't have to be perfectly dry.  Our 1250-watt 19-year-old GE takes 3 minutes & 45 seconds for the two-egg variety but your cooking times will vary considerably.
- For easier bowl cleanup, dump/scrape the results onto a plate.  (Of course this solution doubles the cleanup but it's easier to eat off the plate and you won't burn your fingers on a hot bowl.)  Lay two slices of American cheese (or cheddar or whatever) on top to melt as the omelette cools.  
- If you're eating off a plate, this would be a good time to fill the bowl with soapy water because dried egg is tough to clean off.
- Fend off the vultures roomates attracted by the smell, find a quiet corner with a cup of coffee and a book, and enjoy.  

The only drawback with this recipe is that I'm usually hungry again an hour later.  So you might need to do yardwork or chores go surfing to take your mind off your appetite.

 

[Sheryl]

Throw in some no brainer recipes for single guys. 

And the single women who can't cook worth a darn!

 

[Nords]

And the single women who can't cook worth a darn!

Uhm, I got that recipe from my spouse.

The cooking things that are "worth a darn" to me are short time, minimal fuss, and no mess. But that's because I do the kitchen cleanup.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Do an 'advanced search' for 'recipe' as a topic subject only item, you'll find some of my favorite recipes posted a year or so ago.

I've got a new subject for cooking tests though...my 8 month old...so far he's eaten everything I've thrown at him. His favorites so far have been wild salmon, polenta and mac and cheese. And he's growing like a dang weed. He's grown out of all of his 6-9 month stuff and is too tall for some of the 12 month outfits. My wife threw an outfit on him yesterday that I bought a few weeks ago thats sized for an 18 month old. Fit him perfectly.

Oh well, I suppose the NBA or NFL contract he gets will make up for buying him new clothes every month...

 

[TromboneAl]

Breakfast Smoothie

1 cup milk (low fat OK)
1 tsp chocolate malted powder
.5 tsp Metamucil (original texture, orginal flavor) -- adds body. No jokes please
4 ice cubes
1 tsp super chunky peanut butter
1 tsp preserves or jam
4 ice cubes
2 bananas

Blend. Drink.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

LL,
Thanks for getting this thread going. I'm doing the Italian soup recipe. Going to do the whole batch and freeze a few pints for the winter here in Chicago.

Sounds/looks like something that will warm the tummy.
Cheers,
OAP

 

[LovesLife]

OAP,
You won't be disappointed. If the soup gets too thick because of the pasta sucking up the juice just add more water/beef broth, or tomato sauce to thin it out a bit. Yum, yum, yum.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

LL,
I'm tastin that soup already. It sounds mighty fine. Bet it tastes mighty fine. I loves me soup. Beans and me are happy friends. Just sounded like my favorite lunch. Thanks.
OAP

 

[Danny]

LL,
I'm tastin that soup already. It sounds mighty fine. Bet it tastes mighty fine. I loves me soup. Beans and me are happy friends. Just sounded like my favorite lunch. Thanks.
OAP

Beans Beans the Musical fruit.....

 

[OldAgePensioner]

DanTien,
Just call me Trumpet-Al.

 

[Dawg52]

Hey,  I just whipped up some apple tuna salad! Feel a little like Emeril right now. Not bad if I say so myself. 

 

[Danny]

DanTien,
Just call me Trumpet-Al.

OAP - You and Al need to get a horn band together - you'll have the audience laying in the aisles.

 

[brewer12345]

OK, here's the salsa recipe:

6 pounds tomatoes, diced
15 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups diced red onion
6 jalapenos, seeded and diced
1 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, tightly packed
1 T salt
1 to 2 tsp ground chipotle pepper
3/4 cup red wine vinegar

Toss everything in a big pot. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer to thicken (length of time depends on your tomatoes and the size of the batch). Ladle into cleaned mason jars, put the lids on and process in a hot water bath, 10 min for pints, 15 min for quarts.

A few tips:

- Boost the chipotle if you like it hot
- Recipe can be multiplied. We typically do 7 recipes at a time cooked in an 8 gal pot.
- We like a 50:50 mix of romas and beefstake-type tomatoes. All beefstakes is too ketchup-like, all romas comes out too watery.
- This stuff keeps well for years at room temperature.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Brewer - pretty close to my recipe except I dont cook it or bottle it, and use lime juice instead of the red wine vinegar, although I often put a good dash of balsamic in.

I use the romas, but seed and devein them with a spoon so I just have the flesh.

I also dont use much cilantro, or use some basil in addition to boost the tomato flavor.

I've discovered that the hand crank 'food processors' or 'food choppers' are really nice for making salsas. Since they're not motor powered, you can keep the salsa from being turned into puree. I can get nice medium dice with just a few turns of the crank. $6 a pop at my local discounter.