Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

I love ratatouille with hot Italian turkey sausage. Somehow it always exapnds to feed 8 when I start cooking for 4.

Its a toss up between homemade tacos (cause I’m Mexican) and this really yummy cinnamon swirl bread that I cut into thin slices and then top with a cream cheese and sugar spread.

My favorite dish that I like to prepare? The recipe varies.

Basically, I take whatever I have at hand and throw it all into one dish/pot for a stew. Usually it contains chicken/fish/ground meat/beans/lentils, lots and lots of various veggies, potatoes/cous cous/whole grain rice and spices. And water, mustn’t forget the boiling water. All this I either stick into the oven or simmer on the stove. Add a salad and cottage cheese (and sometimes for variety, different cheeses) to the plate/bowl and I have filling meals for a few meals/days.

Note: Yes, you guessed it, no kiddies around to complain about the unimaginative menu. *eye roll*

enough55: Yes, enough is enough! Depending on the amount, I do end up freezing part of the ‘stew’ for later -and for convenience.

I love to cook, my favorite changes with each meal I cook. Mexican, Indian, Chinese, African, European—all my favorites. Right now in the middle of winter, it’s beef short ribs in lots of rich broth with thick, homemade noodles.

When it’s cold out, we’re fond of stews and soups around here as well.

You know the kiddie song ‘Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold’? What can I say.. we’re cheap, it’s filling, it’s fairly nutritional and I can stretch it if I need to.

A $2 smoked ham hock with some leftover ham shavings, dried split peas, shredded onions, potatos and carrots. Fill with water and set to simmer in the crock pot or on low on the stovetop for few hours. Crusty bread with butter is the only addition.

I think my favourite thing to prepare is my chocolate cake.  It’s a hershey’s recipe that calls for about half a cup of cocoa in the cake alone.  I put homemade lemon curd between the layers, and ice it with chocolate ganache.  I sometimes decorate it with blackberries and little pipec chocolate batwings.  The tart fruit is wonderful with the rich chocolate, and it’s a magnificently eeevil sight.

*piped* chocolate batwings.  I’ve made petit fours using the same ingredients, too.

I honestly like to make home made bread.  And then to experiment with different recipes.  Yummy just out of the oven, and then put some melty butter on it.  MMMMM.  My favorite recipe for home made bread is a wheat flour variety with no high fat artificial stuff.  Yumm.

Elk meat is one favorite, stews are easy.

But my absolutely favorite thing to make is a traditional Swedish dish called Flygande Jakob (Flying Jakob). As it is with traditional recipes almost everyone has their own version, mine usually includes chicken, pineapple, mushrooms, ketchup, cream and seasoning. Chili if it’s cold outside, and you need something hot, salt and pepper. Fry the chicken, put that and the veggies in a oven pan, pour the mix of cream, ketchup and seasoning over it, and stick it in the oven for half an hour or so in about 175 degrees Celsius. Boil some rice to go with it, make a salad, get stuffed.

Many recipes include bacon, bananas instead of the pineapple, and chili sauce instead of ketchup. You can also add peanuts.

It’s a kid favorite in large parts of the Nordic countries, maybe for it’s pinkish color and sweet and creamy taste.

Favourite winter recipe is chili with cornbread. It is the ULTIMATE comfort winter food, perfect for serving on a howling night, usually enjoyed by me and my boyfriend on the sofa watching movies.

I don’t have my recipe book handy, but the chili is a mashup of ground beef, bacon, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes added in the last half hour to freshen up the taste, frozen corn, chickpeas, and spices. We make it in the non stick Dutch oven, usually takes 1 1/2 - 2 hours to cook- plenty of time for the non-chef to run out and pick out videos and whatnot.

Cornbread is cornmeal, eggs, frozen corn that’s gone through the food processor, flour, baking soda or maybe powder (this is why i need recipes, dammit), poured into our sizzling hot and greased 80-year-old iron skillet that’s been passed down in the bf’s family, with half a tablespoon of brown sugar sprinkled on top. Baked for 20 minutes.

I’m probably making this next week. Delish!

My grandma’s pierogi recipe. Its hell to make but its worth every one of the 10,000 calories per bite.

And can I say I LOVE Babette’s Feast!? Its one of my mostest favoritist movies ever!! I could watch it over and over and over. The scene when they are eating dinner and no one except the general says a word about the food? Perfection.

My favorite dish is spaghetti and meatballs.I always serve it with
garlic bread.

When the weather is cold, my signifigant other and I love to cook over the hearth.  One of our favorite company dishes (and one of the easiest) things to prepare is prime rib—coat a prime rib of beef with some Montreal seasoning, skewer it on our homemade rotisserie, and slowly roast over a wood fire.  We did this on Boxing Day for a crowd of 30+ and it literally disappeared in under five minutes—neither of us got any.  (Fortunately, we’d kept a piece back in the fridge for later consumption.)

We like to fix a really hearty Mexican dip, served with nachos & steak taquitos.  It just makes you feel good!

Deidre

Artichoke hearts with sun-dried tomatos and garlic chicken lasagna. Recently created by accident in my kitchen and oh what a happy accident it was.

Yeast bread. I have a wonderful recipe which makes three loaves: one to tear into with butter and honey the instant it’s dumped from the pan, one to leave to eat in a civil manner, and one to share. No one’s ever turned down a loaf of hot bread wrapped in a dish towel.

A friend gave me the wonderful book BAKEWISE for Christmas and I’ve been experimenting with bread baking from the scientific side. It’s a new world.

Bethany’s Southern Style Chicken Pasta Toss

It’s really, really good. You’d think this would be a nice summer recipe, but I find it very soothing in the Fall and Winter.

1 to 1.4 pounds of chicken tenderloins, sliced into strips
1 egg, whisked in a bowl
flour with 1 teaspoon each of: paprika, salt, pepper, oregano for dredging
16-18 oz penne pasta
2 smallish red bell peppers
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups of bean/corn salsa or reg. salsa with 3/4 cups each of beans and corn
A pinch or two of taco seasoning
1 cup sour cream
Shredded cheddar and chopped fresh cilantro to garnish

1. Boil water with some salt for penne—about two quarts. Cook penne uncovered for about 6 minutes or so—until al dente. Strain, return to pot and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, dip chicken strips in egg wash and then dredge in flour mixture. Put on plate and refridgerate for 10 minutes.
3. While chicken is in fridge, cut up red bell peppers into long, thin strips.
4. In a large frying pan, heat oil on high heat and then fry chicken and peppers for about 5 minutes, until the chicken is nicely browned on each side.
5. Add the salsa and cover, cooking until chicken is cooked through. (Makes sure to stir, so chicken doesn’t stick or burn.)
6. Turn off heat and add sour cream and taco seasoning.
7. Toss with pasta and add cheese and cilantro (cilantro really makes this dish)
8. Cover until ready to serve.

You people have gotten my mouth watering, so now I’m making ribs for dinner.

My fav recipe ?
I am 33 and I love my mom spagetti sauce… When I fell under water, when I need comfort food, when I am sick… I still go to mom… Silly, isn’t ?

Chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake - with freshly whipped cream. I haven’t made it in a while but wow it’s the most popular thing I’ve ever brought to a potluck. A little goes a long way, so you can probably get at least 20 people moaning and smiling per cake. I’ve even cut the whole thing up, folded a piece of wax paper around each slice and frozen it so that I could share the love as needed. You never know when you or someone else might need some chocolate bliss.

I love to make pot roast, especially when it’s cold and I’m busy. It’s my grandma’s recipe, handed down through my mom, so it’s got serious subconscious mojo going for me. It’s also a very good pot roast.

Take a roast, put garlic salt and pepper on it, toss it in the crockpot on top of a bunch of potato chunks and baby carrots. Add a packet of onion soup mix, a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of mushroom pieces and stems, a dash of red wine, a dash of Worchershestershiremoostermusher (what the hell is that word anyway?) sauce, a little garlic, and set your pot for ten hours. After about four, stir everything up a little. Even the worst roast becomes wonderful with this method, and the carrots are the best part.

I love to make sourdough bread!  In 1973, when my parents got married, they received a jar of sourdough starter as a wedding present, along with a mimeographed recipe page.  My mother started baking the bread, and when my sister and I were little, we called it Mommy Bread and wouldn’t eat the store-bought.  Every Christmas season, my mother doubles the starter and makes biscuits with it, and after stockings, we sit around the table with my grandparents (just my nana, now) and eat it with sorghum molasses and country ham.

About 5 years ago, I was living (& working) at a boarding school and my mother brought me a mason jar with some of her starter in it (all cute on ice in a mini cooler!) and a photocopy of the same recipe sheet she received.  Since then, I’ve been making my own version of “mommy bread” even though I’m only the dog’s mommy right now. 

And at the holidays, I roll out the dough after the first rise and fold in thin slices of cold butter (croissant style) over and over, and then roll up the whole thing with cinnamon sugar, sliced almonds, and shaved dark chocolate.  I bake it up as mini loaves and give them away to my friends and coworkers.  I like the compliments, sure, but the best part is actually making the bread!

Right now, my favourite recipe is for a sandwich.
It consists of a still warm white baguette, split down the center and each cut half smeared with a thin layer of mayonnaise. Then I add some Havarti cheese, a slice of ham, fresh slices of red onion, some fried mushrooms and a heap of bacon. Wrap in a napkin and eat one handed while reading, with a glass of white wine on the side. Ummm!

And then creme brulee for dessert.

This time of year I love breakfast for dinner, especially eggs with veggies, whole wheat toast and veggie “bacon.” (I’m vegetarian.) I usually don’t have time for anything more than cereal in the morning, so I make up for it with dinner.
Babette’s Feast is a beautiful movie!

I love to make a dish that, because Indian dishes all have pretty unimaginative names, translates as “potato yogurt dish.” It’s made with boiled potatoes, tomatoes, peas and yogurt, and of course many spices, and it’s the yummiest, most wonderful dish as long as you like tangy things. It’s a regional dish, so you’re unlikely to find it in a cookbook, but it’s my favorite on cold evenings. It’s supposed to be one of many dishes, but I love eating a big bowl of it, like soup.

As for sweet things, I have a lovely recipe for small cinnamon rolls that make my mouth water just thinking about them (hmmm, maybe I’ll have to make some this evening).

Babette’s Feast is one of my favorite films.  So, yes! 
One of my favorite winter meals is a comfort meal for me.  Cuban style chicken fricase and steamed white rice—equally important on my list, black beans and steamed white rice.  Both comforting and great for a cold day.

I am going to have to go with Chili! My mom is salt sensative, so no cornbread but the low salt corn chips are great! A little cheddar, a bit of sour cream. Life is seriously good!

Favorite dish to make is tough, because there are so many possibilities….

Let’s go with “chicken shortcake”—good Southern cornbread (that is, no sugar in it) split and toasted, with creamed chicken covering it.  Comfort food!

Chiclen soup!

Take huge-ass soup pot and add one or two chickens (depending on size), four sweet onions peeled, a package of carrots cut in rounds, a package of celery, parsnips (however many you will eat).  Then fill the pot with water.  Cook!  Clean scum off top when needed. 

On special days MATZO BALLS (the only edible part of the matzo).  Follow directions on box.

I like to make bread.  My favorite is focaccia.  I like to make soup too, which goes pretty well with the bread.  My current favorite soup right now is curried carrot.

my verification is his72.  Ways?  Times?

Oh, when my now-adult daughter was three, Babette’s Feast was her favorite movie.  I must have read the subtitles to her hundreds of times.  To her it was like a book with pictures.  My old VCR tape of it is totally worn out.

Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse

1 8 oz package cream cheese softened
1 cup sour cream
1 cup ricotta cheese
4 ounces baking chocolate - melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sweetener (sugar or splenda, both work equally well)

Beat the cream cheese in a mixer until soft and fluffy.  Beat in the sour cream and the ricotta. Add the sweetener, vanilla, and beat in the melted chocolate. Portion into serving dishes.  Chill.

May also be put into a pre-baked or graham cracker pie crust.  I like to use a pie crust made from half flour and half almond meal.

I luuurve cooking, and as a college student I don’t have the equipment or budget to do it very often.  But when I have access to a real kitchen, I always love experimenting with new recipes.  My favorite right now is butternut squash risotto, which is creamy and toothy and savory and just a bit sweet.  Also it has lots of butter and wine, which doesn’t hurt.  My favorite desserts to cook are tarte Tatin and plum upside-down cake, which is admittedly partly about the way the arranged slices of plum come out looking like a giant flower.
I’ve always had very good luck finding recipes on allrecipes.com, which is where I got my plum cake recipe. (That cake made my boyfriend’s mother practically swoon with joy—not an easy feat!)

Speaking of a Smart Bitches cookbook…

Sometimes I like to eat things that are mentioned in the romances I’m reading, while I’m reading them. Does anyone else do this? You do, right?

Like sometimes if I know I’m going to reread Bet Me, I’ll go out and buy some donuts so I can eat them whenever they’re mentioned. (Would like to have chicken marsala sometime for this, but have never tried my hand at it.) Or The Marriage Test (Betina Krahn) is CHOCK FULL of delicious medieval food talk, so once I had a meat pie while reading it.

I also like to fake using trenchers when I read medievals (often a Joanna Lindsay like Defy Not The Heart). Really it’s an open faced sandwich on toasted baguette (my favourite is a steak and cheese melt with onions and mushrooms, yum!). Yes, I try to eat the toppings with a knife before eating the baguette.

Please tell me that I’m not the only one!!

Also, it’s a good thing I don’t read too much chick lit or I’m sure I’d drink too many Cosmopolitans!

Good old Tennessee chili.

Wow!  some great sounding dishes!  I love to cook so I have a number of things I like to make that my family loves to eat.  Lasagna—how could y’all miss mentioning that!  Full of cheese, freshmade sauce, and noodles and even better as leftovers the next day.  And, cream of mushroom soup from Julia Child’s recipe—real butter, lots of chopped mushrooms, cream, chicken broth, yummy and too rich for everyday but a must have on special days.  REAL chili—that’s without beans and other fillers for you folks who aren’t lucky enough to have come from Texas.  Slow simmered, spicy, thick with meat and absolutely the best thing you ever tasted.

When Babette’s Feast was playing in the local theatres, one restaurant was offering that meal plus a showing of the movie. I don’t recall how much they were asking for it.  I presume you were supposed to eat each course when the characters did. Spamword is should14, as in “Should 14 people pay that much for a dinner?”

Hot and sour chicken noodle soup. Delicious and decongestant.

However simple and homey this is, I love to make chicken noodle soup and meatloaf. It’s warm, it’s filling, it’s home-made, it’s delicious, and it’s inexpensive.
Spamword: even78. Yep, even when there’s 78 people you have to cook for, meatloaf and chicken noodle soup is quick, easy, and good.

I adore cooking.  I make it a point to try and cook something yummy every day.  And when I travel, I try to pick up a bit of the local cuisine from a good cook and of course, other foodies want to know something I know in return.  I’m a Tennessee Expat, but no matter where I roam, my mom’s Banana Bread recipe is a big hit. 

It’s very simple, just overripe bananas, superfine white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, a little vanilla flavor, flour, baking powder and nuts (walnuts or pecans are best, though for an Australian friend, I made it with macadamia nuts).  I don’t even remember the actual recipe any more, I just go by what I have and what looks right in the bowl.

Still, my mom makes it best.

I saw Babette’s Feast in France while studying abroad.  My roommate turned to me afterwards and said she might understand my obsession with cooking a little bit more now.  I was barely listening.  My eyes were glazed over and my hands were itching to get to a market.  I want to cook like that!

Grilled Cheese.

So many variations that I love but nothing better on a cold night crunchy buttery bread with melted cheese. Yum. The ultimate comfort food.

I don’t cook much - that’s the husband’s job, and he’s damned good at it.  But I do bake and am excellent at party food.  My chocolate chip cookies are legendary.  The recipe I use is a simple one, from the stand mixer’s cookbook, but I use dark chocolate chips instead of milk or semi-sweet.  And I always undercook slightly so they are soft and gooey.  I may have to go eat one right now.

I’ll have to go with a recipe for Chipotle Buffalo Chili that I learned to make from a cooking class I took a couple of years ago in San Francisco.  Mmmmmm.

Ya’ll are going to think this sounds disgusting, but everyone I’ve ever made it for has really enjoyed it. I call it Crazy Spaghetti Sauce and it was one of those throw together meals you end up with when there isn’t really much in the house to eat. My best friend kind of invented it when we were young, but years later I made it again from memory and wrote down a recipe for it.

Crazy Spaghetti Sauce

2 Jalapeño Peppers (1 for milder sauce)
1 15 oz. Can of Tomato Sauce
3 Tbsp Kraft Mayonnaise
2 tsp Mustard

1. Dice your Jalapeños. You can remove the seeds if you don’t want it really hot.
2. In your sauce pan, combine Jalapeños, Tomato Sauce, Mayo and Mustard.
4. Heat to a high simmer, stirring frequently, until the color darkens slightly.

I love, love, love soup. So, that is what I make most frequently for dinner and bring leftovers to work for lunch.  The best thing about soup is that you can just about add any leftovers to it when reheating and it’s like a new dish with new flavors.  Currently, lentil kale soup with some sausage and barley thrown in is my favorite.

Babette’s Feast is one of my all-time favorite movies ever. Whenever I’m in a bad mood or need to unwind, I put in my copy of it and just sit back and feel myself grow happier. It’s such a lovely movie. So quiet, and so sparkling, and so full, and so gracious, and so good. And the food is so delicious-looking, although I always feel bad for that turtle!

my favorite thing to make for dinner?

reservations!

but after reading all the yummy comments, I’m sorely tempted to do a cross-country comfort food blitz, visiting you all!

I’ll bring the wine and plenty of chocolate!

Manicotti. I was thinking of preparing a pan this weekend, although I was torn between spinach manicotti and meat (burger or sausage) manicotti. However, the pine nuts are not optional.

I don’t cook very well, but strangely enough the one thing that I can reliably make is a Japanese-style chicken curry.  Every porous surface in the apartment smells like curry for a week afterwards, but damn is it tasty.

Mary Beth - Hooray for pierogies!

Honey-mustard pistachio chicken. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and my husband was a goner. I serve it over angel hair.

I like when some authors have recipes in their books, like Julie Ortolon and Shirley Jump. I always copy them down to try.

I’m not the best cook, but when the mood strikes me I love to make deserts like coconut chocolate-chip cookies or fudge.

So. Many. Choices. I love cooking.

I rediscovered an old favourite this week. My boyfriend’s mother gave us her old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (the ring-binder one with the red gingham cover), which my mother also had, and there’s a great recipe for buttercream cake frosting in it.

I don’t think my mom ever used the exact proportions. It’s something you eyeball until you get the right texture. The recipe in the book starts with 4.5 cups of confectioner’s sugar, 6 tablespoons of butter, and milk or cream as needed. You soften the butter at room temperature, whip it with an electric mixer until it’s fluffy, and then start adding sugar. If it’s too thick and not spreadable, put a few drops of milk or cream in. If it’s too thin and runny, add a few spoons of sugar. Eventually you have enough frosting to cover your cake, and the texture is right.

At some point in there you can also add a teaspoon of vanilla extract or whatever other flavour you want it to be.

One of my favorite recipes anytime of year is black bean soup.  It’s hearty and spicy.  The soup can simmer for hours, or you can take a short-cut and use canned beans.  I serve it with cilantro-almond pesto (or chopped cilantro when time is short), sour cream, grated cheese, salsa, chopped green onions, guacamole or avocados when available, and warm tortillas.  Delicious!

Oh, what a delightful movie.

My favorite thing to make is hoska, a traditional Czech bread.  First, because it’s delicious, and (as a bonus) nothing makes the house smell quite as good as bread baking.  I usually make it at holidays, which means it’s associated with family.  The moreso because my grandmother made it every Christmas, but as she got older, she couldn’t knead it, and so she taught me how.  It’s something I’d like to pass on too, one day.

my favourite thing to make is my mother’s spaghetti sauce.  I know it sounds so boring and basic, but I love the smells and all the ingredients.  we make a huge pot of sauce to freeze and a big lasagna for supper.  the sauce always tastes so perfectly spicy and sweet and exactly like home.

I made a tarte tatin recently for the first time—it’s a sort of French upside-down apple tart. The amazing thing about it is that there are basically three ingredients—sugar, butter, apples (plus flour, more butter, and a couple of eggs for the crust) but it’s the most apple-y apple dessert I have ever tasted.  But anything that has that much butter in it has by definition to be good. It was rated as a difficult recipe and the author warned that it could turn into a soggy mess (with that much butter?—who cares), but it wasn’t that hard and it was absolutely delicious and impressed the other eaters no end.

Such a great movie.

My favorite thing to make on a cold night are paninis.  Cut a couple thin slices from a sourdough or french loaf, layer on dark greens, sliced tomato, cold chicken and cheese.  Add a little dijon mustard, then butter the outside of bread and drop the whole thing on the counter-top grill for about 3 to 7 minutes.

A nice big pot of corn chowder with spicy Italian sausage rather than ham. Always love that. It’s tasty, easy, and has a nice kick on a warm day. Goes great with fresh, crusty rolls with lovely soft insides.

One of my favorite recipes anytime of year is black bean soup.

I don’t know why, but I just can’t eat black beans. I’m Mexican America and my whole family likes black beans, but me? I just can’t stand them.

I got a pasta maker for my birthday last year and I have to say making my own pasta with pink sauce (marinara cream) from scratch is my favorite thing to cook at the moment. It tastes amazing (it’s so hard to go back to storebought pasta after having the homemade) and takes a minimum of effort, but a lot of love. Plus, my tiny apartment smells like garlic for the rest of the day (and usually the next day), and I love garlic.

The pasta dough is eggs and flour and salt (and maybe some olive oil, or spinach if you wanted spinach pasta)
The marinara cream is tomatoes, garlic, onion (or shallot), basil, oregano, salt, pepper, a roux made with heavy cream, and anything else you want

I love curries. Here is one of my favourite recipes (adapted from a recipe book, incorporating information from my former Sri Lankan and Malaysian flatmates):

Red Lentil Curry

250 g red lentils, rinsed and drained
500 ml vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
50 g ghee(or mix butter with vegetable oil)
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2-1 teaspoon chili powder
4 teaspoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons ground coriander
2 tomatoes, chopped
salt, pepper
125 ml coconut milk

Place lentils, stock and turmeric in a large pan.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 10 minutes, until lentils are tender. Stir occasionally. In a small bowl, mix chili powder, ground cumin and coriander with a little bit of water to make a paste. In a second pan, heat the ghee and add onion, cinnamon stick and cloves. Cook, stirring, until onioin is browned lightly.  Add garlic and spice paste. cook stirring, for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Add onion and spice mixture to the lentils. Add tomatoes. Simmer over very low heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in coconut milkuntil heated through. Serve with Basmati rice or Roti bread.