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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
A recipe of a different type, not sure if I mentioned this one already.


Hot Chocolate Bon Bon
Cup of Hot Chocolate, extra rich is fine (extra spoonfuls of powder or flavoring).
Add 1 shot of Amaretto.
Tastes like Chocolate covered Cherries, or Bon Bons.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Anybody ever have any experience with Psyllium Husk?

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Anybody ever have any experience with Psyllium Husk?

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Imagine the hypocrisy of a government who will allow businesses to card people to get a job or buy groceries, but won't card people to vote in elections and gives millions of non-citizens free money from taxpayers.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Anybody ever have any experience with Psyllium Husk?

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In cooking or baking? ... as an ingredient?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
I was taking it as a supplement bc it supposedly helps lower cholesterol. Works for some, not for me.

I just took it as directed, mixed with water. Gotta say, my intestines just couldn't handle all of that soluble fiber. It caused a few near-accidents. Once my blood cholesterol was found not to have budged with psyllium, I dumped it in the trash.

I much prefer oat bran.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, what about you? What's in YOUR cupboard, pantry, or frig that reflects your style?

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I don't cook as much as the rest of you. I have in the past been able to survive and flourish merely making large batches of my favorites, like goulash and spaghetti, and eating that each day at work for a couple weeks.

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Speaking for myself, I find it interesting.

I think, if you're an adult and making these decisions for yourself, unless you want to eat 100% at restaurants and fast food places; food planning (recipes), shopping, cooking (or eating out of the can or microwave), and eating are literally life and death activities that you have to deal with in one way or another. So I find it very interesting to see how people do that in their own lives. You seem to have winnowed down a set of reliable recipes you like that don't required a lot of fuss, and by cooking in large batches and eating through them a routine that takes little time, that sustains you.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
(Psyllium Husk) I was taking it as a supplement bc it supposedly helps lower cholesterol. Works for some, not for me.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Some folk have mentioned making plans for survivalist, end-of-the-world type events.

For those who have, what have you learned in the past months? How will you need to adapt or modify your plans based upon what you have seen or learned?


I have noticed that for orange juice without reefridgeration, high pulp version lasts longer, I get Simply Orange. Seems the pulp at the top keeps the air and the juice separated better.

Have you seen prices affected more than you expected?

I saw strawberries at about 75 cents for the size that used to cost $4 or $5.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by SignyM:
(Psyllium Husk) I was taking it as a supplement bc it supposedly helps lower cholesterol. Works for some, not for me.

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Many decades ago I was found to have a high ldl cholesterol and a low hdl. So I went to a cholesterol-lowering clinic for a year, where for 3 months I'd follow their instructions then have my cholesterol re-checked, and if it wasn't lower I'd get additional instructions to follow, etc. (I have to say they did the classes in a very irritating way, because they kept hectoring everyone who'd advanced to the next class to stop messing around and follow the instructions - assuming of course people weren't. I could see how they'd lose a lot of adherence that way, by either pissing people off or demotivating them.)

And I followed their instructions to the letter. I wasn't going to go through that and get to the end, only to have to ask myself ... Gee, maybe if I'd done this? Maybe if I'd done that better?

So, cutting out the saturated fat, of course, grams of instant-flush niacin a day ... all the way down to lots of garlic, psyllium, jogging 5 miles a day, and so on.

And my numbers didn't budge one bit. At the very end they said: well 10% of people have genetically high cholesterol that isn't addressable by diet or anything except statins. Gee thanks for telling me that after spending literally hours scolding me for not following the plan.

But what put the icing on the cake was afterwards I spent a lot of time in a household that had tons of heavy cream, real butter, liverwurst, etc. And eating there, of course I'd have that food. And my cholesterol didn't go up, either.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

For a long time my cholesterol was higher than ideal but not terrible (220 or so) but recently jumped up quite a bit (270, I think).

I've already tried three statins, all eventually caused debilitating aches and pains ... as if I don't have enough already!!! .... so I'm really trying other approaches to bring it down.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I've been fiddling around with a vegetable lasagna. I tried to reproduce the kind that you can buy frozen, and failed ignominiously- twice! But although this isn't like the commercial frozen lasagna that inspired it, this is even better. So, here it is ...

VEGETABLE LASAGNA (serves four)

1 glass loaf pan
4 lasagna noodles, uncooked (break them if you need to fit them into a glass loaf pan)

1 lb ricotta
2 eggs
8 oz shredded mozzarella, divided in half
1 T sugar or Splenda

2 cups fresh spinach leaves, ribboned
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves, ribboned
1 medium red bell pepper, diced fine
1/2 jar Alfredo sauce

Parmesan cheese

Break noodles into pan-sized pieces, place 2 of them (uncooked) into the bottom of the pan.

Mix the ricotta, 2 eggs, 4 oz mozzarella, and sugar. Spread half of the ricotta mix onto the noodles. Sprinkle half of the red pepper on the ricotta mix, then sprinkle half of the spinach and half of the basil, then sprinkle on half of the remaining mozzarella (about 2 oz), a few good shakes of Parmesan, and drizzle about 1/4 of the jar of Alfredo sauce (I used Newman's Own).

Repeat the noodle, ricotta, red bell, spinach, basil, mozzarella, Parmesan and Alfredo sauce layering. Make sure that you have a good covering of cheese on top because it's supposed to "seal" the lasagna so the bell peppers etc cook thoroughly.

Bake at 300 F for 60-70 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the lasagna is cooked though.

This is THE BEST!!!!

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, even tho I literally can't smell shit, I am still the family cook! So I came up with a recipes that tastes great (family says), that does great things for hubby's blood sugar, and is cheap!

Ham and bean soup

3 T canola oil
1 c chopped onion, approx 1/2 lb ($1)
2 c peeled sliced carrots, approx 1 lb ($2)
2 c sliced celery, approx 1 lb ($2)
1 diced green or red bell pepper ($1-$2) or minced jalapenos if you like hot!
2 box (4 c each) low-sodium chicken broth ($2 each = $4)
1 1-lb lean ham, cubed ($5)
3 bay leaves
1 splootch ketchup (2-3 T)
4 c cooked beans ($6)
whatever green vegetable available (sliced zucchini; or large handful of chopped spinach, kale, beet, turnip or mustard greens; or parsley; etc) ($2)

Heat oil in large pot, add onion and sautee until golden
Add carrot, celery, and pepper; sautee until just softened
Add ham, broth, ketchup, bay leaves, and beans
Heat to simmer, and simmer until vegetables are soft
Add greens, and cook until wilted/ soft

This makes 8 3-cup servings. Each serving has 20 grams of protein and 2 servings of vegetables (more, if you add more vegetables!), so each serving is an entire meal, for less than $3!

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I'm working on reproducing a commercially-available pineapple-teriyaki chicken meatball that the family likes; I just HATE buying expensive stuff if I can make it myself!

So I'm closing in on a recipe, and so far its:

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 c dried sugared pineapple
2 T flour (I use quinoa flour)
2 T soy sauce (or, in my case, gluten-free tamari sauce)
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t ginger powder
1/4 t freshly ground pepper

Place the pineapple and flour in a food processor, and process until smooth (it will turn into a sticky ball)

Mix ingredients into the ground turkey (break the pineapple ball up into small pieces before mixing into the turkey; it's a royal pain)

Shape into approx 1.5" meatballs, and brown in grapeseed or canola oil.

It tastes great just the way it is (family says). Just a few more tweaks, and it'll be just like the commercial product (I'm using dear daughter as my taste-tester)

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Dd discovered 3 large zucchini in the garden, and the only way to use those up is zucchini lasagna (or zucchini parmagiana, whichever way you think of it), Alfredo style since 2/3 people in the house have a problem with tomato.

I'll say, according to the family it turned out GREAT. Using zucchini as "noodles" is a PITA bc I have to remove the seeds and most of the skin, slice them thin lengthwise, soften them in the microwave then egg dip the, dredge them in flour/parmesan mix and lightly pan fry them to golden brown. But it was TASTEEEE as dd says: the filling was ground turkey mixed with (a lot of) leftover cooked spinach and commercial Alfredo sauce powder and topped with shredded "Italian blend" cheese, so in one dish I got two vegetables (ion dark green, the other not so much) and we had cherries for desert, which was the non-green other color (cherries are in season here, and on sale).

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Are these your mini-cupcakes from the 'garden' thread???

ETA Oh, never mind! I was just there and I see the answer is yes.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meatballs .... or any ground-meat recipe, like burgers

The secret to tender ground-meat recipes is ... starch.

When you cook raw meat, the protein strands shrink, harden, and lock together. (Just like egg whites harden and lock together when you cook them.)

Any ground meat cooked like that will be nothing so much as a Brillo pad.

In order to keep the fibers from locking together, you have to put some starch in-between them. Not a lot, but enough. So a zillion recipes always start with ... one slice of bread, softened with milk.

I've known about the starch trick for ages. When I make pineapple-teriyaki meatballs, I add some cornstarch. When I make almost anything else, I like to use panko, but you can use breadcrumbs or a slice of bread. But I've always ignored the milk part because I thought it was just to make mixing the bread into the meat more convenient, by making it softer. Apparently, there is some magic to the milk because I tried it for the first time after YEARS of making meatballs and burgers without, and they came out GREAT. (oh, and BTW ... for Swedish meatballs, cream is the thing to use).

SO, for my spaghetti and meatballs I used 2 lbs of ground turkey, about 1/3 c of panko, salt and pepper to taste, and about 1 T of very fine diced fresh basil. AND, about 1/3 c of canned milk. (No idea how well fresh milk would work, but canned milk is about twice as concentrated as fresh, plus it has a little phosphate added to it, which prolly helps.)

Formed into small meatballs (about 1 oz cooked), lightly browned in neutral oil (in this case, canola) ... not cooked thru ... and then buried in 2 c tomato sauce plus appx 1 T sugar (my homegrown tomatoes were more acid than sweet this year) and appx 3T grated Parmesan and simmered gently for about 30 minutes to share flavors with the tomato sauce. No oregano, no parsley, no other flavors, not even added salt.

Perfection! Moist, tender, flavorful meatballs in a tasty sauce.

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I also finely discovered the way to use chix breast in chicken and dumpling soup. Bc, of course, hubby will only eat chix breast even tho it comes out dry and tasteless if you overcook it.(The Japanese,I found out from my Japanese friend, think of chix breast as inferior meat. They prefer thighs. I agree!!!)

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS -SOUP

Anyway, I start by browning drums, thighs, and disjointed wings in the bottom of a pot in a little oil. Remove, and add 1 c sliced carrots and 1 c sliced celery and 2 diced onions* and cook for about 7 min until just beginning to soften. Stir in 1/4 c flour. Deglaze with 1/4 c sherry*. Add two box no salt chix broth, sprinkle with thyme, nestle the chix legs and wings into the pot and simmer for about 40 mins. Everything will be throughly cooked.

Now here's the trick with the chix breast: cut each breast crosswise into about 1.5-2 inch thick slices.

At this point you can add 1 c peas* or 2 c spinach, the chick breast pieces, and the dumpling dough balls**. Bring to a simmer and simmer gently, covered for no more than 20-25 minutes! Any longer and the breast pieces will be overcooked and tough!

DUMPLING DOUGH

Mix thoroughly 1 c flour, 2teasp baking powder and 1/4 teasp salt. Cut in 3 tablespoon either rendered chix fat, coconut oil, or unsalted butter. (I use coconut oil)

Add just enough full fat milk to make a stiff dough. Don't overmix.

I prefer small dumplings bc they cook thru thoroughly,about 2 Tablespoons size. I scoop out with a small spoon and push them off into the soup, no need to be round and neat.

There are two secrets to tender dumplings, just like piecrust. But first, a little kitchen chemistry about gluten:

Gluten is a tough, springy protein which bread makers like because it allows the dough to trap the bubbles formed by yeast, resulting in a light, airy loaf instead of a solid hard mass.

But... there is no gluten in wheat flour! Gluten only forms when two other proteins -gliadin and glutenen- react. And you can get them to react by adding water and mixing them (kneading bread or kneading and stretching pizza dough, for example)

In the case of dumplings, pancakes, and other " quick breads", the bubbles are formed by baking powder. But you don't want tough dumplings and pancakes, so ONE secret to tender dumplings, pancakes aisnd other quick breads and biscuits is DONT OVERMIX THE DOUGH or you will create gluten!

The other secret, just like pastries and piecrusts,is FAT. Fat coats the flour particles and keeps them apart, so the gliadin and glutenin don't have a chance to contact each other.
http://www.cookingscienceguy.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Expl
aining-Gluten.pdf

So now you know the secret to tender dumplings. Also, there used to be specialty low-gluten flour called "cake flour" and in the south they sell (I've heard) one called White Swan just for biscuits and quick breads.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meatballs .... or any ground-meat recipe, like burgers

The secret to tender ground-meat recipes is ... starch.

When you cook raw meat, the protein strands shrink, harden, and lock together. (Just like egg whites harden and lock together when you cook them.)

Any ground meat cooked like that will be nothing so much as a Brillo pad.

In order to keep the fibers from locking together, you have to put some starch in-between them. Not a lot, but enough. So a zillion recipes always start with ... one slice of bread, softened with milk.

I've known about the starch trick for ages. When I make pineapple-teriyaki meatballs, I add some cornstarch. When I make almost anything else, I like to use panko, but you can use breadcrumbs or a slice of bread. But I've always ignored the milk part because I thought it was just to make mixing the bread into the meat more convenient, by making it softer. Apparently, there is some magic to the milk because I tried it for the first time after YEARS of making meatballs and burgers without, and they came out GREAT. (oh, and BTW ... for Swedish meatballs, cream is the thing to use).

SO, for my spaghetti and meatballs I used 2 lbs of ground turkey, about 1/3 c of panko, salt and pepper to taste, and about 1 T of very fine diced fresh basil. AND, about 1/3 c of canned milk. (No idea how well fresh milk would work, but canned milk is about twice as concentrated as fresh, plus it has a little phosphate added to it, which prolly helps.)

Formed into small meatballs (about 1 oz cooked), lightly browned in neutral oil (in this case, canola) ... not cooked thru ... and then buried in 2 c tomato sauce plus appx 1 T sugar (my homegrown tomatoes were more acid than sweet this year) and appx 3T grated Parmesan and simmered gently for about 30 minutes to share flavors with the tomato sauce. No oregano, no parsley, no other flavors, not even added salt.

Perfection! Moist, tender, flavorful meatballs in a tasty sauce.

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Cream? Sounds like that might be also used for Alfredo sauce. Does that seem right?
Do you think powdered milk would work?

I've never added anything to hamburger meat except sometimes chopped onion. I use low fat ground beef - 95-97% fat free. I fold the meat in on itself until it is circular and thick, then press a dimple in the center with thumb (may have learned that trick from Jay Leno), and put in my George Foreman grill to drain the grease. Push down on the lid once on each side, flip halfway, total about 8-10 minutes.
Those always come out nice and juicy. Biggest challenge is finding suitable buns, sized right and soft, not too dry. Sometimes just the hamburger and bun, sometimes add (Marzetti's) 1,000 Island dressing, or real ketchup, or a good steak sauce (not A1), and/or a leaf of lettuce. Or peanut butter on the lid.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Just some basic lamb chops for supper tonight.

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I used to like lamb, but it's crazy expensive here. But after I lost my sense of smell/taste, and since the rest of the family doesn't like it, there's no point in buying it.

Still, I can understand it being a real treat. Our mom used to make bbq'd lamb shanks, and as I recall the recipe was:

Braise shanks until meat is fork-tender, remove from bone.

In a separate pot mix 1/2c ketchup, 1/2 tomato sauce, 1/4 c sugar, 2T worcestershire, chopped small onion, chopped green pepper, 1 T lemon juice and 2 t lemon zest, 1 bay leaf. Cook until vegetables are done. Remove bay leaf and add lamb and stir. Simmer until flavors are blended, serve over rice. When I could smell/taste, I thought it was yummy, and I use this bbq sauce variation on pork for the family.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Rum (sometimes sweet) and whiskey (smokey) I don't believe have flavor profiles that would work with the basic recipe flavors - tomato/ beef/ mushroom. But if you're willing to experiment, you might be on to something unexpectedly good!

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Hmmmm.

I could be off-base with rum and whiskey, just poking in the dark. I was wondering if anything in different alcohols react negatively with any of your other ingredients. Degrade them, reduce them, distract.
I thought beef is always enhanced by wine, or Cold Duck. Burgundy has specific dedicated recipes for beef. Vermouth seems to work well for tomato sauces. I have seen vodka pasta sauce.

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One of my favorite BBQ sauces for use on beef or chicken is Jack Daniel's No.7 Recipe, which I believe uses Bourbon Whiskey - and I assume it is built on tomato/ketchup base. (most BBQ sauces are either tomato/ketchup based, or vinegar/onion based - and JD's is not the latter.) I feel it enhances the flavor of everything, or maybe just smothers the flavor. Maybe it would conflict with mushroom, but I'll let you tell me how you feel about it. Also, JD's Brown Sugar version is more than adequate.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I find that red wine overpowers beef recipes. By experimenting, my preference is dry white wine in beef stew, when I use wine at all. Since I like to put a little dinner into dog's dish, and grapes/ raisins/ wine are wildly toxic to many dogs, I usually no longer cook with wine. Sherry works great with chicken and many Asian recipes, but -again- don't do that very often either.

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SIGNYM:
I find that red wine overpowers beef recipes. By experimenting, my preference is dry white wine in beef stew, when I use wine at all. Since I like to put a little dinner into dog's dish, and grapes/ raisins/ wine are wildly toxic to many dogs, I usually no longer cook with wine. Sherry works great with chicken and many Asian recipes, but -again- don't do that very often either.

JSF: Overpowers? In what way?

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JSF: You would consider Cold Duck to be red wine?

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Vermouth?

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Only with "recipes" using beef

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Dry white wine. I need better definition. Is Rhubarb wine considered dry?

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Or Zinfandel? I recently saw that a alcohol store rearranged their shelves, and white Zin is now in "sweet wines" - and I'm assuming sweet and dry are not the same, but I don't really know. Most of my wine experience is from wines my dad made with us as kids, then Thunderbird, coolers, and mostly white Zin for a while now. My favorite was Rhubarb, but I haven't found any in decades.

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I think I've already mentioned that my go-to for marinating chicken is orange juice. Overnight in a ziplock bag in the fridge, or over just in a bowl.

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I've started using Vermouth in Tomato ground beef sauces.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And now for something different

I really like empanadas, but because hubby and I need to watch our carbs I forgo the empanada pastry and make empanada burgers instead:

2 lb ground beef
1 large onion, diced
2 T flour
2 T sugar
1 /2 t frsh ground black pepper
1 T paprika
1 t (or less) salt, to taste
1 t cumin
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c sliced green olives
(1/2 c diced boiled potatoes, optional)

Mix, shape into patties, and pan-fry. I like to serve with cole slaw and lemonade (made with sweetener)


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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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