yodge

I had the most fantastic (self-made, self-created) pasta tonight. Dreamfields rotini with feta cheese, chopped plum tomatoes, chopped walnuts, oregano, a drizzle of olive oil, and chopped parsley on top. I think it would have been good with some sausage and fennel, too. Even though I'm Italian, and love my mother's sauce to death (and vodka sauce is my onetruluv), I always love a good sauceless pasta. Share with me your favorite recipes/combinations, if you have them! I'd love the inspiration!

Hey y'all, I have a question for any chili pepper connoisseurs or Asian food lovers out there. In a few hours I am going to attempt this, even though I don't have the fresh ginger or green onions. I will also be substituting baked tofu for the chicken, but that's not the issue.

My problem is that I have four red peppers that I find both tempting and terrifying. A relative who works at a farmer's market here in Austin gave them to me at Thanksgiving with a bunch of other veggies. I don't know what on earth to do with them because I don't know what they are. Still, one whiff reminded me of a spicy orange chili sauce I like from a local Chinese restaurant. Any guess what they might be, or if I will need gloves to handle them? Will I die trying to consume one?

Here's a Flickr set of some photos I've taken of them. I didn't touch them, except to put a quarter in the bag to give a size reference. (Guess this is why we really should be careful when handling money, huh? lol)

Any advice on how to cook with them? Like any good little Texan, I've worked extensively with jalapeños and a few times with hatch green chiles during the annual festival here. But I also know enough to respect the unknown chili pepper. This particular recipe calls for a dried pepper. I know that changes the flavor. If I do in fact have a pepper that I can use in this recipe, how many should I use? And if I'm only used to doing medium to hot spicy (not too crazy about the painful spicy) then how should I proceed?

Many thanks in advance!

After a long day, I was desperately in need of a) a tasty dinner that would use something from our already stuffed chest freezer & pantry and b) something that would basically cook itself. This satisfies both conditions!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 to 2lb round [eye] steak, cut in quarters or serving size pieces*
2 pints home canned or 1 28 ounce can tomatoes, whole or in pieces
1 small jar of roasted red peppers, sliced
1/2 bell pepper, sliced
1 whole onion, sliced
jalapenos, optional
minced garlic, 2 cloves or to taste

Saute onion, garlic and peppers in a small pan until soft. Add tomatoes and simmer until warmed.

Season the steak with salt and pepper. In a large skillet or dutch oven, brown the pieces on both sides.

Using a roasting pan or the dutch oven, add the round steak and cover with the tomato, onion and pepper mixture. There should be some liquid in the dish; if your tomatoes were unusually dry or they were simmered too long, add 1 cup water or beef stock.

Cover tightly and cook at 325*F for 2 hours. Serve with roasted potatoes and a green salad.

* Reasoning: it will be a pain to cut it after it's done. Plus, more surface area and all that.


It was really quite flavorful, and fork-tender. This was a great way to cook an otherwise tough cut of meat!

I have no idea if this is an appropriate place to be posting this but I recently acquired a Holga K200N, took it out and about, and got the film developed. I am a giant newbie to all of this.

The pictures are all irrevocably blurred. Can't see any detail at all. This is the case with close shots, far shots, with or without flash, indoors or outdoors. I don't know what the heck has happened.

( couple of examples under the cut )

A friend of mine has suggested that the ISO of the film may have been too low - I used 200. Is this a possibility? I'm pretty sure I've seen K200N shots on Flickr taken on ISO 100.

I am hoping very much that this isn't a problem with my particular camera - much as slight blurring can be pretty this is actually just kind of annoying.

Can anyone offer any ideas?

Thanks.

http://io9.com/5419675/geek-tattoos-the-good-the-bad-and-the-just-plain-crazy/gallery/

Is it me, or would the Seal of Rassilon be nice as a tattoo, but nowhere near as large a tattoo as shown here?

So, my brother tells me that black beans can be a substitute for oil and eggs in things like brownies. I've heard of (and used) applesauce as a substitution, but black beans? Really? He says he just uses a whole can, drained, rinsed, and pureed, and just has to add a bit of water to the batter. Unfortunately, he's across the state from me and I can't try his concoction myself. Has anyone here done this? How does it taste? What's the texture like? I'd love to try it, but I'm picky about my chocolate (my brother is less so, which is what makes me hesitate) and don't want to waste good brownies if they're not going to turn out.

Question:

I was going to make this brisket recipe (recipe under the cut) for dinner tonight. I just got back from the grocery store, and guess what? No brisket. Instead, I got a "boneless chuck roast." Can I substitute it in place of brisket, or is that a bad idea? Is brisket a seasonal item (I feel like I can always find it during the summer) or sometimes kept in a special place? What cuts of meat can be "subbed in" for other cuts?
Thanks in advance!



( Read more... )

I take conversational French in high school, and our ongoing theme for the year is 'study abroad'. The class has been divided up into three groups, and my group has been 'sent to Montreal' for a year of 'study'. Our next project is cooking--finding recipes from wherever we are 'studying' and making them for the class. This might be a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone has any popular recipes native to Montreal (or the province of Quebec) that are both simple and vegetarian friendly (I'm a vegetarian, but if there's a recipe you want to share, go for it!).
Thanks in advance (:

For some reason my husband decided we needed to have 20lbs (not a typo...) of chicken in the house. To use some of it up, I want to try and make a chicken chili, but have no idea what I'm doing here. :(

I've made chicken SOUP before, and roasted the chicken first, then dumped it in water with noodles.

Could I do that, only instead dump the chicken into a pile of beans and spices? Would it be better to let the raw chicken go into the crock pot with the beans and shred it then cook it longer?

I've only really started to get into cooking (outside of my microwave!) the past 2 years, so anything like this perplexes my mind. I'm sure it sounds simple enough to someone out there though, so... please help? :)

I would prefer the end result to come out of a crock pot... just not sure how to get it INTO it.

I'm trying to do this recipe but not use a slow cooker. My only reasoning is because I just broke the last crockpot we have. Yes, I'm a klutz and broke both the smaller and larger ones that we had : ( Any help in how to transform it would be greatly appreciated. I just want the chicken to be extremely moist, however I cook it.

Herbed Chicken With Wild Rice
Ingredients
1 package (6 ounces) long grain and wild rice mix
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (5 ounces each)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup water
3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
Directions
•Place rice in a 5-qt. slow cooker; set aside seasoning packet. In a
large skillet, brown chicken in oil and butter. Add to slow cooker.
In the same skillet, saute mushrooms until tender; place over
chicken.

•In a small bowl, combine the soup, water, bacon, herbs and contents
of seasoning packet. Pour over top. Cover and cook on low for 4
hours or until chicken juices run clear. Yield: 6 servings.

Summary:
Sméagol and Déagol don’t go boating. As a result, there is more than just bones for Saruman to find in Anduin...

Written for the 'Tiny AU' Challenge at HASA. ( Temporary post for MEFA access during the scheduled HASA downtime between December 22 and 25 )

There's flooding out at the TIC, looks like from the rain rather than wave action-- fuck I'd better get out there and check the damage. (Not high enough to hit the set or most of the stuff on the memorial, based on the pic I just saw, byut...gods dammit stop flooding my bloody site!)

ETA: just got back-- minimal damage and the water had receeded before I'd arrived. Panic over. Now, to kill mold in the bathroom, edit the conference paper again, write up the industrial panel, etc etc etc...

I'm looking for a simple pork fried rice recipe. I know this is probably a simple recipe but I haven't really cooked any Asian food before, so I need something that's easy, simple and full of flavor.

I was deboning a couple of chickens to make stock and one had bright orange deposits under the skin. It seemed like it is streaked in the fat and the meat. Mostly in the light fat (i.e. slime) but a bit in the meat. The bird smelled fine but it was pretty beat up (presumably) during processing. Broken leg, spine, and it looked like the feathering didn't go too smoothly.

Anyone know what this is? I'm hoping it was just an older bird or it ate something that didn't kill it (or kill me).

My google-fu fails on this one as all I get are recipes for orange chicken.

So, I have a big chunk of Pecorino cheese. And it's tasty, but much saltier than expected - I think it'll lie around forever if I try to eat as-is (esp when I have some goat's milk emmental in the fridge too - om nom nom)
Any good recipes I can incorporate it into so it won't be quite as overpowering?

Recently, I've been making this olive oil cake (sans citrus compote) about once a week. It rises just fine in the oven so I'm pretty sure my baking powder is up-to-date. However, after I test to see if the cake is ready with a tooth pick, a depression forms in the middle and continues to do so while cooling.

Is there anything I can do to prevent the cake from sinking in the middle after testing it? Or does this happen with most cakes?