Since it seems to be a frequent occurance that people derail threads to talk about food, recipies and other such topics related to dining...

Make a spot for it IR similiar to "Book Club". Only its the "A-RO Kitchen" or something like that.

I agree, and like the latest ones Osg can start it.

Like i'd blow my best recipe ideas on a non derail thread.

Lokase's Famous Butternut Squash Soup:

2 Butternut Squash
3 Leeks
1 Large Cooking Onion
2 Boxes Chicken Stock

Vegetable or Olive Oil
Butter
35% Whipping Cream
Brown Sugar
Salt


- Cut the skin off the Butternut squash (pain in the rear, be VERY careful).
- Cut the squash in half and scoop out the pulply seed interior.
- Cut the squash into 1 inch cubes (rough cut)
- Cut the leeks in half and wash the grit out. Cut top third of leek off and discard.
- Cut the leeks into 1 inch cubes (rough cut)
- Cut the ontion into 1 inch cubes (rough cut)

- Use a big stock pot or large pot.
- On medium to high heat.
- Add vegetable or olive oil
- Add onions and cook until they have sweated a bit.
- Add all of the squash and leeks (add a bit of oil to ensure an even cook)
- Mix and cook all of the ingredients until they become warm, don't brown anything, you are just warming up the ingredients.
- Add in the stock - enough to cover all of the ingredients + 1/2 inch.
- Bring up to a boil then turn down to a simmer.
- Cook for 45 mintues.

- Take off heat
- Use a hand mixer (i.e. braun mixer) to puree the ingredients into a smooth texture. Use a blender if you don't have a hand mixer. But in all truth it is so worth the $20 at wal mark, etc to pick up a hand mixer for making puree soups.
- Add Brown Sugar (small handfull?) and Salt (to taste).
- Finally add about 1 cup of 35% Whipping cream or 2 Tbsp of butter to "smooth" the texture out and to add a wee bit of richness to the soup.

This recipe is an awesome starter for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

You have become better at enjoying soup (298)


Enjoy.


Cheers,

Fix and Forget Chicken


8 chicken breasts, skinned and deboned
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
8 slices of bacon, partially cooked to reduce fat
1 jar/package Dried Beef
1/2 pint (8 ounce) Sour Cream

Wrap each chicken breast with a slice of bacon. Cover the bottom of a greased 9 x 12 baking dish with dried beef, torn into pieces or layed out flat overlapping (cook's choice). Arrange the chicken breasts on the beef. Mix the soup and sour cream and spread over the chicken breasts evenly. Bake uncovered at 275 for 3 hours.

This can be made ahead and refrigerated, ready to pop into the oven. Goes well with mashed or boiled potatoes, or with rice. The salt in the dried beef, bacon and sour cream provides your seasoning, and the chicken is very tender from the slow cooking.

This is another family favorite due to the ease of putting together, and then forgetting about while cooking. And it tastes good.

Morning Mash: (for people looking to lose weight)

I hate "good for you" food. So I made up this stuff

Steam:
1 potato sliced.
1/4 head of cauliflour sliced.
1-2 sticks of brocolli sliced.

Steam em to hell. While yer steaming:

1-2 cloves of garlic
1-2 chives
1/2 sweet yellow onion
1/4 lb sliced shrooms
Olive oil

Fry up in a bigass stainless steel pan till the onions are sweated. (till the first one starts to carmelize) then add

3 slices of turkey ham, cubed. (alright, more squared, but whatever)
Meat of your choice.

Get the juice out of the ham, then add the steamed stuff and mix and mash a bit.

Then, while it's frying, mix

1-3 eggs and some skim milk.
Pour it over the mash.
Cook till the egg looks like egg.

Serve on a plate or in a tortilla.

It's the slicing which takes forever, but the whole thing can be done in 1/2 hour, 10 minutes for slicing, 20 minutes for steaming.

I find this to be a good way of spreading the good taste of the bad stuff (meat, egg yolk, potato) into as much of the good for you stuff (veggies) as possible.

It fills you up without calorificating you up.

Morning Mash: (for people looking to lose weight)

Take out the potato and put all that stuff into a pie shell with a bit of cheese on top, bake it at 350 and you have a yummy Quiche.


Cheers,

Baking loses the water that steaming puts into it. Steaming is key...otherwise it just gets too dry.

Baking loses the water that steaming puts into it. Steaming is key...otherwise it just gets too dry.

A quiche won't let your ingredients dry out at all.

The basic premise behind any quiche:

- Prepare your filling ingredients:
- Meat - Ham, Salmon, Bacon, etc...
- Vegetables - Mushrooms, Brocolli, Califlower, etc. (steam or cook these ingredients ahead of time, let them cool down)

- Place the filling ingredients into a pie shell.

- Mix your egg and milk together and pour into the pie shell. The mixure should fill up almost the entire pie shell. leave a bit of room for cheese.

- Put cheese on top.

- Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

The egg and milk mixture will keep everything moist and will prevent the filling ingredients from drying out.

btw, real men eat quiche!


Cheers,

Tuscan Tomato Soup (takes about 30 mins)

Take 1/4 cup olive oil and place in soup pot

Break up and brown about 1-1 1/2 lbs of Italian sausage

add 2 quarts or so of low sodium (preferably organic) chicken broth

add a teaspoon of ground black pepper

add a 28 oz can of either whole or diced tomatoes

2 hand fulls of white rice

1 can of great northern beans

Bring to rolling boil and turn down to a steady slow boil for about 20 mins.

Add 1 1/2 tsp of dried oregano and salt to taste

Excellent soup in 30 mins or less!

A quiche won't let your ingredients dry out at all.





The egg and milk mixture will keep everything moist and will prevent the filling ingredients from drying out.

btw, real men eat quiche!


Cheers,


Agree, a good quiche is never dry at all.

Garlic and Onion quiche with lots of Tobasco isn't for the faint of heart, espically about 5 hours after ingesting...:devil

I made a diet change last November b/c of my cholesterol specifically I have extremely low HDL. I went almost vegan but am now suffering iron defficiency so I'm slowly adding red meat back about 2 times a month.

I either eat my veggies raw or steam them. So I can understand the point about steaming vs. baking. I think steamed veggies taste better :D I like veggies that are crunchy and full of flavor and not mushy and full of everything else mixed/cooked with them.

Speaking of quiche this is my all time favorite quiche recipe. I don't make it that much anymore though b/c it is very fattening. :( I found this gem about 7yrs ago on allcooks.com.


INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 (4.5 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
1 (6 ounce) package herb and garlic feta, crumbled
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Saute garlic and onion in butter until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in spinach, mushrooms, feta and 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon mixture into pie crust.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into the pastry shell, allowing egg mixture to thoroughly combine with spinach mixture.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle top with remaining Cheddar cheese, and bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes, until set in center. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving.

I also love Rover's roasted tomato recipe he gave me some months ago. We make that frequently too but use whole wheat pasta. I'll leave it to him to repost it since it's his :)





This is a flavorful accompaniment for roast pork, chicken, burgers, or grilled shrimp. It also goes well with fish and spicy-grilled meats. It's just really yummy :)

Mango-red onion-salsa

2 sm mangos peeled, pitted and diced
¾ c. chopped red onion
¼ c. chopped fresh cilantro
2 T. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger

½ tsp. grated lime peel
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Directions
Combine mangos, onion, cilantro, limejuice, ginger, lime peel and cayenne pepper into a bowl. Toss to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste, let stand for twenty minutes. (Can be made up to 3 hours ahead cover and refrigerate).


Lazy man peach cobbler

This is one of those southern dishes almost every girl learns from their mamma or granny.

Preheat oven to 350

1 cup self rising flour
1 cup milk (skim or 2% or whole)
1 cup sugar (can use sugar substitute)
2 cups peaches (I cheat and use the store bought ones in the refrigerator section but you can peal your own just make sure they are nice and ripe)
1 tbsp butter


Pour peaches in a baking dish, I use a 9x11 glass pan. Mix flour, sugar, and milk together until creamed. Pour over peaches. Place dabs of butter on top, bake until golden brown.





I have shit tons of recipes tell me what you like/are looking for and I'll post them. It's the holidays and that means I have a few things I make for work and home that have become requirements :eek: Apple cake, pumpkin pie, pig pickin' cake, cut-out cookies, just to name a few.

Mediterranean Shrimp

This is not my own recipe, but when I ran across it some time back my love of shrimp and feta cheese made it a keeper.

1 pound raw unpeeled shrimp (tiger shrimp, or 10-12 ct bag)

3/4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (14.5 oz) can Italian style tomatoes, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced (cook's preference)

1/2 cup clam juice, or can substitute vegetable broth

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 (4 oz) package crumbled feta cheese (garlic and herb variety is my choice)

1.) Peel and devein shrimp, and set aside

2. Saute green onions and parsley and garlic in hot oil in large skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until onions are tender. Stir in tomatoes and salt and pepper, and bring to boil; reduce heat and cover and simmer 5 minutes.

3.) Preheat oven to Broil. Add clam juice to mixture and simmer 5 more minutes. Pour mixture into 7x11 baking dish and set aside.

4.) Saute shrimp in butter (olive oil can be substituted if butter a problem) in small skillet over medium heat until shrimp turn pink. Spoon shrimp over mixture in baking dish, and sprinkle wine, oregano and feta cheese over top. Broil 5 1/2 (approx) inches from heat, and if using electric oven leave door partially open, for 5 minutes.

5.) Spoon into individual bowls and serve with a good crusty bread for soaking up the sauce (a good French or Italian).

I usually serve Columbia Crest Golden Estates Chardonnay with this dish, but a good Sauvignon Blanc also works.


(I should point out that this recipe is for 2, figuring 5-6 shrimp each. You can substitute 16-20 ct size and stretch to feed 4.)

We made a simple, but great, quiche, very similar to Fildien's, while I was up visiting a friend up north last weekend:

8 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled (how can you go wrong with a recipe that *starts* with a half-pound of bacon ;) )
4 eggs
10 oz half and half
salt/pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
3 pieces garlic, chopped (we both really like garlic/onion, the base recipe called for 1/4 c onion and no garlic ;) )
1c fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
1c swiss cheese, chopped (lacked a grater, worked fine)
5-6 mushrooms, sliced (chanterelles or a firm variety)
1 9 in deep dish pie shell (unbaked)

Preheat oven to 425'. Brown and drain bacon. Saute' onion/garlic until just translucent.
Place all chopped items, including bacon and onion/garlic mix, into pie dish.

In a small bowl, beat half and half into eggs, add salt/pepper. Pour over chopped items in pie pan. Bake at 425' for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350' and bake another 30-40 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. This made a super dish for a cold and clammy night, and my friend is still eating the leftovers :).

Regards,
Nydia

LOL I used to love bacon, now however I can't even look at without getting nauseated. I dont' know why either; I'm not a vegitarian or anything I just lost the ability to eat certain things and bacon and pork tenderloin, pork roast are those things. I can still eat ham though. I'm weird. =\

Have you tried low sodium bacon? I never liked bacon, till I tried a low sodium version....

Sixee, that is why you were never a true rogue cause all Rogues know that Beer is the nectar of the Gods and Bacon is their fruit!!!!




BACON PIE FTW!!!

Has Bacon Salt (http://www.jdfoods.net/products/baconsalt.php) been mentioned here yet?

(You could use it to make bacon-flavored beer!)

I never liked bacon, till I tried a low sodium version....

It could be the Nitrates as well. look for a no nitrate bacon they are out there but hard to find.

Nydia that recipe sounds awesome. anyone have a good suggestion on how to make an eggless quice? I have a severe aversion to Eggs so any alternative would work.

Has Bacon Salt (http://www.jdfoods.net/products/baconsalt.php) been mentioned here yet?

(You could use it to make bacon-flavored beer!)

The Hickory - Bacon one is great for ribs, fyi! And they now also have a baconaise spread/dressing, although I prefer Marie's Blue Cheese and Bacon dressing for that.


Just had to return to this thread as I am in the midst of tossing together an easy little brunch with a spinach/gr onion/bacon/feta cheese quiche. Have a nice Chardonnay and a Piatelli Malbec for the red lovers, so should be a nice relaxing time.

I just wanted to thank folks once again for these tips. Should really have a separate forum for food and recipes, heh.

Speaking of bacon I recently heard that in Lebanon PA they sell/have chocolate covered bacon. I can't imagine why anyone would want to eat it but I hear they have it. Ick, bacon is definitely not on my menu of things I eat. But hey some people love it!

You can buy chocolate covered bacon at lots of places. They have it here at specialty coffeeshops and liquor stores. I love bacon, but the idea of chocolate covered bacon was not appealing. Still, like any good bacon aficionado, I gave it a try. Trust me, it's better than it sounds!

Low Sodium bacon isn't too bad. But the regular stuff is WAY too salty for my tastes.

salty greasy and icky

actually about the only pork I even these days is ham, good ham. I don't know maybe it's the result of one too many family pig butchering parties or pig pickin's but I can't stand pork anymore. There is a vision of my mom getting fat back ready that still terrifies me to this day seeing this huge baking pan of pig fat on it with all these hairs growing out of it /wretch. Or helping to make sausage and livermush /vomit. Seeing pigs feet in the fridge, watching my granny eat jawls and tongue, crackling bread. Ugh. Anyway, bacon even chocolate covered doesn't sound very good to me.

I'm not a big pork fan either Fil. I blame all those years working on a pig farm for that. Good cash for a country teenager , but omg the smell and pure evil those pigs exude!

Bacon Salt is lame.
http://www.random-good-stuff.com/2009/04/01/squeez-bacon/

Bacon Salt is lame.



My mother, being both an accomplished cook as well as a QVC addict, is always trying new things she sees on QVC; thus is explained my knowledge of the Hickory Bacon Salt and Bacon-naise. I will use the Peppered Bacon Salt on pork chops and chicken breasts and as I mentioned, the Hickory one is great for a rib rub.

The Bacon-Squeez product would probably get tried too, if I let her see it. :eek:


But, when it comes to a bacon product, I cannot stress enough how much I enjoy the Marie's Blue Cheese and Bacon salad dressing. If you like blue cheese dressing, I urge you to give this a try sometime. It is also a great dip for chicken wings/fingers.

Well to add to this I say the Mc Cormic garlic sea salt grinders are tops. As most of you know I work in IT for a school district nd we have decided that is healthier and cheaper for us to bring in meat and throw it on the bbq we hide in the server room. No we do not cook it in the server room, but the thought has crossed our minds!!!! I have found some EVO and that grinder make a satisfying seasoning for my steak or chicken and then we eat salad or fresh vegies. We are doing this not only to save money, but also to start losing weight that IT guys seem to pack on. We also like the pepercorn mix, and I use the greek mix at home alot on chicken. I guess the point in this is a school IT dept grills behind the server room 4 times a week and is eating healthy.

Well to add to this I say the Mc Cormic garlic sea salt grinders are tops. As most of you know I work in IT for a school district nd we have decided that is healthier and cheaper for us to bring in meat and throw it on the bbq we hide in the server room. No we do not cook it in the server room, but the thought has crossed our minds!!!! I have found some EVO and that grinder make a satisfying seasoning for my steak or chicken and then we eat salad or fresh vegies. We are doing this not only to save money, but also to start losing weight that IT guys seem to pack on. We also like the pepercorn mix, and I use the greek mix at home alot on chicken. I guess the point in this is a school IT dept grills behind the server room 4 times a week and is eating healthy.

Great note on the McCormick grinders. I use the peppercorn and sea salt grinders all the time.

I use Mrs. Dash :D

I use Mrs. Dash :D

It's okay, you are young, and will learn many new things as you grow. :p

Bumping this to keep it from getting lost in the mix. Too many good food ideas here.