Cooking In General

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I second the drool.

And now 180 degrees away from such an elegant recipe, my version of the "Third Cuppa Coffee Cake" from "A Man, A Can, A Plan":

1 approx. 17 oz. box cinnamon swirl quick bread mix PLUS
ingredients listed on box to finish the mix (in my case those were 2 eggs, 3/4 cup water, 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil)

1 15 oz or so can blueberries in syrup, well drained

1 15 oz or so can sliced peaches in syrup, well drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil an 11 x 7 inch pan, commonly called a brownie pan; a 13 x 9 inch pan is too big, so if you don't have the 11 x 7 inch use a 9 or 8 inch square cake pan and discard a bit of the batter and other ingredients so you don't fill it more than 2/3 of the way to the rim.

Mix the batter according to the package directions. Don't touch the package of cinnamon topping yet. Pour half the batter in the pan. Arrange the well drained blueberries and peaches on top of the batter. (I actually pressed the fruit between paper towels to remove more moisture.) Sprinkle about half the cinnamon topping on this layer. Carefully spread the rest of the batter on top of the cinnamon layer. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon topping on this. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool about 10-15 minutes before serving warm from pan. If you used a different sized pan than the recipe calls for you may need to adjust the baking time.

This is easy and tastes surprisingly good, though laden with sugar. (I'm sure that's why it tastes good.) Other canned fruits would also taste good with this. Remember how badly blueberries stain things, though, and be careful while you're draining them - this is the voice of experience, children.

 

Elegant? Thank you. It came to me when I greedily eyed my flatlasses mushrooms, well, not directly. I had no particular plans except that I wanted them. I innocently asked her about her plans for them, after she mentioned the day before she wanted to put them away (not to happen as long as I'm around). Alas, she planned to take them to friends to inevitably fry them in oil to add them to some mediocre salad (what a waste, I would have shared the pies had she shared the mushrooms, bad deal on her part), but I digress.... In any case I must have been about as inconspicious as a tomcat around the cream bowl.

With that option gone, I had to go to the supermarket, which was destiny, because there I found them chanterelles. Seeing them, I immediately considered all the things I had in the kitchen and the fridge - puff pastry dough especially - and thought that all else I needed for pies was eggs and sour cream ... There is your recipe. The details then just fell into place when I was making them.

btw, I ate 8 of the 12 pies

 

If you have any good cheesecake recipes that aren't too advanced, then please post away. I have a day off and tomorrow and have chosen cheesecake to be my project for the day.

 

@Uytuun: I have a whole cookbook dedicated to cheesecake. What sort do you like - creamy or crumbly? Fluffy or dense? Savory or sweet? Plain or flavored?

etc, etc, etc...

 

All hail Rally.

Well...do you have an easy (or relatively easy) recipe for lemon cheesecake in your treasury? I don't think I've ever had it, but it sounds nice.

 

Here are a whole bunch of recipes:

Lemon cheesecake search results from Epicurious.com

I'd have to review these more closely to get an idea of difficulty and time does not permit ATM, but this is one of the few recipe sites on the 'Net I trust. My book has a recipe for an unbaked Lemon Meringue Cheese Pie; while it looks luscious, it wouldn't satisfy a craving for real cheesecake for me. Let me know if you want it.

 

Thanks a lot! I just have one question: there's an ingredient that returns all the time and I'm not sure we have it here...graham crackers...Is it imperative that the crumbs you use are graham cracker ones or is it ok to improvise in the cracker department?

Thanks for the unbaked pie suggestion, but I'm also more into the real thing.

 

I don't think graham crackers are imperative. It's just that they're the most common mildly-flavored sweet cracker around here. Any sort of neutral, dry, not-salty biscuit will do, IMO. Passover cheesecakes are made with matzoh meal crusts!

 

Soo...the cheesecake is in the fridge now and I think it went pretty well. The hardest part was converting the US measurements to the ones we use. I actually had to go back to the store because I misinterpreted "cup".

I ended up using a slightly modified version of the double lemon cheesecake recipe I found on Rally's suggested site. Used what is called "crumble dough" here instead of the graham cracker crust and added 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and some grated lemon peel to the top layer.

Mmmm...I'm already looking forward to tomorrow.

Thanks again, Rally.

EDIT: It tastes great! /EDIT

[ September 08, 2007, 14:35: Message edited by: Uytuun ]

 

Does anyone know where I can find a fondue cheese recipe that doesn't use any Swiss cheeses?

 

Do you mean actual Swiss Cheese or cheese made in Switzerland? I am checking a few recipie books now.

 

Kuemper, just substitute Cheddar, or Gouda, or Fontina, or... pretty much any cheese that has a similar texture to Swiss.

Fortunately, that "similar texture" condition rules out Velveeta

 

Any Swiss cheese basically. I don't like the regular Swiss (the holes one) and the fondue packets are Emmenthaul and Guyuere. They are - yuck.

I tried making some with provolone and mozzarella, but didn't have enough wine to keep it liquidy. It became a large cheeseball instead. We ate it anyway.

 

"Fondue packets"? I've never heard of such a thing!

On another note, I'm always trying to make dinner from local, seasonal produce. Last night I was planning a veggie stew over couscous, and I decided to try it with pumpkin instead of zucchini. Yum-o!

 

I am finding Pakistani food much to my liking but don't know how to make any yet. I will learn and take the recipies home when I return.

 

Now if this isn't a neglected thread:

I tried to make chicken "on a bed of Brussels sprouts" and in wine sauce today (the receipe emerged spontaneously; to assume divine creation here would be nothing short of hubristic, and indeed, it wasn't exactly great anyway, calling into question the adjective 'divine').

Mixed results: While Chicken, pre-fried to have a crisp skin, was good, the Brussels sprouts were dry and burnt on top, so I apparently didn't use enough wine, or should have poured sauce over them from time to time. Or rather, it's probably advisable to pre-cook them Brussels sprouts when you intend to put them into the oven. With that, the plan was to serve potato mash, but seeing the sprouts more or less ruined I settled for plain potatoes. Ah well. Dinner wasn't completely ruined, and I got fed, and learned something about treating Brussels sprouts. Hah.

 

I think I'll stoke this topic up by reporting on how my Thanksgiving dinner went. I’ll also preface my comments by stating that the Thanksgiving dinner production in my family growing up was 99% made from scratch by my mother and with us kids helping as we got older. Cooking this meal is now a cherished tradition for me and I am a perfectionist when it comes to my cooking. This year, we had the meal at our house with my wife’s family visiting. I had to make some concessions.

I prepared the turkey using my dry-rub that I made up 3 years ago, upon finding myself with a free turkey from work and no other avenue to eat it but my own home. My secret blend of nearly 11 herbs and spices flavors the meat really well. Many of the guests reported it to be delicious.
I also did the gravy and managed once again to avoid making it lumpy. I also made a cranberry relish from a recipe handed down from my grandmother. I called my mom to refresh my memory on the recipe and her directions were rather imprecise: just how home cooking should be.

My wife did the stuffing and mashed potatoes. She like stuffing from a box--me, not so much. We compromised by agreeing on adding sautéed celery and onions to the desiccated “vegetables” in the box.

The rolls. I had to make a sacrifice here to keep the peace. My sister-in-law volunteered to make the rolls, using a recipe that she got from her husband’s side of the family. I’ve had these rolls before and they are nothing spectacular. I also know the recipe calls for Crisco. Blech. Sick. Disgusting. I would have preferred frozen store-bought rolls over this stuff, but what could I do? I agreed to let her do it. The rolls were flat and rather tasteless.

My mother-in-law did the pies. Growing up, I was the pie man, so this was a hard one to let go. But in the interest of marital harmony, I relented. As long as I get my pumpkin pie, I’m okay. Unless the cook leaves out the salt. Then the pie doesn’t taste right and Thanksgiving dessert is somewhat of a disappointment, if you catch my meaning. Then, if the whipping cream you bought is spoiled, things go really downhill.

That’s the highs and lows of Thanksgiving dinner for 2007 for me. In all it was a fine meal. I believe we finished off some of the last left-overs just yesterday.

So, fellow BoM chefs (at least those located in the North America region), what have you? Any tales of victory or woe from Thanksgivings past or present?

 

I made cabbage stew today. Cooking nearly daily, I'm quite fond of practical 'Hausmannskost' and I immensely enjoy mocking wannabe haute cuisiniers for forgetting what cooking is about. In my eyes it's about getting a decent warm meal on the table in a reasonable timeframe, thanks to practice, experience and efficiency. It might sound silly after that, but I do truly enjoy cooking. And eating

A colleague of mine bought an old soda bottle. He said he wanted to use it to foam up, I kid you not, mashed potatoes, carrots and vanilla. What a nutter. As for the receipe itself, you can make nearly everything taste well with vanilla (they even put it into Ketchup), and carrots are sweet, and so, yes, I guess it'll taste ok. That doesn't mean the recipe is not a silly spleen.
I wonder whether said colleague ever heard of a marvel named "whisk" (or a blender or a mixer ) that's not only easier to use, but also doesn't get bunged-up, and won't blow up, and considering the cleaning effort required for the soda bottle will almost certainly produce the desired result in a much shorter time if the user is familiar with the application and skilled in its use Marvels, marvels everywhere. He reminds me of my oldest brother

I hate this sort of cook, and hold them in mild contempt. If I happen to be unlucky enough to have them in my kitchen I'll drive them out, if necessary with a large wooden spoon. Bloody amateurs. So I earnestly told him that I only eat Creme Maron stirred, adding that when shaken, it's disgusting. He gave me a puzzled look and I fear a little bit that he doesn't like me anymore.

 

We had Thanksgiving away. There will be a turkey dinner this weekend, if only to create some leftovers! I don't anticipate a full spread, just turkey, stuffing, two types of cranberry relish, yams, and something green. Oh, and pumpkin pie. Can you imagine, there was no pumpkin pie on the dessert table last Thursday. The horror! My boys were NOT happy.

Yesterday I took advantage of working from home, and used my attendance at two long and boring teleconferences to make a pot of sausage-lentil-kale soup for lunch, and caramelized noodle kugel for dinner. Yum.