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What ya got cooking UM?


rashore

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  • 1 month later...

Made a big batch of puff pastry today to make a mix of sausage rolls for a birthday party I am catering in a couple days. But pastry or pasta making is one of those jobs that is really easy to turn the brain off and almost becomes meditative and then all of a sudden you have 4 or 5 times the amount you need. 

But no matter, after making the various sausage rolls as well as some lovely spinach and 5 cheese rolls I decided to make a great big pot of butterscotch pie apple. 

Popped the apples in the fridge overnight and tomorrow will be apple pie making day. 
I don't get as much chance to bake as I used to. I do enjoy it when I get the chance though.

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Smoked Ribs and Potato salad. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Beer brats. How I learned it in Wisconsin...

Use mid-ish cheap beer-the buds, millers, PBR's, up to Sam Adams. Skip the super cheap stuff and don't bother with the more crafty or expensive stuff. Coors and Corona are out too. Folks sometimes want to go too cheap or too fancy. Don't.  2 beers per 5 brats.

A medium to large onion- bigger than a baseball, smaller than a softball, yellow is good. You can use white, but skip reds or sweet onions. 1 onion per 5 brats.

Note- you can do Guiness with Vadalia onions if you make a bigger batch of 20 or so brats. And Sam Adams Winter Lager with yellow or white onions is better with bigger batches too.

Toss your uncooked brats, onions, and beer into a nice wide and sort of deep pan. You are poaching/simmering these. If you are cooking a larger batch, you will need to move around the brats in their liquid more often than doing up a smaller one. Simmer low for around an hour- you want your brats to be firm, and the casings very tender but not quite wanting to give. Never allow your beer to boil. Changes the taste and can cook the casings too much and then they can split while on the grill.

Once your brats are cooked, pull them out of the pan and let them sit aside to sort of dry out. You want the casing to become firm again before grilling. Let sit for a few minutes, flip, and let sit a few more. At this point, if you are pre-cooking for grilling another day- let the brats cool then put them in a covered container and pour a fresh beer over them to keep them moist for storage. Twice soaked brats are yummy. Let them drain off a bit before grilling. Otherwise, just fire up the grill and char those brats off a bit before serving.

Condiments are kraut, mustard, and fresh or grilled onions. Maybe some dill pickle action. Ketchup, mayo, sweet pickle relish, or cheese are just wrong, lol.

Sides..

Garlic-rosemary taters. Either use tiny taters, or dice up into inchish chunks. Today I happen to have a pound of red tiny taters.

Drizzle with a couple tablespoons oil, and stir to coat the taters. Add in a couple heavy spoonfulls of wet minced garlic, a goodly sprig of fresh rosemary minced up, a few shakes of black pepper, and a couple pinches salt. Plain or seasoned- if using seasoned, I happen to like Sale Alle Erbe delle Marlunghe. it has rosemary, sage, garlic, and black pepper in it. Cover and toss on the grill a bit early and let cook up for 20-30 min or so to steam cook up.. then uncover, give a stir, and let keep cooking uncovered for a bit depending on how tender they are. Once done, pull them off the grill and cover again to let rest while you char up the brats. Brats are only on the grill for around 5-10 min or so to get their char on.

You can do these big batch too in bigger pans, but keep in mind it can take longer for them too cook up. This pops up pretty regular at cookouts, with folks using 5 pound bags of taters diced up and a cup or two of garlic in big disposable roasting pans.

Gonna heat up a can of baked beans, slice up a tomato or two, and set out a few pickles to go along with it all.

 

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Breakfast. Eggs, Corn Beef Hash, Juice, Grits, Toast and Hash-browns. 

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Set up scalloped potatoes and ham in the crockpot to cook while doing other... it's just layering potatoes, ham, minced onion, and a goodly sprinkle of flour in several thin layers, then enough milk to just barely see it coming up the sides. Toss the lid on and put on high for 4 hours or so, then down to low to simmer in and set till dinner, another hour or two. I decided to toss in a can of cream of asparagus soup when I turned it from high to low- ended up using a bit too much milk, and the soup adjusts the thickness of the liquid. Good thing I don't make this dish with any salt to begin with, lol. Usually don't add soup or make it in the crockpot either- it's usually the oven and if a tad too moist, just let it steam off a bit uncovered, lol.

Meanwhile... fridge pickled diakon radish. I had gotten a couple nice big radishes for fairly cheap (for around here), enough to fill four pint-and-a-half jars nicely. I usually make a jar at a time and use about half a radish and of course much less brine, but wanted to make enough to take a couple jars to parties coming up. So here's to make 4 jars :)

For the brine:

2 cups rice vinegar- I had about 1-1/2 cups of regular, so topped off with some seasoned.

2 cups water

2 tablespoons table sugar

2 tablespoons pickling salt

heat enough to dissolve the sugar and salt and just simmer to keep hot, but not necessary to bring to a boil

Per jar:

1/2-1 teaspoon pepper flake depending on heat preference- I dry my own peppers, so I use a half to to halves of a pepper- today for the mild was half a smoked Aji Limon, and the hot jars got 2 halves of unsmoked tobago seasoning peppers

1 tablespoon dry minced garlic

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds- I like to use white and black

1 inch or so of fresh ginger, sliced- should be around a tablespoon or so-ish

Optional- a few drops or so of soy sauce- I like to darken the spicy jars a bit to help tell them from the mild jars, and just a few drops of soy will do it.

Around 4 pounds or so of diakon radish- you want radishes big enough around to just barely fit in your jar, and enough length of radish to stack up in your jars with about 1/2 inch head clearance.

Bring your brine up to heat while you peel and thinly slice your radish- if you stack up your slices, you can invert your jar and pick up the whole stack at once neatly. If you have tapered end, use that at the top of the jar and pack in.

Drop your per jar spices on your radishes, and pour brine over all- just enough to cover your radishes, about a half inch head clearance.

Cap tightly, give it a good shake, then let cool and pop it into the fridge- a day or two at least, but a week or so to really let all the flavors marry.

 

Made a half dozen jars of pickled asparagus since it's in season and the price was right- I follow Marisa McClellan's recipe from her book Food in Jars. I was unexpectedly out of cider vinegar, so I used about 2 cups white, about 1 cup red wine, and a goodly splash of rum vinegar to round out the 3 cups needed. And since I dehydrate lemons when they are season- I like to use a dehydrated lemon slice on the top of the jar to help keep the asparagus under brine instead of a fresh slice at the bottom of the jar. And I manage to poke 2-3 cloves of garlic instead of 1 into each jar :)

My tail ends of asparagus got chopped up in the food processor and in the dehydrator on leather trays- it can then be used as it, or ground further into powder as needed.

And heh, gonna be cooking rice.. lots of rice. When I was at the market the other day, slow cook wild rice and instant white rice was on sale- so I picked some up. Couple pound bags of brown and white basmati rice were on clearance- the ones that come in burlap tamperproof bags with zipper closures and handles- so now I have restocked my basmati and now have brown, and got a couple free purses, lol. And they had the 20 lb bags of Botan on clearance too- I jumped on that, it's usually rather expensive around here. As I was leaving one of my buddies that works there asked what I was gonna do with the 20 lbs of rice on the bottom of my cart- then was surprised when I told them I had another 8-10 pounds of other kinds of rices in my bags.

I started explaining how different rice for different things, I store bulk broken down into smaller vacuum sealed jars- and that I have other kinds of rice at home too! And this was just restocking and such missing kinds. The wild rice was kind of a rare treat honestly- love the stuff but it's soooo expensive most of the time (one of the most expensive uncooked grains on the shelf) and it's rarely on a decent sale.

 

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Pork Ribs.

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Tried making crockpot baked beans for the first time in a long time. Cleaning up the food storage and had a bag of home grown cranberry beans that needed eating up. Turned out pretty tasty. They are for a couple lunches/dinners...

Including English Breakfast for dinner tomorrow night. And I wonder, is it still English Breakfast if it has no meat? And the eggs are scrambled instead of fried? I often do baked beans, scrambled or even poached or soft boiled eggs served hot instead of fried, fresh tomato, and pickled mushrooms and call that English Breakfast. It might sound odd, but I often also include a side of creamed spinach with this too.

But then, I'm an American so don't know any better, lol.

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Fresh fish! Had a wonderful day on the water yesterday, Caught some lovely Queenfish. Will make a wonderful curry out of it today.

 

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Sloppy Joe.

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Chicken Chili 

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Chicken Fajitas.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Low Carb Sugar Free Blueberry Muffins/Cupcakes  (These are really easy to whip up and make)

Preheat oven to 180C/356F.......

2 cups almond meal, 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 3 tblspns almond milk, 1/2 cup granulated sweetener (I use erythritol), 1.5tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup butter melted, 1/2 cup plain sugar free yoghurt (I use greek style pot set plain), 1 cup fresh/frozen blueberries.  Combine the wet ingredients, add your dry ingredients and combine well, then stir in the blueberries.  You can substitute blueberries for sugar free choc chips or even add 3tbspns Hershey's 100% unsweetened cacao powder for chocolate muffins or cupcakes instead.  

Line a muffin pan with muffin/cupcake papers and evenly pour the mixture into each one.  I make 12 with this amount.  Then pop the tray into the oven for 20-25mins.  Top with unsweetened whipped cream or more fresh blueberries or even dust with sweetleaf stevia powder.  1.1 carb per cupcake/muffin.

I'm off to have one now with a tea :D  

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Chile Con Queso

Gringo style with velvetea cheese and medium to mild chile with sausage this time, usually we use ground elk meat.

cook 1 pound ground meat thoruoughly, you can use hamburger, sausage, chorizo, or elk/deer/buffalo,

In large crockpot melt 1 pound of velveeta cheese (it is the cheese americans love that actually is the waste from the cheese making process  :P nowdays it is as expensive as real cheese) with 1/2 cup of milk, 1 thawed 16 oz container of your favorite green chile (Hatch, Sandia, Anaheim), 1 can of Rotel tomatoes & green chiles.  Once cheese sauce is melted and stirred drain the grease from the meat and add it to the crock pot.  Put it on warm until you are ready to serve.  Stir it about every 30 minutes if you don't serve it immediately.  (my daughter's recipe)

You can put it on your burritos or use it like dip for corn chips/crisps (do british & europeans eat corn chips?)

 

Edited by Desertrat56
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best homemade alfredo sauce, good for 1 pound of pasta with a little left over

1 pint half n half

1 brick cream cheese

1 container parmesean cheese

16 oz mozzerella

in small pot heat half n half on med low heat and cut cream cheese in mix well until cream cheese melts. Add parmesean cheese, mix well. Grate mozzerella and to sauce. heat on low for 20 minutes until sauce is smooth, stir occasionally. 

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Beef Tips and Loaded Potatoes. 

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2 large chopped unpeeled Yukon potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 celery stalk chopped leaves and all

I chopped Spanish onion

Cayenne pepper and a dash of pink salt.

Sauteed in olive oil then

cooked in nettle broth until taters are tender.

Pureed in a blender and poured over kidney beans and jasmine rice. 

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Italian herbed (oregano/basil and parsley mix) premium beef minced (lower in saturated fat) in beef stock loaded with halved cherry tomatoes, green veges (zucchini grated, baby spinach, broccoli) and sliced mushrooms, with dry roasted onion flakes and freshly grated parmesan over top for some crunchy texture and further flavour.

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8 minutes ago, pixiii said:

Italian herbed (oregano/basil and parsley mix) premium beef minced (lower in saturated fat) in beef stock loaded with halved cherry tomatoes, green veges (zucchini grated, baby spinach, broccoli) and sliced mushrooms, with dry roasted onion flakes and freshly grated parmesan over top for some crunchy texture and further flavour.

Try rosemary/basil and mild sage mix.

 

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Breakfast. Eggs, Bacon and Ham Steaks. 

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Can we get a mouth watering emoticon for in here please?  Or even a loveheart?

I'm drooling after reading what you guys are having for dinner. :lol:  Just figuring out now how I can adapt them to low carb :D 

But right now, I've just put a homemade low carb bread mix on in the breadmaker.  After going without bread for years and years, I found this recipe developed by a lady called Deirdre and she spent months perfecting the bread so it would taste like real bread but still be low carb.  

Ingredients used:

1 C. Water

2 Eggs, slightly beaten (organic)

2/3 C. Ground Golden flax meal - 70g of whatever sort of ground flaxseed/linseed meal (dark or golden is fine)

1/2 C. Oat Fiber - 41g Oat Fibre is what I use

1 1/4 C Vital Wheat Gluten - 190g of Gluten Flour

2 Tbsp. Soften butter (grass fed) - I use 4 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead. 

4 Tbsp. Swerve, Sukrin ( powdered) - I only use 2 Tbsp as I find the bread is too sweet with 4 and I use Erythritol (essentially Swerve) but I buy the granulated Erythritol and grind it up to make a powder)  Granulated will not work in this recipe, it has to be powdered. :) 

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Xanthum gum  

1 tsp. Honey (this gets eaten up by the yeast and is used to activate the yeast, use 1 tsp of sugar if you don't have honey)

1 Tbsp. yeast - 9g of Instant Yeast

That is Deirdre's recipe (apart from the lower powdered erythritol I put into it) but I've also added some seeds to the bread mix ingredients too when I bake it.

I add 2 Tbsp of Sesame Seeds & 2 Tbsp of Chia Seeds.

I just throw everything in the breadmaker, set it on Wholemeal bread and let it do it's thing.  Then 3 hours later you've got homemade healthy low carb bread wafting throughout the house!  

Depending how many slices you get out of your loaf, I usually get 18 slices (big pieces), which makes each slice just under 2 carbs. Makes you feel really full too compared to "normal" bread.  You can use the same recipe in a standmixer and allow to rise somewhere warm for 2 hours, then bake until golden brown. I often use the same mix, then divide it up into 9 bread roll sizes, chuck them into a muffin tray and let sit inside the oven(warm place) for two hours, then bake them for 17 mins on a moderate oven temp.  Nom nom nom. :) 

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On 7/29/2019 at 6:51 PM, Piney said:

2 large chopped unpeeled Yukon potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 celery stalk chopped leaves and all

I chopped Spanish onion

Cayenne pepper and a dash of pink salt.

Sauteed in olive oil then

cooked in nettle broth until taters are tender.

Pureed in a blender and poured over kidney beans and jasmine rice. 

I nettle broth just broth from boiled nettles?  I don't think I have ever seen nettles but I have read about them.

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10 hours ago, pixiii said:

Can we get a mouth watering emoticon for in here please?  Or even a loveheart?

I'm drooling after reading what you guys are having for dinner. :lol:  Just figuring out now how I can adapt them to low carb :D 

But right now, I've just put a homemade low carb bread mix on in the breadmaker.  After going without bread for years and years, I found this recipe developed by a lady called Deirdre and she spent months perfecting the bread so it would taste like real bread but still be low carb.  

Ingredients used:

1 C. Water

2 Eggs, slightly beaten (organic)

2/3 C. Ground Golden flax meal - 70g of whatever sort of ground flaxseed/linseed meal (dark or golden is fine)

1/2 C. Oat Fiber - 41g Oat Fibre is what I use

1 1/4 C Vital Wheat Gluten - 190g of Gluten Flour

2 Tbsp. Soften butter (grass fed) - I use 4 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead. 

4 Tbsp. Swerve, Sukrin ( powdered) - I only use 2 Tbsp as I find the bread is too sweet with 4 and I use Erythritol (essentially Swerve) but I buy the granulated Erythritol and grind it up to make a powder)  Granulated will not work in this recipe, it has to be powdered. :) 

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Xanthum gum  

1 tsp. Honey (this gets eaten up by the yeast and is used to activate the yeast, use 1 tsp of sugar if you don't have honey)

1 Tbsp. yeast - 9g of Instant Yeast

That is Deirdre's recipe (apart from the lower powdered erythritol I put into it) but I've also added some seeds to the bread mix ingredients too when I bake it.

I add 2 Tbsp of Sesame Seeds & 2 Tbsp of Chia Seeds.

I just throw everything in the breadmaker, set it on Wholemeal bread and let it do it's thing.  Then 3 hours later you've got homemade healthy low carb bread wafting throughout the house!  

Depending how many slices you get out of your loaf, I usually get 18 slices (big pieces), which makes each slice just under 2 carbs. Makes you feel really full too compared to "normal" bread.  You can use the same recipe in a standmixer and allow to rise somewhere warm for 2 hours, then bake until golden brown. I often use the same mix, then divide it up into 9 bread roll sizes, chuck them into a muffin tray and let sit inside the oven(warm place) for two hours, then bake them for 17 mins on a moderate oven temp.  Nom nom nom. :) 

Low Carb Bread??? That is sacrilegious. 

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6 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

I nettle broth just broth from boiled nettles?  I don't think I have ever seen nettles but I have read about them.

There use to be a big patch I harvested from next to a river. Now I grow them. You boil them down until you have a dark green broth but when you pick them and handle them you need to wear gloves. Once they are boiled their  stinging hairs dissolve.

@Cloud7  Drinks it in tea too for allergies but I like cooking veggies in it. I boil a big batch up and freeze it in Tupperware containers. 

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