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November 20, 2008 • (952) 447-6669
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cooking

Let's cook!

Submitted by Lori Carlson on November 26, 2007 - 10:37am.
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I've been inspired -- sort of.

After reading "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell, I've decided to cook more.

I'm not about to cook all 564 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," like Powell did (and wrote about for the book). For one thing, I don't really like French food. For another thing, I already need to lose 25 pounds. For yet another thing, there is no way I will ever attempt to slaughter a live lobster on my cutting board or scrape the marrow out of a bone to use as a topping for steak.

Nevertheless, I have decided to start experimenting more in the kitchen.

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Last night, I made a delicious beef stir fry. I used this shaved beef steak from Trader Joe's that cooked FAST and was simply phenomenal when mixed with snow peas, broccoli, edamame, spinach, asparagus, garlic, onion and red, green and yellow bell peppers and paired with brown rice. I used a spicy stir fry sauce I bought at the store (hey, I'm not brave - or motivated - enough yet to make my own sauce!). It was a knock-out. Even my husband, a picky eater who can't get enough spice, was impressed.

My next project will be to make my own jambalaya. We usually eat the boxed variety, but I've decided to try to make a homemade version, with chicken and Andouille sausage. Wish me luck.

Feel free to share your cooking successes (and failures) -- as well as recipes -- here!


Well, so far, no one's...

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Well, so far, no one's biting (haha), but I'll keep rambling about my culinary excursions.

Last night I made a favorite recipe - homemade basil pesto with whole-wheat penne pasta. This one's easy. Just combine about two to three cups of basil leaves with 1/3 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup water, 3 Tbsp. pine nuts and two cloves of garlic in a blender. Blend until creamy. Then add 1/2 cup or so of shredded parmesan cheese and blend in. Serve over pasta.

Yum!


Submitted by Lori Carlson on November 27, 2007 - 11:04am.

I love to cook as...

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I love to cook as well.

When the temperature falls I especially enjoy Italian food. So here is a simple recipe that tastes great.

Here goes:

Ingredients:

32 jumbo pasta shells

2 cups of ricotta cheese

2 10 ounce packages of frozen spinach (thaw and dry before using in recipe)

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (freshly grated tastes the best)

2 tablespoons of fennel seed

2 teaspoons of dried basil

4 cloves of minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

3.5 cups of spaghetti sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Boil large pot of salted water and add pasta shells. Cook until the noodles are just barely tender as the noodles will be baked, as well.

3. Dry the spinach. Combine spinach, ricotta, 1/3 cup of Parmesan, fennel, basil, and garlic in mixing bowl.

4. Thinly spread the marinera sauce over the bottom of the baking dish.

5. Stuff each shell with the mixture. Spoon the rest of the marinera over the top of the stuffed pasta shells. Sprinke Parmesan cheese on top.

6. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!!

If you want to add meat, cook the meat and add it to the marinera sauce on top of the pasta shells.


Submitted by Shawn Hogendorf on November 27, 2007 - 12:36pm.

Not sure if this qualifies...

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Not sure if this qualifies as "cooking" since all I did was reheat leftovers, but it was a combination/concoction that my husband the amateur chef had never heard of (nor had my neighbor or several co-workers) but I swear it exists!

It's called turkey Manhattan and it's the epitome of comfort food (I also make a mean roast beef Manhattan).

Normally, I would use mashed potatoes, but we had cheesy hashbrown potato casserole for Thanksgiving instead, so I substituted and it was terrific!

You just take the leftover gravy and pour it into sauce pan and cut up turkey to make it a lumpy as you like while heating up the potatoes in another pan.

Then, to assemble, put a slice of soft bread (this is one of the only times I like white bread) on a plate, top it with a scoop of potatoes and cover it with turkey and gravy.

We also had some leftover stuffing and green bean casserole on the side.

Everyone ate until near-bursting and nobody will doubt my culinary genius again!

P.S. I just had some leftover leftovers for lunch and I feel like I just got a warm hug!

 


Submitted by Ruth Anne Maddox on November 27, 2007 - 1:58pm.

Hopefully all you got was a...

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Hopefully all you got was a warm hug feeling and not E coli after reheating those reheated leftover leftovers!

Has anyone had homemade jambalaya? That's my next project - probably tonight. I'm looking for a good (and spicy) recipe.


Submitted by Lori Carlson on November 27, 2007 - 2:08pm.

I went to college in...

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I went to college in Louisiana and I ate a good deal of this kind of food in restaurants and at various people's houses but I've never attempted it on my own.

I haven't tried this, but my man Bobby Flay has this recipe on the Food Network Web site (if it's by Bobby, it's got to be good!!!): 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_34559,00.html


Submitted by Ruth Anne Maddox on November 27, 2007 - 3:02pm.

I'll give that my best try,...

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I'll give that my best try, but I don't have a Dutch oven. What to do? Also, I would subtract the mussels, lobster and crab meat, as I hate seafood. But the rest of the recipe sounds excellent. I'm sure true Cajuns would shoot me for not including seafood in jambalaya, but what can you do...


Submitted by Lori Carlson on November 27, 2007 - 3:08pm.

Does anyone have...

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Does anyone have any candy-making skills. I've made caramels the last few holidays. They taste good, but they are a huge hassle to cut! Any tips from candy-makers out there to make it easier?


Submitted by Joanna Miller on December 11, 2007 - 9:57am.

Reduce the amount of...

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Reduce the amount of butter, cook it for a little longer and you'll have toffee -- no cutting necessary; simply score it while it's still warm, then rap the pan on the table to break it apart into squares. I've got a great easy recipe but I'll have to dig it out and post it later.

 


Submitted by Ruth Anne Maddox on December 11, 2007 - 12:09pm.

Thanks, Ruth Anne! That...

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Thanks, Ruth Anne! That would be easier than cutting caramels. I'm sure Abdallahs has a much less labor-intensive way of doing it!

Since I'm asking obscure cooking questions, has anyone done a stuffed beef crown roast? I'm thinking that would be a nice Christmas tradition and something I would never do at any other point in the year (which could be almost any cooking, really...) Anyone had good/bad experiences with this?


Submitted by Joanna Miller on December 12, 2007 - 11:18am.

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