Prior Lake American - Let's cook! - Comments

Thanks, Ruth Anne! That

Joanna Miller — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:18:43 -0600

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?

Reduce the amount of

Ruth Anne Maddox — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:09:35 -0600

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.

Does anyone have

Joanna Miller — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:57:05 -0600

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?

I'll give that my best try,

Lori Carlson — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:08:02 -0600

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...

I went to college in

Ruth Anne Maddox — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:02:09 -0600

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

Hopefully all you got was a

Lori Carlson — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:08:34 -0600

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.

Not sure if this qualifies

Ruth Anne Maddox — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:58:09 -0600

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!

I love to cook as

Shawn Hogendorf — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:36:45 -0600

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.

Well, so far, no one's

Lori Carlson — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:04:58 -0600

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!

Let's cook!

Lori Carlson — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:37:55 -0600

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.