Recipe Exchange?

mrstjohnson

Chuffy

 I have a really easy brownie recipe if anyone wants it....

I'll take it Chuffy!  We do the box thing at my house, which are good, but sometimes you just don't feel like going to the store to get the box (talk about lazy huh!).

I also have a homemade ravioli recipe and an egg roll recipe that actually won a contest way back when (my own creation).

Here is is

PECAN BROWNIES

Ingredients:

• 10oz chocolate, broken up
• 7oz Sugar
  
• 4oz butter, cubed
• 2 small eggs, beaten
• 1 and a half ounces of self raising flour
• qtr tsp salt
• 3oz chopped pecans
• half tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Chop up 4oz of the chocolate and set aside

Melt the rest of the chocolate with the butter in a bain marie (a bowl over a pan of simmering water)

Beat eggs and sugar together till pale and thick.

Gradually beat in the melted chocolate

Fold in the rest of the ingredients.

Pour into a greased, lined baking tin (7inch square, 1 and a half inch deep).

Bake for about 45 minutes on Gas mark 3, 170C or 325F.

Notes:

I usually break up a 150g bar of chocolate (any chocolate) for melting and then use a 100g bag of white chocolate chips instead of chopping chocolate up.

This recipe is so delicious and pretty easy.  DH hates chocolate cake as a rule, but these don't last long in our house...

Here's my basic method for roasted chicken.

You can get roasting bags at the store and there will be a card that gives the cooking time and temp depending on the meat,

Anyway, take chicken, such as a whole fryer.

Put it in the bag.

Cut up some potatos, as chunky as you want.

Put in some peeled baby carrots (you can buy them that way).

Slice some onion in medium slivers or chunks, depending on your desire and stick that in there. Peel and slice in half some garlic and put that in there. The nice thing about garlic is that it sweetens as it cooks.

Add whatever spices you want and try to get them under the skin. As a rule, I don't eat the skin.

For moisture, you can just add a few cups of water. What I used to do was pour in some white wine. Sauvignon Blanc is actually one of the best white wines for cooking. But you can also get cooking wine if you don't want a bottle of actual wine around the house. Or you can use beer, even non-alcoholic beer.

Anyway, most chickens take about 1.5 hours at 350 F. The vegetables will be soft and wonderful.

I didn't have a specific spice rub or injection sauce for this because I usually just put some black pepper on it, back in the day. But the sky's the limit, today. And you can also use the barbecue sauce I posted earlier. It was originally developed for baking chicken without a roasting bag. And it is a sweet sauce.

And here's a dessert.

I used to call it Lee's Kick Yo' Butt Fudge but it is actually a recipe from Eagle Brand Condensed Milk.

ok, as promised:

PESTO

ingredients:

2 "bundles" of basil

4 "toes" of garlic (i never said i was any good at translating, lol)

4 teaspoons of roasted pine seeds

100 ml olive oil

100 g freshly shredded pamesan cheese OR pecorino cheese

salt

freshly ground black pepper

- wash the basil, dry it gently, then remove the leaves.

- chop up the basil, garlic and pine seeds, then crush them or puree them.

- add the oil gradually as you crush the ingredients and add the cheese, salt and black pepper

- fill your pesto in small glass containers (i'd probably not care and still use my tupperware) and add some olive oil on top

as i said i have never tried this one, but it does seem simple enough...

also i realize that i use metric measurements, so for all of you who need to convert this is always my favorite site: www.onlineconversion.com

 One of my favorites, and much better than what is in your grocery store.

TWICE BAKED POTATOES

4 large baking potatoes (I usually double everything)

1/3 cup shredded cheddar

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp salt

Bake potatoes either in the oven or microwave.  Blend cheese, onion, sour cream and salt.  Slice top off potato and scoop out the inside. Blend cheese mixture and potatoes, and put back into potato skins.  Bake at 350 until hot or micro.  (Comment...if I get huge potatoes, I will cut them in half rather than cut off the top).  

To freeze...place on a tray until frozen, transfer to freezer bag, and then take out what you need.

 Book suggestion...I bought this recently, and am interested in the slightly different approach to freezer cooking.  It is called "Fix, Freeze, and Feast"  by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik. I got it at Books a Million...because I was there.

For instance, I fixed their chicken cordon bleu this week.  It involved breading chicken breasts and rolling them around ham and swiss, and freezing them individually to cook at a later time.  Today I tried breakfast burritos.  I can't vouch for anything yet, but I will admit that cooking for one stinks, and I have to find something that will work for me.  

Marty - I LOVE twice baked potatoes. I never thought about freezing them though. I never have any left when I'm done making them, but if I do, I'll give that a try.

Marty - I bought this book several years ago called Small Batch Baking, it's awesome.  They are recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, etc. for one or two people.  DH has a massive sweet tooth and loves cake.  We used to make a cake and then eat the whole thing between us, this book gives you recipes for mini cakes for 2 people (you use large cans for the pans).  It is really cool.  I love the cookie recipes - lord knows if there are three dozen cookies in teh house we will eat them all...when the recipe only makes six there is much less damage.

 Sounds good, Lisa!  (As I eat the Halloween candy to satisfy the sweet tooth).

Chicken anyone?  And if someone can come up with a name for this one, I'll be thrilled.  This is great in the slow cooker and freezes wonderfully.  It's just one of those ideas that popped into my head, so no exact measurements......

Chop boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite sized pieces

Cube a couple zuchinni and a couple yellow crook neck squash

Dice (big) a couple tomatoes

Juliene a small eggplant

mince a couple cloves of garlic

chop a bunch of green onions, and use the greens too to add color

chop a handful of fresh basil and fresh parsley

about 1/2 can of black beans

toss all of the above in the slow cooker, add salt and pepper, or Natures Season, put in a bit of chicken broth, cover and turn the slow cooker on and let it simmer all day.

I serve this over the bowtie pasta.

This requires a fair amount of prep time, but I enjoy chopping sometimes, and it's worth the effort.  The veggies are lovely slow cooked and letting it cook for a long time lets the flavors really blend nicely.  I make a lot at a time, and freeze a couple batches for future dinners.

Here's another that is a bit prep intensive, but gives you something to look forward to all day.  Again, you'll need to figure out amounts on your own.  I don't EVER do anything the exact same way twice, just close.

Oven beef stew

Cube lean beef, several potatoes, and cut carrots to size and shape of your liking, put in a deep baking pan or casserole dish.  The more you make, the more you can freeze.

Add enough beef stock to just cover everything, season with salt and pepper or natures seasons, and on this one too, I use the entire bunch of green onions, tops included.  Stir in about 1/3 cup tapioca, this is your thickening agent.  Check the thickness of the stew about 30 minutes before you want to eat, and if it's not to your liking, add a bit more beef stock or tapioca.

Before you portion leftovers to freeze, if you add a bit of beef stock and stir it in well, the frozen meals will be perfect.  I find that my freezer tends to dry out the gravy just a bit.

One more thought, while I'm thinking food......

If you use extra sharp cheddar on those twice baked you can get more cheese taste without quite so much cheese.  To mine I usually add fresh chopped parsley and sometimes bacon bits.

I make them TO freeze.  I usually get the big baking potatoes, and when they are baked, cut them in half....twice the output for the same amount of work.

See, much as I love to cook, I hate to clean up, so when I do batches of whatever, it's always with the thought in mind that much of it is going to go into the freezer!  Cook once, clean up once and eat for a good long while out of that freezer!

I really don't want to hog this thread, but, by request.......

Chicken Florentine in phylo

boneless skinless chicken breasts.....beat the heck out of them with a hammer (if you don't have one specifically for the kitchen, just wrap the head of the hammer in foil a couple times, then stick it in a plastic bag and pound away)   Cut these in half. Set aside.

Mix together:  small carton ricotta cheese (or blend cottage cheese and a couple eggs in the blender), fresh grated parmasan, mozzarella and a small box of frozen spinach......if you aren't so big on spinach, use about half of that.

Now you're ready to roll.  Since phylo dries out very quickly....and feels like wax paper....I cover with a slightly damp cloth while I'm working.  I unfold the day, take off three sheets,spray generously with the butter like sprays (I can't believe it's not butter for example) plop down a chicken breast about 2/3s of the way down the dough, cover generously with the cheese mixture, then fold the sides over, the bottom up and then just fold over until done.  I spritz again once it's folded up, and then also keep covered with a slightly damp cloth.

I freeze these on a baking sheet and then transfer to a ziploc.  You want to defrost ( in the bag) and then bake at 350 for about an hour.

As I pointed out in another thread, co-worker John got a doe with his .50 cal muzzleloader. And he brought me four bundles a little over a pound each, of chili-grind mix of deer and boar. So, I made some chili for work on our coldest day, yet.

But this is my normal recipe, in which I use ground turkey (99 % fat free).

1 pound or package ground turkey

1 can (10 oz) Rotel Tomatos with green chiles

2 15 oz cans or 1 30 oz can of light red kidney beans.

1/2 to 3/4 onion, diced. Varies depending on you desire for onion.

4 cloves of garlic, diced. (we like garlic.)

Shredded cheese (bought that way or shredded by yourself.)

1 pkg McCormicks low sodium chili seasoning mix. (Though we recently used some River Road Chili mix we bought at the arts and crafts fair at the Plano Convention Center.)

Half a beer or 1 cup of red wine or 1 cup of water, depending on your preference. Alcohol cooks out in the process.

I like to prep ahead of time so that the actual cooking is fast and easy to keep track of. I dice the onion and garlic and put that in a skillet with a coating of cooking spray (usually vegetable oil) and start sauteeing. In a few moments, I will put in the meat and turn the heat down to medium. In a stew pot or stock pot, I will combine the beans, Rotel tomatos, seasoning, and extra liquid and keep stirring that while it heats. When the meat is thoroughly browned, I put it and the onions and garlic into the stew pot and let it simmer on low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how much of the liquid I want to reduce.

Serve and top with shredded cheese, which you can either buy that way or shred yourself from block cheese.

One tradition around here is to serve it with sweet cornbread though some, such as DW, like to use jalapeno cornbread for a southwestern flair. Or, you can use crackers. I use either low sodium crackers or unsalted tops.

For the deer chili I made for work, I used two bundles of meat, which was over two pounds, and doubled the rest of the recipe and swapped in regular diced tomatos. Diced almost half a large onion, diced 8 cloves of garlic. 2 30 oz cans of kidney beans, two packets of seasoning mix, half a bottle of Shiner Bock (beer, made in Shiner, Tx.) We had shredded cheese, sweet cornbread and Fritos. A popular dish around here is Chili Frito Pie which is all that good stuff mixed with Fritos.

And I solved the gas crisis in one day but it was worth it.

Speaking of gas....it was 2.29 when I went into town earlier today.  2.19 when I came back......never thought I'd see prices that low again!  Here's to a continued decline in the price.

I make a chili similar Ron, but I always use dry beans, soak and cook them.  And, I use red beans, kidneys and pinto's.  I season the meat similarly, with onion, garlic and some natures season, and then spice it up really good with ground chili peppers and chili powder.  Now and then I'll add a smidge of cumin, just for spits and grins.  Sweet cornbread IS a good compliment, but baking powder bisquits or a nice crusty loaf of french bread are nice too.