What's cookin', good lookin'?

I don’t know what I did with this one, missing the butter, didn’t moisten both sides of the cinnamon, or not letting it rise right…but WOW, it’s really soft, and springy. Definitely one of my better ones. Made an awesome french toast, that’s for sure, heh.

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I forgot to get a picture, but I made this recipe last night. I used tomato & basil flavored chicken sausages from Aldi (like the Aidell’s brand). I chopped and sautéed them, then removed them from the pan until the end, because I find if you simmer them too long, they lose all flavor. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly. It was delicious. The use of the sun dried tomatoes really added a flavor punch, and it allowed me to use up a bundle of kale from the CSA. (Dang I’m sick of kale…)

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I had come across something like that…didn’t have any kale, but I modified a potato soup to use italian sausage. Was a lot more tastier than I had ever expected.


Made my first cheese today with some old milk. Only about a qarter cartons worth, but meh, I can use it in something…:thinking:…maybe…it’s awfully gritty. At least it looks gritty. Texture-wise (when I tasted some) it’s quite cheese like. So it might melt. Will have to make something with my gnocchi…What? What will that be? Hmm :thinking: (Ok! After some more reading, the texture is correct for this kind of cheese. Ok! Ok! Ok! I did good, :grin:).

Hmm! I used vinigar to make this, so what I think I’ll do with the whey is I’ll make bread with it. Which kind of bread? Flat quick bread or yeast? :thinking:.


Ok! It doesn’t melt, but I think it does taste fine…My taste of certain flavors is still very erratic.

what I can taste:

  • The creamy part of the cheese (don’t have a better description than that).
  • Olive oil (about half a teaspoon)
  • The citric acid from the lemon.
  • A part of the basil (Don’t have a better description of that either).
  • what the salt does to the food, but not the salt itself.
  • some part of the mushrooms and white wine, but not those flavors.
  • And I think a hint of the turmeric that I added to the gnocchi.

i bet this farmer’s cheese would be excellent in a fruit crepe, though. Will have to make some for breakfast.

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Hmm! I made a microwavable single person hobo pie, and I wonder if I could come up with some kind of easy crust to hold it all together so several could be made at a time, frozen, and a person could just grab and go…

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What would be an easy crust? :thinking:

Dutch baby like: butter the sides of the bowl, and pour the batter in and spread it up half the side of the dish. Pour excess out, and bake at 400…:thinking: for 8 to 10 minutes. (Thinking about it. It’d be best to cook the filling in it, else it might be difficult to freeze).

Pie crust like: Blend butter and flour (like making a cheesecake crust) and press into small casserole dish covering all sides. Fill with filling, and bake at 350 for 18 to 23 minutes. (This may fall apart on removing from the bowl…:thinking: chilling for at least four hours might keep it held together).

I may just have to try both methods…Mental note to self: Attempt this.

Actually, thinking a little more…it’d really be kind of difficult to freeze in shape…Hmm! How? How? How?

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I’m pretty sure that most pastry / crust need a ‘blind bake’ before adding wet fillings. This helps them hold their shape and the inners cook

From Merriam-Webster: blind-baked; blind-baking; blind-bakes. : to bake (a pastry or pie shell) before adding a filling . Fill the crust with pie weights (dried rice or beans work fine) and blind-bake the crust until it is just set, 10 to 12 minutes.

You can also look up techniques for blind baking

I don’t know what a hobo pie is, but it looks like it could work with your batter recipe by making a kind of ‘yorkshire pudding’ and then adding the filling a bit later?

I don’t know if these are the ‘best’ but just looking for recipes for comparison with your methods

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Huh! I had always presumed blind-baked pie shells were for precooked fillings (as the crust won’t be in the oven long enough to cook). Interesting.

Anyway, I definitely want something simple, and a yorkshire pudding would be interesting. The only thing I’d change is preheating the baking dishes. (I really need to find more simpler cooking methods than what I’ve done before, :thinking:).

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Blind baking depends on pan, type & thickness of crust, filling, & personal preference.
You can blind bake crust for a bit then brush all over with egg wash and bake another 10 minutes to seal the crust and prevents a soggy bottom. For a sweet pie, you can prevent soggy bottom by using melted chocolate brushed on the crust before filling. I use dijon mustard for savoury fillings like quiche. I dislike a gummy crust but some people actually like it like that so… preference. Do what YOU like.

If I blind bake, I cover the crust edges with foil to prevent overcooking when baking with the filling in.

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Tried my hand a focaccia…and failed a bit, but meh, still interesting, and does taste good. {I had made a pasta sauce from a little italian sausage that I was dividing up to freeze, and wanted to make something different).

Where I messed up, I over packed it during the stretching rise and while dimpling it. As well as, I think my oven is a tad off…i need to find my oven thermometer and test that (:thinking: Have not seen that in years).

Meh, all in all it is pretty good. I actually think that I want to try this with pizzas and other flat bread bakes. (But thinner than this one, heh).

I’m making homemade ramen today! Delicious comfort food and much healthier than the store bought thing.

For the broth: sautee two cloves of garlic and about an inch of ginger (both finely chopped) in a bit of oil in a large stockpot.

Add two liters of veggie stock (homemade or from a cube) and also 2 tablespoons of red curry paste, 2 tb of soy sauce, and 4 tb of coconut cream.

Then throw in whatever you like, noodles, an egg, ready-made dumplings, any kind of vegetable (we’ve used carrots, mushrooms,
paksoi or other leafy greens, even a can of sweetcorn) crispy chili. You can sautee the veggies for a minute with the garlic and ginger before adding the stock if you like.

I promise you guys this smells delicious, you’re never going to want instant again. And for us, we typically have all the ingredients in the house even if the fridge is almost empty.

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Can of corn plus a dab of butter is delicious in ramen!

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I haven’t tried the butter, will try to remember that for next time. We literally had this for dinner tonight (with noodles, shiitake and egg).

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I found Umami seasoning in the baking aisle at our local Walmart, and been making my own and tossing the packet that comes with Maruchen ramen. Too much salt, yick. Fortunately, what I’ve been doing has been “tasty” enough for whatever is wrong with my taster/smeller. :man_shrugging:t3:

I make mine with umami seasoning, better than bouillon beef, a little green onion, and some frozen veggies (carrots, peas, green beans, and corn).

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It’s finally getting a little colder here so I made steel cut oats in the rice cooker over night. It’s not much to look at but I can program the rice cooker for when I want it to be ready so when we wake up in the morning it smells sooooo good in here.

1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup soy milk
2 cups water
cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
1 banana cut into pieces

Then I set the rice cooker on portage setting and tell it when I want it to be done. In the morning I mix in frozen blueberries and top with some sliced almonds or walnuts. So good!

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I did that for years! Such a good way to wake up. A healthy breakfast all ready for you.

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This is so clever. I love oats but I lack time in the morning, and I don’t really like cold overnight oats.

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I went through the fridge and pantry to gather stuff that has to be used up quickly.

I peeled 10 small potatoes that started to look wrinkly, and I will turn them into a casserole for dinner. I’ll also put a leftover half a leek and half a cauliflower in the casserole.

I bought a squash a few weeks ago and roasted it first thing in the morning - the hot oven warmed up the house and I’ll have nice soup for lunch. I put some paprika powder on the squash before putting them in the oven, and I put pepper, garlic, ginger and coriander in the soup so it will be nice and spicy, and I stirred in a leftover half a carton of coconut milk. We’ll eat the soup with a stale bread and goat’s cheese toastie. So today will be a day of delicious, healthy food and as a plus most of our scraps and leftovers are gone, too.

I decided to prepare all the food first thing in the morning because we want to do some chores today, and I don’t want to end up ordering a pizza at 5pm because we’re super hungry and tired.

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I did that on Thursday! I threw a few sweet potatoes and salad turnips (young, sweet, tender ones), in the crockpot with a carton of chicken broth, some garlic, and a few small onions from the CSA. After it cooked for about 6 hours, I used the immersion blender to purée it, then added in half a can of coconut milk, and half a leftover pork loin, and some sautéed kale from Tuesday’s dinner. The pork and kale added a strange amount of lumps to the soup. It was no longer a smooth purée, but there also wasn’t enough chunks of goodness to feel like a finished soup, so I threw in a can of white beans, and a handful of leftover fresh parsley. Perfect! Well, almost. I also added in some paprika, smoked paprika, and white pepper. Then topped it with pepitas for crunch.

We had leftovers for dinner last night, and we’ll finish it off for lunch tomorrow. It was great to use up so many small, lingering items! Especially with Thanksgiving coming up soon. I need to clean out the fridge to make room for ingredients we actually need, and for the items family members will show up with.

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Husband has been boiling ham hocks with carrots and spices/herbs for three hours or so… We’re doing a traditional meal prep. The meat will be served with a swede and carrot mash flavoured with the stock. Some meat and the rest of the stock will also be reserved for split pea soup. The peas are soaking.

I’m not sure how ”what should we make for dinner” turned into this, but packed lunch next week will not be a problem.

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I got a bread baking machine last week, so I’ve been trying out different bread recipes! I’m really happy with the machine, the result is really good. I’ve been baking my own bread off and on for a while, but kneading by hand is physically intense. With a tough job and a disability baking bread just doesn’t seem like one of the things I can dedicate energy to … but I’ve been working with my dietician on reducing UPFs in my diet, and even wholemeal bread is a secret UPF - long story short, any flour that’s milled in a flour factory, is actually an UPF, even if it’s wholemeal. Flour should be stoneground in a mill (I get my flour from an actual medieval water mill). Since many people eat bread quite often, baking your own bread from healthy flour is a relatively quick and easy modification - assuming you are able to bake your own bread or have a family member that does.

I have also made Mr. Imma’s birthday cake today, it’s a cream cheese recipe and it’s very easy. A cookie crumb crust, cheesecake, and then canned cherries on top. Definitely UPF’s in that one. But my dietician is also teaching me that the most important thing is that your everyday diet is ok-ish. It doesn’t matter if you eat unhealthy things every now and then, what matters is what you eat most days.

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