New Old School Cooking Thread

THANK YOU BUBBA!! I'm a picky bitch when it comes to food. I cannot find a premade sauce I like, so I love trying new recipes. This one sounds really good!! (I hate sweet bbq sauce!!)

Woohoo! :D

[b]Brown Sugar Cookies[/b] (pic above)

http://www.food.com/recipe/brown-sugar-cookies-americas-test-kitchen-419087

1  Preheat oven to 350°F Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silpats.

2  In a small skillet, melt 10 tbsp unsalted butter. Continue to cook until the milk solids begin to brown, 2-4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, add the remaining 4 tbsp of cold butter, and set aside to cool, 15 minutes.

3  In a pie dish, combine 1/4 c packed brown sugar with white sugar, rubbing with fingers to break up the brown sugar. Set aside.

4  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and baking powder (the soda counteracts the acid in the brown sugar, while the powder provides lift; you really need both!).

5  In a large bowl, combine remaining 1 3/4 c brown sugar with cooled melted butter, along with vanilla and salt. Stir to combine until smooth.

6  In a small bowl, briefly beat egg and egg yolk to combine. Add to butter and sugar and stir well. Add flour mixture and stir until well-mixed and no pockets of dry flour remain.

7  Turn dough onto a cutting board and pat into a rough circle. Cut circle in four equal pieces, then divide each piece into six equal pieces, for a total of 24 cookies. Quickly roll each lump of dough into a ball, then roll in the mixed sugars to coat, then place onto lined cookie sheets, about 2" apart.

8  Bake ONE TRAY AT A TIME for 12-14 minutes, spinning the tray 180° halfway done. (You need the top and bottom to cook evenly, or the texture will be wrong; if you have both pans in at the same time, they will shield each other.) They will appear underdone, but the edge should be set enough that you can lift it, and when pressed gently halfway between the center and the edge, the cookie should spring back. Let sit on the hot tray 5 minutes to finish cooking, then transfer to a rack to cool completely

FWIW, my observations:

Brown Sugar:  Use fresh stuff.  Allegedly moisture content is critical.  Older, dryer brown sugar may screw the pooch.

Browning Butter:  Heating butter will cause the solids to separate.  The instructions above say to allow those solids to brown.  When I did this I thought the solids tasted burnt, not delicious, and had the texture of coffee grounds.  Maybe I overcooked them.  Dunno.  Regardless, I pitched it and started over, stirring the butter with a silicone scraper like a mofo until the butter darkened.  Vigorously stirring kept the solids from separating.  This I found to be delicious and was a prominent flavor in the finished cookie.

Doneness:  The “spring back when poked” thing seemed like magic to me.  If it does to you too, err on the side of underdone.  Overdone these things are rocks.

Got two recipes for you. I worked in an italian kitchen for a year or so, and this is how they did their bruschetta. It's sicilian style, so is not what you normally expect for bruschetta...i.e. light and  soft. This is a more savory recipe.

made up of wtwo parts, the crostini and the topping

crostini ingredients:

one loaf or baguette of semolina bread sliced as thin as possible. Panera's semolina is perfectly fine, but I use the local bakery here, they slice a bit thinner.

2-3 cloves garlic pressed and minced

spoonful of crushed red pepper

3 cups virgin olive oil

1 cup balsamic vinnegar

1/2 lemon

direction:

set oven to 520*

place bread flat on heavy cookie sheet (do not use parchment paper)

mix all ingredients except the bread into a bowl and mix vigorously, like you would scrambled eggs.

use a baster to spread the oil mixture liberally over the top side of the bread.

place in oven on timer for 5 mins.

flip bread and lightly baste bread with remaining mixture. There will be wasted mixture, expect it. If you don't have enough, eyeball what you need and make it.

place back into oven on timer for 3 mins. Remove and place in container, DO NOT cover the container.

Bruschetta ingrediants:

2-3 containers (like you would buy at the store) of grape or cherry tomatoes. You can use romas if you like, but there will be a lot of waste.

Chopped basil, as much or as little as you like...i prefer a lot, but you need at least enough to see the green in the mixture

olive oil

balsamic vinnegar

the other half of the lemon

2 cloves of garlic finely minced

Punch of salt (about 4 pinches)

Shred any kind of hard italian cheese. I prefer romano.

direction:

the first part is extremely labor intensive, but is so worth it for a great finished product. Cut the tomatoes (if they are cherry or grapes ones) into halves, then halve each half. You only want the flesh of the tomatoes, so after you've cut a certain number of tomatoes, flatten them out with your chef's knife to push the tomato cum out of them. This will take some time. Expect at least 20-30 mins of cutting until you're done, maybe more if your knife skills aren't great.

place product into a large bowl, add basil, garlic, salt and sqeeze the lemon onto the mixture being careful not to get seeds in it.

this is where the process becomes muddled. Because the amount of product you get from the tomatoes will vary depending on how much water was in them, you'll have to eyeball adding the oil. The general rule of thumb is to make a flat platform of the tomatoes and add oil until the level reaches half the size of the tomatoes in the bowl. Add a sprinkle of balsamic...not too much.

Top your crostini with the bruschetta and add the cheese over top.

This dish is served best after topping has sat in the fridge for a couple of hours to marinate and chill, so do the topping first, and then work on the crostini so the bread will be hot when you apply the topping. This stuff is awesome, and is the only fond memory I have working with some violent Italians.

Recipe number 2...Fetal's brinner surprise. This is essentially just a breakfast casserole that's super easy to make and serves 4-6 people easily, depending on how big you like your slices.

ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 lb. shredded potatoes (you can buy these in the store frozen, but I just shred and boil my own, then sqeeze out the excess water and fry em up)

1/2 lb bacon chopped or diced ham

1/2 yellow onion

1 green pepper

1/2 lb. shredded chedder cheese

3 eggs beaten with a small amount of cream or milk to fluff them up.

optional-jalapeños 

Direction:

set over to 500*

fry bacon until done and place on plate.

fry potatoes in bacon fat....mmmm...bacon until they beginto brown. You can skip this and just use an oil substitute.

Remove finished potatoes from pan into a seperate container.

get rid of the fat/oil andbrownthe ground beef withtheonionand green pepper...ifyou'recooking frozen beef, make suretoput theonion and pepper in after the meat has cooked sufficiently,otherwise you'll burn it.

Grab an 8 by 3 circular casserole dish or something comparable.

layer half the potatoes on the bottom of the dish. Then add half the gound beef on top followed by a third of the cheese mixed with halfthe bacon or ham. Repeat the process for a total of 6 layersmaking sure to  flatten each layer as much as possible before applying the next. Leaving a remaining 1/3 pfthecheese to be used later.

take the beaten eggs and whisk them evenly over the top as evenly as possible, making sure to cover the edges especially.

cover with aluminum foil and place in oven for 30 minutes.

remove from oven and remove the aluminum foil carefully because some of the egg will undoubtedly stick to it.

add remaining cheese (and optional jalapenos) and spread evenly over top. 

You have two choices here. If you havea salamander, or havethe ability to make the dish sit as close as possible to the oven coil on broil,dothis for 3-5 minsoras long as it takes for the cheeseto begin to caramelize and bubble. If not you can just playitsafe and return the dish to the oven sans foil for 10-15 minutes.

wait 10 minutes or so for dish to cool,and slice as desired.

salt and pepper to taste

total time spent..about an hour and 15mins, with you cooking for only about 20 mins. Real easy recipe to make and tastes great.

I feel I must publically state, Oldschool only cooks when pressed into service and no one else is available, (usually after a desperate search). However, after reading the bruschetta recipe above, this may change. We have a local restaurant that serves this up and it's my favorite part of the meal, although the chicken marsala is awesome as well...

This thread is obviously devoted to people that cook twice a year and when they do, they spend 12 hours making the most perfectly smoked meat.

Ain't nobody got time for that! Start sharing your favorite weeknight, rushed family recipes. Thanks!

Honey-Lime Salmon.  It’s Rachel Ray.  Please don’t judge.  It’s quick, easy, and the Snuphettes love it.  We serve it with steamed rice and a salad or steamed green thing.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

juice of 1 lime

3 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon chili powder

4 (6oz) salmon filets (skinned)

salt and pepper to taste

In a shallow dish, combine the juice of 1 lime, honey, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Add the salmon fillets to the lime-honey mixture and toss to coat thoroughly.  Preheat a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat with the oil.  Add the seasoned salmon to the hot skillet and cook until just cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Snuphy’s Notes, FWIW:  If you have kosher salt on hand, leave the salt out of the marinade and instead give the fish a good kosher sprinkle right before they hit the pan.  Salmon is less expensive if you buy a whole filet as compared to buying single portions.  Most fish mongers will skin a filet if you ask (my wife does this).  Honey likes to burn, so keep an eye on them, lower heat if needed.  They hold their shape better if you start cooking them (formerly) skin side up.  Cover them near the end of cooking if you need a little extra help getting them cooked thru.  Wild caught seems to cook thru faster than farm raised.

Don't oversteam your green beans, and LOOK, Snuphy uses a napkin!

Chicken Feta Burgers

The original WW recipe said serve them with whole wheat pitas, lettuce and jarred roasted red peppers.  Instead, we put chunks of the burger on small flour tortillas with hummus and sweet pepper (either grilled or uncooked).  I also like to shred a little romaine or red leaf for mine.  The middle Snuphette just stabs one with a fork, dunks it in hummus, and eats it like a meat-cicle.  In related news, we regularly double the burger recipe just for her.  I think these are more flavorful grilled.  My wife says they’re juicier pan fried.  My kids like them both ways.  We serve them with a salad or steamed green thing.

1 package (#) ground chicken

7 T crumbled feta cheese

1 T fresh oregano, chopped fine

¼ tsp powdered garlic

Veggie oil

2 bell peppers, yellow, red, or orange

Flour tortillas

Hummus

Romaine or other lettuce (optional)

For the Burgers:  Mix chicken, feta, oregano, and garlic in a bowl.  Form mixture into patties about ¾” thick. 

GRILLING:  Heat grill.  Cut bell peppers into large, grillable pieces.  Rub pepper pieces with light coating of oil.  Oil grill grate.  Grill burgers until there are grill marks/browned splotches on both sides and no longer pink in the middle, about 3-5 minutes per side.  Grill pepper pieces skin side down until skin bubbles and develops brown splotches.  Flip peppers and grill a couple more minutes, until they just start to soften.  Grill tortillas about 3 at a time for 20-30 seconds each side.  Stack warmed tortillas in piece of foil.  If you wish, cut peppers into thin strips and burgers into longish chunks before serving.

STOVETOP:  Cut the bell peppers into thin strips and set aside for serving.  Heat ~T oil in non-stick skillet over med-high heat.  Fry burgers until golden brown on both sides and no longer pink in the middle, about 3-5 min per side.

TO SERVE:  Slather some hummus into a tortilla, add chunks of burger and strips of pepper and green leaves (if desired).  Roll it up.  Enjoy.

Oh hell no. Grill runs 24/7/365 around here, especially in the summer when we want to keep from heating up the house. We grill when there's snow on the ground.

Us too.  Based on what I see my neighbors not doing, we might not be normal.

Have you heard about ZKittens neighbors?

We used to live just north of Detroit and we'd grill with a foot of snow on the ground. And when it's cold like that, the smell just hangs around, soooo nice...of course , we also used the hot tub all year...

Hopefully no one from here makes it to this site.

http://someoneatethis.tumblr.com/