From scratch!
 

This afternoon, on a whim, I decided to make cheddar and broccoli soup. After all, just this morning I saw Emeril make it look super easy. Never tried before because I was worried I'd screw it up, and it came out delicious!

No recipe, just straight up YUM!

I'll be right over.

Those are the best meals. I love to see what I have in the cupboards/fridge and make something out of it. Gotta watch my Food TV.

Congrats on a yummy dish. :)

Not quite at the same level but, after 40 years of living on this planet, I'm embarrassed to say that I finally made french toast for the first time. Cinnamon bread from Trader Joe's, a little vanilla and a bit of half and half. Came out remarkably well for the first time.

I'm all out, just had enough leftover broccoli for three of us, but I'm tempted to try it again soon. It was awesome!

I love having great ideas out of (somewhat) nowhere.

Anyone else having any spontaneous outbursts of cooking?

MmmmMMMM!

I've got pasta salad on the stove. Then grilling steak and corn. I got some fresh mozarella now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

Oh and I've made a couple gallons of Tea Punch so far this summer. We tried it in Nashville and I got the recipe.

Makes 1 Gallon

1 generous bunch of mint
1 quart of boiling water
2 large tea bags meant for iced tea such as Tetley
2 cups sugar
juice of 4 lemons
juice of 4 oranges
water to make 1 gallon

Preparation
Place the mint in a large pitcher and pour the boiling water over. Add the tea bags and sugar. Let steep for ten minutes. Remove the mint and the tea bags. Add the juices and water to make 1 gallon. Serve over ice with mint and thin lemon circle for garnish.

I've been making it using the splenda mix (not the pure splenda but the splenda sugar mix) and it's turned out great as well.

Tomatoes, basil, maybe a few thinly sliced red onions, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pinch of salt and cracked black pepper.

That's what I'd do.

I can make Kraft macaroni and cheese.

blueerica beat me to the 'what to do with'....I love the whole blend of flavors.

I'll be right over

:)

I felt like making Chocolate Chip cookies yesterday. It was just that kind of day... 100 degrees + outside and I want to turn the oven on in my house.

I have an urge to make orange rolls. Entirely from scratch - which means kneading the dough by hand. Might do it tomorrow.

I'm making banana bread today.

man all these 'sweets' sound so wonderful ... for me, it's enchiladas for the casa de silva today

Wow Leo, you are conservative!

I love the tomato, Basil, Fresh Mozzarella, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)! I grow tomatoes and it works great with red and yellow ones!

Inspired by the new movie, I thought I'd try a dish I have never had; Ratatouilli. I hit the net, looked at several recipes (cripes, there are many ways to make this dish!). Traditionally, it is a meatless stew of sorts, so I stuck with that concept. The movie had it more as a veggie dish than a stew, but also getting all the ingredients to be the same size circles would be nearly impossible anyway.

So, I took the best ideas from several recipes, and went for it. That's the way I work, I look at a bunch of recipes, take the ideas I like, alter the ingredients for what ever reason (what I have on hand or can easily get, cost, ease or time, or picky eaters at my house and leave out offending ingredients).

It turned out wonderfully! I need to write down what I did. If anyone wants the recipe- let me know.

Please share, I have the veggie Queen in my house, we went to Yamabuki on our last trip to the park and she had their version sans sauce and practically licked her plate clean.

I can make reservations.

Although if you do want to jazz up Mac y Queso, I suggest chopping up and grilling some polska kielbasa and mixing it in, and then adding some grated cheddar cheese on top and melting that in the broiler.
_____

Nirvanaman and I got to enjoy Susan's spaghetti last night with her chocolate cake for desert. Yum yum!

Is there anything more wonderful than the smell of rising bread dough?

I didn't think so.

You may now envy my kitchen and its racks of fresh orange rolls, ready for the oven.

I just learned how to make hard boiled eggs properly.

That's as much cooking as I'm willing to do.

I undercooked the banana bread. :(

Fresh orange rolls and fresh corn bread. All from scratch, courtesy of my Grandmother's 1953 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (which is full of regrettable-worthy photos.)

I havent been able to make banana or strawberry bread since I moved back to CA. I mastered it in CO, but here..... I fail every time.

Sniffing the air for orange rolls......

Ah yes, the Better Homes & Gardens, I recall the BBQ section was particularly funny.

Who ever though jello salads were a good thing?

My mom nags at me to cook more. I am a good cook, when I want to be.

I make killer fudge every year during the Holidays.

Lately I have been craving chocolate brownie pudding cake. It is all from scratch and really easy. The batter for the cake is on the bottom and you put a mixture of brown sugar and cocoa over the top, pour on hot water and
as it cooks the brownie comes up and the water mixes with the sugar to form a pudding underneath. YUM!

I've been doing a lot of improvising lately. Nothing fancy, but I tend to wander the aisles at the market, grabbing flavors that I think will work together, and worry about how to actually cook them later. Pasta sauces, chili-style dishes, meat marinades, rice dishes. I'm not so up on complex cooking techniques (though I'm slowly building my repertoire), mostly my strength lies in flavor selection.

I made popovers yesterday for breakfast. I had been a while since I made them and they weren't as full as they usually are. But, I think my oven may have died in the middle of the cooking and that was the problem. I also made a spinach, cream cheese, mushroom, garlic and fontina cheese frittata which was also good but not puffy due to the oven issue.

I'm coming over if there are leftovers!

There ARE leftovers - except for the bacon which was consumed. There is also a bowl of fresh berries.

Yum! :( no more bacon

I also make popovers, they're yummy.

I think I need to drag out the kitchenaid mixer (cherry red) and make some brioche, all this baking talk has got me in the mood for some domestic activity. Look out arteries, brioche takes a pound of butter......in the dough, forget what I slather on when they're hot from the oven.

What a trip - must be the altitude. I didn't realize it would have *that* big of an impact!

For anyone interested, the 1996 edition of the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook has at least one Jello-O recipe (though it's called "Berry Salad" and the only way to find it would be to read every page of the salad section, or to look up "gelatin" in the index and learn that there's a hint to how to unmold a gelatin salad on p. 441--must be a recipe that involves that, too!).

Instructions for how to prepare gelatin remain, though. It gets almost a whole column in "Cooking Basics."

And Barbeque is now called "Grilling."

Two different things, technically. Grilling is cooking meat or veggies relatively quickly over high, direct heat on a grill. True barbequing involves slow cooking over lower and/or indirect heat.

Not according to Better Homes & Gardens.

I love cooking from scratch.

I don't do enough cooking these days though. When I get my own place again I'll be cooking up a storm.

I made a veggie-rice gratin last night.

I substituted every ingredient in the recipe except garlic (which I doubled the amount of).

Do you need the special popover pans to make popovers? I don't have one, and I'm not sure I'm willing to invest in one either.

I got my special popover pan at Bed Bath & Beyond (it's in the "Beyond" section). It wasn't too expensive, it just takes up some space.

I don't think you do (although I, too, have popover pans) If you have parchment paper, I would use a muffin tin and grease it (butter) and then line it with parchment paper so the popovers have a place to rise.

That said, popover pans are reasonable (I think I paid $10 for mine) - I just do not use them too often.

agreed.

grilling is a cooking style

BBQ'ing is an art

My mom makes a version of popovers using regular muffin pans.

I see grilling as being as much of an art as BBQ. Two very different arts, but just as much creativity and skill needs to go into a properly seasoned and grilled flank steak as an all-day-slow-cooked rack of ribs.

I've used my popover pan to make muffins, too.

Well, of course it was!

According to The Boy, She Who Shall Not Be Named has been trying out a few of my from scratch, no recipe, cooking ideas. So far none have turned out very well.

I think I am going to make chicken & dumplings this week...it is a recipe that I stole from Her, but I know how to do it.

I have a Popover Pan that I us for popovers, but I used to make them in regular muffin pans.

I've never had a popover. What is different about them than regular muffins or rolls?

Yes, but how does the taste compare? I licked the monitor with the Wikipedia page up, but it just tasted the same as usual - dust, old sneeze, and static.

How are they different from muffins and rolls? Well, for starters, they've got a big ol' air pocket in them.

Ewww, I won't be comming over for dinner after all........

;)

On a happier note, the Mediterranean lamb burgers I made are quite delicious. It's a good thing too, because they took a lot longer than I thought they were going to! Next time, I will definitely be getting PITTED kalamata olives.

Watch out! Double post!
 

Best popovers ever. :coffee:

There's always the "Edit" button. ;)

I'm having popovers for breakfast today.

With jam?

Plain, actually.

But jam would've been good.

I've got some Maine blueberry jam. I can bring that if you make the popovers.

I usually drive down to see my Pop - he doesn't come over.

When will you be here?

(I'll also need time to turn the sewing table back into a dining room table.)

If you make it to the West coast I have made lots of jam this year. So far I have strawberry, blueberry and raspberry made. I also made a batch of strawberry and blueberry with Splenda for all the grandparents who are diabetic or trying to lose weight.

I love Oregon strawberries for jam because they are sweeter but for blueberries Maine has us beat! The blueberries are small but they pack a wonderful flavor! In Oregon they are much bigger and easier to pick on big bushes but just don't have the flavor of the East coast varieties.

Perhaps if you cleaned the house once in a while.....





















Just kidding!! :D

Apparently you've been to our house!!!!!;)

The popovers and jam concept is making me swoon. I'll bring tea, or root beer, or whatever you'd like, if I can cadge an invite.

Oatmeal raisin cookies, recipe from the lid of the Quaker Oats.

In a domestic goddess mood so today the hubby gets a 'comfort meal' sopa de aroz, carne con chile, refrieds and warmed flour tortillas....off to the market now.