Cooking thread, anyone?

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We're trying some chicken,potatoes with onions that will be cooked in a chicken broth after we brown the chicken and boil the potatoes some, my Italian grandmother had the right twist on this dish.

We're shooting from the hip on this recipe, if it comes out bad I'll post it! ;lol
That sounds like a perfect combo for slow cooking on the wood stove (on a trivet) or in a crockpot. There should be no need to preboil the potatoes.

PS: My wife is Sicilian on her father's side and still makes Grandma's chicken the old way. It is delicious and fills the house with great aromas.
 
That sounds like a perfect combo for slow cooking on the wood stove (on a trivet) or in a crockpot. There should be no need to preboil the potatoes.

PS: My wife is Sicilian on her father's side and still makes Grandma's chicken the old way. It is delicious and fills the house with great aromas.
This is how I usually cook unless I want to try something new.
 
That sounds like a perfect combo for slow cooking on the wood stove (on a trivet) or in a crockpot. There should be no need to preboil the potatoes.

PS: My wife is Sicilian on her father's side and still makes Grandma's chicken the old way. It is delicious and fills the house with great aromas.
We did it the way my grandmother did it (Calabrian, Plati) so everything has been in the oven and hopefully we'll be eating by 5:15 p.m.
 
This was just like I remembered it at my grandmother's house, I should have the recipe type up by tomorrow night.

Pic 9999 is just putting it together and the rest is at the table when it was done.
 

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This was just like I remembered it at my grandmother's house, I should have the recipe type up by tomorrow night.

Pic 9999 is just putting it together and the rest is at the table when it was done.
Looks delicious. I made Iranian Tah Chin (rice and lamb casserole) but didn't take any pics.
 
Yum to both chicken and potatoes and rice and lamb. I’d love to see recipes for both.
 
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Yum to both chicken and potatoes and rice and lamb. I’d love to see recipes for both.
Since we didn't write down or time anything, I'll have our recipe up after or before dinner tomorrow night.

Next weekend I'll be making Braciole, it's the way my father cooked them.
 
Yum to both chicken and potatoes and rice and lamb. I’d love to see recipes for both.
 
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Yum to both chicken and potatoes and rice and lamb. I’d love to see recipes for both.
Potatoes and Chicken in a Broth
  • 5 Boneless Chicken Breast without the skin
  • 6 Cups Chicken Broth
  • 6 Potatoes depending on the size
  • 1 Onion
  • Sweet Basil
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Granulated Garlic
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Save some water from boiling the potatoes
  • Red Pepper Flakes

  • First we washed the potatoes(leave skin on) and then cut up to a size we liked. We put the potatoes in a pot of water, once the water started to boil we took them out.

  • After cleaning the chicken breast we put salt,pepper and granulated garlic on the chicken and cut into thirds. We then browned them in Olive Oil for 6 minutes per side. Add your potatoes, sliced up onion, chicken breast, garlic cloves, dry sweet basil, 2 bay leaves, chicken broth and some water from cooking the potatoes to your pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake on 375. Remove cover for the last 20 minutes or when you think best. Our pan measured 10 x 13 x 3.25 inches deep, something smaller will cook faster and take less.
 
Nothing fancy tonight, just some shaved beef, red Cabbage, carrots, and onions.
 

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Thanks for the recipes, gentlemen.

I made a double-batch of "orange" chicken drumsticks tonight, except I needed to keep the meal a little lower in salicylates and pureed some canned pear for the sauce instead of using orange juice. I added my usual tamari, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, scallions, and maple syrup (because honey can also be high in salicylates), and some corn starch to thicken it. I was a little worried as the raw sauce was not that appealing to me, and I didn't want to ruin a large batch of already browned meat. My husband okayed the sauce, so I poured it on and cooked in the oven, and it turned out well. Phew. Now I have leftovers for tomorrow as well.
 
This is the firebox with the air about 30% open, glass top hovering around 780-790 at the hottest, and the oven around 400 (it went down a but when I opened the door to put the crackers in). The manual says I can run the air open a little more, but I'm not that brave! The glass darkened a bit, but the air wash isn't that great and the white birch bark off gasses very quickly on a bed of coals.
20200124_165054.jpg
 
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Made cinnamon rolls yesterday. Two trays of 12 each. Nan had one for breakfast yesterday. Rest are in the freezer.

Monthly Friendship dinner (spaghetti) at my wife's previous church tonight.

Chinese food tomorrow: Pork with Onion, Recipe is Beef with Onion. We like it with pork.

Pork with Onions

Adapted from the Wok Cooking Class Cookbook by the Editors of Consumer Guide, 1983.

1 pound pork
1 egg
4 tbsp. rice wine
2 tsp. sugar
2 ½ tbsp. cornstarch
6 tbsp. peanut oil
4 medium yellow onions
1 large clove garlic, minced
¼ cup cold water
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. sesame oil
Rice

To facilitate slicing, freeze meat until firm but not frozen. Cut meat into 1/8-inch thick slices. Stack slices; cut into 1/8-inch wide strips. Wet knife in cold water as needed to prevent sticking.

Beat egg, 1 tablespoon rice wine and ½ teaspoon sugar in a bowl; stir in meat. Sprinkle with 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch; stir to mix well. Stir in 1 tablespoon peanut oil. Marinate at room temperature 30 minutes.

Cut onions lengthwise in half; cut halves crosswise into 1/8-inch thick slices.

Mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with water in a small bowl until smooth; stir in 3 tablespoons rice wine, 1 ½ teaspoons sugar, soy sauce, and pepper.

Heat wok over high heat 15 seconds; add 2 tablespoons peanut oil and heat until hot, about 30 seconds. Scatter in onions; stir-fry until onions begin to turn translucent but not limp, 1 to 1 ½ minutes. Transfer onions to plate.

Add 3 tablespoons peanut oil to wok; heat until hot. Add minced garlic and heat in oil for 10 seconds. Scatter in meat, ¼ at a time and stir fry until cooked, 1 ½ to 2 minutes after all meat has been added. Return onions to wok; stir fry 15 seconds.

Stir soy sauce mixture and add to wok. Cook and stir until sauce thickens, 20 to 30 seconds. Drizzle with sesame oil; stir 3 or 4 times. Serve immediately over rice.

Notes: Tastes even better the next day when flavors have blended. Drizzle a little more sesame oil over the leftovers before placing in the refrigerator. Original recipe is beef tenderloin with onions.
 
Crackers and hummus from scratch.
 

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Crackers and hummus from scratch.

Crackers and hummus are a winning combination for us as well. Have you ever made pocket bread from scratch? It's not too hard and great fun at times.

We had quite a cooking day here today. Sourdough cranberry pancakes for breakfast (I needed to discard some starter that I had fed too much by accident earlier this week); focaccia and salad for lunch; roast chicken, baked potatoes, and green beans for dinner. After dinner I baked up some granola for tomorrow's breakfast. Oddly the weather has gotten warmer after the sun went down this evening, and all this baking has meant that I don't think I'll need to stoke the fire before bed.
 
Crackers and hummus are a winning combination for us as well. Have you ever made pocket bread from scratch? It's not too hard and great fun at times.

We had quite a cooking day here today. Sourdough cranberry pancakes for breakfast (I needed to discard some starter that I had fed too much by accident earlier this week); focaccia and salad for lunch; roast chicken, baked potatoes, and green beans for dinner. After dinner I baked up some granola for tomorrow's breakfast. Oddly the weather has gotten warmer after the sun went down this evening, and all this baking has meant that I don't think I'll need to stoke the fire before bed.
I've been thinking about making pita and granola from scratch. Naan would also be cool. I haven't broken into much bread. About a week ago I made some Brioche Buns from scratch and my wife said she'd marry me over these Buns if we weren't already married ;lol
 
Thinking of making Swedish toffee for bible study at my wife's church tomorrow night. Will decide in the morning. It's what a Tootsie Roll wants to be.

Swedish Toffee
Homemade Candy. By the Food Editors of Farm Journal. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970.

This is different from our toffees – it’s hard with a chocolate flavor.

2 ½ c. sugar
1 ½ c. dark corn syrup
¼ c. cocoa
1 c. heavy cream
1 c. dairy half and half
6 Tblsp. butter
1 ½ tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar, corn syrup, cocoa, cream, dairy half and half, and 3 Tblsp. butter in a heavy 3‑quart saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue cooking, stirring no more than necessary, to the hard ball stage (250 °F). Watch carefully. Mixture will boil to the top of the saucepan.

Remove from heat, stir in remaining 3 Tblsp. butter and vanilla. Pour into buttered 9-inch square pan to cool.

While still warm, mark in 1-inch squares; when cool, cut with a sharp knife and wrap individually in waxed paper. Makes 81 squares, or 2 pounds.

Paul’s comments: I add 4 tablespoons butter at the beginning and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons at the end. It boils to the top of a 3-quart sauce pan; watch carefully. It takes almost hour to reach hard ball stage. Turn out while warm to the touch on a cutting board and cut into strips and pieces; a cleaver works well. Pieces should be smaller than one-inch square, 120 pieces. Round the edges of each piece while slightly warm. Enjoy!
 
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Thinking of making Swedish toffee for bible study at my wife's church tomorrow night. Will decide in the morning. It's what a Tootsie Roll wants to be.

Swedish Toffee
Homemade Candy. By the Food Editors of Farm Journal. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1970.

This is different from our toffees – it’s hard with a chocolate flavor.

2 ½ c. sugar
1 ½ c. dark corn syrup
¼ c. cocoa
1 c. heavy cream
1 c. dairy half and half
6 Tblsp. butter
1 ½ tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar, corn syrup, cocoa, cream, dairy half and half, and 3 Tblsp. butter in a heavy 3‑quart saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue cooking, stirring no more than necessary, to the hard ball stage (250 °F). Watch carefully. Mixture will boil to the top of the saucepan.

Remove from heat, stir in remaining 3 Tblsp. butter and vanilla. Pour into buttered 9-inch square pan to cool.

While still warm, mark in 1-inch squares; when cool, cut with a sharp knife and wrap individually in waxed paper. Makes 81 squares, or 2 pounds.

Paul’s comments: I add 4 tablespoons butter at the beginning and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons at the end. It boils to the top of a 3-quart sauce pan; watch carefully. It takes almost hour to reach hard ball stage. Turn out while warm to the touch on a cutting board and cut into strips and pieces; a cleaver works well. Pieces should be smaller than one-inch square, 120 pieces. Round the edges of each piece while slightly warm. Enjoy!
I'm saving this one.
 
I'm saving this one.
Me, too. Someone recently gave one of my children a Tootsie Roll, and he really enjoyed it. He has so many allergies and sensitivities, though, that we tend to make most everything from scratch. This was just the inspiration I needed.

Our dinner plan had involved my making naan to eat with leftover lamb, but one of my lovely European canning jars of homemade yogurt had a catastrophic encounter with the tile floor of the kitchen this afternoon. It was quite sad on a number of levels (but thankfully no bare toes or feet were harmed on the three-year-old culprit), and naan had to be postponed. I therefore had time to see if I could pull off Swedish Toffee. We drink non-homogenized milk, so it was easy for me to pour off cream and a half-and-half type substance, but I didn't have any corn syrup. My first step was to boil up a substitute from sugar, water, cream of tartar, and lime juice. That seems to have worked, and my half batch of toffee turned out beautifully. I have 60 pieces in molds, and the kids all got to enjoy the scrapings from spoons and pans and the funnel as well as their very own toffee twist after dinner (which ended up being popcorn and sauerkraut because no one was too hungry after licking my pans).

We'll have leftover leg of lamb for a meal tomorrow. Perhaps I'll see if I can turn it into Tah Chin. I was really interested in that recipe you posted, @SpaceBus, but haven't been able to get any ground lamb to try it out yet. I'll have to take another look.
 
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I'll post some pictures from making Swedish toffee for tips.

Let me know if you want me to also post English toffee (Heath bar) and buckeyes (Reese's peanut butter cups).

I can also post the recipe I tried for honeycomb candy. Don't think I took any pictures of that, though. Didn't have it in a large enough pot, and it was like a grammar school science fair volcano demonstration gone wrong when I added the baking soda. What a disaster. :)
 
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Me, too. Someone recently gave one of my children a Tootsie Roll, and he really enjoyed it. He has so many allergies and sensitivities, though, that we tend to make most everything from scratch. This was just the inspiration I needed.

Our dinner plan had involved my making naan to eat with leftover lamb, but one of my lovely European canning jars of homemade yogurt had a catastrophic encounter with the tile floor of the kitchen this afternoon. It was quite sad on a number of levels (but thankfully no bare toes or feet were harmed on the three-year-old culprit), and naan had to be postponed. I therefore had time to see if I could pull off Swedish Toffee. We drink non-homogenized milk, so it was easy for me to pour off cream and a half-and-half type substance, but I didn't have any corn syrup. My first step was to boil up a substitute from sugar, water, cream of tartar, and lime juice. That seems to have worked, and my half batch of toffee turned out beautifully. I have 60 pieces in molds, and the kids all got to enjoy the scrapings from spoons and pans and the funnel as well as their very own toffee twist after dinner (which ended up being popcorn and sauerkraut because no one was too hungry after licking my pans).

We'll have leftover leg of lamb for a meal tomorrow. Perhaps I'll see if I can turn it into Tah Chin. I was really interested in that recipe you posted, @SpaceBus, but haven't been able to get any ground lamb to try it out yet. I'll have to take another look.
I get my ground lamb from a local Coop type place. I've abandoned the supermarket entirely. Aside from some types of fruit that don't travel well I miss nothing.
 
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Making candy is a lot of fun. As mentioned above, Swedish toffee needs to be watched. It will boil to the top of a 3-quart saucepan. English toffee won't boil to the top.

I use a Chinese cleaver to cut. Turn out the toffee and cut while still warm.

Don't just throw the cut pieces together like I did the first couple of times I made it. They will stick together.

Makes a nice-sized batch. :)
 

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Here are the pieces being kept apart before wrapping. Much better.
 

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The assembly line: pieces to be wrapped, squares of cut waxed paper, and a bowl to toss them in. :)
 

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I'll post some pictures from making Swedish toffee for tips.

Let me know if you want me to also post English toffee (Heath bar) and buckeyes (Reese's peanut butter cups).

I can also post the recipe I tried for honeycomb candy. Don't think I took any pictures of that, though. Didn't have it in a large enough pot, and it was like a grammar school science fair volcano demonstration gone wrong when I added the baking soda. What a disaster. :)


I have a "caramel" popcorn recipe that does that...add the baking soda and watch the magic! LOL I also learned the hard way to use a
tall pot ;)
 
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