Hassley's Profile
What do you use Duxelle for?
One of the dishes we serve where I work is a salmon wellington stuffed with Duxelle. It's even better when you top the wellington with a basic cream reduction.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
I once forgot about the fact that I had potatoes boiling on the stove... they were on there long enough for the pot to boil DRY. The bottom of the potatoes turned into a black charred mess... and I still tried to salvage them. The overcooked mashed potatoes were a sticky, char-tasting mess.
Oh... and then there was the time I spent a few days experimenting with baked onion rings... one night I was out of anything but flour... seasoned flour covered onions... just. terrible.
Of course, I've learned a lot since these errors ;)
Menu suggestions for a inexperienced french cook
You could do a ratatouille to go with the beef.
Cooking with a Costco rotisserie chicken
Buffalo chicken wraps (toss with some hot sauce, put in a tortilla with some iceburg lettuce and some blue cheese or blue cheese dressing)
Chicken fajitas
Chicken quesadillas
Chicken stir fry
Chicken salad sandwich
Chicken fettucini alfredo
Big party, Everyone brings a big salad or any type - what would you bring?
You could do a basic baby spinach salad with sliced mushrooms, boiled egg and bacon bits.
Or a cold couscous salad.
A cold ratatouille recipe can also be quite delicious.
Question about asparagus...
I like to sprinkle my asparagus with parmesan cheese after a quick sautee in butter.
What's for Dinner XXX
Made a carrot and ginger risotto earlier. Everything was pretty standard (onions, butter, chicken stock) .Tossed some fresh ginger in there as well. Then tossed some carrots into the food processor, sauteed lightly, then added to the risotto close to the end of the cooking process. Was pretty delish.
Why does my cream cheese frosting always go runny?
The cream cheese icing recipe that comes along with this Great Canadian Heinz Ketchup Cake is the most amazing cream cheese icing I've ever tasted. And it's definitely pipable.
http://www.heinzitup.com/view_recipe.asp?RecipeID=532
I know the cake sounds rather unconventional because of the ketchup in the ingredient list, but the cake itself is also amazing. It is a moist, delicious spice cake. Definitely would recommend making the cake AND the icing.
Getting into Cake Decorating
I am a culinary student heading into a baking and pastry arts program beginning in September and I am really interested in starting to build some basic cake decorating skills over the summer as a friend of mine has asked that I do her wedding cake for the fall.
My problem is this - I have none of the tools required for sugar flowers or gum paste modeling and I would like to know if you guys have any tips for me on where to start. I live in Toronto and have called a couple of the specialty cake shops for shopping suggestions but apparently they all seem to shop from online suppliers.
My question is this - if any of you do specialty cake decorating do you have a favourite website you purchase your supplies from? Can you recommend some tools I should definitely have in a starting collection?
Any tips or suggestions are appreciated!
What's For Dinner? Part XXVII
Tilapia with Balsamic browned butter sauce and whole wheat spaghetti with caramelized shallots, parsley and garlic.
Inspired by Rachel Ray recipes ;) Delish.
Flashback: Menu ideas for 70's/80's potluck. Tupperware optional.
sheppard's pie,
tuna casserole
Favorite Fall Recipes
I love eating a quick and easy chicken curry! It's just a perfect comfort food to me. My favourite way of enjoying the mix is wrapped up in a tortilla.
leftover cheescake batter...
I don't know how think the batter would be... not too familiar with baked cheesecakes... but perhaps you could do some mini cream cheesecake snacks using mini bagels? You could swirl some of the batter atop half pieces of mini bagels and have an open faced little "bagel with cream cheese" snack. Maybe even drizzle some strawberry sauce over the bagels first, so it absorbs some of the fruity flavour.
Edit: After looking at your recipe for the batter this might actually be best done in the way that Allice just suggested for strawberries... cook the batter first, cream, and pipe onto the mini toasted bagels with strawberry jam.
Beef Liver - Do you choose to eat it?
So after reading the book Julie and Julia, I was left with a pretty intense craving for some good old infamous liver. I went out last Friday night and bought a package (love how inexpensive it is!) and did up some pan-fried liver with onion gravy. Low and behold, however, I was still left with about 4 more servings of the raw stuff in the fridge! I get bored with eating the same thing daily, so I wanted to test out some different preparations. Now, usually google is pretty good at inspiring some ideas, but I found there to be little to no material on creative ways to prepare liver! I ended up finding one recipe that had it sauteed in tomato sauce. So I twisted up that idea by making a sauce with some vodka sauce and my leftover onion gravy. Turned out pretty delicious.
STILL! I was left with MORE liver. So I actually ended up breading and frying up the remainder, melting some cheese onto the top, and threw the leftover tomato sauce over top of that. I put it all into some bread and had myself a little liver parm sandwich...
Needless to say, I am definitely liver'd out for now. There's only so much you can eat before the "interesting" texture starts getting to you.
Now, I ask all of you: Do you eat liver? And if so, what are some interesting ways that you choose to prepare it?
Cookbooks with a Pork Focus
Funny, I was just reading another thread and somebody mentioned this one:
Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork
I know nothing about it, but it sounds like what you'd be looking for!
(If you're curious, it was mentioned in the thread about what to do with a leftover pig's head, spine etc.)
Fudgy chocolate frosting?
Sounds delicious! I'm gonna tuck this away for future use myself :)
Trying something new - Spaghetti Squash
So I searched, and found nothing pertaining to this delicious, yet uncommon ingredient. I was at the grocery store today and on a whim decided to purchase a spaghetti squash. I've eaten it a couple times before at family events but never made it myself. I believe I tried it just mixed up with some parmasean, butter and salt and served. I'm open to trying my hand at it this same way this time, but first I thought I would ask all of you - do you have any favourite ways to prepare your spaghetti squash? Any tips or suggestions?
Desperate Times Call for...
I've mixed up some pretty strange concoctions... But I can't really remember too many off the top of my head... let's see:
"Ghetto" stir-fry - Ramen noodles, drained, tossed with some vegetables.
Golden Hominy - YUCK! I hadn't had any experience with it so just boiled it and tried to eat it with some salt... I'm not picky, but I could barely down a few bites.
Peanut butter on a wheat-bix - I had a big craving for some peanut butter toast but the closest thing I found to bread was the Wheat-bix... actually was pretty delicious!
An attempt at homemade onion rings made with just flour and spices - I was out of breadcrumbs... I will never make this mistake again. Lol. Absolutely filthy. Just picture a floppy, pasty pile of onion slices. But, desperate times... I still ate them!
3 luxury items I want to try to keep
Fresh Salmon
Good cheese varieties
Fresh herbs
Although these luxuries are moreso items I hope to be able to afford more of once I'm no longer a poor student! The herbs might seem silly but right now I find it hard to justify spending a few extra dollars on an item that I can't use up on meals for one before they quickly wilt, not to mention can easily live without.
Thinking about it, perhaps I'll grow a few plants of my own!
where to find chocolate covered marshmallows
Why not just make your own? Seems simple enough. Melt chocolate, dip marshmallows, let dry and voila!
potato chips: apply directly to the sandwich
Yeah, it's really strange... my boyfriend is American and hasn't really heard of Ketchup chips... maybe it's an American thing? That is if, in fact, you are American.
Best packaged non-bakery store bought cookies
Chocolate mint Girl Guide cookies! Mmm mmm. Even better since they changed the recipe and include a creamy mint center! I'm not sure if the Girl Guide cookies are the same in America... but in Canada, these are amazing!
Aside from these, I also really love those Maple sandwich cookies. No particular brand, they're all pretty delicious to me. Even packages purchased at the dollar store!
'fess up, "i'm a hog when it comes to eating ____ ."
Oh man... where to start...
first of all, I am in love with trying anything I've never tried before (lights me up like nothing else ;) lol )... so if there's a spread at a party or holiday gathering I HAVE to stand at the table trying absolutely everything. I'm just a hog for everything! Instead of being embarassed about my spread-loving I just own it. Lol. Nothing wrong with admitting I love eating... and better that the food not go to waste!
I can remember one meal in particular though that still gets my mouth watering every time I think about it... A big bbq'd slab of fresh salmon. Man, does fresh ever make a difference. I swear that slab was 2 feet long and I must have eaten half of it! I had to force myself to stop. I'm the type of person that wants to keep eating when something is just THAT delicious, despite how full I am.
Other than that, I'm a big lover of potato chips, especially Doritos.
potato chips: apply directly to the sandwich
At most family bbqs my Mom likes to put potato chips/nacho chips out with the rest of the meal. Of course, hamburgers are delicious, chips are delicious... so why not put them together? I used to do this all the time... and if the opportunity arises I still do! (I prefer chips of the flavoured variety) =)
So what did you eat for lunch today? Home cooked, leftovers or nuttin'?
So this will be my first post on this site ever, Hurrah!
I'm a student on a tight budget (ie. occasionally lacking on the grocery front) so I'm pretty adventurous in the kitchen! I usually have to be creative with whatever I can find in my fridge/cupboards. I'm down to my last meat options so last night I cooked up a decent sized pork roast just for little old me... thus leaving me with a large dish of leftovers! Today for lunch wasn't very interesting... I just sauteed up the pork with a mix of things creating a smokey sort of bbq sauce and made a pulled pork sandwich. Dinner, however, was delicious. I'm all out of bread of any sort so I made some homemade flour tortillas using a recipe found online, cooked up the pork in a sweet and spicy sauce using some ketchup, a spicy chili sauce, maple syrup, soy sauce and some horseradish mustard and put that in a tortilla with some spicy maple mayo (mayo with cayenne and maple syrup, hehe) and some red pepper (might have preferred a simple iceburg lettuce for some crunch if i had it)... Maple and mayo might not sound all that delicious, but I was pretty impressed by it! Yum, yum!
