LauraGrace's Profile
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
I have a couple of students who went on our school-wide strawberry picking trip last week and turned their noses up at the berries in the field. They "only like bananas."
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
I use stems in cream of broccoli soup as well -- the whole lot gets pureed so it doesn't matter. And I ADORE the insides of peeled broccoli stems. It's a bit like kohlrabi only more tender. Yum.
The Cookbook of the Month for June 2012 will be: The Homesick Texan Cookbook, by Lisa Fain
YAY! I've just hold-requested it from the library. So excited -- I adore her website and have made a number of total slam-dunk successes using her recipes.
I know, this is ridiculous but regarding raw shrimps...
"I can't really say I know my local fishmongers well enough to start asking for favors and stuff! :P"
It's not a favor -- it's their JOB! That's what they're there for, to serve their customers, and if they didn't want to do it they wouldn't go into the business! :) In all seriousness, if you go to a fishmonger who is a perfect stranger and ask about a special order, their only response should be to give you the details. You might have to order a larger quantity, but if you're willing to freeze what's left, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Suggestions for Swedish Rum Cake substitution
Put the rum in the cake and make a lemon glaze? Or supplement the remaining liquid with lemon juice?
I know, this is ridiculous but regarding raw shrimps...
I have occasionally run into this problem and, thinking I could just throw the shrimp into a sauce at the last second, I learned the hard way that pre-cooked shrimp is no good for cooked recipes. They immediately become rubbery and overcooked. The pre-cooked ones are fine for shrimp salad, shrimp cocktail, etc., but re-cook them at your recipes' peril!
Do you have frozen raw shrimp available to you? Or can you ask at a local fishmonger if they can get the raw ones for you?
How are meals served in your home?
Growing up we did a combination of buffet from the stove top and pots and pans on the table. My grandmother was a serving-bowl person (well, serving-tupperware person and hoo boy those were complicated containers -- steam/drain inserts, lids, the whole shebang -- and in the classic 70s mustard yellow and avocado green!) but my mother did NOT inherit that tendency. :D My mother also still to this day has probably 60 hot pads and trivets.
I live by myself, so I obviously just dish my own food up from the stove, but when I entertain I usually use my extremely motley collection of serving bowls and platters -- some inherited china, some Fiestaware, some boring Pyrex. I entertain pretty regularly but have never ever done "courses," unless you count nibbles when people are having their aperitifs while I finish dinner.
Vegetarian sub for duck in smoked duck lasagna? No soy/fake meat.
"there is no substitute for smoked duck"
Of course there isn't, if you mean a replacement ingredient that will perform identically in the dish. But that's no reason to pass on an otherwise-solid-sounding recipe, IMO. If someone is used to slavishly adhering to every recipe, or if s/he is swapping things out willy-nilly, then substituting can be disastrous, but if one understands HOW a substitution will change a recipe (as any adept cook should), there's no reason to be timid about making changes, whether they're of the "I don't/can't eat ______" variety or the "Blast, I'm out of ______ but have ______" variety.
Vegetarian sub for duck in smoked duck lasagna? No soy/fake meat.
Sauteeing a sturdy mushroom with shallots and a red wine reduction might be nice. And a bit of smoked paprika or something similar as antimony mentions, to add the smoked flavor? I don't think there's any reason to skip the recipe -- you're not going to end up with an imitation of the original but you already knew that, and you stand a good chance of ending up with something different but equally delicious.
Cooked chicken bones for stock
Oh yes. That's exactly what a stock bag kept in your freezer is for! The vast majority of the stock I make is from the carcasses of roasted chicken added to trimmings from herbs and veggies. When the bag's full, I make stock.
Lazy Ice Cream
Yeah, tempering is to keep from ending up with a very weird batch of scrambled eggs. ;) Your other option is to put the whole shebang over a double boiler but I honestly think the tempering method is faster.
Cooking quinoa
On all the packages I've seen it says to cook somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes OR until the little curlicue germ spirals out of each "grain" (I know they're not grains, but what is an individual quinoa called, fercryinoutloud? ;). FWIW, red and black quinoa seem to take quite a bit longer to cook than the white variety.
Help with menu from garden
Mmmm. Lovely fresh vegetables. My thought is to enhance rather than cover, and to take advantage of the season. So: Slaw. Roasted or grilled potatoes, perhaps then made into a German potato salad and served over greens. Grilled cauli and squash with plenty of garlic.
Cooking quinoa
I dunno, I find quinoa SO much more forgiving, and I mean exponentially more forgiving, than rice -- I've left it on the burner covered (so plenty of water left) for ten minutes past when I should have taken it off and it was just fine.
How You Like It - Home Vs Dining Out
This is a fascinating list -- lots of stuff I didn't think of like pepper and unusual proteins and cocktails, all of which are similar to my practices.
But you'll love it the way I cook it!
As seems to be the pattern today, sunshine, once again we find ourselves in agreement!
But you'll love it the way I cook it!
I see the point! I don't have to be successful at every attempt -- you're certainly right that not everyone has to like every veggie) but if I can help someone go from a brussels-sprouts-hater to a brussels-sprouts-lover (just to choose an example), I'm helping to increase their enjoyment of life! I think that's a moderately worthy cause, at least! ;)
Does anyone actually like Sandra Lee?
OK, sunshine, you, me, and this RR drinking game. ;)
http://www.slobak.com/rachaelray.html
Foods you dislike buying—but sometimes need to
Fortunately it's easy to find pint or half-pint cartons of buttermilk here, but even still, I want to use it up, so I'll make a double or triple (or quadruple!) batch of biscuits and then freeze them before baking -- when they're solid, I double-bag in gallon ziplock bags. Then I can pull one or two out and bake them in a toaster oven, or fill a cookie sheet for a super-fast side if I have guests. Baked right from frozen.
Foods you dislike buying—but sometimes need to
This is me with Chik-fil-a which, alas, is on my way home from work.
Justin Wilson and other lost cooking show classics...
On the PBS website, you can watch old eps of Julia Child et al., including one where Madhur makes the most glorious-looking shrimp dish as Julia looks on in delight and astonishment at the complexity of it all. It's quite wonderful to watch.
Does anyone actually like Sandra Lee?
Agreed on all counts, down to the word "bonkers."
Say what?? Cooking comments that baffle you
Here's why:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cook_home
;)
Need Help with Dutch Pancake Recipe in Martha Stewart Living Summer Issue
For future reference, it's easy and inexpensive to find a good cast-iron in antique malls or at garage or rummage sales, or at least it is in my neck of the woods! And it's well worth having one or two for dutch babies, corn bread, and the like, IMO. Irreplaceable in my kitchen! :)
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
Good to know! What about other alliums -- leeks, shallots, and the like? I have a good friend who is allergic to all alliums and can't handle anything overly spiced or acidic, and cooking for him is a BEAST.
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
I had bitter melon soup living in Hong Kong -- and I had to eat it because I was a guest in someone's home! I've fortunately blocked out the memory of that atrocity and replaced it with the memory of the incredibly delicious shell-on shrimp we ALSO had with that meal (which I couldn't peel fast enough for Mama, so she peeled them for me and kept putting them in my bowl)!
Those weird things you eat when you are in your kitchen
Cold leftover Indian (non-vegetarian, please, especially chicken) is my absolute favorite. Especially generic westernized chicken tikka masala. Yum.
My mother, on the other hand, will eat durn near anything cold and leftover. Pizza? Meatloaf? Casseroles? Loves 'em all.
