flaflwrgrl posted...
DH got this idea about baby back ribs.... he's suddenly not keen on eating them right off the bones so he came up with this idea to cut all the meat off the bones; first the top & then between all the ribs & then just take the pieces & BBQ them (in the oven). You should have seen the look on the butcher's face when he heard my request. Thought I had lost my ever loving mind, he did! But he did what I asked. Guess what? They're great & you can eat them with a knife & fork & not get your hands all messed up *plus* it takes a whole lot less time & BBQ sauce to cook them.

gardenglory commented...
Id drive to lake city for someone to cut those for me. Where did you get them? Did they take the silverskin off too?

Flaflwrgrl replied
No, they didn't take off the silverskin but it doesn't matter when it's all cut up like that. He had enough trouble digesting what I was requesting that I didn't dare hit him with the silverskin issue ......yet. But when we went this week, I told him how great it was & how much we enjoyed it & asked him to do it again & he didn't blink an eye ---- soooooooooo.....
It's Harvey's Pam, on the west side of town on the south side of Hwy 90.

We find that the Smithfield brand has the most meat on them & a really nice layer of meat across the top. We wait for them to go on sale for $3.99 lb. instead of paying $5.99 lb.

Claudia posted...
I received my first issue of Taste Of Home magazine and it is filled with recipes we can't wait to try out. But this one he made yesterday and we really liked it!

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU PASTA
6 ServingsPrep: 25 min. Bake: 20 min.
Ingredients

3 cups uncooked penne pasta
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened and cubed
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups sliced cooked chicken breast
3/4 cup crumbled cooked bacon
3/4 cup cubed fully cooked ham
3 tablespoons dry bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Cook pasta according to package directions
for al dente; drain.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat cream and cream cheese over
medium heat until smooth, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1 cup
cheese, onion powder, garlic salt and pepper until blended.
In a large bowl, combine chicken, bacon, ham and pasta. Add sauce;
toss to coat. Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Sprinkle
with remaining cheese; top with bread crumbs. Bake, uncovered, 18-22
minutes or until heated through. Yield: 6 servings.

Nutrition Facts:1/2 cups equals 826 calories,
© Taste of Home 2013

The thread was discussing ways to be thrifty when buying and cooking food....

flaflwrgrl posted
I've learned to put a tiny amt. of water in the pan after I cook any meat & glean the browned juice off, pour in a container & freeze. When I have enough stock then I've learned to make a killer Shepard's pie using beef, pork or chicken. Put the stock in & some water, cut up carrots, Italian green beans, onions, salt, pepper, & a tiny amount of frozen shoepeg corn. Cook that a few minutes, then I thicken with either tapioca flour or arrowroot flour & you have to make it pretty thick b/c in the later cooking a lot of water will come out of the veggies & thin it. Then I put the veggies & gravy into personal loaf pans. I've usually planned ahead & when I made mashed potatoes, I made lots extra & added very finely chopped onions to the taters. The mashed potatoes need to be room temp to spread. Spread them about a 3/4" thick layer over the veggie/gravy mixture. Use a baster to put a thin wash of oil on top & a fork to make peaks. Stick the whole thing in the oven @ 425 for about 30 min. If it's not brown enough on top then just hit broil for a bit until it's nice & crispy looking. I serve it right in the loaf pan which fits perfectly on a plate.

When fiwit was not feeling well, lovemyhouse suggested that she make this easy soup...
Mary, rough chop an onion, throw it in a pan with some butter or margarine (garlic, too, if you want), let them get good and translucent trending toward caramel color. Then pour a can of beef broth in the pan (you can use chicken but it doesn't taste nearly as good). Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Scoop onions into ovenproof bowl, pour soup over. Put a slice of toasted rough bread like a French bread on top. Cover with Swiss or Provolone cheese. Stick in a toaster over or under a broiler until cheese is golden. Eat and feel MUCH better.

philljm posted
I make french onion soup using beef broth, splash of Worcestershire sauce, onions and let it simmer until everything is cooked and onions are soft. If I am really feeling ambitious, I roast the onions first, then put them in the soup. Roasting veggies prior to "souping" them is supposed to bring out their flavors more (or that's what I heard on a radio show a few years back) I am guessing my taste buds think so, because I now roast veggies a lot before adding them to different dishes I am making, sometimes I even pre-roast for future meals. And grilling them before using them in dishes adds an even better flavor.

Oh, and in the french onion soup I of course finish with croutons & cheese.

dayily posted
When I made this the last time, I thought I would do it in my Kitchenaid mixer, and not drag out the food processor. The cream cheese and the peanut butter didn't want to cream together, and I thought I ruined the recipe. It was really crumbly looking. I went ahead and started to fold in the Cool Whip anyway... and it all came together fine in the end. You could use real whipped cream if you want to go to the trouble. I would not use chunky peanut butter. It ruins the smooth texture of the pie.
--- - -
Peanut Butter Pie
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
8 oz. carton Cool Whip, thawed
2 (store bought) graham cracker or chocolate cookie crust pie shells

Using food processor, blend cream cheese with peanut butter, then add in confectioner sugar. Turn out into bowl, and fold in Cool Whip, a little at a time. Divide between the two pie shells. Decorate with shaved chocolate, mini chocolate chips etc. if desired. Refrigerate several hours until firm. Serve cold.
- --- --- -
Here is another recipe I have made for at least 30 years. My adaptation of a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Favorite Ways with Chicken.

I always serve this with hot buttered rice.

Chicken, Vegetable and Orange Juice Bake
1/2 cup all - purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1- 3 lb chicken cut up, or 4 chicken breast halves, or 6 to 8 chicken thighs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 jar whole small onions (usually about 15 oz - I think?) - or 1 to 1-1/2 cups thawed frozen whole onions
1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
1 3 oz can mushrooms, drained
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups of orange juice (or 2/3 cup of frozen concentrate and 1-1/2 cup water to make 2 cups)

Heat oven to 350. Combine first 4 ingredients in paper or plastic bag, add chicken 2 or 3 pieces at a time, shake. Reserve remaining flour mixture. In large skillet, brown chicken pieces in hot oil. Remove chicken to 2 quart casserole, top with carrots, onions, mushrooms.

Blend 3 tablespoons of reserved flour with brown sugar and ginger and stir into drippings in skillet, stir to make smooth paste. Add orange juice slowly, cook and stir till smooth and bubbly. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Cover. Bake at 350 for 1-1/4 hours or until chicken is cooked through.

flaflwrgrl posted
This is a recipe for Russian salad dressing, the red kind, like Wishbone makes but this only costs pennies & doesn't have all those "other" things in it, preservatives & such.

Russian Dressing

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/8 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup catsup
2 Tblsp. honey
1 Tblsp. dried parsley flakes
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. celery seed

Wisk it well until oil is blended.

I also use this to marinate chicken & then bake. My husband loves to dip fried shrimp in it.

daylilydreams posted
I just made comfort food good for the rainy foggy weather here. Made a pot roast browned with Montreal steak seasoning then cut it up into chunks, added onions, carrots and Yukon gold potatoes along with McCormick brown gravy. Put it in the digital pressure cooker for 40 min it is the best pot roast I ever made in all my years of cooking. The meat you can cut with your fork and the potatoes are infused with flavor. YUMMM! Love my electric digital pressure cooker.

(daylily asked her about her pressure cooker and this was her reply...)

I got my digital pressure from HSN mine is a Bon Appetit seven quart what I like is that in hot weather your food is done fast. I had never used a pressure cooker before it took me a bit to get use to using it but, getting some pressure cooker cook books really help with the learning curve on how long to cook different foods. The flavor tonite was just infused thru all the food.

mcash70 posted

I made this recipe for dinner last night and we thought it was very good. I love cabbage rolls but haven't made them for years, too much work, saw this recipe in the paper last week. It is super easy to make, which is great because I know we are all too busy to spend a lot of time in the kitchen these days.

Cabbage Roll Rice

1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 medium diced onion
2 cups chopped cabbage (I used more)
1 can 28 oz chopped tomatoes
3/4 long grain rice
1 cup of sodium reduced vegetable or beef broth ( I didn't add this as I had some leftover mostly tomato juice in the fridge)
1/4 tsp of dried sage (more or less to taste)
1/4 tsp dried thyme (more or less to taste)
1/8 tsp powdered bayleaf (more or less to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
(I added a good sprinkle of cayenne pepper and about a 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes)

Use a large pan with a lid, season and brown meat breaking it up, add chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes, add spices and rest of ingredients, stir well and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer and cook 30-40 minutes, or until rice is tender.

flaflwrgrl was trying to locate a recipe online and couldn't find it - she can't locate the recipe from her move. Lovemyhouse was able to locate it for her and made her so happy - so I will post it here for safekeeping!

After Debra posted the recipe she found, Ann replied "BTW, on that recipe, I only ever made 1/2 the recipe. My goodness, if you made the whole thing you could feed an Army! To 1/2 the recipe as far as potatoes are concerned --- I think mine specifies 6 large potatoes = 3 lbs. so I would just do 3 potatoes.
And it's just as the title says --- fluffy, the potatoes come out so light & fluffy & with a different flavor from mashed potatoes & that nice bit of crispy on top. YUM!"

Lovemyhouse posted

Found this one, Ann. It is a Better Homes and Gardens from the citation. Is it close?

Fluffy Potato Bake

3 pounds potatoes
1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup butter
1 12-ounce carton small curd cottage cheese
1/4 cup snipped parsley
salt to taste
melted butter opt.

Cook peel and mash potatoes. In a saucepan cook onion in 1/4 cup butter till tender but not brown. Stir onion, cottage cheese, parsley and salt into potatoes.

Spoon mixture into 2 quart casserole; drizzle butter over top. Bake at 350 degrees F. until mixture is heated through and browned about 30 minutes. Garnish with additional parsley if desired.

12 servings

Natalie posted

Here is a recipe that I sort of made up, based on another recipe that I have. Not sure what to call it. Maybe Pizza Cups? Sounds good enough. I have no idea on the amounts, so I'll just put the ingredients.

Pizza Cups

One roll of refrigerator biscuits (I use the cheapest ones)
Shredded cheese (I use mozzarella and cheddar)
1 can of Olives, sliced
Pepperoni, diced
Pizza sauce

Roll biscuits until they are flat and as round as you can, and place them a regular sized muffin tin, making a cup out of them. Mix rest of ingredients in a bowl, and spoon into biscuits. You can either put some pizza sauce in the bottom of the cup, or mix it in with everything else. Tastes the same either way.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes

That's it, and they are delicious! I've also made them with just veggies, and they were just as good! Next time though, I'll saute the veggies a bit since they were still really crunchy. I think anything you can think of would be good in these, and they are so easy to make.

---
fiwit said "I bet they'd be really, really awesome if you replaced the olives with fresh mushrooms"
and Natalie replied…
"... or added fresh mushrooms, like I did last time! Sorry, but if has pepperoni, it has to have olives! I didn't have any mushrooms yesterday, or they would have been added in too. I made it once without any meat, using olives, mushrooms and onions, and they were delicious! You can even make them with ham and cheese, or turkey and cheese, or whatever and cheese. I'd make some with just cheese, but that is a LOT of cheese!"

We had a discussion about hard cooked eggs, after Natalie told us about trying this new method.

Natalie posted
I just cooked hard boiled eggs in the oven! So, they aren't actually boiled. Just hard cooked, in the shell, and they turned out perfect. I heard about doing this a while back, and was just trying to get up the nerve to try it. All I could picture was exploded eggs all over the oven! Rolling on the floor laughing Nothing exploded, so I'm happy! I put them in a muffin tin, and cooked them for 1/2 hour at 325 degrees. When they are done, you put them in a bowl with some ice water for about 10 minutes. No more boiling eggs for me! You can cook them right on the oven rack too, but I decided to use the muffin tin for easier removal.

and later in another post she said… They turned out perfect! The yolks were cooked all the way through, but were creamy. Much better than hard boiled.

mcash70 posted
I leave the eggs at room temperature that I am going to boil, or heat them in warm tap water so that they don't explode, put eggs in a pot with a tight fitting lid, in an inch of cold water, soon as it starts to boil reduce heat to low, set timer for 13 to 14 minutes depending on egg size, don't open lid, the steam will cook them perfectly. Pour out hot water and run cold water over eggs while still in pot, then add ice cubes. Perfect eggs every time. Eggs should not be cooked at a hard boil as this toughens the whites, the ice is to keep the yolks from turning dark.

flaflwrgrl posted
I never heard of any of these methods of making hard boiled eggs. I don't ever do many at the time so just use the small saucepan, cover the egg w/ water, bring to a boil & boil for 10 mins. I run the cold water over them after & they turn out great for me every time. No lid on the pan.

flaflwrgrl posted how she makes Baked Apples in the microwave

Well, you can either make them whole or you can cut them up & nuke them. Just get a bowl with a lid -- a glass bowl -- put your cored apple in it, a titch of water, load the middle with alternating layers of butter & brown sugar, put the lid on & nuke. How long? Depends on the apple size & the microwave strength & just how soft you want your apple to be. I'd say begin with 3 minutes & check & then add as you feel needed; you can check it as often as you like. For cut apples, I peel, cut & sprinkle with water, brown sugar & plop some butter in there on top, put the lid on & nuke for 1 minute & check.
You can also take them (either whole apple or cut pieces) out when done & pop them in an oven or toaster oven on broil for a couple minutes to kind of "brown them up" if that is your desire. You need to leave the lid off for that part.

and

Oh, on those apples --- I don't use cinnamon on them but put it on if you do like them that way. I like to pour some milk in them after their done & eat with a spoon. YUM!

gardenglory said:
I yearn to make good soup. I just cant seem to be able to get a good broth. I mean I can if I take a day to make it and a ton of clean up. I wish I could make a good one in a bit less time.

fiwit replied -

Here's what I do...

1. buy a rotisserie chicken in your preferred flavor (I always get lemon pepper)
2. in your big pot, put a couple tbsp of oil (I use olive oil)
3. add as much fresh garlic as you can handle (I typically use an entire bulb, not just a couple cloves)
4. add fresh, diced onion (I buy the small yellow onions, and use an entire onion)
5. have the stove on low while you're adding the the garlic/onions -- sometimes i don't turn it on until I've got all the garlic in.
6. add water in 2 cup increments until you have as much as you want in the pot
7. add other veggies - I cheat and buy the containers of diced celery, diced bell peppers, etc.
8. spice to suit. I use rosemary, basil, sage or poultry seasoning, black pepper, red pepper, ginger... I go sparingly on the red pepper and ginger, but it gives it a nice pop. I dont cook with salt, but you could add some if you wanted.

I've also been known to skin the chicken (when it's cool) and add the skin to the pot, to take advantage of all the seasonings soaked into the skin from the rotisserie cooking.

Bring the whole thing to a boil and add rice. I don't like thin soups, so I add way more rice than is recommended.

If you're home during the day and don't mind having the stove on, put your burner on low and ignore it for a couple hours. If you're in a hurry, put it on medium and it will be ready when the rice is done. You can add the diced chicken any time you want, as long as it's the last thing you add.

If you're using brown rice instead of white, you'll have to cook it longer. Thumbs up

As to measurements for the spices -- couldn't tell you. Hilarious! It seems I"m my mother's daughter after all -- my family eschews recipes. Hilarious! I'll do a couple shakes of black pepper, one shake of red pepper, one shake of ginger, lots of rosemary and basil, a couple - maybe 3-4 shakes of the poultry seasoning.

If you don't want to eat the skin, you can take it out before adding the rice. I leave it in, and eat it.

For me, the most time-consuming bit of this is the garlic and cutting up the rotisserie chicken. Other than that, it's just waiting while the house smells better and better. **insert drool emoticon here** I'll put it on the lowest setting and let it cook all morning or afternoon while I work. It's a huge advantage of working from home.

Gleni asked ----
I have had so many pumpkins I have had to make so much pumpkin soup and freeze. I suppose that is the best to do with surplus? Any good recipes?

Hemlady replied ----
I have cooked fresh pumpkin before and my daughter has too. In fact we cooked some about a month ago, canned some and froze some. You just peel it, cut it in pieces and boil like potatoes. Cook, mash if desired, and freeze. Make sure you squeeze as much water out of them as possible before freezing. For our Thanksgiving we made fresh pumpkin pies and they were very good. You can add some of the cooked chunks to sterile canning jars and either pressure cook or boiling water bath. Don't know the processing time at the moment but you could google that and find it I'm sure.

flaflwrgrl replied -
Glen, here you go:
http://www.elanaspantry.com/pa...

http://allrecipes.com/howto/pu...

http://www.joyofbaking.com/Pum...

http://www.health.com/health/g...

http://thepioneerwoman.com/coo...

http://www.food.com/recipes/pu...

flaflwrgrl posted

Muesli Scones - Gluten Free

2 cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup dried apricots, cut into ¼-inch pieces
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup sesame seeds
¼ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
1 large egg (size does matter as dough will not hold together with a small or medium egg)
2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and soda
Stir in dried fruit, seeds and nuts
In a small bowl combine egg and agave
Stir wet ingredients into dry
Use your hands to form dough
Shape dough into a 6 ½ x 6 ½ square that is about ¾” thick
Cut dough into 16 squares
Bake at 350° on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (thanks Jenn!) for 10-12 minutes

I didn't make them exactly as the recipe. My hubs doesn't care for nuts baked in things so I left out all the nuts & seeds. I didn't have any dried cranberries on hand so I just used dried apricots & raisins in it. And I found it needed to be baked for 18 minutes instead of for 10-12. I don't think my oven is off either b/c everything else I've baked has been right on as far as baking time goes. If you are going to make these, you need to know that the dough is very sticky & you won't be able to easily get your hands out of it. This is true for all gluten free dough. But there's an easy fix. You get some of those nitrile (unpowdered) gloves like docs & dentists use -- they're cheap for a whole box full. Put them on when it's time to put your hands in the mix & oil them up all over. Then you have no problem with it sticking to your hands & just pull them off & toss them when you're done.
When they were done, I cooled them on a rack. I wasn't thrilled with them but they were good. Then we had them this morning for breakfast & oh my! what a difference 24 hours makes!!!! They were scrumptious! I couldn't resist having some for a snack this afternoon & had to pull back from making a pig of myself. Here's a photo:

Natalie posted

bluegrassmom posted

For those of you that said earlier you like Chinese, I made Green Pepper Steak today. My bunch love it and this is a super simple recipe.

1 large frozen sirloin steak sliced thin
Cook in a small amount of oil, drain
Add 2 green peppers, chopped
2 chopped sweet onions
1/3 cup Kikkoman soy sauce
1/3 cup honey
Let simmer on low until desired tenderness. Serve over brown rice or mashed potatoes.

philljm posted

I like to roast my cauliflower. I chop it into florets? ( is that what you call them?) then in a bag with some oil, I shake them up to coat them (. Like doing this better an drizzling oil over them)then I roast at 350* stirring periodically until they are soft and carmalized. I think I stirred every 10 minutes and they were roasted in less than 30 minutes.

Newyorkrita posted

Crockpot Shortcut easy chicken soup

1 envelope dry Lipton Chicken noodle soup
2 tablespoons dry onion soup base (substitute dry beef bullion if necessary)
2 packets or 2 cubes chicken bullion
1 cup dehydrated mixed veggies ( I use Harmony House Vegetable soup mix)
5 cups water
Chicken or turkey meat

Add everything to crockpot and cook on high for 6 hours.

You could use rotisserie chicken leftovers, turkey leftovers, 2 raw chicken thighs, or turkey gizzards and such. Whatever one has on hand.