I'm almost always in the kitchen doing something. Tonight I decided to do takeout so I'm at a loss as to what to do with these few hours tonight that I'm normally in the kitchen. I absolutely love to cook. For you chefs out there, what is your favorite thing to make?

I love making full dinners and the like, but where I shine is cakes. Red Velvet is still my best (even though the recipe changes a bit every time I make it!).

I can make anything. But I love to bake breads and such. My grandma taught me how to make cinnamon rolls and breads from scratch.

That is something I have always wanted to be able to do, make breads. I can do a basic soda bread, but I want to be able to make things like baguettes. Even cinnamon rolls sound so good. I love the smell of cinnamon.

I try to make cinnamon rolls every sunday. It reminds me of home. I just hate making sour dough bread because you either buy a starter yeast or you have to wait for 22 hours for the yeast to ferment.

I make a killer lasagna, but my favorite to bake is zucchini bread (got some in the oven right now) because the recipe came from an old family friend. She made the best banana bread with it!

My personal favorite thing to make... brownies. Butterscotch brownies.

Delicioussss...

One of these days I should just post the recipe. It's actually modified from a recipe I found in the Joy of Cooking. I've never much liked nuts (*giggle*) in my brownies, so I cut that out of the original recipe.

Screw it... here's the recipe.

1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups Quaker oatmeal

Set oven rack to upper middle level. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9- by 9-inch baking pan. Melt together in a small saucepan the butter and brown sugar. Set aside to cool slightly and while it cools, sift together into a separate bowl the flour, baking powder and salt.

Beat egg and vanilla into butter mixture. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture. Fold in oatmeal. Pour into prepared pan. Bake on upper middle rack at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, cut, and serve. Makes 1 dozen bars.

(Found the original recipe here and edited with my alterations.)

Also, the measurement for the vanilla extract and the oatmeal is really more of a suggestion from me. The funny thing about cooking is that it's not really all THAT exact. Adding a little bit of this and that can make the mix more interesting. In fact, I rarely actually measure the vanilla extract... I just sort of pour in what feels right.

Also, to add a bit of spice to the mix, I recommend adding a pinch or two of nutmeg and cinnamon into the batter BEFORE you add the oatmeal. You can also sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top of the mix after you've put it into the pan. YUM!

Noacat wrote:
1/2 stick butter


I'd go for them just for that reason.

The dish I'm best at making is Broccoli, Chicken Alfredo. I don't really cook much at all. And when/if I make that it's like a special occasion. I love to bake cookies. One day I will learn how to do it from scratch.

Eternity_of_Sins wrote:
Noacat wrote:
1/2 stick butter


I'd go for them just for that reason.

Yeah... they are SO bad for you, but so delicious. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water...

I bake a lot of cookies - some of my favorites are Honey Snaps and Molasses Crinkles, though I like plain old chocolate chip, too.

I also love making home-made pizza. I pop the dough ingredients into the breakmaker and then I only have to spin out the dough and make the sauce. And I make amazing pizza sauce. ;O

Ooh, most of these things sound so good but I can't have them because of food allergies, lol.

Those Honey Snaps sound rather intriguing though. I love anything with honey.

Home made pizza is another one of my favorite things too. We don't do it very often, but I always have so much fun making it.

I like experimenting with waffles and pancakes too. They are like blank slates where the sky is the limit.

I love cooking anything from breads to full dinners to holiday meals. Right now I'm making one of my hubby's favorite, Sherperd's Pie and this thanksgiving when we go back to the states to visit my family I get to make the sweet potatoes. I took and old family recipe and made it better hehe.

Let me dredge up the Honey Snaps recipe. I make them fairly frequently because my dad's a part-time beekeeper, so we ALWAYS have honey on hand.

Sift together:
2 1/4 c sifted flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t ginger
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
Add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar to 3/4 cup Crisco (I use butter), cream well
Blend in 1 unbeaten egg and 1/4 cup honey, beat well.
Add dry ingredients gradually, mix thoroughly, chill well.
Shape into small golf balls, dip top in water, then in sugar.
Place sugar side up on ungreased cookie sheed, bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

I have a British uncle who prefers these as "biscuits", so I usually bake them for somewhere closer to 15-18 minutes, and I rarely bother to sift anything.

They're really tasty though - like ginger snaps but less spicy and more sweet.

Jupe wrote:
Let me dredge up the Honey Snaps recipe. I make them fairly frequently because my dad's a part-time beekeeper, so we ALWAYS have honey on hand.

Sift together:
2 1/4 c sifted flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t ginger
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
Add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar to 3/4 cup Crisco (I use butter), cream well
Blend in 1 unbeaten egg and 1/4 cup honey, beat well.
Add dry ingredients gradually, mix thoroughly, chill well.
Shape into small golf balls, dip top in water, then in sugar.
Place sugar side up on ungreased cookie sheed, bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

I have a British uncle who prefers these as "biscuits", so I usually bake them for somewhere closer to 15-18 minutes, and I rarely bother to sift anything.

They're really tasty though - like ginger snaps but less spicy and more sweet.


Does you t mean teaspoon or table spoon?
those sound really good. I'm baking those tomorrow.

I live alone so I don't cook anything big most times but here are a couple things i do well, my own inventions too...

Taco Rounds:
Taco meat (cooked how you usually do-mines usually leftover)
butter or margirine
Mozzerella cheese
hamburger or hot dog buns

heat oven to 350. Butter the buns then put a scoop of the taco meat on them. Cover with the cheese (I use TONS of it) then bake until the cheese is melted and slightly brown (like on a pizza). You're done! Top how you want.

Taco Casserole:
Taco Mix
1 lb Hamburger
Instant mashed potatos (or the real thing if you want)
i can green beans
1 can peas
1 can creamed corn
Butter or margarine


heat oven to 350

Make up the taco meat as you usually would but don't let all the liquid boil away after adding the taco mix. Get a big lasagne pan. Put a layer of mashed potatos on the bottom (only use half the potatos). Dump on the taco meat and sauce from it-spreading out evenly. Dump on the veggies (drain the peas and beans well). Add the rest of the potatos over the top and smooth them out. Add some butter or magarine to the top (one big clump of it in the middle-will melt and spread out). Bake for half an hour - 45 minutes until piping hot and a bit of brown on the potatos.

Top how you want (cheddar cheese is popular and sour cream)

Danyealle

All t's in the Honey Snaps recipe are teaspoons. A capital T would be a tablespoon. ^__^

Danyealle, those sound really good. D: The second sounds kind of like a modified Shepherd's Pie... my mom used to make a really tasty dish she called Taco Pie that sounds a little similar, except she used cornmeal instead of potatoes, I think.

Trap opossum. If possible, feed opossum on milk and cereal for 10 days.
Clean but do not skin.
Treat as for pig by immersing the unskinned animal in water just below boiling point. Test by plucking at the hair.
When it slips out easily, remove opossum from water and scrape. While scraping, repeatedly pour cold water over the surface of the animal.
Remove small glands in small of back and under each foreleg. Parblanch 20 min. each time in two or three changes of water, then roast as for pork. May also be used in place of rabbit. Serve with turnip greens.

"The Joy of Cooking"

Please come to my house for Thanksgiving...

Jupe - Thanks so much for posting that! I can't wait to try making them XD

Possessed - That idea actually creeps me out, haha. Nifty information, but creeps me out

I make something my family has come to call hick-ified egg rolls!
it's shredded chicken with what ever kind of wing sauce you want mix together then wrapped in an egg roll wrapper and baked at 400 degrees for 10-12 min or untill edges are golden bown.


they are so good! i but steak and chesse in them on occation as well and have cheese steak egg rolls instead, they rcok my socks.

Trap opossum. If possible, feed opossum on milk and cereal for 10 days.
Clean but do not skin.
Treat as for pig by immersing the unskinned animal in water just below boiling point. Test by plucking at the hair.
When it slips out easily, remove opossum from water and scrape. While scraping, repeatedly pour cold water over the surface of the animal.
Remove small glands in small of back and under each foreleg. Parblanch 20 min. each time in two or three changes of water, then roast as for pork. May also be used in place of rabbit. Serve with turnip greens.

"The Joy of Cooking"

Please come to my house for Thanksgiving...

Possessed i'm sorry to say this but u scare me.

Possessed you remind me of that old poster I used to have. I believe it said something like 'road kill café, you kill, we grill it.' I gotta find and get one of those for you but I don't think Opossum's were on the menu lol.

I have the t-shirt! LOL!


People
Eating
Tasty
Animals

WOOHOO Possessed i am so there! Mmmm opossum.

I love to cook especially Dolmathes! Especially. My recipe i got from my great grandpa its the best. Too bad i have to sit and roll them for ever!!!!


1lb of ground beef or lamb
1 cup of rice
1 can of stewed tomatoes1/2 stick of melted butter
2 tbs of parsley
Salt and pepper
1 medium onion chopped
1 jar of grapeleaves

mix all ingreidients in a large bowl vey well. Then take a grape leav and unrap it. Place about one tablespoon of mixture on the leaf (may vary depending on size of leaf) Take each side and fold over mix then roll. Place them in about three inches of water and let boil for 25 minutes. Make sure rolls are tight or thy will break when they are boiled.

Angolemano Sauce.

Take the water from boiling dolmathes and put into a sauce pan. THen at 2 eggs to it and the juice of two lemons. Then mix viciously till smooth. If it doesn't smoothen put into a blender and whip it, whip it good.

They are the best my family and friends love them!!

I have so many favorite recipes. I really love soul foods. Some of my favorites are cornbread, sweet potatoes (I've never met anyone who could make it like my mom, don't think I ever will), my granny's cabbage and greens, macaroni and cheese, I can go on forever... Well, another one of my favorite recipes is Chicken (or Turkey) Wild Rice Soup. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

3 cups of cooked chopped chicken (or turkey)
2 boxes of wild rice (Uncle Ben's) with seasoning
4 cups of chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 1/2 cup of water
2 sticks of butter (or margarine)
3/4 cup of flour
4-6 cups of milk
salt & paper to taste (I like a little bit more pepper)
1 cup of diced onions
1 cup of diced celery

Instructions:

In large pot combine chicken (or turkey), rice, broth, bouillon, water, onion, celery. Cook until most of the liquid is gone and rice is done (not crunchy) remove from heat.

In another pot melt butter over medium heat and slowly add in flour, stirring constantly. When paste is uniformed, add in milk, a half cup at a time until you have in the entire 4 cups. Dump this mixture in with the chicken and rice mixture and stir until well blended. if to thick add more milk until you get your desired consistency.

Happy eating!

Oh, both of those sound so good! I am going to add both to my recipe book and try them soon!

Soul food is something I adore. was born in the south so it's what I ate whenever I visited my family again in Alabama. Corn bread and greens, something I can live off of! And can't forget the yams. My aunt makes this yam dish every year for Christmas that is topped with brown sugar and pecans. So good!

When you try the soup let me know how you like it.