Recently in Cooking Category

Cooks in 2 2"x11"x9" cake pans

5 cups bisquick
1-1/2 cup cornmeal
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder

5 sticks butter (1-1/4 pound)
5 eggs
2-1/2 cups milk

Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Pour melted butter or margarine over dry mixture and blend together well. Beat eggs and milk and mix with the above mixture. Blend until well mixed and not lumpy. Pour into well greased pans and cook at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees in the oven. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake another 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and the center springs back when lightly touched. Poke with toothpick to check doneness.

Made some tamale pie today and it came out wonderfully, rave reviews all around

2 pounds of ground meat (turkey, beef, whatever you like)
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp of chili powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp smushed or chopped garlic

1 package of trader joe's frozen roasted corn (or regular corn is fine too)
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 16 ounce can of seasoned chopped tomatoes
1 can of green chilis
4 oz red wine

1 can of cream-style corn
1 package of trader joe's cornbread mix
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar
1 medium package of Frito corn chips

Fry the ground meat up with the seasonings until it's browned. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, corn, chilis, and wine to the meat and simmer for 20 minutes.

While it's simmering, mix the cream style corn with the cornbread mix. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese and enough milk to make it runny (about 1/4 cup). Crush the fritos and combine them with the remaining cup of cheese.

When the meat is ready spread it out over the bottom of your casserole dish or 9x11 baking pan. Spread the cornbread mix across the top, reaching all the way to the edges. Cook at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, then sprinkle the frito cheese mixture over the top and put the dish back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

This is a fabulous looking and very tasty breakfast treat, again based on a recipe from Cuisine at Home magazine - you can do all the preparation the night before and then just pop it into the oven in the morning. It tastes as good as it looks, and it's very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
- 1 box puff pastry dough
- 2 T. unsalted butter
- 1 cup frozen shredded or cubed hash brown potatoes
- 1/2 cup onion , diced
- 2 T. minced fresh chives
(the above 2 ingredients can be substitued by 1 T. onion powder)
- 1 cup smoked ham or smoked salmon (optional)
- 12 eggs
- 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 2 T. orange juice (if preparing ahead)
- 1 T. water
- 2 T. Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, thaw pastry according to package directions (around 30 minutes)

Melt butter over medium-high heat in a largish skillet. Add potatoes and saute until slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in onion, saute until soft, then add ham/salmon.

Whisk 11 of the eggs together with the chives. Add them to the pan and scramble just until set. They should still be 'wet' - at this point, stir in the cream cheese and juice until blended. Refrigerate the egg mixture while you prepare the pastry.

Unfold a pastry sheet on a sheet of parchment paper. It almost always cracks at the seams, so wet your fingers and press at the seams to fix them up. You can roll it on a floured surface until it's longer (about 12x10) to get a longer pastry, but it works fine unrolled as well. You need to trim and pre-cut it so it looks like this picture:


Glop about 1/2 of the egg mixture onto the pastry and start braiding:


After your pastries are braided they'll look kinda funny. Don't worry about it...


At this point you can refrigerate the prepared pastries in the refrigerator - lightly cover them with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

When you're ready to cook them, combine the remaining egg and water, brush over the tops of the strudels. Sprinkle with parmesan and bake 25-30 minutes, or until golden. Enjoy!

This is a fabulous looking and very tasty breakfast treat, again based on a recipe from Cuisine at Home magazine - you can do all the preparation the night before and then just pop it into the oven in the morning. It tastes as good as it looks, and it's very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
- 1 box puff pastry dough
- 2 T. unsalted butter
- 1 cup frozen shredded or cubed hash brown potatoes
- 1/2 cup onion , diced
- 2 T. minced fresh chives
(the above 2 ingredients can be substitued by 1 T. onion powder)
- 1 cup smoked ham or smoked salmon (optional)
- 12 eggs
- 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 2 T. orange juice (if preparing ahead)
- 1 T. water
- 2 T. Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, thaw pastry according to package directions (around 30 minutes)

Melt butter over medium-high heat in a largish skillet. Add potatoes and saute until slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in onion, saute until soft, then add ham/salmon.

Whisk 11 of the eggs together with the chives. Add them to the pan and scramble just until set. They should still be 'wet' - at this point, stir in the cream cheese and juice until blended. Refrigerate the egg mixture while you prepare the pastry.

Unfold a pastry sheet on a sheet of parchment paper. It almost always cracks at the seams, so wet your fingers and press at the seams to fix them up. You can roll it on a floured surface until it's longer (about 12x10) to get a longer pastry, but it works fine unrolled as well. You need to trim and pre-cut it so it looks like this picture:


Glop about 1/2 of the egg mixture onto the pastry and start braiding:


After your pastries are braided they'll look kinda funny. Don't worry about it...


At this point you can refrigerate the prepared pastries in the refrigerator - lightly cover them with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

When you're ready to cook them, combine the remaining egg and water, brush over the tops of the strudels. Sprinkle with parmesan and bake 25-30 minutes, or until golden. Enjoy!

I find lots of my favorite recipes in magazines and recently I've become very enamored of Cuisine at Home. Of the 10 dishes I cooked over Thanksgiving weekend, 3 of them came from their November issue, and one of them was so popular I've made it for every gathering this year, always to rave reviews. The tang from the orange and cranberry combine with the sweet potato and streusel to create a wonderful alternative to the yam-marshmellow side dish at holiday gatherings. This dish is popular even with people who don't care for sweet potatoes.

For the Pudding -
Whisk together:
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 T. baking powder
- 2 t. vanilla extract
- 1 t. ground ginger
- 1/2 t. kosher salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- peel of 1 orange

Mix this together with 4 cups of french bread, chopped into fine (1/2 inch) cubes.

Soak overnight (or for as long as possible)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, coat a 1-qt. casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Cook and puree, then fold into bread mixture
- 1 lb sweet potatoes

For the streusel, combine and stir together:
- 1-1/2 cup pecans, chopped
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

If you like a finer streusel, throw this in the cuisinart and blend until it's the consistency of cornmeal.

Pour the pudding into the casserole dish and cover with the streusel. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!

I find lots of my favorite recipes in magazines and recently I've become very enamored of Cuisine at Home. Of the 10 dishes I cooked over Thanksgiving weekend, 3 of them came from their November issue, and one of them was so popular I've made it for every gathering this year, always to rave reviews. The tang from the orange and cranberry combine with the sweet potato and streusel to create a wonderful alternative to the yam-marshmellow side dish at holiday gatherings. This dish is popular even with people who don't care for sweet potatoes.

For the Pudding -
Whisk together:
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 T. baking powder
- 2 t. vanilla extract
- 1 t. ground ginger
- 1/2 t. kosher salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- peel of 1 orange

Mix this together with 4 cups of french bread, chopped into fine (1/2 inch) cubes.

Soak overnight (or for as long as possible)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, coat a 1-qt. casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Cook and puree, then fold into bread mixture
- 1 lb sweet potatoes

For the streusel, combine and stir together:
- 1-1/2 cup pecans, chopped
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

If you like a finer streusel, throw this in the cuisinart and blend until it's the consistency of cornmeal.

Pour the pudding into the casserole dish and cover with the streusel. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!

Here's a picture of the turkey from Thanksgiving taken by my FriendWhoCallsMeMartha. I'm very fond of cooking for large groups because it gives me a chance to try new dishes. I go with a CYA approach which involves cooking enormous numbers of recipes so that if one of them doesn't work no one goes hungry. In this case I think there were 10 things on the table for 10 people... maybe overkill but everyone looked blissful at the end, and I didn't have to pull my hair out over the soggy weird polenta sticks.

I was very proud of the turkey, I brined it following my bizarre practice of finding 2 similar recipes (in this case I tapped Alton Brown and Cooks Illustrated) and morphing them into a mutant fusion, creating something totally, completely (well sort of) my own. I bought a funky little ceramic trash can labelled 'RUBBISH' for the brining because I didn't have anything big enough and also because I thought it was cute.

I'll share my recipe because it took me a long time to come up with, so maybe one of you can profit from my research.
The recipe kinda went like this (for a 20 pound turkey).

1. Clean out the turkey inside and out, stick it in the RUBBISH can
   
2. Make 2 gallons of brine
   
   
   
   1. 3 cups kosher salt
      
   2. 1 cup dark brown sugar
      
   3. 2 gallons water
      
   4. 1-1/2 cups apple juice (the actual recipe wanted frozen orange juice but I didn't have any)
      
   5. turkey
      
   6. ice to fill the container
      
   
   
3. Brine for 6 hours
   
4. Dry completely and place in the refrigerator on a drying rack stuck inside of a cookie sheet (uncovered) - this gives you an incredibly crisp skin
   
5. Cook it on its back for an hour at 425 degrees
   
6. Turn the oven down to 350, turn the turkey over
   
7. Stuff turkey with superheated stuffing because... if you cook a turkey with stuffing it means you have to increase the time, leading to dry meat. Who wants dry meat? If you superheat the stuffing and add it after the turkey is already partly done, you minimize the impact on the turkey and still get yummy turkey-flavored stuffing.
   
8. Cook until it's safe turkey temperature according to my digital thermometer
   
9. Let it rest for an hour because the turkey carving guy wasn't here yet

   
   

Here's a picture of the turkey from Thanksgiving taken by my FriendWhoCallsMeMartha. I'm very fond of cooking for large groups because it gives me a chance to try new dishes. I go with a CYA approach which involves cooking enormous numbers of recipes so that if one of them doesn't work no one goes hungry. In this case I think there were 10 things on the table for 10 people... maybe overkill but everyone looked blissful at the end, and I didn't have to pull my hair out over the soggy weird polenta sticks.

I was very proud of the turkey, I brined it following my bizarre practice of finding 2 similar recipes (in this case I tapped Alton Brown and Cooks Illustrated) and morphing them into a mutant fusion, creating something totally, completely (well sort of) my own. I bought a funky little ceramic trash can labelled 'RUBBISH' for the brining because I didn't have anything big enough and also because I thought it was cute.

I'll share my recipe because it took me a long time to come up with, so maybe one of you can profit from my research.
The recipe kinda went like this (for a 20 pound turkey).

1. Clean out the turkey inside and out, stick it in the RUBBISH can
   
2. Make 2 gallons of brine
   
   
   
   1. 3 cups kosher salt
      
   2. 1 cup dark brown sugar
      
   3. 2 gallons water
      
   4. 1-1/2 cups apple juice (the actual recipe wanted frozen orange juice but I didn't have any)
      
   5. turkey
      
   6. ice to fill the container
      
   
   
3. Brine for 6 hours
   
4. Dry completely and place in the refrigerator on a drying rack stuck inside of a cookie sheet (uncovered) - this gives you an incredibly crisp skin
   
5. Cook it on its back for an hour at 425 degrees
   
6. Turn the oven down to 350, turn the turkey over
   
7. Stuff turkey with superheated stuffing because... if you cook a turkey with stuffing it means you have to increase the time, leading to dry meat. Who wants dry meat? If you superheat the stuffing and add it after the turkey is already partly done, you minimize the impact on the turkey and still get yummy turkey-flavored stuffing.
   
8. Cook until it's safe turkey temperature according to my digital thermometer
   
9. Let it rest for an hour because the turkey carving guy wasn't here yet