Re: Date ideas
 

One good one that I've found great for dates is a version of a Mexican Lasagna. It's pretty simple to make and it's delightful on the taste buds. Served with corn bread twists this recipe is great. Hope I'm not making a Rookie mistake by posting the recipe here:

Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients

2 TBS. Oil
1 Large Zucchini (~10 Oz.)
¾ C Frozen Corn, Thawed
¼ C Ricotta Cheese
1 ½ C Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
½ tsp. Cumin
1 C Bottled Tomato Based Salsa
6 – 6” Corn Tortillas
1 – 7 oz. Jar Roasted Red Peppers (or 2 – 4 oz. Jars); drained, patted dry
3 TBS. Chopped Fresh Cilantro

Oven Directions

• Preheat oven to 500o F
• Brush baking sheet with oil
• Cut zucchini crosswise into ½” slices
• Arrange zucchini in one layer on baking sheet with corn; sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
• Roast in oven 5 minutes; turn zucchini and roast 5 minutes more.
• Mix together ricotta, 1 C Monterey jack, cumin, and add salt and pepper to taste.
• Lightly grease 9” x 5” baking pan.
• Trim tortillas with scissors into 5” x 4.5” rectangles (to fit baking pan).
• Cover bottom of pan with two tortillas.
• Spread ¼ C salsa (slightly drained) over the tortillas followed by ½ cheese mixture, ½ zucchini and corn, and ½ red peppers, 1 TBS. Cilantro.
• Repeat with another layer of tortillas, ¼ C salsa, ½ cheese mixture, ½ zucchini and corn, ½ red peppers, 1 TBS. Cilantro.
• Add another layer of tortillas, ½ C salsa, ¼ C Monterey jack mixed with remaining 1 TBS. Cilantro.
• Cover with foil and bake at 500 F for 12-14 minutes.
• Stand and cool 5-10 minutes, slice and serve.

This recipe makes enough for four single slice servings but being the pig that I am I usually will eat two of them. For those of you short in the arithmetic content skill domain this means this recipe comfortably serves two.

I also recommend using Pace mild or medium salsa. Go for the hot at your own risk :crazy: because once baked the salsa gets mighty warm on the palette. Best served with an ice, cold beverage of choice (i.e.: The coolest of frosty sensations!)

Paella - does anyone know what one uses to make the rice go yellow and taste the way it does, and also how one cooks it to taste that way?

hey -- i'm new and a complete idiot and i accidentally posted my recipe request as a new thread ---sorry....

anyway

I'm in a great little cooking club where we focus on a different theme every month and everyone cooks something in the theme -- this month is thai and i have no experience... does anyone out there have any great (perferably authentic) recipes to share?

Hey guys, I really need to learn how to make a good steak sause. And i figured my fav is Wild Mushroom Sause. Can anyone teach me a great way to make this? Also i don't really like using wine, cause i'm cheap :(

Does anyone have any good halibut recipes?

I NEED to find the recipe for Boulder Creek Steakhouse's sauteed mushrooms. Anyone?

My wifes birthday is coming up, just one problem...she's in Iraq.

So, I need the following if anyone has any ideas:

1)where I could buy a microwave cake mix online. I remember seeing these several years ago, they were 'single serving', just add water, and nuke.

2)a recipe for a microwave cake that does NOT take eggs. I found this one, but I really don't bake often enough to know if it would be any good : http://www.fisherfamily.orcon.net.nz...c_mw_cake.html

3)a cake recipe that would result in a cake I could mail. Current times are about 2-3 weeks for mail to get there, so I'm guessing that's not doable, but you never know.

4)alternate cake ideas. Little Debbie type cakes will NOT do, as I just sent over a big box of those a month ago.

Thanks all.

it's not worthy of a seperate thread - but i've done this as gifts for people for years...

Cake In a Mug

1 box cake mix, flavor of your choice
1 small instant pudding mix (not sugar free), flavor of your choice
1 pkg powdered egg whites (I get them at the health food store)

Glaze Mix
1/3 C confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsp. dry flavoring such as
lemonade mix
orange breakfast drink mix
cocoa or Vanilla Powder
instant flavored coffee or cappucino

Combine cake mix and pudding and blend well. Measure 1/2 cup of mix into a sandwich bag. Into each bag, put the equivelent of one powdered egg white. Label this bag "Cake Mix."

Place the glaze mix ingredients into a sandwich bag. Label this bag "glaze mix" and attach it to the other bag with a twist tie.

Place one bag cake mix and one bag glaze mix in each coffee cup and attach the baking instructions.

Tip
Be sure to select a large mug that can hold 1 1/2 cups of water. The mug must be microwavable.

Flavor Options

Lemon cake mix-lemon pudding
Yellow mix-chocolate pudding
Devils food mix-chocolate pudding
Pineapple mix-coconut pudding
Butterscotch mix-butterscotch pudding

Attach the following note to the gift:
Mist inside of coffee mug with cooking spray. Empty cake mix into cup. Add 1 tablespoon. oil and 1 tablespoon water. Mix well. Microwave on full power 2 minutes.
Empty Glaze Mix into a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon water. Mix well. Pour glaze over baked cake

Saffron -- a ridiculously expensive (a few hundres bucks an ounce) spice that makes things yellow (the gourmet stores sell it near me in an envelope that contains a few saffron threads -- which is good for one or two meals -- thats only a few bucks -- Tumeric has the same yellowing effect though a slightly different taste.

how about a recipe for steak fajita meat. what kind of meat, how do you season it and whats the best way to cook it?

Try this:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=62348

I just tried a recipe for BBQing corn on the grill. It contained a very tasty seasoned butter. Does anyone have other recipes for seasoned butters?

Hey can somebody please post some recipes that are preferably lowcalorie and/or high in protein that involve Pita Bread?

haha I know that's pretty specific..but thanks in advance

Smoothies!
 

Now that we're in the midst of the hot days of summer, i'm looking for great smoothie recipes. All the ones i've seen have been kind of vague about the quantities, so more exact ones would be nice.

Thanks in advance!

Black Beans and Rice... a request...
 

I'm sure it's easy as hell, but I have no idea how to cook black beans. The rice i'm ok with... I just need to refine my efforts so it's not so sticky, and more fluffy...

But really I have cans of black beans (good ones, ones my roommate's girlfriend made black beans and rice with, and it was AWESOME) and no idea how to cook them properly. Do I HAVE to season and use garlic and stuff, as i see on the side of the can, or is it ok to just cook it and dump over rice? I'm pretty sure i've eaten it only like that, without extra stuff added in.

Thanks in advance for the help!! :)

White boy who LOVES black beans and rice,

-analog.

Restaurant I used to work at made it's barbecue by braising the ribs in big tubs in a pizza oven. I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work just fine in a crock pot.

Anybody have any suggestions for tapas recipies(either recipies or websites with recipies)? I had some at a restaurant the otehr day and fell in love with them.

Nevermind.. I cant read

Me and my husband are on a tight budget and we always eat the same kind of junk food and I can't stand it anymore but I have never been a great cook. Need help finding some yummy easy recipes.

Here how I make Black Beans, It is not as easy as you might think but it is not that hard.

1/2 pound black beans (dry not in the can)
1/2 onion peeled
pepper
2 cloves of garlic peeled
2 tablespoons olove oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 cup diced slab bacon (you can use bacon slices coped up)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tesspoon flour
salt

Soak the beans for 1 hour in 2 cups water. Drain.
Place the beans in a pot, cover with 2 cups of water, add 1/2 onion, pepper(to tast), and the whole garlic cloves. Cover and simmer 1 hour.

While the beans are cooking, heat the oil in a small skillet. Saute the chopped onion, minced garlic and bacon untill the bacon is lightly browned. Sprinkle on the paprika and flour. Add this mixture to the bean pot, along with the salt. Continue cooking until the beans are done, about 1 hour or more, adding some water if necessary.(the beans should have very little liquid when done.) Dicard teh 1/2 onion.


These are tasty black beans.

Enjoy

I would love to help but I need more information. I have one cookbook that is only Tapas and there are over 100 recipies in it. Could you let me know what Tapas you had?


Edit: The book is

Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain
Penelope Casa
ISBN: 0-394-74235-4

I live in the Pacific Northwest, not exactly known for good barbeque sauce. I recently traveeld to Savannah, Georgia, where I had the most amazing meals with barbeque sauce--fish, vegetables, you name it. The sauce was not the cloying, sticky-sweet stuff we get in jars up here. Anyone have some good barbeque sauce recipes, particluarly suitable for fish dishes?

mainly it depends on what kind of fish you're gonna do - fish can vary greatly in flavor and texture so some sauces will differ...

some you may want to add to the critter after it's been cooked like this one for firm white fish like cod or halibut...

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp pepper
2 tbls grated onion
2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp sugar

combine all of the ingredients into a saucepan - stir and simmer for about 15 minutes - keep the pan warm on the grill until the fish is cooked - served it with the cooked fish

i do this and it's so simple...

1 cup Kraft Miracle Whip
1/2 cup melted butter
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 to 1 1/2tsp dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste (1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper to start

whisk all ingredients together until smooth - coat both sides of fish steaks or fillets with sauce - cook on well oiled grill, about six inches from bbq coals or flame, about 10 minutes -WATCH OUT FOR FLAMERS!!!...
turn once - place more sauce on top - cook till the fish just turns opaque in the middle - serve it with more warmed sauce on the side - it's awesome on salmon!!!

I'm looking for a beef stew recipe. Idealy something that doesn't have to be made with a Dutch Oven. I have one, but when I plugged it in last night it started smoking and smelling funny... I'm thinking it's dead. Anyway, I tried making some from a recipe I found, but it just didn't turn out.

So, who can hook a girl up with some beef stew?

This recipe sounded tasty...
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=73643

I love this recipe. I know it might look like a lot of garlic but with the long cooking time the garlic completely dissolves and the flavor is sweeter. When I make it I put it over either egg noodles or I cut potatoes in ¼ slices and fry them and put the stew over them.

Enjoy It is grate.

i am looking for different recipies for the holidays (thanks & xmas) mostly vegetables, they are so boring

"Dutch Oven..."

Cracks me up every time.


Anyway, I'd like to know how to make very basic Carrot Cake. Just the cake part with no extra trimmings or added extras.

(I'll be adding my own home-grown special ingredient)

Speaking of Carrot cake, I need help with mine. I made one over the weekend, but it turned out so dense, that it required two hands to slice it. !!!! What did i do wrong??? I followed the instructions exactly, except that the pans were 8 inch round as i didn't have 9 in round pans.

the recipe is http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/RecipeC...1&recipeType=1

Carrot cake is notoriously dense, so you honestly may not have done anything at all wrong. Some recipes I've found are denser than others.

Simple Carrot or Apple or Zucchini Cake
4 cups peeled, cored and shredded apple or carrots or zucchini
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon (i like a lot of cinnamon, the original recipe called for 1 tbs)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda (make sure it's fresh)
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 X 13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, blend the sugar with the eggs. Add the oil, and mix well. Mix in flour, spices, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the nuts and the apples, carrots, or zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for 40 minutes. Serve warm or cooled.

You could also do this in round pans and make the layer cake like your recipe shows. This is dense -- but it's also somewhat light.. On some occassions, I've done 1/2 apples and 1/2 carrots just to lighten it up a little more.

Good luck .

Truffle indeed
 

Allow me to explain my situation. A good friend of mine is wanting to make her father chocolate truffles for his christmas gift(the fellow has an sweet tooth unsuprassed I hear). So she turned to me for help. I've made truffles before, and they've been...mediocre at best.

So far I've tried a recipe utilizing just cream and chocolate; and one with cream, butter, and chocolate. So my request of the food deities which inhabit this internet abode is this: Recipes, hints, tips, ideas? I really want to help her out and not let her down, so I appreciate anything you can offer me.

And just because I'm not greedy enough for culinary knowledge, is there a way to shortcut tempering chocolate or make it easier? I fail at it pretty easily.

The easiest recipe I've seen for it is for using cream and chocolate... You put the cream in a sauce pan and bring it to an almost boil.. then chop up the chocolate - -use chunks of chocolate, not the chip variety, put the chocolate in a bowl, and dump the cream into the bowl wiht the chocolate. I don't have a recipe in front of me, but I seem to recall the measurements to be, for every ounce of chocolate, you need one tablespoon of heavy cream...

Stir until all the chocolate is melted, then refridgerate.

Use a melon baller to make the little round shapes and roll them in powdered sugar, cinammon, cocoa, whatever you desire

Saffron is the name of this spice. It's ridiculously expensive in the states but it's a wonderful aromatic and a great colour addition to paella. Just a small bit of it is used as it tends to be avery potent little spice.

interesting and fast ways to cook/marinade pork chops please...I'm bored of my own ideas

Alright, I'm a passable cook and I know a decent beer when I taste it, but I have no idea about wine. Sure there are a few I've tried that I really enjoyed. A Gewurtztraminer isn't going to make the cut for what I need though.

I'm going to see a friend this next weekend and I would like to pack along a nice bottle of something for her(and me). She likes wine and I would like to impress her by being a suave sort of fellow who reaches into his luggage and emerges with an alcoholic bottle of seduction(I ain't saying I need it!). Anyway, suggestions would be helpful. I guess the price needs to hover around twenty five dollars(my ass is broke as a joke).

I have a day off tomorrow and would like to prepare a meal for my wife and I, for when she comes home in the evening. I don't really cook, usually, and have not cooked anything really in the two years I have been in the States.

What I'd like to prepare for her, is a nice juicy steak. What I'll serve with it, I already have figured and planned out, but the steak...now that's the tough part for me. See, I have never prepared a steak. I don't have a grill, just an oven. I don't know how you are supposed to "cook" a steak. I don't even know so much as what kind of meat a steak is. Is it pork, beef, what? Cow, pig? German shepherd?

Anyways, any tips are welcome. I took a quick look at the steaks at the local supermarket, and was very confused. Marinated? What's that? How does that taste different from non-marinated? Furthermore, is there a steak that's a bit "fancier" as in has more meat than lard to it?

I really want to do this, but don't know where and how to begin. Please advise!

Hello everyone. I can't find my hummus recipe and I'm going nuts. I tried winging it and it turned out funky. No good. I eat a lot of hummus, so any replies would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Looking for an egg nog recipe that includes Irish Cream. Thanks.

Why ruin perfectly good irish cream with eggnog :)

Make your own irish cream instead

Homemade Irish Cream
1 Cup heavy cream
1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk (NOT Evaporated)
2 cups Irish whiskey (doesn't have to be really good whiskey)
1 tbs. chocolate syrup
2 tbs. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
Blend all ingredients together, chill and serve.

Will keep in the fridge about 2 weeks...

Thanks, that sounds good. My roommate was looking for it for a christmas party. Ended up we didn't need anymore alcohol anyway. Thanks again.