Whatcha Cooking today?

[Tormahto]

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Stuffed Cabbage. Used a pound each of ground pork and beef for the stuffing, plus, rice, bell pepper, onion, fresh parsley. Garlic powder. Sweated the onion and bell pepper first. Rice was pre-cooked. Sauce was garden tomatoes, along with tomato sauce, a bit of brown sugar, fresh garlic, apple cider vinegar.

Came out great. Nothing we could say we didn’t like about the dinner and a lot we liked. Used one medium head of Big Flat head cabbage I picked 2 hours before starting dinner. a few extra chopped up leaves around the stuffed ones.

Lot’s of online recipes for stuffed cabbage. This one was a hybrid of a few different ones.

I'm getting close to making my annual 100+ of them. It takes 6 large cabbages. At St Patrick's time of year, cabbage goes for .19/lb. To be done right, for me, meat must be pre-browned.

[Tormahto]

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Photos didn’t load the first time.

That doesn't look like the standard 13 X 19 baking dish.

[karstopography]

I looked at a few polish style stuffed cabbage leaves recipes before making them and didn’t see any that browned the meat so I didn’t.

They came out great. The wife and son raved (probably because they didn’t have to do the cooking) about them. We got Thursday and Friday nights dinner out of the one dish. I liked the ground pork in there along with the beef, I’d do that mix again.

I like meals that utilize garden produce, taste great, and don’t break the bank. These cabbage rolls checked the right boxes. One big flat head cabbage is perfect for enough good sized tender leaves to make 15 or so big rolls. It isn’t such a rock hard tight cabbage so the leaves come off without a lot of blanching or extra work. Frozen tomatoes from last season made up the bulk of the sauce. I had a few tomatoes like hillbilly and Cherokee purple in the frozen bag, I’d do a mix like that again also.

https://www.ballseed.com/PlantInfo/?phi ... 0001025318
Big flat head is a cabbage variety, btw, not a reference to the size of the cabbage I used. The one I used wasn’t particularly big.

[worth1]

I'm doing an old Yucatán favorite with black beans today.
Need to go purchase some habanero chilies.

[karstopography]

We got Covid survivors coming over for dinner, one daughter and her BF anyhow. I think family gatherings where everyone has had Covid recently are officially sanctioned aren’t they? Anyway, Baked salmon, french green beans and a fresh garden bibb and spinach salad are on the menu. They are doing Keto so I’m seasoning the salmon fillet with ginger, garlic, sesame but will omit the honey or greatly reduce that.

[Sue_CT]

If anyone is interested in the free box of food I mentioned earlier from Hello Fresh, they just allotted me four. Just PM me your email address. You have to sign up and give them a credit card and then cancel when you get your box so that you don't get any more, if that is what you want. But if you could use a small box of free food, its yours.

[maxjohnson]

Pancreas and liver jerky.

Marinated with: worchestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, coconut aminos, herb mix with pepper flakes, salt.
I heated them in the oven for a few minutes before dehydrating to be safe.

The pancreas is pretty bitter and not as tasty, but once it's sufficiently dehydrated it became a lot more palatable. I recommend adding sugar to the marination.

The liver jerky on the other hand taste great. Sweet and spicy. This so far seems to be my favorite way to eat liver.

Works well as dog treat I believe.

20220129_034224.jpg

[worth1]

Had the pancreas before.
Not a fan by any stretch of the imagination.
But I'll try almost anything at least once.
I said almost.

[Sue_CT]

But WHY, lol? Sooo many other more appealing things in the world to try, lol. The liver is bad enough, just the odor will have me moving outdoors even in frigid weather. The pancreas means will I likely be residing elsewhere for a while.

[Tormahto]

I looked at a few polish style stuffed cabbage leaves recipes before making them and didn’t see any that browned the meat so I didn’t.

They came out great. The wife and son raved (probably because they didn’t have to do the cooking) about them. We got Thursday and Friday nights dinner out of the one dish. I liked the ground pork in there along with the beef, I’d do that mix again.

I like meals that utilize garden produce, taste great, and don’t break the bank. These cabbage rolls checked the right boxes. One big flat head cabbage is perfect for enough good sized tender leaves to make 15 or so big rolls. It isn’t such a rock hard tight cabbage so the leaves come off without a lot of blanching or extra work. Frozen tomatoes from last season made up the bulk of the sauce. I had a few tomatoes like hillbilly and Cherokee purple in the frozen bag, I’d do a mix like that again also.

https://www.ballseed.com/PlantInfo/?phi ... 0001025318
Big flat head is a cabbage variety, btw, not a reference to the size of the cabbage I used. The one I used wasn’t particularly big.

I'll have to dig out my golumpki recipe.

Also, I'll post the ingredients for the 95 year old Polish woman that I made them for. All of her relatives said they were the best they ever had. Her, she was a bit stubborn, and just couldn't compliment me on them. She had to have them made special with every ingredient she asked for, and would pick them apart while eating to spot each item.

[Sue_CT]

Grew up eating golumpkis and loved them. Mom never cooked the meat first. Mixed it up, always had rice in it, rolled it up and put I htink tomato paste on top. Baked, and they were really good. I need to get her recipe. Haven't had them in some time.

I stand corrected, Mom says she put a can of tomato sauce on top of them.

[rxkeith]

today it was turkey soup made with neck, gizzard, and a couple wings.
i thought i should have bought a package of thighs instead of the wings.
they were the same price per lb. the soup still came out fine.
probably enough soup for six people to eat till they are full.
total cost is under ten dollars.


keith

[Tormahto]

Today was recipe disaster day. I baked a ham in the early morning, so I thought I'd make split peas soup in the afternoon. I misplaced my "good " recipe when I went shopping with it. If it's among the swap participants' letters, it's lost until fall. I have two backup recipes decades old , but they are "poor" recipes. I decided to combine the two. One is for yellow split pea soup, the other for green. The water amounts are different, the herbs are different. I didn't waste a lot of ham, potatoes and carrots in it, since the outcome was unknown. It came our too thin, the combination of yellow and green was not what I expected, and the herbs were all wrong. The positive was that I only made 12 quarts in a 16 quart stock pot.

[pepperhead212]

I made my soup today, starting last night, by soaking some beans. I usually don't soak, but I was using some old batches - about 6 oz each of red beans and black eyed peas (the old ones), to empty out the jars. Then I put about 6 oz of Navy beans, and set them to soak. This afternoon I drained them, then put them in the IP, covered with water, and pressure cooked just 1 minute, then let the pressure release naturally, while getting the ham, onions, and everything else prepped. First, I cooked the 24 oz of diced ham in my largest cast iron Dutch oven, and got a great amount of fond. The ham was removed, and onion and carrots added, and cooked about 10 min (this is one of those smells I love having in my house!), then added the garlic, rosemary, sage, and a couple tb of tomato paste, and cooked about 2 min., then added water, to dissolve the fond.

Then I drained and rinsed the beans, returned to the Instant Pot, added about 1/3 of the ham, and the Dutch oven liquid, plus a little more water, and some salt. Brought to a boil, then put in slow cook mode, and set to cook.

This was my lucky day! About the time I was finishing this, my doorbell rang, and it was a couple of young kids, offering to clear my snow! I was shocked, this happened long ago, but not in recent years - most kids are just lazy! This is why I set the soup in the slow cook - I was going to have to go out and do this.

After 2 hours cooking, I checked the soup, and added about 3/4 c red lentils, to thicken it some, which works great, plus the rest of the ham. Also, it needed more smoke flavor, and as I was standing there thinking this, I saw my jar of chipotle flakes sitting there, and the light went off! So I put about 2 tsp of them in there, and after another hour, it was just the right thickness, and flavor. I also made a few corn muffins, to eat with it - just a half recipe.
4 bean soup, with ham and a couple of potatoes in it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Corn muffins - should have made 5, so they would have been a little larger. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Tormahto]

I made my soup today, starting last night, by soaking some beans. I usually don't soak, but I was using some old batches - about 6 oz each of red beans and black eyed peas (the old ones), to empty out the jars. Then I put about 6 oz of Navy beans, and set them to soak. This afternoon I drained them, then put them in the IP, covered with water, and pressure cooked just 1 minute, then let the pressure release naturally, while getting the ham, onions, and everything else prepped. First, I cooked the 24 oz of diced ham in my largest cast iron Dutch oven, and got a great amount of fond. The ham was removed, and onion and carrots added, and cooked about 10 min (this is one of those smells I love having in my house!), then added the garlic, rosemary, sage, and a couple tb of tomato paste, and cooked about 2 min., then added water, to dissolve the fond.

Then I drained and rinsed the beans, returned to the Instant Pot, added about 1/3 of the ham, and the Dutch oven liquid, plus a little more water, and some salt. Brought to a boil, then put in slow cook mode, and set to cook.

This was my lucky day! About the time I was finishing this, my doorbell rang, and it was a couple of young kids, offering to clear my snow! I was shocked, this happened long ago, but not in recent years - most kids are just lazy! This is why I set the soup in the slow cook - I was going to have to go out and do this.

After 2 hours cooking, I checked the soup, and added about 3/4 c red lentils, to thicken it some, which works great, plus the rest of the ham. Also, it needed more smoke flavor, and as I was standing there thinking this, I saw my jar of chipotle flakes sitting there, and the light went off! So I put about 2 tsp of them in there, and after another hour, it was just the right thickness, and flavor. I also made a few corn muffins, to eat with it - just a half recipe.
4 bean soup, with ham and a couple of potatoes in it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Corn muffins - should have made 5, so they would have been a little larger. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I made ham and bean soup about a month ago, with the Christmas ham and bone.

A few decades ago, before the internet, I found a recipe for US Senate bean soup. It was horrible. I had a large batch, so I started to add a variety of veggies, herbs, spices and tomato paste. That made it OK. A few years later I discovered Liquid Smoke. That gave a great smokey aroma and flavor, but also some bitterness. So, I cooked some sweet potato, pureed it and mixed it in. The final step was pureeing some of the beans to get the thickness that I like.

A word of caution, mixing different kinds of beans and cooking in a stove pot can lead to disaster. Some can be overdone and falling apart, while others can still be hard. It looks like the pressure cooker solves that possible problem?

Also, I never have a problem with filling all muffin cups with enough batter. I've heard that if you have any empty ones, add some water into each. It's supposed to prevent the muffin tin from warping. I have no reason to try it.

[karstopography]

We made baked farm raised Atlantic salmon last night. Our guests, daughter the nurse and BF are doing the low carb, keto type diet so I had to omit the 3 or 4 tablespoons of honey from the soy, ginger, garlic, green onion glaze. I kind of missed the honey, but it wasn’t such a big deal.

Aldi marks country of origin on their vacuum packed fresh salmon. My wife picked up one fillet from Canada and one from Chile, that’s all they had. We needed the two fillets to feed five people. I don’t believe any of us could taste a difference. Price was identical. I do believe Aldi charges a premium for Norwegian Atlantic Salmon when they have that in stock.

Served with a side of FRESH green beans, the french filet beans Aldi sources year around from Guatemala. That tropical country has regions with the right altitude, soils and moisture that can grow about anything anytime they want.

Tonight’s feed, not sure.

[Julianna]

Yesterday, i made a vanilla butter cake. It was ok, but i won't make it again.

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[Julianna]

Should mention i made it for myself so i didnt care how it looked . I have the crud the kids have, so i mostly just want to sleep at this point.

[Tormahto]

Should mention i made it for myself so i didnt care how it looked . I have the crud the kids have, so i mostly just want to sleep at this point.

Young ones don't care either, as long as the frosting is thick.

[agee]

I made Thai Chicken Curry.

I consulted online recipes prior to cooking but did not have the recipes in front of me when I actually made the curry.

The flavor is fine but the curry is watery versus thick and creamy.

I made it in an electric pressure cooker, aka Instant Pot but mine's is a different brand.

I am debating whether I should leave as is, or add another can or two of coconut milk.