Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

There's been more than once I had the privilege to dine at an establishment that put their house made spice blend on practically every dish they served.
Everything tasted the same no matter what you ordered..the only thing different was the texture.
It was some sort of hot red pepper salty Cajun seasoning.
I do not want to have a chicken fried steak with fried Cajun seasoning all over it to the point the crust was red.
The fries and everything including the gravy.
Even the vegetables had this stuff on it.
Up in Prudhoe Bay Alaska some wanna be gormet chef line cook got it into his head to put his seasoning blend on everything.
I came unglued on him when he dumped a pile of it on the tater tots for breakfast and tossed it in the air.
It was very heavy with oregano and the place always smelled like a pizza joint.
Before this he would walk up and down the line dumping this stuff on everything out on the serving line.
And yes he called it a Cajun seasoning.
Well anyway I exclaimed loudly to him, Do you have to put that crap on everything you serve, I don't want everything tasting like frigging oregano.
Well my friend the sous chef told me later that the guy told him what I said.
He told me there would be no more spice blend on everything.
He for some reason had no idea he was doing it.

Speaking of spice blends it seems like all the guys on YouTube are selling their own.
So much so they're putting it on everything they cook.
The price is over the top too.
@LindaJean .
My rant is in no way directed at you our your spice blend you use.
It just reminded me of some really bad experiences with it in the past.
I actually used two spice blends one of which is called Italian seasoning.
It has little to do with Italian food and is not used in Italy.
But it's convenient.
It contains Basil oregano rosemary and thyme.
The other has been around for decades its herbs de provence.

Another is chili powder not to be confused with chilie powder.
The former is a blend to make chili the latter is a specific chilie pepper ground into a powder.
The latter I don't use I will just say what kind of chilie pepper it is.

[Danny]

Am I the only one that opens a canned food after I'm exhausted from gardening - although I did make a great stew this morning with a London Broil . A few shakes of Spice Island's Organic Garlic and Herb Seasoning is an ingredient we add to almost everything, it's an excellent blend.
Tomorrow it's going into spaghetti sauce.
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We have several "cheat" quickies on hand for those days where you just need to get calories in and in a hurry. Often a couple frozen microwave meals ( sometimes home made left overs or commercial ones) , canned stews and beans/bean dishes in jars that we put up, and such. Sometimes it is as simple as grilled cheese sandwich and a salad or scrambled eggs and salad, summertime sliced tomatoes served with a quick sandwich and some green onions is a meal.

Not always a full tilt cooking thing when tired or just really hungry.

And, LOL, we eat bread with pastas and stews, what else you gonna swipe up the sauce left in the bowl with??!!

[worth1]

That's what you're supposed to do is wipe up the sauce.
But that isn't eating bread (with) pasta, it's eating bread (after) pasta.

[Sue_CT]

The herb blend I have used in the past on pasta was Mrs. Dash original. I use a homemade chili blend I make from dried chilis, and a homemade cajun blend, but the recipe is Emeril Lagasse's. I also have a general "italian" blend like you do, and I do like Lawrey's seasoning on steak and hamburgers. I can't imagine, though, using one herb blend on everything.

[karstopography]

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We delayed the fried shrimp and french fries dinner by one night. No worries, it was super good whatever night. Soaked the kennebec potatoes in ice water for an hour, fried at about 275° for 5 minutes, set aside, then turned up the heat and fried until browned up a bit. Uniquely good, not a standard french fry.

Shrimp got fried in an electric skillet in peanut oil. Crushed saltines on top of an egg wash, on top of flour dusting. Too good.

Got a veto on the fresh dill for tartar sauce. Not a hill I was willing to die on.

[pepperhead212]

Though not really cooking, starting yesterday, I made a batch of gazpacho, using up over 3 lbs of frozen tomatoes from last season, and a cucumber and large bell pepper from the store (I do this every year, to use up my old tomatoes from the freezer). I only put one small shallot in, as the onion flavor, and clove of garlic, since it is also served with garlic chives. Also has 1½ tb chia seeds, which I let gel in the blended tomatoes for about 10 minutes, then blended it in my Vitamix on high for about a minute - this totally liquifies the tomatoes and seeds, and the chia prevents the separating. I took about a third of the tomatoes, and blended 2/3 of the cuke and pepper, plus that garlic and shallot, until smooth, then added some sherry vinegar, then trickled in some extra virgin olive oil, while running, which emulsifies it, then I mixed that with the 2/3 tomato mix, and chilled it. I diced the remaining cucumber and pepper to serve with the gazpacho, along with the garlic chives and a few croutons.
My first taste of gazpacho this year, using tomatoes out of the freezer from last season. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[karstopography]

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Prime Brisket on the BGE I picked up for $1.97/#. Rub does have some homemade paprika, plus salt, pepper, granulated garlic, etc.

Also drying principe borghese, pink tiger, and black cherry tomatoes. There’s a few assorted peppers in the dehydrator also.

[worth1]

I had a big plate of bratkartoffeln minus onions and meat.
Lima beans and cornbread earlier in the day.

[worth1]

Yet another concoction from the world of Italian American cuisine.
Everything homemade.
It's too full.
But I have a glass lid and its in a protective skillet.
Probably another disaster on many levels.

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[PlainJane]

@worth1 I’m not sure that combination of ingredients could ever be a disaster!

[worth1]

@worth1 I’m not sure that combination of ingredients could ever be a disaster!

I don't know if I cooked the pasta long enough.
No idea if the sauce had enough liquid but I didn't want soup.
I cooked it down s lot farther than the picture shows.

The white blobs are low fat plain yogurt not ricotta cheese because I didn't have any.
No parmesan so I used dried mozzarella.
Use the non dry as well.
The meat was my homemade hot Italian sausage.

I didn't have celery so I used stalks from swiss chard.

I cut the leaves up and cooked them in with the sauce.
Used red onion.
There's a thousand things that could go wrong.

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[worth1]

Well anywho here it is.
I hope it sets up.

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[karstopography]

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The brisket is now wrapped in foil and resting. Sides are mashed Kennebec potatoes and green beans.

[karstopography]

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Point and flat on display. Fam gave me very high marks.

[worth1]

I couldn't wait for it to completely cool off and it was delicious.
It reminded me of a lasagna that I had at a big pub or whatever you call them in Innsbruck Austria.
Probably the best lasagna I've ever had.
This one was a match in flavors.

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[karstopography]

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The dehydrator tomatoes are dry. Five are so were still a bit not completely dry so I ate them. Yummy. I finished drying a few peppers that I started drying outside on the copper top. Three or four needed more drying time so back outside they went to dry on the copper. Not going to run the dehydrator for four peppers and five tomatoes.

[Danny]

More BLTs and BLATs this week, ordered plenty of bacon. Also going to make a recipe I saw online from a bento box lady, ground meat in pepper rings, the peppers are cooked in rounds on top of the stove, instead of whole stuffed peppers in the oven and the seasoning sounds good ( and we have those seasonings too).

[worth1]

Nooooo! (NOT) another homemade pasta recipe!!!!!.

Well don't worry it isn't.

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[worth1]

No it's not a quesadilla or a tortilla.
It's Scottish shortbread.
The only cookie I make and I haven't had any in years.
Simple ingredients.
1 cup of flour.
1/4 pound of salted butter.
1/4 cup of sugar.

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[pepperhead212]

Almost identical to the shortbread I used to make, when making all those cookies as Christmas gifts years ago! One of my favorites, as well as others. A variation of it has light brown sugar as the sugar. Still another variety has 1/2 c powdered sugar, as the sugar, giving it a very fine texture.