Originally posted by fenilla at Claypot Rice

So, I bought what I thought was a food processor about a month ago (I got it from a second hand store, so I'm sure you can kind of understand my confusion.)

After trying to make pesto in it today, I realized what I actually bought was a juicer. I've never had a juicer before, nor have I ever thought of buying one (I tend to stay away from the fancier kitchen gadgets. It's also the type of juicer that you feed the food into a slot like a food processor, & it shreds it, but then there's a mesh screen to drain everything into the bottom)

So, I don't want it to go to waste, so what are some fun things I can do with a juicer? Also any tips would be useful, I don't know anyone who owns one

Not exactly a dish for every day, but insanely good!

Recipe here




( Recipe )

One of my favorite roasted meat recipe! It’s very easy in preparing, to use for holidays, and instead of sausages. Dietary: NO fat, very protein!

( Read more... )

Hey Cooks,

I've been invited to a bacon and chocolate party in a few weeks.  And everyone will be bringing something.

I've been hitting a bit of a mental block with ideas of how to incorporate bacon and/or chocolate into something fun and unique to bring.  So far my only idea has been bacon and chocolate chip cookies. 

So, I've come to you for help again - what would you make and bring to a bacon and chocolate party?

Nom.

Today I decided to use some of our local veggies and wanted to make soup and bread. So I decided on chicken barley soup because that's simple enough and I can just put whatever I want in it. And I wanted fresh bread, so I used a simple french bread bread machine recipe and made the dough in the bread machine, then did the last rise and the baking in the oven. I used my new pizza stone for the bread and it worked fabulously. I just sprinkled a little corn meal on the stone right after I heated up the stone in the oven, then put the dough on it and it worked perfectly. I'm going to do all of my baking on that stone - bread, cookies, pizza, etc. Here's the bread:



And for the soup I made it without a recipe - I poached the chicken to cook it, then put it aside. I used our own homemade vegetable stock (we freeze all of our vegetable clippings and when the bag is full we make broth), with boneless skinless chicken breasts. I sauteed the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until soft (I added a little dried basil and thyme into the veggies, along with salt and some of Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning), then added the stock (about 8 cups). Brought to a boil, added 1/2 cup pearl barley and simmered for 20 minutes, then added the diced cooked chicken and cabbage (sliced into strips) cooked for 5 minutes, added the fresh peas, and cooked the whole thing for 15 minutes. The carrots, cabbage and English peas were all grown at a local farm.

( click for the soup! )

It was all delicious. The bread took time, but was extremely simple. The soup was very hearty and low fat. The only fat was a little oil to sautee the veggies at the beginning. This would be really good as a vegan recipe if you use cubes of extra firm tofu instead of chicken - it would be delicious.

Will you share tried and true recipes that use ramekins? I got some for Christmas this past year but hadn't pulled them out until yesterday. I made Dutch Babies in them and want to make a point of using these little dishes more.

The International Association of Culinary Professionals' website just published an incendiary (but nothing new, actually, and nothing unexpected) opinion article by Amy Reiley that charged food bloggers with "faking it": faking the recipe development, food journalism, and cooking expertise that the culinary industry is supposedly painstakingly cultivating.

I have some strong opinions about this charge, obviously; visit WBB if you want to see my full argument and discuss. In the meantime, love one another and make some eggs.

These eggs begin with aromatic minced shallots and garlic sautéed in butter. Mayonnaise lends a slight tanginess and a gorgeous texture after cooking, and the green onions sprinkled on top round out the delicate onion flavor. You'll love these for breakfast or even as a quick, simple dinner, which is how Mike and I enjoyed them. Don't shy away if you're not a mayo lover -- the mayo adds only a subtle flavor but so much creaminess.



( recipe + photo )


To read my argument against Reiley's assertion that food bloggers are "faking it," throw your two cents in, and see more photos, please head over to Willow Bird Baking!

x-posted to food_porn, cooking, picturing_food, and cookingupastorm

For the next couple of months, I'm going to be renting a room in a house while I finish up my degree. I'll have refrigerator access, but it will be limited since four people are using only one fridge.

So I'm brainstorming foods that don't need refrigeration and would be pretty simple to prepare. Here's my tentative list so far:
- Beans (dried or canned)
- Peanut butter
- Canned fish/meat/veggies
- Pasta
- Rice
- Bread (including tortillas)
- Dried spices (garlic and onions and ginger at least)
- Ramen (breakfast of champions!)
- Breakfast cereal
- A bottle of cheap wine for cooking (and sometimes drinking)

What are some good fruits/vegetables for my list, that don't need a lot of refrigeration and are easy to keep (I will have a cooler)? What are some good ways to mask the taste/texture of canned vegetables? The new kitchen's pretty well stocked for cooking utilities, but I'll probably bring my slow cooker anyway since it's easy. do you think I can fake chicken saagwala in the slow cooker using canned spinach? This might be an experiment...

Happy Memorial Day to those of us in the US!

If you're having a bbq/cookout/party of other sorts this weekend, what will you be serving? Food/drinks!

I'm making pulled pork, grilled buttermilk chicken thighs, a salad and a fruit platter; guests will be bringing other appetizers/sides. I'm also going to be making either a jug of some kind of rum punch, or watermelon sours in a watermelon keg, and beer (obviously!).

I have a breast of veal currently defrosting for dinner tonight. I was going to save it for a special occasion but it's just taking up too much room in the freezer so it will be dinner for me and my fiancee (with plenty of leftovers). Question is - what do I do with it? I'm sure I can call my mom to find out how she used to prepare it though I think she just did a simple roast with it. Not something I'm opposed to but I wouldn't mind trying something different. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could prepare this? I don't have a grill or a crockpot but other than that I'm pretty well stocked on tools and I live within walking distance of two grocery stores so ingredients aren't a big deal.

I've been having some trouble with bread lately, and finally decided that I needed quit to wishy-washying and just convert from volume to weight measurements already.

The problem I'm having now is finding enough sources that agree with each other so that I know what I'm doing. One says a cup of flour is 4.4 oz, another says it's only 4, another says no, it's 5 oz. And yet another source says it depends completely on what kind of flour you're weighing, which makes sense to me, but they didn't include *what* the different flours should weigh.

So my question is, what should a cup of plain white AP flour weigh? Is there a difference in the weights of different types of flour, enough to make a difference when I'm converting recipes? Is there a 'definitive' guide to converting volume to weight out there somewhere? (I've found several, but none agree with any of the others.)

Thanks to everyone who helped with the names for the bakery! But we are back to the drawing board with names. My husband wants something simple and around family :-)

Hi all! I'm working on using Stevia and Soy flour instead of Sugar and Flour. I recently adapted a pumpkin muffin recipe using ground stevia leaves from my local tea shop. I cut the amount in half because stevia is sweeter than sugar (its like candy! I love chewing on the leaves from the plant we're growing at home) and it worked out perfectly. I am a little more worried about scaling down for Soy. Everything I looked up about it says it needs to be added x10 and... that doesn't sound right. So I thought I"d wander in over here and ask what you guys thought. Bascially my question is, if a recipe called for 1 cup all purpose flour, how much would you scale up/down?

Thanks for your help in advanced!

- Mary

P.S. Have people trying to watch their calorie count? I found this wonderful Calorie counter that lets you plug in your recipe!

Calorie Counter here!

It's my husband's birthday on Friday, and I've found a few excellent linguine ai frutti di mare recipes. It used to be one of his favorites before he developed shellfish allergies and was forced to avoid things like it. I'm trying to find a way to modify the recipe to retain the flavours while making it safe to consume for him.

The main recipe I've found calls for the following:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• Red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 12 Manila or littleneck clams
• 10 ounces linguine
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 12 black mussels
• 8 shrimp, shelled (tail intact) and deveined
• 4 sea scallops, quartered
• 5 ounces calamari, cut into thin rings
• 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

I am looking into opening my own bakery & need some help with names. If you could please help me out :-)


Poll #1842161 Need help with Bakery Name
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 167

Which name do you like?

Oh my, these are delicious! The crust is buttery and crunchy with oats.
The filling is full of rhubarb and topped with crystalized ginger.

Many more pictures and info over at The Alchemist.



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So, I've got a loaf of stale french bread, buttermilk, triple sec, almonds, raisins, turkish figs, mascarpone, and a lemon. I have basic baking ingredients like sugar (white and brown), baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, eggs, and regular milk,

How do you propose I turn this (some or all) into bread pudding?

Oreo cheesecake cookies with chocolate chips... are you drooling yet?

Recipe here!




( Recipe )

Okay, so over the weekend I got some very tasty Basil Lemon Aioli and Smoked Paprika Aioli. The downside is that I have no idea what to do with them! I know they're mayo based, so I figured I could use them as some kind of sandwich spread but there has to be other stuff I can do with them, right? Can I use them in place of where I would use mayo in other recipes? How does this stuff work?

You may have noticed that I went a little coconut crazy recently. I know I've mentioned this somewhere before, but I hate it as a child (I think it was a texture thing), so now I'm making up for lost time :)

I recently posted a list of 10 coconut recipes on Willow Bird Baking and thought I'd share here, too.

1. Buttery Coconut & Almond Morning Buns



(It's hard to pick a favorite because all the recipes are SO different, but I wish I had some more of these hot coconut almond morning buns with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top right this second.)


( 9 more coconut recipes )

These scones are delicious, quick, and easy. They can literally be mixed, baked, and glazed within 45 minutes -- perfect for the difficult Sunday I had this past week. I love the combination of maples and blueberry because it reminds me of a sweet blueberry pancake breakfast.

Hope you enjoy :)



( recipe + photo )


To read the story I tell to my students ALL THE TIME, see what I was originally supposed to bake last Sunday, and see more photos, please head over to Willow Bird Baking!

x-posted to food_porn, cooking, picturing_food, and bakebakebake

Ok, I'm getting bored with my standard dinners, and am looking for interesting recipes. However, I have several challenges, since I have to meet various dietary restrictions for my family.

So, I come to you for help and inspiration. And, here is the exhaustive list of restrictions:

Lower calorie
Well balanced (as close to equal as possible of protein, carbs, and fats)
low sodium
Very low potassium - no beans or legumes, very little dairy, no fresh tomatoes (a very little bit of canned tomatoes are OK), potatoes only if they are boiled and/or soaked first, no leafy vegetables, no squash, absolutely no bananas, and very limited fresh fruit.
While I love whole grains, the rest of the family is meh about them, so if whole grains (brown rice, quinoa) are included, the recipe better be really good to "make up" for that
No shellfish
Budget friendly
And, finally, since I get most of my meats (except chicken breasts) from raising them ourselves, any cuts of meats need to be as little processed as possible.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Honeydew Ice- The perfect cold treat for the hot weather! Super easy, fresh, healthy, and you don't need an ice cream machine!

Recipe and more over at The Alchemist.



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So my recipe calls for 2c instant rice, but all I have is regular.  I don't mind cooking it longer, but is there a difference in how much it makes?  Does instant rice triple or...??

So I've been gifted a rather large bunch of assorted mint, fresh.  Unfortunately it doesn't have roots to plant it, and I'm getting tired of mint tea...

So, what are some recipes that use fresh mint?  I am not looking for a specific meal category, just any and all suggestions. 

The mints I have are:
Apple mint
Spearmint
Peppermint
and Chocolate mint.

Thanks so much!

So tonight I made Mataha, which is an East African dish. It's a dumpling in the bottom of the bowl with a vegetable soup on top. It's from this vegetarian bean cookbook I have, Bean Banquets. The dumplings have these big speckled Christmas Beans that I get at the farmers market, potatoes, spinach and hominy. The soup has onions, garlic, curry, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes and fresh peas.

Because everything I buy at the farmers market comes fresh from the farm, I had to shell all the peas and de-stem all the spinach and I had to chop all the ingredients and cook the four dumpling ingredients separately, and the beans took forever to cook (I should have soaked them longer). Oh well. This soup is DELICIOUS. It took me a total of 4 and a half hours to cook though, and there was a ton of chopping, cooking, mashing, you name it. But it was worth it It is really good.

( pictures )

We got two meals out of the recipe so our dinner cost about $8 for the three of us, so it was a little pricey, but we're eating cheaper the rest of the week. I'm trying to see if it's more expensive to eat as much organic as possible (meat is sort the only really expensive organic item nowadays). I'm also trying to eat as little processed food as possible. Really it's just time it takes. But as a vegetarian meal it's really filling and feels like a meal.

Also, it took forever to make because I used dried beans. If I had used a can of kidney beans instead, the entire meal would have taken about an hour.

Here's the recipe (click twice for full size):

( click for the scan of the cookbook )

I am very proud of myself and have actually GROWN some shitake mushrooms on a mushroom log (took a year to fruit, and I didn't do anything to it, but still...)

I now have a bowlful of shitake, plus 4 large flat mushrooms (portabello mushrooms?)

I also have onions, garlic, and assorted other veg plus standard storecupboard stuff.

What ideas have you got for showcasing the shitake? I was thinking of a mushroom stroganof - any good recipes?

PS. No meat, please. Thanks.

This may brand me a total cooking dork, but I have always been terrified of using a paring knife. Particularly given some of my other hobbies (see icon).

Well, I manned up and used one for peeling the ginger for my next pickling batch. SO MUCH EASIER than the veggie peeler or the spoon!

I feel like a total kitchen ignoramus that it took me this long to get over my fear of the paring knife...

Scenario:  Husband's 30th birthday party.  Surprise party.  He'll be out of the house for the 3 hours prior to the party, at which point I'll have to acquire and prepare all the food and decorate the house, while taking care of a 10 month old.
Ideas for food?  I'm already ordering pizza ;)
What are your easiest party recipes?

I made pizza tonight! We used our new pizza stone and I made whole wheat dough in the bread machine.

Here's the perfect pizza:



Pizza pictured: half had red sauce, cheese, pepperoni, bacon, red onions and yellow hungarian peppers the other half was red sauce, mushrooms, italian sausage, red onions and yellow hungarian peppers.

Pizza #2 (which was the first pizza and we didn't pre-heat the stone so it wasn't done enough in the middle, but was still good): white sauce, half with tomatoes, basil, onions and bell peppers and half with sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions.

Here's the dough recipe I used:

http://www.food.com/recipe/bread-machine-pizza-dough-with-whole-wheat-flour-137143

Here's the pizza stone we bought - worked great. Just pre-heat the stone in the oven, and put a little cornmeal on the stone before you put your dough down and the pizza will not stick at all. Also goes in the dishwasher.

http://www.amazon.com/Rada-Cutlery-Stoneware-Round-Baking/dp/B0037FT26S/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1336877466&sr=8-6

It's my turn to host supper club this month so my husband and I will have two other couples over tomorrow for dinner. I'm thinking about a Spanish tapas type menu but wanted to run it by you all to see if seems yummy and cohesive.

Tortilla Espanol - potatoes sauteed with spices and onions and baked with eggs
Garlic Shrimp
Chicken with chimichurri sauce
Garlic bread
Platter with roasted red peppers, marinated eggplant, marinated mushrooms, marinated artichokes
and sangria of course!

Thoughts? I wanted to keep it pretty simple.

Hi all,
So I love sour cream and perogies, but I usually use one of those store bought dip mixes in my sour cream to give them another flavour, plus I don't eat that many perogies so I use a lot of the sour cream dip for veggies and dip. I got a creamy dill dip package at the store and made it, but it tastes a lot sweeter than I expected it to. I was wondering if anyone has any idea of things I can add to it to cut down the sweetness?
TIA

looking through my collection of recipes, I've found that most of the fish recipes I have are soups
Which isn't really useful in summer :P

I have a LOT of salmon recipes, but nothing much else. Can you suggest some recipes for fish that aren't soups & don't use salmon?

Firstly, thank you to everyone who made suggestions Re: my super spicy ddeokbokki, Here.

I added a little bit of honey, water and tomato paste, and a lot more sesame oil (and a splash of lime juice, because I accidentally added too much sesame oil :P ).
That solved the heat problem.
Then I added some cheese for deliciousness.
And it was just about perfect :)



Edited for html fail :/