Excelsior

I thought it might be fun for those of us who like to cook to exchange recipes I'll start with one:

Oven roasted potatoes:
1 bag (usually about 2-3lbs) red potatoes, cleaned and cut into bite sized chunks.
1 medium yellow or white onion, cut in half then sliced.
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped (4 for a mild flavor, 6 if you really like garlic)
2 stems rosemary, chopped
Olive oil to coat
Salt & pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients together until thoroughly coated. Spread in a shallow pan in one even layer, cover and roast at 425 for about 45m. At the 45 minute mark, poke the potatoes to check for doneness. I usually uncover the pan the last 15-20 minutes of cooking for extra browning. You can also do this directly on a grill by making an aluminum foil pan with 3-4 layers of foil for the bottom. The cook time on the grill tends to be a bit shorter, so check it more frequently.

And here is a picture of the finished product, which I made on Saturday. Yum!

Wow Luxe you made me so hungry lol *mouth waters*

here a simple deco design for around a plate of deserts. take some corn syrup and mix in some red food coloring. not too much or else it'll be dark. then take a tooth pick and drip a drop onto the plate around the edges, then take the toothpick and (using only the tip) swipe through the middle of each drop on the plate. you'll make little hearts.

Hmm Recipes huh... here is one my mother taught me.

Teriyaki Chicken:
Chicken, amount and cut is your choice (I go with bone in and skin on thighs as they have the most flavor)
Equal parts Soy Sauce (Kikkomen has best flavor for this application) and Sugar
1/2 cup Cream Sheri
1 bulb garlic
1 large piece of Ginger


With the largest pot you can muster place enough chicken to feed your guests, or the WHOLE Neighborhood in the pot and add equal parts sugar and soy sauce until the chicken is fully covered... depending on the amount of chicken you are cooking this can be a lot. Add the cream Sheri and roughly chop the aromatics and add them to the pot. Bring the heat up without letting it boil as it will turn into a very salty chicken flavored lollipop... there will be oil from the chicken gathering on the surface, with a spoon or a vacuum you can remove this but it is not one of those OMG GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! kind of things.

let the concoction simmer without boiling for no less then 4 hours (the longer the better) and serve over rice... white is best... with some veggies if ya got em... but if your making a big pot of teriyaki chicken why spoil it with vegetables?

ENJOY!

p.s. this can be made the night before a BBQ and thrown on the grill for an even better Teriyaki Chicken Experiance...

That sounds delectable, +C. I'm gonna try it ASAP

One of the best methods to make roasted potatoes is to boil them first until almost done but not falling apart. The way to tell is when the edges of the cut potatoes just start to look a bit ragged and not freshly cut. Then you rinse them with cool water, dump out of the pan and lay flat on something like a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Stick them into the fridge for a couple of hours to get firm and chilled. Then when you're ready to cook, toss them with a bit of oil in your roasting pan, like a good quality Olive oil (not Canola or Soy GMO garbage) and some salt/pepper to taste.

Cook in a 350 F oven until the potatoes are golden brown. This makes them crispy on the outside, and buttery soft inside. Sure, it's a bit of extra work but you can always boil them up the night before and put in the fridge before you go to bed.

There's a nice chef on YouTube that posts lots of how-to videos, under the name of Foodwishes. Recently he posted how to make your own butter!

Enjoy

http://youtu.be/6tBXlictR8s

Here is one of my own creations that was inspired by something I saw in a Western movie. I like to cook by feel or mood so I rarely use exact measurements, so beware. This is a baked bean dish with a twist. If oyu are on a diet, I suggest you try something else.

Serves approximately 4 depending on how hungry you are.

Ingredients:
1 pkg hot dogs (sliced thinly) or 1/2 pkg ground beef
1/2 bag Ore-Ida Tater Tots
1 large can of Bush's Baked Beans or 2 small ones
1 small can of mushrooms
Brown Sugar
1 small jar of chopped pimentos
1 small jar of chopped green chilis (optional)
Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:
Place tater tots in oven and bake according to package directions. You will want them to be a bit crispy.
Saute meat in the Worcestershire Sauce. If using hamburger, smaller chunks of meat would be preferred. Set aside.
Add beans, mushrooms, pimentos and chilis to pan and simmer till mixture bubbles regularly.
Add brown sugar to taste and mix in.
Add your meat back into the pan and let conncotion simmer on low until the tots are done.

Divide a portion of the cook tots into each persons bowl. Spoon baked beans over the tots and let sit a few minutes for it to cool and for tots to absorb liquid. Grab a large spoon and enjoy.

p.s. freezer burned tots suck so don't use them

Homemade Sour Cream! How to Make Creme Fraiche

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-635txQuig

I made a batch of the homemade Creme Fraiche - and it is DIVINE. I highly recommend it if you enjoy sour cream. But don't use it the first day because it doesn't really develop that tangy flavor until the 2nd day.

I've often talked about the use of dry ice to make ice cream. Not many believed me. British chef Heston Blumenthal was the first person I see do it, but that doesn't mean he was the one who "invented" the dry ice method. Maybe he was. *shrugs* I really don't know.

This time while browsing some cooking videos online to get inspiration, I came across a video from the Culinary Institute of America.

Here is Bacon Ice Cream, made with dry ice. lol Yes he's putting dry ice INTO the ice cream mixture. But you don't have to do that if you don't have one of those nice stand mixers. You can make a depression in small chunks of dry ice in a large bowl and set a smaller bowl on top that contains the ice cream/custard base and stir really fast with a strong whisk. With the hand method it WILL freeze against the sides of the bowl and you have to be fast and scrape it. The key to creamy ice cream is mainly constant stirring while it freezes, not allowing large ice crystals to form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y3OP-Zo8Mg