The Cookbook

[George K]

Of all the things that can go wrong in a marriage, our failure has been that Mrs. George doesn't like meatloaf.

[Mik]

There are worse failures.

But I can relate. MFR grows increasingly intolerant of culinary adventure.

[George K]

@mik said in The Cookbook:

MFR grows increasingly intolerant of culinary adventure.

Interesting. It's the opposite here.

I made a pretty simple chicken breast meal last night, with a very simple "sauce" dripping stuff. Mrs. George said she wanted more sauce.

Remember, this is the woman who wants her steak like a hockey puck.

[Mik]

Not beautiful but looks tasty.

[Aqua's Sister]

@mik said in The Cookbook:

Not beautiful but looks tasty.

Beauty is overrated.

[Mik]

It all looks about the same tomorrow.

[Mik]

[Aqua Letifer]

BADASS MAPLE STEW

1. About as much cubed chicken or chuck meat as a large yellow onion by volume. Or, if you're a severely left-brained person, let's just say exactly 1.5 cups.
2. 1 chopped large yellow onion. (1.5 cups)
3. About as many chopped carrots as a large yellow onion by volume. (1.5 cups)
4. About as many cubed golden potatoes as a large yellow onion by volume. (1.5 cups)
5. 2 cups dark beer
6. 2 cups bone broth. Chicken broth for cubed chicken, beef broth for chuck meat.
7. About half a cup of maple syrup
8. a bowl of flour
9. 1 generous tsp of sweet paprika
10. about 4 cloves of garlic, chopped.
11. dutch oven

This is the biggest bitch of the whole process, but it's absolutely worth it:

• cube your meat.
• dry it off.
• throw it into a bowl and pour the maple syrup over it. Coat it all well.
• take each piece out and individually coat well with the flour bowl.
• making sure not to overlap the pieces, place some of the ones you've floured, a small batch at a time, into your dutch oven. Medium heat. Throw a little olive oil at the bottom, and fry the meat so that they get a nice deep brown color on the bottom. Then use tongs to turn them over. repeat until all your meat has been cooked, and set it aside. But don't clean out your dutch oven. Let the excess crap stay in there.

Then:

• throw in a little more olive oil, then all your veggies (minus the potatoes), and get them about half cooked. Medium-high heat. keep stirrin' every couple of minutes until you're done.

Third:

• slowly pour in your dark beer, your bone broth, your potatoes, your paprika, your meat that you've set aside, along with a pinch of salt and pepper. You might have to add more bone broth, depending on what you want your liquid/solid ratio to be. (Don't taste it at this point. it's gonna taste like grog sopped up from a tavern floor, because the beer hasn't cooked away yet. But trust the process.)
• after you bring it all up to a simmer, slow cook with lid on for anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Longer is better.

Throw in about 1/8 cup of parsley on top once you're done.

[Mik]

Sounds excellent.

[Aqua Letifer]

@mik said in The Cookbook:

Sounds excellent.

Easy, simple ingredients, and keeps extremely well. The meat's a little labor-intensive but that's it.

[LuFins Dad]

@aqua-letifer said in The Cookbook:

@mik said in The Cookbook:

Sounds excellent.

Easy, simple ingredients, and keeps extremely well. The meat's a little labor-intensive but that's it.

Looks good!

[Mik]

My assignment for Thanksgiving is cookies. So I made these and added 1/c chopped macadamias. Delicious, but my dough was too dry (I was short 1 t of vanilla) so I had to add another egg.

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cranberry-orange-and-white-chocolate-chunk-cookies/094f8669-120c-4163-bb41-95e2d52ac478

[Copper]

I made Toll House cookies, accept no substitutes.

[George K]

Tonight's Dinner

Link to video

Came out pretty tasty. My only flaw was that the breasts were a bit thick, and I cooked them, perhaps, too long.

Nevertheless, pretty tasty.

[Mik]

Good Chicken Marsala recipe. Made it tonight.

https://vikalinka.com/best-chicken-marsala/

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts
salt and pepper
½ cup/ 60 g flour
2 tbsp olive oil
3 small shallots chopped
1 cup/100g chestnut mushrooms sliced
1 tbsp flour
½ cup/125 ml marsala wine
1 cup/250 ml chicken stock
flat leaf parsley

Instructions

Cover the chicken breasts with a cling wrap and pound them with a meat mallet until they are no thicker than ½ inch. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides and dredge in flour.

Fry in olive oil until golden over medium-high heat for approximately 5 minutes. Do not over cook as the chicken breasts will be quite thin and will cook fast. Remove to a separate plate and set aside.

To the same pan add chopped shallots and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes, then add sliced mushrooms, salt and pepper and saute for 5 minutes, then add 1 tbsp of flour, stir and cook for a minute longer, then add marsala wine and turn the heat up to medium, add chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and return the chicken to the pan, let it heat through in the sauce, simmer for a few minutes to allow the sauce to thicken to a desired consistency.

Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and a side dish of your choice.

[Optimistic]

Anybody have a fondue recipe they love? I decided I want to make some tonight and I never have before, and the recipes online have so much variation in cheeses and alcohol used.

[Mik]

Had a ton of leftover roast chicken so I made Fancy Nancy Chicken Salad from The Chicken Salad Chick. No grapes, so more apple, and I used Avocado oil mayonnaise so half the fat. Delicious.

https://domesticsuperhero.com/fancy-nancy-chicken-salad/?utm_campaign=yummly&utm_medium=yummly&utm_source=yummly

[Mik]

For the first dinner of the year, grilled salmon with orange basil butter, roasted potatoes and strawberry macadamia salad. The salad is from Dewey's Pizza, our favorite place and where The Princess worked for several years. Their salads are out of this world good - this one is organic mixed greens with strawberries, macadamia halves, blue cheese crumbles lightly dressed with a strawberry poppyseed dressing.

Serving with an Argentine rose' of pinot noir.

https://www.landolakes.com/recipe/19999/salmon-fillets-with-orange-basil-butter/

[Mik]

As a follow-up note, the salmon was excellent and very easy. I did not put the butter on before grilling, just some salt, pepper and orange juice. Put a little orange basil butter on after it was cooked. Even My Favorite Redhead loved it and she doesn't like salmon.

You could also roast the salmon in a 425 oven until it hits 135-145, depending on how rare or well done you like it.

[Mik]

Gotta evangelize this recipe. Easy, absolutely delicious, and company worthy. The nut crust kept the meat very tender and moist. The pistachios are salted so I did not salt the meat. It didn't need it, and you can add at table if wanted. Beautiful on the plate, too. The salad was good with it.

https://www.purewow.com/recipes/pistachio-pork-tenderloin-apple-escarole-salad

My SIL is allergic to tree nuts, but I think it would work fine with peanuts or cashews. Any nut, really. We will try that next time they are here.