Recipes and Cooking

[Queen Victoria]

Oatmeal cooked as directed on the box with a little milk, cinnamon and sugar would taste better than savory oatmeal, IMO.

Grits are good with cheese and a little salt, though.  Grits with sugar taste gross to me.

What is/are grits?

Grits are a Southern staple food.  It's fairly ground corn, slightly larger than grains of sands.  Cook until soft and serve.  They can be served savory (grits and cheese casserole, grits and grillades - old New Orleans dish, liver and onions and grits) or with milk and sugar. 

[Callaway]

Oatmeal cooked as directed on the box with a little milk, cinnamon and sugar would taste better than savory oatmeal, IMO.

Grits are good with cheese and a little salt, though.  Grits with sugar taste gross to me.

What is/are grits?

Oatmeal cooked as directed on the box with a little milk, cinnamon and sugar would taste better than savory oatmeal, IMO.

Grits are good with cheese and a little salt, though.  Grits with sugar taste gross to me.

What is/are grits?

Grits are a Southern staple food.  It's fairly ground corn, slightly larger than grains of sands.  Cook until soft and serve.  They can be served savory (grits and cheese casserole, grits and grillades - old New Orleans dish, liver and onions and grits) or with milk and sugar. 

  

Except, before grinding, the corn is heated with a weak lye or lime solution first to nixtamalize it, more commonly called making the corn into hominy, so it stores better and becomes a better source of niacin.

If corn is a dietary staple for someone and it is eaten without nixtamalization, there is so little niacin in a usable form for that person's body that they can develop pellagra.  One of my great-grandmother's sisters developed pellagra.

[Queen Victoria]

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but it sounds cheap and filling.

Italian Sausage and White Bean Spaghetti Sauce

This recipe makes a great sauce for pasta or can be served as a bean stew. It is quick and easy to make.

Ingredients:

2-3 cans white beans, including liquid
2-3 cans petite cut tomatoes with olive oil and garlic, including liquid
1lb. Italian sausage or Italian seasoned ground turkey
1/4 tsp. oregano
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. minced or crushed garlic (optional)
Directions:

Brown the sausage or ground turkey. If using ground turkey, I find that I need to add one to two tablespoons of olive oil when browning the meat. Add chopped onion and continue cooking until the onion is soft and translucent. At this point you may add the optional extra garlic.

Add the white beans and canned tomatoes (including liquid). I also add the oregano at this point.

Cover and simmer on low for 30 to 45 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. I cook my stew/sauce in a cast iron pot.

Now it is ready to serve over pasta or alone as stew, with a green salad and some crusty bread to finish the meal.

This sauce improves with time so it is also great as leftovers the next day.

Servings: 8 - 10
Time: 15 Minutes Preparation Time
30 - 45 Minutes Cooking Time

[Queen Victoria]

Some general up-grade cooking hints from The Dollar Stretcher newsletter.

The Flavor Boosters
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Easily transform your meals from bland to grand!  It's hard for home cooks to achieve the triumvirate qualities of fast, inexpensive and tasty.  Mixes and canned goods are fast and often cheap, but they can get boring and predictable.  Adding just a little bit of a leftover or a common staple dresses up an ordinary dish for mere pennies, plus you don't have to go out and buy anything special.  Here are a few ideas  to help your go-to convenience foods go glam.

-Got Milk?  Make any canned, condensed soup a cream soup by using it in place of water.  Replace the water in a boxed or envelope mix with milk for a creamier side dish.  Milk can also make cocoa mix creamier than when using water.
- Reserve the water in which you cook vegetables.  Allow it to cool and freeze it in ice cube trays.  It adds nutrients and flavor to reconstituted canned soup.
- Mushrooms, diced onion, sliced almonds and/or celery are delicious sauteed and added to rice pilaf, instant stuffing, or canned soup or stew.  Also try a strip of crumbled bacon or cooked sausage to any of the above.
- Crush leftover croutons, flavored pretzels or seasoned potato chips to crumbs to top boxed au gratin potatoes or noodle side dishes.
- Save leftover cooked veggies to add to soup or envelopes of rice or noodle side dishes.  If you add a little leftover meat, you'll have an easy and tasty casserole right from your stovetop.
- Extra cream cheese? Try it instead of butter in boxed mashed potatoes for a decadent flavor and creamy texture.  Or soften it and blend it into store-bought frosting.
- Kick up the flavor of canned baked beans by draining off some of the liquid and adding a shot of barbecue sauce.
- Blend a dollop of peanut butter into store bought chocolate or vanilla frosting.  It's delicious on a chocolate cake.  Stirred into canned chili, peanut butter adds an unexpected flavor that will keep them guessing.
- A squirt of mustard makes boxed mac & cheese so much more interesting.  It also makes the deli's potato salad edgier.
- A sprinkle of oregano jazzes up frozen pizza.
- Don't let that last banana spoil.  If it's a bit soft, beat it into a cake mix, pancake mix, or cookie mix (reducing the other added liquid by 1/2 a cup).  Or add it to oatmeal.
- Press sprinkles into refrigerated sugar cookie dough slices before you bake them.  You'll also save time because you won't have to frost them.
- Impart a bright flavor to your store-bought sugar cookie mix by working in a teaspoon of lemon juice.

[Queen Victoria]

At Lady Weeble's request.

Cheese Apple Pie

Ingredients:


1 pie crust
2 cans apple pie filling
sugar and cinnamon, to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:


Bake pie crust according to directions. In saucepan, heat apples, add cinnamon and sugar to taste. Cook until heated all the way through. Put in pie crust and sprinkle cheese on top. Serve immediately.

[Queen Victoria]

This recipe doesn't need exact quantities for the ingredients, so it's sort of metric as well.

3 BEAN STEW

Ingredients
6 mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2
1 15-ounce can white beans, drained
1 15-ounce can red beans, drained
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 8.25-ounce can sliced carrots, well drained
2 14.5-ounce cans Cajun style stewed tomatoes
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a large pot and heat on stove, stirring occasionally, until warm (about 20 minutes).

Note: For variety, add 1 cup of your favorite cooked, diced meat, such as Polish sausage or chicken.

[Celticgoddess]

I think everyone should invest in a crockpot as it's so simple to use. My favourite easy meals are to put boneless/skinless chicken thighs with 2 bottles of your favourite sauce (I use Diana's Original BBQ) and cook on low all day. You can even put them in frozen. Or put a package of frozen Italian meatballs in with your favourite sauce. Serve either over a bed of rice with a salad on the side. Or with the chicken you can shred it and serve it on a bun with lots of sauce. Leftover ideas for the chicken: Add to nacho chips and add your favourite toppings and heat in the microwave until the shredded cheese on top melts. Put it in a salad. Add to soups and stews.

[DukeNukem]

You forgot one thing, my Queen, and it's that grits are probably the blandest food you could possibly eat and it makes you wonder why the fuck would anyone eat that crap?

[midlifeaspie]

Grits are just corn, and are supposed to be bland.  They are a base for wonderful things - my favorite being Shrimp & Grits.


I own three crock pots 

[Queen Victoria]

You forgot one thing, my Queen, and it's that grits are probably the blandest food you could possibly eat and it makes you wonder why the fuck would anyone eat that crap?

Grits are comfort food to me.  I like the saltiness.  I often have cheese grits for b'fast with some ham.  Love, love, love liver, onion and grits.

Never had shrimp and grits.  Just doesn't seem right.

My mother would have grits with sugar, cream and butter for b'fast, but I don't care for sweet grits.

[midlifeaspie]

Never had shrimp and grits.  Just doesn't seem right.

You must try it sometime.  This is a good recipe for it:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/shrimp-and-grits-recipe/index.html

[Icequeen]

Venison Meatballs

1 pound ground venison
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 small onion, finely minced
1 tsp (heaping) minced garlic (the stuff in the jar w/oil or approx 2 cloves fresh)
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 dash hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®), or to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs


Mix all until well-blended and moist. Form into 1 1/2" meatballs. Bake at 400 degrees for approx 20 to 25 min until cooked. Drop in spagetti sauce & serve over pasta or great for meatball subs.

[Gluey]

My mom randomly mashed together this lasania so much good stuff. It wasn't even a real recipe. Just thrown together. I told her what was in it wrote down the recipe and called the dish "Fuck You Joey"
She made it for my cousins Joey's birthday but Joey didn't come. He got wasted with his buddies instead
and probably fucked the pig of the week.


He comes when he wants my guitar gear. He did one time and I managed to scare him with Times New Roman Text. I sent him a  tangent on facebook and he blocked me than my dad said he texted his mother saying Joey was scared that I would come into his dish pit and hit him (where hes been working the past four years)

He's scared of a woman scolding, bitching and ranting to him on facebook. So scared he had to message his mommy.  Thats how pathectic my couisn is. He even gets the cab to bring him booze. Thats how lame he is.


The dish! FUCK YOU JOEY. Its lasagna with spinach, beef, feta cheese, three cheeses, whole wheat pasta, and sausages.

[Queen Victoria]

Can it get any simpler than this?

2 INGREDIENT MUFFINS   

2 c. self-rising flour
2 c. (1 pt.) vanilla ice cream, softened

Beat until smooth, spoon into greased muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.


Options:  Pineapple or orange sherbert, strawberry ice cream, butter pecan ice cream (sprinkle some sugar on top before putting in the oven to make a delightful glaze)

["couldbecousin"]

Can it get any simpler than this?

2 INGREDIENT MUFFINS   

2 c. self-rising flour
2 c. (1 pt.) vanilla ice cream, softened

Beat until smooth, spoon into greased muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.


Options:  Pineapple or orange sherbert, strawberry ice cream, butter pecan ice cream (sprinkle some sugar on top before putting in the oven to make a delightful glaze)

  Two-ingredient muffins are BRAVE!  Where did you find this recipe?  I wish we had self-rising flour at work!