BS: The other recipe thread is too long

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 04:33 PM

New meat: alligator. Was very like pork. Blackened, with braised cabbage. Delish.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Oct 22 - 06:01 PM

The only people in the western world who need to stress about protein are vegans, who need to ensure that they're getting the full spectrum of essential amino acids. A normal mixed diet will give you all the protein you need and more.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 11:35 AM

Yes and, according to the experts, B12 is the vitamin vegans have to be careful to get enough of; as I may have said a while back, I buy vegan cheese slices with added B12, rather than taking tablets.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 12:07 PM

I frequently post photos on Instagram of my garden and things around the yard, and there are the cooking photos that often involve my garden produce. Okra is just topping out now as the most productive crop, and I've fried and pickled a lot.

A friend who grew up in the next county south from here spent much of her working life in Indiana, then moved to the shore of Lake Michigan to retire. The further north, the less likely to find okra in her area farmers' market, and she has been known to verbally wince in the remarks section under my photos of fried or pickled okra. A couple of years ago the market got some good okra and I remember it was a big deal for her.

It dawned on me last week that I could send her some of my okra and if it only took 2-3 days it would be in great shape (what you see in the store is rather battered and was probably picked a couple of weeks earlier). So I took a Priority Region A box (US Postal Service gives a price break on this box - no idea why - but I use it when I can) and lined it with a layer of thin bubble wrap then filled it with okra, lined up enough to use the space as efficiently as possible. I managed to get four pounds four ounces of okra in that box, and it only cost $10 to mail. I mailed it on Thursday morning and she got it arrived on Saturday afternoon. The photo she posted on Facebook after she opened the box showed it was indeed in perfect condition.

The next day she posted photos of several jars of pickled okra, and the remainder was going to be fried.

I have so much okra (I put in five plants this year) that I always struggle to keep up with the fresh crop as I pickle it, eat it, and give it away. The US Department of Agriculture has inspection stations going into California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona to do with vital produce such as oranges, apples, grapes, avocados, etc., but there is no vital okra crop in Michigan so we're safe sending these pods in the hibiscus family north to near the Canadian border. And my friend would easily have paid $10 for inferior okra at the local farmers' market. Win/Win.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 12:09 PM

B12 is added to lots of non-milk "milks" and breakfast cereals. I'd like to humbly suggest that the adoption of a diet for anything other than genuine medical reasons that then requires you to take supplements in our rich western world implies that you're going somewhat against Mother Nature. Boil an egg!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 12:35 PM

...don't think I'll get eggs on my next visit to the supermarket but, for the first time in several years, I may give the ladies' fingers another try..?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 12:37 PM

I've never eaten okra...

We don't cook on Wednesdays. It's cheese (eaten with Bath Olivers or matzos) and whatever nibbly bits I have in. OIives are a must. I have some stone-in nocellara ones which are delicious. Sungold tomatoes from the greenhouse. A few cashews or pistachios. Garlic cloves from a jar, Marché-style. The aperitif will be a glass of Portuguese Alvariño then a bottle of Nero d'Avola (er, there are two of us...)

I'm a bit worried about tonight's Camembert. It's spent two days stinking the fridge out and tastes very ripe. I think I might end up liking it.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 12:45 PM

Maybe more recently than you, Steve, I have also developed a love of olives - Greek Halkithiki olives are particularly good, I've found.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 12:58 PM

I don't mind the little stoned manzanilla olives, dressed with lemon, herbs and garlic, but I prefer the big stone-in ones in oil. We use the cheapie black ones to make a simple tapenade and I put a good handful into whore's spaghetti (aka pasta alla puttanesca). I want anchovies in mine, Napoli-style, but if you leave them out you have a vegan dish. It's extra virgin olive oil, chilli flakes, sliced garlic, black olives chopped roughly, chopped parsley, passata or tinned tomatoes and capers. No cheese. It's deliciously spicy.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 01:06 PM

The pasta I have in the cupboard (usually used when the sliced bread runs out before the next shop) is fusilli, so I may try it with that one day, thanks Steve.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 05:36 PM

Buy some spaghetti if you want whore's pasta. I have my favourites, but any shop will have DeCecco. It's great. Marks and Sparks (the bronze die stuff, made in the Alps) is very good too. I'm no fan of Napolina. Never buy cheap budget pasta. Even the good stuff at £1.70 up is cheap, and it's often on special offer. If it sez bronze die, or bronzo, on the pack, you're in business. If you see la Molisana brand, snap it up. It's the acme, the gold standard, the dog's danglies, of dried pasta.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Oct 22 - 06:26 PM

I was watching a repeat on the Beeb of Michael Portillo in Hong Kong (as with me, a 2019 visit) earlier this evening and he filmed with a chap making hand-made noodles in his flat - he said good noodles should "dance in your mouth"...maybe, along with "al dente", that may be applied to spaghetti as well..?! I did try such noodles near where I stayed in the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong and they were good.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Oct 22 - 12:29 AM

I have strawberry pulp frozen after juicing the berries to make jelly. The pulp is still very good for other uses and is often used to make jam after the jelly has been made. But I froze the pulp and have been comparing recipes online this evening. (What is it with these sites with the huge fonts and photos? Recipes on steroids. I just want the brief description and the ingredients. Maybe they make money the farther you have to scroll to read.)

I finally went to Martha Stewart Living and found her crepe recipe that uses strawberries, though the one I think I'll try first is from a different site for strawberry turnovers. It's getting the fruit consistency right with a few ingredients for the mashed berries that I'll work on. I'll look at the dough they suggest and decide if I want to make more of a turnover (with puffier dough) or simple hand pies (and can make my usual pie crust.)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Oct 22 - 08:44 AM

Things I have to cook to empty my fridge for my absence:
-Andouille sausage and a bit of kolbász
-A pepper and some celery (onions and garlic should keep, no?)
-Leftover cabbage and tomato glop, from a yummy veg soup I made and then only drank the broth of
-Some more cabbage
-A spherical zucchini thing

There will be soup.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Oct 22 - 12:31 PM

It does sound like a nice soup! Do you have any potatoes you can cut into hearty chunks to go in it? I think potatoes and cabbage are one of those Old Country combinations that adds up to a healthy complex carbohydrate.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Oct 22 - 10:49 AM

A friend mentioned pulling out his sister's apple cake recipe to share with his siblings on the occasion of his sister's birthday. I asked him to share. I could feel the pounds wrapping around my waist as I read it - equal parts flour and sugar and a cup of Crisco oil. OMG. It reads more like it's a batter for pancakes than an actual cake.

I finally found a good apple cake, maybe in Joy of Cooking? I sometimes have to go back through several of my favorite books to find the version of a particular recipe I've made and decided was a good one. That sister's recipe needs the oil cut in half and replaced by melted butter, for starters. And way less sugar.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 29 Oct 22 - 01:16 AM

I made a beef pot pie today. The beef was chuck roast, pre-cooked and cut into bite-size pieces. The secret is to mix the filling, get it hot, then bake it just long enough to bake the crust.

0. Spray or grease your baking dish on the chance that that will help
       with cleaning the dish afterwards.
1. Slice and cook some carrots - 5 mins in the microwave
2. Finely chop some onion
3. Put a can of low-salt mushroom soup in the baking dish. add maybe
       1/2 cup water so soup is not so thick.
4. Stir in 1 tsp powdered sage
5. Heat all the above in the microwave
6. Preheat oven to 425, maybe. exact temp TBD
7. Make a piecrust for the top with half a box of Jiffy pie crust mix
    (freeze the rest of the mix)
8, Put the crust on the top, crimp the edge, cut six slits about 3/4
      inch in the top to let steam out
9 Bake at maybe 425 for maybe 30 mins till crust is cooked through.

It was delicious. We also had sauteed cauliflower, oranges and strawberries.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: BobL
Date: 29 Oct 22 - 03:28 AM

Leeneia, at what point did you add the beef? Or am I being stupid?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 22 - 12:25 PM

Pie crust is so easy to make from scratch. I don't care for the commercial ones in the freezer section, it's over-worked and kind of tough.

I do use filo pastry from the freezer section because that is a lot of work. Reminds me - I haven't made spinach pie in forever.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stanron
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 08:42 AM

Following where the discussion has gone in the 'Mrzzy is living in interesting times' thread;

The last time I microwaved mushrooms they ended up tasting awful. Maybe I left them in too long. However, as I'm already cooking other stuff I may as well use the heat that's already there to cook the mushrooms. I have avoided using mushrooms in the microwave since but may well experiment in future.

Subject: RE: BS: Mrrzy is living in interesting times...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 09:34 AM

Microwave mushrooms then throw them into the compost!

Start with butter, some garlic, and a dash of red wine if you want really wonderful mushrooms with the meal.

I have some dried mushrooms (an experiment) and they're okay to reconstitute then add to dishes. If I find them inexpensive at my gourmet warehouse last-chance store I usually buy and slice and lightly fry in butter or olive oil then freeze in small containers.

Steaming seems to leave the veggies in better shape, and when I store any leftovers (because I try to fix enough for a couple of uses) then I pour the remaining liquid over them. The dogs love to drink the leftover veggie liquid when the container is empty.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 09:39 AM

I transferred my last Mrrzy/interesting times post over here (above). Stanron made a good point. We do stray into food discussions just about anywhere. :)

The discussion went from steaming to mushrooms.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 12:19 PM

Even worse than "tinned button mushrooms" are those nasty little slippery rubbery beige things they serve in some cafés as part of "the full English breakfast." In the worst cases you'll find a tiny pot of lukewarm baked beans on the same plate, which have no business being anywhere near the eggs, bacon, sausage, fried bread and black pudding. Another minus point can be the tasteless half-tomato that is nowhere near cooked enough.

I've never tried microwaving mushrooms and I'm not about to try. The nutrients may well be better retained, but I'm cooking food, not medicine. Well seasoned, sliced and fried in butter, possibly with a sliced garlic clove and some chopped parsley, lovely. If the oven's on anyway, I put that same mix on a little oven tray and whack it in, though you need to make sure the melting butter coats everything. Just as good. I'm not cooking mushrooms in liquid any time soon. I never want them in beefy stews. If I want a nice mushroomy flavour in a stew I'll soak a handful of dried porcini and add the soaking water. Beware of the grit...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 02:23 PM

This afternoon I made a small batch of green tomato relish. The house smells wonderful! Chopped all ingredients then simmered for five minutes before spooning into canning jars and processing for 30 minutes.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 02:30 PM

Right (*kersplosh*) ---

One thing I forgot when derailing the Mrrzy thread was: Peeling the mushrooms first is a waste of time IMHO. I clean off any residual growing medium, break the stem off (so the butter can get into the cap), and fry cap and stem together, in butter of course. If the base is mucky, or Herself's around, I'll make the concession of cutting off and discarding said base.

Waste not, get next year's grant cut.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 02:31 PM

Peeling mushrooms is an offense against good cooking. My aunt used to do it, it was painful to watch.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Nov 22 - 09:30 PM

As indeed is washing mushrooms.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 Nov 22 - 11:30 AM

I don't wash grapes either: it washes off the volatiles in their private microclimate, which for me is most of the flavour, and replaces it with eau de waterworks. Somehow I've managed to train Herself to offer me unwashed grapes before denaturing her own, but it took time. Curiously, she's the one who accuses me of not having a good sense of smell.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Nov 22 - 12:36 PM

Well I do think we should be washing fruit and veg before we consume it. Most of it contains pesticide residues and grapes are no exception. In some orchards, apples are sprayed with pesticides more than twenty times before harvesting. I even wash oranges, clementines and lemons before using them. They are treated with fungicides so that they won't rot as quickly on the shelves. I make an exception for mushrooms because washing ruins them, but I would never eat them raw. Any growing medium left on them gets brushed off with my thumb. Some crops are grown in soil fertilised with treated sewage sludge.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 22 - 03:28 PM

The trick is to wait to wash it right before you use it; washing it ahead of time causes fresh fruit and vege, etc., to spoil faster.

Second batch of green tomato relish finished today and I had some at lunch - this is so good, and you can't use just a little. I made a sandwich with a link of Kielbasa style sausage, one with extra pepper (!) and must have slathered the toasted roll with at least a 1/4 cup of relish. That's all you need for a really great sandwich (the relish is tomatoes, peppers, onion, celery seed, mustard seed, vinegar, sugar, and a little salt.)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Nov 22 - 02:20 PM

I'm trying something new in the next few days. My newspaper has a recipe for roasted vegetables almond sauce (made from almond flour), and it sounded very tasty. So we will be visiting the chi-chi little rack next to the Bisquick and paying a high price for almond flour. They say you can make your own almond flour in a blender, but I don't think our little blender can make it fine enough.

Tonight we are having a Cajun dish with chicken, okra and the usual seasonings. I can't eat spicy food, so diners have to add their own hot sauce at the table.

About produce: we always wash all our produce.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Nov 22 - 04:23 PM

Made something like chili. It *needs* something. Advice?

Soooo good to be home with my own spice cabinet.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Nov 22 - 06:38 PM

I just remembered a thing I tasted about 60 years ago. I was renting a basement apartment from a friend & his wife. One day she came down and knocked on my door...said she wanted me to taste something she had baked.
She gave me a slice/chunk of something that looked vaguely like cake, but not very thick.
   It tasted 'different'. Kinda nutty, kinda like dark bread or an odd cake, but chewy... hard to describe, but very nice!

"Well", she said, "I wanted to bake a cake, but didn't have the right stuff and no time to go to the store, so I took a box of "Jiffy Cornbread Mix" and a box of I.G.A Buttermilk pancake mix, and combined them with a little sugar and some milk."

I told her she had a great invention there... however, she kept the rest for herself, her husband and their son, and I never got another bite. I've been meaning to try that ever since! Maybe soon....

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Nov 22 - 07:48 PM

My mum used to make little patties out of leftover mashed potato, cheese and flour which she fried in butter. I thought they were the most delicious things on the planet. I make a sort of approximation of them when I have some accidentally-on-purpose leftover mash, and I like what I do, but there's always something missing...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Nov 22 - 10:45 PM

Why O why did I resist zoodles? Chicken zoodle soup. Mmm.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Nov 22 - 12:11 PM

The holiday gift bread baking is underway, and I thought I'd note that while I used to fuss with oil and such to grease the pans, a while back I had too much ghee here and I started using that, spooning in some from a large jar that lives next to the stove and spreading with a little silicone brush. It spreads on nicely and adds great flavor. Now it's what I always use.

That is all. :)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Nov 22 - 03:05 PM

Ooh I can chop again! Improvement indeed.

So yeah what does my chili lack? Something to add oomph, but not particularly heat.

More better than bouillon? Tomato or anchovy paste?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Nov 22 - 04:30 PM

To make a fluffy-cakey omelet, microwave the beaten eggs with a teaspoon or two of waffle mix and microwave on high for about 2 minutes.
Flavor once you get the hang of it in all sorts of ways. (fruit, meat, veggies)
With no flour it will just be fluffy.
The more flour or cocoa /chocolate the more a pinch of baking powder helps.
Its an omelet of a different color.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Nov 22 - 12:40 AM

A vegetarian friend of mine told me about the "better than bouillon" paste and I keep a jar in the fridge to add a bit of a bump to various recipes.

Today I started making some tomato sauce from ripening tomatoes (at the end of the season everything is picked green and allowed to ripen in cardboard boxes and used gradually when there are enough). It was going to take a while so I poked around and found a frozen jar of Italian tomato sauce (the name of the recipe in the Ball Blue Book) from last summer. I heated a pan of frozen cheese ravioli then served it with my defrosted sauce. I'll finish cooking and pureeing the new batch later.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 25 Nov 22 - 01:09 PM

"So yeah, what does my chili lack?"

I can't find your recipe, Mrrzy, so I'll just say that I add cumin seeds to my chili early in the cooking, and at the end I take out a little liquor, cool it, stir in a tablespoon of cocoa powder, and mix it back   in. Not cocoa mix, pure cocoa powder.

Also, no-salt tomatoes taste better than canned and salted. I don't add any salt to our food (BP), letting people add what they want from the salt shaker at the dinner table.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Nov 22 - 10:50 AM

I'm doing a little holiday baking this morning (cranberry bars that will go in the freezer and be brought out a few at a time to go on plates of cookies given to friends and neighbors). Mostly I'm doing advance prep for tomorrow's family thanksgiving dinner, postponed from last Thursday due to travel plans. I'll make the cranberry sauce today (once I discovered how easy it is to make I swore off of the jellied canned stuff). The turkey is in a tub in the sink finishing thawing and will go in brine at bedtime. I'll have the bread machine set up so I can make rolls early and have them out of the way as I advance on two types of potatoes and a couple of large pans of roasted mostly-root vegetables. My ex will be bringing the apple and pumpkin pies (one kid doesn't like pumpkin and the rest of us love it, so we make two pies.) He'll be over here today getting a lesson in making pie crust (we have complained for years about the store-bought tough crusts he uses, so he's going to try homemade.)

I have a roaster oven that will be put into service possibly for the vegetables because I don't think the turkey will fit once it is spatchcocked. I also have crock pots and a toaster oven and at some point during the day any or all of those things could be pressed into service. First, clear the counters.

I love these meals but they are exhausting. At least this year, for the first time in recent memory, the whole family and their partners are here. It will be worth it.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 02:21 PM

You are doing the real deal, SRS. I bet it will be delicious.

I think I will look up a recipe for cranberry bars.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 09:42 PM

Thanksgiving: cornish game hens dry brined, then rinsed & dried, then buttered thoroughly on top, dusted inside and on top with black green white pepper, onion and garlic powders, smoked paprika, and on top large-grain salt. Up butt a lemon wedge, onion wedge, and garlic clove. In hot oven 15 mn, medium oven 30mn, very hot oven 15 mn. Eat skin off top before squeezing lemon from inside over rest.

Brussels sprouts: slice thinly, and separate slices with ability to maintain integrity from bits and pieces and lone leaves. Hot grease of choice, fry slices in single layer with Berber spice, flip individually as browned. When not all browned, lose patience and toss in the rest. Fry till crisp.

Hope someone else made pie because I didn't.

What I did make was mom's chocolate sauce that is the bottom of her black-bottomed ice cream pie, the kind of sauce that turns fudgy when it hits cold ice cream:

Stir constantly through whole recipe:
Melt 2 oz bitter chocolate in 6T coffee (or water)
Add 1/2c sugar and a pinch of salt, cook till it thickens, 10-12-15 mn
Add 3T butter and 1/2t vanilla extract. It is ready when everything has been stirred in. Leftovers will solidify in fridge, reheat slowly to eat rest.

Took 3 bird carcasses with brussels spicy grease and boiled down to a half-cup of delicious spicy buttery goop I haven't decided what to do with yet.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 10:49 PM

Saturday was my day for turkey soup. Since she died 10 years ago, I keep trying to replicate my mother-in-law's recipe. She lived with us the last ten years of her life, and she and I had the best time making turkey soup together every year (my vegan wife did not participate). But I was grunt labor, and did not take notes about the details because I thought my mother-in-law would live forever. My turkey noodle soup has been good since I took over, but not as good as my mother-in-law's. Any suggestions?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 10:56 PM

A touch of balsamic vinegar is something that really brightens chicken or turkey soup.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 28 Nov 22 - 04:34 AM

I wonder if American Turkeys are better than the offerings we are sold in the UK which tend to be bland, to put it kindly, or absolutely bloody tasteless to be honest.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Nov 22 - 05:58 AM

We've given up on whole turkeys, partly for the reasons Raggytash gives. Mrs Steve and I adore all the underneath meat, the wings and the legs for cold the next day, but everybody else who comes to our house only wants breast. So by Boxing Day the carcass we're left with has brown meat only. So last year, along with our whole turkey, we tried a boned, rolled turkey breast joint from Pipers Farm (all free-range, traditional breeds, slow-grown, superb ethics but admittedly a bit pricey). It was lovely, so we're having two of those this year for two separate family visits, plus our usual boiled free-range unsmoked gammon, and no whole turkey. I'll miss the pope's nose, for which I never have any competition from the others, the fools. It's by far the tastiest bit of any turkey. I always make stock from a chicken carcass, but I'm not a fan of turkey stock, which can be a bit assertive.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 28 Nov 22 - 12:44 PM

For once, I have baked the year’s fruitcake before the first Sunday in Advent. It’s been doused with brandy and wrapped in plastic clingfilm, and by the end of the week I will have packed the outbound specimens in the relevant Christmas parcels for postage to parts else.

For most of my cooking life — some fifty-five years — I have listened while experts prosed away on the subject of flour: pastry flour, cake flour, bread flour, all-purpose flour. I get that the texture of many, perhaps even most, baked goods depends on choosing the right kind of flour, but fruitcake is definitely not one of them.

My recipe calls for all kinds of fancy stuff — two special kinds of raisins, unsalted butter, black treacle, kosher salt, free-range eggs, freshly ground nutmeg — but over the years I have abandoned all that and made it with ordinary no-name butter, basic molasses, and whatever raisins happen to be on special at Bulk Barn. This year, I replaced the cake flour (of which I had none) with the last of Edmund’s bread flour that had been sitting in the pantry for two years, and I think it may be the best batch yet.

Apparently, the only thing fruitcake really cares about is oven temperature — it has to be 275° Fahrenheit. Everything else is negotiable.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 28 Nov 22 - 05:45 PM

Charmion, I am drooling in anticipation.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Nov 22 - 11:04 PM

I made a nice chicken dish today.

In order to reduce work in the kitchen, I cook meat ahead of time. For this dish, I brought home a package of chicken thighs, and right away I roasted them in oven at 350 for 1.25 hours. parchment paper to cut clean-up. We ate some, froze some.

Days later, I got the frozen thighs out and thawed them enough to carve. Made a sauce: sauteed onion, squashed garlic, one can of diced, no-salt tomatoes, juice and all. I sliced the thighs into long strips parallel to the bone and added it to the sauce, simmering gently until it all looked good.

Then came the new part: I flavored it with smoked paprika and powdered sage. (What! no basil?!) It was good! I salted mine at the table, the DH did not.
==========
Previously, in accordance with my less-effort policy, I had cooked and frozen a pound of penne pasta, and some of that went into the pot too.