This morning my husband handed me a magazine article about "The Best chili I ever ate." What was so different about it was that it was made with a cornbread topping.
Since I already had a pot of chili cooking for tonight, I said I'd put it in the oven and try the cornbread topping. What a mistake!
The cornbread recipe called for a can of creamed corn, which didn't appeal to me much in the first place, but I did it. As it cooked it appeared that maybe this would be cornbread dumplings on chili, but no, it wasn't.
It was corn mush on chili, and not very tasty. Instead of staying on top, the cornmeal batter slithered down into the chili, wrecking the whole darned thing!
All I can say is the green salad and the bowl of fruit tasted pretty good.
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Mashed Potatoes - better the 2nd time around
Leftovers make me feel guilty. Either I feel guilty for serving "used food" or guilty for throwing them out. So this week we figured out something to do with the leftover mashed potatoes - and I liked them better than I did the night before.
Here's what we did:
First, a bit of oil in the frying pan to keep the potatoes from sticking.
Next, spread the leftover potatoes over the bottom.
Then chop some green onion - a little or a lot to suit your taste. Sprinkle those on top.
Now grate some cheese and sprinkle it around. Again, a little or a lot depending on how much you like cheese.
After the bottom of the potatoes begin to brown a bit, turn the whole thing over. It won't turn neatly, but that's OK. All you're doing is getting it hot enough to taste good, melt the cheese, and give some crispy edges.
This doesn't take long, does taste good, and does remove the guilt that you would otherwise have in a few days when you open that container and see that watery lump of graying potatoes.
If you've got some good recipes for leftovers - share! I don't know too many cooks who can plan well enough to live without leftovers. Maybe that's why there are so many fat dogs, or why I wish we had chickens or pigs. (I don't want the dogs to be fat.) It would just feel better to feed that stuff to someone!
Yours for good eating,
Marte
Here's what we did:
First, a bit of oil in the frying pan to keep the potatoes from sticking.
Next, spread the leftover potatoes over the bottom.
Then chop some green onion - a little or a lot to suit your taste. Sprinkle those on top.
Now grate some cheese and sprinkle it around. Again, a little or a lot depending on how much you like cheese.
After the bottom of the potatoes begin to brown a bit, turn the whole thing over. It won't turn neatly, but that's OK. All you're doing is getting it hot enough to taste good, melt the cheese, and give some crispy edges.
This doesn't take long, does taste good, and does remove the guilt that you would otherwise have in a few days when you open that container and see that watery lump of graying potatoes.
If you've got some good recipes for leftovers - share! I don't know too many cooks who can plan well enough to live without leftovers. Maybe that's why there are so many fat dogs, or why I wish we had chickens or pigs. (I don't want the dogs to be fat.) It would just feel better to feed that stuff to someone!
Yours for good eating,
Marte
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Adventures with pork ribs
Carl and I have different ideas about pork ribs. He likes the country style - with lots of meat on the bones - soaked all day in barbecue sauce and then cooked slowly in the big iron dutch oven. Sometimes he browns them on the barbecue grill just before serving, sometimes not. (That depends on the ambition factor, you know.)
I, on the other hand, prefer the less meaty ribs, cooked with no sauce. I like to take the lid off before they're completely done so they can get crispy. Yes - they're greasy and salty and ... I love them.
So, this week I bought some of "my" kind of ribs. And Carl cooked them the way he does a beef roast, sort of.
He left them all in one piece instead of cutting them apart like I do. Then he wrapped the meat around the outside of the dutch oven and put potatoes and carrots and onions in the middle. However, knowing that I liked them crispy, he didn't add any water or broth. He did put the lid on the dutch oven, however.
After an hour and a half in a 350 degree oven he thought dinner should be cooked, but it was still a push to stick a fork in those carrots! We left them another 20 minutes and ate slightly hard carrots and almost done potatoes. The meat was cooked, but in spite of taking the lid off for almost an hour, they were not crispy. (We put aluminum foil over the veggies in the middle when we removed the lid, by the way.)
So what went wrong? I think the ribs need to be cut apart and laid down in the pan so they sizzle in that lovely grease. And, it appears to me that the carrots need moisture while they're cooking.
Just a few days earlier he cooked his favorite chuck roast, and it all turned out just right. You can see the chuck roast recipe at our Carl Cooks website.
My teaching Carl to cook is really pretty funny. I've never been a cook, never wanted to cook, and don't know many tricks of the trade. The only time I really enjoy it is when it is the job of the day - like for Christmas and Thanksgiving when I start in the morning and keep going until all the dishes are done.
I have a feeling that with his experimentation and love of good food, meals might begin to be more interesting around here.
If you've got a favorite you'd like to share - send it on. And with your permission, I might even put it on the Carl Cooks website!
Happy meals,
Marte
I, on the other hand, prefer the less meaty ribs, cooked with no sauce. I like to take the lid off before they're completely done so they can get crispy. Yes - they're greasy and salty and ... I love them.
So, this week I bought some of "my" kind of ribs. And Carl cooked them the way he does a beef roast, sort of.
He left them all in one piece instead of cutting them apart like I do. Then he wrapped the meat around the outside of the dutch oven and put potatoes and carrots and onions in the middle. However, knowing that I liked them crispy, he didn't add any water or broth. He did put the lid on the dutch oven, however.
After an hour and a half in a 350 degree oven he thought dinner should be cooked, but it was still a push to stick a fork in those carrots! We left them another 20 minutes and ate slightly hard carrots and almost done potatoes. The meat was cooked, but in spite of taking the lid off for almost an hour, they were not crispy. (We put aluminum foil over the veggies in the middle when we removed the lid, by the way.)
So what went wrong? I think the ribs need to be cut apart and laid down in the pan so they sizzle in that lovely grease. And, it appears to me that the carrots need moisture while they're cooking.
Just a few days earlier he cooked his favorite chuck roast, and it all turned out just right. You can see the chuck roast recipe at our Carl Cooks website.
My teaching Carl to cook is really pretty funny. I've never been a cook, never wanted to cook, and don't know many tricks of the trade. The only time I really enjoy it is when it is the job of the day - like for Christmas and Thanksgiving when I start in the morning and keep going until all the dishes are done.
I have a feeling that with his experimentation and love of good food, meals might begin to be more interesting around here.
If you've got a favorite you'd like to share - send it on. And with your permission, I might even put it on the Carl Cooks website!
Happy meals,
Marte
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