Recipe and Cook's Corner

[CellarDweller115]

I've never seen Guy Fieri's show.

This thread is about sharing recipes.  You (and anyone else who would like to disucss) are welcome to take this topic to the "Fan Fair" thread, where celebrity gossip is often discussed.

http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=35641.225

[Jer009]

Okay.

[killersmom]

you and that damn pressure cooker! LOL. 

between the pressure cooker and the crock pot, i don't know which way to turn.

oh, that's right. the crock pot plugs into the wall. the pressure cooker sits on the stove.

Yep and Yep!! Jimmy!!
They both do a good job!

One fast and one slow!!

I got Michael to get a crock pot, so we are always sharing recipes back and forth.

I have two, one was mine and one he found.

His is very simple.

Pulled Pork

1 pork loin
1 can root beer
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

Put the pork loin in the crock pot and add the root beer.
Cook till it pulls apart easily.
Drain the root beer
Pull the meat apart
Add the BBQ sauce and heat through.
Serve on buns, or without. Good piled on top of cole slaw.

[killersmom]

Here is mine and is a really good roast recipe.
Really great for the busy person.

1 envelope Brown Gravy mix
1 envelope Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix
1 envelope Hidden Valley Dressing mix
(These are all dry) (Make sure to get the Hidden Valley DRESSING mix and not the DIP mix)

Combine all three in a bowl. Whisk in 2 cups of water, mixing well.

You can use any cut of roast as the crock pot makes them all tender.
I brown the roast and then put it in the crock pot and cover it with the mixture.
(It does not need to be browned if you don't want to.)
Depending on how much time you have, you can cook it on high for 5 hours or on low for 8-9 hours.
After it is done, you can take the gravy and thicken it if you want.
Serve with potatoes or rice and vegetable.

[fritzkep]

Mmmm-MMMM!!!!

[gnash]

i've heard a beer can chicken, but not root beer pork

a crock pot sounds like a sound investment when it comes to easy to prepare meals.

i don't remember using a crock up growing up,  but we did did make good use of a generously sized electric pan with a lid. stainless steel, i think. my mom use it for tabletop sukiyaki, and my dad used it for making pancakes in the morning. i used it to make my grandma's chicken recipe, which was basically "smothered chicken" made with a can of golden mushroom soup. so simple: you brown the chicken, with some onion or whatever, like carrots or something else to flavor and enrich the stock, and then add the soup and some herbs and water and slow cook it with the lid on for the entire afternoon. the dish was done when you wanted it to be, you could eat if after an hour or so, but the long it cooked the thicker the sauce would get and the chicken would just fall off the bone.

you could also add some white wine, if you want.

i wonder if zachary quinto is into smothered chicken.

oh wait, that sounds morbid. never mind. LOL

at work today a woman brought in about 40 cupcakes from an armenian bakery, arranged in the shape of a hello kitty face. SO GOOD. the cake part was different, less fluffy and soft, and somehow thicker and heavier textured. not quite a bran muffin, but the yellow cake did have some density. it was pleasantly sugary.... nom nom, nom nom!

the icing was simple too,,, not super sweet, but more of a real whipped cream topping, with fresh raspberries.

i'd bake a coming out cake for all the closeted movie and TV stars, if i could. when they come out, of course.  

[Marge_Innavera]

from the White House pastry kitchen this year:

Pumpkin Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
A recipe from the White House Pastry Kitchen

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1¼ cups dark brown sugar
4 eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
7 ounces of pumpkin puree (either homemade or from a can)
¼ cup whole milk, warmed

Pre-heat the oven to 340° Fahrenheit.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking soda, nutmeg and ground cloves into a large bowl. Put this aside. Whisk together brown sugar and eggs with a mixer. Beat in the vegetable oil and then the pumpkin puree. Add the dry ingredients mixture alternating with the whole milk in three parts. Mix well and scrape the sides and bottom of bowl between each part. Grease and flour bundt pan. Bake for about one hour. Let the cake cool in the pan and then turn out onto a cooling rack. For the finishing touch, pour the orange cream cheese icing over the top of the cooled bundt cake. Makes one cake from a 2 quart bundt pan.

Frosting:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces butter, softened
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
Pinch of salt
½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice, strained

Place cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in bowl and use a mixer until it becomes a smooth cream. If you are using a standing mixer, use the paddle attachment for the best results. Add the softened butter to the bowl. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a plastic spatula and then add the orange zest, vanilla bean or extract, heavy cream, pinch of salt and orange juice. Set the frosting aside until you are ready to pour over cake.


Note: the cream cheese frosting also makes an excellent topping for gingerbread or spice cake.  My grandmother used to call it "hard sauce."

[killersmom]

Oh yum that looks good!
Just may have to try it out. I bet cupcakes would be good too!

[Castro]

Crockpots:  Oh, well, if nobody else is going to follow up on them, I will.  Because I've been fascinated by the resurgence in their popularity, and speculating on the reasons: longings to retreat to childhood?  General coziness?  Fact that they do well with cheap cuts of meat?  Or the grand smell of the house when you get home from work and a pot roast has been cooking all day?

Anyhow, I'm so old that my first one didn't even have a removable liner.  It got replaced pretty quickly.  And then I bought a bigger oval model, not so many years ago, that can hold longer cuts of meat.  And then, very recently, a little ten dollar model from Target that's just right for small amounts of soup or exotically-seasoned meats that I don't want the vegetables to cook along with.  I'm keeping all three.  They don't replace a good enamelled cast-iron pot that can start on the stovetop and finish in the oven.  And they don't replace the microwave.  But they earn their storage space.

There are vast numbers of Crockpot recipes on the internet; explore.  Crockpots:  homely; middle-class; wonderful.

[killersmom]

I LOVE my crockpots for all the above reasons, Castro!. I even have a really small one for hot dips!!

I also use a pressure cooker to cook some roasts (usually a rump roast......no comments, guys!! ) and especially to cook  dried beans.

[gnash]

I go to an annual christmas party pot luck and there are usually ten or twelve crock pots on the long table of all shapes and sizes. Filled with all kinds of foods. Swedish meatballs, tiny franks in bbq sauce, mac and cheese, baked beans, chili, braised beef, even desserty dishes like cobblers. They are owned by middler agers or more, but you're right about their resurgence in popularity. Some hipster on instagram posted recently his own christmas party photos with crockpots in a row and he mentioned how cool they were... he is probably only 24 years old.

I just realized that we do own a small crock pot... for making herbed butter and other melty sauces. It's tiny, about five cups at the most.

[Marge_Innavera]

I'm so old that my first one didn't even have a removable liner.  It got replaced pretty quickly.  And then I bought a bigger oval model, not so many years ago, that can hold longer cuts of meat.  And then, very recently, a little ten dollar model from Target that's just right for small amounts of soup or exotically-seasoned meats that I don't want the vegetables to cook along with.  I'm keeping all three.  They don't replace a good enamelled cast-iron pot that can start on the stovetop and finish in the oven.  And they don't replace the microwave.  But they earn their storage space.

Until a few years ago we were hanging on to a crock pot that had a non-removable liner, which seemed design specifically for being hard to clean.  But on my 5th anniversary at work they let you pick out a five-year award gift from an online catalog, and I picked one of the oval ones.  

The deeper crock pots can be used to steam puddings, which might be a novelty during the holidays.

you're right about their resurgence in popularity. Some hipster on instagram posted recently his own christmas party photos with crockpots in a row and he mentioned how cool they were... he is probably only 24 years old.

In the 1970s, crock pots were considered a novelty along with electric knives.     Now they seem to have attained "perennial" status.

[gnash]

knifey knovelty! 

[gnash]

i bet those electric hand blenders were considered a novelty at first, but they're the best!

we even have a mini battery operated one for mixing powders into drinks, like protein powders, barleygrass, etc...

it'll even make foams and wot not. 

[Sason]

Funny you mention barleygrass.

I've just started using it, together with the chia seeds and a few other things like wheat grass and raw cocoa. I mix them into a drink in the afternoon at work, to help me get through the day until I can go home.

Can't say I enjoy the taste...  but I mix a little ginger syrup into it to take the edge off the taste.
And ginger is always good!