OT: Rekindling the cooking thread

A while ago, we started discussing recipes, such as crock pot cooking....

I ask because as some of us with CP know, even the "simple" things like standing at a stove, bending to put things in and out of the oven,....a lot of that is just too difficult.

Yes, I have a hidden agenda to get Vickie's recipe for chicken & dumplings.

But I also am looking for foods that I can prepare for my family.  With what I am anticipating my upcoming BC treatment to entail, I have to prepare for potentially not being able to lift pans as easily with my arms, loss of energy and endurance,...

I don't want to let any treatment plan that gets decided on, to take away from me continuing to maintain all the other things I do, have to do, want to do, need to do, in my regular ADL.  Plus, cooking can be cathartic.

Especially with winter coming,....

If the Mods are okay with this, can we see if this thread has any legs to it?

Thank you.  (Fingers crossed).

M.

Mmmm, I'm getting hungry.

I would like to get a small crockpot since it's just Hubby and me to feed, and I'll need lots of practice.  I hear how easy they are to use.

Since getting our new home here in NH and having plenty of garden space, I'm taking a big leap as I have a black thumb o' death with plants (I killed a cactus)....but I'd like a small veggie garden and herb garden.  Keep me busy plus we get fresh food.

Hubby won't eat red meat or pork (except the occasional ribs if made right).

I've never made chili, that's a place to start maybe?

Any non-crockpot recipes come to mind as well?  I also don't have the stamina to be standing in a kitchen cooking all day...so sometimes I avoid it all together.  Which isn't fair to either of us.

Big emphasis:  I am as newbie as you can get with the cooking stuff!

M.

Well I have to warn you that as a old-time hillbilly cook I've never owned a measuring cup or spoon which makes telling someone how to make anything is difficult at best! Lol

But, after my knee surgeries and all 5 kid's still in the house (indicates big amounts of food) we played around with what we call shortcut mom meals. Obviously I couldn't stand rolling out and dropping dumplings 4 hours!

They're pretty close to the origional but sometimes the kids will say "Mom the old way please"!

I will start with a recipe I actually won a KOA camping cook off with years back when the kids and I spent every weekend and holiday with our camping friends at the Clays Ferry Campground! Ahah the poor kind of camping, no RV, TV, air, or stove!

My Mom just called this "poor mans dinner " but with the cost of things these days it doesn't fit!

I use ground chuck or better due to the amount of grease in ground beef. You can use ground Turkey as well or pork, chicken, we've tried it all but they still favor the original Burger meat.

On a nice size piece of foil(a piece for each person) make a good size portion loaf of Burger, I salt it here and you'll see why, on top of that slice a potato or 2,I like lots of taters and they tend to fall apart, then slice onion ontop of the taters, next green pepper, and on top of all that diced tomatoes, you can use fresh or canned. Season with salt, pepper, and wrap it up tightly so its sealed, place it on a flat cookie sheet and cook middle rack at 400 for an hour! Check to make sure your potatoes are done and if they are the meat will be. You can wrap it back and cook 15 more minutes if you want your taters doner. Be careful they're really hot when you open them.

Stick foil and all opened like a bowl and dig in. Prep time takes longest but you can cut it by using a fresh pepper /onion blend that produce has done or frozen one. I like the frozen because it has red, orange, green, peppers!! Yummy! Using can diced tomatoes and then its from fridge to oven in 5 minutes! When your making 6 it's all about the short cuts!

You can put it in the hot coals on a charcoal grill as well, stick some unshucked corn in there with it and you've got a feast!
If your vegetarian leave the meat out and add mushrooms and summer squash!

There you have your 1st hillbilly recipe and campground favorite!

Yes Ma'am!

If you make biscuits the old way with good old artery killing lard then make your dough and cover it with extra flour and put it in the fridge. If you want to use a biscuit mix that works to just make sure you keep it floured well and in fridge for atleast 2 hours, its easier to roll and cut.

You need a big pot! With a lid or something to cover the top with.

I use a whole chicken but you can use whichever pieces you prefer bone in. Put that in your pot with salt, pepper, half stick butter or margarine and cook on medium heat for a couple hours, til it's falling off the bone. When its done remove your chicken and strain your broth to make sure there's no bones in it.

This is not nearly enough broth by the way if your making alot of dumplings, probably is for 2. I add 1 box and 1 can of chicken broth,store bought, and that makes a nice size kettle like the one that comes with a pot and pan set?

You want that broth at a even boil so that its hot enough it doesn't stop boiling while your adding dumplings to it. I think it does good on medium /high heat.

You need a rolling pin, cutting board or wax paper and wooden spoon. A small paring knife to cut.

Roll your dough flat like when your cutting out cookies, keeping it well floured, take your knife and I wet mine in hot water so it cuts better. Slice strips 1 inch by 3 inches long, some do longer and thinner, doesn't matter, and do several at a time and drop 1 at a time into the boiling broth. One after the other and as they float to the top getting done use your spoon to move them aside so you drop each one into broth not ontop of others. NEVER STIR!! only move them with your spoon. If you stir they will desinigrate into nothing but flour filled broth!

It takes a lot to make a lot. The whole kettle full will take dough equivalent to 2 dozen biscuits, smaller less dough.

When they're all in turn your heat to low for 5 minutes then off and cover for 15 minutes. While that's sitting you can shred your chicken and then drop the pieces in but use your spoon as long as its hot it can still fall apart if you stir too hard.

There it is and good luck! Very few cook's get it right the 1st time! Its all in the right heat and rhythm of getting them in the pot.

Have fun!

I'm soooo embarrassed to admit this, but I have to look up the recipe for dough with lard.

(Unless,....you know,...hint-hint, nudge-nudge?) 

I have no problem cooking with lard,--my Nana did.  We cook with bacon fat too, for flavour, we just don't drown stuff in it!

Anyhoo, yeah, I'm that ignorant of the dumpling making process, I don't even know how to make the dough!

And yet, weak cook that I am, I do have an awesome pot and cover that's perfect for either cooking corn on the cob, beef stew, chili, or whole chickens for chicken soup!  So I've got that part covered!

This is a super, big time, ultra favourite of both the Hubby and myself, so I'm going to try this, even knowing ahead of time, I have a good chance of mucking it up.  But I'll practice until I get it right.

I'm salivating just thinking about this!

Thanks to David (THANK YOU AGAIN DAVID!) I now have a printer (Yay!  We haven't had a printer in 8 years!) so I can print these out.  I don't want to lose this thread!  I'm too excited to get started.

Not to mention, while this may be presumptuous of me in a way, I'm assuming I'm going to be home a lot with the whole new medical stuff going on, so it's a divine time for me to learn (yes, "learn," ---- I hang my head in abject humiliation!) how to cook!

It's a good thing I married a man who doesn't expect a 7 course dinner on the table when he gets home. 

But the cool thing is, .....he doesn't expect it!  So actually, I'm going to be able to surprise him with, uhm, (hopefully? eventually?), un-burned meals!  (No kidding, I burned a Farberware pot boiling water!  Yes, I'm that bad!).

I had NO idea about the warm knife, the flour, the lard, refrigerating the dough, using strips not balls of dough, and the wooden spoon part.  Dang, I could really have mucked this one up.

I can't wait to spring this on Hubby!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  This has been a childhood favourite of mine since as early as I can remember.  It was a special treat when visiting Nana!  :)

M.

EDIT: My Nana and my MIL BOTH also don't measure things.  They may have/had measuring cups around (for like pouring pancake batter onto the griddle), but they eye-balled everything.  I've got a lot of learning ahead of me!

Oh, one last thing - I get all my new recipes off of Pinterest. I was in a major slump with cooking the same ole stuff.... and I've gotten some yummy stuff of there.

--Tina

THANK YOU!  :)  :)

This is now a permanent part of what I am starting as my own "Recipe Guide."

Being home more, and wanting to be occupied, gosh-darnit, I'm gonna turn myself into a cook (eventually!)

Love this thread!!

M.

PS:  For biscuits, 375 for how long?  Eyeball it for brown-ness and done-ness?

BIG chances I'm using this for dumplings REAL soon!  Ooh.  Ooh.  Ooh.

If anyone is interested, I also make Spanish meals too. I would be happy to add, if anyone is interested. Just let me know. These are just as easy and very tasty


Lindaloo

OK Merrida, Here is a quick, cook in one pot everything Spanish dish, Arroz con Pollo (Or rice with chicken.)

Arroz con Pollo:

Start browning in a large pot a cut up chicken or any chicken pieces from the chicken but they should have the skin on . Use a little olive oil to brown the chicken in. Add a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of garlic powder (don't use garlic salt, and using regular crushed garlic is even better), a whole cut up onion and half of a pepper cut up into small pieces. Add a teaspoon of ground pepper, a tablespoon of oregano, and a teaspoon of ground cumin. Add about ten olives (these are optional) , add a teaspoon of lemon juice as well. Stir these ingredients with the chicken and skin in the pot until browned a little. Add a half of a small can of tomato sauce.

Add around double the water of the rice you will use. In other words, if you are going to cook three cups of rice, add 6 cups of water here. (Do not add rice yet). I usually add enough water to cover the chicken, but that is up to you.

Boil the chicken mixture in the water for 45 to 60 minutes, until the chicken is pretty much done. Here skim the oil off the top of the water as much as possible. It could be as much as a half to a full cup of liquid. Replace with water the amount of liquid that you just removed from the pot. Add here one to two teaspoons of Bijol. This is an orange spice that can be found in the grocery store. Sometimes it comes in premeasured packets. Use two if you buy it in packets. Otherwise, if it is in a can, then use the two teaspoons. This is what colors the rice. (Sometimes Bijol is found in the special isle with Oriental , Mexican and Spanish spices).

Add the rice you measured against the water. Use half as much rice as liquid you added. Stir it gently in the pot. Replace lid, reduce heat to low or simmer and let the pot cook for thirty five minutes or so.

If when you check the pot at 35 minutes there is a lot of water, then skim out some of the water here. If the water is absorbed and the rice does not appear to be done, then add a little water here. You have to play it by ear.

After it is done, taste for salt, if it needs more then add a little before serving. Next time you cook it, add a little more salt in the beginning. I don't measure anything, so it could be a little off. Serve with a salad including tomatoes. The tomato offsets this flavor nicely. If you want, I can put up my recipe for garlic tomatoes. Very easy too.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy!

Lindaloo

Ok I must be a lucky lady my hubby does most of the cooking and I do the baking of sweets I do hope to get back to making more sweets and doing more of the cooking if hubby will let me he loves to cook but my mom did make some candy in the crock pot today ( I had been recovering after having a pain pump put in and left as she was making them oh my they did look good ) but here is the recipe

Crockpot Candy ~

32 oz dry roasted peanuts
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
4 oz German sweet chocolate
32 oz white chocolate candy melts
Place ingredients in a crockpot as listed. Do not stir. Cook on low for 1 1/2 -2 hours - do not open the lid! After cooked, stir and drop by spoonfuls on a parchment paper or silpat lined pan(sure you can use wax paper). Allow to harden and store in a closed container...THESE ARE ADDICTIVE

My Mom used white chocolate chips instead of the candy melts

another one I make this every holiday
1 can of peanuts (like planters I get the store brand)
1 1/2 bags of chocolate chips ( I use store brand)
2 heaping spoons full of peanut butter

melt chips and peanut butter in mircowave about 1 min or 2 stir after 1 min and keep watching it after 1 min. until all melted then add peanuts and stir together
you can either drop like candy clusters on wax paper
or just spread it out on wax paper ( I do this when in pain)
I put mine in the fridge to harden faster if you spread it just break it up like peanut brittle ( the easy way out and does not make my pain level go up and my family likes it either way)

This thread is evoking all sorts of memories!!

When I was young, we lived at my Meme's (great-grandmother) or at my Nana's (paternal Grandmother).  One was French and spoke no English (so I spoke French as my first language,...it was that or shut up!  Well, you know me!)  The other was German, very little English.

(We didn't have many English conversations growing up!)

Anyhoo, ohhh the delicacies they would cook.  Between the two of them, my Meme made an apple pie from scratch to die for.  I just indulged, didn't pay attention.  Could never be replicated and she never measured a thing.  All "candies" were home-made as well.  Great peanut brittle.  Great fudge.

My Nana made (Vickie, this is for you) dumplings (on special occasions, it was a treat), Stollen,...some of the best memories (and best food) came from my youth.

Dang it, wish I was more observant.

I was spoiled with good eating!

M.

Yeah, what's up with that?

Exact same thing with my Meme (maternal) and Nana (paternal).  Now that I think about it, I don't even think there was a chair or setting for them at the table.  Golly, I hadn't really thought about that before.  Both of them were always so busy taking care of the lot of us, doing more cooking, washing up, ensuring we're well-fed (food=love in their households),....not eating was insulting.

That wasn't hard because both of them were divine cooks.  I was spoiled rotten with what good food really was back then.

Aargh, I kick myself for not being wise enough to pay attention and take at least mental notes.

Bugger!

M.

My Meme and my Pepe were my great-grandparents on my Mother's side, and they spoke only French.  Our aunts were usually called Ma Tante.  (I didn't get to know my maternal grandparents, but was close with my great-grandparents).

Then on my Dad's side, German....that was my Nana and my Grampa.

I think some of my fondest moments and memories surround both families!  (Not so much my own home life with my parents, but that's that....)  Point is, I've got some very good memories.

How am I feeling?  That nervous thing hitting me again.  I have my lab work tomorrow afternoon and my MRI in 24 hours.   This is where I'll find out what stage I'm in.

One step at a time.  Thank you for asking, and thank you for thinking of me!

M.