Food Glorious Food!

Wow yesterday I made Beef and Broccoli stir fry. Delicious.
Ok, ok I cheated and took some short cuts - I LOVE to cook from scratch and make my own concoctions, and I do when possible - but today's supermarkets have a wonderful variety of short cuts to try. Especially if you are not sure what something is supposed to taste like.
With supermarkets you can almost find any sort of thing that has a pre-made version or parts thereof.

Stir frying is one of my favorite methods of cooking - once you get through the prep part of chopping things to size, it is quick and easy. However, in the store you can find all the necessary short cuts to make even the most amateur cook a success with a little effort.

Frozen vegetables are handy for stir fry, and most of them are already cut to size for stir fry - you can use them frozen because stir frying is done at high heat, or even nuke them in the bag from the store for 5 minutes these days and then add them to your wok or pan.

Many markets now have an Asian aisle where you can find lots of things to experiment with, and that's where I found a couple of my shortcuts.

Yesterday's Beef and Broccoli was made with a packaged sauce made by a company called Blue Dragon. I bought some top round at the meat counter that was already packaged in 1 inch cubes, and bought a package of frozen broccoli floretes. From home I had canola oil (good for high temperature cooking) and some onion in the fridge. That was all that was needed (I didn't bother to cook up some rice or pasta - but that is pretty easy too).
Just followed the four or five steps on the sauce package and it was delicious and simple.

Today I am taking a packet of their General Tso's Chicken Sauce and making General Tso's Beef instead - since I bought two of those beef packages and only used one. I have eggs and corn starch on hand to dip the beef into, and I have more onion and broccoli to add.
that is all it calls for but i may add some canned stir fry vegetables I saw in the store (it has bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and baby corn), I might even add a little hot chili pepper to give it some tang.

One word of Caution I forgot to mention when using pre-made sauces - they usually contain a lot of salt or sugar.
Salt and sugar are best used in stir fry, and in most cooking, as a flavor enhancer. (baking is another matter entirely - sugar can be a major component of baking recipes).

If you are watching your intake of salt and sugar additives it is best to make your own sauces so that you have complete control of what goes into it.. Sauces can be simple to very complex to make, and if anyone is interested I will post about sauces at a later date.

Salt and sugar can also come in many varieties. Several different types of sugar are often listed on the ingredients of some food items that you may not even be aware of - I can also expand upon that topic at a later date.

With salt, the location from where it is obtained can make it taste very different and make it useful for a variety of different things. And the shape of the salt flakes can also have a variety of effects upon taste and strength of the salt. That is also a whole topic in itself for later.

Oh yeah those are delicious - my sister made those once

I just saw that on Facebook over the weekend, but I can't recall who posted it.  Was that you?

I just picked up a really good one on sale for about $40 from Hamilton Beach. I believe it's a 5qt. After getting one, it's hard to imagine life without it. My first dish with it, of course, was a pot roast. This is the recipe I used:

Home Style Pot Roast

Ingredients:

1 can Campbell's Condensed Mushroom Soup
1 envelope (about 1 ounce) dry onion soup/dip mix (I used Lipton's)
2 large red potatoes cut into quarter inch pieces
2 cups baby carrots
1 package mushrooms (whole or halved)
1/4 cup water (use half of that or none for thicker gravy)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2-3 lb boneless beef chuck roast

opt (if you want a spicy twist):

5-8 chili peppers finely chopped
2 tablespoons of chili oil
2-3 stalks of green onion chopped

How to Make:

1: In a mixing bowl, stir together the mushroom soup, water, onion soup mix, black pepper, and thyme (if using spicy option, add all the optional ingredients at this point as well).

2: After first mixture complete, now stir in the potatoes, mushrooms, and carrots.

3: Place the chuck roast in the slow cooker.

4: Pour in mixture of chuck roast, turning chuck roast over once so that it is completely coated.

5: Slow cook on low for 7 to 9 hours, or until the roast is fork tender. If you're using a lower weight roast, you can cook 6 to 8.

6: Serve and enjoy!

I love this recipe and you can pretty much make it for less then $25 the first time, and less then $20 after once you already have the seasonings in your cupboard. Prep time is really only about 15 minutes, so it's great to throw in the morning for when you get home at night, or throw in the pot the night before.

Crock Pots are known for bachelors and college students. Just slop and gulash. Delicious, but lazy.

I just got a Sous Vide apparatus that has been producing completely rare meats. Not like just a ring of red meat surrounded by brown, but perfectly red rare steaks. It has been mind blowing.

I don't really follow recipes in the kitchen, I usually just throw whatever together and consult the internet for how long something goes in the oven. I made italian beef and shredded it for sandwiches. Ingredients were: 3-4 lb beef roast, a packet of italian seasoning, some broth and some banana peppers (recipe called for pepperoncini, but I didn't have any on hand). Toss it in the crock pot and cook until the beef just falls apart and serve on an onion roll.

That's how my wife does it too. She scoffs at the idea that I measure everything out, but I'm more concerned about the balance of the flavor that the recipe's meant to produce, at least when it comes to spices and seasonings. I have no problem modifying a recipe by adding, say bacon, if it makes sense, or substituting potatoes with mushrooms.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm still pretty new at cooking things from scratch, so I'm sure after a lot of practice I'll be at eyeball confidence. My wife eyeballed a perfectly delicious pork stir-fry tonight.

Many people are still alive, because it's illegal to shoot them.

I hate baking because it's more science than art.

Cooking is fun because you can be creative. And if something doesn't work out, it usually isn't that bad.

But with baking, one wrong measurement, or not softening your butter enough, can ruin your dish, and be a huge waste of time and effort.

Yeah for soup bases you can find sodium free cartons of ready to use stock in the store - those are great



When I was learning to make cookies, I accidentally used a TBS instead of a Tsp of baking powder - and had to toss it all lol.
If a recipe calls for room temperature butter I usually take it out of the fridge the night before. for melted butter you can nuke it for about 15 seconds and any solids left just stir until they're melted then set it aside to let it cool a bit for the recipe.

I do like baking - there are ready to use things in the store for it to take things easier too. Puff pastry, pie shells or dough - both already rolled out and so on for you.  You can also use that  biscuit dough in a tin or crescent roll stuff for quite a few shortcuts.

I buy the ready to use pie dough and put it in my pie plate, toss some berries in, sprinkle with Splenda (I use it as a substitute for sugar) then simply fold the sides in so it looks kind of  like a thick quesadilla, and bake it at about 350 to 375 until it turns slightly brown on top (sometimes I will take a little egg wash and brush that over the top to make it brown nicely) - I don't cook the dough until it's dry, I like a soft textured cooked dough for this.

One thing I really like about making your own dough is the exercise - waiting for it to rise is a pain in the ass though lol
But when you get your dough together it's pretty much getting a feel for when it is the right consistency - how much flexibility it gets as you kneed it, and as you work it you can add a little more flour until it feels right and becomes less sticky.

I make a Dill and Onion Bread that makes Killer Toast - the best toast ever. It's a recipe from The Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith.

 
Total Time
4hrs 20mins
Prep
20 mins
Cook
4 hrs

A Russian recipe from the Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors. This is a hearty bread which goes well with stew. This recipe is so easy if you have a kitchenaid mixer. And it's delicious! Cook time includes rise time. I like to freeze one loaf for later.

Ingredients

Yields 2 loaves Units US

2 tablespoons fast rising yeast
1⁄2 cup warm water (105 degrees)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 tablespoons sugar
2 cups small curd cottage cheese, warmed slightly in microwave
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes, minced
2 tablespoons dried dill
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
4 1⁄2-5 cups all-purpose flour
cornmeal, for dusting pans
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water

Directions

Dissolve the yeast in warm water; let sit till foamy.
Combine yeast, melted butter, sugar, cottage cheese, onion, dill, soda, salt and 2 eggs in a large mixing bowl.
Add 2 cups flour.
With a dough hook or by hand, knead in remaining flour. Only add the last 1/2 cup flour if the dough will not pull away from sides of pan after kneading for about 10 minutes.
Cover and let rise until double.
Punch dough down and let rise again.
Finally, knead the dough by hand until it is smooth and elastic.
Shape into 2 round loaves and place on cookie sheets sprinkled with cornmeal.
Let rise until double, then brush with egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes until golden.
The bottoms of loaves will sound hollow when tapped.