# Cooking endeavours



## moco82 (Jul 16, 2012)

[Spelled that with a U, knowing how many visitors from Commonwealth countries this forum has.]

Cooking, especially grilling, is probably just a distraction for most of us guys, as it is a way to engage mentally and physically into something unrelated to what we do professionally without leaving the house. It is also territory in which we can take the missus' advice seriously  What has been your latest undertaking that took many attempts before reaching perfection, but was worth the expense of time and money?


----------



## John Lee (Mar 16, 2013)

I committed to learning to make really good meatballs, because it's something you can make a huge pot of on the weekend and have for several days (and even freeze some), my toddler likes it, and my wife has been overstretched cooking on top of her work and school. My last batch got wows from my wife.


----------



## John Lee (Mar 16, 2013)

I'm not a terrible cook but not a great one. I kind of like making the meatballs because it's fun to ball up the little wads of meat and smack em back and forth in your hands before you fry them.


----------



## MicroStorm (Aug 10, 2012)

moco82 said:


> Cooking, especially grilling, is probably just a distraction for most of us guys, as it is a way to engage mentally and physically into something unrelated to what we do professionally without leaving the house. _It is also territory in which we can take the missus' advice seriously _ What has been your latest undertaking that took many attempts before reaching perfection, but was worth the expense of time and money?


Not in my house. She takes my advice! I do most of the cooking because I'm pretty good at it and enjoy cooking in general. The wife makes a decent sous-chef. However, she is much, much better at baking than I am. I don't like to measure things exactly, so admittedly I'm not a great baker.

Some of the things I do well:

*Eggplant parmesan--Takes forever to make, dirties every crevice of the kitchen, is super unhealthy, but it tastes so damn good.
*Pizza--this has been surprisingly very difficult, but in recent months I've finally got this down after well over 50 attempts and 5+ years of trying. You'll never get brick-oven results at home, since most pizzerias have ovens that go north of 1000F, while home ovens rarely breach 500F. Through some cooking techniques I can do this pretty well, though.
*Pasta sauce--just a basic red sauce that is cheaper and better than anything in a jar and only takes 20 mins to make
*Enchilada sauce--made this by accident a few years ago. I forgot to buy canned enchilada sauce and didn't feel like heading to the grocery store in rush hour, so I made my own. Haven't bought a can of sauce since.
*Smoked pork--okay, my father taught me everything I know about slow-smoking meats, but mine is pretty damn good.
*Beef stew--again, thanks dad. His is better than mine, but mine is still pretty tasty. The pressure cooker is a must for this.
*Chicken verde--Another recipe on a whim. My sister gave me hatch peppers a few months ago. I made them into a verde sauce with tomatillos and braised a cut-up chicken for hours until the chicken fell off the bone. I shredded the chicken, removed the bones, and served the mixture over rice.
*And much, much more...


----------



## moco82 (Jul 16, 2012)

Pizza is apparently a whole cult among amateur cooks. I spent days reading advice, often contradictory, and experimented about a dozen times in the oven and grill. Discovered a great whole-wheat honey bread recipe in the process. I had abandoned and not picked up baking for years before this (also don't like measuring--I work with numbers, so no numbers for me off duty), but the simpleness of the classic Neapolitan recipe was like it was teasing me. Like with all recipes, you have to adjust for your local water, flour, and the brand of ready yeast until you hit jackpot... Still a work-in-progress.

Stews and soups of all sorts, yes, sauteed, baked and grilled meats... If I hit a streak of working from home, I can be preparing 90% of the food in the house.


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

Meatballs are fun, but I like to take it another step and make albondigas soup. Working the rice into the meatballs correctly, and then getting your ratios right so it's not too soupy, but not too thick either was challenging for me.


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

Also, i'm starting to get pretty good with frittatas. Had to invest in a good coated cast iron skillet so I could throw it under a broiler.


----------



## WyshIknew (Aug 18, 2012)

moco82 said:


> [Spelled that with a U, knowing how many visitors from Commonwealth countries this forum has.]
> 
> Cooking, especially grilling, is probably just a distraction for most of us guys, as it is a way to engage mentally and physically into something unrelated to what we do professionally without leaving the house. It is also territory in which we can take the missus' advice seriously  What has been your latest undertaking that took many attempts before reaching perfection, but was worth the expense of time and money?


Many of us guys post regularly on the dinner thread in Social.

I'll often try a recipe until I've got it right.

I did Stuffed Tenderloin of Pork recently (pics on dinner thread) and wasn't entirely happy with the presentation although the taste was good so will try again.


----------



## anchorwatch (Mar 5, 2012)

I do all the grilling, burgers to Thanksgiving turkey. I'm comfortable in the kitchen, but I defer to her skills. There I'm happy as her sous chef and dishwasher, as long as I get fed. 

I make a pizza and c0cktails for us, every Friday night. Just tried a pear, pancetta and gorgonzola pizza for a c0cktail party. It was a big hit. 

Hey Wysh, give me the link to that pork recipe. I'm gonna make one this week.


----------



## WyshIknew (Aug 18, 2012)

anchorwatch said:


> I do all the grilling, burgers to Thanksgiving turkey. I'm comfortable in the kitchen, but I defer to her skills. There I'm happy as her sous chef and dishwasher, as long as I get fed.
> 
> I make a pizza and c0cktails for us, every Friday night. Just tried a pear, pancetta and gorgonzola pizza for a c0cktail party. It was a big hit.
> 
> Hey Wysh, give me the link to that pork recipe. I'm gonna make one this week.


Will do, I'll photocopy the page and PM it to you.


----------



## anotherguy (Dec 14, 2011)

Cooking is a great love of mine.  And Im pretty good.

I cook all the meals all weekend and usually make extra things that she can reheat and serve during the week. 

Holidays? I own the kitchen. Nothing better than making the entire house fragrant with homemade bread and serious food. Correction! She is the baker - pies - cookies, etc. And oh my does she make some KILLER pies.

I make fantastic jambalya and gumbo. Quite a trick for a northern kid but I fell in love with it when I was in New Orleans some years ago. In general soup is my specialty. I can make dozens of soups that would knock your socks off. But I can make quite a wide variety of things. I browse cookbooks in my free time. 

and it seems, I am humble. 

I think I am compensating for my high tech professional life - and cooking can be gloriously low-tech. I find myself humming to myself contentedly when I cook.


----------



## moco82 (Jul 16, 2012)

WyshIknew said:


> Many of us guys post regularly on the dinner thread in Social.


Ooops. If a moderator comes across this thread, please move it to the Social section


----------



## anotherguy (Dec 14, 2011)

Fozzy said:


> albondigas soup


Im going to need more info on this.


----------



## moco82 (Jul 16, 2012)

anotherguy said:


> I think I am compensating for my high tech professional life - and cooking can be gloriously low-tech. I find myself humming to myself contentedly when I cook.


Exactly. And the more I can make from scratch, the better.


----------



## WyshIknew (Aug 18, 2012)

anotherguy said:


> Cooking is a great love of mine. And Im pretty good.
> 
> I cook all the meals all weekend and usually make extra things that she can reheat and serve during the week.
> 
> ...


Yes, this is me. Until something goes wrong. And then I'm Mr Grumpy.


----------



## anotherguy (Dec 14, 2011)

my biggest problem lately is simply having no time. Gotta take care of the lawn and fix the mailbox and clean the gutters and all the other junk. She is taking care of the house othewise and shuttling the kids around and we both work... and...

who has time to cook!!??

we make time. She was up making apple crisp last night at midnight.


----------



## moco82 (Jul 16, 2012)

Only briefly! If you can't peel $20 worth of flour, mozzarella, tomatoes, and salami off the pizza stone, just have an extra drink.


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

anotherguy said:


> Im going to need more info on this.


80% beef worked into small meatballs, but you also work uncooked rice into the meat before you cook them. Beef stock, celery, carrot, onion, and I add a couple of cans of medium heat Rotel. A little extra rice in the broth, and drop the meatballs in to boil for a while with the rice before adding the veggies.


----------



## anotherguy (Dec 14, 2011)

Fozzy said:


> 80% beef worked into small meatballs, but you also work uncooked rice into the meat before you cook them. Beef stock, celery, carrot, onion, and I add a couple of cans of medium heat Rotel. A little extra rice in the broth, and drop the meatballs in to boil for a while with the rice before adding the veggies.


do you use regular rice? I find rice doest really stand up well in soup for long... and have used converted - though I dont really like that either.

Maybe I'd have more luck with a shorter grain rice. Jasmine is too fragile perhaps.


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

Yeah, I use plain white rice. You're right, it doesn't stand up very long in the soup, but meh--the meatballs are the star of the show anyway.

FWIW, I'd also prefer to use the hot Rotel, but the family won't stand for it.


----------



## COGypsy (Aug 12, 2010)

The extra rice in the stock will also help to thicken it, so it doesn't really need to stand up as an individual ingredient, I'd imagine. I'm with Anotherguy though---I think you should post the recipe in the Social section! Albondigas are a hometown memory for me, I'd love to find a good recipe/ratio to make them now that I'm relocated to the Great Frozen Tundra of the North!


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

I'll see if I can figure it out well enough to post an actual recipe. Honestly, I'm more of an "eyeball it" kind of cook.

Some of my favorites are so simple they don't even really need a recipe. Like white gravy made from bacon drippings (or hamburger if you don't have bacon) just poured over torn up bread in a bowl. Leave some of the bacon or hamburger in the gravy when you serve it. 

My mom used to cook like Paula Deen when I was a kid, so I picked up a lot of delicious and incredibly unhealthy ideas from watching her.

**and holy god--Cornbread in milk--had that over the weekend**


----------



## COGypsy (Aug 12, 2010)

I make a breakfast casserole that's like that. A can of whomp biscuits uncooked torn or cut into quarter-ish size pieces. Brown a thing of sausage. Sprinkle the sausage, a few big handfuls of grated cheese and 6 beaten eggs over the biscuit bits. Make gravy from the sausage bits and pour over the top. Let it bake for 30 - 45 minutes until the biscuits are done and the eggs are set.

YUM!! I tried to take a picture to post in the dinner thread in social but it pretty much came out looking like turds in a snowdrift. My boyfriend like it _almost_ as much as the Eggs Benedict I usually make him on Sundays and has asked for it again a couple of time though.

The recipe for albondigas sounds pretty straightforward. Do you put the rice in by the handful? I think I'd be set with how much hamburger and how many handfuls of rice. The rest is just the soup, it's the meatballs that have to be right to make it good!


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

The rice in the soup is the trickiest part for me--I have a tendency to add too much (again, because I can't be troubled to actually use a recipe). I make a pretty large batch so I'm betting I probably use 3 lbs of hamburger for the meatballs. Just throw the meat in a bowl with whatever seasonings you prefer and gradually work a couple handfuls of rice into the meat, then ball them. You may want to throw an egg in to get it sticky. Mine usually end up about the diameter of a 50 cent piece.


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

COGypsy said:


> *I make a breakfast casserole that's like that. A can of whomp biscuits uncooked torn or cut into quarter-ish size pieces. Brown a thing of sausage. Sprinkle the sausage, a few big handfuls of grated cheese and 6 beaten eggs over the biscuit bits. Make gravy from the sausage bits and pour over the top. Let it bake for 30 - 45 minutes until the biscuits are done and the eggs are set.*
> YUM!! I tried to take a picture to post in the dinner thread in social but it pretty much came out looking like turds in a snowdrift. My boyfriend like it _almost_ as much as the Eggs Benedict I usually make him on Sundays and has asked for it again a couple of time though.
> 
> The recipe for albondigas sounds pretty straightforward. Do you put the rice in by the handful? I think I'd be set with how much hamburger and how many handfuls of rice. The rest is just the soup, it's the meatballs that have to be right to make it good!


Southern cooking at it's finest.


----------



## COGypsy (Aug 12, 2010)

Fozzy said:


> Southern cooking at it's finest.


"Dining at the Doublewide" as my father calls it 

Of course he's presenting a seminar on cooking with prickly pear paddles at a botanical conference tonight, so he gets a bit uppity about recipes sometimes!


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

My father in law makes nopalitos. I have to say it's better than i expected it to be. Reminds me of the taste of green beans with the texture of okra. I've been considering trying to grill some paddles to see if giving them a little charred texture would change it up a little.


----------



## COGypsy (Aug 12, 2010)

Oh watch out....here comes my nopal advice!

My dad describes the flavor as a "gamey green bean" and I generally agree. 

To get the slime off, the easiest way is to cook them for a little while in a saute pan with a little bit of oil. That will cook the slime off. Other options are to char the paddles on the grill (doesn't work so well with chopped nopalitos though!) or to boil them. The abuelitas will tell you to boil them with 3 copper pennies in the water, but that doesn't seem to be an absolutely essential step 

Do you guys make verdolagas too? My dad likes to saute those with a little onion and garlic and throw them in with beans or eggs in the morning.


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

I had to google verdolagas--no i've never had those. Looks like some kind of a succulent? What's the flavor like?


----------



## Fozzy (Jul 20, 2013)

All this talk about prickly pear reminds me--time to wander out in the desert and grab any of the tuna the javelinas missed!


----------



## COGypsy (Aug 12, 2010)

Yeah, they come up after the rain and they're pretty much a weed, but they help corn grow better somehow, so it's allowed to come up in the fields too. When it's young the leaves are tender and it has one of those stems that when you break it, liquidy stuff comes out. They have a taste kind of like peppery greens and keep a nice kind of crunch because of the steps. I guess I'd say kind of an arugula flavor with a texture like greens that didn't get stemmed, but a little more tender. Hard to describe exactly though. When we put them in with a pot of pinto beans, I always call it beans and greens, but that sounds WAY more Paula Deen than the dish actually tastes!


----------

