I need help! (Foodies)

[vinny]

Good day!

Before I moved to Alberta I was really ramping up my repertoire in the kitchen. Other than rotisserie chicken, a personal favorite, I often didn't make the same meal twice in a year.

I was mostly missing comfort foods and I have been making home made breads, lasagne, spaghetti, curry, scalloped potatoes, mac n cheese, beef dip, fish n chips, pizza, burgers, steak and potato. Etc. I am rusty and I am struggling to think of mains, now that I have gotten all the 'I wish' recipes out of the way, I am looking for new and interesting.

I didn't want to hijack 'What's for dinner?', and I decided to make a new thread. I was hoping we could compile a list of favorite recipe ideas from the way Mom made it, to the Holy Grail of your favorite of favorites. Easy to expert. I am having trouble thinking of challenges mostly, but I want some fun ideas to run with.

Lists, pictures, recipes.. Anything goes!

Cheers!

 

[BigDaveK]

Where's all the responses? Well, Dave, maybe they're all busy.

I have so many favorite recipes but hands down, breakfast, lunch, and dinner....and midnight snack....

Cheese cake, sour cream topping. I'm partial to cherries as a bonus.

Sometimes I make a chocolate cheesecake with crushed Oreos for crust but I always come back to this.

 

[Boatboy24]

Comfort food? Chicken piccata?

 

[winemaker81]

In the late 80's a friend told me that her grandmother had recently passed away, and with her went a host of family recipes that existed only in her grandmother's head. That was sad.

I realized how many recipes existed only in my mom's head, so I undertook the job of getting 'em out and recorded. Over the following several years, I'd visit (I lived 25 miles away), my mom would cook a recipe while I measured and recorded. She never measured things except for baking, and that's the way I cook as well. Oh, she had recipes in the recipe box, but what was written on the card and what she actually did were usually different.

The end result was all of my mom's recipes recorded, and also published on my web site. She's been gone 15+ years, but she's present when I make one of her recipes. I'll post links periodically in this thread. Here's the first:

https://food.bkfazekas.com/2021/03/steak-dumplings/
I record a lot of my recipes, as so much existed only in my head. My sons have those recipes, which are also on my food site.

 

[ibglowin]

Comfort food? Chicken piccata?

View attachment 99796

Nothing better than Ho-made Chicken Piccata or.........

 

[Jim Welch]

Nothing better than Ho-made Chicken Piccata or.........

Love me some Ho-made food, only thing better is the dessert!

 

[Shurt1073]

Dave, I made this in a slow cooker or crockpot and its very tasty. We put it over rice. I'm not sure this is what you are looking for?

2-3 large boneless chicken breasts
1 - black beans 15 oz can (drain the juice off)
2 - can sweet corn 15 oz can (do not drain juice off)
1- Rotel tomatoes 10 oz can. (do not drain juice off)
1 - package of Ranch dressing mix (dry powder)
½ package of taco seasoning (dry powder)
1 - brick of cream cheese
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder

add all ingredients to the crockpot and let cook low heat for 6 hrs or until the chicken can be shredded ... enjoy! This is one of my new favorites

 

[heatherd]

@vinny
This is my summer go-to salad: meyer lemon, grain, asparagus, sesame, and cheese:
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-me...paragus-almonds-recipes-from-the-kitchn-47278

 

[heatherd]

Fresh salsa
-10 roma tomatoes
-1 yellow onion
-1 jalapeno, exclude seeds
-1 tomatillo
-1 bunch cilantro
-1 lime, juice
-salt to taste

1. Grind everything except the tomatoes in a food processor and put in a large bowl.
2. Rough chop the tomatoes and then pulse lightly in the food processor.
3. Combine all in a bowl and then you can store in the fridge in a lidded container.

Best with white corn chips.

 

[heatherd]

Table-side San Antonio Riverwalk Guacamole from Boudros Texas Bistro
-Ripe avacodos, diced
-Juice of one orange
-Juice of one lime
-Fresh cilantro, chopped
-Serrano peper, seeds excluded, diced
-Red onion, diced
-Roasted tomato, chopped
-Salt to taste

If you have a pestle, use it to grind everything together using it. Otherwise, mash everything with a potato masher and combine with a spoon.
https://www.boudros.com/menu.html
I like this with either white corn or blue corn chips that are warm.

 

[suzyq2]

My hubs personal favourite is Chicken Vesuvio. Comfort food at it's finest. I'd give a recipe but It varies with ingredients on hand. Green tomato curry. The extended family demands this one so I now can it and grow extra toms to meet demands. I blend a jar with coconut milk, veg and chicken while reheating. canning-101-green-tomato-curry-sauce My family likes the toms blended not chunky and I make it with a mild Japanese curry so peeps can add their desired level of heat. Food is fun.

 

[vinny]

Where's all the responses? Well, Dave, maybe they're all busy.

I have so many favorite recipes but hands down, breakfast, lunch, and dinner....and midnight snack....

Cheese cake, sour cream topping. I'm partial to cherries as a bonus.

Sometimes I make a chocolate cheesecake with crushed Oreos for crust but I always come back to this.

View attachment 99782

You're a genius.

And, thanks for waking this post up!

 

[vinny]

In the late 80's a friend told me that her grandmother had recently passed away, and with her went a host of family recipes that existed only in her grandmother's head. That was sad.

I realized how many recipes existed only in my mom's head, so I undertook the job of getting 'em out and recorded. Over the following several years, I'd visit (I lived 25 miles away), my mom would cook a recipe while I measured and recorded. She never measured things except for baking, and that's the way I cook as well. Oh, she had recipes in the recipe box, but what was written on the card and what she actually did were usually different.

The end result was all of my mom's recipes recorded, and also published on my web site. She's been gone 15+ years, but she's present when I make one of her recipes. I'll post links periodically in this thread. Here's the first:

https://food.bkfazekas.com/2021/03/steak-dumplings/
I record a lot of my recipes, as so much existed only in my head. My sons have those recipes, which are also on my food site.

I know that story. You must have shared this before, but clearly I forgot.

Thanks! I will do some browsing.

 

[vinny]

I'm not sure this is what you are looking for?

Absolutely. Totally out of the norm for me and that's what I want.

Just trying to shake things up a bit.

 

[vinny]

Table-side San Antonio Riverwalk Guacamole from Boudros Texas Bistro
-Ripe avacodos, diced
-Juice of one orange
-Juice of one lime
-Fresh cilantro, chopped
-Serrano peper, seeds excluded, diced
-Red onion, diced
-Roasted tomato, chopped
-Salt to taste

If you have a pestle, use it to grind everything together using it. Otherwise, mash everything with a potato masher and combine with a spoon.
https://www.boudros.com/menu.html
I like this with either white corn or blue corn chips that are warm.

You're on fire!

 

[winemaker81]

I know that story. You must have shared this before, but clearly I forgot.

Thanks! I will do some browsing.

Like so many blogs, finding stuff on my food site is tough. I need to create some pages that categorize the recipes. I have published ~175 recipes and even I can't find stuff .....

 

[Rice_Guy]

realized how many recipes existed only in my mom's head, so I undertook the job of getting 'em out and recorded. Over the following several years, I'd visit (I lived 25 miles away), my mom would cook a recipe while I measured and recorded. She never measured things except for baking, and that's the way I cook as well. Oh, she had recipes in the recipe box, but what was written on the card and what she actually did were usually different.

* recipes are for those who don’t know how to cook. A recipe lets someone with no skills put ingredients together to copy a food. Spices/ flavor concepts are a lot of what needs to be to copied.
* a good recipe understands that a crop like wheat flour is different in July coming off the field from December making Christmas stollen. We can’t see the difference but putting our hands in the dough we feel the difference and know that we have to adjust the recipe. (like grandma did) Lots of crops have traits that change, wine also has traits that change. Is the fruit climacteric? If it sits in a fruit bin a week will it taste better/ be more juicy/ have more pectin to deal with?
* dry sugar/ salt/ baking powder/ potassium metabisulphite have shelf life so I would have no issue using ten year old materials.
* foods don’t magically rot the month after the best by date. Traditional cooking uses everything! ,,, (last year 37.8% of US home food purchases were tossed)
* traditional recipes use the locally available ingredients/ local crops/ local spices. I laugh at the wife complaining that Limburger was at the vinters club pot luck table, and I have been assigned to correct ingredients I wouldn’t personally eat. ,,, When I started growing grapes I was amazed mom would make Concord grape pie and now that it is on the radar I have seen it in old cook books.
* foods/ traditional recipes are based on balance. There are lots of ways to reach balance. If sourGrapes chimes in he has a neat book with suggestions as what ingredients go well with calimari or crimini mushroom etc
* the human species likes novelty. We have better nutrition when lots of ingredients make up the diet.
* @vinny the web has so many favorite recipes. The collection of recipe books in the company pales in comparison.
* we as a society are losing our skill at cooking. If I look at 1900 cook books they say “put in a SLOW oven” till event z happens. One needed to know more using a wood or coal fired stove. ,,, In a Keebler cookie factory I could smell the leavening or the browning to know how well the 200 foot long oven was doing.
* two of my favorites; cherry soup (Bavarian family recipe) and cranberry/ orange squash pie (like pumpkin but a different seasoning concept)

 

[winemaker81]

recipes are for those who don’t know how to cook. A recipe lets someone with no skills put ingredients together to copy a food. Spices/ flavor concepts are a lot of what needs to be to copied.

I'll half agree with that. For experienced cooks, recipes are starting points.

30+ years ago I recorded my spaghetti sauce recipe for my roommate. His family is Cuban/Spanish extraction and IIRC his mom didn't make red sauce. My only use for that recipe is as a checklist to ensure I don't forget things.

 

[sour_grapes]

* foods/ traditional recipes are based on balance. There are lots of ways to reach balance. If sourGrapes chimes in he has a neat book with suggestions as what ingredients go well with calimari or crimini mushroom etc

David is referring to The Flavor Bible by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page: https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400. As David says the book lists foods, and then denotes which other foods and seasonings go well with them. At first, it seems like an odd concept, but it is very useful.

 

[vinny]

@vinny the web has so many favorite recipes. The collection of recipe books in the company pales in comparison.

This is very true, but it can be quite a mess to work through. Search terms can be difficult. When I am looking for interesting, challenging, or advanced dinner ideas/recipes I don't need to see shepherds pie as an idea, I know how to make it without a recipe. I am looking for things I haven't made, or that have fallen off the radar.

Sometimes I can look at a picture and know what I want it to taste like. I don't need a recipe, but complex things like curry, I still want a solid guideline. A Tbsp of fennel blends in so amazingly well in a balanced curry that I can't throw ingredients together and recognize that it needs more fennel, cumin, or cinnamon to round it out like I can a spaghetti sauce. Easy, needs more basil, or a touch of garlic. To sweet, more wine!

I usually use 3 recipes as my guideline and what I make is the 4th version.

I have become very used to limited ingredients and my brain has lost the habit of creativity. Even considering what I would suggest for this post brings up forgotten favorites. Smoked duck, rack of lamb, tandoori chicken. Murgh Makhani (butter chicken)

I have a beef in the freezer, so every cut I could ask for, and every day I ask what do you want for dinner? 10 years ago I would have woken up with 10 ideas and have to narrow down the choices. Sometimes I couldn't contain myself. I served my guests a roast chicken, a smoked duck, and a bacon wrapped apple stuffed pork tenderloin one night.

* two of my favorites; cherry soup (Bavarian family recipe) and cranberry/ orange squash pie (like pumpkin but a different seasoning concept)

Two things I have never heard of and also both VERY unlikely to come up in a google search.

Thus the reason for my post.

Thanks for humouring me!