What's for dinner, DL?

[Lady Door]

As I'm FINALLY in an apartment with a proper kitchen, I'm looking to start cooking at home more often. I love cooking but I lack recipes and my inspiration tends to come from what's for sale at the farmer's market. I hoped some of the more culinary-minded DLers could contribute some of their favorite recipes or meals or pictures of food.

To be honest, I don't care what it is, if you made it yourself, whether you have a recipe, or pictures, or whatever. This thread is for FOOD, end story.

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The reason I started this thread:



Salt & pepper roasted (free-range grain-fed) chicken; long grain & wild rice with carmelized carrots; organic butter-steamed green beans.

It was a simple meal, but it was pretty tasty.

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I also made some strawberry muffins and raspberry scones, but neither were that impressive visually or otherwise. I just had some extra berries to get rid of before they turned.

I'll be making chicken "pot pie" sometime later this week. Anyone have any good recipes for raspberries? I have 2 quarts left and not enough jars to make jam.

[metroid composite]

I love cooking but I lack recipes and my inspiration tends to come from what's for sale at the farmer's market.

That's typically how I go--a few staples to make sure I'm getting all the food groups, and then buy up whatever vegetables look fresh at the local produce store.

If you're looking for recipes, though, I got a recipe book for Christmas a couple of years ago that I haven't used in two years.  (Mostly because I always go the "fresh vegetable inspiration" rather than following recipes).  You're welcome to borrow it if you'd like.

[Ultradude]

Hey, it's /ck/ at the DL.

...the only thing I've cooked for more than myself recently was some asparagus a few weeks ago.

[Yoshiken]

At the moment, I'm having to go mostly without food.
My dad's gone away until Sunday, and there's barely any food in the house. Which wouldn't be so bad if I got money before the Saturday after that. >_>
As it is, I'm living off half a pack of pasta and several tins of beans over the next few days.

[Clear Tranquil]

Minute steak and rice with fried onions, mushrooms and peas in a Chow Mein sauce is all I've made this week.

I usually make rice dishes in general with the type of rice, veg, sauce and meat varying.

[Cotigo]

I would take a picture of a pot of macaroni and some buttered toast buuuuuuuut aposiopesis.

[OblivionKnight]

Got home late tonight, so don't really have time to cook.  Thankfully, I like to prepare in bulk and freeze contents >_>

Whole Wheat Penne in marinara, chicken sausage, snow peas, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli.  Decently balanced, at least. 

[Idun]

I love to cook. Because my mom decided I was able to at 16, I've been cooking since. I don't believe I'll participate much in this thread, but if I find something quick and easy to make, I may make a note of it. Or perhaps CT'll mention what I've mentioned in chat. >.>

[Lady Door]

I'm not sure if cookbooks are the answer I need, but thanks for the offer. It more seems that I need to try eating more foods, find some more things I like, and then want to reproduce that at home.

For example, tonight's dinner:

shrimp "scampi" (just butter + garlic + green onions, no white wine), rice pilaf, pesto foccaccia and salad.

I need to think of what "cuisine" has simple flavors and isolated ingredients because that's what I tend to gravitate to. Both of us are really picky on flavors, though. Bah! No wonder we eat out so much.

[Idun]

Cookbooks?

Edit* One word responses fail, Idun. If that was directed at me, I didn't mean I had cookbook recipes, but things I've aggregated from experiences. I would drop a meal by if it's something I've concocted that I hope wouldn't scare other people's taste buds. >_> I rarely list recipes on forums. Did it before at ALLRPG and it got old fairly fast.

[Lady Door]

Sorry, Idun, that was actually directed to m.c. ^^;

Cookbooks are nice references, but I think I'd need a library in order to refer to my whims. My mom has one -- which she inherited from her grandmother -- from which I've found some fantastic recipes, but I think I'm going to start the 3x5 cook-card trend once I get around to having recipes I like to cook regularly.

My usual method right now is "What do I have in the refrigerator/pantry, how much time do I have, and how hungry am I?" I understandably make a lot of casserole-type things. <_<

[Grefter]

2 cups of brown sugar
1 1/2 cup of Self Raising Flour
2 Eggs
1 cup of butter
Salt
Vanilla

Melt butter.  Mix in Brown Sugar.  Mix in egg.  Mix in flour.  Add pinch of salt.  Add bit of vanilla.  Baking Tin it.  Cook in Temperate oven 180C or so.

Biscuits.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Japan's corrupting influence:

Boiled Tofu cubes added to a ground beef and salsa mix. Serve as stew or on top of fried rice.

It's something I never would have thought could taste good until I came to Japan.

Boiled Tofu cubes have the most interesting texture... the salsa is important for giving them flavor though.

[Lady Door]

I've been really lax on cooking the past couple weeks because I'm lame like this. However, today I won a basket full of produce from the farmers' market, and some of it is stuff that I've never had before. Culinary experiments ahoy!



In the picture, vaguely left to right: tomatoes on the vine, green beans, mushrooms, onions, cherries, carrots, an unidentified bunch of leafy greens (haven't got a clue what it is), blue corn tortillas, bread, blueberries, marinated olives, peaches, apricots, plums, pepper jack cheese, pattyan squash, and salad mix with flower petals.

Woo free food!

Also while there, I stopped by a new prepared foods booth and bought myself a shrimp tostada for $5. It had a heap of shrimp and crab on top of freshly made salsa (cilantro, tomatoes, onions, etc.) and a crispy tostada. Best $5 I've spent lately.

[Carthrat]

Going to make roasted whole fish tonight. I'm always surprised at how little meat there actually is on one (deceptively large-seeming) snapper.

[NotMiki]

Made squash balls tonight.  nice little appetizer.  shredded butternut squash (a favorite ingredient of mine), minced onions sauteed in butter, breadcrumbs, an egg, curry poweder, and cayenne pepper, formed into little balls and baked at a high temp.  Delicious.

[Lady Door]

Tacos!

Andrew and I eat a lot of tacos; we make them at home about once a week and probably go out to eat them at least once a week as well. Because of an awesome sale at the grocery store and my inability to plan far enough ahead to defrost meat for dinner, I got 96% fat-free ground beef instead of the usual ground turkey. Oh well!

Blue corn tortillas, spring salad mix with dandelion petals, light sour cream, low-fat Mexican cheese blend, mild Taco Bell sauce, 96% fat-free ground beef cooked with mild taco mix.

This was definitely not one of the more complicated meals.

1) Brown meat; drain
2) Add taco mix + water; cook.
3) Put on tortilla, add condiments as desired.

Voila!

<_<

[DjinnAndTonic]

You have nice dishware. ^_^

[OblivionKnight]

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it all, but we did the absolutely wonderful end of the year resident party on Saturday, and we all did some cooking.

I made some ultra healthy strawberry muffins and awesome stuffed mushrooms (proscuitto, asiago, parmesan, mozarella, feta, olive oil, basil, romano, garlic).  Absolute hits, and I have a bunch of muffins left over too.

[Lady Door]

You have nice dishware. ^_^

Wait 'til I take a picture of a meal on one of the dinosaur plates!

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it all, but we did the absolutely wonderful end of the year resident party on Saturday, and we all did some cooking.

I made some ultra healthy strawberry muffins and awesome stuffed mushrooms (proscuitto, asiago, parmesan, mozarella, feta, olive oil, basil, romano, garlic).  Absolute hits, and I have a bunch of muffins left over too.

Hooray for stuffed mushrooms! That sounds like a good idea for what I can do with my mushrooms. Although mine won't be nearly that fancy.

[NotMiki]

I was wondering, do people outside the northeast use butternut squash at all?  I know it grows all over the place, but it always seemed very regional to me.

[Lady Door]

I know it's all over in California.

But California uses whatever it feels like using, so that might not actually answer the question.

I used it a few weeks ago and realized why it might not be so popular, though. Sonufa is a pain to work with when it's raw. Made faux-potato latkes and french fries. The fries were pretty good! The latkes were meh.

[NotMiki]

mostly it's used for soup and pie around here.  Pretty similar to pumpkin, but it has a less earthy, more nutty flavor (also easier to deal with).

[Xeroma]

OK you must give me the recipe for the strawberry muffins. >_>;

[DomaDragoon]

While I rarely make my own meals (greatly preferring premade meals/meals made by other people/sandwiches/going out to eat), I do on occasion make my own food. Today's probably the closest I've gotten in a few months - made me some buffalo chicken strips and ate almost the whole box. Mmm, spicy.