Hey hey good lookin'...whatcha got cookin'?

that greek noble woman I mentioned happens to be 75 years of age and the relationship is purely Platonic [ which is why I mentioned persephone and plato hint]

you are absolutely correct... I never cook for anything other than the meal. no strings no expectation... after all the food might not go down that well... [ chuckle ] and a rush to a hospital may be in order...

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actually I think you will find that eating prior to having sex diminishes the experience considerably. [sleepy and less appetite].. however sex can make the "after sex meal" exquisit....eh like having cooked breakfast rather than a dinner meal.

 

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hmmmmm.....

 

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Maybe for you...but well placed mango slices can be really fun.

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Sometimes I 'cheat' and cook up something processed for convenience. I do enjoy Spanakopita and in the following photo I have topped it with a bit of plain Greek yogurt and combined it with well crisped bacon and sliced tomato with a bit of fresh chive on top. A photo from my food archives, as I've been too busy to photograph my efforts of late when I am on graveyards.

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I always like a good meatloaf, but my mouth watered when I saw this recipe.

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Wow, that is making me hungy just looking at it.

 

Tonight, I cooked another of the buy one get 3 free pork loins. This time instead of browning in a cast-iron skillet, I threw the tips on the bbq grill on high heat, and seered them there. Then I cooked them in the "diablo" sauce from my previous "Brown Derby" recipe.

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I made a first try at making homemade bread stuffing. It was an epic fail. I added WAY too much liquid, which made the center a soggy mess, and I used 3 times too much chicken stock concentrate, which made it so salty it was inedible. It's ok...it was only about 50 cents worth of ingredients. I know for next time.

 

Did you try draining, standing and another approach to layout?
Excess salt can be drawn out using unsalted potato [sometimes], draw and throw the pots away later..
Reminds me of cooking Chicken Maryland [free range] using a can of mushroom soup as the stock...
grilled maryland till almost cooked, in large pan pour over can of mushroom soup, add mushrooms, cook until tender, drain soup and serve as soup, serve maryland with a side of pots and other vegs...

result:
soup: Mushroom with chicken flavours/scraps soup. [cost: 50 cents aud per serve ]
main: Chicken Mary land coated with a delicoius mushroom sauce. [cost: $2.50 aud per serve + veg ]
cooking/prep time: 30 minutes

If you over add liquid you coud try draining but only after the liquid has "gelled" with the meat [ blended properly] other wise the meats going to taste like waterery slop. [ or so I have found out ]

 

layout superb, gosh that looks nice... did it taste as nice as it looks... most likely hey?

Ever used premade dips [ ex supermarket ] like crunchy cashew, parma, basil, spin. as a base to say pink salmond or steak , or kofta balls [say made with chickpea flower- vegen ]

 

I just threw it out...it wasn't even fit for the birds. No major loss...only about 50 cents worth of ingredients. The bread was too stale to eat, so it would be trash anyway, a little chopped celery and onion, and some chicken stock. I had never used this type of stock before...it's a concentrated paste that comes in a small container. One spoonful is enough for a whole pot of stock (which I found out later)...and I used that much in just 1 1/2 cups. It was bad..really bad..salty enough to make you pucker. I'll know better for next time.

I tell you what...that spanakopita looked so good, I had to look up the recipe. We used to serve them as an appetizer at the pub I worked at, but they were pre-made little triangles...just throw in the oven. I've got the filo dough, and the feta cheese and garlic...I just need to pick up some spinach.

 

yeah, I have never been happy with the stocks you can buy of the shelf...way too much preservative and no doubt MSG hidden as something else.
My last attempt with liquid stock was also a throw out... tasted totally adulterated... non fresh and heavilly processed.
Best to make you own the day before....IMO

 

Made a great discovery the other day [ I don't use recipe books or whatever btw]
First attempt:
Found that if you mash potato [purple skin variety - something something blue they are called] normal pots would probably suffice.

So you mash up this potato, with precooked onion, garlic and teaspoon of hot Jaffna style curry powder in normally salted butter.
[or you can add curry powder to hot mash and let the mash do the cooking.]

And make puff pastry rolls with them. serve cold or hot.. cost 50 cents each. bake 35-45 minutes until brown. [time: inc bake about 1.25 hours]
good as a secondary bake.
a real treat..good to take for lunch on the fly or a mid morning snack. Clears the head a little I must admit....[chuckle]

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Thank you for the kind remarks. A great deal of food's appeal lies in the color and texture combinations as yourself and others posting here seem to be well aware. Simple food can be enhanced with a bit of seasoning or a touch of garnish and suddenly the ordinary is just a little more 'special'. I shall take your suggestion under advisement.

The very best enhancer of food is a healthy appetite, in my opinion, and so I am not one of those people who puts out piles of diversionary snacks while the meal is being prepared. Perhaps a glass of wine to sip on while we are waiting....

I can get almost any child or fellow to eat their vegetables too. I have the first carrot pie ready to come out of the oven in minutes and the house is redolent of ginger, cinnamon and a few other 'secret' spices. A Mennonite recipe for pumpkin pie has been altered to better suit carrot and everyone who tries it raves that 'I don't even like pumpkin pie but this is excellent.' Thanks to an aunt by marriage for that find.

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Totally agree!
It is in the clean-ness of the fragrance, texture and taste that makes the difference. Removing that muddiness so often found in processed foods and mass produced bistro style bay mare foods.
A carrot should taste superbly like a carrot for example.
Another trick I found that differentiates is also the use of rough chopping rather than using a blender, avoiding too much homogeneity in the food as it cooks allows the food to always taste home cooked.
Chopping garlic with a very sharp knife as opposed to crushing it for example can make an incredible difference as is the use of sea salts instead of the pharma varieties of table salts.

I guess though it is all about what I call cleanliness of taste and fragrance.
and i know you already know this by the bonza lettuce you showed... fantastico letticia.....

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and no doubt a treasured secret recipe to be handed down for generations to come... only available at our place sort of thingo.... hmmmmm....nice!

 

This is one of the most interesting stuffing recipes I've seen yet.

 

Quite a different stuffing recipe, I agree KJ. We use corn sparingly in this household because some are sensitive to it. Retaining the bacon grease is not something I have much need for these days as I use very little bacon and use more olive oil.

Reminds me of when we lived in the bush though, without the amenities made possible by electricity. Bacon is a meat that is more stable than many and we saved every drop of bacon grease for making bannock, among other things. Those were lean, mean times indeed.

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Mother was expert in cooking bannock on top of the stove in a cast iron frying pan. It took about 20-25 minutes until it was ready to flip, depending on whether 2 or 3 cups of flour had been used in the making. This is not my photo but the result looked very much like the following save we had only white flour in those circumstances.

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You must have been reading my mail, lol, as I do rough chop almost everything, including garlic, keeping the food processor for things where homogenous consistency is the primary requirement, as in filling for the carrot pie.

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That, and additional cleanup time cuts into my enjoyment of the other pursuits in life.

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The carrot pie has now been photographed. Here is the whole pie, right when it came out of the oven:

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By adding some chopped walnuts, this slice of pie now is fortified with extra protein and calories for a satisfying breakfast.

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The benefit of add-ons is that one can cater to various dietary preferences and sensitivities.

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