Cooking thread

They would look very cute on top of a drink glass.

I had an idea for making enchiladas. I want to make my own tortillas. Furhter, I'll make them stuffed with cottage cheese.

I've kind of "made" tortillas once, long ago. Actually the maid prepared the dough and I "helped" flattening bits into shape and placed them on a griddle. I was all of 8 at the time. But the whole thing seems easy.

I also want to cook the ingredients for the salsa before putting them in the blender. We'll see how that goes.

And I'm making bean soup. The kitchen will work the whole day Sunday.

Quote: Nareed

But the whole thing seems easy.

Again, famous last words.

It took some doing to get the flour:water ratio right. Next it was rather difficult to shape the tortillas without a tortilla press. I used a roller, but that created problems of its own. My idea was to stuf the tortillas with cottage cheese before cooking them, folded in half like a quesadilla. That didn't work too well, either. The cheese tended to leak onto the cooking surgace, too, making a mess of things.

So after an hour or so I just agce up and used regular tortillas. I'll try again if/when I can get a press.

Quote:

I also want to cook the ingredients for the salsa before putting them in the blender. We'll see how that goes.

That actually went well, but it turns out cooking the tomatoes doesn't matter much when you're used to cooking the salsa anyway. The flavor isn't the same, exactly, but it's close enough. The works is about the same.

Quote:

And I'm making bean soup. The kitchen will work the whole day Sunday.

And that went according to plan, too. I also made cottage cheesecake. Instead of making chocolate toppping using a proper bar of semi-sweet chocolate designed to melt and resolfidy, though, I used a dark chocolate mint bar from Ethel M's. It melted well, but, and I like this a lot, it doens't resolidify. When it cools it becomes kind of soft and chewy. Very nice.

Between faile tortillas, long cok times, seeding and peeling tomatoes, etc, etc. I spent clsoe to six hours in the kitchen. I advanced from Ancient Greece, through Rome and Byzantiuma nd onto the Calipahte period in the History of Science, too.

I forgot to mention a little accident.

Some of my cheesecake spilled out of the baking pan as I was putting it in the oven. I use disposable aluminnum pans which come with a pre-made crust. These are not very stable.

The problem is the oven had been pre-warmed already, so the spilled portion began to cook at once on the oven floor <sigh>. I had to take the food out, wait for the oven to cool, clean the spill and start over. Cleaning a half cooked mess is not easy, and it involves toxic chemicals and gloves (I also used up my last set of latex gloves).

The funniest thing is I immediately realized why some people have a cookie sheet permanently stationed at the bottom of their ovens. I do have one, which I use for broiling chilies and bell peppers. Now I'll station it as a spill catcher at the bottom. If I'd had one in place, I could just remove it and clean it without having to wait for the oven to cool down.

You live and learn.

I baked my first cake (I think of the cottage cheesecake as pie, really).

It came out ok, but not exactly what I expected. On the plus side it's very moist, which is a huge plus. There's nothing worse than dry cake, it's even worse than cold coffee. On the minus side it needed more sweetener and some kind of frosting.

the recipe called for a great dela mroe sweetener, but at this point I feel competent enough to mess with recipes of even things I've never made yet. So...

Quick rundown:

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites
1 cup granulated Splenda
1 cup milk
1 tsp. grated ginger (I wanted powdered ginger, but found none)
1 cup unsweetened aplpesauce
2 1/2 cups grated carrots
3 tbsp. chopped nuts

I think I should have used more Splenda, say 1/4 to 1/2 cup more. I figured with the applesauce (which I made from scratch, BTW) and carrots, it would be sweet enough. I learned better. The batter tasted very sweet(*). The cake not so much.

I wanted to experiment with a marshmallow-based frosting, but I lacked the time.

(*) BTW I don't usually taste batter because it usually has raw eggs in it. This one had egg white only, which I get pasteurized. I could just separate eggs, but then I'd be wasting the yolks.

About the last post, making applesauce is the easiest thing in the world:

Get 4 golden (yellow) apples, peel them and core them. Slice them into 8 pieces. Boil them for 20 minutes on medium-low heat, then drain. Place the pices, in batches, into a potato masher and press very hard. At first some juice might squirt out, so press gently but hard.

That's all there is to it.

If you have any left over, I recommend sprinkling some cinammon and either Splenda or sugar on it. I think you can also freeze it for later use.

For the first time ever I did real Barbecue on Saturday. I thought barbecue was synonymous with grilling, boy was I wrong. I felt like an artist transforming my charcoal grill into a 2-zone smoker. Keeping the temperature between 235 and 250 using the vents (who knew those grills even had vents?). Putting a tray of water in the bottom underneath 2 slabs of baby back ribs covered with a homemade dry rub. Adding the chunks of hickory. It was A MAZING! Delicious too, it turned out good. I cooked them for two and a half hours and they were perfect for me and the guests.

Quote: FrGamble

For the first time ever I did real Barbecue on Saturday. I thought barbecue was synonymous with grilling, boy was I wrong.

Your regular backyard BBQ is just grilling, not real BBQ. The real deal is more engineering than cooking, as you found out ;)

I've never done it myself and am not very interested (too much work), but I have enormous respect for those who do. Congratulations.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Or maybe it's lack of variety?

In Mexico the variety of low/non-fat yogurt flavors is rather small, and very repetitive. Pretty much you'll find plain, strawberry and peach. More than that requires luck or something. Meanwhile while Greek yogurt is becoming popular, there is only one domestic low-fat brand, and it's not that low in fat. Lately stores have been importing Phage non-fat Greek yogurt (made in America), but in only four flavors (plain, honey, raspberry and blueberry).

Then I had a brainstorm (or a squall), and decided to mix plain Greek yogurt with somethign else.

So, Kathy's Mocha Yogurt:

1 container Greek non-fat yogurt
1 tsp instant coffee
1-2 tsp (appros. I use one squirt) "light" chocolate syrup

Put everything together in a small bowl and stir well. You're done when you can't see any white and the rest is all a rich light, creamy brown.

That sounds good, I'm going to give it a try, thanks!