Food for Thought (and Discussion)

[fantasia]

I think I've decided that I am DONE with green smoothies. I keep trying them in the hopes I'll find a combination that tastes good that my son will drink, but every time I try it, I think it's disgusting, so like he's gonna drink it. (This rant was made possible by Starbucks new Sweet Greens smoothie. )
Of course the irony is, I have a bunch of ingredients ready to go for my own green smoothie where broccoli is the mystery veg. I may go ahead and make it and just cut back on the broccoli and avocados. It also has pineapple and kiwis. I forget what else...
I made a carrot cake smoothie the other day. That wasn't too bad. Evan had a few swallows of it at least.
Anybody drink "healthy" smoothies? Got any recipes you care to share?

[Lady Haleth]

I used to make one with frozen blueberries or strawberries, some Greek yogurt, a bit of milk, a banana, and a bit of citrus juice. It was quite good, but I never worked out the precise proportions of everything. I'll have to work them out the next time I have some frozen fruit. The Greek yogurt makes it nice and filling.

[fantasia]

Yeah, fruit smoothies are very good. I do make those on occasion, especially when I have overripe bananas I don't want to go to waste.

A couple days ago my husband decided he wanted to make green chile pork, so I found a recipe for Pork Guisado online and we gave it a shot yesterday. My kitchen smelled amazing. I had onions, garlic, tomatillos, cilantro, and jalapenos cut up waiting to go in the stew... yum!
I also attempted to mimic the rice you get from Chipotle, and that turned out ok (it was really good with the pork, just alright by itself).
A few years ago I grew some tomatillos but didn't know what to do with them. Now that I have a recipe I like, I might give them another try.

[wild rose]

I've at last made friends with our gas stove oven and have discovered a true joy in baking (I've made cakes and cookies off and on before, but now I've taken upon myself to try and master the art ) Right now my obsession is cakes and I started going through the Joy of Cooking. One thing I really like about it is they give a detailed descriptions about everything, which is really helpful to a newbie like me. The only thing is in the cakes they do tend to add a LOT of sugar and more often than not I cut down a bit on it because I think it comes out a little too sweet.

I've made an assortment of different kinds of cakes but the one thing I want to make, ginger bread, I haven't been able to so far because every recipe calls for molasses and you try finding it here (actually, save yourself the trouble, because you won't!) so yeah, for now I've been making spice cakes and chocolate cakes and now I think I'm ready to move on to angel cakes and sponge cakes I'm also looking to get into to pies and pastries (like buns and rolls

(and boy is my family getting spoiled rotten, they literally get a different cake every day )

[fantasia]

The only thing is in the cakes they do tend to add a LOT of sugar and more often than not I cut down a bit on it because I think it comes out a little too sweet.

I can tell you're not American. Actually, while I don't have any trouble with the sweetness of cakes, I do find most frostings/icings are too much for me, so I either spread it thin or cut back on the sugar.

I've made an assortment of different kinds of cakes but the one thing I want to make, ginger bread, I haven't been able to so far because every recipe calls for molasses and you try finding it here (actually, save yourself the trouble, because you won't!)

Awww... that's too bad. Gingerbread is a favorite of mine. I wonder if you could be sent some...? I don't know what the rules are for shipping food to other countries.
For the record, the flavor will not be the same, but molasses can be substituted with honey.

[wild rose]

I can tell you're not American.

I'm so obvious, aren't I

For the record, the flavor will not be the same, but molasses can be substituted with honey.

hmmm, I should try that a lot of the recipes call for cake flour, which is simply unheard of here, but it does says that 'though it will not taste the same, you could use sifted, all-purpoe flour, just take two tablespoons out of every cup.' So yeah, I guess many of my cakes don't 'taste right' but what can I do, lol so I suppose it won't be a crime if my gingerbread doesn't have the usual flavor either

I wanted to bake this cake called the Burnt-Sugar cake, but I to do that I need to caramelize sugar and in the book it says to use a 'nonferrous pan'. Does anyone know what that is exactly?

[fantasia]

I wanted to bake this cake called the Burnt-Sugar cake, but I to do that I need to caramelize sugar and in the book it says to use a 'nonferrous pan'. Does anyone know what that is exactly?

I had to look it up, but I learned something new. A ferrous pan contains iron, so all of your cast iron or steel pots/pans would be in that category. Sooo... all I can think of after that would be a ceramic pan (glass would be a terrible idea). Unless they count non-stick pans?

ETA: Well, I looked up instructions on caramelizing sugar and almost all were doing it in stainless steel pans, so I think you'd be ok using whatever you've got. Maybe not cast iron though. I think that would stick horribly.

[SnowAngel]

wild rose, I never use cake flour even when a recipe calls for it and no one has ever complained or said anything about the texture or flavor of my baked goods.

I tried a new recipe this past weekend, the first in a while. Breakfast on Sunday was Unbelievable Blueberry French Toast Casserole. It was delicious and so easy to make, a hit with the whole family. I used frozen mixed berries and added cream cheese, but other than that I followed the recipe. I am planning to make the recipe again soon, but with pumpkin in place of the berries.

SnowAngel

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Hello, fellow foodies! That French toast casserole looks amazing! Maybe I'll treat myself to it after I'm finished with my diet in a month or so.

Speaking of which, I highly recommend getting a food scale if you're trying to lose weight. I got one at the beginning of this year, and it has made such a huge difference in knowing exactly how many calories I was eating. Turned out that what I thought was a tablespoon of Nutella was about 50% more than what the manufacturer considered a tablespoon! Things like that can really add up and thwart your weight loss plan.

Wrose, I actually ordered some molasses online today from a site called iHerb. I know that they ship to Russia, but I don't know what the cost is like or how long it takes. I hope you manage to find some somewhere! I have a tablespoon of the blackstrap variety nearly every day because it's so rich in healthy minerals; I'd say it's the most nutrient-dense sweetener out there.

[wild rose]

Fk, thanks so much for the information. I was at the store today and they had a whole collection of ceramic pots and pans. I'm thinking to purchasing one and using it to caramilize the sugar

Gen, oh, good to know about the cake flour, now I won't feel like my cakes are not comletely right And that casserole sure looks delicious. The only casserole I've ever eaten was a cheese casserole. It's not exactly a food that we make around here

Rose, ooh, iHerb, a friend of mine buys stuff from there. Thanks for telling me, I'll see if perhaps molasses is something I can afford At least a little bit to make a proper gingerbread

I know molasses is known to be super nutrious, I read a lot about it, the reason we don't have it here is because our sugar doesn't come from the sugar cane but from beet roots, so yeah, few people have actually heard about it or know much about it

[SnowAngel]

My family and I have a couple of casseroles we really like - Tater Tot and Hot Dish. I found a Tater Tot Casserole recipe with no canned soup on Pinterest a while back and we like it even more than the "original".

The Hot Dish Casserole on the other hand has been a little harder to make a healthy version. Today, I think I finally did it. I made a couple cups of gravy from scratch, then add salt, paper, ketchup (like the original recipe), minced garlic, and horseradish. After that cooked together for about 5 minutes and I added cooked hamburger (this had an onion in it) and a bag of frozen peas (should be slightly defrosted). Heated on the stove until the peas were cooked through. There were no leftovers, so I say success at last!

My recent baking endeavors were a Strawberry Lime Trifle and Sugar Cookies (without chilling the dough). We had company this week and for dessert we had the trifle. It was a combined effort by my Mom and I, I made the cake and whipped the cream and Mom cut the strawberries and layered the three in the serving bowl. Then I piped whipped cream rosettes around the top. It looked pretty good and tasted amazing. The lime/strawberry combo was terrific. I just wish I had practiced the rosettes before piping on the trifle.

I really wanted to make Sugar Cookies on Wednesday because I had just gotten Butter Vanilla bakery emulsion. Perfect choice! Especially paired with cream cheese frosting. But I didn't want to wait overnight for the cookie dough to chill (my regular recipe has to chill for 4 hours minimum). So I looked at a bunch of recipes on Pinterest and found one that didn't have to be chilled at all. It had great texture and flavor, just like the chilled recipe.

SnowAngel

[Pattertwigs Pal]

My family and I have a couple of casseroles we really like - Tater Tot and Hot Dish. I found a Tater Tot Casserole recipe with no canned soup on Pinterest a while back and we like it even more than the "original".

So am I understanding correctly that Tator Tot is one dish and "hot dish" is another? Where I'm from we sometimes use the phrase "hot dish" to mean "casserole" and that is especially the case with Tater Tot. So we call it Tater Tot Hot Dish.

[SnowAngel]

My family and I have a couple of casseroles we really like - Tater Tot and Hot Dish. I found a Tater Tot Casserole recipe with no canned soup on Pinterest a while back and we like it even more than the "original".

So am I understanding correctly that Tator Tot is one dish and "hot dish" is another? Where I'm from we sometimes use the phrase "hot dish" to mean "casserole" and that is especially the case with Tater Tot. So we call it Tater Tot Hot Dish.

Oops, yes... I forgot hot dish is often used to refer to all casseroles. Our original "Hot Dish" recipe was ground beef and canned soup with biscuits on top, over the years and as the family grew my Mom changed the recipe by adding peas and baking the biscuits separately.

SnowAngel

[johobbit]

Question: what works best for peeling hard-boiled eggs? When we lived in our previous home, we didn't have as ready access to fresh farm eggs, so I purchased them from the grocery store ... and they peeled beautifully. Now that we get fresh eggs every week, I've tried peeling them and they're such a nuisance. I asked one of the egg farmers at the market, and they said the trick is to make sure the eggs are not fresh. Well, now, that's annoying. Sure enough, when they sit for a week or more, they peel much better.

Another trick I heard if the eggs are fresh is to add vinegar to the water they cook in. I tried that, and it certainly helped a bit, but not as much as I'd like, for the shells did not come off totally smoothly, so the whites were still pock-marked after peeling.

Does anyone have any further tips? I also asked the farmer if white eggs peeled differently than brown eggs. The answer? Nope. I have 90 to peel on Thursday, so I may be purchasing them from the grocery store just so ensure they're older.

[fantasia]

The tips you posted are the ones I've known. The age of the egg in particular makes the biggest difference.

Just what are you peeling 90 eggs for? If I may ask... That's a lotta eggs.

[johobbit]

Wups, never mentioned that, did I? ... deviled eggs for 70 people. Yeah, I did not realize the age of an egg made such a difference. I'd better check for the oldest date at the grocery store then.