Recipe Thread

[Nicolette Opal]

Wasabi and Green Onion Mashed Potatoes

Yields 8 Servings.

Ingredients:

3 pounds Yukon Gold or Yellow Finn potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 tablespoons wasabi paste (horseradish paste)

2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil (do not substitute)

1 cup chopped green onions

Preparation:

Bring potatoes to boil in large pot of water. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until tender, about 20-25 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, bring cream, butter, and wasabi paste to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until butter melts. Season with salt and pepper (optional). Keep hot. Heat oil in another, small skillet over medium heat; add green onions and sauté until wilted, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Mash potatoes. Stir in hot cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper (optional). Stir in green onions.

Here's a link to a site that has the Nutrition Facts for this recipe, and the ability to resize. Not the original site.

[Missy]

Now I want these.

[dc20willsave]

I'm going to try those.

For the poor geeks who want to cook for company or cook something that will last a few days...

Will's Pizza Pasta Casserole

You will need:

1 Medium sized Casserole Dish

1 Frying Pan

1 Pasta Pot

1 Colander (Or drainer)

1 pound dry pasta (I usually use Thin Spaghetti but dish works with any kind)

1 Jar Pasta sauce (Flavor doesn't matter)

1 4oz. Can Sliced Mushrooms

About 20-30 slices of pepperoni

2-4 Cups Shredded Italian Cheese (I like the provolone and mozzarella blend that Sargento's does but to each their own.)

3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Or any kind of Olive Oil really)

Salt, Parmesan Cheese and Pepper to taste.

1. Pre-Heat the Oven to 350. Start boiling a pot of water. Put two teaspoons of the olive oil in the frying pan and saute the mushrooms until they're brown on both sides. Spoon your pasta sauce into the pan and stir occasionally. Once it's heated up, spread enough to cover the bottom of your casserole dish.

2. Once your water's boiling, salt it. Add the remaining tablespoon of EVOO to the water. This will keep the pasta from sticking and add a bit of flavor. Once pasta is pretty well done, drain into your colander.

3. In your caserole dish, put about half the pasta in. Cover with half of your remaining sauce, half your pepperoni, and half your cheese. Cover with your remaining pasta, remaining sauce, remaining pepperoni, and remainign cheese. Dust in Parmesan Cheese.

4. Put your pasta dish into your oven for about 15-20 minutes, enough time to get the cheese melty and bubbly and also brown the top layer. Remove from oven and cool for about ten minutes.

5. Chow down. Goes well with most breads.

For a quicky garlic butter, just take the margerine or spread in your refrigerator and place desired amount in a bowl. Shake a bit of garlic salt in, stir, and spread on your bread or toast.

[dc20willsave]

This one is yummy to the extreme.

Breaded Ranch Chicken

3/4 Cup Crushed Cornflakes

3/4 Cups grated Parmesan cheese

1 Envelope ranch salad dressing mix

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken halves

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

In a shallow bowl, combine the cornflakes, parm cheese, and salad dressing mix. Dip chicken in butter, then roll in cornflake mixture to coat. Bake in a greased 13-in x 9-in x 2-in baking dish. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Recipe from 2001 Taste of Home Annual Recipes.

[Nicolette Opal]

This looks tasty.

I should post the super-tasty chicken parm recipe I made last week. Not nearly as bad for you as most chicken parm can be, but oh-so-good.

[Nicolette Opal]

Anyone have a good recipe that uses canned tuna?

[Missy]

Not a recipe per se, but mixing canned tuna with barbecue sauce makes it taste a bit like pork. Maybe you can play around with that.

[Nicolette Opal]

That sounds really gross.

[Molly]

A Wisconsin Classic:

Tuna Fish Hot Dish.

Ingredients

* 1 (12 ounce) package egg noodles

* 1/4 cup chopped onion

* 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

* 1 cup frozen green peas

* 2 (6 ounce) cans tuna, drained

* 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup

* 1/2 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms

* 1 cup crushed potato chips

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

3. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix noodles, onion, 1 cup cheese, peas, tuna, soup and mushrooms. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish, and top with potato chip crumbs and remaining 1 cup cheese.

4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheese is bubbly.

[Venneh]

Beef and Mushroom Soba:

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

4 c low-sodium beef broth

3 c water

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 package beef cubes

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

6 oz soba noodles

1. Bring a pot of water to boil over high heat.

2. Meanwhile, bring broth, water, and soy sauce to a simmer in another pot over high heat. Add beef and sesame oil; reduce heat to low.

3. Add noodles to first pot of boiling water. Cook, stirring, until al dente, about 4 minutes.

4. Divide noodles into 4 large soup bowls. Ladle beef and broth mixture over noodles.

This makes enough to feed at least ten to fifteen people, or to keep you personally fed for at least a week. And it's quick, too.

[dc20willsave]

Time for another cheap and easy recipe.

Vanilla French Toast

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Milk

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract or imitation Vanilla Extract. Both work.

Pinch of Salt

6 slices bread, preferably Day-Old

Syrup or Cinnamon Sugar

Grease a Frying pan or electric griddle, heat to medium low or so. Wisk together eggs, Milk, Sugar, Salt, and Vanilla. Soak bread in batter on both sides, soak thicker bread longer, thinner bread shorter. Cook on your heated cooking device until golden on both sides. Serve with syrup or cinnamon sugar.

Makes 2 Servings.

[dc20willsave]

Let's try for some desert.

Lazy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookie Bars

1 Package Prepared Philadelphia Cream Cheesecake Filling

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Pre-heat the oven to 375 Degrees.

Spray a 13x9x2in baking tray with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. In a separate large bowl, beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla together. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in dry ingredients. Stir in all but about half a cup of the chips. Spread dough evenly into pan. Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool completely on a cooling rack.

Mix remaining chips into Cheesecake Filling. Spread onto cooled cookie. Refrigerate or serve immediately.

As a precaution, this is uber-rich. Have a glass of milk or water to drink with and moderation. Also, the cookies might be habit-forming. My friend Malex might have a problem and be free-basing what's left of the pan as we speak.

[Venneh]

Recipe for the most awesome chocolate cookies ever, done in character, because there is no other way you can have this recipe:

Misa-Misa's Quintuple-Chocolate Friendship Cookies

(for sharing, because friends share)

Hello~ And welcome everyone to Misa-Misa's Happy "Make Your Enemies Fat" Cooking show! Today Misa-Misa's going to show you a recipe inspired by her bestest friends in the whooooole world, because even if they pretend that they're strong (tsuyoiii~) and really smart, every boy has a weakness and it's almost always chocolate~!

Especially these boys. They become total smooshyheads when there's chocolate involved! They even forget they hate each other!

Ingredients time! (piyo piyo~)

1 cup butter (no faking it, gotta be the real stuff!)

1 3/4 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup EXTRA DARK cocoa powder (again again again, the real stuff!)

just a little cinnamon

just a little salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 1/2 cups flour

1 bag of chocolate-caramel candies (like Rolos!)

3 bars ghiradelli chocolate (1 white for Ryuuzaki, 1 bittersweet for Light~, and a semi -sweet for Misa-Misa!) all broken up into bitty pieces

Make sure to set all the chocolate aside and in the fridge or even the freezer for an hour before you bake these!

Cookie time! (piyo piyo~)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius (that's 375 Farenheit for all you Americans watching on the Internet~)! Grease a bunch of cookie-sheets with extra butter and set them aside. These cookies are sticky! (kichikichi~)

Start by creaming the butter and sugar together, then once it's all fluffy beat in the vanilla and eggs too. Then the cocoa, then the spices and the baking powder together, and then the flour goes last. Once you're sure it's holding together all right, mix in all the chocolate bits at the same time--carefully! It's all gonna melt, but try and make sure to get all the different kinds of chocolate mixed up so it packs a punch (ka-DON~!) when the cookies are finally done.

(Ryuuzaki likes to lick the bowl. Light pretends he doesn't, but if you give him a spoon he'll lick it anyway. Misa-Misa just uses her fingers, 'cause it's better that way, and sometimes that gets Light to forget about the spoon.)

When you put them on the sheets, remember, these are cookies for sharing, so you can't make them too small. Smallest-cookies are actually medium-sized, like once you roll them up it should be like a ping-pong ball! If you want to make them bigger, you can, up to the size of a POOL ball!

Ping-pong-balls bake for twelve minutes.

Pool-balls bake for eighteen!

Picture time! (ba-ba-ba-PING~!)

Careful when you take them out--the caramel gets reeeeeeally sticky! So sometimes they break and sometimes they stick to the cookie sheet. But that makes it more fun to scrape the spatula with your teeth! (Ryuuzaki does that too.) They're best when they're warm and the caramel's still all melted.

Ryuuzaki puts extra sugar on his. Light needs a big glass of milk to eat just one! (He dunks. It's so cute~!) But Misa-Misa thinks they're juuuuust right, and they make everything just right, because friends share. Everything. Especially cookies.

[dc20willsave]

Dubs talking about his problems with sauteing has brought to mind a cheap and easy recipe.

Lemon Pepper Tuna Rice

You will need:

1 pot

1 6-oz can of Tuna

1 1/2 cups of Rice

Water

1 Teaspoons Lemon-Pepper Seasoning

A Pinch of Salt

A pinch of Lemon Juice

Follow the directions for cooking your Rice according to the package. Drain your can of tuna. Add salt, lemon-pepper, and Lemon Juice to the rice, mix then add tuna. Mix thoroughly and enjoy. Should make one serving.

[Venneh]

Two more cheap and easy recipes. (I forgot we even had this thing.)

Untitled Pasta-Marinara-Mozzarella Ball-Basil Thing:

You will need:

However much of one package of penne pasta you eat in a sitting

Jar of Marinara

Mozzarella balls (look in the cheese section of your grocery store, or near the deli)

Fresh basil

Cook the pasta, put in bowl, throw on some marinara on top of it, cut up the mozzarella balls if they're the large kind so you have coverage all over the sauce, and then chop up a leaf of basil and sprinkle on top.

Angel Hair Pasta with Diced Tomatoes and Breaded Chicken:

You will need:

Chicken breasts

Bread crumbs

Angel hair pasta

Can of diced tomatoes (whatever flavoring you like, we usually go with garlic/oregano/basil)

Start cooking however much pasta you want, I usually go with half a package. While the pasta is cooking, coat your chicken breasts with bread crumbs and fry in a pan until the crumbs are brown, bordering black. By this time the pasta should be done, so add your can of diced tomatoes, mix thoroughly, and throw the chicken on top. Conservatively, this makes usually enough for three or four meals.

[Venneh]

Sesame Crunch Tofu (or substitute any meat/fish for tofu)

* Ingredients

* 14 oz. extra-firm tofu (or insert meat/fish here)

* 1 tbsp sesame oil

* 1/4 cup soy sauce

* 1 tbsp brown sugar

* 2 cloves garlic, minced

* 1 small piece ginger, peeled and minced

* 1/2 cup flour

* 3 tbsp sesame seeds

* 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions

Press the block of tofu in a clean dish towel to remove any excess liquid. Cut the tofu into 3-inch triangles. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and ginger until well-incorporated. Place tofu pieces in the liquid. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes (up to 2 hours).

Combine flour and sesame seeds in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat.

While oil heats, dredge marinated tofu pieces into flour-sesame seed mixture until well-covered on both sides. Place as many tofu pieces as will fit comfortably into the hot oil and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side or until brown and crisp. Add a little more oil if necessary as you go.

(Hint: keep whatever's left over of the marinade, it'll keep a long while and it's amazing.)

[Venneh]

Butter Chicken

Ingredients

* 2 pounds chicken, chopped into 1-inch cubes

* 4 garlic cloves, minced

* 1 tsp curry powder

* 1 tsp ground coriander

* 2 tsp ground cumin

* 1 tsp chili powder

* 2 tsp ground cinnamon

* 8 oz Greek-style (thick) yogurt

* 1 6-oz can tomato paste

* 1 15-oz. can chopped tomatoes

* 1 tbsp honey

* 4 cardamom pods (crush pods slightly to release seeds and more flavor) (can be substituted with ground cardamom)

* 1 cup heavy cream

* 1 tsp salt

* pepper to taste

* 1 handful fresh cilantro

Directions

Combine chicken, garlic, spices (other than cardamom) and yogurt and mix well. Refrigerate in a covered container for at least 30 minutes (or as long as overnight).

In a tagine or other heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat,, melt butter. Add the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, honey and cardamom. Stir well. Bring to a light boil and reduce to medium-low to simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick (15-20 minutes)

Add chicken and cream and stir well Continue to simmer for another 18-20 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked and very tender and sauce is creamy and thick.

Serve hot, garnished with cilantro.

Serves 4.

[Professor]

Howdy folks. A date has been set for the 4th (sometimes annual) cake party. Cakes will be eaten and judged. (And then the sugar coma.) A miscarriage of justice happened last time and my roommate somehow won. (Cake parties are highly political it turns out.)

So, any awesome cake recipes?

[Venneh]

Will, I do believe this calls for your strawberry cake.

[dc20willsave]

Was already posting it when you said that. I will be bringing this to Chicago next year.

Will's Strawberry Cake

You will need:

1 13x9 baking dish

1 Can Non-Stick Cooking Spray (I prefer the kind that has flour in it but that's just me.)

I Box Yellow Cake Mix (You can use white also.)

1 16 OZ Tub of Frozen Strawberries (If you get the kind that has Splenda instead of Sugar, no one will notice.)

1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream

! Cup of Sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Eggs and Oil as per the instructions of the box of cake

Toothpicks

Making Cake as directed on the box. Let it cool completely then put it in the refrigerator over night covered. Put a mixing bowl in the freezer and leave out the strawberries before you go to bed.

In the morning, take your cake out of the pan. Gently place it on a cutting board. Place toothpicks in slightly at the halfway point. Tape measure it pretty good for making sure that they're level. Using a serated knife, like the kind you use to cut bread, saw the cake in half. Place the bottom half back in the cake pan. Spoon the thawed frozen strawberries onto the cake. The juice will soak into the cake but it won't make it mushy.

In your chilled bowl, place your whipping cream. Taking a mixer, start whipping the cream. When it starts to thicken, add in the vanilla and then start adding in the sugar gradually. You're going to want thick whipped cream, more the constancy of frosting than cool whip. Place the top layer of the cake back on top and start smoothing the whipped cream on top with a spatula. If you have extra left, serve it with the cake. If you feel really adventurous, take a pint of fresh strawberries and cut them in half, placing half a strawberry on about what you feel the serving size is.

[Dan]

[Missy]

I am 34 years old. That means I have lived 34 years without knowing this! Why? Why did it take so damn long?!

[dc20willsave]

Because, honestly, it's a poor substitute for the real thing. That said, it does the trick for when you need a quick chocolate fix and it takes too long to run to the store to buy mix and Bake it.

[Venneh]

Gingerbread Pancakes:

Follow your pancake mix's basic instructions for the batter, or, if you're feeling fancy, 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 cup milk (or buttermilk), 1 egg, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted).

Then add:

-1 T ginger

-1 t cinnamon

-1/4 t ground cloves

-1 T brown sugar

-1 T molasses

Pour batter in to small frying pan, watch for edges to turn golden brown and for small bubbles to start popping in the pancake, and then flip, and cook one to two more minutes.

[Professor]

My lunch. A cheddar cheese smoke sausage, served in a sub bun, topped with colby pepperjack cheese, baked beans, honey ham and cole slaw.

You're welcome.