The Cooking Thread
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I don’t recall if it was a shepherd’s pie (I think it was), but my sister was once following a recipe that called for a cup of stock. So she added a cup… of stock powder.
But hey, salt tastes nice.
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Hi ChatGpt, what can I do with leftover mozzarella and potaoes
Certainly! Here's a recipe for Cheesy Potato Casserole that combines mozzarella and potatoes for a comforting and delicious dish:
Ingredients:
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh thyme leaves (optional, for garnish)
Instructions:
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Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a baking dish with butter or cooking spray.
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In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sauté for about 1 minute until fragrant.
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Layer half of the sliced potatoes in the greased baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Season with salt and pepper.
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Add the remaining sliced potatoes on top of the cheese layer. Sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
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Pour the heavy cream evenly over the potato and cheese layers.
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Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
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Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the top is golden brown and bubbling.
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If desired, garnish with fresh thyme leaves for extra flavor and presentation.
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Allow the casserole to cool for a few minutes before serving.
Enjoy your Cheesy Potato Casserole with mozzarella – it's a perfect side dish for any meal!
What am I suppose to do with the garlic and butter after frying it?
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@DogsB said in The Cooking Thread:
What am I suppose to do with the garlic and butter after frying it?
Have it as an aperitif.
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On my new dietary regime, I've been eating mostly beef for dinner. I cut it up and make a skillet meal. So I've been buying sirloin tips at Sam's because it's actually a pretty good cut and is cheap (for beef) at $4.98 per pound. I usually buy two or three flats of it, each of which is between 3 - 4 pounds.
I took the scouts camping this weekend and my wife put in a delivery order from Sams'. For online delivery orders like that, they don't offer the flats. So you have to buy the wholesale version..."a" sirloin tip:
That's about 12.75 pounds of beef. So I cut it up into steaks (and trimmed off most of the fat / connective tissue) in order to freeze most of it:
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
Fun fact time:
What do you think of when you hear the word "Buccaneer"?
Pirates, right? Or privateers if you prefer.
Ever wonder where that word comes from?
It actually comes from a type of barbecue that originated in the Caribbean. True shit.
There is a type of barbecue, or barbacoa, that is heavily spiked with spicy chiles and then smoked over an open fire on a frame called a "boucan", originally spelled "buccan" and the food produced via this method is named the same. Spanish pirates learned how to use a buccan and a chile paste to smoke and dry meat in order to preserve it and make it suitable for long term storage on a ship without spoiling. They then sold this, basically spicy jerky, to the corsairs. The corsairs being state sponsored French pirates that preyed on ships traveling the Caribbean. This led to the corsairs referring to these Spanish pirates by what is presumed to be a portmanteau of "buccan" and "privateers" into "Buccaneers".
You 'd Tom Scott's new video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFpzps-DCb0
1:35ish in.
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Had venison steaks yesterday. Pan fried in plenty of butter, the the steaks were popped in a low oven while we rustled up the sauce from the remaining contents of the frying pan, a finely chopped onion, some nice mushrooms, and then once the onions and mushrooms were nicely fried, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, two tablespoons of sherry, and 5 of cream. All combined, then the steaks put back in and everything served immediately.
It was delicious.
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@loopback0 nifty, and I even did better research.
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I smell something cooking in the kitchen and walk in to see what's up. The moment I walk in I notice that my wife is using a very expensive bottle of wine to make pasta sauce.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to finish what was left of a "special occasion" bottle of red wine that I saved from being cooked down with canned tomatoes and served over Great Value dried pasta.
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I'm reminded of the time when my wife came upstairs with a bottle of Screaming Eagle wine and asked me:
"Is this okay to cook with?"
"So help me to god, if you do, I will hit you."
"What? I just assumed that since it was old and dusty it probably isn't any good anymore."It reminded me of a movie that I can't remember the name of so it was probably just okay overall but it had a great line in it. Some criminals kidnap a family and they are comprised of one guy who is the mastermind and a few lackeys that aren't that intelligent. After they get settled in the family of the home of the people they are kidnapping, the mastermind (which I am 80% certain was played by Paul Bettany) told one of the lackeys to go to the wine cellar and get him an expensive bottle of wine. As best I remember the scene went like this:
:lackey: "What do I know about wine? How will I know if it's expensive or not?"
:mastermind: "It will be dusty."
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
I'm reminded of the time when my wife came upstairs with a bottle of Screaming Eagle wine and asked me:
"Is this okay to cook with?"
"So help me to god, if you do, I will hit you."
"What? I just assumed that since it was old and dusty it probably isn't any good anymore."I solve this problem by not having wine for long enough for it to become dusty.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
"What? I just assumed that since it was old and dusty it probably isn't any good anymore."
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
The moment I walk in I notice that my wife is using a very expensive bottle of wine to make pasta sauce.
I only have one bottle of expensivish wine in my house. It's a bottle of Bordeaux I brought back from France in...2005? Been meaning to drink it on a special occasion at some point.
Otherwise I've been buying the cheapest 1.75L bottles of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (usually ~$9 at this point), which I find are fine for drinking and work really well for cooking.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
"What? I just assumed that since it was old and dusty it probably isn't any good anymore."
Mrs. Boomzilla heard this tale and cracked up, saying that Mrs Polygeekery is her spirit animal.
Oh, pullout the bottle of wine...It's Chateau Buléscaille Côte de Bourg 2000. Probably paid something like €10-15 back in 2005 when I bought it, which as I say, is a lot more than I pay for a bigger bottle these days. Not an extraordinary wine in price, but one that I'd tried while there and really liked.
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@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
Mrs. Boomzilla heard this tale and cracked up
Did you include the part about the threat of spousal abuse?
Obviously it was a (semi) joking threat.
Drinking that bottle of wine was a horrible mistake. I do not yet have a headache, but I can feel the headache that is coming. I'm going for a swim and hope that I drown and don't have to experience the red wine headache that is building.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that mid-priced booze seems to have the least hangover. Cheap stuff, like @boomzilla drinks, gives wicked hangovers. Oddly, really expensive stuff does also.
One of my all-time worst hangovers was from champagne that was expensive enough that the host told me that a case (12 bottles) cost more than a new car. That was a multiple day hangover that a person will never forget.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
Mrs. Boomzilla heard this tale and cracked up
Did you include the part about the threat of spousal abuse?
Obviously it was a (semi) joking threat.
Oh, yeah.
Drinking that bottle of wine was a horrible mistake. I do not yet have a headache, but I can feel the headache that is coming. I'm going for a swim and hope that I drown and don't have to experience the red wine headache that is building.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that mid-priced booze seems to have the least hangover. Cheap stuff, like @boomzilla drinks, gives wicked hangovers. Oddly, really expensive stuff does also.
Aside from the wine (which even experts can't generally tell apart), I tend to stay away from the cheapest stuff and aim for a nice mid range.
One of my all-time worst hangovers was from champagne that was expensive enough that the host told me that a case (12 bottles) cost more than a new car. That was a multiple day hangover that a person will never forget.
Any champagne will do that.
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@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
Any champagne will do that.
Champagne goes down like perfume and comes back up like sewage.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
Any champagne will do that.
Champagne goes down like perfume and comes back up like sewage.
Should have stuck to sparkling wine
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@izzion sadly the headache is not terroir dependent.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
Champagne goes down like perfume and comes back up like sewage.
That simile does not work with me, as I tend to have an easier time handling strong sewage than strong perfume, as the latter smells like a chemical spill to me. And I have a hard time handling overly chemical smells and tastes. Which is also why I can't drink diet sodas, due to the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners.
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@Atazhaia said in The Cooking Thread:
Which is also why I can't drink diet sodas, due to the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners.
I am especially susceptible to any artificial sweeteners. I cannot eat or drink anything that includes them. I can instantly discern anything that has them even when it is in very small quantities that other people do not even notice.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
Drinking that bottle of wine was a horrible mistake. I do not yet have a headache, but I can feel the headache that is coming.
Then you bought quality wine.
Really.
After a bottle of wine, you should feel a little drunk, but should not have headaches.
Beyond "tastes good", that's my definition of a good wine.
And available already around 5€ for a 0.7 liter bottle.
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@BernieTheBernie said in The Cooking Thread:
After a bottle of wine, you should feel a little drunk, but should not have headaches.
That wasn't the only thing he drank that night.
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@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
That wasn't the only thing he drank that night.
Or any night!
I love red wine, but it frequently gives me headaches.
Anyway, @boomzilla saved me from searching for a thread. Char siu take two, with the correct cut of meat:
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
I love red wine, but it frequently gives me headaches.
I used to have that problem but it hasn't happened in a while. Or with any alcohol. A hangover these days is more that I'm dehydrated and tired. Or still a bit tipsy the next morning.
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Not sure I've ever actually had any.
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@boomzilla I'm pretty sure I haven't. I'm not a big fan of the taste of lamb, and "like lamb but stronger" isn't appealing to me.
My mom used to tell a story about her brother. He was stationed in the Pacific during WW2. Somebody in his outfit got a care package from home, in which was a can of Spam. He said, ugh, and chucked it into the lagoon. A few days later, the guys were swimming around the lagoon trying to find the Spam, because even Spam > mutton.
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@HardwareGeek yeah, like TFA says, it's good for curries and stews, where you have a lot of other flavor. I don't eat a lot of lamb. I'd guess that most of it is probably in Ethiopian food, which I have two or three times per year or so. And then it's in something that's pretty similar to a stew or a curry.
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@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
Not sure I've ever actually had any [mutton].
It's more strongly flavoured than lamb, but clearly the same sort of taste. The reason why it is uncommon is likely economic: mutton takes longer to raise. (There's also hogget, which is intermediate between the two. Very uncommon!)
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@boomzilla you can get mutton in some areas of the US. In some areas of the United States if you order barbecue it will be barbecued mutton. Like, exclusively. They don't barbecue anything else.
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@dkf @Polygeekery yes, TFA addresses all of that.
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I can't remember the last time I made poached eggs but now I want to try this:
..which also links to this:
Which is kind of funny but also goes into a little more detail about freezing eggs.
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This weekend a local church/school was having a rummage sale fundraiser for an upcoming school trip. We showed up at the end of it right as they were just trying to get rid of shit so they did not have to haul it to Goodwill. Of all things to find at a rummage sale where you could buy what you could fit in a large garbage bag for $10 I found a Hobart meat slicer and a Dalia pasta machine.
The meat slicer is very heavy duty, but not as heavy duty as you would find at an actual deli. I assume that at some point Hobart tried to target the home market and then realized that not many people will buy expensive meat slicers for their home. Which makes sense because I don't think this thing has ever been used. I wonder if I will actually use it to slice up remaining meat at holidays like I bought it for or if it will gather dust until I take it back to that same rummage sale in a decade for some other school trip fundraiser?
The pasta machine appears to be this exact model that is now sold under the King Arthur Flour name:
It is built like a tank. It is way heavier than it looks.
Not cooking related but I also picked up 3 induction motors in the 1-1.5HP range and got those plus the meat slicer and pasta machine for $10. Then we were leaving as they were loading up stuff to take to Goodwill and there were two treadmills that I got for free, brought them home and extracted the motors and control electronics, bandsawed out some of the useful pieces of steel and the rest is going to the scrapyard. I had to go get my trailer to bring home the treadmills and one of the guys who helped load them onto it asked me:
"Were you needing more clothing racks?"
Which I thought was pretty funny because almost every home treadmill turns into a clothing rack built on good intentions. I just wanted the DC motors for repowering tools because I only run if somebody is chasing me.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
I just wanted the DC motors for repowering tools because I only run if somebody is chasing me
and all of my carry pieces jammed simultaneously.
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@izzion said in The Cooking Thread:
@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
I just wanted the DC motors for repowering tools because I only run if somebody is chasing me
and all of my carry pieces jammed simultaneouslyand I already threw all the bottles of booze at them I had on me
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@Luhmann said in The Cooking Thread:
@izzion said in The Cooking Thread:
@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
I just wanted the DC motors for repowering tools because I only run if somebody is chasing me
and all of my carry pieces jammed simultaneouslyand I already threw all the bottles of booze at them I had on meOne shudders to think of the threat so severe as to justify wasting even bad booze.
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@izzion said in The Cooking Thread:
@Luhmann said in The Cooking Thread:
@izzion said in The Cooking Thread:
@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
I just wanted the DC motors for repowering tools because I only run if somebody is chasing me
and all of my carry pieces jammed simultaneouslyand I already threw all the bottles of booze at them I had on meOne shudders to think of the threat so severe as to justify wasting even bad booze.
I don't know ... booze combined with fire sounds like a very Polygeekery defense strategie.
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@boomzilla
E_MISSING_WAFFLES
Next you're gonna tell me that there isn't a real king in Burger King restaurants!
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@remi said in The Cooking Thread:
@boomzilla Next you're gonna tell me that there isn't a real king in Burger King restaurants!
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@remi said in The Cooking Thread:
Next you're gonna tell me that there isn't a real king in Burger King restaurants!
There is neither coca nor cola in Coca Cola.
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@dkf "their used to be" / in 3...2...1...
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We had a glut of end-of-season tomatoes come ripe all at the same time. Almost 7lbs worth. So last night I made a shit ton of gazpacho. Which is really nothing more than "salsa soup".
My favorite recipe:
Instead of tomato juice I usually use Spicy Hot V8 but we were out and I did not feel like going to the grocery store so I substituted Bloody Mary mix that we had in the bar. It worked well. The mix had clam juice in it which adds a nice amount of umami flavors to balance out the fresh veggies. One process change suggestion I will make is to add the olive oil to the blender in order to make a good emulsion and not end up with an olive oil slick on top of the gazpacho.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
We had a glut of end-of-season tomatoes come ripe all at the same time.
The one thing I hope for from global warming is that the climate here gets good enough for growing tomatoes. I've tried a few times and they just can't produce fruit worth the effort.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
My favorite recipe:
I guess the prep time of 45 min is because of taking care that the thing is smooth enough (peel tomatoes etc.). If you don't care that much about having a silky-smooth texture, you can just chuck everything (tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers...) into the blender and blend for longer.
That's what we do and the end result is
:chefs_kiss:
. Or maybe not:chefs_kiss:
but by far good enough and soooo much faster ( FTW).One process change suggestion I will make is to add the olive oil to the blender in order to make a good emulsion and not end up with an olive oil slick on top of the gazpacho.
Yes, definitely. It emulsifies well-enough that even a couple of days later (we usually make a big bottle that takes us a couple of days to drink (eat?)), it doesn't come out as a puddle on top.
Also, make sure to taste as you season (and season after having added all the rest). It's very easy to adjust the oil/vinegar/lemon juice/spices and it can really make all the difference.
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@remi said in The Cooking Thread:
Also, make sure to taste as you season (and season after having added all the rest). It's very easy to adjust the oil/vinegar/lemon juice/spices and it can really make all the difference.
Much simpler to just over/underseason and then blame
your favorite whipping demographicaliens
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Cooking Thread:
@remi said in The Cooking Thread:
peel tomatoes
Heresy!
Well, I am not doing it, so take it up with @Polygeekery's recipe above.
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@remi said in The Cooking Thread:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Cooking Thread:
@remi said in The Cooking Thread:
peel tomatoes
Heresy!
Well, I am not doing it, so take it up with @Polygeekery's recipe above.
You were admitting the possibility, and for inquisition purposes that's just as well as doing it
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@Applied-Mediocrity just send in the Spanish Inquisition then.
I'll be expecting them.
With a bowl of gaspacho.