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My favourite kitchen implement is the telephone... 
--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya --=--You're only paranoid if you're wrong!
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I've got 7 hens in the backyard.... so we average 3 to 5 eggs on a daily basis. So I will, a few times a week, take 3 fresh (some are still warm that's how fresh they are) and make an omelet with some tomato, bell pepper (also from the backyard garden) and some Swiss cheese..... salt & pepper and a few drops of ketchup.... core a fresh apple and pour some homemade lemon-aid.
Not a bad little lunch.
We give the eggs to our neighbors and to our daughter who is a college student in another local town..... no way we could eat that many eggs.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I used to know what a fresh egg can do and enjoyed it very much.
No longer can keep chickens, don't think the apartment manager would be impressed. *grin*
That's good eatin' ya go there, Geetarhacker.
One small thing I learned about eggs is to take the ones I intend to use tomorrow out of the refrigerator the night before and allow them to slowly come up to room temperature. Then they tend to fluff more when scrambled or omelet and we have also found that eggs cooked from room temp also make for better fried, over-easy and even poached.
I really like cooking my scrambled eggs slowly over water. You can use a double boiler for that, but I prefer using an aluminum or ss mixing bowl placed over a largish saucepan that has about 1/3 level of water in it. This method of heat introduction takes more time, and I have to stand there and keep folding the scrambled egg over on itself in layers with a spatula, but for those long Sunday mornings and the like, the end result is so smooth and tasty, well, its worth it.
Food + Heat = Good Eats
Alton Brown published a book by that name - Good source of Food Geek cookin' knowledge.
Fascinates me how different methods of applying that heat can make such differences in taste.
EnJOY!
--Mac
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Great topic, Mac!
We don't have anything new to talk about with new releases so this is a good substitute.
My grandmother taught me to cook when I was about 10. She called herself a dump cook, as in dump in a little of this and a little of that. Like a pro chef, she put spices, salt, pepper, etc in the palm of her hand and just eyeballed it.
My personal tour de force recciepe is home made lasagna. Everything made from scratch starting with the tomatoes on up. I developed it about 20 years ago when the family got tired of turkey and ham variations for Christmas dinner. We just had that for Thanksgiving, ya know? I came up with three variations: The classic Italian sausage meat one but some of the women don't eat meat so along with the meat one that all the guys insisted on I came up with a veggie one using zuccini, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinich but the real killer one is what I came up with when I got tired of the veggie one. King Crab Lasagna.
This one is the bomb. This one nobody has ever heard of. The sauce needs to be light or you'll overpower the flavor of the crab. Here it is:
The sauce is a standard alfredo.
Start by sauteing real butter, some onion, fresh chopped garlic and basil, pepper and nutmeg and a little bit of fennel. Then add the heavy cream and shaved Parmesan. The secret of a smooth alfredo is fresh, real, dry shaved Parmesan. I'll sometimes add some Romano too.
You'll need around 5-7 pounds of king crab legs. The hard part here is to keep your assistant in the kitchen from eating the crab before you can put in the dish...
Otherwise it's a standard lasgana except no red sauce, no tomatoes. Include the spinach, Ricotta cheese mixed with a couple egg yolks, maybe some mushroom. Again keep it light though or the crab gets lost. Layer it as usual, start with a bit of sauce on the bottom of the dish, add one layer of noodle, smear on the Riccotta mix, spinach (use fresh steamed spinich), mushrooms, crab and cover that layer with sauce and do it again for the third and final layer on top. It's baked a bit less than the standard meat lasagna, maybe 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Keep it covered for the first 35 minutes or so then uncover it put some more fresh cheese on top and let it brown a bit for the final 10 minutes or so.
I can see there's some real good cooks here so you guys can figure out the exact proportions of the spices. Just "dump cook" it oh yeah, including a touch of salt.
Trust me, it's awesome and a bit expensive depending on the current market price of the king crab.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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One of my favorite simple omelets is a good old fashion potato omelet. I slice the potatoes not quite as thin as chips and load them in the omelet seasoned with a little Tony Chacheres seasoning. This makes one hearty big @ss omelet.
Later . . . I got to go eat!
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Sounds good, Bob.
A favorite trick of mine, learned from an old Italian lady whose family used to run a little restaurant up in the Pittsburgh area, is to add a slight cuppa cold black coffee to the Lasagna sauce and then simmer away.
Unbelievable, but it brings out taste in the tomato sauce and is now part and parcel of Mac's Secret to Lasagna recipe.
Which, as of this moment, is no longer so secret...
--Mac
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You guys have me salivating even beyond normal.
My wife makes scrumptious lasagna as well as spaghetti with meatballs. That may account for the fact that I was crowding 300 pounds at the time of my stroke. I was being loved to death!
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Mac, yes I've put old crappy coffee in the red meat sauce version plus a half cup or so of the cheapest old burgundy or merlo wine you can find. I can tell you know this but for anybody else, for the standard red meat sauce make it the night before and let it sit. Ummmmm, ummmmm.
I've already picked up some nice tricks here, keep em coming guys. That's a good one about the scrambled eggs, Mac. The first thing I learned the hard way is TURN THE HEAT DOWN for everything except when you specifically want to sear something or I'm using a wok which I haven't done for years now.
Ok, here's a simple one. Down and dirty sweet and sour salmon. Buy a bottle of Trader Joes General Tso's sauce. Saute onions, red and green bell peppers, or yellow or orange, whatever you like, when they're about half done, put in the salmon by scooting the veggies off to the side, cover on low heat and cook the fish. Use enough veggies to serve as a side dish. When it's time to flip the fish add some diced pineapple or orange or whatever fruit you like plus the General Tso's sauce. TJ's has a tropical fruit combo in a container, sliced pinapple, mango and papaya. Those are good too. Not too much sauce, it's pretty strong. Tasty and quick like 20 minutes start to finish. I serve this with some TJ's brown rice.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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for thickening stews, use an equal amount of flour & butter ( not margarine for heavens sakes ) Make little balls and drop into stew. Doesn't give that starchy taste of other thickening methods
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Anyone ever tried coffee done like this ?
1 OR 2 MUGS of fresh coffee, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 sliced lemon, 1/2 sliced orange.
Add all ingredients and let it sit for a few minutes.
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For thickening, a lot of my concoctions start out by making a roux.
Same ingredients furry says, butter and flour. Some add a dash of salt.
Combine in a sautee pan under medium heat and stir continually until the flour cooks in the butter and yields a slightly browned roux.
Now fold the roux into your stew or soup and enjoy you some Suthin' Style cookin'.
--Mac
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I like making the large recipes like the meat loaf, chili and soup recipes I posted.
That way you can eat it for 2 or 3 days and freeze some for later.
Meat loaf sandwiches on day 2 are really tasty.
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Mac, That's the technique I use. I just didn't know how to spell "roux". 
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That's okay, I remember long ago when first encoutnering the word in writing in a cookbook, I thought it was pronounced, "Rooox" - and my old French teacher was likely spinnin'...
For the record, it is pronounced, "Roo" with long O.
Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie and Filet Gumbo,
--Mac
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Almost forgot.
Danny, my man. Don't just say you cooked your gumbo, give us your secret recipe dude!! I'll whip that up in a heartbeat.
For years we did a gig at the Long Beach Marina for a superior court judge who's from Louisiana. He would fly in all the stuff including about 50 pounds of crayfish and he'd put on a true Louisiana feast for 30-40 people. I noticed he had a big boiler like 20 gallons maybe and all the spices and potatos were in some bags hanging in the water with the crayfish. He had all kinds of stuff, greens, cornbread, gumbo, chicken the whole thing including a couple of good ole boys who knew how to cook it.
One thing missing was shrimp etouffee. I never heard of that until I visited Nawleans some years ago. It seems everybody had their own version of that and I loved them all.
Do you have a personal recipe for that?
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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One of my favourite soups is carrot, lentil & bacon
Simmer the carrots & lentils in veggie or chicken stock till tender, whizz round with a blender & add some crispy bacon on the top
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Try this for a really hearty comforting meal. One pot as well, saves on washing. I found the original recipe online but improvised as only musicians can .....
For each person use a handful of cooked chicken,
1 medium diced onion
1/2 small leek cut into strips
1 carrot diced
1/2 cup pearl barley
3-4 strips good fatty bacon
1 tbspn whole mustard seeds
small carton heavy / double cream
1 pint good chicken stock.
Add some curry powder for a kick if you want.
1 good sized potato roughly cubed into bite sized bits.
Fry off the bacon & onion add all other ingredients except cream. Simmer till barley is tender. Add cream 1/4 at a time till it evaporates.
Enjoy
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Sounds good Furry, keep em coming.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Man..... !!!!
I fixed some Venison Chili yesterday.
2 lbs of hamburger venison. Brown in a skillet and drain the little bit of fat off..... no need to chop it up finely.... large chunks are good.
can of black beans, can of kidney beans, can of diced tomato, can of cubed tomato, dash of salt, dash of pepper, 2 onions cut up.....
throw it all in a crock pot and run it on high for 3 hrs or so then back off to low and let it run a few more hours.....
It's ready to rock....
I knocked back 1.5 bowls of the chili and washed it down with some home brewed dark Irish beer.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Mmmm...
I like to add a bit of fatty meat from other sources to my venison chilis.
Fatty ground beef, ground pork, sausage.
The Chinese chefs' compendium has a saying that basically translates to, "it is the FAT that makes the mouth happy!"
Yeah, I know about the current thoughts on that. But I also know about many of the current thoughts on many other subjects, hey, they have a right to be wrong...
--Mac
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