Allow me to be the first out to break out in a sweat.
This pasta recipe I’ve been making lately is dangerous. You literally cannot stop eating it, it’s so good. It’s “Linguini with Butter and Sausage Sauce.” I know you didn’t call for recipes, but it’s so extraordinarily simple, I can’t resist:
Cook and crumble up the insides of 2 sweet Italian sausages in butter, and mix it (butter too) with 3/4 cup cream in a big warmed pasta bowl. Toss 1/2 box of cooked linguini in the mixture, and toss again with a handful or two of freshly grated parmesan.
Good God. Mr. Pug has requested that I not make this too often, as he loses all control and eats until he explodes. Me, too.
How much butter? I gotta try that recipe out.
Olentzero: Too much. 3 tablespoons. Serve with a chilled pinot grigio and a tomato and basil salad.
I do most of the cooking in our house. My wife loooves everything I make for her. Some of the things I am exceptionally good at though:
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
BBQ Steak and Pork
Pot Roast
Teryaki chicken and pork
Pasta in Alfredo sauce (this stuff is a heart-attck on a plate)
Spaghetti & meat sauce
German dish - Roladen (sp?)
Roasted Turkey and Chicken
I’m also pretty damn good at making the gravy to go with the above baked/roasted items too.
I wish I knew how to make good deserts though (pies, cookies, etc)
Is there ever too much butter? Or for that matter, too much garlic?
I don’t think such a thing exists.
Uh, yeah. Let me add that that would make me quite happy, too.
<phew>
Okay, then: []peppercorn pork tenderloin[]Pesto-Alfredo sauce for pasta, any pasta[]lasagna[]sausage bread (many breads, actually using a couple of pounds of pepperoni, sweet sausage, hot sausage, fresh mozzarella, Asiago and parm cheeses (both freshly grated)) hamburgers (more seasonings, that change every time, than I care to list)
Cabbage Rolls, my family will actually fight over the last one ! We had a friend living with us once who actually got mad because I gave a plate of them to a neighbor, even though there were still plenty left after dinner.
Pineapple upside down cake. It is so sad when I make one of these. There are only four people living here and one of these cakes doesn’t last 24 hours.
Chicken Fried Steak, it’s one of hubby’s favorite food.
Yeast Rolls made from scratch.
Well, I think we found your OhDope costume!
As for me, I make a killer turkey barley chowder. My family is wild for it. The recipe for it is buried somewhere in Zenster’s recipe thread…and I found fat-free half and half (I have no idea how that works) at the grocery store, which makes it much less diet-killing.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by thinksnow *
**
Uh, yeah. Let me add that that would make me quite happy, too.
<phew>
Okay, then: [li]Pesto-Alfredo sauce for pasta, any pasta[*]lasagna**[/li][/QUOTE]
Anyway, on that pesto sauce. How 'bouts we do a trade? I’ll make an apple crisp (or the cake of your choice - any cake - I’m a good cook)for OhDope if you’ll make me some of that sauce (mmmmm…pesto alfredo sauce) to take home? Deal? .
Bwahaahaa! Yeah, but I have a feeling I’d be really cold by the end of the night, what with having my costume consumed. Probably mostly by myself, as much as I love caramel. :rolleyes:
And Juniper, darling, you know I love you, but fat-free half-n-half is an Abomination Against Nature. When I become Dictator of the World, all things not naturally fat free (like watermelon) will be heavily taxed. Can I get the recipe for the soup from you so I don’t have to dig through the thread? Pleeeeeeeezzzze?
In a word, No. I once thought I’d put in too much garlic, but I was wrong. 
I have one friend who has taken lately to specializing in butter, it seems. She’ll use at least pound of butter cooking the meal - usually seems to come out to one stick per dish. MMMMMM.
jarbabyj - you mean you don’t always get that sort of response? I must be doing something right, then. 
Truly, I generally cook really yummy good; my theory is it comes naturally with a love of food. Probably my absolute best: pot roast. It is beyond good. It doesn’t inspire compliments, though - they generally run more to incoherent moans. 
I am also extremely fortunate to live with two wonderful cooks. I’ll eat anything they fix, even stuff that I’ve tried before and don’t like, because if they make something, it’s gonna be good. They’ve never failed me.
And our best friends are also great cooks (see butter reference above). We generally cook for each other at least two or three times a week. The spread available when we throw parties is unbelievable (whoever’s not hosting brings food anyway, just because) - usually not more than ten or fifteen times the amount needed for the actual guests.
Whenever someone asks my husband if I’m a good cook or not, my husband says,
“Look at me”
He weighs 300 lbs. Could be a bouncer at a Bears game.
I love cooking, and it’s because my MOM loves cooking. We spent hours in the kitchen together when I was a kid, and now I kick ass with a slotted spoon
My roast turkey is to die for. White meat so tender and juicy it almost melts in your mouth, and the dark meat…<drool>…
It’s a pain though. The last one I made was a 27 pounder that was too big for the container I usually brine my turkeys in, so I had to get up every two hours during the night and go out into the almost-freezing garage to turn the damn thing. But it was worth it.
I also make an always-requested black-pepper beef stew that is pretty tasty. My chinese cuisine is generally well received too.
Yummmm, turkey. So what’s your secret?
I know this sounds really strange, but I used to know some people that autoclaved their turkeys. I never had a chance to try any, but everyone that I spoke to said it was the best.
And it took under an hour.
Someday I’ll have access to an autoclave again, and I’m gonna give it a whirl.
I make the best Apple Pie in the entire world.
If you tasted it, you would marry me. I also make pretty good perogies and cabbage rolls.
As to the autoclaved turkey, my ex-in-laws used to deep-fry turkey. Soooo good, even though it sounds disgusting.
First off, I have an autoclave and I want the recipe for that turkey.
Second, any woman that makes perogies is definite marriage material.
Third, does anyone know what Opal cooks?
As for my bachelor cooking expertise, I make pickles that my friends fight over and swear they would buy if I ever go commerical. Made with much garlic, jalepeno pepper, dill, and many other wonderful spices. On a more short term basis, I make these little meat turnover appetizers that people like, a garlic sauteed broccoli that my broccoli hating sister once fought me for the last piece of, and the very simplistic dish of pasta with oil and garlic with which a sprinkle of cheese is one of the most decadent things I have ever eaten.
Chocolate cheesecake…with an oreo crust.
Oh man…I haven’t made that in so long, I’m suddenly inspired to make one this weekend.
Well, I’ll keep it to the recipes I’ve invented to scare off anybody who wantd to debate technique.
My (and everyone else’s ) favorites:
Potato/horseradish crusted salmon
Herring pate (that I had people who would NEVER eat fish, much less in a restaurant, asking me the recipe for)
chocolate/walnut baklava with orange blossom syrup
Marinated lamb leg cross swords (on two skewers in an X, therefore cross swords)
Apples in Captain Morgan, baked in puff pastry with raisins
And my tweaking of spinach pie (spanakopita) that has both cheese and sausage. Heresy, but it’s good.
I make a batch of red beans & rice that’s better than any I’ve had outside of my own mother’s kitchen. Unfortunately, niether my wife nor my children will eat red beans, so I tend to make this dish for potlucks at the office.
The one dish I am noted for among friends and family is chocolate mousse. Over the years, I’ve had friends who have moved away call me and demand the recipe, because they can’t get mousse anywhere near as good at any restaurant.
My Christmas feasts have become a family tradition, but not for any particular dish (aside from the mousse, which is always for dessert). I spend 2-3 days baking cookies and prepping the appetizers and side dishes, and there’s always something different each year. The main course is either prime rib or beef Wellington.