E-Z Recipes wanted! Intro to Cooking 101

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I forgot to add,

Fenris - one of the easiest ways to teach people to cook is to start with any pasta dish. Fettucine Alfredo is really easy and I usually make it by throwing in some cut up broccoli, red and green peppers or whatever else suits your fancy:

I personally like to use two different kind of fettucine noodles and usually from scratch but if he’d prefer you can use only one kind.

Fettucine Alfredo

4 ounces spinach fettucine
4 ounces standard fettucine (both cooked and drained)
(8 ounces total if you mix you can cook them at the same time)

1/4 cup margarine
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 package of 100% shredded parmesan cheese (3 ounces)

Melt butter in 3 quart saucepan over low heat, stir in cream, salt and pepper, heat thoroughly stirring occasionally. (I usually do that for about eh 5 minutes but make sure it’s on low heat, do not allow to burn)

Add fettucine and 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, stir and continue for about another 3-5 minutes.

Serve with remaining cheese.

In addition to the veggies, if you have left over roasted chicken you can reheat it (try not to in the microwave, it dries out) and throw it in in shreds. It’s a meal in one.

42

Gotta love Cambell’s ®

Campbell’s® One Dish Chicken and Rice Bake

Prep time: 5 minutes – Cook Time: 45 minutes

1 can cream of mushroom soup (of course Campbell’s ®)

1 cup of water (can increase for a creamier to 1 1/3 cup)

3/4 cup uncooked, regular white rice

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp pepper

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

  1. In 2 quart baking dish mix soup, water, rice, paprika and pepper, place chicken on rice mixture. Sprinkle with additional paprika and pepper, cover.

  2. Bake at 375ºF 45 minutes or until chicken and rice are done.

Serves 4

Considering the prep time of only 5 minutes, I would assume your friend would be able to pull this off.

43

Put the following into a crockpot IN THE MORNING:

Around 2 cups cut up vegetables (examples: Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Garlic, Green Peppers, dried beans if they’ve been pre-soaked. Stay away from broccoli and cauliflower – smells like feet! Tubers work best.)

Approx 4lbs of meat (Examples: A whole chicken-guts removed, a pot roast, porkchops, chicken thighs or mixed pieces, a ham, etc.)

About a cup of liquid (preferably one with a flavor). (Examples: Water with seasonings, salsa, broth, wine or beer, bbq sauce, cola, pasta or spaghetti sauce. Avoid dairy products because they’ll curdle – but you can stir some in at the end of cooking time to make a creamier sauce.)

Tips: If you’d like it Italian flavored, add Oregano and use tomato sauce as your liquid. Garlic and peppers are good veggies to use. If you’d like it Mexican flavored, add Cumin and use salsa as your liquid. Peppers and tomatoes are good veggies. If you’d like it Hungarian flavored, add Paprika and use beer or wine as your liquid. Potatoes and carrots are good veggies. If you’d like it Asian flavored, use ginger and use soy or teriaki sauce for your liquid (I’m guessing…I don’t cook it myself.) Etc. You get the idea.

Plug in pot. Set dial to low and go do something for around 8 hours. Eat.

You pretty much cannot cook anything wrong in a crockpot. Absolutely worth a try.

BTW, the Campbells Chicken and Rice bake TC mentioned is a personal fave! I make it even simpler than that recipe, though: 1 can soup, 1 can water/milk, 1 can worth of rice. (See? No measuring cup to wash!)

44

(People who know how to cook look at the ingredient list and shake their heads in disbelief. But this recipe actually works - that’s what’s so magical. Your friend should have all of this stuff on hand.)
Ingredients:
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Lightly grease cookie sheet.
  3. Put all ingredients in a bowl and cream them together with an electric mixer.
  4. Form mixture into 1-inch balls and put them on the cookie sheet, not too close together. (you should have enough dough for about three batches.)
  5. Use a fork to squash the balls down, making the universal peanut-butter-cookie signifying crisscross pattern.
  6. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, then immediately remove cookies (which will be soft) to a plate to cool.

Eat 'em while they’re still warm.

45

This works for everything from collards and turmip greens to spinach or mustard greens.

Ingredients:
2 big handfuls of greens per person (don’t worry it will be smaller when you are through)
1/4 pound of cheap and spicy breakfast sausage.
a thumbsized chunk of ginger, peeled and chopped fine

In a Big pot over medium heat, cook your sausage into crumbles making sure it is broken up.

Stir in ginger, then add greens.

Slap on a lid, drink 1/2 of a beer or wait about a minute til the greens have wilted and turned shiny.

Stir it all together coating the greens with the sausage.

Women will throw themselves at you for this.

46

UTILITY CASSEROLE

1 skillet; 1 baking dish

1-1/5 lb. hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1 can condensed “cream of” soup
1/2 pkg. frozen tater tots

Preheat oven to 350. Fry hamburger and onion in skillet until meat is no longer pink; drain. Plop hamburger into the bottom of the baking dish. (Clean up is easier if you spray the dish with Pam first, but it’s optional.)
Open can of soup of your choice: cream of mushroom, beefy mushroom, cream of celerey–whatever goes well with beef.
Spread undiluted soup over top the meat. Spread frozen tater tots over the top of the casserole. Bake (uncovered is fine) for 35 to 40 minutes or until bubbly.

CHICKEN BREASTS YOUR WAY

1 skillet, 1 plate

chicken breasts
flour
liquid/add-ons of choice

This is more a technique than a recipe. Pound the chicken breast(s) relatively flat. (You can use a large can of tomatoes or something if you don’t have a kitchen mallet.) Put the chix into a ziplock bag with a few Tbsp. of seasoned flour.
Heat skillet over medium heat. When hot, add a little oil, just enough that it barely coats the bottom and leaves a little pool in the middle. Shake of chix and add to pan. Let 'em get golden brown on one side (@4 min.) then flip and let brown on the other side. Remove from skillet and put 'em on the plate.

Now add your liquid/add-ons to the crispy golden stuff left in the skillet. Scrape up the crispies and cook, stirring for a few minutes to make the sauce. (The fancy word for this is “deglazing”; you’re blending the flavor of the cooked chicken into the sauce.) Pour over chix and serve.
Examples:

Piccata: rub chix w/ garlic before flouring; cook in equal parts butter and oil; deglaze pan with about a half glass of white wine and juice of 1 lemon.

Provencal: add a little dried basil to the flour if ya got it; brown chix in olive oil; deglaze with a slug of white wine, can of drained Italian-style diced tomatoes, add a clove of minced garlic and finely sliced onion. (You can toss in some sliced black olives, too; whatever.)

Mexican: add a titch of chili powder or cumin to the flour; deglaze with a generous dollop of salsa and a slug of white wine or beer; toss in some frozen corn or chopped green onions, green pepper–whatever.

Oriental: add a titch of 5-spice powder to the flour; deglaze w/ chix broth and a shot of soy sauce; add some finely minced ginger, chopped green onion, a can of drained water chestnuts, etc.

It takes a lot longer to describe this than to DO it. Just use what you have on hand; it’s a great way to use up bits of this and that.

Veb

47

Oh, shit.

Just buy the poor bastard a copy of Mark Bittman’s HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING.

(one more recipe, what the hell…)

STEAK

Buy a steak. Put pepper on it.

Get your skillet really hot over the burner. Put lots of salt in the skillet.

Drop the steak into it. Sear for two minutes. Turn it over and sear for two minutes more.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for another five minutes. Flip it again and cook for an additional five.

Put it on your plate and eat it.

48

The Three Easiest Things to Cook in the Whole Wide World:

  1. Fried Rice.
  2. Baked Chicken Breasts with Stuff on Them.
  3. Onion Soup/Spaghetti Sauce Magical Pot Roast.

Fried Rice:
Take some leftover cold cooked rice (if you don’t have any cold leftover rice, cook some and then rinse it off in a colander with cold water. Minute Rice is fine–cook it according to what’s on the box.) Dump it in a frying pan (spray the pan first with Pam). Sprinkle in some soy sauce and some garlic powder and some onion powder. If you have some leftover cold cooked green peas, put them in, too. Put some kind of meat in here, if you want–leftover pot roast is good, also you can use canned chicken.

You don’t have to do the “tiny bits of scrambled egg” if you don’t want to.

Baked Chicken Breasts with Stuff on Them:
Get some chicken breasts, they don’t have to be boneless skinless, regular is fine. They have to be thawed out, not frozen. If you want to be fancy, you can put them in a glass casserole dish of some kind and pour about half a bottle of any kind of El Cheapo Italian salad dressing on them, and let it sit in the fridge for anywhere from 1 hour to overnight. When you’re ready to cook, turn the oven on to 400, and then wait 15 minutes for it to heat up.

(You can also nuke them in the microwave for 5 minutes or so, till there’s no more pink juice coming out. Cover them with waxed paper so they don’t explode all over the inside of the microwave.)

Anyway, if you’re cooking them in a regular oven, take them out of the Italian dressing (pour it down the sink, it’s got raw chicken salmonella germs in it, you can’t put it on your salad or the FDA will yell at you). Put them in some kind of oven-proof casserole or big aluminum 13 x 9 cake pan (if you line it with aluminum foil, it’s easier to wash, although you will then have contributed to our nation’s landfill crisis–life is full of these nasty little tradeoffs, isn’t it?) After the oven has been heating up for 15 minutes, stick the chicken in there and bake it for about half an hour. Do not cover it, with either a lid or aluminum foil. It will bake better if it’s uncovered. If you cover it, it will get all watery and icky.

The other Stuff you can put on chicken breasts (instead of the Italian dressing) is, you can pour undiluted Campbell’s soup over them and bake them (don’t marinate, just open, dump, bake.) Cream of Chicken, Cream of Mushroom, Golden Mushroom, Cream of Celery (although this is an acquired taste). You can also mix and match–equal parts of Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom is good. Also, you can use equal parts of sour cream and whatever kind of soup. The low-fat or “lite” soups will work, but they won’t be as luscious, because it’s the fat that gives it that good mouthfeel.

Magical Pot Roast:
Get a pot roast (chuck roast, bottom round, English shoulder). It should be a good big hunk of meat. Make sure it’s thawed out. Turn the oven on to 350. You can’t do this in a microwave, although you can use a crockpot. If you’re using a crockpot, put it in before you go to work in the morning, turn it on High, and it will be done when you get home.

Put the pot roast into either a big ovenproof casserole or a big 13 x 9 aluminum cake pan. Do not line the cake pan with aluminum foil, as it isn’t necessary and will just make a big mess when it’s time to scoop the meat out of the pan. Also put in either one package of instant onion soup mix (El Cheapo is fine), or one package of instant spaghetti sauce mix (again, El Cheapo is fine, and yes, it will look pink when you start but it won’t be pink by the time it’s done). Add enough water to cover the top of the pot roast. If you’re doing this in a crockpot, make sure the water is at least 3/4 up to the top of the crock.

Seal the top of the cake pan with aluminum foil, or put the lid on–you want it pretty tight. Bake it probably at least 2 or 3 hours, and it won’t hurt it if it bakes 6 hours, as long as it doesn’t dry out. The only way you can overcook pot roast is if it dries out. If you’ve got it double-sealed with two layers of aluminum foil plus a big heavy glass lid, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

That’s all.

49

Sweet and Sour Meatballs:

Ingredients:
1)One can tomato soup (Campbells of course)
2)One bottle Heinz chili sauce
3)Hi Opal!
4)2 cans whole berry cranberry sauce
5)1-2 pounds ground beef

Directions:
Open all cans and bottles and dump into a big pot on the stove. Mix it together on a low heat until it starts bubbling a little. Take pieces of ground beef and roll into balls with your hands-can be any size from marble to ping-pong ball size and drop them into the pot. Stir a few times. Go away for at least 2 hours-4 is better. Whatever you do, do NOT taste it for first 2 hours, or you make think you did something wrong.
When you come back serve with cooked pasta or rice.

(As an added bonus, my mom swears by this recipe to clean her pots!)

50

MAY think-darn it Bunny, proofread!

51
  1. Pat of butter bubblin’ in a pan.
  2. A corn muffin sliced in half horizontally.

fry it cut side down until you have those yummy brown bits.

Eat it.

Great with breakfast.

52

This recipe is good for when you don’t have time to go to the grocery store. All the ingredients can be purchased at the gas station, if need be.

Ingredients (for 1 person)
2 eggs
about 3/4 cup of milk
2-5 slices of bread (any kind will do, even stale is fine)
vegetable oil, margarine, or butter
syrup or powdered sugar

Crack the eggs in a medium sized bowl. Beat well with a fork.

Add the milk, and beat again.

Put a frying pan on the stove and turn to medium heat. Add a small pat of butter or margarine, or just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Take a spatula and spread it around so it covers the whole surface.

Put a slice of bread in the milk/egg mixture and poke it down until it’s entirely covered.

When frying pan is hot and the bread has been in for about 30 seconds, place the bread in the pan. Let it cook for a few minutes, then turn it over. Let the other side cook a few minutes and put it on a plate. It should be golden brown on both sides. If it isn’t, just fry it a little longer.

If the pan is dry, add a little oil/butter/margarine. Place bread in milk/egg mixture and repeat until all the mixture is gone.

Put syrup, jam, fruit, powdered sugar, butter, etc. on top and eat.

53

A basic chili can be pretty simple if you can cook ground beef.

  1. Cook 1/2 lb of ground beef in a frying pan until it’s brown (not pink or red). (Add some chopped up onions at the beginning if you’re ambitious.) Drain out the grease.

  2. Throw the meat, a 16 oz can of stewed tomatoes, and a 16 oz can of dark red kidney beans into a pot. Add a tablespooon of chili powder, a teaspoon of garlic power, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Maybe a tablespoon of sugar if you like it sweet.

  3. Cook until it’s done.

It’s pretty much impossible to screw up. Depending on how high the heat is and how long you cook it, the consistency will be different, but it always tastes the same.

54

Some things you might want to talk to your friend about, which we all kind of take for granted.

  1. Don’t pour (meat) grease down the sink! It will stop it up.
  2. Wash your hands, knives and cutting board (with soap) after handling raw meat, especially chicken.
  3. Hi Opal!
  4. Pork should always be cooked well done. No pink!

I’m probably forgetting some. Dopers?

55

To add to the list of things that “everybody knows” but not everybody thought to tell ME or anybody else:

Don’t wash eggs.

Some fruit ripens at home, some dosen’t. Get a list.

Never put bananas in a refrigerator.

Don’t put opened cans in either - it’s probably okay in this day and age, but my mother would cry.

If you have one bad apple, take it out away from the good apples. It will turn them all into juvenile delinquents.

Be careful about cooking chicken in the microwave, especially an older microwave. It may leave cold spots and salmonella is a wretched experience. Reheating in the microwave is fine. So is cooking, really, but be careful and make sure it’s done all the way through everywhere.

Don’t under any circumstance eat anything out of a suspiciously bulging can. Salmonella generally just makes people sick - botulism will kill you.

Learn to use a sharpening steel on your knives every time before you use them. Sharp knives are safer and labor-saving. Don’t put them in the dishwasher, especially if they have wooden handles.

Just because you moved the pan from the stove does not mean it is no longer hot. (I can’t tell you how many smart friends I have who burned their hands like this.)

Don’t use metal utensils in nonstick cookware. Even if it says you can. It’s lying to you. Besides, you shouldn’t need to, since usually you use metal tools for scraping action.

Wash your vegetables. Some people say not to wash your mushrooms, though.

You need less pasta than you think.

56

Seduction Collards

Now there is a true contradiction in terms.

BTW, as a single guy I am lovin this thread - its like an Ultimate Recipe Thread for idiots. Thank you very much and keep 'em coming !

57

I think you’re not supposed to wash mushrooms because they will absorb water and get soggy. It won’t matter if you’re cooking them in a sauce, where they will absorb more liquid. I ALWAYS wash my mushrooms, and they are just fine for everything.

I like this thread, too. I’m not new to cooking, but fast recipes are always wanted!

58

I looked at my old casserole recipes Fenris, and they aren’t all that simple, so I’m posting this instead:

Mrs. B and I made this up as a snack one evening when we were bored. It isn’t authentic anything.
You will need:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
a can of chili without beans
half an onion, chopped
about half a cup of grated cheese, preferably cheddar
six corn tortillas
Boil the chicken breasts in a saucepan. Put some salt and pepper in the water. Put in some Bay leaves and poultry seasoning if you have some. You’re going to shred the chicken later. While the chicken is cooking, shred some cheese onto a plate, maybe half a cups worth. (We don’t measure a lot.) Chop about half a medium onion fairly small, Shove the cheese to one side, and put the onion on the plate too.
When the chicken is cooked, tear it apart with a couple of forks.
Now, spray a skillet with some oil spray, or wipe it with some cooking oil on a paper towel, and put it on the stove on high heat. When it gets hot, quickly hot up six corn tortillas on both sides, one at a time. You want them to get a little brown in spots is all. In fact, I suspect you could skip this step, but they will tend to get a little too soggy later, I think. Extra points if you can flip the tortillas without a utensil. Slide the tortillas off onto another plate as they get crisped.
Turn your oven on to about 300 degrees.
Now you need a casserole dish big enough for two tortillas side by side. Even a cookie sheet with aluminum foil will be okay.
Place 2 tortillas on the dish. Smear some of the chili on each. Do not use more than a quarter of the can for each tortilla. Put a quarter of the chicken on each tortilla. Sprinkle with onion and grated cheese. Put on another tortilla and repeat the chili, chicken, cheese thing. Put the last two tortillas on top. If you have any chili left over, put it on, ditto for onion. Sprinkle some cheese on top.
Put the whole thing into the oven to heat it up. 10 minutes or so. That’s it.
We actually chopped up some jalapenos to go with the onions too, but you can do whatever you want.

In keeping with Delores’ and Zsofia’s timely comments earlier, never chop chilis with your bare hands if you are planning to do anything intimate with someone else, or yourself, later in the day. Wear latex gloves or coat your fingers with cooking oil. (for the chili chopping part, but you knew that.)

And now for something completely different:

Quick and Dirty Chicken Curry.

You want to serve this over rice.

A good way to cook rice:
Pour a can of chicken broth into a medium large saucepan.
Put in half a can of water.
Bring to a boil
Stir in a cup of rice. Cover and reduce heat to simmer.
Come back in 5 minutes and stir rice up from bottom of pan.
Re-cover and leave it alone for 20 minutes or until rice is done.

Now for the curry.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can of cream of celery (!) soup (cream of chicken may be substituted)
1 big yellow onion, chopped large
A spot of milk, about a quarter cup (sour cream or even yogurt may be substituted)
A bag of frozen peas and carrots (just peas may be substituted)
Curry powder, lots
Chili powder, about ½ teaspoon
Dash of cinnamon, optional

chop the onion into big (¾ inch) pieces and set aside.
Take the top off the can of soup and set aside.
Chop the chicken up into bite-sized pieces and put them in a pan on medium heat with about a tablespoon of cooking oil. (See comments earlier in thread about washing hands, etc.) Season the chicken as it cooks with salt, pepper and curry powder. When the chicken is cooked through, fling the onions into the pan and sauté until translucent. I’ve noticed that when the chicken is about done, it starts to ‘sweat’, that is I will have more liquid in the pan than I started with. The onions should turn yellow from the curry. If they don’t, you need more curry.
When the onions are ready, put in the soup. Add a little milk. If you use sour cream, it will taste different, but just as good. If you use yogurt, it’ll taste…. different.
Add some more salt, pepper, curry powder and chili powder. How much is up to you. It depends on how you like your curry. Taste as you go.
Once the soup is incorporated, put in the frozen veggies. Cook until the veggies are done. When cooked, turn off stove, and, if you like a sweeter curry, stir in a dash or two of cinnamon.
Serve over rice.

For a variation, you can use golden raisins and a tart apple or two, chopped up, instead of the frozen veggies. A little chopped celery would go well in there too.

59

Um…I learned this the hard way.

I demand immunity from being mocked over this.

I was chopping chilis barehanded. I needed to urinate. I did. I had an itch in that area. I scratched. I washed my hands and went back to cooking for about…oh…three minutes.

Some things must be experienced to be believed.

Fenris

60

Requires a frying pan and a 2 quart casserole dish.

Hamburger Pie

[ul]
[li]1 small onion chopped[/li][li]1 lb ground beef[/li][li]1/2 tsp salt[/li][li]1/4 tsp pepper[/li][li]1 can green beans drained (I use the french style)[/li][li]1 can tomato soup[/li][li]2 cups mashed potatoes (instant works great)[/li][/ul]

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cook onion in a little oil until soft; add beef and brown.

Pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Add seasonings*, stir, then add beans and soup, stir up well. Flatten out the top then layer the mashed potatoes on top*.

Bake for 30 minutes.

6 servings.

  • I add in 1 fresh garlic clove minced, to the onion and vary my recipe as I want. Usually I add some oregano, basil or whatever suits my fancy at the time. I also like to add a thin layer of shredded sharp chedder cheese to the top. If I add the cheese I usually cover it lightly with foil then take off the foil during the last 10 minutes. With the garlic and spices addition man your kitchen smells good and it’s so easy.