But they take so damn long to make! I decided to make them at around noon, and almost two hours later I can finally enjoy them. Although I suppose it’s good they take too long to make, or else I’d eat several a day and have had five heart attacks by now.
To make mine, I (obviously) bake them once, and add the following to them before baking again:
heavy cream
sour cream (although today I had to use fat free half and half and fat free sour cream, my parents are on a diet.)
garlic
cheese (I used cheddar, montery jack, mozzerella, and parmesean)
salt + pepper
and the secret ingredient: a touch of ranch dressing.
Add another handful of cheese to the top of them and opo back into the oven until the top is melted and crusty. Soooo good.
So, what foods do you love but can only enjoy once in a blue moon due to long/complicated preperation, or expensive/hard to find ingredients?
What you speak of is heresy! I’ve killed men for less than this! You tread on dangerous ice, my friend, If I were you, I’d grow eyes on the back of my skull.
The really cool part is that she’ll have time to grow those extra eyes out the back of her head, what with all the time she’ll not be spending waiting on her potatoes to bake.
I like a lot of summer salads, yummy and perfect when the weather’s hot. In fact, in my family I’m The premiere macaroni-salad creator for all gatherings. I always wait for a birthday or holiday to make any and try and get my fix in, it’s just far too time-consuming to make a smaller bit just for me.
I have a recipe called Chicken Wellington. It has dozens of ingredients and a bazillion steps and takes forever. I love it. I only make it once a year if that though because the boys don’t care for it as much as I do and it’s not worth all that just for me.
Whoopie Pies. I love them. The mix is a pain in the butt though. I actually make pumpkin whoopie pies. They’re moister and sweeter but not too sweet. I like the chocolate but it’s too dry.
Turkey. Yummy. I love turkey. I can’t wait that many hours for it to cook though. Then, you have to debone it. What a pain in the butt.
I love Ethiopian food, but it takes me forever to assemble everything for a new batch. I almost always end up having to wait another day or two because I forgot a crucial spice, or don’t have enough butter, or have the wrong kind of flour, or someone finished off the club soda.
First I have to make batches of berebere sauce, with about 15 different spices. Then I have to make spiced butter, with at least a pound of butter and loads of chopped garlic.
Then comes the day to actually make the meal–and it’s not worth it unless you have at least two dishes–chicken or lamb and lentils or vegetable stew.
THEN, once that is all assembled, you need to make the injera bread. I use a simple blender recipe with self-rising flour, but you still have to stand over the skillet and cook each one. I always manage to get batter all over everthing, too.
Of course, after that, the leftover flavorings keep for months and I can do the process more easily a couple of times after that, but the initial run-up always takes me a while.
I love stuffed artichoke. Plain artichokes take long enough to cook, about 45 minutes, and to make stuffed ones, you have to dechoke the artichoke, put a bit of stuffing at the base of each leaf, put stuffing where the choke used to be, drizzles a beaten egg over the whole thing, and then fry it in a little olive oil. A pain to make, but boy are they good.
The stuffing usually consists of bread crumbs, Italian spices, and grated Parmesan cheese.
I use Paul Prudhomme’s recipe, and while it is easy to cook, it takes about an hour of chopping vegetables and meat.
*1/4 cup chicken fat, pork lard, beef fat or margarine
3 cups finely chopped onions
2 cups finely chopped celery
1-1/2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
1-1/2 cups chopped tasso (preferred) or other smoked ham (preferably Cure 81) (see Note)
1-1/2 cups chopped andouille smoked sausage (preferred) or any other good smoked pork sausage such as Polish sausage (Kielbasa) (see Note)
8 medium-size tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1-1/2 teaspoons Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Pepper Sauce
2-1/2 cups uncooked rice (preferably converted)
2 cups hot Basic Pork or Chicken Stock or water
In a 4-quart saucepan, melt chicken fat over medium heat. Add 1-1/2 cups onions, 1 cup celery and 3/4 cup bell peppers. Cook until onions are a rich brown color, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tasso, andouille and remaining 1-1/2 cups onions, 1 cup celery and 3/4 cup bell peppers. Continue cooking 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaves, Meat Magic, garlic and Magic Pepper Sauce. Simmer 15, stirring occasionally. Turn heat to high, fold in rice until well mixed. Add stock, cover pot and remove from heat. Let stand, covered, 15 minutes. Return saucepan to medium heat and cook covered for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, until rice is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and serve immediately.
I make a glazed country ham for the family Christmas dinner. It’s delicious but too much work to do very often. For starters you have to soak it for three days. Then bake it a good while, cool it slightly, skin it and remove excess fat (a very slippery job), glaze it and pop it back into the oven for a bit. One year I decided to simmer the ham instead of baking-that took all day-then debone it for serving. After hacking out the hip joint I was covered in ham grease. I’m not eager to do that ever again.
But boy, does it taste good.
I make wonderfully fluffy divinity every Christmas. It takes a while but it’s worth it.
However, I always have to buy another hand mixer and Christmas because divinity gleefully fries the motor every year! It’s still worth it though. Mmmm melty fluffy goodness.
They aren’t pie, and they don’t really have any pork (unless you use mincemeat made with beef and suet) In fact they are mini tarts made with a sweet shell and filled with dates (or mincemeat as we prefer) and topped with butter icing.
Very sweet, very good. One batch makes about 6 dozen. We go through them insanely fast when we make them and so we only make them around Christmas then give half away as presents or bring as contributions to dinner. That way we don’t eat them ALL to ourselves.
It’s also a bit of work because you have to bake all the shells, make the filling and the icing and put them all together.
An absolutely incredible vegitarian moussaka that takes four hours and dirties every single dish in my kitchen, but is SO worth it once it’s done.
1 eggplant, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
2 potatoes, thinly sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
1/2 (14.5 ounce) can lentils, drained, juice reserved
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups milk
black pepper to taste
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Sprinkle eggplant slices with salt and set aside for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly brown eggplant and zucchini slices on both sides; drain. Adding more oil if necessary, brown potato slices; drain.
Saute onion and garlic until lightly browned. Pour in vinegar and reduce. Stir in tomatoes, lentils, 1/2 the juice from lentils, oregano and parsley. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes.
In a 9x13 inch casserole dish layer eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, onions and feta. Pour tomato mixture over vegetables; repeat layering, finishing with a layer of eggplant and zucchini.
Cover and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine butter, flour and milk. Bring to a slow boil, whisking constantly until thick and smooth. Season with pepper and add nutmeg. Remove from heat, cool for 5 minutes, and stir in beaten egg.
Pour sauce over vegetables and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for another 25 to 30 minutes.
Aside from having to chop, slice, and grate all the ingredients, you’ve got salt and drain the eggplant ahead of time, then brown the eggplant, zucchini, and potato, then make the lentil/tomato filling, and put it all together, then prepare the bechamel sauce. It’s a hell of a lot of work but it shows in the finished dish.
Country Stuffed Ham. I love it, but it takes all day to fix.
Start with a cured ham, some people use corned ham, but I like cured. Debone it. Then cut 10 to 12 deep pockets in the ham. Mix the kale, watercress, onions, celery and cabbage. Mix the dry spices, salt, mustard, black pepper, red pepper, celery seed with the wet spices dajon mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Combine the greens with the spices. Stuff into the pockets, really pressing it in. Take the rest and use over the ham. Wrap the whole thing tightly in cheesecloth and bake it. Let it cool, it should be served cold.
Bouv - did you know that you can make up to 10 lbs of twiced baked potatoes at a time and freeze the rest?
Our family loves them so I usually set aside a morning to bake 10lbs of baking potatoes (we have a double oven). Then I scoop all the innards at once and place in a very large bowl (tupperware has a monstrous green salad bowl that is perfect for this!) and mix all of the fixings in. We use sour cream, 3 cheeses, real bacon bits and real butter. Spoon mixture back into the potato shells, sprinkle cheese over the top and bake until cheese is melted throughout.
Next, flash freeze the leftovers on a couple of very large cookie sheets. After they freeze, you can vacuum seal or foil wrap each half and freeze indefinately.
To serve again, either thaw and then heat in oven OR nuke from a frozen state for about 4 minutes turning once half through.
Frozen and reheated taste just as fresh as freshly made
malkavia - our family also loves **stuffed bellpeppers ** ,but when all of our kids lived at home, plus assorted foster children, there was NO WAY I was spending all of that time stuffing each individual pepper. I cheated and found a shortcut which is delish and freezes well so multiple batches can be made at once. I prepare the “stuffing” portion and for every 4 servings, we mince a bellpepper and add to the stuffing. All of this is placed in a large corningware or pyrex dish and baked just as you would traditional stuffed peppers. We eat to our hearts content and freeze the left in family portion sizes. It’s actually better when it’s been frozen and reheated because the flavors meld together.
I do not like to cook, so when I take the time to prepare family favorites, I always make enough to freeze and pull out later.
I don’t know what’s in it (I’m guessing that spinach is involved). I don’t particularly *want * to know what in it (maybe . . . spinach?) 'Cause boy do I love that stuff, and I’d be pissed to find out how bad for me it must be.
But it takes 45 freaking minutes to cook the stuff! I guess – I don’t recall ever actually preparing it, myself. My contribution in the preparation consists of expressing surprise and delight when it appears on the table.
The kids eat their “real” vegetables (they prefer 'em to the spinach souffle - go figure; they don’t like sauerkraut and sausage either), and the wife and I split the spinach souffle.
