…that’s not how I do it. :dubious:
Rice pudding. I’ve tried several recipes and types of rice and haven’t been able to come up with anything as smooth and creamy as store-bought. Frustratingly hubby says that his mom had an excellent recipe but by the time I met her she hadn’t made it in decades and had forgotten it. I should ask my SILs and BIL (all good cooks) if they have it.
Baked beans. I found an “easy crock pot” recipe last year but it wasn’t worth the work.
I made croissants and Danish pastry from scratch many years ago and if you have a whole day with nothing else to do then they’re worth it. Otherwise, no.
Put me in the camp of those who prefer homemade mashed potato to packaged. My compromise when busy is to microwave a baking potato, mash it up and add to the dried flakes.
And which store-bought or canned biscuits are people using that taste as good as homemade? I certainly haven’t found them yet. Even Bisquick or Jiffy Mix taste better than canned/frozen, and this is the recipe I used decades ago which I remember as even better, I’ll have to try it again.
No, but I bet Grandpa has.
mmm
Mrs. Pie
Have any of you made (or even had) city chicken?
Another pain in the patooty. You cube the meat, brown it, egg it, flour it, bread it, bake it…it feels like you’re cooking it a half dozen times. And the mess, oy vey!
I’ve only made it once or twice, and it was very good. But the thought of making it again makes me want to crawl into bed.
mmm
I made chile verde once. It was awesomely good. But… it took so freakin’ long that I could have practically driven to Mexico and bought some in the time it took to make it at home.
Of course, of course. There was one recipe that called for adding some kind of thickening or gelatinizing agent. But cassoulet is basically pork-infused beans. Nearly every culture in the world except Moslem has some kind of variety. From there you can put in anything you want from duck (fresh or confit), sausages (sweet or garlicky), ham, lamb, etc. My own favorite add on is chorizo bilbao, or a piece of beef fat. I usually do black eyed peas and slices of pork knuckles. The craziest one I made had a thick cross section of beef shank sitting at the top, with bone marrow intact for scooping!
Just to add, I find that the best way to infuse any kind of bean with meat flavor is to cook it half-way on its own to get rid of the acidity, until the skin starts to break. From there I rinse to remove the bitterness and boil it with any kind of red meat.
I still can’t figure out why there’s any need to crust it up with crumbs, and why the final cooking has to be done in an oven, rather than stove top.
Never tried it. Only heard of it. Never understood why one would make it in this day and age. From what I know of it, it’s basically “mock chicken” made from pork or (as I’ve often heard), friggin veal, because both meats were once cheaper than actual chicken. So it ended up being a skewered breaded meat dish that was supposed to approximate chicken drumsticks.
I wouldn’t mind that, garlic never hurt anyone. I’ll try it next time.
The key to city chicken is finding a butcher counter that will sell you the cubed meat ready to go. Then all you have to do is make up your skewers, egg wash, flour, bread crumb, pan fry, oven finish!
Now that I read it back it seemed much easier in my head.
Huh, the rice pudding I like is basically a rich custard lightened with the addition of lots of rice. We serve it in slices, and I like to pour milk over it. But “smooth” and “creamy” aren’t words that describe it. It’s more like a custard-flavored cake, I suppose. With lots of cinnamon and nutmeg. Yum!
(It’s also dead easy to make when there’s leftover plain unseasoned white rice.)
made puff pastry from scratch. not difficult but time consuming and labor intensive. have asked bakery at supermarket if they sell it… unfortunately not. pepperidge farm makes a totally acceptable, frozen version.
have bought a few veggies just because rarely see them fresh… unless in really froo froo place. saw fiddle head ferns… with a little butter and or olive oil and minced garlic… flavor reminded me of asparagus, bought fresh, in pod chick peas, soy beans and fava beans on separate occasions. each took way too much time to prepare & flavor wasn’t worth the time.
There are many authentic cassoulet recipes that use no pork (outside the sausage)… I’d argue the poultry is as important as the other meat.
There isn’t a need -
do it right and it self-crusts
Because that’s what these are for. And it isn’t “boiled beans”, it’s “baked beans”.
Tamales. Stir the ingredients in a pot and eat it with a spoon, save hours of trouble.
Hmm, I’ve never had cassoulet. My husband and daughter don’t eat pork. But now I’m thinking about making something like that with duck and ground beef.
Mom grew up in Santa Barbara and had a recipe for Santa Barbara tamales. They are much fatter than ordinary tamales and, in her recipe at least, had enough room to stuff in two olives without overwhelming the rest. Since they aren’t available anywhere but SB (natch) and she loved to cook, every couple years she’d make up a gigantic batch and freeze 3/4 of it, but it was a two-day process. I tried a Google search for the recipe, but the lead page is mostly where you can buy them and recipes for “Mexican tamales” like they have 'em in Germany or something.
But, yeah, I have at least a dozen tamalerias within a mile and a half and would never make one myself (sorry Mom).
For me it was Swedish Bean Balls. I don’t remember where I got the recipe in those pre-internet days. Searching online brought up a bunch but they call for chickpeas and this one was pinto beans. Three hours work and a half dozen pots and pans to wash for four smallish servings. It was tasty enough but with sour cream sauce on it, so would a dog turd.
Yeah, I don’t totally get it either. But I can tell you it tastes a lot better than chicken drumsticks.
mmm
I"m intrigued and will have to get myself to a part of this world that still makes them. But I love chicken drumsticks, so I’ll temper my expectations. 
I can’t and don’t cook. I’m the poster child for “can’t even boil water”; I’ve been told a zillion times that anyone can cook if they just apply themselves – nope, not true.
However, some years ago I was living on my own and went on a health/learn how to cook for myself kick. For my first big dish, I tried to make gnocchi from Oprah’s cookbook (obviously not a good choice for a crappy cook).
I spend hours cooking this crap and was left with a flavorless heap of tasteless, round snotballs. I forced a few of the snotballs down then threw the whole mess down the sink.
This is the reason I always date/marry chicks who can cook for reals 
Talk about throwing yourself into the deep end of the pool.
Once you get the hang of them, gnocchi, like anything else, are not too difficult, but they are certainly not the type of dish you expect a novice cook to get right on the first time. Or even an experienced one. I’m not entirely sure I can knock out a good batch right now, and I cook almost every single day.