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Post by bestofour on Jul 21, 2020 10:21:25 GMT -5
brownrexx, Good idea. I've got a gazillion cherry tomatoes, ground beef and shells I can use. Taco Tuesday.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 21, 2020 15:05:03 GMT -5
I just made another batch of lentil salad, with 5 c of halved cherry and grape tomatoes. I used that trick of putting the tomatoes between two lids of Chinese soup containers, and slicing between them - works great, and fast! I made a little more than last time - I had to eat a small amount of it, to fit it into the 4 qt bowl. Should last me a couple of days. 4 qts of lentil salad. by pepperhead212, on Flickr This is another one of those things I make in the Instant Pot all the time, since it saves putting all that heat into the AC. I use the slow cooker mode - set the channa dal for 70 min., then add the freekah, and cook another 40 min, then drain, rinse briefly, and drain completely, before adding remaining ingredients. I've used other grains (the recipe I based this on had leftover wild rice - also good), but the freekeh is my favorite. It's amazing how much heat habaneros loose in the freezer, when frozen. Usually, one fresh habanero is too hot, for most people, but I have to put two frozen ones in, to get it hot enough for me - next batch should have fresh chocolate habs! Most other peppers lose some heat, but not nearly as much.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 22, 2020 16:44:24 GMT -5
Tonight was burgers on the grill along with grilled yellow and patty pan squash and pear chutney that I made last year from our pears and had frozen. That's a Brandy Boy tomato. Burgers and Squash by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 24, 2020 20:03:21 GMT -5
Today is National Tequila Day! So I had to make some Mexican food. I was going to grill something, originally, but the humidity was oppressive, so I did not spend much time outside today. I made some guacamole, as sort of a late breakfast/early lunch, but saved half of it for later. I made almost the same thing I made a while back - some eggplant and chorizo in chipotle sauce, but I added some cremini, that I had in the fridge. The eggplant I dried some in the microwave, and the cremini and chorizo I cooked in advance, and mixed everything to heat together after the sauce cooked down. The guacamole I ate the rest of while I was fixing everything else, and the margarita I had as dessert - I don't like drinking those kind of things when using knives! Chipotle sauce, cooking down. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Mixing the cooked eggplant, cremini, and chorizo with the chipotle sauce, just to heat up. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Finished taco - eggplant, cremini, and chorizo, in chipotle sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 25, 2020 22:37:30 GMT -5
This wasn't dinner - that was leftovers, but I made some zucchini bread today, but used that tinda gourd, shredded, in place of zucchini, and it was the same, basically - very wet, but no water running out of it. Delicious, but will be better tomorrow, like most spice breads. Tinda gourd, cut open, seeds just beginning to form, but not form shells. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Zucchini bread, made with shredded Tinda gourd. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 26, 2020 16:12:45 GMT -5
Tonight I made pulled pork in my Instant Pot and a side dish of corn from the freezer sauteed with fresh okra and gypsy frying peppers. It was also time to taste test all of my varieties of tomatoes that were ripe so far. Rebel Yell, Cherokee Purple, Brandy Master, Brandywine Suddeth and Mortgage Lifter have not given me any ripe ones yet but tonight we tasted the following in order of preference Jersey Boy Rutgers Brandywine Red Big Beef Brandy Boy (will not grow again) Madame Marmade (will not grow again) Jersey Boy is a Burpee hybrid and it is usually my first tomato to ripen. We both preferred the taste of this one over the others. I love the Brandywines and this Brandywine red was really good but hubby prefers Rutgers over the Brandywines. He thinks that they are a little too sweet and he grew up eating Rutgers. His Dad had a small farm where he grew tomatoes for the canneries and the variety he grew was Rutgers so hubby is partial to this one. 20200726_161549 by Brownrexx, on Flickr Pulled Pork, tomatoes & corn/okra by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by paquebot on Jul 26, 2020 18:51:07 GMT -5
Son dropped off a couple zucchini. That's the only way that they will get here! Wife combined them with carrots, onions, was beans, peas, and ground venison in a cast skillet. Not bad!But that just used up one of those zukes. Still another lurking in the kitchen!
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 26, 2020 22:09:41 GMT -5
Tomato sandwich
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 31, 2020 10:05:26 GMT -5
No pictures today but last night I made creamy tomato soup from my tomatoes and we had BLT's.
Tonight will be lemon chicken and Swiss Chard (also from the garden of course).
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Post by paquebot on Jul 31, 2020 19:43:13 GMT -5
fish filets, boiled beets, and zucchini fritters. Tomato, cucumber, and onion salad. Tomato juice to wash it all down. Only the fish not from the gardens.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 31, 2020 22:30:30 GMT -5
I made cheap dish today, with a lot of ingredients from the garden. It was sort of a gumbo, which I made in the Instant Pot, to use up 1½ qts of okra, that I'm getting mostly from the 12 Little Lucy plants, but have finally started getting them from the 6 Emerald plants. I started with some bacon - the only smoky meat I had in stock - then added some onion, celery, bell and jalapeño peppers, spices and herbs, and garlic, to cook about 10 min., adding some tomato paste towards the end. I then added the puréed tomatoes, okra, and some pearled barley, and cooked in the slow cooker high mode for 2½ hours. It seemed to need more water, so I added more, and cooked on the medium slow cooker mode for 1½ hours, and it was done just right. Okra, cut up for the gumbo. by pepperhead212, on Flickr 5 cups of fresh tomato purée, for the gumbo. by pepperhead212, on Flickr The bacon, onion, celery, bell peppers, garlic, spices, and a little tomato paste, cooked in the Instant Pot. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Pearl barley and okra, added to the tomato mix of the gumbo. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Gumbo, after cooking 2 1/2 hrs in high slow cooker mode, in Instant Pot. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Finished gumbo by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 3, 2020 8:41:24 GMT -5
This was a bit of a project but it turned out well and made enough left overs for several meals. First I made sauce from fresh tomatoes and I also made Italian meatballs which were then cooked in the sauce. My plan is to use the meatballs later with the pasta sauce that I make from fresh tomatoes and freeze in jars but I saved a couple to eat with the zucchini lasagna that I made last night with the sauce. The rest of the meatballs were frozen until I make my marinara pasta sauce later. This is the first time I made Italian meatballs and they were super tender and good. They contain fresh breadbrumbs and milk which really made them tender. I had tons of zucchini so I sliced a bunch of them into thin slices and grilled them to dry out some of the moisture. Then I used the zucchini "noodles" and made my regular lasagna recipe with the fresh sauce I had made earlier. It turned out really well and we got to eat yummy lasagna without all of those carbs. I also made cucumber salad. 20200802_121658 (2) by Brownrexx, on Flickr Zucchini Lasagna & Meatballs by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 7, 2020 17:08:31 GMT -5
I saw a recipe for fajitas in a Taste of Home magazine and it said that it was their most requested recipe so I decided to try it. It included a recipe for home made tortillas which I have never tried so I gave it a shot. I rolled out and cooked 3 of the tortillas but thought that they were a failure so I threw away the rest of the dough. Surprisingly when we ate dinner I discovered that the home made tortillas actually tasted better than the store bought ones but they were more work than I need to do so I will stick with store bought ones. I made some home made guacamole and then I cooked the veggies and chicken in a cast iron pan out on my gas grill and they tasted fabulous! The seasoning tasted just like what we get at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We were both very happy with them. I also made a small amount or Mock Oyster Soup with my freshly harvested salsify. Tortillas by Brownrexx, on Flickr Fajitas by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 8, 2020 17:10:25 GMT -5
I don't always cook a fancy or involved meal. Tonight I grilled hot dogs and we each ate 2 ears of corn that we picked an hour before dinner. Simple but yummy.
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Post by octave1 on Aug 8, 2020 20:29:42 GMT -5
Son made flour tortillas today, for the first time. The ingredients were: flour, salt, baking powder, chilled bacon drippings (so in solid form) and water. Those tortillas were wonderful. We ate them with mashed black beans, avocado slices, and homegrown tomatoes+thinly sliced onions. A really delicious and satisfying vegetarian meal--except for the bacon.
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Post by september on Aug 8, 2020 21:30:28 GMT -5
Wild rice casserole with pork sausage, sauteed beet greens and a tossed salad. Jim came home with some huge onions, a cantaloupe, and some beets with green tops from the farmers market. I've never eaten beet tops before, but they seemed too fresh to discard without trying. Some of the recipes said to blanch them first, some said just throw them washed in the pan with garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice. You can guess which I chose to do. I sampled them and thought they were good, but might be too bitter for Jim. So I took one suggestion of adding a mix of balsamic vinegar and honey drizzled over it near the end of cooking. Very tasty. I suppose blanching the leaves first may have made them a little milder tasting?
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 9, 2020 7:28:56 GMT -5
september , my hubby loves beet greens and he likes them just boiled and served with melted butter. I have a few beets left in the ground so I picked some greens last week and he said that they were very strong and even bitter so it was either from the heat we have been having or the age of the beets. These were mature leaves. Earlier in the year they were almost sweet. I think that it if you try them again in the Spring or early summer that they would not be bitter. octave1 I tried flour tortillas for the first time last week too and was not pleased. How did your son cook his? I tried cooking mine in a dry frying pan at first and they didn't get those brown spots. Then I added some olive oil and they browned nicely but I had a smell of burning flour in the house that we didn't like.
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Post by octave1 on Aug 9, 2020 10:07:06 GMT -5
brownrexx , tortillas should be cooked on a hot, dry skillet. No oil, butter, etc. They should also be quite thin. Son cooked them in a large stainless steel skillet since we don't have any of the cast iron suggested in the recipe. The pan must be hot but not smoking, and it only takes 30 second to cook each side. When some burned bits got stuck onto the skillet, he scraped them away with a spatula. I think the hardest part is maintaining the skillet at the same consistently hot temp without getting it too high. Son made 12 large tortillas and they all cooked perfectly. If you have a cast iron that you use for pancakes, that should work great
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 9, 2020 10:52:14 GMT -5
octave1, I figured that the pan was the key but I don't use cast iron in the house on my flat top stove. I do have a shallow cast iron skillet that I use on the grill to cook fried green tomatoes. I should probably have used that. I used a non stick pan and the flour residue from the outside of the tortillas burned in the pan and smelled awful. The tortillas themselves were not burned and I probably should have wiped out the pan between tortillas. Live and learn. They actually did have a good taste though.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2020 13:41:01 GMT -5
Okay, I have to ask, how was there flour residue on your tortillas? < -- I am confused
Also, what is your recipe for the soup? Never made it or eaten it, but it looked good in your pictures. Your tortillas also looked nice.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 9, 2020 14:10:18 GMT -5
@imp the tortillas were rolled out on a floured surface and had a dusting of flour still on them. You are seeing the store bought tortillas. Mine ae hiding under them and they don't look quite as nice.
Did I say that it was Mock Oyster soup? It is made with salsify and was super easy.
3/4 cup peeled and cubed salsify 3/4 cup water Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons butter (not margarine) 1 1/2 cups whole milk Pepper, Old Bay Seasoning and chopped parsley to taste Prepare the salsify as advised above; cut into cubes about a half-inch thick. In medium saucepan, place water and salt, bring to a boil, and add salsify. Cook until tender, approximately 10 minutes. Add butter and milk and heat through. Add pepper, parsley and Old Bay seasoning to taste.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 9, 2020 16:48:43 GMT -5
Made one of my favorite meals with eggplant tonight. It is an Italian room temperature salad called Eggplant Caponata eaten on toasted bread. I didn't have any Italian bread which would have been better but I improvised. Not all recipes call for grilling but we like it that way. I grilled the veggies and added fresh oregano, a few raisins, a spoonful of capers and drizzled with olive oil and white wine vinegar. Grilled Veggies for Caponata by Brownrexx, on Flickr Here is the finished product with sides of caprese salad and fresh corn picked yesterday. Grilled Eggplant Caponata by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by octave1 on Aug 9, 2020 20:02:42 GMT -5
OMG brownrexx, that caponata looks glorious I would have eaten the whole thing just out of the grill!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 9, 2020 20:14:32 GMT -5
Today I made another batch of that pasta with raw tomato sauce, but this time, instead of canned legumes, I used some black chick peas (kala chana). I cooked about 1 1/4 cups in the IP for 80 minutes, plus the pressure release time. Also, the grain I added was some leftover cooked wild rice. Otherwise, the same as the last batch - garlic, basil, black and green olives, anchovies, capers, an a generous amount of olive oil, added to all those tomatoes. Latest batch of raw tomato pasta - this one with cooked wild rice and black chick peas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2020 0:39:40 GMT -5
Okay, you rolled them out with flour and a pin. That explains it. Simple trick, and easier to me, is either a tortilla press, or a flat bottom pan or plate with your cutting board or counter. Take some plastic wrap and using 1 piece per side, place small dough ball between whatever you are pressing with and squish it; stop, remove top layer of plastic , peel the tortilla off the bottom piece and set your tortilla under a slightly damp cloth and make more. You could even use your pin to roll it out I guess, but I was raised in the "squish" school, LOL! No flour to clean off the counters, and no flour to burn in a hot skillet. 2 pieces of plastic is all that is left and you ~could~ even save those for next time. Wax paper may also be used instead of plastic wrap or a baggie with the sides cut off.
Not that I am so experienced, just a suggestion to make it easier and from what I have seen or been taught. Homemade tortillas and flat breads are very good.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 10, 2020 7:04:22 GMT -5
OMG brownrexx, that caponata looks glorious I would have eaten the whole thing just out of the grill! Actually a couple of the veggies did not make it into the finished caponata. I thought that they looked tasty too. @imp thanks for the tips. How do you keep the tortillas from sticking to the plastic? Mine were rolled out on a Tupperware plastic sheet used for pie crust and they stuck when the flour dusting got used up. Were they too moist?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2020 11:59:30 GMT -5
Sounds like too moist, maybe, maybe not enough lard in the dough? I am going to add a link here, to a recipe video from Foodwishes. He has some good videos and recipes, plus he likes to keep it pretty "normal cooking", not molecular gastronomy, LOL.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 10, 2020 13:43:00 GMT -5
Thanks @imp that is a good video. My recipe called for olive oil but I think that a solid fat would work better.
I also like your idea of using a plate to flatten them now that I see how a tortilla press works. I had never seen that before.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2020 13:59:13 GMT -5
Different parts of the country, I guess, I assumed you knew what a tortilla press was. Olive oil, I suspect, was the sticking problem, a solid fat works well. I prefer lard, but that is because I use it for several things, and like butter, , almost always in my kitchen. I like olive oil, but mostly for dressings and finishing.
Anything that is flat and you are comfortable holding on to should work well. I've squished tortillas between a cutting board and the counter top before, LOL.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Aug 10, 2020 22:51:09 GMT -5
My teetotaler Grandmother had a wine bottle that she used to roll out piecrust.
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