Saturday, December 13, 2014

Those who know Cincinnati

     For those familiar, heard of or are just looking for something new...



For a more authentic chili, combine tomato sauce, peeled tomatoes and meat in a large stock pot. Cook at medium heat for a few hours. As you guessed all ingredients are added in. Skip the bay leaves, mince the garlic (a toe is= one small piece of foot (colossal clove) of garlic. Recipe is also missing the bakers chocolate, unsweetened, I would estimate 1 Tbsp.  

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Oven tip 1

The oven is a wonderful contraption. Many great dishes can be created, just remember 400° is for frozen pizza; take your time, its not a race to cook the quickest. Time (instead of Thyme) is "the" thing when it comes to cooking. More time for the spices to mix. At higher temps it is easy to over cook your food.What is the purpose of garlic if it is all cooked away? Even potatoes are better when slowly boiled. Dinner is a planned event; reserve the time to properly prepare the feast. And be sure to have enough wine on hand... : )

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Truly, how do you loaf meat?

     No... really, I never intended to be considered the "cook" guy you automatically turn to for advice. As a
matter of fact this Cooking 101 is a learning experience to for me as well. I have run into a brick wall so to speak; getting my meatloaf to "loaf". Not enough bread crumbs? Can a meatloaf be over "loafed"? This last venture in meatloafing; which is now underway; recipe did not call for bread crumbs at all. Was in a Mediterranean style with couscous, and red bell pepper. Wondering if the author forgot to include bread crumbs or if they are replaced by the couscous.  We will see, of course the text is being texted while the meat is being loafed; therefore giving me a break on the timing. I will of course come through with pictures and descriptions after the meat has loafed. My apartment is very warm and smells great so I am left with a good feeling of the taste, is the loafing that is in question still. Not to kill the subject, I did read once of French Meatloaf, Italian meatloaf and of course there is the musician Meatloaf. Great add to the script of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Ironic as he was dinner in the end...
     So Meatloaf is the question tonight


Sunday, February 9, 2014

At the store

     As you may or may not know, I am single and live alone (well I do have 2 cats). When I cook it usually yields more than one meal. One of my all time favorite recipes is the catch phrase "Spaghetti sauce". I use those terms because with a few "tomato" items I can create a sauce with many uses; not just spaghetti. I go to the grocery store and in the tomato aisle there are all sorts of items. I pick 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can stewed tomatoes, and of course 1 can tomato paste. Its inexpensive, makes a large batch and I have used it to make Lasagna, spaghetti, any pasta dish, stuffing, pizza sauce and chili. The chili I have yet to do.  

Hint

As the title suggests this is Cooking 101... hint: use real butter (you can taste the difference)

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Being Creative

  I called this LO salad (left overs)
   So your sitting with plans to go to the Grocery Super Store, running out of time till dinner. What to do? Well my visit to the local Ghettomart (Kroger close to me) will have to wait if dinner is to be 6:00 pm. I have 1/2 a pound of Italian sausage, 1/2 a container of ricotta cheese, some other Italian type spices and what not, but no tomato. What to do... I had 1/2 containers of much, made a large amount, you can adjust to double the recipe.


1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 white onion
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
4 oz Ricotta cheese
Romano lettuce
1/2 cup orzo prepared (al dente)
1/2 can Garbanzo beans (chick peas) some crushed
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh spinach chopped
pinch of thyme
dash of oregano
a little salt, pepper
dash of Balsamic vinaigrette dressing



  In a skillet add oil, onion and garlic, cook till onions are translucent. Over medium heat brown the sausage in the onion oil. Be preparing orzo while meat browns. Drain and add orzo to skillet reduce heat. Stir in remaining ingredients (except the lettuce and dressing) Simmer over low heat (the longer the better)
Scoop on to a lettuce leaf, top with balsamic vinaigrette and serve. (I did try rolling the lettuce around the helping) this requires a knife to eat...  It is quite delicious, and can be used as a stuffing (peppers etc)

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Stuffing peppers, so to speak

You're just going to love this one. In the mood for some Italian/Mediterranean cooking one night. Went looking for a recipe for Stuffed bell peppers. As you may have guessed, I didn't find one to my liking. One started with the phrase "In the microwave". So being a bit of a cook I threw this together. I hope you like it.
 I used 3 bell peppers totaling 6 servings for this dish and did have some extra stuffing when all finished. Most measures are guestimates, as I don't really measure out, more on the waves of dash n pinch of... 

3 bell peppers, mix up the colors
7 oz Ricotta cheese
1/2 lb Italian sausage (I use ground sausage)
1 white onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 egg
1/2 cup orzo prepared (al dente) I always did want to use that word in a sentence
1 cup chopped fresh spinach
1 tsp basil (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp thyme (more less to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1tbs oregano
black pepper to taste
2 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded)
2 tbsp marinara sauce for color

stuffing:
In a skillet on med heat cook onion with garlic till onion is translucent add sausage stir occasionally till sausage is browned. Be preparing the orzo as the sausage browns. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta cheese, egg, spinach, basil, thyme, salt, oregano 1/2 of the mozzarella, orzo, black pepper. Add to this the onion, garlic and sausage, stir till well blended. I did add marinara sauce to the stuffing for color. 

remove stems cut peppers in half top to bottom, remove seeds and ribs. Set the pepper halves cut side up on a baking pan (cookie sheet) fill the peppers. Preheat oven to 325* bake peppers for 20 minutes covered. Add the rest of the mozzarella topping each pepper half. Cook an additional 10 mins. 

ps this has been a sort of experimental recipe, for "softer" peppers, cook a little longer, or increase the heat to 350*

Goes well with what is known in my family as a Cindy salad. Romaine lettuce, apple or pear slices, pecans or pine nuts. I did add  green olives and spinach,  dashed with Balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Now is your chance to try Merlot (no silent letters) wine.  I think this would have been the perfect time to use endive, instead of lettuce. Have seen endive in the produce but never thought to buy any. We'll save that for another post.

welcome

Hello and thank you for visiting. As this is a newly created blog page I don't have millions of entries, yet. Do stay around as I have found my style of cooking to be of the best. Being rushed is the main mistake most make when cooking. That being stated, I assure you I don't have a 'slow cooker' aka Crockpot, and all my cooking is done with standard stove and oven. So without further a-do lets get started.

Neo