MTGSalivation is the clan devoted to those delightful comestibles what offer excellent taste sensations - that is to say, food. Here, the main course of discussion is everything food-related from that nice restaurant last night to a wonderful pasta dish we served, and related conversation on the side.
Membership and friendship is currently quite open. Posting without either is fine so long as it's tasteful and infrequent, and don't be afraid to apply in such posting, or PM, for membership and friendship. As we become busy, reservations may become necessary - that is to say, policy subject to change; we're a young clan.
Favorite Food: Absolutely anything that is prepared well with quality ingredients. Favorite Beverage: This is a rough one for me. I'm a snob when it comes to coffee, wine, beer, cocktails, spirits, and water. That covers everything but soda really... though even then I have things that I wouldn't drink... Favorite Cuisine: I'm a hardcore gormet. I don't know if that counts as a cuisine, but I'm always looking for places to try. Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm solidly in the middle. I would never give up meat, but I'm not afraid to eat vegitarian dishes. Expertise: I'm rough at desserts, but I'm very solid at appetizers and main courses. History with Food: My food history sucks. I've always had a passion for food, and I've always wanted to learn how, but my family was more of a cook it from a box family. I had to teahc myself the basics, and I'm just now moving on to much more advanced techniques. Future Goals: To improve my equipment. I'm not exactly cooking with absolute junk, but at the very least I need a good knife set. Working with what I have is needlessly difficult. My list of restaurants to go to is getting a bit long too... I should work harder at actually getting to some of them.
Favorite food: Pizza cooked in the wood fire oven Favorite Beverage: Coffee. i drink coffee like most people drink water. How i became a foodie: Work. I've worked in either catering, restaraunts or fast food for the last 10 years Expertise: None, I've done alot of bits and peices Goal: To improve my dessert skills
Favorite food: Chicken Parmesan, heavy on the marinara sauce. Specialty: Meats & Soups. In particular, I tend to do well with grilled foods (duh, being a guy), slow-roasted stuff (Especially dutch oven cooking), and long-term marinades. As far as soups are concerned, I like thick, highly flavorful soups; my two favorites are my Spicy Chicken Enchilada soup and my Baked Potato soup (adapted from a recipe I got from my girlfriends' family). Favorite Beverage: Call be a simplist, but I just plain enjoy a coke with grenadine. Favorite cooking trick: Adding about 2-3 oz. of crappy red wine and a couple of spices to an out-of-the-can crappy marinara sauce somehow magically transforms the resultant sauce into a genuinely gourmet-tasting red sauce. Seriously- I keep a couple of those little half-pint bottles of screw-top red wine in my fridge, just for when I make marinara sauce. Future Goals: I actually don't have specific goals in cooking. My family has a long, long history of experimentation and refinement through serial modification of a starter recipe; we call it "Adventures in Good Eating," and really only stop once we've gotten something just the way we collectively like it. As such, I suppose that the closest thing I have to a goal is to continue to try new things, and when I like what I try, to tweak it into something magnificent.
Favorite food: A perfectly grilled cheeseburger, usually with either bacon, chipotle sauce, or ketchup. Favorite Beverage: Coffee, Diet Coke, or Crystal Light. I drink all of them no more often than I drink another. How i became a foodie: Food has just always been a love/passion of mine. Hopefully some day I'll be able to have an influence on someone else to be a foodie as well. Expertise: I'm kinda well known for my recipes for pancakes, and my overall style of making them. Goal: I wish to become a better cook overall, and not just a good baker, since that's where a lot of my focus has been lately.
Favorite Food: Everything and Anything that complements yohgurt, and yohgurt. Favorite Drink: I'd have to say, after a very long talk with myself in front of a mirror, would be chocolate banana shake. Well Blended, with extra banana bits. Expertise: Even though I'm only 14, I've done my fair share of Culinary Courses during the summer. Hit me up with anything italian and local (philippine). History: I grew up loving food. Not just eating it, but making it... Tasting it... Feeling it... YUM! Future Goals: Practice making rice. I can't seem to make it the way mom makes it... Favorite Celebrity Chef: Has got to be Mario Batali! Muy! Muy! Muy!
Favorite Food: Panang curry, Paneer Korma, and really good pizza. Favorite Beverage: I'm a coffee snob. *sipping on a locally roasted Brazilian as I type this* Favorite Cuisine: Thai and Indian Expertese: Thai cuisine, grilling. History with Food: I'm completly self taught. I didn't grow up in a cooking family, but developed a great passion for various ethnic cuisine as I grew older. I also love traveling and am naturally curious about cultures in general. I find that there is no better way to bond with a culture than to spend time with it's people, and sharing food with them. Future goals: I want to become a smoked bbq master. I'm talking traditional, southern style bbq here, slow smoked.
Favorite Food: Agh, so many! Probably either well made pizza, especially, homemade, or a nice bbq beef brisket. My dad's grilled hamburgers put up a good fight as well. Favorite Drink: Plain, old soda. Favorite Cuisine: I'll eat anything really. Certain Thai places are good, Indian food is good. I don't like anything too spicy however. Expertise: Desserts. Especially fudge, but also including cookies, brownies, and the occasional brownie.
I also enjoy making a grilled cheese with bacon sandwich every once in a while History: My dad cooks a lot, so I often help out with the food. I made a lot of cookies and such when I was little, and recently started making more things. Goals: Making more... fancy meals you could say. Not a lot other than that. Vegetarianism Scale: From 1 to 10, where 1 is vegetarian, I think I would place around a 7.5. Veggies are good, as long as they are raw - cooked vegetables, blech. I also love bbq, so I guess I am mainly a meat eater.
Favorite Food: omelettes hands down i like it filled with anything except sausage Favorite Beverage: water I guess, im trying to loose weight so im staying away from sodas and such and im not old enough to drink =( Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not a vegetarian but i love some of the food, altho tofu isnt my thing Favorite White Trash Food: cheese fries I guess with cheese wiz on the bottom toped with motz and bacon Expertise: that would probly hafto be apetizers, they're my favorite to cook atleast History with Food: My mom always cooks dinner and finds something new to make every night, so i grew up loving to try new things and thats what led me to cooking Future Goals: Manage a restaurant (I dont think I can take the stress of preparing food fast im a realy slow cook XD) Favorite Restaurant (so far):http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/ Favorite Celebrity Chef: Alton brown because i like how he explains how stuff works.
Favorite Food: I couldn't pick one, I enjoy so many different foods from many different cultures. I like Mexican style cooking a lot, I love pizza, I love Asian style cooking. Favorite Beverage: hot tea mainly. Not a coffee drinker at all, though I do have a passion for good cream soda and root beer as well. Favorite Cuisine: It's a tie between Mexican and Asian (including Indian) Expertise: I don't think I particularly excel anywhere. I'm not really an avid baker. When I want brownies, it's just easy to go grab a box mix, but for someone's birthday ro a special occasion I bake from scratch. I'm more of a stir fry kind of person, working by taste more than recipe, though i do make some good italian food and soups and such. History with Food: Every woman in my family for several generations back has been learning to cook since a child. Some of us are better at it than others, and some of us do it more than others. Currently i'm not actively cooking very often since I live with my Grandmother, and her food is da bomb. I took 2/3 years of Culinary Arts at my High School, we had a 4 star (allegedly) restaurant attached to the school that we worked in, both the front and back of the house. I also spent 2 weeks in South America a few summers ago, and i have to say I really enjoy that Andean cooking, minus the fish. I don't particularly care for fish. The Alpaca though, is phenominal. My parents are active Native Americans, and i've tried a lot of game through them- from beaver to buffalo to anything with antlers. Bison and antlered animal meat is so much better than beef. Future goals: none really, other than to just continually try and improve my skills. Being able to chop faster would be helpful.
Favorite food: Sourdough bread! beats out sorbets, gelatos and ice creams. Favorite beverage: Mint Julep (virgin, for now) Vegetarian Spectrum: No inclinations for or against meats, but I do love fruits. Expertise: Baking - bread in particular - and making desserts are my area, and a little general knowledge of simple cooking. History with Food: It's hard not to be a foodie when you've lived in California's wine country for the past 17 years. I attended culinary school for baking/pastry certification, and am now the baker at a local "cupcakery." Future Goals: Further hone my skills, and to be a boulanger (that is, a bread-baker), though I wonder lately if glacier (frozens, like ice cream) would be more my style. Well, and participate in the Coupe de Mounde de la Boulangerie, but that's more of a dream than a goal.
Favorite Food: This one if tough for me, but there is only one food that I cannot seem to stop myself once I start: pizza. Not just any pizza, but a good pizza. I eat pretty much anything, so there's no particular topping combination I like best. Favorite Beverage: Kreutzburg Beer or a Highlander (whiskey cocktail). I don't drink much, but alcoholic drinks are my favorite, and these two top the chart. Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not vegetarian at all, but I have not eaten meat in four days as of writing this. I will never avoid meat, but I don't necessarily need it. Favorite White Trash Food: Pigs in a Blanket. The version that is hotdogs and cheese wrapped in Pilsbury crescent rolls, not breakfast sausage in canned biscuits. Expertise: I'm great at baking breads and at meat and vegetable dishes. History with Food: Food's not big in my family, so I grew up teaching myself different recipies and techniques. I have since learned a lot from my wife who has a large family with a long history in food. Future Goals: To take some courses in a few world cuisines (japanese, chinese, french, german, etc.), sushi, dim sum, and bread baking. I want to start a retirement business later in life with my wife that is either a gourmet restaurant or a bakery/cafe with my wife. Favorite Restaurant (so far):Tribute Restaurant Favorite Celebrity Chef:Alton Brown. Not the best food or recipies, but his show is very informative and entertaining.
Favorite Food: Indian and Thai food, I like it spicy.
Favorite Beverage: Blonde Beer (I only like to drink when it's with a good meal.)
Vegetarian Spectrum: I've been vegetarian for about 5 years, although for the past 2 years I've been eating fish.
Favorite White Trash Food: Definitely grilled hamburgers, though I don't eat them anymore. One of the only meats I miss eating.
Expertise: I can make pretty simple dishes by myself, pasta, omelettes, curry, pad thai, and I can grill vegetables pretty well in a wok. I also know how to roll my own sushi and cook the rice.
History with Food: My mom worked for a catering business for 15 years and now runs a restaurant that's owned by the same caterer. I worked in that restaurant for 1 year where I learned how to use knives (but I was mostly a server).
Future Goals: Pass the Baccalauréat and get into University.
Favorite Restaurant (so far): Sushi Ota, San Diego CA
Favorite Celebrity Chef: I don't have a tv.
Favorite Food: Fried Chicken with baked Mac and Cheese, Pot Roast and slow cooked Cajun green beans, or White Beans and Rice with Sticky Chicken. Favorite Beverage: Southern Sweet Tea, or A dry martini, dirty Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not vegetarian, at all. Not even close. I eat meat every meal. Favorite White Trash Food: Microwave nachos made on Dorito's corn ships Expertise: Cajun/Southern food, and chicken. History with Food: My mom is 100% Cajun, and I was raised in Louisiana, so I have a large ethnic history with food. I also worked for two years at a chicken finger restaraunt, which is surprisingly where I learned knife skills (chopping vegetables and chicken breast). Future Goals: After I retire (hopefully from the U.S. Senate or from a Law practice), I would like to own a soul food restaurant in Baton Rouge. Favorite Restaurant (so far):Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Favorite Celebrity Chef: Emirel. Or that Guy Feirieirei dude.
Favorite Food: A well prepared cheeseburger always got me. I love sweets, especially ones with cranberries in them (brownies with cranberries are the best).
Favorite Beverage: Sweet tea, sweet iced tea. I enjoy the occasional Mt. Dew.
Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not vegetarian, buy my girlfriend is. I therefore eat a lot of vegetables.
Favorite White Trash Food:
Expertise: Sweets, especially baked. I'm a master!
History with Food: I've taken a few cooking classes for fun, and I have spent a few weeks with a friend of mines dad, who is a chef in 5 star restaurant. (He's straight from France!)
Future Goals: I'd like to run my own shop at some point, books and gaming. I would also love to run a small bake shop.
Favorite Restaurant (so far): A tasty place known as the Chocolate Grill, sadly now closed.
Favorite Celebrity Chef: I don't really have one, but the guy that eats bizarre food is awesome. (Andrew Zimmerman?)
Is your bio not up here? Submit yours via post or PM (or poke me via PM if you've done that already ;)).
You better friend me up! I'm the official starter-er of the foodie thread in WCT!
If we do bios, I've got to have Thai cook referenced in mine somehow
I realized something about Food network. My favorite show on there is Anthony Bourdains no reservations. I love travel, and sure, his show is great in that aspect as he tends to be a true traveler and not so much a tourist (and there is a fine distinction there). But I also get a sense that he really knows his food. I imagine he could cook circles around many of the networks stars.
I remember seeing the show occasionally before it moved to food network, but it's more conveniant for me, somehow, on the new chanel.
Unfortunately, I'm currently undergoing a surgery that won't allow me to eat any tasties for at least this week. However, this is the last of such surgeries, so I'll be back to eating the stomach-rotting yummies I so very much enjoy to eat (possibly why my colon was so bad in the first place :uhh:)!
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[Imagine scantily-clad women in a leud embrace,
one stretched out and victim to a chokehold of the other,
both with big stupid grins spreading across their faces.]
If we do bios, I've got to have Thai cook referenced in mine somehow
We'll have them up soon (I hope). Not sure if we should do bios for friends - we'll probably get a lot of them over time - but you definitely deserve high honors for starting the thread what caused this clan to be. Maybe you'll be part of a special group known as The Super Friends! We'll see.
You know, I didn't think anything could be greater than win, but you might be right about this one.
Unfortunately, I'm currently undergoing a surgery that won't allow me to eat any tasties for at least this week. However, this is the last of such surgeries, so I'll be back to eating the stomach-rotting yummies I so very much enjoy to eat (possibly why my colon was so bad in the first place :uhh:)!
How awful. And, though many tasties are actually healthy, it seems that the best tasties are bad for us.
I avoid any responsibility for eating unhealthy goodness by blaming our evolution: why would our bodies do that to us? Stupid sense of taste, making me want the delicious desserts.
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[The Crafters] | [Johnnies United]
My anecdotal evidence disagrees with yours! EXPLAIN THAT!
Now, I have a question:
What would be a good, simple (i.e. less than 30-45 min) that requires not that much cooking skill, and no special utensils other than the obvious things like mixers, oven, etc.
Suggestions?
Edit: Woops. My bad.
I'm looking for a dessert to make, preferably something that will keep fora day or two.
Now, I have a question:
What would be a good, simple (i.e. less than 30-45 min) that requires not that much cooking skill, and no special utensils other than the obvious things like mixers, oven, etc.
Suggestions?
Pretty much anything in the way of Asian food, which, not only do you not need their utensils, but it's often quite tasty (and, if you do it right, quite spicy! *salivate*).
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[Imagine scantily-clad women in a leud embrace,
one stretched out and victim to a chokehold of the other,
both with big stupid grins spreading across their faces.]
You might want to say just what you're looking for, Stark. An overview, details pending better knowledge:
If it's dinner, learning your spices for rubs and such on small or thin pieces of meat like chicken breasts, pork chops and thin cuts of beef cooked on the stove could be what you're looking for. A good dressing can quickly make a simple salad taste great, and while you can buy them, it's another that can be thrown together really quick. And Asian dishes, as said above, are often quick (and, unfortunately, not in the realm of my experience).
If it's dessert, it's pretty difficult. I'll have to think on it, but simple puddings are most of what's coming off the top of my head.
Many things can be prepped beforehand, stored in your fridge/freezer, in some cases for days, and you could then get the final step done in a short period. And if you're able to work on and item for 5-10 minutes at intervals and leave it to do its thing for the most of it, there are even more options available.
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[The Crafters] | [Johnnies United]
My anecdotal evidence disagrees with yours! EXPLAIN THAT!
Above all, I come from the nation of good food, also known as ITALY.
Italy? ****, America has all your food plus all the rest of the world's food. Not to mention succulent southern barbecue... mmm...
DAMNIT WHY CAN'T I EAT THIS SURGERY IS TORTURE! I didn't remember just how horrible this is until I started not eating again. Oh well. Hopefully I can eat at least pseudo-tasties in two days.
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[Imagine scantily-clad women in a leud embrace,
one stretched out and victim to a chokehold of the other,
both with big stupid grins spreading across their faces.]
What would be a good, simple (i.e. less than 30-45 min) that requires not that much cooking skill, and no special utensils other than the obvious things like mixers, oven, etc.
Suggestions?
You could bake some nice fish in about half an hour depending on the size of the fish. If you can get whole fish stuff some lemon or orange zest (gives it a nice zing) in through the gills, wrap in tin foil and bake in medium to high temp oven. You would have time to make a nice side salad while the fish is baking.
So some general clan-like things that should get done soon:
Titles
Biographies
Image
Sig Image(s)
The titles and bios are easy enough. If you can think of a title you'd like to have, feel free to ask. Perhaps we should have a majority member approval for whether a title should be granted... not sure. What does MTGSali' think on that topic?
For the bio, it shouldn't be too long, but whatever you'd like to give is good. Most of the info I'd think to put in a bio is: favorite cuisine and/or favorite food (if you can choose one; I know it's hard), what food activities you'd say you're good with (and simply "eating" is a fine answer! :D), and a sentence or two of a brief history of you and food (how you came to be a foodie, were you ever a professional cook, etc). Feel free to add to that, or pass on it, as much as you like.
My bio would then be....
Favorite food: Sourdough bread!
Expertise: Baking - bread in particular - and making desserts are my area, and a little general knowledge of simple cooking.
History with food: It's hard not to be a foodie when you're living and grew up in California's wine country. I attended culinary school for baking/pastry certification, and am now the baker at a local "cupcakery."
Hmm, that seems too short. Not sure what else I'd want to add. Anyone have good ideas?
Imagery: I'm not all that hot with image editors. I mean, I messed around in GIMP for my avatar, but I don't think I'd be able to produce something worth showing off. Is someone here good with that?
I did have an idea for a simplistic image: take the new MTGS logo that's in the upper right, but replace the color dots in that circle with foods of the appropriate colors. Not much, but it's an idea.
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[The Crafters] | [Johnnies United]
My anecdotal evidence disagrees with yours! EXPLAIN THAT!
You better friend me up! I'm the official starter-er of the foodie thread in WCT!
If we do bios, I've got to have Thai cook referenced in mine somehow
I realized something about Food network. My favorite show on there is Anthony Bourdains no reservations. I love travel, and sure, his show is great in that aspect as he tends to be a true traveler and not so much a tourist (and there is a fine distinction there). But I also get a sense that he really knows his food. I imagine he could cook circles around many of the networks stars.
I remember seeing the show occasionally before it moved to food network, but it's more conveniant for me, somehow, on the new chanel.
And guys, I'm so happy this clan exists.
I'm actually watching Bourdain as we speak on Travel Channel (a favorite of mine). Right now, it's an episode about Ghana, a country that is close to my heart due to some people I came to know in my teen years. African food is seriously an experience! I highly recommend it, but that's neither here not there. Yeah, he's sort of a jerk, but a lovable jerk, for the most part.
Meanwhile, friend me up! I'm not a total foodie (unlike my sister), but I certainly like to dabble and try new things, particular all varieties of teas. I'm also a big fan of soups and stews and love experimenting with new recipes for both.
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[16:23] Alacar Leoricar: maybe if you do it'll make the porn more meaningful
Woot! God, I was so pumped when I heard that the clan request had gone through; cooking's just plain fun.
Clan info:
Favorite food: Chicken Parmesan, heavy on the marinara sauce. Specialty: Meats & Soups. In particular, I tend to do well with grilled foods (duh, being a guy), slow-roasted stuff (Especially dutch oven cooking), and long-term marinades. As far as soups are concerned, I like thick, highly flavorful soups; my two favorites are my Spicy Chicken Enchilada soup and my Baked Potato soup (adapted from a recipe I got from my girlfriends' family). Favorite Beverage: Call me a simplist, but I just plain enjoy a coke with grenadine. Favorite cooking trick: Adding about 2-3 oz. of crappy red wine and a couple of spices to an out-of-the-can crappy marinara sauce somehow magically transforms the resultant sauce into a genuinely gourmet-tasting red sauce. Seriously- I keep a couple of those little half-pint bottles of screw-top red wine in my fridge, just for when I make marinara sauce. Future Goals: I actually don't have specific goals in cooking. My family has a long, long history of experimentation and refinement through serial modification of a starter recipe; we call it "Adventures in Good Eating," and really only stop once we've gotten something just the way we collectively like it. As such, I suppose that the closest thing I have to a goal is to continue to try new things, and when I like what I try, to tweak it into something magnificent.
Edit: Added info to bio, threw it into spoiler tags.
The average lion is approximately 190 cm long and 60 cm wide = 11400 cm2 = 0.00000114 km2
Now, if we take that times a trillion we get 11,400,000 km2 of lion.
As far as soups are concerned, I like thick, highly flavorful soups; my two favorites are my Spicy Chicken Enchilada soup and my Baked Potato soup (adapted from a recipe I got from my girlfriends' family).
Those both sound amazing. Care to share a recipe?
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[16:23] Alacar Leoricar: maybe if you do it'll make the porn more meaningful
Cilantro soup with a hint of asperagus and parmesian. It was wonderful. I think it was beef based, and home made (they didn't even skimp on the salt). It was great. Unfortunately, some of the other dishes were not as good.
I did love the honey BBQ braised beef brisquet with coconut creamed corn, though.
...American cheese?
Hell, most of the Dutch food isn't available in any other country at all.
Hey now, don't be messin' with America's cheese! I'm a Wisconsonian, I know my cheese (hell, after I get done with this surgery, I'm going back to the Cheese Factory... seriously, not that everyone in Wisconsin works on cheese, it's just an ironic twist of cheesy fate).
I agree we may not have the best of each individual foodstuff, but... yeah hell. Anyway: @Descent: Who (especially someone in a clan like this) goes to a foreign country and has their own nation's food?
Wait a minute... enchilada soup?! Ooh! Recipe please. Oh, and the braised briscuit... *drool* I don't know if I'm going to be able to read this thread if I can't eat...
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[Imagine scantily-clad women in a leud embrace,
one stretched out and victim to a chokehold of the other,
both with big stupid grins spreading across their faces.]
Okay, here's the Spicy Chicken Enchilada soup recipe. The Baked Potato Soup one is much more time-consuming, so it's not one you can make often. Also, this is from memory- if I got it wrong, I'll correct it when i get home.
Spicy Chicken Enchilada Soup
Serves 2 (as a whole meal) or 4 (If serving as a side).
Prep Time: Approx. 40 minutes.
Ingredients:
1 Chicken Breast, boneless & skinless, cubed.
4 Tbsp. Flour
4 C. Chicken Broth
1/4 C. Skim Milk
1 can Tomato Sauce (The 13 oz. can, I believe)
1 Tsp. Olive Oil
3 1/2 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1 Tsp. Cumin
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
A Pinch of Salt
A Pinch of a Spicy Seasoning of your choice (I prefer Arizona Red & Black Pepper)
Shredded cheese of choice (Cheddar or CoJack are best).
In a large bowl, mix chicken broth, milk, tomato sauce, chili powder, garlic, cumin, salt, and your spicy seasoning of choice. Stir thoroughly, then set aside.
Heat Olive Oil in a 1 qt. saucepan. Add chicken, and brown very lightly (the chicken should be cooked through, but not yet brown outside), stirring constantly. Add in flour, stirring constantly, and cook; flour should absorb the moisture at the bottom of the pan and congeal around the chicken. Cook until the flour-coated chicken is very lightly brown.
Add in liquid ingredients, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. The resultant soup should be dark red with brown flecks throughout, and when scooped onto a normal soup spoon, should be entirely opaque.
Serve in a bowl or cup with shredded cheese of choice, with warm crescent rolls or potato buns on the side (for dipping). If the soup is too spicy for anyone, add more cheese to their portion; it'll cool the heat.
The average lion is approximately 190 cm long and 60 cm wide = 11400 cm2 = 0.00000114 km2
Now, if we take that times a trillion we get 11,400,000 km2 of lion.
Favorite food: Sourdough bread!
Expertise: Baking - bread in particular - and making desserts are my area, and a little general knowledge of simple cooking.
History with food: It's hard not to be a foodie when you're living and grew up in California's wine country. I attended culinary school for baking/pastry certification, and am now the baker at a local "cupcakery."
Hmm, that seems too short. Not sure what else I'd want to add. Anyone have good ideas?
I think one important adition to the bio would be "Future goals". Every cook aspires to improve, and it would be interesting and helpful to see what people would like to get better at.
Favorite beverage and cuisine could be potentials as well.
Here is my bio
Favorite Food: Panang curry, Paneer Korma, and really good pizza. Favorite Beverage: I'm a coffee snob. *sipping on a locally roasted Brazilian as I type this* Favorite Cuisine: Thai and Indian Expertese: Thai cuisine, grilling. History with Food: I'm completly self taught. I didn't grow up in a cooking family, but developed a great passion for various ethnic cuisine as I grew older. I also love traveling and am naturally curious about cultures in general. I find that there is no better way to bond with a culture than to spend time with it's people, and sharing food with them. Future goals: I want to become a smoked bbq master. I'm talking traditional, southern style bbq here, slow smoked.
@Infinitive. That sounds good. Have you ever considered adding some fried corn tortillas instead of flour? They will break down in the soup and add a wonderful richness while thickening it.
@Infinitive. That sounds good. Have you ever considered adding some fried corn tortillas instead of flour? They will break down in the soup and add a wonderful richness while thickening it.
I actually have done that before with similar soups, and it's really quite good. They add a nice, subtle corn flavor, too, which works well with the seasonings.
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[16:23] Alacar Leoricar: maybe if you do it'll make the porn more meaningful
@Shaharazad: Your bio is deliciously in my taste [/horrible wordplay]. Perhaps you could PM me some recipes etc. for when I get out of here... (Thai and barbecue? Odd combination, but I won't argue... ;))
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[Imagine scantily-clad women in a leud embrace,
one stretched out and victim to a chokehold of the other,
both with big stupid grins spreading across their faces.]
@Infinitive. That sounds good. Have you ever considered adding some fried corn tortillas instead of flour? They will break down in the soup and add a wonderful richness while thickening it.
Unfortunately, the way that the soup is made, I don't think that it'll really work that way. If you'll note the recipe again, the flour goes in and is actually cooked onto the chicken before the rest of the liquid ingredients are added; what the flour does is absorb the extra chicken juice and excess olive oil, then bind them so that that neither interferes excessively with the flavor of the soup. Further, the portions used when adding the flour scale to the liquid in the pot that comes as a result of browning the chicken, not in proportion to the rest of the soup.
It is true that the flour dissolves off of the chicken as the soup simmers subsequently, but when you actually finish serving the soup and go to clean out the pot, you'll see that most of the flour you added is stuck to the bottom of the pan in little dumplings (which is what it's supposed to do); the thickness of this soup comes from boiling it down.
If you'd like to try that corn tortilla you mentioned, feel free (and tell me afterwards!). However, do note that if you're getting a vigorous boil during the simmering process, you're cooking it too high, and you'll end up with a soup that is much too spicy; I'm afraid that if you add the tortilla, even right at the boiling point, that there won't be enough time and action to dissolve it completely before the soup is ready.
The average lion is approximately 190 cm long and 60 cm wide = 11400 cm2 = 0.00000114 km2
Now, if we take that times a trillion we get 11,400,000 km2 of lion.
You can post or PM the bios, whichever you prefer; I'm easy. I like the proposed additions, and will get those posted thus far edited in.
Just thought of another one: vegetarianism scale. On one end would be a strong preference for meat, on the other is vegan, and in between there's "prefer plants, but not to the exclusion of meats" or however you'd like to describe your dietary habits.
That soup sounds awesome, Infinitive. For a moment I was thinking it didn't look all that spicy - and then I saw the tablespoon+ of chili powder. It's right up my alley...
Edit: Stark! Quick desserts. You could go with pastry cream and fruit. Really, it's best to put it into a baked tart shell, which you could do in under a half hour at one point if you put the shell together over time, but it's not truly necessary.
2 c milk
4 tblsp butter
0.5 c sugar
5 egg yolks
2 tblsp cornstarch
2 tblsp flour
Whisk the yolks with the sugar until combined, then whisk in flour and cornstarch until combined, while bringing the milk and butter to a boil in a pot. Then, temper the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, then pour it back into the pot. Over medium-high heat, whisk constantly until it thickens and boils. Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl. Flavor to taste with extracts, juices, zest, melted chocolate, and so on. Cover halfway with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool. If covered in refrigerator, keeps for a few days at least.
Tempering, in this case, means stirring a small portion of the hot liquid to brink the eggs up to the higher temperature more slowly and avoid them curdling. I do it in two stages - maybe half a cup at first, then when that's stirred in, put in about half of the remaining liquid and stir that together, and then pour the yolk/liquid back into the pot with the rest of the liquid.
Important things to remember: don't whisk it too long or it'll break down and begin to curdle. Just get it to boil and stop - it should be thick enough at that point (you just need it to be thicker than it was when you started - it'll get thick in refrigeration). Whisk pretty quickly as you get it there, being sure to get at the surface of the pot to avoid any curdling.
You can flavor it in a number of ways - the one above is just the simplest. You can infuse it by putting an aromatic (vanilla bean pods, star anise, ginger root, that sort of thing) in with the milk, letting that sit, covered, for 5-15 minutes after boiling depending on desired strength, removing the aromatic, and reboiling. You could chop chocolate fairly small, put it into the bowl you'll be pouring the hot, thickened custard into, and stir it for a few moments after you've poured that hot product onto it.
Chocolate pastry cream with fresh strawberries, maybe a little Chantilly cream (whip cream and sugar to soft peak with a 1c cream:1tblsp sugar ratio, can be flavored with extracts/juices/zests to taste) sounds pretty good.
I've got a dark chocolate sorbet which, if you're a fan of dark chocolate, is very good, and goes surprisingly fast. Very simple: boil 7 oz dark chocolate (60-70% cacao), 2 cups water and 0.5 cups sugar for two minutes. Now, normally you'd put this sort of thing into an ice cream freezer, but the last time I did it, I put it a metal bowl in an ice water bath (a bowl, which itself was in a larger bowl full of ice). Within minutes I was getting frozen sorbet on the outer end, so I'd guess that some stirring (this can be gentle, but more vigorous is safer as far as preventing large ice crystals) would get you a good sorbet in minutes. Just be sure that the bowl the sorbet is in is metal, and if the outer bowl is heat-proof, all the better. You might even be able to just throw it in a freezer, but it could wreck it with large ice crystals and I'm not so adventurous. And know that as there's almost no added sugar (which allows it to freeze at higher temperatures - most American homemade ice creams melt quick because of how much sugar is thrown in; one might try removing the sugar altogether for this hand method) it is a very dark cocoa flavor.
Granita might be just the thing, though. No stirring or anything, just freeze it hard overnight (~6 hours, depending on the freezer and the recipe). When you want some, either put it in a food processor for a few seconds or scrape off some with a fork (the fork method ends up like west coast Italy - quite crunchy, still great). Most last for quite some time. If you're interested, I've got recipes for the following flavors: coffee, berry, root beer, green tea, red wine with citrus, and green apple. I'm sure there are loads more on the Internet.
And, as a general thing with me and my recipes, feel free to ask questions, anyone, if I'm going too fast or not making sense.
Requesting a recipe for the root beer and the green apple granita's as well, those seem right up my alley.
Favorite Food: Agh, so many! Probably either well made pizza, especially, homemade, or a nice bbq beef brisket. My dad's grilled hamburgers put up a good fight as well. Favorite Drink: Plain, old soda. Favorite Cuisine: I'll eat anything really. Certain Thai places are good, Indian food is good. I don't like anything too spicy however. Expertise: Desserts. Especially fudge, but also including cookies, brownies, and the occasional brownie.
I also enjoy making a grilled cheese with bacon sandwich every once in a while History: My dad cooks a lot, so I often help out with the food. I made a lot of cookies and such when I was little, and recently started making more things. Goals: Making more... fancy meals you could say. Not a lot other than that. Vegetarianism Scale: From 1 to 10, where 1 is vegetarian, I think I would place around a 7.5. Veggies are good, as long as they are raw - cooked vegetables, blech. I also love bbq, so I guess I am mainly a meat eater.
So, you like good, homemade pizza, Stark? Try this one on for size- it's easy as heck.
Calzones
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Serves 2-3, depending on how hungry you all are
Ingredients:
½ can Pizza Sauce (Contada Original, for preference)
1 packet Betty Crocker Pizza Crust Mix
6-8 oz. Shredded Cheese
Flour
Pizza Toppings of choice
Cooking Spray
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare pizza crust mix per the instructions on the back of the packet. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with the cooking spray.
When the pizza crust has finished rising, take a little more than half of it and roll it out thin with a floured rolling pin. When you’re done, it should be about the thickness of two credit cards stacked on top of each other (or, rather, how thick they would be without the raised lettering). Place this sheet of pizza crust on the cookie sheet. Add pizza sauce and cheese, leaving at least ¼ inch of open pizza crust on all sides. After this, add whatever toppings you prefer on your pizza. (Note: if you put the cheese on the sauce and your toppings on the cheese, the sauce and melted cheese will mix in the oven and taste really great!)
Roll out the remaining pizza crust with your floured rolling pin. If it is thinner than the first sheet, that’s okay. Place the second sheet over top the first and the ingredients, and then roll the bottom edge over the top to seal the packet. Make sure to get all sides, and do NOT poke any ventilation holes; if you do, the sauce and cheese will not properly mix.
Place the calzone in the oven and bake 10-12 minutes until the crust is just turning brown (a bit past golden brown). Remove from oven, poke a hole in the top layer, and let sit for 5 minutes. Slice in half and serve.
The average lion is approximately 190 cm long and 60 cm wide = 11400 cm2 = 0.00000114 km2
Now, if we take that times a trillion we get 11,400,000 km2 of lion.
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MTGSalivation is the clan devoted to those delightful comestibles what offer excellent taste sensations - that is to say, food. Here, the main course of discussion is everything food-related from that nice restaurant last night to a wonderful pasta dish we served, and related conversation on the side.
Membership and friendship is currently quite open. Posting without either is fine so long as it's tasteful and infrequent, and don't be afraid to apply in such posting, or PM, for membership and friendship. As we become busy, reservations may become necessary - that is to say, policy subject to change; we're a young clan.
Members:
Ahasver
akmage
avery61
davidboan
Infinitive
Jackermeister
Kankennon
omnivore
Pinoy_Guy
Shaharazad
Stark
Wint3rfr3sh
Yurei
Zith (Founder, Representative)
Friends:
Blane Firehand
Boros
Callaway
Emo_Pinata
Frenger
glurman
kpaca
KrackShott
makingnotches
Mamelon
Photon Eater
Psi
Ravus
RosalinaDracovitch
Skajetolaf
Svogthir
The Descent
Zaphod
Bios:
Favorite Beverage: This is a rough one for me. I'm a snob when it comes to coffee, wine, beer, cocktails, spirits, and water. That covers everything but soda really... though even then I have things that I wouldn't drink...
Favorite Cuisine: I'm a hardcore gormet. I don't know if that counts as a cuisine, but I'm always looking for places to try.
Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm solidly in the middle. I would never give up meat, but I'm not afraid to eat vegitarian dishes.
Expertise: I'm rough at desserts, but I'm very solid at appetizers and main courses.
History with Food: My food history sucks. I've always had a passion for food, and I've always wanted to learn how, but my family was more of a cook it from a box family. I had to teahc myself the basics, and I'm just now moving on to much more advanced techniques.
Future Goals: To improve my equipment. I'm not exactly cooking with absolute junk, but at the very least I need a good knife set. Working with what I have is needlessly difficult. My list of restaurants to go to is getting a bit long too... I should work harder at actually getting to some of them.
Favorite Beverage: Coffee. i drink coffee like most people drink water.
How i became a foodie: Work. I've worked in either catering, restaraunts or fast food for the last 10 years
Expertise: None, I've done alot of bits and peices
Goal: To improve my dessert skills
Specialty: Meats & Soups. In particular, I tend to do well with grilled foods (duh, being a guy), slow-roasted stuff (Especially dutch oven cooking), and long-term marinades. As far as soups are concerned, I like thick, highly flavorful soups; my two favorites are my Spicy Chicken Enchilada soup and my Baked Potato soup (adapted from a recipe I got from my girlfriends' family).
Favorite Beverage: Call be a simplist, but I just plain enjoy a coke with grenadine.
Favorite cooking trick: Adding about 2-3 oz. of crappy red wine and a couple of spices to an out-of-the-can crappy marinara sauce somehow magically transforms the resultant sauce into a genuinely gourmet-tasting red sauce. Seriously- I keep a couple of those little half-pint bottles of screw-top red wine in my fridge, just for when I make marinara sauce.
Future Goals: I actually don't have specific goals in cooking. My family has a long, long history of experimentation and refinement through serial modification of a starter recipe; we call it "Adventures in Good Eating," and really only stop once we've gotten something just the way we collectively like it. As such, I suppose that the closest thing I have to a goal is to continue to try new things, and when I like what I try, to tweak it into something magnificent.
Favorite Beverage: Coffee, Diet Coke, or Crystal Light. I drink all of them no more often than I drink another.
How i became a foodie: Food has just always been a love/passion of mine. Hopefully some day I'll be able to have an influence on someone else to be a foodie as well.
Expertise: I'm kinda well known for my recipes for pancakes, and my overall style of making them.
Goal: I wish to become a better cook overall, and not just a good baker, since that's where a lot of my focus has been lately.
Favorite Drink: I'd have to say, after a very long talk with myself in front of a mirror, would be chocolate banana shake. Well Blended, with extra banana bits.
Expertise: Even though I'm only 14, I've done my fair share of Culinary Courses during the summer. Hit me up with anything italian and local (philippine).
History: I grew up loving food. Not just eating it, but making it... Tasting it... Feeling it... YUM!
Future Goals: Practice making rice. I can't seem to make it the way mom makes it...
Favorite Celebrity Chef: Has got to be Mario Batali! Muy! Muy! Muy!
Favorite Beverage: I'm a coffee snob. *sipping on a locally roasted Brazilian as I type this*
Favorite Cuisine: Thai and Indian
Expertese: Thai cuisine, grilling.
History with Food: I'm completly self taught. I didn't grow up in a cooking family, but developed a great passion for various ethnic cuisine as I grew older. I also love traveling and am naturally curious about cultures in general. I find that there is no better way to bond with a culture than to spend time with it's people, and sharing food with them.
Future goals: I want to become a smoked bbq master. I'm talking traditional, southern style bbq here, slow smoked.
Favorite Food: Agh, so many! Probably either well made pizza, especially, homemade, or a nice bbq beef brisket. My dad's grilled hamburgers put up a good fight as well.
Favorite Drink: Plain, old soda.
Favorite Cuisine: I'll eat anything really. Certain Thai places are good, Indian food is good. I don't like anything too spicy however.
Expertise: Desserts. Especially fudge, but also including cookies, brownies, and the occasional brownie.
I also enjoy making a grilled cheese with bacon sandwich every once in a while
History: My dad cooks a lot, so I often help out with the food. I made a lot of cookies and such when I was little, and recently started making more things.
Goals: Making more... fancy meals you could say. Not a lot other than that.
Vegetarianism Scale: From 1 to 10, where 1 is vegetarian, I think I would place around a 7.5. Veggies are good, as long as they are raw - cooked vegetables, blech. I also love bbq, so I guess I am mainly a meat eater.
Favorite Beverage: water I guess, im trying to loose weight so im staying away from sodas and such and im not old enough to drink =(
Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not a vegetarian but i love some of the food, altho tofu isnt my thing
Favorite White Trash Food: cheese fries I guess with cheese wiz on the bottom toped with motz and bacon
Expertise: that would probly hafto be apetizers, they're my favorite to cook atleast
History with Food: My mom always cooks dinner and finds something new to make every night, so i grew up loving to try new things and thats what led me to cooking
Future Goals: Manage a restaurant (I dont think I can take the stress of preparing food fast im a realy slow cook XD)
Favorite Restaurant (so far): http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/
Favorite Celebrity Chef: Alton brown because i like how he explains how stuff works.
Favorite Beverage: hot tea mainly. Not a coffee drinker at all, though I do have a passion for good cream soda and root beer as well.
Favorite Cuisine: It's a tie between Mexican and Asian (including Indian)
Expertise: I don't think I particularly excel anywhere. I'm not really an avid baker. When I want brownies, it's just easy to go grab a box mix, but for someone's birthday ro a special occasion I bake from scratch. I'm more of a stir fry kind of person, working by taste more than recipe, though i do make some good italian food and soups and such.
History with Food: Every woman in my family for several generations back has been learning to cook since a child. Some of us are better at it than others, and some of us do it more than others. Currently i'm not actively cooking very often since I live with my Grandmother, and her food is da bomb. I took 2/3 years of Culinary Arts at my High School, we had a 4 star (allegedly) restaurant attached to the school that we worked in, both the front and back of the house. I also spent 2 weeks in South America a few summers ago, and i have to say I really enjoy that Andean cooking, minus the fish. I don't particularly care for fish. The Alpaca though, is phenominal. My parents are active Native Americans, and i've tried a lot of game through them- from beaver to buffalo to anything with antlers. Bison and antlered animal meat is so much better than beef.
Future goals: none really, other than to just continually try and improve my skills. Being able to chop faster would be helpful.
Favorite beverage: Mint Julep (virgin, for now)
Vegetarian Spectrum: No inclinations for or against meats, but I do love fruits.
Expertise: Baking - bread in particular - and making desserts are my area, and a little general knowledge of simple cooking.
History with Food: It's hard not to be a foodie when you've lived in California's wine country for the past 17 years. I attended culinary school for baking/pastry certification, and am now the baker at a local "cupcakery."
Future Goals: Further hone my skills, and to be a boulanger (that is, a bread-baker), though I wonder lately if glacier (frozens, like ice cream) would be more my style. Well, and participate in the Coupe de Mounde de la Boulangerie, but that's more of a dream than a goal.
Favorite Beverage: Kreutzburg Beer or a Highlander (whiskey cocktail). I don't drink much, but alcoholic drinks are my favorite, and these two top the chart.
Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not vegetarian at all, but I have not eaten meat in four days as of writing this. I will never avoid meat, but I don't necessarily need it.
Favorite White Trash Food: Pigs in a Blanket. The version that is hotdogs and cheese wrapped in Pilsbury crescent rolls, not breakfast sausage in canned biscuits.
Expertise: I'm great at baking breads and at meat and vegetable dishes.
History with Food: Food's not big in my family, so I grew up teaching myself different recipies and techniques. I have since learned a lot from my wife who has a large family with a long history in food.
Future Goals: To take some courses in a few world cuisines (japanese, chinese, french, german, etc.), sushi, dim sum, and bread baking. I want to start a retirement business later in life with my wife that is either a gourmet restaurant or a bakery/cafe with my wife.
Favorite Restaurant (so far): Tribute Restaurant
Favorite Celebrity Chef: Alton Brown. Not the best food or recipies, but his show is very informative and entertaining.
Favorite Beverage: Blonde Beer (I only like to drink when it's with a good meal.)
Vegetarian Spectrum: I've been vegetarian for about 5 years, although for the past 2 years I've been eating fish.
Favorite White Trash Food: Definitely grilled hamburgers, though I don't eat them anymore. One of the only meats I miss eating.
Expertise: I can make pretty simple dishes by myself, pasta, omelettes, curry, pad thai, and I can grill vegetables pretty well in a wok. I also know how to roll my own sushi and cook the rice.
History with Food: My mom worked for a catering business for 15 years and now runs a restaurant that's owned by the same caterer. I worked in that restaurant for 1 year where I learned how to use knives (but I was mostly a server).
Future Goals: Pass the Baccalauréat and get into University.
Favorite Restaurant (so far): Sushi Ota, San Diego CA
Favorite Celebrity Chef: I don't have a tv.
Favorite Beverage: Southern Sweet Tea, or A dry martini, dirty
Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not vegetarian, at all. Not even close. I eat meat every meal.
Favorite White Trash Food: Microwave nachos made on Dorito's corn ships
Expertise: Cajun/Southern food, and chicken.
History with Food: My mom is 100% Cajun, and I was raised in Louisiana, so I have a large ethnic history with food. I also worked for two years at a chicken finger restaraunt, which is surprisingly where I learned knife skills (chopping vegetables and chicken breast).
Future Goals: After I retire (hopefully from the U.S. Senate or from a Law practice), I would like to own a soul food restaurant in Baton Rouge.
Favorite Restaurant (so far): Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Favorite Celebrity Chef: Emirel. Or that Guy Feirieirei dude.
Favorite Beverage: Sweet tea, sweet iced tea. I enjoy the occasional Mt. Dew.
Vegetarian Spectrum: I'm not vegetarian, buy my girlfriend is. I therefore eat a lot of vegetables.
Favorite White Trash Food:
Expertise: Sweets, especially baked. I'm a master!
History with Food: I've taken a few cooking classes for fun, and I have spent a few weeks with a friend of mines dad, who is a chef in 5 star restaurant. (He's straight from France!)
Future Goals: I'd like to run my own shop at some point, books and gaming. I would also love to run a small bake shop.
Favorite Restaurant (so far): A tasty place known as the Chocolate Grill, sadly now closed.
Favorite Celebrity Chef: I don't really have one, but the guy that eats bizarre food is awesome. (Andrew Zimmerman?)
Is your bio not up here? Submit yours via post or PM (or poke me via PM if you've done that already ;)).
If we do bios, I've got to have Thai cook referenced in mine somehow
I realized something about Food network. My favorite show on there is Anthony Bourdains no reservations. I love travel, and sure, his show is great in that aspect as he tends to be a true traveler and not so much a tourist (and there is a fine distinction there). But I also get a sense that he really knows his food. I imagine he could cook circles around many of the networks stars.
I remember seeing the show occasionally before it moved to food network, but it's more conveniant for me, somehow, on the new chanel.
And guys, I'm so happy this clan exists.
Unfortunately, I'm currently undergoing a surgery that won't allow me to eat any tasties for at least this week. However, this is the last of such surgeries, so I'll be back to eating the stomach-rotting yummies I so very much enjoy to eat (possibly why my colon was so bad in the first place :uhh:)!
We'll have them up soon (I hope). Not sure if we should do bios for friends - we'll probably get a lot of them over time - but you definitely deserve high honors for starting the thread what caused this clan to be. Maybe you'll be part of a special group known as The Super Friends! We'll see.
You know, I didn't think anything could be greater than win, but you might be right about this one.
How awful. And, though many tasties are actually healthy, it seems that the best tasties are bad for us.
I avoid any responsibility for eating unhealthy goodness by blaming our evolution: why would our bodies do that to us? Stupid sense of taste, making me want the delicious desserts.
The thread is open.
Now, I have a question:
What would be a good, simple (i.e. less than 30-45 min) that requires not that much cooking skill, and no special utensils other than the obvious things like mixers, oven, etc.
Suggestions?
Edit: Woops. My bad.
I'm looking for a dessert to make, preferably something that will keep fora day or two.
Pretty much anything in the way of Asian food, which, not only do you not need their utensils, but it's often quite tasty (and, if you do it right, quite spicy! *salivate*).
If it's dinner, learning your spices for rubs and such on small or thin pieces of meat like chicken breasts, pork chops and thin cuts of beef cooked on the stove could be what you're looking for. A good dressing can quickly make a simple salad taste great, and while you can buy them, it's another that can be thrown together really quick. And Asian dishes, as said above, are often quick (and, unfortunately, not in the realm of my experience).
If it's dessert, it's pretty difficult. I'll have to think on it, but simple puddings are most of what's coming off the top of my head.
Many things can be prepped beforehand, stored in your fridge/freezer, in some cases for days, and you could then get the final step done in a short period. And if you're able to work on and item for 5-10 minutes at intervals and leave it to do its thing for the most of it, there are even more options available.
Italy? ****, America has all your food plus all the rest of the world's food. Not to mention succulent southern barbecue... mmm...
DAMNIT WHY CAN'T I EAT THIS SURGERY IS TORTURE! I didn't remember just how horrible this is until I started not eating again. Oh well. Hopefully I can eat at least pseudo-tasties in two days.
You could bake some nice fish in about half an hour depending on the size of the fish. If you can get whole fish stuff some lemon or orange zest (gives it a nice zing) in through the gills, wrap in tin foil and bake in medium to high temp oven. You would have time to make a nice side salad while the fish is baking.
Titles
Biographies
Image
Sig Image(s)
The titles and bios are easy enough. If you can think of a title you'd like to have, feel free to ask. Perhaps we should have a majority member approval for whether a title should be granted... not sure. What does MTGSali' think on that topic?
For the bio, it shouldn't be too long, but whatever you'd like to give is good. Most of the info I'd think to put in a bio is: favorite cuisine and/or favorite food (if you can choose one; I know it's hard), what food activities you'd say you're good with (and simply "eating" is a fine answer! :D), and a sentence or two of a brief history of you and food (how you came to be a foodie, were you ever a professional cook, etc). Feel free to add to that, or pass on it, as much as you like.
My bio would then be....
Expertise: Baking - bread in particular - and making desserts are my area, and a little general knowledge of simple cooking.
History with food: It's hard not to be a foodie when you're living and grew up in California's wine country. I attended culinary school for baking/pastry certification, and am now the baker at a local "cupcakery."
Imagery: I'm not all that hot with image editors. I mean, I messed around in GIMP for my avatar, but I don't think I'd be able to produce something worth showing off. Is someone here good with that?
I did have an idea for a simplistic image: take the new MTGS logo that's in the upper right, but replace the color dots in that circle with foods of the appropriate colors. Not much, but it's an idea.
I'm not sure on the title thing.
Do you want the bio posted or PM'd to you
I like your image idea.
I can't help on sig images but would love one if we do them
I'm actually watching Bourdain as we speak on Travel Channel (a favorite of mine). Right now, it's an episode about Ghana, a country that is close to my heart due to some people I came to know in my teen years. African food is seriously an experience! I highly recommend it, but that's neither here not there. Yeah, he's sort of a jerk, but a lovable jerk, for the most part.
Meanwhile, friend me up! I'm not a total foodie (unlike my sister), but I certainly like to dabble and try new things, particular all varieties of teas. I'm also a big fan of soups and stews and love experimenting with new recipes for both.
Clan info:
Favorite food: Chicken Parmesan, heavy on the marinara sauce.
Specialty: Meats & Soups. In particular, I tend to do well with grilled foods (duh, being a guy), slow-roasted stuff (Especially dutch oven cooking), and long-term marinades. As far as soups are concerned, I like thick, highly flavorful soups; my two favorites are my Spicy Chicken Enchilada soup and my Baked Potato soup (adapted from a recipe I got from my girlfriends' family).
Favorite Beverage: Call me a simplist, but I just plain enjoy a coke with grenadine.
Favorite cooking trick: Adding about 2-3 oz. of crappy red wine and a couple of spices to an out-of-the-can crappy marinara sauce somehow magically transforms the resultant sauce into a genuinely gourmet-tasting red sauce. Seriously- I keep a couple of those little half-pint bottles of screw-top red wine in my fridge, just for when I make marinara sauce.
Future Goals: I actually don't have specific goals in cooking. My family has a long, long history of experimentation and refinement through serial modification of a starter recipe; we call it "Adventures in Good Eating," and really only stop once we've gotten something just the way we collectively like it. As such, I suppose that the closest thing I have to a goal is to continue to try new things, and when I like what I try, to tweak it into something magnificent.
Edit: Added info to bio, threw it into spoiler tags.
Magnificent Quote of the day:
Those both sound amazing. Care to share a recipe?
Zith, should we pm you our bios or post them here?
Cilantro soup with a hint of asperagus and parmesian. It was wonderful. I think it was beef based, and home made (they didn't even skimp on the salt). It was great. Unfortunately, some of the other dishes were not as good.
I did love the honey BBQ braised beef brisquet with coconut creamed corn, though.
Hey now, don't be messin' with America's cheese! I'm a Wisconsonian, I know my cheese (hell, after I get done with this surgery, I'm going back to the Cheese Factory... seriously, not that everyone in Wisconsin works on cheese, it's just an ironic twist of cheesy fate).
I agree we may not have the best of each individual foodstuff, but... yeah hell. Anyway: @Descent: Who (especially someone in a clan like this) goes to a foreign country and has their own nation's food?
Wait a minute... enchilada soup?! Ooh! Recipe please. Oh, and the braised briscuit... *drool* I don't know if I'm going to be able to read this thread if I can't eat...
Spicy Chicken Enchilada Soup
Serves 2 (as a whole meal) or 4 (If serving as a side).
Prep Time: Approx. 40 minutes.
Ingredients:
1 Chicken Breast, boneless & skinless, cubed.
4 Tbsp. Flour
4 C. Chicken Broth
1/4 C. Skim Milk
1 can Tomato Sauce (The 13 oz. can, I believe)
1 Tsp. Olive Oil
3 1/2 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1 Tsp. Cumin
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
A Pinch of Salt
A Pinch of a Spicy Seasoning of your choice (I prefer Arizona Red & Black Pepper)
Shredded cheese of choice (Cheddar or CoJack are best).
In a large bowl, mix chicken broth, milk, tomato sauce, chili powder, garlic, cumin, salt, and your spicy seasoning of choice. Stir thoroughly, then set aside.
Heat Olive Oil in a 1 qt. saucepan. Add chicken, and brown very lightly (the chicken should be cooked through, but not yet brown outside), stirring constantly. Add in flour, stirring constantly, and cook; flour should absorb the moisture at the bottom of the pan and congeal around the chicken. Cook until the flour-coated chicken is very lightly brown.
Add in liquid ingredients, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. The resultant soup should be dark red with brown flecks throughout, and when scooped onto a normal soup spoon, should be entirely opaque.
Serve in a bowl or cup with shredded cheese of choice, with warm crescent rolls or potato buns on the side (for dipping). If the soup is too spicy for anyone, add more cheese to their portion; it'll cool the heat.
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I think one important adition to the bio would be "Future goals". Every cook aspires to improve, and it would be interesting and helpful to see what people would like to get better at.
Favorite beverage and cuisine could be potentials as well.
Here is my bio
Favorite Food: Panang curry, Paneer Korma, and really good pizza.
Favorite Beverage: I'm a coffee snob. *sipping on a locally roasted Brazilian as I type this*
Favorite Cuisine: Thai and Indian
Expertese: Thai cuisine, grilling.
History with Food: I'm completly self taught. I didn't grow up in a cooking family, but developed a great passion for various ethnic cuisine as I grew older. I also love traveling and am naturally curious about cultures in general. I find that there is no better way to bond with a culture than to spend time with it's people, and sharing food with them.
Future goals: I want to become a smoked bbq master. I'm talking traditional, southern style bbq here, slow smoked.
@Infinitive. That sounds good. Have you ever considered adding some fried corn tortillas instead of flour? They will break down in the soup and add a wonderful richness while thickening it.
I actually have done that before with similar soups, and it's really quite good. They add a nice, subtle corn flavor, too, which works well with the seasonings.
Unfortunately, the way that the soup is made, I don't think that it'll really work that way. If you'll note the recipe again, the flour goes in and is actually cooked onto the chicken before the rest of the liquid ingredients are added; what the flour does is absorb the extra chicken juice and excess olive oil, then bind them so that that neither interferes excessively with the flavor of the soup. Further, the portions used when adding the flour scale to the liquid in the pot that comes as a result of browning the chicken, not in proportion to the rest of the soup.
It is true that the flour dissolves off of the chicken as the soup simmers subsequently, but when you actually finish serving the soup and go to clean out the pot, you'll see that most of the flour you added is stuck to the bottom of the pan in little dumplings (which is what it's supposed to do); the thickness of this soup comes from boiling it down.
If you'd like to try that corn tortilla you mentioned, feel free (and tell me afterwards!). However, do note that if you're getting a vigorous boil during the simmering process, you're cooking it too high, and you'll end up with a soup that is much too spicy; I'm afraid that if you add the tortilla, even right at the boiling point, that there won't be enough time and action to dissolve it completely before the soup is ready.
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Just thought of another one: vegetarianism scale. On one end would be a strong preference for meat, on the other is vegan, and in between there's "prefer plants, but not to the exclusion of meats" or however you'd like to describe your dietary habits.
That soup sounds awesome, Infinitive. For a moment I was thinking it didn't look all that spicy - and then I saw the tablespoon+ of chili powder. It's right up my alley...
Edit: Stark! Quick desserts. You could go with pastry cream and fruit. Really, it's best to put it into a baked tart shell, which you could do in under a half hour at one point if you put the shell together over time, but it's not truly necessary.
4 tblsp butter
0.5 c sugar
5 egg yolks
2 tblsp cornstarch
2 tblsp flour
Whisk the yolks with the sugar until combined, then whisk in flour and cornstarch until combined, while bringing the milk and butter to a boil in a pot. Then, temper the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, then pour it back into the pot. Over medium-high heat, whisk constantly until it thickens and boils. Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl. Flavor to taste with extracts, juices, zest, melted chocolate, and so on. Cover halfway with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool. If covered in refrigerator, keeps for a few days at least.
Important things to remember: don't whisk it too long or it'll break down and begin to curdle. Just get it to boil and stop - it should be thick enough at that point (you just need it to be thicker than it was when you started - it'll get thick in refrigeration). Whisk pretty quickly as you get it there, being sure to get at the surface of the pot to avoid any curdling.
You can flavor it in a number of ways - the one above is just the simplest. You can infuse it by putting an aromatic (vanilla bean pods, star anise, ginger root, that sort of thing) in with the milk, letting that sit, covered, for 5-15 minutes after boiling depending on desired strength, removing the aromatic, and reboiling. You could chop chocolate fairly small, put it into the bowl you'll be pouring the hot, thickened custard into, and stir it for a few moments after you've poured that hot product onto it.
Chocolate pastry cream with fresh strawberries, maybe a little Chantilly cream (whip cream and sugar to soft peak with a 1c cream:1tblsp sugar ratio, can be flavored with extracts/juices/zests to taste) sounds pretty good.
I've got a dark chocolate sorbet which, if you're a fan of dark chocolate, is very good, and goes surprisingly fast. Very simple: boil 7 oz dark chocolate (60-70% cacao), 2 cups water and 0.5 cups sugar for two minutes. Now, normally you'd put this sort of thing into an ice cream freezer, but the last time I did it, I put it a metal bowl in an ice water bath (a bowl, which itself was in a larger bowl full of ice). Within minutes I was getting frozen sorbet on the outer end, so I'd guess that some stirring (this can be gentle, but more vigorous is safer as far as preventing large ice crystals) would get you a good sorbet in minutes. Just be sure that the bowl the sorbet is in is metal, and if the outer bowl is heat-proof, all the better. You might even be able to just throw it in a freezer, but it could wreck it with large ice crystals and I'm not so adventurous. And know that as there's almost no added sugar (which allows it to freeze at higher temperatures - most American homemade ice creams melt quick because of how much sugar is thrown in; one might try removing the sugar altogether for this hand method) it is a very dark cocoa flavor.
Granita might be just the thing, though. No stirring or anything, just freeze it hard overnight (~6 hours, depending on the freezer and the recipe). When you want some, either put it in a food processor for a few seconds or scrape off some with a fork (the fork method ends up like west coast Italy - quite crunchy, still great). Most last for quite some time. If you're interested, I've got recipes for the following flavors: coffee, berry, root beer, green tea, red wine with citrus, and green apple. I'm sure there are loads more on the Internet.
And, as a general thing with me and my recipes, feel free to ask questions, anyone, if I'm going too fast or not making sense.
Requesting a recipe for the root beer and the green apple granita's as well, those seem right up my alley.
Favorite Food: Agh, so many! Probably either well made pizza, especially, homemade, or a nice bbq beef brisket. My dad's grilled hamburgers put up a good fight as well.
Favorite Drink: Plain, old soda.
Favorite Cuisine: I'll eat anything really. Certain Thai places are good, Indian food is good. I don't like anything too spicy however.
Expertise: Desserts. Especially fudge, but also including cookies, brownies, and the occasional brownie.
I also enjoy making a grilled cheese with bacon sandwich every once in a while
History: My dad cooks a lot, so I often help out with the food. I made a lot of cookies and such when I was little, and recently started making more things.
Goals: Making more... fancy meals you could say. Not a lot other than that.
Vegetarianism Scale: From 1 to 10, where 1 is vegetarian, I think I would place around a 7.5. Veggies are good, as long as they are raw - cooked vegetables, blech. I also love bbq, so I guess I am mainly a meat eater.
Ingredients:
½ can Pizza Sauce (Contada Original, for preference)
1 packet Betty Crocker Pizza Crust Mix
6-8 oz. Shredded Cheese
Flour
Pizza Toppings of choice
Cooking Spray
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare pizza crust mix per the instructions on the back of the packet. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with the cooking spray.
When the pizza crust has finished rising, take a little more than half of it and roll it out thin with a floured rolling pin. When you’re done, it should be about the thickness of two credit cards stacked on top of each other (or, rather, how thick they would be without the raised lettering). Place this sheet of pizza crust on the cookie sheet. Add pizza sauce and cheese, leaving at least ¼ inch of open pizza crust on all sides. After this, add whatever toppings you prefer on your pizza. (Note: if you put the cheese on the sauce and your toppings on the cheese, the sauce and melted cheese will mix in the oven and taste really great!)
Roll out the remaining pizza crust with your floured rolling pin. If it is thinner than the first sheet, that’s okay. Place the second sheet over top the first and the ingredients, and then roll the bottom edge over the top to seal the packet. Make sure to get all sides, and do NOT poke any ventilation holes; if you do, the sauce and cheese will not properly mix.
Place the calzone in the oven and bake 10-12 minutes until the crust is just turning brown (a bit past golden brown). Remove from oven, poke a hole in the top layer, and let sit for 5 minutes. Slice in half and serve.
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