Food Glorious Food - The Cooking Thread

[batmom]

Thanks guys. Those are both great ideas.

I have a feeling that when I get a handle on meal planning, our grocery bill will also come down. We are spending a lot on food. Some of that is to be expected given that we have an active teen boy, but I'm sure that I could reduce it by at least 25% if we were organized.

[Carolinian]

One of my new year's resolutions was to waste less food. One way I did it was to check the fridge, note what meats etc had to be used soonest, and then make a short list of dishes that could be made with those foodstuffs. Right now my list reads: white sauce (milk I have to use); slaw, creamed cabbage (cabbage I have to use); pork pie (ground pork); pasta sauce, chili (thawed tomatoes); brats & peppers w/spicy tomato sauce (peppers from the garden, 1/2 C of leftover sauce, brats and buns in the freezer). I make my list and do recipe research when things are calm and then I can glance at it at mealtime and pick which items I feel like making.
I don't know if this approach would work for everyone (for instance, my husband doesn't fix himself food, he limits his snacking to crackers and cheese so I don't have key ingredients go missing) but it's helped me.

Semi-related question-- I harvested a LOT of butternut squash and some of them have a little damage so they are going to rot if I store them. I was thinking of cooking, mashing and freezing them. Can I substitute mashed butternut in pumpkin recipes, like pumpkin bread or pie?

[tabby]

Carolinian, I think you can substitute butternut squash for pumpkin. The flavor isn't going to be exactly the same, but a lot of the flavor in pumpkin bread comes from the spices, anyway. Maybe bump up the amount of spice if you think the flavor's too bland.

ETA: Excellent NY resolution, by the way. I should make that one for 2012.

[famvir]

Sept 30, 2011 14:02:15 GMT -4 Carolinian said:

Semi-related question-- I harvested a LOT of butternut squash and some of them have a little damage so they are going to rot if I store them. I was thinking of cooking, mashing and freezing them. Can I substitute mashed butternut in pumpkin recipes, like pumpkin bread or pie?

My favorite pie is my Scientologist pie, made with (L. Ron) Hubbard squash....butternut is almost identical. I make it the same as pumpkin pie, but use pepper is well as the other pumpkin pie spices. You can find recipes on the net, but I just do my regular pumpkin pie recipe with the addition of a 1 tsp of black pepper. I also use half and half instead of the condensed milk the recipe asks for...or even substitute whipping cream.

[roseland]

If you're family likes fish, I have a very simple, healthy fish recipe that's quick with very little prep time. You can use any mild fish you like. I use tilapia or catfish. All you do is saute the fish in a non-stick pan. I season the fish with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. When the fish is done, remove it from the pan. Add some chicken broth to the pan and let it simmer, scraping the bits of fish from the bottom of the pan. When the chicken broth starts to boil, add some honey mustard to the broth. This is all to taste, so start out with less than you think you might want and add more mustard until you get the taste you like. When the broth/mustard mix is at a slight boil, it's done. I usually serve the fish and sauce over rice and vegetables (I chop the vegetables and add them to the rice) but you could probably serve the vegetables on the side, also.

[batmom]

That sounds good. Thanks roseland.

I did a quick search on the sparkfood site and already found three, no pre-cooking required, crock pot recipes and book marked a couple others. yay!

[petitesuite]

batmom, if you want crockpot recipes and haven't heard of this blog, you should definitely check it out. My goal is to eventually try every recipe there.

[chitowngirl]

Can you freeze 1/2 and 1/2?

[chonies]

Oct 2, 2011 14:07:08 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

Can you freeze 1/2 and 1/2?

Yes. The only problem is that sometimes after thawing the fat globs don't thaw "right" so you might get a shimmery ring or two floating in coffee. It's only cosmetic, and it works just fine.

[WitchyPoo]

I made tacos last night. I already had some tortillas on hand that were half corn/half wheat. The texture, after frying, ended up more like a thin, puffy bread than a hard shell but they were darn tasty.

My guy ate four of them!