recipes

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

reading about Sassy's pies made me think that we should have a separate thread for recipes up for trade... and I'd like to know how the sweet potato pies turned out and if you're willing to share your recipe?  Not that I have any sweet potatoes on hand, but I could probably find some this time of year in the grocery store...

Here's the recipe for the cheesy tomato bread I made last night... I used about half ripe and half green tomatoes because I didn't have enough ripe ones:
2.5 cups of flour
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1 tsp. salt (I think I used less because cheese is usually salty enough)
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 T. aluminum free baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
1.5 cups diced tomatoes and juice
enough milk that when added to the tomato juice = 2/3 cup
2 eggs
1/4 c. oil
Mix dry ingredients and cheeses.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs, milk/juice mix, oil, and tomatoes.  Add tomato mix to dry ingredients and stir until well-mixed.  Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 75-80 minutes, if you can stand not tearing into it that long. 

[Sassy]

Yummm, sounds really good, I'll have to try it... 

Here's the recipe for sweet potato pie
INGREDIENTS:

    * 1 unbaked pastry shell, 9-inch
    * 3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
    * 1/4 cup butter
    * 1 1/4 cups sugar
    * 2 large eggs
    * 1/4 cup evaporated milk
    * 1 teaspoon nutmeg
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

PREPARATION:
Combine hot potatoes and butter in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Add sugar and eggs; blend with mixer on low speed until smooth. Add milk and spices. Blend well and pour into pastry-lined pie shell. Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes, or until firm.

If desired, top with miniature marshmallows the last 8 to 10 minutes of baking time and bake sweet potato pie until golden brown

There are a lot of recipes on the net for sweet potato pie & other dishes 

[StinkerBell]

I just gained weight reading this thread

[MountainDon]

Not so much a recipe than my favorite method of roasting a chicken. Works for a turkey too; just scale up the roasting times.
You need a rack for this, the adjustable cradle type is best.

Preheat oven to 400°F

Rinse chicken out, pat dry. Secure legs, wings so they don't flop around. Yes the bird should already be dead; you'll see what I mean in a sec.     Rub a little salt over the skin, pepper or garlic if you like. [this is for an unstuffed chicken]

Place the chicken on the rack, one side up, one leg on the high side in other words. Roast for 25 minutes for the first 4 lbs, plus 3 minutes for each lb over the first 4. Pull from oven and insert a large dowel or something into the cavity and rotate the chicken to place the other side up. Roast another 25 minutes, plus 3 minutes for each lb over 4 lb. Rotate chicken again this time placing the breasts up. Roast for 15 minutes to 30 or so, until done. Instant read thermometer reading of 170 - 175°F, or until the thigh juice runs clear when stuck.

Keeps the breast meat juicy while cooking the dark meat to just right.

[MountainDon]

If you love chocolate; here's a dessert we make on special occasions. But it's real easy you could make it anytime you can afford the caloric intake. 

1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 egg
2/3 Cup milk
2 TBsp of your favorite liquor (we love Amaretto most of all)
2 TBsp sugar
a pinch of salt

Place the chocolate chips, egg, sugar, liquor, salt in a blender. Set to one of the higher speeds.

Boil the milk. When it comes to boil, pour it in the blender, slap on the lid and zap it until all mixed well. It doesn't take too long. Decant into serving dishes or a single bowl. Your choice. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Enjoy!   [it's very rich and filling] 

(I've also used dark chocolate chips, but prefer at most a 50-50 mix. YMMV)

[benevolance]

Don

The beer can chicken/turkey cooker works pretty well too..

We tried to use spiced gravy in the can instead of beer and we like that better.. Keeps the chicken pretty moist...

usually if I want the chicken/ turkey to be really moist I just lemon pepper the living crap out of it all over.... and then tear off a piece of aluminum foil too large for covering the bird... and I put it over draped like a over sized bead spread on a bed... with it overflowing on both of the sides...

let me clarify that is what I do if I am not using the beer can roaster method... though sometimes with a chicken I use the can and a little foil on top...but I still coat it with lemon pepper.

I know you are not supposed to eat the skin of the chicken... but I love it coated in Lemon pepper and cooked in the over at 375 degrees....It gets nice and crispy not greasy at all...and if you leave the skin on the chicken retains more moisture...

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

  Our chicken baking/roasting method is similar, only lately I've been using a contraption a really strange man gave me in a restaurant one time.  I guess he'd invented it and had it mass produced right before the beer can stand roasters started getting popular, but then had a hard time selling it.  The first time I ran into this character it was in the grocery store where they were giving out free samples of some sausage.  When the lady asked me if I wanted to try it, I asked her if it had MSG in it and then  told her no thanks.  The guy and his wife overheard me and then chased me down and talked my ear off for half an hour in the grocery store.  He found out that I'd moved from Oklahoma and said, "Heh, well this must really be a step up, then!" at which point I decided I profoundly disliked him.  Six months later, I ran into this same fella again at a local restaurant, and my weirdo magnet kicked in and he went out of his way to start talking to me again about everything from his desire to legalize weed to his culinary talents... then he said, "Did I ever give you a 'flip the bird'?"  I thought about it for a minute and reasoned that while he'd been obnoxious and insulting, he'd never flipped me the bird.  He ran out to his car and came back with a steel frame that was tilted at a 45 degree angle, and told me to put the chicken on it breast side down over a cooking sheet.  As weird and annoying as he was, I have to say, he knows about cooking... it makes the best darn chicken I've ever tasted because all the juices run into the breast as it's cooking, and the breast meat actually tastes as good as the dark meat, if not better.  The thing is actually called "flip the bird", and I don't know if he sells them online or anything or not... best I could figure from the two conversations I've had with him, he drifts from job to job and his inventions.  It was so funny, when they left the restaurant, the owners of the restaurant told me that he drives them nuts every time he comes in... he's always wanting to "go into business" with them and such.
Strange fella, nifty invention... too bad he didn't have a little more headway on the beer can roasters or he probably could've done pretty well with them.

[benevolance]

well personally I think the beer can guy stole this idea from someone...I remember being like 5 years old at the cub camp on a cookout and our troop leader used the steel can the beans were in the night before to put in the chicken... So this sort of idea has been around forever.

the flip the bird is a great name...That guy reminds me of my wife's uncle... Drifter who has all kinds of ideas and no money to do anything with them...Everytime we go there for supper we talk for hours about the weirdest stuff...He is very intelligent though and has great ideas.

He is a big fan of marijuana also...*LOL*

[MountainDon]

I guess the beer can method achieves a somewhat similar result as the turning method. As long as you have the vertical clearance it works. Weber, the grill people, sell their version of a beer can roaster. It looks binteresting, But the last thing I need are more kitchen gadgets.

[Sassy]

I have an even weirder method of roasting a turkey!  Have you ever heard of using a brown paper bag?  You coat it with melted butter or oil, put whatever seasonings you usually put on the turkey, stick it inside the bag & bake like you would normally - turns out very moist & tender & even the skin is crispy & tasty.   

[benevolance]

that is awesome sassy... the bag does not burn or singe?

my dad used to have one of those old black metal pans with a lid the same shape as the pan... you know that fake enamal finish cheap tin with the coating that is black with white specs... someone must know what I am talking about

well if you put the chicken in there all spiced up and put a little water and butter onions and then throw the lid on it...the water vaporizes collects on the lids falls back on the chicken... the steaming effect keeps all the moisture in the bird like the bag you are talking about...

for years that was the way my dad cooked everything... roasts, ham chicken small turkeys.... works pretty slick

[Sassy]

Know exactly what you're talking about, I have a couple of those roasters & I've used that type for a lot of meats.  Cooks the food really nicely!   

And no, the bag doesn't singe or burn - you would want to keep the temp around 325 degrees, though.  The melted butter/oil coating the bag keeps it from burning...     unless you tried broiling it 

[glenn kangiser]

I used to have an old gal friend  and I had to keep a bag over her head.

I'm classier now

[Sassy]

 

MtnDon, that recipe sounds good - kinda like a pudding?  Nice & chocolaty 

[benevolance]

hehe

at least you did not have a double bagger...

LOL

[MountainDon]

Yes, very chocolaty. Like a deluxe chocolate pudding.

[glenn kangiser]

at least you did not have a double bagger...

One for me , in case hers fell off?  -- I always tried to take her out at night...and home before sunup.

[benevolance]

park her car in the woods so the neighbors would not see it in your driveway