Food and Recipes while under Coronavirus quarantine #8

[IceIce9]

Spending of mayonnaise, I have always like the mayo that Five Guys uses. I looked into it and found out it is a unique recipe made by Heinz strictly for Five Guys.

It is think and creamy and is perfect on their burgers and Cajun fries.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

When PayrollNerd shared her Chicken & Dumplings recipe and mentioned that she used canned biscuits, I was reminded of an appetizer that I used to make in the '70s with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. I saw the recipe in a magazine and made the spinach and cheese rollups many times. Everyone loved them!

This probably isn't the exact recipe, but it's close to what I remember. If I made these now, I would probably use goat cheese and maybe even add chopped bacon. Cheesy Spinach Crescents

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Dinner at Picano's on Thursday was wonderful, as always. Pappardelle with Bolognese was featured on the daily "specials", and I was tempted to order it again but got stuffed shells instead. DH had the Seafood Risotto. We both had the Pasta Fagioli soup that I plan to make this week. I could only eat three of the five stuffed shells and finished the other two yesterday (we do meatless Fridays during Lent). We had Parm/Panko encrusted orange roughy with Brussels sprouts and artichokes. Thai takeout last night and Italian sausage with pierogis tonight. I might bake oatmeal bars with dried cherries and walnuts this afternoon.

After several days of warmer than usual temperatures, heavy fog for three days, and unusual winter thunderstorms, it is now snowing. Not much accumulation expected, but it will snow off-and-on throughout the day. It has been a wild winter

 

[snooptroop88]

Over the past while, I've been experimenting on all kinds of things. I made my first layer cake. Can you believe that? I'm pretty old, and I made my first layer cake. And I really thought it was going to be all screwed up, the angel cakes were too short to trim down, and my pastry cream (pistachio) just seemed way too thin (at first/fine when it had time to chill). But honestly, it came out pretty well, it looked nice, made everything from scratch, now the cursive on the cake itself looked like fifth grade, but otherwise, I was really delighted with it And it tasted really good, especially the pastry cream.

Got a silicone mold and made candy, that came out good. I evidently DID temper my chocolate correctly, it was nice and hard and shiny the way it should be, like a shell. Have made truffles before, this was my first foray into actual shell chocolate. Used the pistachio butter from the cake in the candy, needs nuts next time.

Finally got a sharp knife for my sushi. Made another batch of hummus, that was REALLY good. This homemade hummus, it really is so much better than the store stuff, and it's not anything I'm doing, it's just the ingredients, it's pretty basic. They just taste good and it's hard to mess it up, all I had to do was spring for some quality chickpeas, lol.

Am trying to figure out what I can make tonight with the strangest assortment of ingredients EVER seen. Think I'm going to do cheddar and broccoli soup. I've got cream, cheddar, some other cheeses for backup singers, and broccoli. Agreed this has been one strange winter, soup seems like a good idea.

 

[Seni]

Really want your recipe for the pistachio pastry cream!!

 

[Puzzles8]

Finally got a sharp knife for my sushi.

There is nothing like a sharp knife! My dad used to hand sharpen them for me. They were like razor blades, went through tomatoes like butter. He spoiled me. Now, I get them sharpened over the summer at the farmers market. I have a hand held knife sharpener, but I find it leaves nicks. I suppose I sound get a old fashioned soap stone like my dad had, and learn to sharpen them myself.
Oh, the joy of a good knife!

 

[snooptroop88]

There is nothing like a sharp knife! My dad used to hand sharpen them for me. They were like razor blades, went through tomatoes like butter. He spoiled me. Now, I get them sharpened over the summer at the farmers market. I have a hand held knife sharpener, but I find it leaves nicks. I suppose I sound get a old fashioned soap stone like my dad had, and learn to sharpen them myself.
Oh, the joy of a good knife!

Terrified of a sharp knife in the house because I'm one of the clumsiest people you're ever going to see in your life. Seriously. I got a pulled muscle one year that laid me up for at least a week when I was prepping a turkey for Thanksgiving. Yes, the turkey was heavy, but...??? I've gotten a corneal tear from being stabbed in the eye with a breadstick. After the intake nurse was done laughing, I got my meds, that I had to put in my eye for several weeks. (Do you know anyone else this has happened to, LOL?)

Can't make this stuff up, LOL. But I couldn't stand just using a bread knife anymore that can't cut bread! The little paring knife I had broke, so I kinda had to get some kind of decent knife.

Really want your recipe for the pistachio pastry cream!!

Adapted this one, getting it here...

Pistachio Pastry Cream

This gorgeously rich pastry cream tastes like pistachio gelato. It's silky smooth, rich and creamy, and bursting with pistachio flavor. This

ofbatteranddough.com

But also used some Jell-O pistachio pudding mix to green things up. When I finished the pastry cream, I saved a little bit of it and tried to adapt that into the frosting. The frosting was like a pretty standard buttercream with pistachio added in.

 

[IceIce9]

There is nothing like a sharp knife! My dad used to hand sharpen them for me. They were like razor blades, went through tomatoes like butter. He spoiled me. Now, I get them sharpened over the summer at the farmers market. I have a hand held knife sharpener, but I find it leaves nicks. I suppose I sound get a old fashioned soap stone like my dad had, and learn to sharpen them myself.
Oh, the joy of a good knife!

One of my friends does not like to cook but likes to have dinner parties for our friends. I love to cook so we often team up: I do the cooking at her house and she takes care of everything else.

I always have to bring my own knives because hers are incredibly dull. The first time I cooked there I tried to use her knives to slice and chop vegetables for a salad and a stir fry and it was nearly impossible. When I tried to slice a tomato it just smashed and slicing bread was impossible.

I live near a Sur La Table so I volunteered to take her knives to be sharpened. But she says she doesn’t cook anyway so she didn’t take me up on it.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I soaked 1# cranberry beans overnight for Pasta Fagioli. We got about an inch of snow yesterday/last night, and it is still very cold, so a big pot of hearty soup will be perfect for the next few days. In addition to the cranberry beans, my Pasta Fagioli will include Italian sausage, carrot, celery, fennel, garlic, leek, crushed tomatoes, ditalini pasta, chicken stock, shredded Parm for garnish. Mm, mm, good! Oatmeal bars will have to wait until tomorrow as I get too anxious if I try to do too many things at once. I used to be a master of multi-tasking; not so much any more.

 

[IceIce9]

I soaked 1# cranberry beans overnight for Pasta Fagioli. We got about an inch of snow yesterday/last night, and it is still very cold, so a big pot of hearty soup will be perfect for the next few days. In addition to the cranberry beans, my Pasta Fagioli will include Italian sausage, carrot, celery, fennel, garlic, leek, crushed tomatoes, ditalini pasta, chicken stock, shredded Parm for garnish. Mm, mm, good! Oatmeal bars will have to wait until tomorrow as I get too anxious if I try to do too many things at once. I used to be a master of multi-tasking; not so much any more.

I love cranberry beans. They are my favorite beans to use in my soup recipes.

I could eat soup all winter long. It is very comforting to have a pot of soup simmering on the stove. Even better when I have time to bake bread to go with it.

 

[slowpoke]

I made a super easy meal tonight that was quite tasty.

Salmon Alfredo pasta

I’m sure a homemade sauce would be better, but I used Rao’s and thought it came out good.

I cooked the salmon fillets in a skillet.
Boiled spaghetti noodles. (Wheat for me, regular for others)
Heated the Rao’s in the skillet I had cooked the fish in. Added: some freshly grated
Kirkland’s Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio cheese into the sauce. Freshly ground pepper. Splash of lemon juice. Put a little sauce over the salmon pieces.
Put the pasta into the sauce to mix and coat.
Plated by putting serving size of pasta and the salmon on top.
A little more parmigiano reggiano sprinkled over.
Pan cooked zucchini as a side vegetable.

Costco sells the Rao’s Alfredo sauce as a 2 jar pack.
The block of cheese was from there, too.
Salmon was caught in Sitka, Alaska by my husband and was from our freezer.

 

[PayrollNerd]

I made a super easy meal tonight that was quite tasty.

Salmon Alfredo pasta

I’m sure a homemade sauce would be better, but I used Rao’s and thought it came out good.

I cooked the salmon fillets in a skillet.
Boiled spaghetti noodles. (Wheat for me, regular for others)
Heated the Rao’s in the skillet I had cooked the fish in. Added: some freshly grated
Kirkland’s Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio cheese into the sauce. Freshly ground pepper. Splash of lemon juice. Put a little sauce over the salmon pieces.
Put the pasta into the sauce to mix and coat.
Plated by putting serving size of pasta and the salmon on top.
A little more parmigiano reggiano sprinkled over.
Pan cooked zucchini as a side vegetable.

Costco sells the Rao’s Alfredo sauce as a 2 jar pack.
The block of cheese was from there, too.
Salmon was caught in Sitka, Alaska by my husband and was from our freezer.

That sounds so good. I love salmon. I'm normally a tomato based sauce person but on occasion, I like Alfredo sauce. I've never had it with salmon tho.

Years ago I bought a jar of Alfredo sauce and the imitation crab meat sticks. I cut them in chunks, warmed them in a little butter. Then added them to the warm sauce served over fettuccine. I remember my mother thought it was so good, as in restaurant quality.... clearly it was not. LOL! I was just trying to get protein into my youngest who is vegetarian and would sometimes eat fish.

 

[snooptroop88]

That sounds so good. I love salmon. I'm normally a tomato based sauce person but on occasion, I like Alfredo sauce. I've never had it with salmon tho.

Years ago I bought a jar of Alfredo sauce and the imitation crab meat sticks. I cut them in chunks, warmed them in a little butter. Then added them to the warm sauce served over fettuccine. I remember my mother thought it was so good, as in restaurant quality.... clearly it was not. LOL! I was just trying to get protein into my youngest who is vegetarian and would sometimes eat fish.

I actually really love surimi. I just like the taste if it's blended with something like cucumber. Lucky for me I like it, it's a fraction of the price of crab (love crab, too). There was this little Thai restaurant I lived by, they did not just Thai also Japanese and Chinese, too, GREAT place, I mean really good food, and they made certain sushi rolls with surimi, had to be surimi, not real crab.

Surimi with pasta sounds cheffy to me, too.