Don't get lazy when it comes to following recipes!

[whatevergirl]

*So, I’m making stew tonight for my family…dh is working and can have some when he gets home.

So…I KNOW that to thicken stews and soups, you have to put a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch in a small bowl, and mix it with some cold water, until it makes a soupy like paste…THEN pour it into your stew pot…(along with your already simmering meat, veggies, and beef broth, etc) Well…I did that, BUT, thought it needed some more thickening…so I took a short cut, and just sprinkled some flour into the pot. Oh no! uch: Don’t ever do that. Little white particles are floating around now…and it was looking so yummy, too! Hopefully, it will taste good though.

So…have any short cuts that led to blunders in the kitchen, anyone? *

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

My mom once decided to try using olive oil instead of vegetable oil to make cookies (from a mix) since the olive oil is supposed to be healthier…

The cookies came out as hard as bullets!

 

[whatevergirl]

My mom once decided to try using olive oil instead of vegetable oil to make cookies (from a mix) since the olive oil is supposed to be healthier…

The cookies came out as hard as bullets!

Oh really??? That’s interesting, I have never done that, but honestly? I wouldn’t have known that would cause the cookies to be rock hard like that! Wow! That is good to know, thank you. Aren’t olives vegetables too? Maybe that’s what your mother thought.

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

I’m told olives are technically a fruit since they grow on a tree (like an apple or a pear)…

 

[Brenda_V]

Oh really??? That’s interesting, I have never done that, but honestly? I wouldn’t have known that would cause the cookies to be rock hard like that! Wow! That is good to know, thank you. Aren’t olives vegetables too? Maybe that’s what your mother thought.

Most cookies require solid shortening, butter, crisco etc. Olive oil is a liquid at room temperature so, that may very well have been the problem. Not only that but when you use oil instead of butter/margarine, you should use less oil and add a bit of water because butter and margarine are not pure fat (darn close, but not pure fat).

Brenda V. (yes, I love the science of cooking!)

 

[ljubim]

Once I tried to make dessert pizzas with the remnants of our real pizza’s dough. They were disgusting! Everybody took a bite to humor me but then nearly spat it out.

Also one time my mother left the plastic wrap on top of a lasagna, then put it in the oven. It ended up cooking with one more delicious layer than expected…

 

[pamnbam]

Yesterday I spent half an hour cutting up meat for my slow cooker recipe. I had to brown the meat half at a time. I was also rushing to try to make a playdate, so I was trying to clean up the kitchen as I went. I ended up throwing away the other half of the meat (I’d left it on a paper plates with the fat scraps and bones) in the outdoor garbage can. I came back up to the kitchen and was wondering where the rest of the meat had gone?

I had more in the freezer, so I had to defrost it before cutting it up (I was late for the playdate, but still ended up getting there!)

 

[rpp]

I have a recipe for German Chocolate cake which is fairly popular. In fact on one occassion, I took a cake to a nearby convent where I go to daily Mass. They were having a pot-luck for all their benefactors. I actually two nuns “fighting” over the last piece!

Well, afterwards, the superior asked me if it was possible to make it with less sugar. Well, I replaced all the sugar with Splenda. While this worked well for the cake, the icing was just not sticky and would not cling to the cake very well. It tasted okay, but the cake was quite ugly. Splenda, it seems, is not as sticky as sugar.

By the way, my recipe for German Chocolate Cake includes the following:

16 eggs
4 cups of flour
2 pounds of butter
6 cups of sugar
2 pounds of pecans
2 pounds of shredded coconut
2 cups of buttermilk
2 cans of evaporated milk
8 oz. of sweet baking chocolate
Way more vanilla than you might think
A couple of “secret” other things.

For a lower fat and sugar recipe, all the sugar in the cake and about half for the icing can be substituted with Splenda, one-for-one (1 cup sugar = 1 cup Splenda). The butter can be substituted with Smart Balance spread, which also cooks very well. While using this will also lower the cholesterol, the fact that you are using 16 eggs, well, I mean that is like having a diet coke with a Big Mac.

Start to finish including baking, cool-down and icing, requires about 5 hours. The result is a 6-layer cake which weighs about 12 pounds.

The recipe is based on the recipe found on the inside of the Baker’s brand German’s Sweet Baking Chocolate. I have modified some of the proportions, altered some of the spices and added a couple of things after some experimentation. However, even unmodified, that recipe is hands down the best German Chocolate Cake recipe out there, except for mine, that is.

 

[whatevergirl]

Once I tried to make dessert pizzas with the remnants of our real pizza’s dough. They were disgusting! Everybody took a bite to humor me but then nearly spat it out.

Also one time my mother left the plastic wrap on top of a lasagna, then put it in the oven. It ended up cooking with one more delicious layer than expected…

Oh no!!! That’s terrible (the plastic wrap) On the pizza though…really, it was that bad, huh?

 

[whatevergirl]

I have a recipe for German Chocolate cake which is fairly popular. In fact on one occassion, I took a cake to a nearby convent where I go to daily Mass. They were having a pot-luck for all their benefactors. I actually two nuns “fighting” over the last piece!

Well, afterwards, the superior asked me if it was possible to make it with less sugar. Well, I replaced all the sugar with Splenda. While this worked well for the cake, the icing was just not sticky and would not cling to the cake very well. It tasted okay, but the cake was quite ugly. Splenda, it seems, is not as sticky as sugar.

By the way, my recipe for German Chocolate Cake includes the following:

16 eggs
4 cups of flour
2 pounds of butter
6 cups of sugar
2 pounds of pecans
2 pounds of shredded coconut
2 cups of buttermilk
2 cans of evaporated milk
8 oz. of sweet baking chocolate
Way more vanilla than you might think
A couple of “secret” other things.

For a lower fat and sugar recipe, all the sugar in the cake and about half for the icing can be substituted with Splenda, one-for-one (1 cup sugar = 1 cup Splenda). The butter can be substituted with Smart Balance spread, which also cooks very well. While using this will also lower the cholesterol, the fact that you are using 16 eggs, well, I mean that is like having a diet coke with a Big Mac.

Start to finish including baking, cool-down and icing, requires about 5 hours. The result is a 6-layer cake which weighs about 12 pounds.

The recipe is based on the recipe found on the inside of the Baker’s brand German’s Sweet Baking Chocolate. I have modified some of the proportions, altered some of the spices and added a couple of things after some experimentation. However, even unmodified, that recipe is hands down the best German Chocolate Cake recipe out there, except for mine, that is.

*16 eggs! Oh my goodness! I bet it was good though, despite the Splenda. Yes, I have used Splenda, although it is made with a chlorine molecule I believe, that scares me a little…our bodies can’t digest chlorine, sooo, that’s why it doesn’t absorb into our bodies. (it’s made with sugar also) Splenda is really best used in pies…when the ingredients stay wet anyways…so the moist factor won’t be lessened. But, cookies also come VERY dry using Splenda.

ANYWAYS…back to your story, I have to make this for dh. I am not a fan of GC cake, but oh my gosh, dh lives for this cake! We can never seem to find a box mix that is quite good enough…maybe I’ll have to surprise him. Or you can bake it and mail it to me. Hey, there are online bakeries that do that ya know. *

 

[whatevergirl]

Yesterday I spent half an hour cutting up meat for my slow cooker recipe. I had to brown the meat half at a time. I was also rushing to try to make a playdate, so I was trying to clean up the kitchen as I went. I ended up throwing away the other half of the meat (I’d left it on a paper plates with the fat scraps and bones) in the outdoor garbage can. I came back up to the kitchen and was wondering where the rest of the meat had gone?

I had more in the freezer, so I had to defrost it before cutting it up (I was late for the playdate, but still ended up getting there!)

aw! That’s too bad! Yes rushing and cooking don’t mix! But, did your dish turn out ok in the end?

 

[whatevergirl]

Most cookies require solid shortening, butter, crisco etc. Olive oil is a liquid at room temperature so, that may very well have been the problem. Not only that but when you use oil instead of butter/margarine, you should use less oil and add a bit of water because butter and margarine are not pure fat (darn close, but not pure fat).

Brenda V. (yes, I love the science of cooking!)

*I need to hang out with you more, Brenda. I am a decent enough cook, but don’t ‘understand’ why and how things blend together…my husband is like you, a ‘scientific’ type of cook…like that alton brown on that cooking show?? Ok, so would you say it is better to cook with

a) crisco
b) veggie oil or
c) butter

I don’t like to bake cookies if I’m going all out, using margarine, in general. But, if cooking say a cake, cookies, pie crust, etc…which of the three would you suggest would yield the best results?*

 

[whatevergirl]

*Oops, meant to update that the stew turned out great despite my lazy shortcut with the flour. It was only a heaping tablespoon, not like I thickened the entire stew like that…now THAT would have been horrible.

I don’t know if any of you think this, when you read recipe books oir whatever…but, I’m often like…oh please, why do I have to do THAT step or do it JUST LIKE THAT? haha Okay, so I won’t think like that anymore. *

 

[Brenda_V]

*I need to hang out with you more, Brenda. I am a decent enough cook, but don’t ‘understand’ why and how things blend together…my husband is like you, a ‘scientific’ type of cook…like that alton brown on that cooking show?? Ok, so would you say it is better to cook with

a) crisco
b) veggie oil or
c) butter

I don’t like to bake cookies if I’m going all out, using margarine, in general. But, if cooking say a cake, cookies, pie crust, etc…which of the three would you suggest would yield the best results?*

For cookies, hands down butter.

For pie crusts Crisco (not the no name brand, there is a difference for some reason) and if you are not allergic to pork, lard is even better!

Cake does well with oils but stay away from olive oil as it can change the taste. It works well in yeast breads though.

I do a lot of GF cooking which means using a mix of flours and starches from other sources, knowing how things work together has helped me with this!

Brenda V.

 

[Jennifer_J]

I’ll bet those cookies called for shortening and NOT oil. If a recipe calls for canola or veg. oil, you can substitue olive oil with no problem (even many cakes, if the flavor isn’t too delicate and your olive oil isn’t too strong). I even use olive oil in my pancakes and you can’t tell the difference.

As for flour and corn starch…with flour you have to cook the flour for a bit before you add liquid, then it will thicken. With corn starch, just add to liquid (broth, wine, water, etc), stir it up, add that to the stew or whatever and then bring to a boil for about a min.

My most recent goof wasn’t really a cooking one…but…we made homemade ice cream and we ate some and then I put the rest in a container to harden in the freezer and then I PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE! Oops. icecream soup. I was distracted by the kids and just totally spaced out what I was doing.

 

[rpp]

Yesterday I spent half an hour cutting up meat for my slow cooker recipe. I had to brown the meat half at a time. I was also rushing to try to make a playdate, so I was trying to clean up the kitchen as I went. I ended up throwing away the other half of the meat (I’d left it on a paper plates with the fat scraps and bones) in the outdoor garbage can. I came back up to the kitchen and was wondering where the rest of the meat had gone?

I had more in the freezer, so I had to defrost it before cutting it up (I was late for the playdate, but still ended up getting there!)

Doh! uch: That sounds like something I would do.

Before my conversion my now ex-wife who divorced for becoming Catholic, loved to cook. However, whenever she wanted to try a new recipe, she would chase me out of the kitchen. I had taught her how to make authentic bolognese pasta sauce with Italian sausage completely from scratch, including boiling down fresh tomatoes to make the sauce a more sticky and less runny.

Anyway, she chases me out of the kitchen so I am in the living room reading. The wonderful aroma of boiIing tomato sauce filled the house as I read a book in the living room. As te house is laid out, I cannot see into the kitchen at all where I was. Suddenly, I heard my now ex-wife calling my name. I was in the middle of a paragraph and I wanted to finish it. She kept calling my name, but since there was no tone of urgency, I ignored her briefly. Ffinally answer, “Okay, I’m coming.”

I get up, turn the corner to go to the kitchen and what do I see? Black smoke roiling along the ceiling of the kitchen, filling the entire kitchen and family room. I raced into the kitchen and there on the stove was a large pot where she had been heating some olive oil to cook the garlic, onions and celery. Now the oil was on fire.

Foolishly, I went to the pan and tried to blow it out. The result was to have small bits of burning oil splash onto my face. My glasses (now I know why God made me near-sighted) were covered in hot, burning oil. I leaped back and looked around for the lid and did not immediately see it, my vision partly obscured by the oil covering my glasses. Then I noticed the paint on the wall behind the stove was starting to bubble. We have an alarm system and right then the 95 decibel alarm started going off. We were seconds away from losing the house. I grabbed the fire extinguisher I always kept under the sink for just such an emergency and used it on the pan. The fire was extinguished. Right then, the alarm company called and we told them the fire was out and did not need the fire department.

Then I looked around the kitchen. There arrayed around the stove were the chopped onions, more chopped tomatoes, garlic, meat, celery, the uncovered pot of tomato sauce, and open spice jars. All were now covered with a dusting of the powder from the fire extinguisher and were now rendered inedible.

I considered this a failure to properly follow a recipe, among other things that were not followed (think two words; the first starts with “C” the second “S”). I was not angry, just relieved that a momentary lapse did not result in a major disaster. We spent the next three or four hours scrubbing the greasy soot from burning olive oil off the ceiling and walls. I was very fortunate that the none of burns on my face were larger than a dime or nickel, and that they did not leave permanent scars. I am also quite fortunate that I did not lose my house that night.

We ended up having pizza delivered.

 

[BrokenFortress]

Well at least I learned something about olive oil in here! Last time me and my boyfriend made brownies he insisted on using olive oil in them instead of vegetable oil and it turned out alright. So at least I know if he insists on using it in cookies or something it may not work out so well

 

[rpp]

Well at least I learned something about olive oil in here! Last time me and my boyfriend made brownies he insisted on using olive oil in them instead of vegetable oil and it turned out alright. So at least I know if he insists on using it in cookies or something it may not work out so well

Olive oil for brownies? Is he Sicilian?

I should add one point about olive oil that I learned from my son, the professional chef. In culinary school, he learned that olive oil has the lowest smoke temperature of any of the oils derived from grains, meat, fish, fruit, vegetable or nuts. Peanut oil has the highest which is why it is the preferred oil for frying.

When we read in the bible about using oil for lamps, it is always referring to olive oil. One must be very careful when roasting or sautéing with olive oil. Trust me on this, I have a bit of experience.

 

[pamnbam]

aw! That’s too bad! Yes rushing and cooking don’t mix! But, did your dish turn out ok in the end?

Yes, it turned out okay in the end…it was worth it, but I really wanted to save the frozen meat for another time!

 

[whatevergirl]

AUTHENTIC bolognese pasta sauce you make from scratch, rpp? :ehh: Oh wow…I have wanted to learn how to make that!