fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2247 ]

[ SECRET POST #2247 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2247 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 056 secrets from Secret Submission Post #321.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - troll ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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I've been pretty kitchen-incompetent for a while, but my partner and I were recently gifted a $7 a meal cookbook, so I flipped through and found something that looked easy enough to make: sweet and sour pork.

I messed up a bit with the timing and all, but it turned out pretty tasty! And then we baked a ton of cookies and tonight we cooked again (beef and black beans over brown rice)! It's so fun and a lot more filling and nutritious than the pre-packaged foods we've been getting ^w^

I'm just really excited about being able to cook, especially because my partner has a pretty serious onion sensitivity, and onions are in pre-packaged everything, so being able to make stuff without it is awesome :D

In honor of graduating from microwave meals to Real Cooking, how about sharing some cooking stories? Ridiculous mishaps, wonderful recipes - anything!

i effing love cooking.

have a recipe that i've been turning to obsessively lately for breakfast. they're like crepe-y pumpkin "pancake" things. delicious just cooked and good refrigerated too. i eat them without syrup cause they're already a bit sweet, but some maple on top would probably be heavenly.

http://scdlifestyle.com/2012/10/paleo-pumpkin-pancakes-for-fall-family-fun-scd-friendly/

http://m.finecooking.com/recipes/tex-mex-chicken-chiles-cheese.aspx

This is my favorite recipe, plus it has no onions in it. I substitute olive oil for the butter, and I add as many different types of chili peppers as I can find (usually Serrano and pasilla), and it always turns out great.

I was making chocolate chip cookies once, and ended up with an error that turned out delicious:

I didn't realize I was nearly out of sugar when I decided I wanted cookies, so I was just really happy when what I had left filled my measuring cup that I dumped it in the bowl, filled the cup up with my packed brown sugar, dumped that in the bowl, added the butter and commenced the beat-down. The recipe called for 3/4 cup of each type of sugar.

My measuring cup was 1/4 cup, which I noticed when I went to measure out the flour. So I dumped the last dredges of sugar into the bowl, but it wasn't even enough to warrant adding more brown sugar. And since I had already added the full butter/egg combination, I couldn't very well cut them back, either.

So, I just added a little less than the required amount of other ingredients (except chocolate chips -- always go full chocolate chip) and got to stirring. I actually ended up with a batter that tasted okay (if a little floury) but I wasn't even confident about it's ability to hold up as cookie drops. So, I pulled out a loaf pan, poured it all into that and let it bake until it looked okay.

And it ended up being a great little cookie loaf, that I mostly ate in sticks. It wasn't super-sweet, but it didn't need to be. I had thoughts of taking the crumbs when I was done and fashioning a cookie crust for a banana-pudding pie, but I never did.

Oh, I did something like this once!

A friend and I were making chocolate chip cookies when we were teenagers, and we both added the required amount of milk, so that it was accidentally doubled. In a flash of insight I have yet to replicate in the kitchen, I suggested that we add a bit of baking soda and turn the cookies into muffins. It worked remarkably well!

A CROCK POT WILL BE YOUR FRIEND AND YOUR LOVER! Get one. Also, I never how much I needed a food processor until I had one, and now I can make pretty much anything. I wish I had more time to experiment. I only have one sauce recipe that I created. It doesn't have a "recipe," it's to taste.

The other things a make are like Franken-recipes cobbled together from various sources. I like making soups and stews the best. I make a kick ass massaman curry with chicken. Though, I made it completely from scratch last time and I need to adjust the ingredients in the curry paste because it was a little off.

Seconding the crock pot thing! We cook with a crock pot so often we own three of them. It's so easy, too. Dump in all ingredients and fuhgeddaboutit!

I have a long lost recipe that I will forever mourn. My mum had a bunch of medical problems that culminated in her having a bit of an funny turn and collapsing. Anyway, at the time she had to cut certain things out of her diet (that none of us can remember anymore!), so to cheer her up while she was in hospital I experimented with different ways of making cookies with various ingredients substituted and brought a different type in each day. One of my recipes turned out better than any regular full-fat, full-whatever cookie I've ever had and I've never been able to replicate it!

Similarly, I used to be able to make this gorgeous mushroom soup and then at some point I totally lost the knack of it! For about four months every time I tried to make mushroom soup ended with me straining the soup through a sieve and then picking out the mushrooms from the gross slimy lumps of flour that I was always, always left with, and returning them to the soup. Then I just gave up trying! I still can't eat mushroom soup without feeling sick.

Well one time I forgot to add water to instant ramen and put it into the microwave for three minutes. The kitchen smelt like burnt ramen for about a month.

I have a lot of recipes. Do you have any requests (sides, vegetarian, desserts, breakfast) for things you'd like me to share?

We just made hamantaschen for Purim last weekend. We do four doughs (orange, whole wheat, chocolate, and my favorite- poppyseed) and five fillings (poppyseed, prune, chocolate, apricot, and raspberry) and they are delicious. The poppyseed and chocolate doughs are always temperamental, though. We did poppyseed in two batches (doubled because everyone loves it) and one of them got just a skosh too much flour and became all crumbly and hard to work. :( The other batch was perfect though.

I can't think of any great stories to share, but cooking is awesome! Keep practicing and you'll find yourself able to branch out and experiment. Also, don't be afraid to try new foods. It's amazing how many thing I thought I hated, only to find I loved them when I started cooking them for myself. Either my tastebuds changed with age, or it was a matter of finding the right way to prepare them.

The year I lived in my first apartment, my roommate and I decided to cook a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for Thanksgiving. IDK what possessed us; we were both going home on Wednesday for the holiday, and yet here we were, cooking a massive turkey on Tuesday.

We were students but luckily we were in all the same classes; we took turns going to lectures so one of us would always be with the turkey while it roasted. We made my father's rice and meat dressing, and her mom's stuffed acorn squash, and we got our turkey-roasting directions from my roommate's culinary bible--Irma Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking (6th edition). And there I was, alone with this turkey, when I realized that I was supposed to put a piece of cheesecloth soaked in melted butter over its breast to keep it from browning too much. And we had no cheesecloth.

Did I mention that we had a gas stove? Well, we had a gas stove. I had never cooked on gas in my life, and even my roommate, who would never have cooked on anything else, found this stove temperamental. As for me, I was terrified that if I turned my back on it, it would set the whole apartment building on fire. But if I was going to roast this turkey according to the sacred dictates of Rombauer and not let my roommate down, I had to get cheesecloth somehow. So...I took a deep breath and ran for it.

I ran almost all the way to the supermarket (luckily it was just a couple of blocks from our building), and on the way, I said a prayer to the patron saint of cooks. I had no idea who the patron saint of cooks was, but I figured my roommate, a good Catholic, would know. But even I knew that saints like candles, so I promised the patron saint of cooks a candle, the biggest and best candle a saint could desire, if only there would be cheesecloth at the supermarket, and if only the saint would protect our turkey, our building and our neighbors from burning to a crisp.

Well, I got the cheesecloth and rushed back to the apartment, half expecting to see flames pouring out of the windows, picturing the next day's headlines--Four Alarm Fire at University Towers--Careless Cook To Blame. I should have had more faith in the patron saint of cooks. The turkey wasn't even browned yet. I melted the butter, soaked the cheesecloth, and covered the turkey. It turned out beautifully brown and juicy. My roommate said she would make a cook of me yet. She had remembered the cheesecloth in the middle of organic chemistry lecture, and she laughed long and hard when I told her the story of how I had got the cheesecloth.

"So, um, Carmen?" I said. "Who is the patron saint of cooks?"

She stared at me. "I have no idea."

This was in the days before Google. In the heat of getting ready to leave for home, neither of us thought of the Catholic Encyclopedia. So I owed an arrear of one large candle to the patron saint of cooks for a long time before finally finding out that it was St. Martha of Bethany--or possibly St. Lawrence, who was martyred by being roasted on a gridiron; no source we checked seemed to be particularly clear which. So I lit a medium-sized candle to each of them.

Thank you for that story, anon. You just made my evening. :D I've never put a buttery cheesecloth on a turkey before, but it sounds like it would make it extra delicious.

It was delicious--but I'm sure I was prejudiced in its favor, after all the trouble that cheesecloth had caused!

BTW, I'm pretty awed at the idea of twenty different kinds of hamantaschen!

This story is amazing <3

Awww, thanks!

When I'm feeling lazy, I take half a bag of broccoli, two servings of rice, cook them both together, then mix in a cup of cheese and whatever else I feel like. Delicious lazy casserole that I use to try out new flavors.

Felt really accomplished today, cooking-wise. I made hummus for the first time today. Turned out really well!

I also made a pretty fantastic creamy tomato and wilted spinach pasta dish last night, then made a potato crust pizza. All had to be vegetarian because my friend is Lacto-ovo-vegetarian. (Eggs and milk products are mostly a go, animal flesh are not.) Said friend wanted to take the left overs home, yay!

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[ SECRET POST #2247 ]

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