USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

It's 86 degrees, and I've made chicken soup for dinner. What the hell is wrong with me?

[Hammer]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Absolutely nothing. I've made chili when it's 100 degrees out.

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Absolutely nothing. I've made chili when it's 100 degrees out.

And I've stood over a hot stove, making candy in the dead of summer. Sugar does not like to be worked in a humid environment.

[leswp1]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Just made my first ever sponge cake. The recipe calls for store bought but there isn't any to be had around here.

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Attempted eclairs over the weekend. The pate a choux wasn't too bad, but I thought my filling turned out wrong (the picture in the book had it much fluffier - like whipped cream, and I made a few substitutions that didn't turn out in my favor) and my pastry didn't puff out a ton. But after looking at David Lebovitz' eclairs, I think I wasn't too far off. I didn't read the directions closely enough, and made my eclair halves separately, rather than making one and slicing it. Will definitely try again.

[goldy_331]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Yesterday I used the smoker so I decided to fill all four racks. Smoked chicken breasts and thighs, a rack of ribs and tried some new (to me) things. Smoked some corn on the cob and some onions. I was using hickory and I think it was too strong for the corn - might have been OK if I had used alder or apple but I didn't care for the corn with all the hickory flavor. The onions were awesome, and they weren't even sweet onions as the recipe called for.

[leswp1]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Company coming. Serving the following menu at Mt les Summit Lodge

Hors Oeuvre's- Crackers served with choice of Tapenade, artichoke 'dip', almonds, cheeses)
Salad greens, frizzled Prosciutto and red pepper with Maple Balsamic Vinagrette
Lemon Herb Chicken
Roasted vegetables (summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, onions, tomatoes roasted separately and served lined up next to each other on the serving dish) with shaved parmesan
Angel Hair Pasta with olive oil, fresh basil and garlic
[Subject to availability and ingenuity of the groundhog- Garden Fresh tomatoes, mozorella, basil and garlic-- the ground hog may win this one]
Cornbread
Desserts- Olive’s Icebox Cake (sponge cake with lemon/orange cream filling), Cookies and brownies
Beverages

Family Style Brunch
Muffins- Blueberry and Apple
Swedish coffee bread
Maple scones, orange scones
Egg dish- Spinach quiche?
Bacon (of course)
Fresh Fruit with yogurt
Orange Juice
Coffee, tea

Made brownies and froze them Made a chocolate zucchini cake instead.
I need a bigger kitchen a bigger fridge and a bigger freezer. That is all.

[XYZ]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Pepper relish and zucchini relish both score second place at the Minnesota State Fair. I'll take it.

[leswp1]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Pepper relish and zucchini relish both score second place at the Minnesota State Fair. I'll take it.

nice!

[goldy_331]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Pepper relish and zucchini relish both score second place at the Minnesota State Fair. I'll take it.

W00t! Congrats. Now when is the USCHO tasting session?

[XYZ]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

W00t! Congrats. Now when is the USCHO tasting session?

Ha, any time. I've always been into the whole relish thing as when I was young my mom made a killer zucchini relish. Always thought it was awesome on burgers, hot dogs and brats. Can't even really tell it's zucchini.

Since an e-tasting is somewhat impossible, I don't measure anything but best I recall here's what's in each:

Pepper relish: Red bell pepper, cascabella pepper, gypsy pepper, onion, mustard seed, sugar, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar (quite simple really, but adjusting a variety of ratios can have a pretty significant impact on end result)

Zucchini relish: Zucchini (peeled for final aesthetics), onion, red bell pepper, fresno pepper, gypsy pepper, turmeric, mustard seed, celery seed, cilantro, wasabi powder (really), sugar, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar.

-Zucchini relish recipes vary very little, and I tried to think about how to make one stand out just a bit in a positive way. Ended up trying to give it just a little bit of zest with the fresno and wasabi powder, and then balancing that with the cilantro. To not kill the freshness factor of the cilantro I actually initially canned it without it, opened them two days later, added the cilantro and tweaked sweetness a bit, processed for about two minutes and immediately canned again.

In both cases I chop the veggies and let soak overnight in saltwater. Common technique in zucchini relish recipes but not so much pepper. I like to use for both as it helps pull all the water out which ultimately leads to more concentrated flavors, imo.

[goldy_331]

Ha, any time. I've always been into the whole relish thing as when I was young my mom made a killer zucchini relish. Always thought it was awesome on burgers, hot dogs and brats. Can't even really tell it's zucchini.

Since an e-tasting is somewhat impossible, I don't measure anything but best I recall here's what's in each:

My wife makes a very good zucchini relish but I think it's way simpler than yours.

[XYZ]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

My wife makes a very good zucchini relish but I think it's way simpler than yours.

It's probably the standard one like my mom used to make: Zucchini, onion, red pepper, celery seed, mustard seed, turmeric, vinegar, sugar

That's what shows up in about 98% of recipes for the stuff, and it's absolutely excellent in my opinion. Evidently the (questionable) judges at the fair seemed to think otherwise, however....as I learned the hard way. Were it not for that I'd never have found a need to start making it more complex.

[leswp1]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Successful dinner, brunch. Phew. Left overs for a week!

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

This weekend's French pastry project will be croissants, possibly chocolate ones.