USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

[burd]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

4 cups tomats (I don't take skins off, but cube tomats)
2 cups bell peppers
1 cup onion
1/4 cup apple cidar vinegar
bunch of garlic (several cloves)
jalapeno, cayenne and whatever kind of hot peppers
Add salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and fresh cilantro to taste

Cook everything but tomats until peppers and onions are tender. Add tomats and cook until done. Can add can of tomat paste to thicken near end.

Making some today. But there are a million recipes online for various salsas.

Thx, Koho.

[vizoroo]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Zucchini relish. And thanks

\Congrats on all those ribbons!

[bigblue_dl]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Made a nice mushroom sauce to put over some grilled pork chops last night. Sauteed some shrooms up in butter and olive oil, seasoned with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder, deglazed the pan with some sherry, let it reduce for about 15 minutes, then finished it with some heavy cream. The flavor of the sauce was superb, but I am still going to tweak it a bit for next time. I want to saute the shrooms for a bit longer, and I want to add more sherry, when I deglaze, since I want more of that flavor to come through in the end. Overall, it was a success.

Also, I bought a food chopper at the fair on Saturday. Needed to use it yesterday. So I made some olive tapinade, that we had on some sliced baguette with balsamic and some good cheese. Also, I used it to make some homemade guac. The tapinade was excellent, and I don't think I'd change anything with it. The guac still needs to be refined a bit, but it was still ok, so we figured it was a success for our first time making it, and we'll make improvements next time.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Good guac starts with Haas avocados. They're easy to find at the store year-round since they come from Mexico and California, but finding them at the correct ripeness can be difficult. Under-ripe, and they're hard to mash and have very little flavor. Overripe, and the flesh is spotted brown and tastes a bit funky (though it makes edible guac with a lot of salt and lime juice).

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I killed another sourdough starter. It's a good thing I only have a goldfish.

The salted caramel Ding Dong cake was outstanding. One note that confused me - it says you need cake pans with 2 inch high sides. I thought this was something unusual, but my standard cake pans worked fine (although the cake did rise all the way to the top).

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

From the "I Must Try This" files:

This burger is topped with fried ravioli and alfredo sauce.

[St. Clown]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

For lack of a better place to put it, Oreo has released its seasonal flavors for the fall, pumpkin spice and rootbeer float. I don't eat cookies anymore, and neither of those would really entice me even if I were still eating cookies. I just like to read the flavors because some of them sound fascinating, but these flavors fall a bit flat for me.

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

For lack of a better place to put it, Oreo has released its seasonal flavors for the fall, pumpkin spice and rootbeer float. I don't eat cookies anymore, and neither of those would really entice me even if I were still eating cookies. I just like to read the flavors because some of them sound fascinating, but these flavors fall a bit flat for me.

I love hearing about the seasonal flavors of stuff too, even if I don't buy Oreos. Root beer float seems more like a summer flavor. I think Oreo had watermelon for summer, which sounds absolutely disgusting.

The pumpkin spice bandwagon is a little too much for me. Not everything needs to be pumpkin spice flavored. Be a little more creative.

Also, can we please stop making things "browned butter"? It is a pain in the *** to brown butter, and a lot of the time, it doesn't taste any different because there's some other overwhelming flavor that completely covers it.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

All of the Oreo flavors look disgusting to me. There's no way the mint can be as good as grasshopper cookies, so those are out. I don't know why I need cake flavor when the cream is already frosting. the cookie dough sounds nasty, and why do I need a cookie flavored like a raw cookie? I think you were right about there being a watermelon, that's probably the worst of all of them.

I think the Halloween ones are better than the regular. I'm sure it's all in my head because I'm sure there's no way orange dye can make something taste different, but to me the orange cream tastes better than the white.

[St. Clown]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

All of the Oreo flavors look disgusting to me. There's no way the mint can be as good as grasshopper cookies, so those are out. I don't know why I need cake flavor when the cream is already frosting. the cookie dough sounds nasty, and why do I need a cookie flavored like a raw cookie? I think you were right about there being a watermelon, that's probably the worst of all of them.

I think the Halloween ones are better than the regular. I'm sure it's all in my head because I'm sure there's no way orange dye can make something taste different, but to me the orange cream tastes better than the white.

From what I've heard, but having never tried them, both the watermelon and birthday cake flavors are good in small doses - just a couple cookies at a time. I always liked the mint flavor.

[jen]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I have a bread mission. A light, fluffy, multi-grain sandwich bread. My mom really likes this multigrain bread from Target, so I'm trying to recreate something like it. I made a Zingerman's multi-grain last week, and she reported it was good, but not as light (I can make bread better than Target, dammit!! ). I may try the same thing, but substitute milk for some of the liquid, maybe add some potato, or add a dough enhancer. One place suggested using part cake flour, but I can't really wrap my mind around that (less protein = softer crumb, I guess.. but I always thought you wanted MORE protein since bread flour is higher protein than AP). I think I have a good handle on a grain mix they use (I took a picture of the ingredients). Anyone have any recipes for a lighter crumb multi-grain bread?

[MissThundercat]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Olive Garden does not salt their pasta water

Isn't that the first commandment of cooking pasta? "Thou shalt salt the pasta water. Yea, make it as salty as the ocean."

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Olive Garden does not salt their pasta water

Isn't that the first commandment of cooking pasta? "Thou shalt salt the pasta water. Yea, make it as salty as the ocean."

I remember as a kid thinking their breadsticks were good. Last time I ate at an Olive Garden (it's been at least two years, and someone else was paying), I noticed even they were pretty tasteless these days. The salad was an even bigger joke - mostly iceberg lettuce with a few mealy tomato quarters, a few rings of red onion, and a handful of croutons, all drowning in dressing salty enough to suck the moisture out of your mouth.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I remember liking Olive Garden as a kid as well. Even in college it wasn't bad when the bunch of us would go there as a group.

I don't think I would go there anymore.

[St. Clown]

Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I never had a problem with Olive Garden the few times that I've been there, but I've also never had one particularly close to me either so I could probably count on my fingers the number of times I've been there in my life. Though, the last time I was there was almost 10 years ago, now that I think about it.

That said, any time I have been there the place has been packed. It's funny to think about that when everyone that ever speaks of it only does so with great disdain.