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USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

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Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll try them both at one time or another.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Thinking of entering a State Fair baking contest. I already have a recipe for the pie category or "berry decadent" dessert. There's a pound cake contest sponsored by KAF and a maple cookie one (where you get a maple gift basket - mmmmm) - might start thinking about those. Also just noticed there's a gingerbread cake (frosted) - so I could mock up my Christmas cookie recipe, too.
 
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Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Made Italian burgers the other night. Kind of a pantry raid I came up with that night:

1 lb 93/7 ground beef
2 Johnsonville Italian sausages, casing removed
2 cloves of garlic finely minced

Mix together and add whatever seasonings you want, to taste. I think I used basil, thyme, onion powder, S&P, cayenne, and probably some I'm forgetting. Little bit of shredded mozzarella and marinara on top. Olive oil on the buns and toast them on the grill.

Fantastic.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Took another bake class at Zingerman's last night. These are the best buttermilk biscuits I've ever had.
Also made ginger scones and 'Thomas Jefferson sweet potato biscuits' (supposedly it is the same recipe as what was served at Thomas Jefferson's house)

Class was fun, the baked goods are delicious. Between the 3 recipes there is a pound of butter.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

So we have this local meat shop down in Cottage Grove called Bonngard's (no relation to the cheese company). They make these bacon-wrapped, stuffed chicken breasts. I've had two of the three and they are so good they should be illegal. One is called the triple threat where they marinate the chicken in buffalo sauce, stuff it with a bit of cream cheese and chopped up jalapenos, and then weave bacon around the entire thing. The other one which I'm a big fan of is the Italian. They stuff it with pepperoni and ricotta and wrap it with bacon. They are amazing.

I didn't make it per se, but I bought it and threw it in the oven so I'm counting it.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Canadian pizza chain creates pizza cake

I'd like to figure out how to make this for myself.

Its description:

Most pizza joints make a pizza pie, but BP is creating a Pizza Cake. Great for...bar mitzvahs,...
That pork piled creation is really going to be a hit with the Jews! Are these the same people who couldn't figure out why the Honey Baked Ham shop failed so miserably in Saudi Arabia?

(No, that last part never really happened.)
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

One of my co-workers brought in various Zingerman's brownies/blondies today and is my new favorite person (although he didn't make them - but they're still delicious).

I haven't baked in probably 4 weeks and am suffering from lack of inspiration. Also suffering from lack of grilling inspiration.
 
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Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

and 'Thomas Jefferson sweet potato biscuits' (supposedly it is the same recipe as what was served at Thomas Jefferson's house)

I like to make Hoe Cakes, one of George Washington's fav breakfast items. You have to plan ahead though, the corn meal needs to sit in liquid overnight.

Here's a question on salt.....iodized or non-iodized for cooking?
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I like to make Hoe Cakes, one of George Washington's fav breakfast items. You have to plan ahead though, the corn meal needs to sit in liquid overnight.

Here's a question on salt.....iodized or non-iodized for cooking?
On salt, if regular table salt, I prefer iodized. Generally, though, I prefer non-iodized sea salt or kosher salt.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

I prefer the "table" salt size and texture for baking. For cooking I use kosher. I've never used sea salt before but mainly because I'd use that more as a garnish on salted sweets than anything else. Obviously there are specialty salts like pretzel and pickling, but I can't think of any use for them off the top of my head outside of their namesake.

I never really picked up any flavor difference from the iodide.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

So I'm on this medifast diet, and my dinner options are somewhat limited by both my imagination and my accumen for most things cooking. With that said, the other night I made a stuffed pepper using ground turkey as the meat. It wasn't bad, but I baked it for too long and the meat textured out at being a bit too dry. I added 1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped onion and a heavy does of ground Italian herbs & seasoning into the turkey, kneaded it all together, stuffed into the half-pepper and baked it at 375F for 35 minutes. Next time I'll try 30 minutes.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

So I'm on this medifast diet, and my dinner options are somewhat limited by both my imagination and my accumen for most things cooking. With that said, the other night I made a stuffed pepper using ground turkey as the meat. It wasn't bad, but I baked it for too long and the meat textured out at being a bit too dry. I added 1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped onion and a heavy does of ground Italian herbs & seasoning into the turkey, kneaded it all together, stuffed into the half-pepper and baked it at 375F for 35 minutes. Next time I'll try 30 minutes.

If the diet permits, add an egg to the ground turkey mixture, it'll help hold it together and add moisture. With the diet you might have to use egg whites (you can buy them in cartons and use them in lieu of eggs, with no fat).
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

If the diet permits, add an egg to the ground turkey mixture, it'll help hold it together and add moisture. With the diet you might have to use egg whites (you can buy them in cartons and use them in lieu of eggs, with no fat).

Thanks. And yes, I can have eggs, but egg whites are preferred, which I do have at home already.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

So I'm on this medifast diet, and my dinner options are somewhat limited by both my imagination and my accumen for most things cooking. With that said, the other night I made a stuffed pepper using ground turkey as the meat. It wasn't bad, but I baked it for too long and the meat textured out at being a bit too dry. I added 1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped onion and a heavy does of ground Italian herbs & seasoning into the turkey, kneaded it all together, stuffed into the half-pepper and baked it at 375F for 35 minutes. Next time I'll try 30 minutes.

It was probably more because it was turkey than you cooked it too long. We have tried many varieties of turkey meat in different foods to try to eat healthier and all but 1 has completely bombed. Just last night we tried to use turkey italian sausage as the meat in a spaghetti sauce, and it was nasty, it had the texture of silica sand. The only application we've found where turkey doesn't completely suck *** is using it for taco meat.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Here's the problem I have with turkey:

Unless you're getting lean ground white meat (as in 93:7 or better), you really aren't seeing any benefit. Even then, what benefits are you getting over a 93:7 blend of beef? It still has the same fat content and the beef is much more forgiving.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Here's the problem I have with turkey:

Unless you're getting lean ground white meat (as in 93:7 or better), you really aren't seeing any benefit. Even then, what benefits are you getting over a 93:7 blend of beef? It still has the same fat content and the beef is much more forgiving.

My problem is that it tastes like ****.
 
Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

Did the Bread 2.0 Bake-cation at Zingerman's - another great one (also did Wholly Whole Grain Breads). I made 17 loaves of bread, 16 bagels, 16 rolls, 8 English muffins, plus 2 starters to take home. I finally got the batard shaping down on the very last batards we made. My bagel rolling is still subpar, but it was a lot of fun. That was a LOT of kneading, but it was good hands-on experience and I am definitely more confident doing the whole process by hand than I used to be. They gave us a recipe for a Rye Porter bread that we didn't make - definitely want to try that one.

I'm not a big raisin bread fan, but we made a sesame raisin and a pumpernickel raisin that were very good.

The best part was learning more about the reasons behind a lot of the techniques.

wT, if you're interested - they said the schedule for the rest of the year is done, and should be out soon.

We took a couple of tours of various Bakehouse departments (bread, pastry, candy), and it reinforced my decision to NEVER do this professionally. At least on that kind of scale. Holy crap, that is a ton of hard, and very repetitive, work.
 
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Re: USCHO Cooks: Open Your Mystery Basket.

A whole weekend of bread making sounds like too much kneading for me.

Debating making scones for my party this weekend using one of the Zingerman's recipes.

I'm hosting my annual Kentucky Derby party. So far the menu includes:

mint juleps (obvious)
either apple julep sangria or a non-alcoholic sangria like punch

bourbon glazed pork tenderloin
roasted corn & pepper salad
garlic cheese grits (maybe, I might just do a potato salad instead)

cookies - t-shirt shaped, decorate your own jockey silks
derby pie


I still need to figure out appetizers. Or I may just ask my guests to bring appetizers to share.
 
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