Cooking from "Scratch"

Cooking from scratch is sometimes simple, sometimes complicated or requires a mixture of experience and knowing what flavors work best with the dish. The southern, downhome recipes on this blog are designed for the new cook as well as the very experienced. All it takes is a little time in understanding the ingredients and steps.

I offer you recipes that I prepare often or recipes that are family traditions. I will tell you in advance if it one that requires a bit of thought as I sometimes do not measure exact ingredients. These you can experiment with easily and none of them are complicated. That's the best part of scratch cooking, you can claim the dish as your own.

Note to new cooks: from scratch means you start with basic ingredients where nothing is pre-mixed and you have to measure the quantities.

Of course, there are recipes from others that have proven just too good to not share. Like the Best Breadmachine White Bread. It would be wrong to keep that to myself. Then there those that are simply links to articles I've written elsewhere but they take you directly to the recipe.

We discuss using fresh vegetables, making your own seasonings, growing your own herbs and how to use them. I hope you stay for a while and enjoy using the recipes and suggestions. Leave a comment or share something. I will post the recipe with full credit to you if you do.

Grow an Italian Garden

Fresh Fennel root

Plant an Italian garden to always have fresh herbs and vegetables on hand for preparing superb and nutritional meals. Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Fennel and Rosemary are basic herbs and standbys that grow well and produce plentiful crops.

Basil is one of the most rewarding crops to plant. Because a packet of seeds produces many plants, it is not necessary to use an entire envelope. Purchasing a small container of six sets is fine for the average family. It will also yield enough to share with neighbors and no one ever turns down fresh basil. For Los Angeles County, Basil is perfect as it is a warm season plant and requires full sun.

Oregano and Parsley are also love full California sun. Oregano is a spreader so allot appropriate space for its growth. Rosemary, that fragrant and wonderful bush type plant is highly drought resistant. Use Rosemary as a shrub border and attract beneficial bees to the garden.

Fennel is usable as a root vegetable and its seeds cultivated as a spice. The overall taste is like black licorice although true licorice does not contain any. See http://www.apinchof.com/fennel1031.html for complete information on its taste and usage.

Grow Italian at http://growitalian.com has a downloadable catalog of seeds from Italy. The site also offers authentic recipes of Peperonata (a slow-cooked yellow and red pepper dish), Squash soup (made with the winter version of the vegetable) and Bruschetta with tomato and arugala.

Organic seeds are found at Organica Seed Co at http://www.organicaseedco.com/herbs.html

True Italian seeds are sold at Italian Seed and Tool Company http://www.italianseedandtool.com

For some unusual varieties of Italian herbs, go to http://www.eseeds.com/c-91-unusual-vegetables.aspx for the beautiful green and purple heirloom artichoke.

Most Delicious Homemade Mayonnaise

This Mayonnaise recipe comes from Liam Bean http://hubpages.com/hub/Mayonnaise-and-many-variants, and is the best I've tasted of the homemade variety.

Many years ago, commercial mayonnaise was flavorful and free of unnecessary flavorings and additives. In recent times, the top sellers changed their recipes and, as far as I've researched, many consumers and cooks are not pleased with the results. I am one of them.

Since I began my hunt for great tasting homemade mayo, I have found a few that are really good. However, Liam's is fantastic and I am pleased to say it is the one I've chosen to use over and over.

What is so good about it?

• The taste
• The perfect consistency
• The stability
• The color
• The simplicity in making it
  

Give it a try... http://hubpages.com/hub/Mayonnaise-and-many-variants

The OMG I Can't Believe These Cookies!

The OMG I Can't Believe These Cookies!
Soft, Delicious, buttery and most excellent

I have a confession to make about the “OMG, I Can’t Believe These Cookies". It took me six hours to make them because I am hooked on Facebook Mafia Wars. If I hadn’t been running back to the computer looking for loot, I would have seen that the recipe only called for one egg instead of six.

All the drama began around four o'clock. The funny thing is I read “add the egg” and interpreted it to mean the writer had left the “s” off the word. I also thought I was going to add chopped German Chocolate chunks until I looked and saw that I had none.

Anyway, after realizing the mistake I kind of just sat for a minute to think. Should I just dump the batter or figure out a way to salvage everything. There was no way I could bring myself to throw away all that butter and those eggs.

So, it came to pass that I calculated I needed five times more of each ingredient excluding the eggs which was the problem in the first place. However, there was no way to get anything else in the mixer bowl so I had to get out my giant aluminum container and use the hand mixer.

It may have been the dumbest thing I’d done in a while but the result was the very best cookies I’ve ever made. I gave Bernice some this morning and she sent an email saying, “The cookies are da bomb!! You can make that mistake again.”

With no further delay, here is the recipe:

• ½ C Butter
• ½ C Brown Sugar
• ½ Tsp Vanilla
• 1 Hershey Bar (2 oz) plain or your choice of chunk chocolate
• ¼ Tsp Salt
• ½ Tsp Baking Soda
• ½ C Sugar (plain, white)
• 1 Egg
• 1 ¼ C Oatmeal
• 1 C Flour
• ½ Tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Pack Chocolate Chips ( 6 oz)

Note: Before you begin mixing, consider adding nuts too. I used ½ cup of toasted, roughly chopped Pecans. In the second batch, I wasn’t feeling it and left them out along with the extra chocolate chips and chunks. It was 10 o’clock already!

Mixing instructions:

• Cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
• Put oatmeal in food processor and blend until it turns to flour. You may have to do it in batches.
• Grate Hershey Bar in blender or by hand; set aside.
• Mix powered oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. The easy way to do this is to put all the dry ingredients in the food processor and let the machine do it for you.
• Combine all the dry ingredients (except chocolate) with the creamed ingredients in the mixing bowl. Mix well
• Add chocolate chips and the grated chocolate bar.
• Make golf ball sized round mounds, put on ungreased cookie sheet two inches apart.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes at 400'F.

Note: These are just like Mrs. Fields' cookies. Leaving out the nuts and extra chocolate from the second batch worked just fine. Every once in while you get a pleasant surprise by biting into a nut or piece of chocolate. If you bake them longer, around 9 minutes, they will not be soft but they will still be delicious.

I can't tell you how many cookies you get from this recipe but I've baked three dozen and still have a gallon freezer bag of dough.

For the large batch, here are the ingredient measurements:

• 3 C Butter
• 3 C Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
• 3 Tsp Vanilla
• 1 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 10 oz of Hershey Bar pieces
• 3 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 1/2 C Sugar
• 7 1/2 C Oatmeal (Quick Cooking, not Instant)
• 6 C Flour (All-Purpose)
• 3 Tsp Baking Powder

Awesome Fast Food Chicken made totally from Scratch

I experiment on Sundays because it is kind of lay-back time. Today, I looked around in the fridge to see what I had and luckily, there was a package of boneless chicken thigh meat.

So by now you know I do not measure anything unless it is crucial to the recipe (I wouldn't want anyone to mess up a big pot of gumbo). My recipes are very open to expermentation.

This recipe was made with other things just lying around in my spice cabinet that I saved from take-out. It is so affordable it's laughable. Here we go...

• Any amount of boneless chicken thigh or breast meat
• 8 packs of fast food soy sauce
• 1 slice of orange or lemon peel
• 1 pack of Chinese mustard
• 1 pack of ketchup
• 1 pack of Taco Bell hot sauce
• 1 clump of brown sugar (you might want to taste sauce to get sweet to your taste
  
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 small clove of garlic, sliced
• a sprinkle of ginger
• a sprinkle of white pepper
• a sprinkle of onion powder
• 3/4 teaspoon instant coffee
  
• 1/2 cube chicken bouillon
  
• 3/4 cup water (room temperature)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (any will do though)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of cooking oil

In a half teacup of water, place the slice of lemon or orange peel. Heat in microwave for 30 seconds. Allow to remain in water while you open the packets of soy sauce. Empty packets into a small bowl.

Slice the peel thinly. This is easy to do with a pair of scissors. Add the peel to the soy sauce.

To measure the brown sugar, just squeeze out a clump into the bowl. Add remaining ingredients (except the 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil) and whisk or stir well. Allow to sit while you prepare the chicken.

Wash and drain chicken. Slice or cut with scissors into nice size portions. Do not add salt or any other seasoning.

In a proper sized skillet, preferably iron or one that will stand high heat, place the remaining cooking oil. Heat on medium until it covers the bottom of the skillet. You may have to swirl it around until it does.

Place chicken pieces in the warm oil and brown to a medium brown. It doesn't have to cook all the way through. Be careful not to burn.

Remove chicken from the skillet and drain off any excess oil. Add a little of the soy sauce mixture and use it to loosen any particles stuck to the skillet. Add the chicken. Pour the rest of the soy sauce mixture over the chicken.

Bring to a boil and then cover, cook over medium heat. When the sauce has reduced to where it is getting thick, remove the cover. Continue cooking until the sauce is thick like take-out Terriyaki chicken.

Spoon sauce over Perfect Rice http://www.ehow.com/how_4452561_make-perfect-rice.html /.

Dirty Rice, Spinach Salad and Strawberry Lemonade

Cajun Dirty Rice Fresh ingredients for spinach salad Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

Cajun Dirty Rice is a savory rice dish that is easy to make but it has a few extra steps. Probably not too different than pilaf. This dish will fill your house with an aroma that will wow your guests. It is also easy to adjust the serving size and you will know after you make it the first time.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C rice, washed and drained
2 C water
3/4 lbs fresh chicken gibblets
1/2 lb ground turkey or pork
1/4 C olive oil, divided
1/2 stick butter, divided
1 lb fresh chicken livers, washed and drained
1/2 C chopped green bell pepper
1/2 C chopped red bell pepper
1/2 C chopped celery
1/2 C chopped brown onion
2 cloves chopped fresh garlic (powdered is not the same)
Salt and Pepper to taste. Start with 1 tsp but you can always add more later.
A sprinkle of cayenne pepper or Tobasco sauce
A large casserole with lid
Pan spray coating

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Boil the giblets until tender in the 2 cups of water. Drain and reserve the broth.
Process the giblets in a food processor until finely ground but not liquefied.
Spray the casserole with pan coating. Add the giblets and chopped veggies (including garlic) in half the olive oil and butter.

Brown the giblets and veggies in a the casserole on stovetop. Add the rice, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Add the broth from the giblets. Cook ingredients on stovetop. Stir occasionally. Cook until rice is tender.

Meanwhile, add the livers to the food processor. It's okay to not clean it of the giblets and veggies left over. Process the livers until liquid. Spray a skillet with pan coating and add remaining butter and olive oil. Melt but be careful, olive oil has a low melting temperature and will start to smoke. If it does, start over. Add the livers and cook until just the center is pink. Turn off heat.

Add the livers to the cooked rice, giblets and veggies. Mix well. Bake the dish in oven until rice is completely cooked and no signs of extra moisture remain.

Simple Spinach Salad
This is dollar store shopping at its best!

Ingredients
1 bag of dollar store fresh spinach
1 container of washed, mixed variety mini tomatoes ( mixed varieties usually come in yellow, grape, plum and cherry)
1/4 C olive oil
1/2 fresh juicy lemon
1 clove fresh garlic
1 squeeze mustard ( just take the mustard container and squeeze some out)
Salt
Pepper

Wash spinach and drain to remove all noticeable water. Dry with paper towels or salad spinner.
In food processor, put in two of each variety of tomatoes.
Add lemon juice.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add mustard.
Process until there are only small chunks of tomatoes showing.
Arrange spinach in a salad bowl. Pour dressing over it and mix lightly.

Strawberry Lemonade, another dollar store goodie.

Ingredients:
1 quart fresh strawberries (or raspberries), washed and drained
1 C sugar
10 fresh, juicy lemons
Ice
Water to fill container
Tall pitcher or punch bowl

Mash or process berries until liquid.
Add sugar and process more.
Squeeze lemons and add juice to pitcher.
Add processed berries.
Add water, leaving room to add ice.
Stir and taste. Add more sugar to your taste. Stir.
Add ice and stir again.
Or leave out the ice and only add it to the glasses.

The Best Leg of Lamb Dinner We Ever Served

We are still getting phones calls thanking us for such a wonderful meal...

For Easter, Bernice, Johnnie and I started with a simple idea of preparing dinner for our usual Football Sunday group. Before I left for home that night the list had grown to 18 invited guests because we had this superb menu and we kept thinking of people we wanted to share it with.

MENU
*Recipe included on this page

• Grilled Leg of Lamb
• Grilled Marinated Chicken
• Stuffed Prawns
• Plain Grilled Prawns
• Orzo Cucumber Salad
• Spinach Salad with Fresh Tomato Dressing*
• Monkey Bread*
• Green Beans and Cauliflower with Potatoes
• Dirty Rice*
• Spaghetti (for wee ones)
• Strawberry Lemonade
• Chocolate Pecan Pie
• Traditional Pecan Pie
• Lemon Dainties
• Brownies

Hors d'oeuvres

• Spicy Sweet Pecans
• Cheese
• Strawberries
• Crackers

Wines

• Don's Red 2002
• Beringer Pinot Grigio
• Beringer Merlot 2005

Johnnie was the Executive Chef and took charge of the meats, Bernice was Prep and I was the line cook. Believe it or not, we didn't plan it that way. It just happened when we decided which dishes we were each going to prepare. We are joking around about this but it pretty much describes what we did.

Recipes are in the next post…