urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks gillancooks gillancooks 2005-08-21T20:42:06Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:2602 2005-08-21T20:39:59Z 2005-08-21T20:41:32Z Found on <a href="http://www.vitacost.com/science/hn/Recipe/Tofu_Scramble.htm">Vitacost</a> page.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />2 tablespoons olive oil<br />1 box tofu, drained<br />1/8 teaspoon turmeric (at least!)<br />1/2 teaspoon garlic powder<br />1 tablespoon soy sauce<br />1 cup fresh mushrooms chopped (optional)<br />1 green onion, finely chopped (optional)<br />1 tomato, chopped (optional)<br />1 bell pepper, finely chopped (optional)<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Heat oil in a skillet. Add veggies and cook until they are tender but crisp. Add tofu, breaking it up into chunks. It may get quite crumbly; this is okay. Add soy sauce, garlic powder, and turmeric. Stir around for a few minutes, until the seasonings are well distributed. Cook over medium heat until the tofu is hot. A few drops of Tabasco or other hot sauce adds a spicy touch. Serve with toast and fruit for a hearty breakfast.<br /><br />Makes 4 servings.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />I made this recipe with all the optional ingredients, and I found it to be too bland, so I added a LOT more turmeric and it turned out great, but I like spicy foods so if you don't stick with this recipe and then add more to taste if you want more flavor. I dump turmeric on like a man out of control. This is a great vegetarian/vegan dish, and with summer here and my family throwing tons of homegrown vegetables at me I'm definitely making this again. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:2554 2005-08-21T20:35:32Z 2005-08-21T20:42:06Z Found on back of Food Club Elbow Macaroni.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />1/2 pound elbow macaroni<br />1 tablespoon flour<br />1 teaspoon salt<br />1/2 pound cheddar cheese<br />2 tablespoons butter<br />1/2 teaspoon black pepper<br />1/2 cup buttered bread crumbs<br />2 cups milk<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Cook macaroni and place in buttered casserole dish. Melt butter in saucepan, add flour and milk, stir slowly until it thickens. Add salt and pepper. Cut cheese into cupes and scatter over macaroni. Cover top with bread crumbs. Pour sauce over all. Bake in moderate oven (350°F) for 30 minutes.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />I used mild cheddar cheese and this turned out great. I've typically used extra sharp cheddar in my other cheesy dishes, and I think I like the mild much better. This was simple and cheap to make. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:2241 2005-08-15T17:53:45Z 2005-08-15T17:53:45Z Found on package of Food Club Enriched Rice.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />1/2 cup sliced almonds<br />2 tablespoons butter or margarine<br />1 can (4 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained<br />3 cups cooked rice<br />salt and ground black pepper<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />In a large skillet, saute almonds in butter until golden. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat thoroughly. Yield: 6 servings.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />A better side dish than an entree - I wish I'd had some sort of meat with it, because on its own it got tired real quick, but it was still tasty. Next time I'm going to stir in some cooked chicken. I think that would help it a lot. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:1792 2005-07-29T15:15:00Z 2005-07-29T15:15:00Z Instructions from my Grandma Finch.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />2 cups uncooked macaroni<br />1.5 tablespoons flour<br />8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese (more if you want it)<br />milk<br />salt<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Cook and drain macaroni. Place macaroni in an appropiately-sized casserole dish. Cover macaroni with milk. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle flour over dish and stir in. Cover in cheese. Do not stir cheese in but poke it down into macaroni. Bake at 375 degrees until brown on top.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />My grandmother and my mother both use this recipe to make their macaroni and cheese and I've had it at every family gathering since the dawn of mankind. I love the stuff. Yet when I made it, it seemed to turn out fine but when I ate it it made me nauseous and I'm not sure why. Was the milk I used bad? Could be, it'd been sitting in my fridge for awhile and I didn't think to check it. Maybe the cheese was too sharp? I got extra sharp cheese. It was fine when I ate it plain but maybe cooking it made it noxious. I do not know. Anyhow, I'll make this again. I just need to figure out why this dish that I've eaten all my life made me sick when I tried making it. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:1569 2005-07-22T16:25:37Z 2005-07-22T16:29:02Z Recipe found on package of China Boy Chow Mein Noodles.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips<br />1 cup peanuts<br />3 1/2 cups chow mein noodles<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Melt chips in double boiler, remove from heat. Stir in peanuts and noodles. Use a heaping teaspon of prepared mixture and drop on waxed paper to form a cluster. Makes 2 to 3 dozen.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />You can tell I'm a bachelor with too much free time when I start making stuff like this. I actually don't have a double boiler, so I just put one pot inside another pot containing water. It was very messy and I should have just seen if one of my relatives had a double boiler. It worked. It just required a lot of babysitting. After leaving them on the wax paper long enough to cool, I put them in a tupperware container and tossed them in the fridge. After they cooled some they were great. Still a bit crumbly, though. I'm not sure if I'll make this again since it's a little too sweet for me, but it's not a bad recipe. I'm hanging onto it in case I need to make some desserty-type thing around the holidays. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:1289 2005-07-18T13:48:45Z 2005-07-22T16:21:29Z Recipe found on <a href="http://www.bgfoods.com/recipes/detail.asp?RecipeID=121942&amp;BrandSiteID=158">BGFoods.com</a>.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />1/2 cup pecans, chopped<br />1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed<br />1/4 cup butter, melted<br />1/4 cup molasses<br />1 package 3 ounces vanilla cook & serve pudding & pie filling<br />1 tablespoon milk<br />1 teaspoon ground cinnamon<br />1 pound frozen white bread dough, thawed<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Lightly grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. In medium bowl, combine pecans, brown sugar, butter, molasses, pudding, milk and cinnamon.<br /><br />Slice bread dough into 1-inch thick rounds. Arrange bread in prepared baking pan. Pour molasses mixture over bread. Cover and let rise 2 to 3 hours or overnight in refrigerator.<br /><br />Bake in a 350° oven, 30 minutes or until bread is golden and molasses mixture is bubbling. Let stand 5 minutes. If desired, invert onto serving platter. Makes 8 Servings.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />These turned out great! I figured they'd have a real heavy molasses flavor, but it's actually pretty faint. It tastes like sticky buns you'd buy in the store. I baked mine for a few minutes too long so it got a little bit scorched, but not too bad. I also had to substitute frozen pizza dough for bread dough. My grandmother thought I was crazy. Still, it turned out fine. The dough was crisp instead of fluffy, but it worked. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:1159 2005-07-16T23:48:43Z 2005-07-17T04:40:27Z In reference to <a href="http://www.bgfoods.com/recipes/detail.asp?RecipeID=121942&amp;BrandSiteID=158">this recipe</a>, do you think the 1 package 3 ounces vanilla cook & serve pudding & pie filling it refers to in the recipe should be prepared as a pudding or just used as a powder?<br /><br /><b>Answer</b>: Okay, my grandma tells me that I just use the powdered pudding. It helps to make the icing mixture and the buns more moist. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:809 2005-07-16T22:15:46Z 2005-07-29T15:15:22Z Recipe found on package of China Boy Chow Mein Noodles.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />1 pound ground beef<br />1/2 cup chow mein noodles, coarsely crushed<br />2 tablespoons soy sauce<br />1 tablespoon dark molasses<br />1 teaspoon onion salt<br />1 teaspoon prepared mustard<br />1/4 teaspoon garlic powder<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Combine all ingredients. Shape into 4 patties. Grill, broil, or pan-fry to desired doneness. Serves 4.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />Makes a damn tasty burger, but a bit on the salty side. Next time I'm probably going to halve the soy sauce. The molasses flavor is interesting, but it wasn't really that bad. I'm really not sure how much flavor the chow mein noodles add, and they don't add crunchy bits to the burger like I thought they would since they become "soggy" during cooking. Will make again. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:gillancooks:288 2005-07-15T20:47:30Z 2005-07-15T20:51:16Z Recipe found on package of one pound bag of Food Club Lentils.<br /><br /><b>Ingredients</b><br /><br />1 pound dry lentils<br />2 quarts water<br />1 ham bone or smoked pork neckbone<br />1 onion, chopped<br />1 clove garlic, minced<br />1 carrot, diced<br />1 celery stalk, chopped<br />1 bay leaf<br />1/4 teaspoon dry mustard<br />salt and pepper<br /><br /><b>Directions</b><br /><br />Wash and sort lentils; cover with water. Add ham bone, vegetables, bay leaf, and mustard. Cover and bring to boiling. Simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until lentils are very tender. Stir occasionally. Remove bone; cut off meat and dice. If desired, put vegetable mixture through a food mill, blender, or sieve. Return meat to soup; season to taste with salt and pepper. Makes about 3 quarts.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b><br /><br />Had to add a good deal of salt and pepper to bring out the flavor. Will get approximate measurements next time. Will also try to double the amounts of onion, garlic, carrot, and celery in the recipe in the hopes of making it more flavorful. Tasty, but a little on the bland side. Substitute a smoked pork neckbone from a lack of availability of hambones and the substitution worked great. Also added some leftover rice at one point and it worked out well. Will make again.