I would like to know a good recipe for a white chocolate mud cake. I would prefer it to be a gluten free recipe. I have searched but I was wondering if anybody has a favourite?

I'm planning on hosting a new year's party this year, and its been requested that I serve asian food. I'm planning on including onigiri (rice balls) on the menu. Onigiri usually have plum or smoked salmon in them, but has anyone ever put anything else in them? I'd like to try something thats a little more creative, but still tastes good.

Also, any suggestions of other snack foods I can serve? I'd like to make red bean soup, dango rice dumplings, and mochi. Does anyone know any good recipies?

And are there any good drink recipes? (preferably nonalcoholic, since me and most of my friends are still underaged) I remember having this really good iced tea at a thai resturaunt before. I think it was chai tea (or some other kind of spiced tea) with either milk or cream, I can't remember. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I'd like to know the name so I can confirm the recipe.

Thank you in advance! <3

Hello,
I recently bought a bag of cranberries and I'm planning on drying them. I tried looking up how to do it, but most websites basically say "put them in boiling water and then the oven." I was wondering how do they become sweet then? Can someone provide me with step by step directions on how to dry them and make them sweet?
Thanks!

My trusty old stick blender died today, just as I was about to puree my pot of potage parmentier. Any recommendations for a good stick blender would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :)

Part of my contribution to this years Thanksgiving Dinner was dessert. While my chocolate mousee disappeared, my pear tart never quite got out of the kitchen. That just means more for me as far as I'm concerned. It made a lovely Saturday morning breakfast.





( More photos and recipe to follow )

Another use for left over turkey.

Cauliflower, Spinach, & Chicken Gratin
SERVES 6 ACTIVE TIME: 25 min TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 20 min
Ingredients
* 3-4 cups cooked turkey, diced
* 1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets (or 2 lbs cauliflower florets)
* 1 pkg (10 oz) Fresh Spinach, large stems removed, rinsed
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs
* 1 (13 oz) jar Alfredo Sauce
* 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese
* Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

Topping
* 1/2 cup Seasoned Bread Crumbs
* 1 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions
You'll Need: 13 x 9-inch baking dish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Mix turkey, cauliflower, and spinach; season with salt and pepper. Add 1/2 cup bread crumbs, alfredo sauce, and mozzarella; mix well. Set aside.

2. Make topping: Combine 1/2 cup of bread crumbs with 1 Tbsp oil in small bowl. Set aside.

3. Grease baking dish with olive oil; add turkey-vegetable mixture.

4. Bake, uncovered, 40 min, stirring halfway through cooking time.

5. Sprinkle with topping. Bake 15 min more, until topping is light golden brown.

This was GOOD!!!


Ingredients

* 1 pastry dough
* 3 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
* 1/4 cup rum
* 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree
* 1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
* 1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature
* 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons finely chopped crystallized ginger or 1 teaspoon ground
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* Pinch each cloves and freshly grated nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup chilled heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks with 1 tablespoons confectioner sugar

Directions

1. Arrange oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Butter and flour a 9-1/2-inch (1-1/2-quart capacity) glass pie dish. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 14-inch round. Brush excess flour from dough and fit into prepared pie dish. Trim edge of dough, leaving a 1-inch overhang; reserve excess dough for decoration. Fold overhang under so it tucks just inside the pie dish. Decoratively flute edge of dough, prick bottom with a fork and chill until firm, about 15 minutes. Roll out remaining dough scraps on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough with a 3-2/4- by 2-1/3-inch leaf-shaped cookie cutter and transfer to prepared cookie sheet. Lightly beat 1 egg and brush over tops of leaves (reserve remaining egg); chill until firm, about 20 minutes.

2. Line pie shell with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake in lower third of oven until middle is set and edges are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Carefully remove foil and pie weights. Brush leaves again with beaten egg. Return pie shell to lower third of oven and place leaf decorations in upper third; bake until middle of shell is golden and leaves are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer pie dish to rack and cool to room temperature. Let leaves cool on pan on rack 3 minutes, then transfer with a spatula to rack to cool completely.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degree F. Stir together cranberries, rum, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan; simmer 2 minutes. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Drain cranberries in a sieve, transfer to a bowl and let stand until cool.

4. Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, remaining 2 eggs, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt, and cranberry mixture. Brush edge of pie shell with remaining egg. Pour filling into pie shell, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until filling is just set and center trembles slightly when gently shaken, about 50 minutes. Transfer pie to rack, top with leaf decorations, and cool completely. Chill until firm, about 3 hours.

Makes 8 servings.

All right, I'm making Christmas pudding, as I do every year, and I'm still trying to get the hang of it. This year, I studied over two dozen recipes (including George Orwell's!) that seemed to me to have good provenance, and learned some new tricks. For example, it's supposedly better to make it in a crockpot or slow cooker for longer, than to steam it. (And supposedly easier, too, even though it takes a lot longer.)

What I'm trying to figure out is if there are any good rules of thumb regarding proportions of the major ingredient categories. I.e., so much dried fruit to so much dry stuff to so much suet to so much sugar, that sort of thing. I make big puddings, so large quantities don't worry me, but I really want some better sense of how much of stuff to use.

One of the dry ingredients is crumb, and many of the recipes specify fresh, or bakery (because it's fresher than store-bought). What is the big difference, really? It's dry, crushed up bread either way, right? How much difference can it make?

Thanks!

I got carried away picking sloes today and picked way more than I needed. I'm making sloe and apple jelly and sloe gin already. Is there anything else I can make with them? Google suggests not but has anyone here done anything different with them?

After my mom passed away my dad has been eating out a lot or making weird things for meals. He makes things like rice tacos (boxed rice in tortillas...). Lots of P&B and bologna sandwiches. He'll make spaghetti, but he makes the whole package and eats leftovers almost the whole week.

So I was thinking of putting together a binder of recipes to make 1-2 servings and giving it to him for Christmas. I was also thinking of getting baking pans that he can use in his toaster oven.

If anyone has any recipes they can share with me, I'd really appreciate it. He is not a picky eater and is willing to try just about anything. I would like to keep things as simple, easy and quick as possible.

Thanks!!!!

Hello cooking.

I'm a uni student living in England, and I frequent a pub called Wetherspoons - mainly because it's the nearest one to me. The one item I ordered the majority of my time was a wonderful chicken, leek and wiltshire ham pie that seems to have disappeared off the menu in my local Wetherspoons.

Needless to say, I am gutted that it's gone and would like to recreate the recipe at home. So, I'm looking for your recommended recipes for the aforementioned pie (or even something similar, as long as it involves chicken and ham together, we can forgo the leeks).

A problem I have is that I've never been able to make shortcrust pastry properly... ever. So if anyone can give me tips on foolproof pastry, I'd be happy.

Thanks in advance :)

So as a way of procrastinating on the last 10k of my NaNoWriMo novel, I've been playing Cafe World on Facebook kind of a lot today. One of the things I made in my little pretend restaurant was French Onion Soup, and that little pixelated bowl of melted cheese looked sooooooo good. I wanted to make my own, except I hate onions. I googled for a bit to see if there was a non-oniony variation, thinking that surely someone had been in a similar predicament before and maybe used potatoes or something. Alas, either my google-fu failed me, or no one else was quite as much of a dork as I am.

So I made up my own recipe. I googled for some French Onion Soup recipes, and modified the heck out of 'em based on 1) not using onions, and 2) what I had in my fridge and pantry. It turned out pretty tasty for a seat-of-the-pants experiment!



( Recipe! )

I'm looking into asking for some nicer pans for X-mas. Does anyone have any resources that do comparative reviews other than Cooks Illustrated? (the subscription fee is just too much)

Specifically, I think I'm looking for a high-quality saucier and a medium to high-quality >12" non-stick skillet/saute pan.

Daring Bakers challenge this month wasn't baking at all! Instead, we rolled up our sleeves and made cannoli. It was the first time I'd ever deep-fried anything, and it turned out well!

I topped my cannoli with:
1. Dark chocolate and chopped hazelnuts
2. Chopped peanuts and peanut butter chips
3. Cinnamon chips (definitely my favorite! Mmm!)



( recipe and photo )


To read more about these delicious 3-bite desserts and see more photos (including one off-topic photo of our delectable Thanksgiving turkey), please head over to my baking blog, Willow Bird Baking!

x posted to food_porn, picturing_food, and cooking

I have an abundance of celery stuffed with cream cheese and olives left over from Thanksgiving. I plan to remove the filling and throw the celery into my turkey soup, but I was wondering: do you think the filling could be used in something else? Say, maybe, mashed potatoes? Does anyone have any suggestions?

So a couple of months ago I found a great pumpkin yeast bread that I served with cream cheese whipped with maple syrup.

that bread also makes divine bread pudding. which is what I was wanting to make for thanksgiving...I have one spare loaf from previous batch but I wanted a bit more...so I set about making the bread - but it didn't want to rise. so I made do (and it was fine as there were SOooooo many desserts that what I brought was plenty)

but yesterday morning I looked at the dough and it had finally risen - but what to do with it as I didn't just want the pumpkin bread (I was getting a bit bored with it)

so I perused the king arthur site and got some tips from this recipe and even tho I didn't have raisins, I did have dried apples...I also added some maple syrup for moisture

this is what came of this experiment



( recipe behind the cut )

I almost didn't do this Challenge.

Why? Because I hated Cannoli. Well, turns out, Mark loves Cannolli, my neighbor Chris loves Cannoli, Mark's boss and her family loves Cannoli, so it wouldn't be hard to get rid of them when I did make them.

( Continued )

More pictures, tips, and recipe at my blog HERE

As always, recipe behind cut as well.
( Read more... )

Hi everyone!
I was wondering if anyone had a good coconut ice recipe they were willing to share.
Thanks!!

This is my first time posting here, so let me know if I do something wrong!

I made these oreo truffles for Thanksgiving. They were a huge hit, and I will definitely make them again soon. Only warning: do NOT eat one all in one bite!



( Recipe )

tonight was a supper where i "wanted certain flavours and threw them all together" kind of dish.



( pics and recipe this way )

I have a ton of Reeses Pieces candies leftover from Hallowe'en that I don't want to waste, so I was thinking of making some sort of baked treat for my friends. I've seen tons of different kinds of recipes on the net but don't know which is the best. I was thinking of a recipe that isn't too buttery or sickly sweet, but the kind that is a nice treat with coffee. I'm open to any kind of baked good!

So my Boyfriend, being awesome went and bought the sweet potatoes we needed for the pie I'm making for tonight. Well, he brought home this white fleshed tuber, versus the orange fleshed ones I'm used to.

The stores are closed, so I can't go out and buy orange sweet potatoes.

How do I turn this white sweet potato into a tasty pie? Will the following recipie work? What will I need to change?

This is the recipe:


Ingredients

* 1 (1 pound) sweet potato
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup milk
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Directions

1. Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.
2. Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.

Thanks Everyone!!


Edited to add: So apparently the sweet potato in question was just the pale yellow kind, and worked pretty well. I had to add what was probably closer to 2/3 cup milk and a full teaspoon of nutmeg, but everyone who had it said that it was yummy.

I thought I'd share this experience since, in a time when everyone is concerned about saving energy (either to save the planet or to save money) this is a rather brilliant way to cook a turkey.

Usually we don't have turkey in my house for Thanksgiving because it's just a huge pain in the butt. Why eat a turkey that will take hours to cook when we can pop a roast in and be done in an hour? This year, though, Mom was reading M.S. Living which had an article about cooking a Spatchcocked (butterflied) Turkey. So we thought... 70 minutes, really? Let's try it!

The turkey was the last thing to go into the oven and it came out perfectly about an hour later. No need to cover it or worry the skin will burn. It was still very moist.



( How to... )
X-Posted to bakebakebake

We are going to be moving in the near future, and unfortunately we will not have a stove/oven/or fridge for probably about 2 months. We will have a mini fridge for items like milk, etc but really no storage space. We have a grill, electric griddle, microwave, and a deep freeze. I was thinking of making up some individually portioned meals to stick in the freezer so that we are not completely living off of take out and commercially frozen dinners. They would need to be pretty simple to make since we are busy preparing for the move and would also need to be able to be reheated in the microwave - preferably from a frozen state since there's not much room in the mini fridge. Does anyone have any TNT freezer friendly recipies? Thank you!

I had promised to bring a lemon pound cake to my aunt's house for dessert. While taking it out the oven I was surprised to find that one of my cats had decided to follow me and lay down right behind me. So while trying to not step on him and simultaneously keep myself from face planting into the wall, I ended up dropping my cake on the floor (wahh!). I'm out of eggs and the lemon pudding I use for the cake, and I have no way to get to the store right now (not to mention there's no time for the butter to soften).

I have approximately 2 ~ 2.5 hours of available time before I need to get myself ready. Anyone have simple dessert recipes that don't take too long to whip up?

Another sort of baking related question. For Thanksgiving, I made ahead a pan of green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole. Neither are baked; both have dairy products (and an egg for the sweet potatoe) incorporated into the mixture. Should I refrigerate or freeze for the night?


(I really hope a mod is awake to put this through, lol.)

In preparation for tomorrow, I have two pumpkin pahs in the oven, to bring to a pot-luck dinner a friend and neighbor is hosting. I also am bringing mashed 'taters, but obviously I won't be making them until right before I leave!

Here's a recipe I've been making since I was a kid, since I grew up on the cranberry bogs in Massachusetts!

Cranberry Sauce:
1 bag whole dry cranberries (fresh)
1 cp orange juice
1.5 tsp orange zest
2 cinnamon sticks
Sugar to taste.

In a saucepan, combine berries and orange juice, bring to simmer over medium heat. Snap cinnamon sticks in half, float in simmering sauce, add orange zest. Simmer until most of the berries have burst, releasing red goodness.

Add sugar to taste, depending on how tart or sweet you like it, as well as how tart the berries are (believe it or not, different cranberry varieties -do- taste different!). Keep in mind, this can be a LOT of sugar, so be prepared.

Chill if you so wish (or serve hot!), removing the cinnamon sticks before serving and giving it a good stir.

If you would like your sauce a bit thicker, you can add a little bit of cornstarch and water. Mix 1tsp cornstarch with 1 tsp of water, and mix well, then add to simmering berries. Blend well until just thickened.

I am hoping that (by some miracle) someone with wonton experience will read this before tomorrow afternoon. Sooooo ... I want to make sweet won-tons for a dessert. I have a few different fillings I plan to use and most of them (ok, almost all of them) will be gooey (yogurt, cream cheese, etc). I did two test runs tonight:

Test 1: sprayed a little butter on the won-ton , dolloped in a filling, sealed in a triangle shape, sprayed with a little more butter and sprinkled on a little brown sugar, than baked.
-- Failed: Baked fine but the outside was just too dry and pasta-tasting, even with a little brown sugar on the top. (and a little powdered sugar on one)

Test 2: Boiled oil, made the same type of wonton and popped it into the oil (I omitted the outer butter).
-- Failed - all the outside squeezed out somewhere and I ended up with a fluffy, empty, crispy won-ton.

SOOO! My question is ... how can I either make the shell taste better when baked, or keep the gooey filling in the fried won-ton? help!!!!
HEEELLLPPP!!!
Thank you :-D

hola. i made a pumpkin cheesecake to bring for thanksgiving, but now i have leftover sour cream and all i could think of to use it for was soups that didn't seem that pleasing to me, garnishes for things like pierogies, or more baked goods which i didn't really want to bake just for myself. does anyone have any cooking ideas for a tub of sour cream? thanks!

-edit-
veg ideas only please!

I mixed up a batch of cranberry sorbet Monday night (cranberries, cranberry juice, sugar, pinch of salt, light corn syrup) and it would not freeze in the ice cream maker, now it is Wednesday night, it is in a baking pan in the freezer (has been since Monday night) and it still isn't frozen.
Anyone have any idea why? My freezer freezes ice cubes just fine but won't completely freeze the ice cream maker core or this sorbet. Turned the dial as cold as it goes... No alcohol in the recipe... maybe too much corn syrup? I had hoped to take it to a Thanksgiving dinner but I'd rather not take this unfrozen goop... Meanwhile I'm moving it to a shallower pan to see if it helps at all.

My sister is having her first child at the beginning of January and I wanted to fill a recipe card box with easy new mom recipes that were healthy and creative. Any moms have recipe suggestions? She doesn't really eat much red meat and she's allergic to shellfish but other than that she will eat anything!

This is my first Thanksgiving that I am both hosting and cooking everything on my own. I'm pretty confident on my menu but am veryyyy nervous about the turkey! My husband is the pickiest person on earth so I want to do somethings super super basic with the stuffing outside of the turkey. I called the butterball hotline and they told me to coat it in veggie oil and the last 20 mins cover it with foil on just the breasts. But this really doesn't sound right to me...is it just me?

ALSO, I'd really like any suggestions on how you make your Holidays special! My SIL just came out as a lesbian and is not welcome at her parents house any more so her and her Fiance were just going to have Turkey sandwiches from Wawa. Now there was no way in hell I'd let this happen so of course they are both more than welcome at my house. This is their first Thanksgiving together so I just want to make sure it's wonderful :)

Im baking an apple pie for Thanksgiving. I was wondering if I can bake it today and re warm it tomorrow? Would that dry it out or wreck the pie?

( Recipe here... )

(x-posted in bakebakebake)

I'm making flatbread appetizers for tomorrow. I'd like to make a variety of toppings for our varying tastes and it's a large get together.

I know I am making:

Sweet potato/sage/pancetta

I also have these jarred Des De Saveurs I'd like to use but need some ideas as to what sort of fresh add-ins might be good with them.

Artichoke spinach with parmasan and garlic
Caramelized garlic and sage white bean

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

I got this recipe off an egg nog container several years ago and it has become a holiday staple.

1 cooked pie shell.
1 pkg cook and serve vanilla pudding mix.
Substitute egg nog for the milk.
1/2 t nutmeg
Prepare according to package directions.
Refrigerate until cool but not totally set up(1)
As much heavy cream as milk.
Whip the heavy cream.
When pudding is cool enough, mix the pudding and whipped cream together.
Pour into pie shell.
Refrigerate until set
Nom


(1) I never can figure out how long that is, some years it sets and some years I have to make it a frozen pie. This year I am trying 1 hour.



ETA: I checked it at the 35 minute point and it was just right for mixing together, so I think it is 35 minutes not an hour.

I've had four pretty big (American chickens must be HUUUUUUGE) chicken breasts cooking away in my crock pot for about 2 hours now on high. (If it matters, it's a 6quart Hamilton Beach one...)

I want to toss in some veggies later in, and HAD intended to put it on low for 8 hours, tossing in the veggies at the last two hours, but things (kids!) happen, so I wound up doing it on higher heat. Should I just go by the halving rules, and since the chicken cooks for four hours instead of eight, put the veggies in at the last hour mark?

I really am new to cooking, sorry if this all sounds dumb. :(

Should I toss the veggies on top? Move the chicken and put the veggies at the bottom then put the chicken back in? :/

ETA: Lol I did this hours ago... I fell asleep and the veggies disintegrated anyway. Oh well. :)

I had this book and lost it after I moved. I've been so depressed without it!
My memory might be a little wrong here, but I'm pretty sure it:

• had a mainly white cover, white with the text and some photos or drawings or something on it
• Was probably not more than 250-300 pages. Probably less, maybe around 150.
• Featured whole grains
• probably came out in the 90s. I bought it used, so I'm not sure exactly how old it was, but that is a guess
• was paperback

I remember a very specific recipe for millet, spinach and walnut croquettes served with tomato sauce included in the book.

Any leads would be great! Or places to search besides Amazon, LibraryThing and Goodreads. Thanks!

When I was in Spain this summer I ate a lot of tortillas. They were our go-to when we were sick of fish in Cabo de Palos (didn't happen to me, but to other members of my family), when we didn't feel like eating heavy meat in Madrid, or when we wanted something to nosh on between lunch and dinner while drinking a lovely Alhambra beer. And now that winter is rapidly approaching, I think about sunny Spain a lot. Like, a REAL WHOLE LOT.

( Recipe under here! )

See more at The Cast-Iron Darling!