I'm getting all four of my (impacted) wisdom teeth removed on Monday. I'm expecting to be eating non-solids for at least a few days afterwards. My boyfriend's a pretty good cook and a great nurse but he won't be around much, so I'll be fending for myself most days.

I want to make and freeze a few things this weekend so that I have food ready the day after my surgery when I'm too drugged up to work a food processor. But I have a couple of questions.

Somebody told me that you're not supposed to eat cheese or yogurt or anything with bacterial culture in it. Is that true? Because that would make me sad. Everything I eat has cheese in it. :(

I pretty much came here to ask you guys what you craved and ate when you had your wisdom teeth removed. I'm definitely going to make some mashed potatoes and some butternut squash, and I've got fruit and soy milk to make smoothies. But anything more interesting would be greatly appreciated.

Hey pornistas, I just scored half a gallon of raw milk from the farmer's market. Is there anything else I can do besides make butter and drink it? I'm super excited!

If I wanted to make roasted marrow bones what sort of bones would I ask for at the butchers?

And what meats are good for marrow? I can get goat, veal, lamb and cow.

Howdy Pornistas!

I am planning what I hope will be a nice, special meal for me and my SO for this Friday, since he won't be in town for v-day. I have an entree and a dessert, but I'd also like to make something small to munch on as we cook, and have a nice drink with dinner, so I'm hoping you guys might have some suggestions!

For dinner I'm planning on making this spice rubbed steak with a horseradish & garlic cream sauce from epicurious, substituting two small ribeye steaks for the tenderloin (much cheaper!), alongside some roasted potatoes and greenbeans.

Also, somewhat adventurously, I'm going to try and make a creme brulee with rasberries for dessert.

Making the sauce for the steak sounds like a lengthy process, so I'd like to have something small and simple to munch on while we cook. I'd like to do something with brie or another cheese, but I'm at a loss for what...anyone have any suggestions?

Also, I'd like to make a nice drink to have before and during dinner. I don't drink beer and my SO doesn't like wine, and unfortunately my knowledge of mixed drinks is somewhat limited. Any suggestions as to something I could make that would compliment my entree?

Thanks so much for any ideas you might have - and thanks in general for this awesome community! I love to read and be inspired by all of your culinary adventures!

Edit: Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'll definitely try to post pictures once I get going tomorrow night!

Thank you!

I searched to see some posts on deep frying a turkey. Mainly "How to". Which is very helpful.  My question is how to spice the bird. We did this a few years ago with friends and they injected the bird with a flavored butter. 
Now it is our turn to do this and I want to do something with some flavor.  Any suggestions on prepping the bird with spices.  Anyone tried to brine it?


Thanks in advance.

Hey! I ran through that search-lj thing and couldnt find anything similar to my question, sooo...

Dear everyone out there,
I'm looking in to buying my father some gifts online this year for the holidays!
He loves to cook, and the majority of my previous gifts have been things like high quality knives, a mandolin, dish sets, and other semi-necessities. (My parents recently divorced, and he was left with nothing)

Anyway! I was wondering if you guys could recommend a wonderful, reputable, online cookware site!!
I have shopped through amazon before, and have googled up a few general cooking websites (cooking.com....etc) but I would like your opinions! I'm not fantastic with what is good quality and what is not--I either need to go to a professional store and talk to a salesperson, or I just end up buying the most expensive thing I can afford :S.

Sadly, I am located in Saskatoon for schooling, and they dont seem to have any high end cookware stores here. (But will be going back to Vancouver for december holidays) I would love to go in and check out merchandise up close, but I prefer not shopping at the last minute!

Thanks!!
xox

Tomorrow I'm going to make this recipe. It's for zucchini and eggplant curry and has the best recipe format ever. Anyway, I have two questions because I don't often use eggplant, and I've never used curry.

-The only time I've used eggplant is for EP parmesan, and you have to sweat the eggplant first. This recipe doesn't mention it, but I'd rather not screw this up. Sweat or no sweat?

-It calls for curry paste, but all I have is curry powder. Is this an even substitute? Do I need to add anything else to make up for the non-pastiness?

And to thank you for your trouble, here is some porn:

( Pineapple upside-down cakelets )

Hi there, I'm back with yet another question. (Sorry!)

This morning I started making an absolutely fabulous chicken pot pie casserole type thing in my crockpot with a ton of veggies and a cream of chicken and mushroom soup base.

However, tragedy struck. I recently bought a small disposable grinder top and canister of sea salt. When I was about to add some sea salt, the entire cap just fell apart. It didn't necessarily break, it just FELL APART. You can imagine what happened. I panicked, I scooped out as much of the salt as possible, I frantically Googled looking for answers that I could use, and then I realized I had to be at leave for work NOW. So I added a bit of sugar, pepper, garlic powder, milk, and a handful of a mix of flour and breadcrumbs and stirred it, topped it with the biscuit layer, and left.

So here I am at work. I can't take a break to head back to my dorm room for a while and when I do I will only have around 20 minutes to salvage this recipe. I have no potatoes. What can I do, if anything, with what I have on hand?


Help And I promise one of these days I won't ruin a recipe and come ask for help - instead I'll proudly post pictures of my non-failure :P

Hi guys, I bought some stuffed bell peppers at Ralphs today (they were half price) and I don't know how long I should cook them for. They've got a meat filling which looks pretty raw to me and no instructions. Help, I have no desire to get food poisoning!

Hi gang. I have 3 peaches that are a bit dry and grainy. I bought them yesterday and cut into them this morning for breakfast and wasn't too pleased with them. Well, since it's baking season pretty soon in Brooklyn, I was thinking of storing them to make small peach tarts later in the month. That way I get to warm up the house with bakey goodness in the oven.

What is the best way to freeze them? I could have sworn you're supposed to cook them a bit first with some sugar water or am I just jumping the gun and thinking about the tart making process already? Otherwise, it should be fine to just slice and then freeze them in Ziploc freezer bag, right? Maybe sprinkle some lemon juice on them to prevent browning?

Wait, maybe that was it...lemon juice and a bit of sugar then toss them in the freezer....

Also, what are some good peach tart recipes or even a cobbler/crumble recipe? I also have strawberries in the freezer as well that would love to hang out with the peaches. I think I'm going for smaller 1 - 2 serving size tarts, pies, etc. Would 3 large pitted peaches and some strawberries be enough for 3 - 4 small tarts/pies?


Thanks so much...

Does anyone have recipes they recommend for teaching people how to cook?
There are a few people that I need to teach. I was thinking chili, since it's easy and I can make it vegetarian (both one of the girls I'm teaching and I are vegetarian), but other than that I have no idea where to start. (We're also going to be in college next year, so inexpensive would be nice.)

I have a question for you guys.

I'm making beef with mushroom sauce tomorrow from this recipe here . I'm not going to need all that sauce so my question is, could I make the lot and freeze whats left or should I just make a half batch?

Hi everyone. I'm a long time reader, but have never posted to the group. I'm a member of a dinner and movie group that is gearing up for a few weeks of horror films. The problem is that I would really like to prepare a few dishes (main and appetizers) that would fit the theme, but am completely stumped. Any suggestions?

Does anyone know if there's sort of standard coffee grinder settings? I left mine at 12 last semester, and now I can't remember if that's fine or coarse.. I need to make espresso for a cake but I don't want to use coffee size grounds..

I've made my own soy yogurt and yogurt from organic cow's milk.  I've eaten plain Dannon.  But nothing compares to the Fage yogurt I recently bought at my local organic store.  It has a tangy aftertaste that's just excellent.  The two types of yogurt I make and the Dannon seems to mild in comparison.

Does anyone know whether all Greek style yogurt is like this?  And why Dannon and my homemade yogurts don't have this same tang?  I have strained my homemade yogurt in an unbleached coffee filter to make it thicker.  But it didn't increase the tang.

Just a quick question...

I made spaghetti about, maybe 2 1/2 weeks ago? I didn't use all the sauce... and it has been sitting in my refrigerator in the jar. How long do you guys think it's good for? I would assume the "use by date", but since it was opened I wasn't too sure.

Thanks in advance for the help!!

Hello! I'm looking for a little advice on truffles.

( Trufflage )

Favorite vanilla extract without paying way too much?

This afternoon I'm finally getting around to pickling the heap of green beans I have been growing this summer. I'm very excited about this and have beans, jars, white and cider vinegar, homegrown mustard seeds, organic garlic and dill heads so fragrant that my building's whole first floor smells like dill piled on my kitchen table. Hooray! 

Unfortunately, none of the grocery stores in my neighborhood seem to sell pickling salt. Does using pickling salt make any difference besides making the brine clearer and the pickles a lighter color? These are just for me and whoever ends up coming over for dinner while they last, so I really don't care about the color if everything else is the same. I have kosher salt, which has no iodine but does have an anti-caking agent, and if it won't change the flavor I'm just going to use that. Any reason not to?

I love making soups and cooking in general - my one major draw-back is that I have to watch my sodium intake because of my high blood pressure.  I don't have the time or money to make chicken stock myself so I use a bouillon base. I've nearly worked through the jar of Wyler's Chicken Flavored Instant Bouillon Granules and in preparing to buy a new bouillon base I wanted to ask you wonderful, wonderful people if you had any favorite low-sodium equivalent. Is there a brand you know that might help me? I made a wonderful chicken-noodle soup yesterday and it would have been perfect except that it turned out too salty for my tastes (my boyfriend loved it, but he is much more salt friendly). I can't wait to be able to make such soups without having to shy away from them because of their salt contents.

Thanks ahead of time!