What was the last thing you cooked?

[Mary Terry]

Right now, on the countertop, I'm preparing a batch of Hibiscus, Lavender, Ginger Kombucha.

I am also in the process of making Farmer Cheese, curded with Kombucha instead of vinegar. Pink salt on top, after the whey is strained out.

It is a very soft cheese, somewhere between cream cheese and cottage cheese.

A beautiful texture, great for sauces, or as a spread. The flavor is sort of like Monterrey Jack, but brighter. The kombucha gifting the cheese the slightest brie-like fermented complexity. Like a fine wine.

One gallon of whole milk will make 2 pounds of cheese.

The tangy, probiotic whey can be used in bread making, to wash/condition hair, or in beverages or sauces.

Can you use the Farmer Cheese to make Noodle Kugel? Yum. I use cottage cheese when I make it but I think Farmer Cheese would work, too.

 

[ra49]

Can you use the Farmer Cheese to make Noodle Kugel? Yum. I use cottage cheese when I make it but I think Farmer Cheese would work, too.

Ricotta works, I have used it

 

[Mary Terry]

Ricotta works, I have used it

Thinking about noodle Kugel - I'm going to make an old-fashioned tuna noodle casserole for dinner and probably put crumbled potato chips on top like recipes from the 1960s. It's retro food but I'll make my own bechamel (white sauce) instead of using cream of mushroom soup. I haven't made tuna noodle casserole in about 30 years.

 

[AprilR]

Did not exactly Cook, but i made strawberry parfait.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

In times of worry, I find that acts of service to others, seeing them happy, helps me to cool out a little. Plus this time of year, I do get the cooking bug.

In the past few days, I've made

Homemade sweet and sour shrimp, with rice (Sauce homemade too)

Spaghetti with homemade meatballs, and homemade marinara

Blueberry Muffins (Almost from scratch- I did use bisquit mix instead of separately measuring the flour, salt, and baking powder)

 

[Judge]

I was going to have scrambled eggs last night. Lucky for me I always test the edibility of eggs by dropping them into a cup of water. If they drop to the bottom and stay there, they should be fine. But all the eggs I had left bobbled at the surface of the water.

So...no eggs last night. Settled for a "Stacked Beef Burrito" frozen dinner. Tortillas, sauce, meat and lots of cheese, sort of like Lasagna.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Can you use the Farmer Cheese to make Noodle Kugel? Yum. I use cottage cheese when I make it but I think Farmer Cheese would work, too.

I don't know. I have never seen a noodle kugel. I've heard of them though. Everyone says they're delicious.

Farmer cheese is texturally somewhere between cream cheese, ricotta, and cottage cheese.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Last night I learned that one can oven fry egg rolls.

My daughter and I were both sore, for different reasons, and so neither of us wanted to stand by the stove, frying up egg rolls. I thought aloud, "I wonder if oven frying egg rolls is a thing?"

We sauteed up the meat and veggies, and I made a homemade sweet n sour, and used that as a stir fry sauce.

Then we wrapped up the egg rolls, sealing the wrappers with an egg wash.

We put foil in a long cake pan, put foil in that. And very lightly buttered the foil.

Then we laid out all the egg rolls.

We melted 1/2 stick of butter, and painted that over the tops of the egg rolls.

Baked them at 375 for 20 minutes.

Then we flipped the egg rolls, and baked them for another 10 minutes.

Then we let the grease drip off for a few minutes. on a plate lined with paper towels.

They came out crunchy, kinda greasy, and so very good. Almost exactly like pan fried egg rolls.

It was hard to stop eating them. They were so bomb.

 

[Mary Terry]

I don't know. I have never seen a noodle kugel. I've heard of them though. Everyone says they're delicious.

Farmer cheese is texturally somewhere between cream cheese, ricotta, and cottage cheese.

I think it would work fine with farmer cheese. Noodle kugel is just egg noodles, some kind of mild cheese and lots of sour cream.

 

[Judge]

Last night I learned that one can oven fry egg rolls.

My daughter and I were both sore, for different reasons, and so neither of us wanted to stand by the stove, frying up egg rolls. I thought aloud, "I wonder if oven frying egg rolls is a thing?"

We sauteed up the meat and veggies, and I made a homemade sweet n sour, and used that as a stir fry sauce.

Then we wrapped up the egg rolls, sealing the wrappers with an egg wash.

We put foil in a long cake pan, put foil in that. And very lightly buttered the foil.

Then we laid out all the egg rolls.

We melted 1/2 stick of butter, and painted that over the tops of the egg rolls.

Baked them at 375 for 20 minutes.

Then we flipped the egg rolls, and baked them for another 10 minutes.

Then we let the grease drip off for a few minutes. on a plate lined with paper towels.

They came out crunchy, kinda greasy, and so very good. Almost exactly like pan fried egg rolls.

It was hard to stop eating them. They were so bomb.

Y'all sure eat well!

 

[Judge]

Fresh, spicy Italian sausage with fresh sliced pepperoni for my pizza with olives, two cheeses, red and green peppers. All added to a cheap "Tony's Cheese Pizza".

400 degrees and 20 minutes later...I dine in style for lunch.

I've struggled for years to find a frozen pizza that was tolerable at best. Stumbled onto the "Tony's" brand, which has decent dough and tomato paste. The rest I pretty much add on my own. Especially any meats, which easily spoil being frozen over time.

 

[AprilR]

Curry chicken and mushroom stew. The mushrooms were a bit bitter

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Oven fried chicken
Oven fried zucchini
Mango Lassi

 

[Rachie]

I am not cooking anything. I don't tend to. This is for me as I have a day trip which I am nervous about tomorrow. This is a special occasion salad for me. Christmas I will probably get some white crab as well. Hopefully this time will be allergic free. In the Kinder tubs is decaff coffee.

 

[Mary Terry]

Fresh, spicy Italian sausage with fresh sliced pepperoni for my pizza with olives, two cheeses, red and green peppers. All added to a cheap "Tony's Cheese Pizza".

View attachment 136375

400 degrees and 20 minutes later...I dine in style for lunch.

I've struggled for years to find a frozen pizza that was tolerable at best. Stumbled onto the "Tony's" brand, which has decent dough and tomato paste. The rest I pretty much add on my own. Especially any meats, which easily spoil being frozen over time.

I dress up plain cheese pizzas, too. The best ones I've found are handmade and sold at The Fresh Market store, but I doubt they do business in Nevada.

Sometimes I just use storebought naan bread or flat bread as the crust and add cheese, veggies, or whatever I have on hand, to the top and bake it in a hot oven till the cheese melts.

 

[Aspie_With_Attitude]

Here's the last cooking that I filmed and put up on YouTube

 

[Mary Terry]

The other day I made white tea/ pomegranate/ lemongrass/ ginger kombucha. It's still brewing. But oh my, it's delicious. Like cranberry ginger ale.

Last night I made "killer" jo-jo potato wedges.

I say "killer" because they were not only crazy delicious, I nearly gave myself stigmata when the dull knife slipped and jumped and I stabbed myself in the other wrist with the knife, hard. Not sliced, not jammed. Stabbed. Like right on the artery, in the soft spot right below the palm, with a big Japanese chef's knife. I screamed. My daughter flipped out. I thought I was going to the hospital for stitches. Luckily, and I don't know how, The knife barely broke the skin. Within a few minutes it stopped hurting. And all I had was a tiny surface nick.

Tell you what, God sent an angel on that one.

Lesson to you all: Keep your knives sharpened. Do a little sharpening before using a knife, each time. A dull knife is an accident waiting to happen.

My jo-jo potato wedges, plus my daughter's cheese-infused mammoth burgers were quite a fabulous dinner, btw.

You got lucky that time! I'm obsessed with using only high quality extremely sharp knives. You're much less likely to cut yourself with a sharp knife than a dull one. Hubby likes to sharpen them for me although I'm quite capable of doing it myself.

 

[AprilR]

Meatballs and basil noodles

 

[Jeff T]

Low carb spaghetti noodles with mushrooms, sausage and cheese, and using mild enchilada sauce in lieu of the high carb tomato marinara. Used pressure cooker.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Up late. It's about 2 am. Sometimes big feelings keep me up.

I had spent all evening simmering bones and scraps for bone broth. I filtered out the broth, and poured it into jars for canning tomorrow morning. Put the jars in the fridge. Drank some broth too. It was comforting.

Then I sorted the meat from the bones. Put the meat in a little tub in the fridge.

The fat and bones went into a compostable bag in the freezer. At my local hippie grocery store, they accept all kinds of food in their compost bins, even animal products. Also non-waxed paper too. They send it to some facility where it's all commercially composted.

When the bag is full, I can just go to the back of the cafe section of the grocery store, and drop my frozen scraps into their compost bin. They're super chill with me doing that.

********
I cleaned up after myself, and then made myself a Lassi.

Today I finished fermenting more buttermilk. It takes about 24 hours.

One of my favorite uses of cultured buttermilk is Lassi.

I fill a glass about 1/3 full with buttermilk. I throw in a pinch of salt. Fill it to the top with cold water. Sweeten to taste. And then I stir it with a reusable bamboo straw.

It's quite refreshing. Like Kefir.

Homemade cultured buttermilk is thicker than grocery store buttermilk. It's almost the same texture as yoghurt. So it can be used the same way.