OT : Cooking
 

Since we have a politics thread, I thought I'd start a cooking one.

Anyone have any recipes to share?

Jazzepi

Re: OT : Cooking
 

Not really. But I've had this growing affection for Fried Rice lately. If you have some leftover rice in the fridge you just grab it and like ALL the vegetables that are about to go bad and through it into a skillet. Cook it up with some oil and soy sauce and you have a passable meal.

Re: OT : Cooking
 

Lately as a diet aid Ive been keeping a bowl of mixed nuts out. A small handful really does curb appetite and it lets my get right back to Dom3 gaming.

The only "recipe" Ive come up with is two hotpockets and pour a can of beans or chili over it, then heat.

Re: OT : Cooking
 

Gandalf, that's bachelor food. I should know. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

But I have to admit to a fondness for cooking, especially pasta dishes. I make a pretty good stuffed manicotti(sp?) and real good seafood enchiladas, if I don't say so myself.

And beer chili for football season. Does anything NOT go good with beer?

Re: OT : Cooking
 

I love making this.

You need
--------
One package of Fat Free Hotdogs (Use 3-4 of them)
One can of vegetarian baked beans (Use the whole thing)
Two red potatoes
Cottage Cheese

Prep
--------
Chop up the hotdogs into small cylinders
Chop up potatoes into a couple of flat discs

Cooking
--------
Put the potatoes into water. Boil under tender, something like 10-15 minutes on high.

Use a good number of slabs of butter into a large flat pan. Melt it. The put the potatoes in face down. Cook them until they get a nice brown shade. Flip and repeat for the other side. Spice with salt and pepper lightly after they're finished cooking.

Put hotdogs and beans both into a pot. All you need to do is warm them up. I use a habenaro spicy sauce and lots of Cumin to give it a nice kick. If you don't like spicy, just use the Cumin.

Serve all on one plate, and add low fat cottage cheese. Don't mix the cottage cheese in, just put it on the plate alongside everything else.

It's a nice low calorie low fat meal.

Jazzepi

Re: OT : Cooking
 

Hmm, are we talking just quick meals or any type of cooking?

I am a very excellent chef, particularly when it comes to grilling, frying and baking. I am terrible when it comes to doing deserts though.

Here is a quick meal that tastes really good http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I guess you would call it "Italian Stir Fry"

You need:
Half a stick of butter
2-3lbs of sliced boneless chicken breast(depending on how many you are cooking for)
Fat Free Italian dressing(It is better than regular Italian because it has more spices and less oil)
Slivered almonds
garlic
1 bag of the stir fry mix you get in the frozen goods section that only has sliced bell pepper (orange,green,red) and onion.
soy sauce
little bit of salt and pepper.
Habanero pepper sauce (or texas pete, tobasco sauce is fine)

Here is how you make it:

Heat the skillet to medium, place the butter, the garlic and the slivered almonds in the skillet.

As the butter melts and begins to sauté the slivered almonds, add the chicken which should be thinly sliced as if you were making fajitas.

Put a little bit of soy sauce (to taste) on the chicken, a splash of hot sauce and allow it to absorb into the meat. Pour enough italian dressing on the chicken to coat the side that is facing up. (alternately you can marinade the chicken in the italian dressing before you cook)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Let the chicken cook and use a spatula to flip the pieces once the bottom looks done. Put more italian dressing on the other side of the chicken and allow it to cook.

When the chicken is almost done, add the frozen stir fry vegetables (Around half a bag) to the skillet. Cook for 5 more minutes, drain the excess water from the frozen vegetables.

Serve with rice. <3

Prep time and cooking time less than a half hour and anyone can make it.

Re: OT : Cooking
 

My favorite lazy boy snack/meal/breakfast is 1/2 liter of lactose free full cream milk (I need the calories, plus full cream just tastes way better), a few handfuls of Planters Mixed Nuts, and a couple handfuls of Ocean Spray Dried Cranberries. All munched while figuring out how to pummel 500 magma children and umbrals with wolves. 700-800 calories, protein, carbs, fats, calcium, vitamins, antioxidants, all the stuff a growing boy needs =)

Re: OT : Cooking
 

I think you'd do well if you slathered the magma childern in beef juice.

Actually, all you need is some indy slingers armed with bullion cubes.

Jazzepi

Re: OT : Cooking
 

I'm disapointed by the lack of cannibals in Dom3.

You've got ghouls, sure. But that's old hat.

Wendigos?

Those cannibalistic cults that LA R'lyeh generates don't really get much for their cannibalistic practices! Of course, for my money, land-based R'lyeh cults should offer blood-sacrifices to the dreaming God.

Also, if you've got a deep-frier, it's all about fried chicken. The stuff is chock-full of calories, but it has a low glycemic index (meaning it doesn't do much to your blood sugar), so as part of a balanced diet, with some light exercise in-between turns, you should be okay.

The point is, you take whole mustard seeds - you can get these at most of those high volume hippy or natural food stores, maybe even organic (which might actually do some good in a food as oily as a mustard seed) and you add them straight to the batter, about 10% of the volume.

Your fried chicken comes out spicy and delicious, without even any need for hot sauce (although I add a little tabasco after frying, even so.)

Cooking for the sake of cooking.
 

Ok, so it's come to my attention that this thread was made, perhaps, in protest of the Politics thread. That's fine, I have nothing against the whole "peaceful public demonstration" thing.

However, it's kind of a shame if it can't be a good thread on it's own merits.

Food is as important a thing as religion or music or war, culturally, and-since the other three elements are pretty integral and vital parts of the game-(and if you don't think music is, well I kind of feel sorry for you, sitting there playing all muted in an empty room with nothing good to listen to.) well, why not a serious discussion of food?

It's an important aspect of life that has changed and evolved, and learning about it teaches us something about how people used to live. They didn't do all that hunting and raiding and worshipping for laughs, they did it to help them eat.

Re: OT : Cooking
 

You should be careful with nuts as a diet aid. They're actually loaded with calories.

I like a big salad with unsalted peanuts + raisins + fat free balsamic vinagarette. It's filling, but very light in calories and fat.

Jazzepi

Re: OT : Cooking
 

A handful is ok. And it was recommended by my doctor/dietician. One of the few suggestions I bothered taking.

Re: OT : Cooking
 

Yep, those nuts are really nutrient dense, and I'm actually in need of calories as I do a lot of physical activities - weightlifting, fencing, wii boxing, worm farming (those worm boxes need moving around daily!) dom3 manual page flipping and search button tapping on the shrapnel forums =)

As an aside, Pine nuts seems to have the most calories per gram of any nuts, but they are expensive!

Re: OT : Cooking
 

Here's a super quick recipe for chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken
Big can of chicken broth
1 package of egg noodles

Go to grocery store and buy a cooked rotisserie chicken.
Buy a package of egg noodles which are found in the frozen section. Buy the large size of chicken broth.

Get the broth to boiling and then turn it down, tear the warm tender meat off the chicken and then thrown it in along with the noodles and some pepper and/or other seasonings. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the noodles are cooked. You're done.

Takes a total of about 15 minutes and it lasts for several meals for 1 or 2 people.

Re: OT : Cooking
 

When I get some time I'll post a really great recipe I came up with for chicken alfredo with pine-nuts. It'll pack the calories on you like crazy. Be careful with pine-nuts though, they can have bugs.

The million-calorie recipe
 

Ok, here ya go.

You'll need:
approximately 1/2 lb of chicken breast-meat (white meat)
1 lemon (but get 2, they're cheap)
a pepper grinder
1 ripe avocado
atleast 2 cloves crushed garlic
1/4 lb pine nuts
1 large Portabella mushroom
1 lb pasta (this recipe will feed yourself and a date you want to impress)
olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil-you can get away with one type of oil here
dried red pepper flakes-to taste, but don't overdo it
Worshershire sauce (Lea and Perrins is the best, but just use what you have)
a solid hunk of Parmezan cheese
1 stick of butter-preferrably unsalted, high quality butter-you can use the cheaper stuff, but the sauce WILL be greasier.
Heavy cream (or whipping cream-no, not the stuff that comes in a cannister and goes on banana splits or a kinky person, I mean the stuff that is sold by the pint and you put it in your coffee)

Take the chicken, cut it up into strips and marinate it in lemon juice-use half a lemon, fresh ground pepper, and crushed garlic, set it aside 1 hour before you put the pasta on.

Take your pine nuts and rinse them off under cold water, place them on a paper towel and use another paper towel to pat them dry 30 minutes before the pasta.

Cut up a portabella mushroom (also into thin strips) and put it into a bowl. Marinate it in a tablespoon of olive oil, more crushed garlic, dried red pepper flakes, a few drops of Worshershire sauce, and a little lemon juice. Put it in the fridge 30 minutes before the pasta.

Cut an avocado into strips and squeeze the lemon over it, set it aside in a bowl in the fridge 15 minutes before the pasta.

15 minutes before you cook the pasta, heat up a frying pan (on medium-high heat) for 5 minutes and then add a tablespoon of olive oil and the chicken. Cook the chicken for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. After 10 minutes of cooking, turn the heat off and put the chicken in a microwave bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic-wrap and microwave it for 1 minute on high heat (just to make sure this recipe doesn't kill anyone with salmonella or e-coli). Clean the frying pan out with cold water and paper towels (be careful not to burn yourself).

For the Alfredo sauce, you're going to want a solid block of Parmesan cheese. The grated stuff you buy in a can won't really cut it. The quality of the cheese does matter, but that's a matter of taste and experience choosing the right one. I personally like a nice American cheese that's been aged 6 months or so, just because the older, better cheeses tend to be very dry, which I don't like as well in the sauce, and they're like twice as expensive-this dish is expensive enough as it is.

Grate the cheese up and have it ready before you put the pasta on. The sauce is simple, just melt unsalted butter-Land 'o lakes is good-over low heat until it's completely melted and then add heavy cream-for the best cream for the recipe, check the back and choose the one with the most fat content.

When you add the cream, MAKE SURE to take the butter OFF the heat and add the cream slooooowly. Too much heat makes the cream angry and it will clot. That's bad. Heat the butter and the cream over LOW heat-halfway between off and medium-and add the grated cheese right after you've added the cream. Cook it-stirring regularly-for 5 minutes. After that, put the water for the pasta on to boil-at a guess, you want around half a gallon of water for a pound of pasta, but read the directions on the box-and turn the heat down to low-the first or second notch above off-and stir it occasionally with a fork.

You can use pretty much any pasta you want, but I encourage either the traditional fettucinni or a nice tri-color rotini. Cook it according to the directions on the box. When it's done, drain it and place it in a large salad-bowl.

While the pasta is cooking, place the pine nuts in a frying pan with a teaspoon of sesame oil and a teaspoon of peanut oil. Saute them on medium heat, stirring constantly, until they start to darken slightly in color. Take the pine nuts out (carefully-they'll be hot) and put them on a paper towel to dry.

Put the pan back on the heat and heat it on high heat for 3 minutes exactly.
Add the portabella mushrooms (don't add any liquid) and 1 tablespoon of butter at the same time. Heat for 2 minutes more, and then turn the heat completely off. Don't stir the mushrooms at all, just make sure they're well distributed across the surface of the pan, and leave them on the burner. This should intensify the flavor and make the mushrooms somewhat dry.

When you put the pasta in the bowl, pour the sauce over the pasta and mix together until the pasta is well-incorporated with the sauce. Arrange the chicken, avocado, Portabella mushroom, and pine nuts over the top in as artistic a way as you feel (but do it quickly so the pasta doesn't go cold) and serve-preferrably with wine, to a date.

Disclaimer: don't ever engage in any activity that may result in the following: burning yourself, cutting yourself, poisoning yourself, setting your hair on fire, poisoning others, spreading disease, or sueing me.

Re: The million-calorie recipe
 

I love alfredo sauce and I love pine nuts. But putting them together sounds like sending Lore Masters in with your wrathing AQ. Pine nuts are expensive and have a subtle flavor, and any alfredo sauce I've ever had is anything but subtle.

So I don't sound like a troll, I'll soon add my personal Gingersnaps recipe for the forum's pleasure.

Re: The million-calorie recipe
 

You might not be using the right kind of Alfredo sauce then. A good Alfredo should be delicate enough that it doesn't interfere with the pine nut flavor-besides which, they add pine nuts to pesto sauce, and pesto is a lot more aggressive than Alfredo.

Re: The million-calorie recipe
 

Actually, for ultimate artery-exploding madness, you can add a handful of cashews along with the pine nuts-add them to the pine nuts at the very end of toasting them just as you're taking them off the heat, just to wake up the flavor a bit.

I don't suggest seafood however, if anyone was thinking of shrimp or something. It may seem like a good idea, but it's not that kind of dish-ofcourse, you can do what you want.

Re: The million-calorie recipe
 

Sorry to take it on a bit of a tangent, but I don't feel this warrants a brand new thread.

What are some of the snacks/drinks (ranging from easy to make to no effort to make) you enjoy during playing a game on your computer?

Snacks:
Almonds
Cottage cheese mixed with powdered soy protein
Half a bagel sandwich with salami and swiss cheese

Drinks:
Tea with honey and lemon
Water

Re: The million-calorie recipe
 

I'll try to share a real recipe later, but here's a couple deserts to enjoy. For the icecream, I recommend Breyer's. It's often on sale, and its high aeration works great for milkshakes - you can mash it with a spoon to the perfect consistency, no need to deal with floats or blenders.

Purple Cow:
IceCream, natural vanilla works best.
Real Grape Juice. Stronger is better, like Welch's grape cocktail juice - though thats only available frozen nowadays. If you want a sweeter flavor, then go with grape soda.
Get your nice tall glass, put a few big lumps of icecream in there - say halfway full. Then pour the grape juice to the same level. Mash it together with a spoon, taste, and decide whether you need more grape juice or icecream. The right consistency is about the same as a thick fastfood milkshake, the right flavor is slightly tart. Keeping that in mind, fill up the glass to the top with additional icecream and juice. Eat and enjoy your purple cow.

Amaretto Milkshake
Put several scoops of vanilla ice cream into a tall glass. Pour some skim milk over it, mash together. Add one spoonful of amaretto lacquer. You can add chocolate syrup, but its not necessary.