Where my fellow cooks at???

[viva la ben]

Dinner tonight was hot sausage, onion and peppers calzone.

[Factorial]

Tonight's dinner:

1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa (cooked in 1 cup of chicken stock)
15 (ish) brussel sprouts cleaned halved, coated with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roasted for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Turn half way through.
Saute half an onion in slices, add 1 tsp minced garlic and deglaze with balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup (total of the 3) of sunflower seeds, papitas, and chopped almonds toasted in a skillet pan
hand full of dried cranberries

combine everything together and drizzle with olive oil. add salt, pepper, and oregano to taste

We had this by itself for dinner, but would be great as a side dish for roasted chicken.

Quinoa is one of my daughters favorite foods now. Being the lazy cook, I just make one of the various mixes available now.

[redwill]

I love quinoa. The little pop when biting into properly-cooked quinoa is weirdly pleasurable.

[columbia]

For shmenguin and the mrs....

The Prettiest Christmas Cookies Ever (And They're Gluten Free)
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguide ... rss_epilog" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[shmenguin]

cool stuff...we're just figuring out that you can make some pretty nice sweets using alternative flours.

[tifosi77]

Turkey Day with the in-laws came off smashingly, despite me committing two horrible rookie mistakes.

First, for the Turkey Roulade I neglected to purchase plastic wrap wide enough to actually roll the turkey. So I ended up having to tie it like a roast, which was decidedly less cool. But I successfully meat glued for the first time, so there's that.

Second, I was trying to get the potatoes to crisp up in the oven and took the pan out. Word to the wise: Don't grab the metal handle on a pan that just came out of a 375°F oven with your bare hand. My finger actually sizzled. But I LOVE COOKING, so it's okay.

Brussels sprouts were good, but I think I should have used Pecorino cheese instead of the smoked Idizabal. The potatoes were tasty, but the dish didn't come together quite like I wanted. The cornbread-chorizo drestuffing was tasty. Both turkey preparation were delicious and juicy.

[redwill]

Word to the wise: Don't grab the metal handle on a pan that just came out of a 375°F oven with your bare hand. My finger actually sizzled.

A couple of years ago I was baking. Oven had been at ~400 for a couple of hours. There was an empty saucepan that had been sitting over the oven vent. I picked it up. The handle was cool. But before sitting it on the counter, I stupidly decided to test the bottom by laying it on my forearm.

Word to the wise: Don't do that. It burned the hair off my forearm and left a painful burn that hurt like hell for a month or more.

[columbia]

Been there, done that with a cast iron pan.

A horrible lesson to learn.

[shafnutz05]

lol, just a few weeks ago, there was a burner I had just used, and had set the tray of butter down on it. After a couple seconds, I realized it, and tried a hamfisted attempt to grab it, meanwhile burning my fingers in the process as well as touching hot burning plastic. so dumb.

[Chefpatrick871]

One of my first days in a professional kitchen I grabbed a white hot sauté pan, burned so bad I felt it running up my arm into my shoulder. To make matrees worse it was on top of a fresh cut.

[Letang Is The Truth]

at least you cauterized the cut

[count2infinity]

My second week as a cook, I was helping the kitchen manager take a gigantic roast out of the oven. He told me, "Just reach to the back of the oven with the hot pad and grab it then we'll pull it out together." The pan was a little stuck, and you know what happens when you are pulling on something and it comes unstuck, it starts to go flying. Not thinking I grabbed the tray near where he was holding on and burned the **** out of my hand. He just looked at me and goes, "what the hell did you do that for?"

[shmenguin]

Did the exact same thing tif did. Had a 4 inch burn up my hand. Had to put ice on it right away. The burn mark hung around for like 6 months. Shocked that I didn't get a permanent scar.

[count2infinity]

oh, I do have one permanent scar from the work place due to burns. Was working at the dirty o one summer and as some of you may know, when you get fries there, they take the container, put it on top of the fries in the fryer basket and then turn it over and onto a tray or into a bag. It was one of my first flips that I had done and a very small chunk of a fry landed on the inside of my left wrist. I panicked and just held onto the fryer basket in one hand, fries in the other for like 4 or 5 seconds not sure what to do until my brain finally kicked in and said, "put the basket back in the fryer and get this scalding hot french fry off your wrist"... it blistered immediately and now there's about a pencil eraser sized scar there to remind me of it.

[eddysnake]

anyone use these ekogrips for cooking? Any thoughts on replacing pot holders with these?

[tifosi77]

Did the exact same thing tif did. Had a 4 inch burn up my hand. Had to put ice on it right away. The burn mark hung around for like 6 months. Shocked that I didn't get a permanent scar.

I think it's funny that the only cooking scars I have are a collection of like five or six speckles on the inside of my right forearm. Reaching over a pan of chicken legs browning in oil, skin spat hot fat up on to my arm.

[BigMcK]

Oysters are now in season. Anyone here partake of the molluscs?

I bought a couple ($1.00 each) over the weekend. First attempt to open one resulted in a now bent butter knife. The shell cracked into shards using a screwdriver, so that was a waste. The second one was difficult to open but was nice and briny after prying it open.

I think placing them on the grill is the best idea and just let the steam open the shell.

[tifosi77]

Oysters are now in season. Anyone here partake of the molluscs?

I bought a couple ($1.00 each) over the weekend. First attempt to open one resulted in a now bent butter knife. The shell cracked into shards using a screwdriver, so that was a waste. The second one was difficult to open but was nice and briny after prying it open.

I think placing them on the grill is the best idea and just let the steam open the shell.

Give this method a try. Obviously don't need a water oven; any pot and a thermometer will work. And this method preserves the raw flavor a bit better than steaming would do, imo.

[youtube][/youtube]

I loves oysters. Hog Island up in SF is fantastic (they have an outpost in the Ferry Building), but my favorite ever was Felix's char-grilled oysters in NOLA. So. Good.

[Shyster]

Made my annual two loaves of Alton Brown's "Free Range Fruitcake" this weekend. If any of you don't like fruitcake, you should try making this cake at least once. No green lumps here; it's all real fruit. And the reason so many store-bought fruitcakes are lousy is because they're missing a key ingredient: booze. A real fruitcake should contain enough booze to kill a small dog. Alton's recipe uses a cup of rum per loaf, and you periodically spritz the cake with more booze as it ages (which should be for at least 10 days or so before eating). I'm using a mix of brandy and calvados for the spritz, mixed with a little shot of honey.

[mac5155]

My work group is volunteering tomorrow to make rum cakes. They are really good... and full of booze.

[OutofFoil]

Rum Ham!

[count2infinity]

wasn't sure if I had post this one before (I had over a year ago), but spicy tomato lentil soup. It has the same look/color as the tomato soup from a can, but has the texture almost like split pea soup. had it with regular grilled cheese tonight.

http://www.letsgopens.com/scripts/phpBB ... 7#p2545687" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[shafnutz05]

Mussels>>>>>>>Oysters, to my palate anyway. I can eat dozens of mussels but have tried oysters a bunch of times and can't get into them.

[mac5155]

I'm not a huge fan of either. I guess I'd take fried clams over either .

[canaan]

I couldn't choose between oysters and mussels. They both have their places, and they both rock.