Tinfoil Chef

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Sometime back I ran across a page, probably via StumbleUpon, that had an interesting variation on the concept of the garden. I only wish that I had bookmarked it or could find it again. Instead of doing something ordinary like plant things in his yard or a window box, this guy decided that his garden had to be where he could keep an eye on it… or maybe he didn’t have any other place to put it.

Anyway. He got one of those big plastic car covers and put it on his car. Then he cut out pieces of it for the windows and made other cuts so that the doors, hood, trunk and gas cap could all open. That’s when he got out the glue and glued the thing to the car.

Once that was set he applied another layer of glue to the outside of the car cover and packed it with topsoil. Along the sides of the car he had grass planted and on the roof, hood, fenders and trunk he had various vegetables planted. Instead of washing his car he would have to water and weed it. He also had to make sure that he didn’t grow anything that needed a lot of depth or would get very tall.

I know this sounds like one of those “yeah, right.” kinda things but it was there, complete with pictures of the “greenest” Towncar anybody’s ever driven.

If anyone happens to run across the site please let me know the url.

Technorati Tags: gardening, vegetables, green towncar, unusual garden, green

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I was surfing around looking for interesting recipes when this one showed up on allrecipes.com titled simply “Outer Banks Style Clam Dish”

You start with 1/3 pound of fatback diced (Personally I’d probably use bacon instead) and cook it in a skillet over a medium-high heat until it’s good and crisp. Remove the pieces and keep them to one side for use later.

Cut the heat back to medium and add a large diced onion. Saute the onion in the bacon (or fatback) grease until they’ve turned transparent. Dice up 4 medium red potatoes and stir them into the onions. Be sure that the potatoes are thoroughly coated with the bacon grease.

Season generously with black pepper and pour in an 8oz bottle of clam juice. Cover and simmer at a medium heat for about 15 minutes.

While the potatoes are simmering, chop about 24 shucked clams into pieces. Add clams (with their liquid) to the potatoes during the last 3 minutes. Serve in deep bowls with the crispy bits of bacon sprinkled over the top.

Technorati Tags: clam chowder, outer banks clams, clam recipe, clams, recipe, clam dish

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This is something that I sorta threw together one morning when I was in a mood for something that was a bit different and packed a little bit of a kick. At the same time I wasn’t wanting anything so hot that it’d make itself known on the blood pressure monitor either.

What I ended up with was very satisfying and tasty with just a bit of crunch and with the aroma of curry that I’ve come to love quite a bit. There’s really nothing quite like the smell you get when curry powder first hits hot food. What’s really great about it is that it tastes very much like it smells.

I was rummaging around and found some frozen bits of breaded “popcorn” chicken and decided to use that. I started the skillet heating up with some olive oil in it. (butter works good too)

While that was warming up I chopped a couple stalks of celery and added it to the skillet. Then I diced up a medium onion and tossed it in with the celery. We also had some green bell peppers that I had chopped up and frozen a few days earlier so I added roughly half a cup or so of that.

Next came the popcorn chicken, roughly half to 3/4 cup of it added to the mix. I gave this a good stirring to make sure nothing’s sticking and let it cook on a medium heat while I got out some fresh spinach. I chopped up a good size handful and stirred it into the skillet.

When it’s just about done I give it a liberal sprinkling of curry powder and stir that in and let it cook another minute or so. I consider this to be one of my own variations on a “Breakfast of Champions”. Though it would also make a perfectly good addition to any meal (or midnight snack!).

Technorati Tags: curry, veggies, breakfast, chicken, recipe, breakfast of champions, stir fry

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Tonight I had a real craving for the good old salty taste of popcorn. I took care of that with one of those quick & easy packages of microwave popcorn. It took care of the immediate craving and microwave popcorn really isn’t bad but it’s still not quite the same as the stuff you used to be able to get in the movie theater.

They’d make it up in these giant popcorn machines that could hold what looked like three or four cubic feet of popped popcorn. Get a giant tub of that with extra butter and it’s showtime!

The popcorn got me looking around and I came across a recipe for mushroom popcorn that I doubt you’d ever get in a theater.

Start by getting a half cup of popcorn going in whatever popping system you use.

Melt a half cup of butter in a saucepan and add a tablespoon each of dried onion flakes and dried bell pepper flakes. Toss in several dried mushrooms cut into small pieces and stir it over a medium head for a few minutes. Pour that over the popcorn, toss it a bit to coat as much popcorn as possible, salt to taste and go for it.

Technorati Tags: popcorn, movie theaters, mushroom popcorn, recipe, popcorn machines

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In short, Sarah’s Cucina Bella is, in her own words, about “Recipes that the whole family will eat . . . and the stories that go along with them”. To make a short story a bit longer, it’s more than just that. The stories are good family fun, such as a recipe featured last April called Parmesan Rosemary Sweet Potato Fries.

Apparently her husband is one of those who’re pretty much set in their ways with no interest in changing. Part of that included a dislike (or at least strong disinterest) for most things vegetable. Reading that story I get the idea that he’d have sooner been willing to take horse supplements than to sit down to something that’s primarily vegetable in nature… especially if said vegetables weren’t the “open a can” variety.

Then came the Sweet Potato Fries. She apparently decided to take a different tack and simply not offer them to him. He surprised her by actuall asking to try them which goes to prove that we men are willing to try new things once in a while, it just that pushing us to do so only increases the resistance. By not offering them she took the pressure off.

Anyway, Those fries looked so good that sometime soon we’re going to have to make them here. I for one can’t wait to see how they’d taste with a bit of curry powder cooked onto them along with the rosemary & olive oil.

They’re made by peeling about a pound and a half of sweet potatoes and then cutting them into 1/4 inch wide french fry shaped strips while the oven preheats to 400 degrees.

Next you add 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped rosemary and some sea salt and about half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese and stir or toss the mixture to make sure that all of the potato strips are coated.

Spread ‘em out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle some more Parmesan cheese on top.

Cook them for about 20 to 25 minutes, making sure to turn them about halfway through. When they are browned around the edges they’re done. Move ‘em to a paper towel lined plate, salt to taste and serve warm.

Technorati Tags: fries, homemade fries, cooking blog, sweet potato fries, sweet potato, recipe

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I honestly would not have expected that a good cake could be made without sugar but then again, I’m probably thinking about the frosting that usually is loaded with sugar. This one looks interesting although I’d probably want to change out the prunes for something else. Maybe I could take a hint from the video in the previous post and just as they used post-it notes in place of butter, I could use erasers or some other office supplies in place of the prunes. (can you tell I’m not really thrilled with prunes? [grin])

Boil a cup of dates and a cup of prunes in the one cup of water for 3 minutes; add 1 stick of butter (melted) and a cup of raisins and let that cool.

While it’s cooling Mix a cup of plain flour, a teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 eggs, a cup of chopped nuts, 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Add that to the fruit mixture and stir until it’s blended. Pour it into a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes

Technorati Tags: recipe, diabetic, diabetic friendly, dessert, baking

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Every once in a while I like to take a “normal” recipe and try to see what changes can be made to it that will either improve it or just make it different. My wife sent me this video that I think does a great job of showing how somebody really did a major job of changing the basic spaghetti recipe. I can honestly say that I’ve never tried making it this way.

Technorati Tags: cooking video, spaghetti, video

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We’ve been spending a lot of time away from home this month and one of the things that I aways end up missing is the coffee I have at home. Oh, it’s nothing super special, In fact it’s an off-brand of coffee that I chose because it was the lowest price. But after all the time we’ve spent in hospitals or eating away from home and some of the truly vile concoctions that come out of coffee dispensers in these places I have never been so glad to come home and brew up a pot of my familiar el cheapo coffee and fix it the way I’ve been doing for years.

Sitting here enjoying the last of that first pot of home-brewed coffee in a couple of days I decided that it would be only appropriate to dig into the collection of coffee recipes and put one of them up tonight.

This one is called “Alpine Carnival”

You start by dividing two tablespoons of instant coffee and 1 teaspoon of vanilla evenly between two cups.

Then in a small saucepan, dissolve two tablespoons of brown sugar in a teaspoon of water. Stir the dissolved sugar over a medium heat until it reaches a full boil.

Once it comes to a boil immediately remove it from the heat and stir in 1 and a half cups of boiling water. Divide sugar mixture between the two cups and top with a dollop of whipped cream.

Technorati Tags: recipe, coffee, bad coffee, cheap coffee, good coffee, coffee at home

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I’ve been away for a while, having been with my wife as she went to the hospital for the second time this month. It was something of a circus this time around. Oh, the people were nice enough and everybody meant well but it’s easy to imagine that some of ‘em weren’t at their best, which explains why they had a sort of chili-Mac memory… The kind that often need to be reminded three or five times that they said an hour ago that they’d get you such and such “in just a minute”.

In any event there’s been a lot going on with the Olympics and all and because of that I looked up this Chinese recipe. One thing I’ve noticed about Oriental cooking in general is that once you’ve got everything available that you need, the cooking itself is pretty fast.

Cut 18 oz of boneless skinless chicken into 1/2 inch pieces and put them in a bowl. Stir in 3 tablespoons of Soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of dry sherry. Let this stand for 30 minutes to marinate a bit.

Get a cold wok or large skillet ready by spraying with your favorite cooking spray and then preheat it over a medium-high heat. Add onion a medium onion cut into wedges and stir-fry that for 2 minutes.

Add a medium green and a red sweet pepper and stir-fry for another minute. Add a cup and a half of sliced fresh mushrooms and stir-fry for another minute or so more or till veggies are crisp but still tender. Remove the veggies from wok and set them aside.

Drain the chicken and reserve the marinade. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to the wok. Then add 1 teaspoon of grated ginger root and stir-fry for 15 seconds. Next Add half of the chicken and stir fry 3-4 minutes or until they’re not pink anymore. Take them out and then repeat this step with the remaining chicken.

When the chicken is all done put all of the chicken and veggies in the wok along with an 8oz can of bamboo shoots. Push everything away from center of wok leaving an open space in the middle.

Stir 1/4 cup of chicken broth, a teaspoon of cornstarch, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper into the reserved marinade and add it to the wok. Cook and stir till it thickens slightly and the toss gently to coat the chicken mixture.

Technorati Tags: oriental cooking, chinese, sweet peppers, wok, wok cooking, oriental recipe, olympics, recipe, stir fry, oriental food

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Sometimes I just want to sit down to a good hearty bowl of soup. Corn Chowder is one of those that fills the bill just exactly. It’s great all year round but it’s double good on a cold day.

Fry up six slices of bacon until it’s crisp. Then remove the bacon and set it aside. Saute a half cup of finely chopped onion in the bacon drippings until they’re transparent but not quite starting to turn brown.

Cook 2 cups of diced raw potatoes in a cup and a half of water and t teaspoons of salt, the sauted onion and the bacon (crumbled) in a covered pan until tender. Add 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and 2 cup of cream style corn.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and mix it with 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir in 3 cups of milk and cook until slightly thickened. Then add it to the corn mixture.

Garnish with some chopped parsley, shredded cheese or corn chips on top.

Serve piping hot and be prepared for people to ask for seconds
(makes about 6 servings)

Technorati Tags: soup, chowder, corn chowder, bacon, recipe, potatoes

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