Tinfoil Chef

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Has anyone noticed a jump in comment spam lately? I certainly have. One of the more annoying things about blogging is dealing with spam. There’s the mostly inane, generic comments like “good job”, “nice post”, “great post” and so on that are nothing more than blatant excuses to drop a link in a comment.

They’re something that you get to see quite a bit when blogging, especially if you have more than one blog. Thankfully, the Akismet plugin combined with the Simple trakback validation plugin and the “Bad behavior” plugins weed out most of it.

Worse than that are the ones that look genuine enough to pass the anti-spam tools and have to be dealt with manually. I’d rather fill out retail resumes with a 1/4 inch long piece of pencil lead, or better yet, locating new and interesing recipes to share like this One Dish Wonder Casserole.

In a bowl, combine a pound of browned and drained ground turkey, a cup of diced onion, and a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes with the liquid, a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a teaspoon of salt.

Use your favorite non-stick cooking spray to coat a 3 quart casserole and then spoon the mixture into it.

On top of it, add 2 cups of diced potatoes, 1/3 cup of flour, 10oz of corn, 10oz of beans (lima or green) and a large green bell pepper cut into strips on top.

Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Sprinkle a cup and a half (or more!!) of cheddar cheese and continue baking, uncovered, for another 30 minutes.

1 pound of ground meat that’s been ground and drained
(I prefer ground turkey but you can use ground beef as well)
1 cup chopped onions (about 1 medium-large onion diced up)
1 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of diced potatoes
1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
10 oz corn
10 oz frozen lima beans (I’d substitute green beans because I’m not thrilled with limas)
1 large bell pepper cut into strips
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Technorati Tags: ground beef, cheese, one dish wonder, recipe, cheddar cheese, ground turkey, casserole

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Some say that microwave cooking where you do more than just heat some frozen thingy and eat it quickly is more a science than an art. I think that mostly people say things like that because the microwave’s control panel intimidates them just a bit. Things like setting power levels and exact cooking times overwhelm some. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be like that.

Microwave cooking, like most other kinds, is a lot more forgiving that you might expect. For one thing power levels are subjective. 100% power in your oven might only be about 50% or 75% in somebody else’s. That’s why I seldom bother with changing the power levels. Instead, I’ll tinker with the cooking times until the consistency, texture and overall appearance and smell of the food is what I’m looking for.

For that reason when a recipe calls for a given power level and time, I’ll pass it on that way with the understanding that no two ovens are exactly the same. Even if they’re the same make & model that were bought on the same day from the same store there will be differences. Therefore microwave recipes need to be adapted to your particular oven and taste.

Steam about 2 cups of Broccoli florets for about two minutes, then Moisten 2 cups of Stuffing mix. Combine broccoli & stuffing and set it aside for a moment.

Put four chicken breasts in a baking dish and sprinkle with a bit of black pepper. Top each piece of chicken with a slice of swiss cheese and a slice of ham. Follow that with the stuffing mix.

Cover the baking dish and and microwave on medium-high (70%) for about 15 minutes, rotating dish three times (it’s a lot better if you have one of those units that constantly turns the dish.

When it’s done, uncover it and top it with a can of chicken gravy, microwave on high for another minute or two to heat the gravy and you’re good to go.

Technorati Tags: casserole, recipe, microwave, chicken, cordon bleu, microwave cooking

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The casserole is one of those great dishes that let you create most of a meal at once. What’s special about this one is that it’s not everyday you find one made with spaghetti.

While this is getting ready, preheat the oven to 350 and start water boiling for pasta When the water’s boiling get a package of spaghetti cooking. Drain it when it’s done and have it ready.

Brown a pound of hamburger (ground turkey works great too!), breaking it up along the way so that it’s crumbly.

Chop a couple of medium onions, two stalks of celery and a green bell pepper and add that to the meat. Cook this for about three minutes or so until the onions start to soften a bit and turn clear.

Add a cup of diced tomatoes and simmer another few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a buttered two quart casserole combine the pasta and sauce. At this point the original recipe calls for a couple teaspoons of blue cheese to go in there as well. However since I would rather eat a Linksys router than use blue cheese, I humbly suggest parmesan cheese instead.

Finally sprinkle some more parmesan cheese on top. Then it’s into the oven for twenty minutes.

Technorati Tags: recipe, spaghetti, ground turkey, casserole, spaghetti casserole

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Not long ago my wife found a recipe, Layered Beef and Potato Casserole on Lisa Cooking that really looked great. After a lot of time meaning to do something with it, I recently took a shot at making it. What follows is the sad tale of how a good recipe ended up turning out, um… passable.

I’ll start here by saying that if I’d made it according to the original directions it very likely would have turned out fine. However, partly because some ingredients weren’t available and partly because I wanted to double the recipe, I just had to tinker with it a bit. For example I used a 14 x 10 x 2 baking dish instead of the 12 x 8 originally called for.

The first substitution I made was to use ground turkey instead of ground beef. The main reason for this is that because of the cost of beef these days we don’t have it around very much, plus we like the fact that turkey is so much more “grease free”. So I ended up using 2lbs of ground turkey.

The only frozen mixed vegetables we could find at the time was a stir-fry mix that included broccoli florets and baby corn.

The frozen potatoes O’Brian with peppers and onions weren’t available so I used some frozen hash browns that I mixed up with some sauteed onions and green peppers. That part did pretty good except that doubling the potatoes made for way too much.

I got the 2lbs of ground turkey browned and crumbled, added the four cups of mixed vegetables and the two 12 oz jars of gravy and a teaspoon of salt. This was allowed to cook until thoroughly heated and the veggies were thawed.

Then I sprayed the baking dish and put in a layer of potatoes (six cups) and then put in the turkey & veggie mixture and a layer of cheese. I topped it with the remaining six cups of potatoes.

This took about an hour and twenty minutes or so to cook through after which I topped it with shredded cheese and put it back in to melt the cheese.

The result smelled great but there was a decided excess of potatoes. Next time I try this one there’s going to be a lot less potato involved. I’ll probably also add more gravy as what was used got soaked up by the potatoes.

This didn’t exactly turn out “bad”, because I’m still eating leftovers of it and more has been frozen for later but It could have turned out a lot better. Next time I’m certain it will.

Technorati Tags: potato, unsuccessful, double, recipe, casserole

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I made a dish the other day following a recipe found online and had another one of those times where I got to learn something the hard way.

This dish combined, among other things, pasta and potatoes. My wife and I had high hopes for this because it smelled so good in the slow cooker. What I *should* have done was adjust the recipe and stop short of adding any pasta to it.

What I ended up doing was discovered that there was no macaroni around and substituted Penne instead. The pasta was added about a half hour or so before the end of the cooking time. By the time it was done, those seemingly small Penne tubes had swelled to a proportion that I honestly don’t remember seeing before. It looked large enough to be used as a sheath over a CAT5e network cable.

To make a long story short, it turned out to be a tasteless disaster. Between the pasta and the potatoes, the thing was really starchy and loaded to the gills with carbs. The noodles began to disintegrate and several other ingredients were literally lost, almost impossible to find.

The moral of the story is that if a recipe has potatoes in it, you want to be very careful about whether or not to add any kind of pasta to it.

Technorati Tags: carbs, slow cooker, pasta, starches, disaster, potatoes

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I think that the basic casserole is to everyday home cooking what picture frames are to photography. You could do without it but that would leave a big gaping hole in your recipe collection because there’s a lot of dishes that are technically a casserole, yet have managed to go that extra bit farther.

This is one of those recipes that you have to take a few minutes to put it together the night before. Mix together 8 oz of uncooked macaroni, 4 chopped up hardboiled eggs, 2 cups of chopped up cooked chicken, 2 cups of milk, a half pound of Velveeta or your preference of cheese and one can each of cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup.

Cover the mixture and refrigerate it overnight. Take it out 1 hour before cooking and allow it warm so that the cold dish won’t break in the oven. Then bake for an hour at 350.

Technorati Tags: casserole, chicken, overnight, recipe, main dish

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This casserole is a great breakfast dish when served with a side of eggs but it also works just as well for lunch or supper with whatever side dish you prefer.

While you’re doing the prep, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Saute a chopped onion over medium heat until it’s just beginning to caramelize. Then two pounds of breakfast sausage (we use the one pound rolls of mild but you can use whatever kind suits your taste.) Once the sausage is cooked and crumbled, drain away as much grease as possible. and then stir in eight ounces of cream cheese until it’s melted.

In a 9×13x2 baking dish, open a can of crescent rolls and press them together to make a crust and spread it across the bottom of the baking dish.

Spread the sausage and cream cheese mixture over the bottom crust. Use another can of crescent rolls to make a top crust and spread it across the to of the sausage and cream cheese mixture, stretching it to reach the sides of the dish. Then melt a stick of butter and drizzle it over the top crust.

Bake for about 25 to 35 minutes at 350 degrees. When it’s done the rolls will be a golden brown color.

Cut it into squares and it’s ready to serve.

Technorati Tags: crescent rolls, breakfast dish, casserole, chopped onion, eggs, butter, main dish, baking, sausage, rolls

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I haven’t tried this one but it looks interesting because I don’t think I’ve ever seen apples and Tuna used in the same recipe before.

Start out by cooking two cups of macaroni according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Then melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over a low heat. While it’s melting, add a quarter teaspoon of salt to a a quarter cup of flour. When the butter is melted add the flour and salt mixture to the melted butter. Stir this constantly to mix it all together and let the flour cook for a minute.

Then add three cups of milk in one motion. Raise the heat to high so that it will cook quickly, stirring constantly to keep it from sticking or burning until the mixture thickens and bubbles.

Reduce the heat back to low and add two cups of cheese (I would use shredded Cheddar but whatever kind works for you is good.). Stir constantly until the cheese is melted.

Stir in two cups of water packed tuna that’s been drained, two cups of diced apples and the drained macaroni.

Pour the whole thing into 12×7x2 inch baking dish. Combine a couple tablespoons of melted butter and a half cup of bread crumbs. Sprinkle the crumbs on top of the casserole.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender.

Technorati Tags: pasta, recipe, baking, tuna, apple, casserole, cheese, macaroni

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