What are You Cooking the Week of March 11, 2018?

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making minestrone today (but with no garlic or olive oil.)

[Joan Simpson]

BakerAunt we love pimento cheese that is homemade as it tastes so much better than store bought.Yep,one of our favorites and glad it made you think of your Mom.

Tonight we had baked ham,turnips,potato salad and corn bread.I also made a pistachio pudding dessert some people call Watergate salad but with no extra nuts,just cool whip,pistachio pudding dry,mini marshmallows and crushed pineapple.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Joan Simpson.

[Mike Nolan]

I thought the minestrone came out pretty good, though I think my wife would have preferred I left the summer squash and zucchini out and a finer dice on the other veggies. (Personally, I like veggies big enough that you can see them and bite into them.)

I think if I make it again I may start by making my own vegetable stock, the stock I bought had something in it that I can still taste in the soup, and home-made vegetable stock would have less salt in it.

[BakerAunt]

I usually use chicken stock for my minestrone. I also like the large vegetable chunks.

[luvpyrpom]

Did more cooking than baking this past week. Made pork meatballs w/brown sugar BBQ sauce (had some sauce frozen from previous attempt) to me, the BBQ sauce tasted more sweet and sour sauce than actual BBQ. Also ham fried rice, sauteed shrimp and ham in an attempt to use up a slice of ham steak. I like the Costco Ham Steaks - 3 slices individually packed per package. Last night I made corned beef w/baby potatoes, carrots, and instead of cabbage, I tried cooking some baby boy choy (it needed to be eaten first) in the corned beef liquid. Not bad as I had inadvertently rinsed the meat before cooking it. I think next time I boil the beef, I will add some extra spices and salt. And definitely de-fat the liquid as it was way too fatty and they were sticking to all the potatoes and veggies.

[skeptic7]

I tried doing a pot roast with an Italian theme. I sauted onions, carrots, and celery and garlic and put it in the crock pot. I added a large can of salt-free Italian tomatoes and chopped the tomatoes up with a plastic dough scraper. I then browned a 3 lb boneless chuck roast on both sides and placed that in the crock pot. I cooked it overnight for about 8 hours. It started out on high and then then went to low.
I was hoping for a smooth spaghetti sauce and a hunk of meat. I've gotten a rather chunky sauce with tomatoes, and carrots still fairly visible. The pot roast is slicing up nicely cold but has chunks of fat that need to be removed, and visible fat marbling. I thought the fat would cook out but it hasn't.

[Mike Nolan]

No matter how long you cook tomatoes, they don't turn into a smooth sauce unless you puree them either before or after cooking them. (A stick blender works very well for this.)

Most slow cookers don't get hot enough to melt the fat out of a fatty roast.

[cwcdesign]

I made a walnut crusted chicken from myrecipes.com on Thursday that we really enjoyed. We both agreed that the dijon mustard in the buttermilk/mustard marinade needed to be increased as well as marinating it as long as overnight. I need to make more of the crumb mixture and probably toast the walnuts for more flavor.

For St. Patrick's Day, I made a baked casserole of deli corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. I'm glad I know as much about cooking as I do because the recipe had a list of ingredients without telling you how to prep the individual ingredients, nor did it specify in the recipe! For example, it told you to cook the onion (medium) and the garlic (one clove), but did not say to chop or mince. Can you imagine the poor person who might have tried to cook the onion and garlic whole - or not slice the potatoes for layering in the pan? Anyway, it was really good and I will add it to my recipe file with the recipe corrections.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by cwcdesign.

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