What are you Cooking the Week of November 5, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

Did you remember to set your clocks back an hour last night or this morning?

Spread the word

      

  

  

[BakerAunt]

I would happily live on standard time throughout the year.

I plan to make beef stew this week. Usually, I braise the meat for two hours in a mix of beef broth and red wine before proceeding with the vegetables. I bought a bottle of cider yesterday at the farmers' market, and I am thinking of replacing the wine with cider. Does that seem like a crazy idea or a promising one?

[Mike Nolan]

There are recipes out there for apple cider beef stew, but I've never tried one. Vinegar is often added, probably to cut the sweetness, and some recipes also call for some beef stock.

I've always wondered whether the alcohol in a beef stew made with wine helps tenderize the meat, but if you cook it for 3 hours that's probably a moot point.

[cwcdesign]

Me too BA, except for the fact that I woke up at 4:30 this morning - I usually get up at 6 with my alarm, but not today - it's a long day.

Will has been doing most of the cooking but he left on Friday to visit his girlfriend for 10 days. Tonight I'm going to make the mixture for Mushroom Patty Melts that came in the Voraciously newsletter from the Washington Post. No meat but mushrooms and onions sautéed until caramelized and then melted Gruyère. Simple, but sounds just right.

[Joan Simpson]

Cwcdesign the mushroom patty melt sounds good.

Tonight I had squash, sliced tomatoes, coleslaw and cucumber salad.

[Mike Nolan]

I saw that mushroom patty melt recipe in the Post, glad to know it is a good one, I might have to try it.

We had some more of the chili tonight. I think I'm out of cinnamon rolls, though, so I'll have to plan on making a batch ahead of the next pot of chili.

[RiversideLen]

I made a Butterball turkey breast roast (it's a rolled roast), rice and cauliflower.

[BakerAunt]

We had more of the turkey-vegetable, lentil, pea soup from last week.

I also looked at that Patty Melt recipe. I would have to adjust it, but it might be worth trying.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made homemade chicken tenders. BIG hit with Violet. She ate them three days in a row.

I may bake them next time but this time I fried them in avocado oil. Do you deep fry things? What do you do with the oil when you're done. I've always thought about frying a turkey but it has the same problem on a much larger scale. What do you do with used oil after frying?

Thanks

[Mike Nolan]

My mother just kept the oil in her deep fat fryer in between usages, but she'd use it fairly frequently, at least once a week in the winter. If the oil got too gross, she'd put it in a can, freeze it, and toss it in the trash. We do pretty much the same thing with the oils from cooking meats.

We don't even pan fry chicken, too messy and not as good as restaurants that specialize in fried chicken. The last few times we got chicken from Popeyes, though, the legs and thighs were tiny, less meat on a drumstick than on a wing it seemed! We tried Lee's Chicken recently (the oldest restaurant in Lincoln) but it had kind of an odd taste the next day so we probably won't be getting their chicken very often.

Restaurants can use services that will recycle fry oil--it can be turned into biofuel--but I don't think those services will accept home cooking oils, probably because they're often not just fry oil.

I've wondered what the people who deep fry turkeys do with all that oil afterwards. I've had deep fat fried turkey once, I'll stick to doing it in the oven or on the rotisserie.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I don't have a deep fryer and don't deep fry often. Believe it or not my kids actually prefer baked doughnuts so this is the first thing I've deep fried in a LONG time. I used a pot on the stove. It was a little tricky keeping the temp right but I erred on the side of keeping it too hot which was better than too cool.

Never thought about freezing it. That's a good tip. If I wanted to reuse it maybe I could strain it and freeze it.

I knew a fellow who would get used restaurant oil and convert it to biofuel for his car. His garage smelled awful and his car smelled like whatever the oil had been used for - fries, Chinese food. It was kind of funny.

[Mike Nolan]

Does MSG improve MPG performance?

[Mike Nolan]

We're having cheese souffle tonight to go with the apple pie I baked.

BTW, my wife says my apple pie filling mixed with cottage cheese is delicious.

[Joan Simpson]

I had a ham and tomato sandwich, cottage cheese and the last of the coleslaw.

[BakerAunt]

To go with leftover roast chicken thighs on Monday, I made a sauce of sauteed mushrooms in avocado oil, then sprinkled about 2 Tbs. flour on top of them. I added 1 cup chicken broth, some dried shallots, dried parsley, and a bit of milk. I added the rest of a bag of frozen peas. I mixed in some cooked spinach noodles at the end.

Aaron--my mother used to fry chicken in bacon grease. We loved it, but the days are long gone when I would eat it. My husband had a colleague who had a car that would run on biofuels that he would get from restaurants. Before we lived here, we would have renters in our garage apt. One guy liked to fry, and when he moved out, he left multiple containers of used cooking oil. We took it back to Texas and gave it to my husband's colleague.

BTW, one reason my husband agreed that we would have the laminate removed in the apt. kitchen is that the oil had discolored it, and it could not be cleaned. We no longer rent the apt., since we live here and need the space, but anyone who visits and wants to cook is told it is a NO FRY zone.

My husband and I chuckled over Mike's quip!

[Author]

Posts