Okay, this is the most recent Recipe Thread

[Undertoad]

I have some ground beef+pork+lamb here and will be needing your meatloaf recipes for tomorrow night.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Nothin' good looking on the 'Net, or will that be the backup plan?

I like a meatloaf and haven't made any in simply decades.

I went looking for Heloise's Meatloaf. So far I've found this:

Dear Heloise: I have one more add-in for meatloaf. It's sugar-coated flakes of breakfast cereal. It might sound strange, but the sugar takes the edge off the ketchup that I also use. Family and friends request my meatloaf all the time. Try it — it's fabulous. This was my mom's secret ingredient. — Kathy P. Keyes, Hot Springs, Va.

Sounds interesting. I've heard of just flaked corn cereal as an ingredient, but not the one with the sugar. Here's another meatloaf hint, from Carol Haufler of San Antonio. She says: "My aunt had a cafe during the Second World War, when meat was rationed. She stretched the ground meat for hamburgers or meatloaf by adding white cornmeal. I add yellow cornmeal to my meatloaf today." — Heloise

And this:

Meatloaf

January 12, 2009 by angie Schilling
Filed under Healthy Recipes

I have to be in the mood to make meatloaf, but when I am in the mood it turns out fabulous. Here is a great recipe that I use and it turns out great all the time.
Take one pound of lean ground beef and mix it with one egg, two squirts of ketschup, and about 1/2 cup bread crumbs. Mix it well and season with salt and pepper. Add as many onions as you please, then press into a greased glass loaf pan.
Combine 3/4 cup ketschup with two tablespoons of brown sugar. Spread this on top of the meatloaf and then bake for one hour at 375 degrees. Let it rest for 5 minutes before cutting it.
I find this meatloaf is wonderful served with mashed potatoes and homemade rolls. It really hits the spot after having a long day at work and your whole family will enjoy it.

And I guess it will take fairly serious Googling to find the Heloise meatloaf actually on the 'net, instead of some incidentals gleaned from Heloise columns.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Teach them how, and tell 'em if they want it, they cook it, and no kvetching. One or more of those kids is likely to turn into a good cook once they get good with Five Cheese Mac & Cheese. And why should this not work more than once? But don't spring it as a surprise: tell them ahead of time that this is what you're going to be doing with the grand recipes that kick the plain-jane ones around like a football.

But this optimistic campaign plan might best be implemented a few years down the line -- keep it on file for Great Feasts, Meals Of Occasion, and other capital-letter festivities.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Re: Five Cheese Mac & Cheese

Had it at TGIFriday's last week -- the winning recipes in the contest were added to the Friday's menu. It is very rich and fairly oily. Decidedly a restaurantish kind of recipe. A small portion will do all but the hungriest.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Re: Five Cheese Mac & Cheese

Had it at TGIFriday's last week -- the winning recipes in the contest were added to the Friday's menu. It is very rich and fairly oily. Decidedly a restaurantish kind of recipe. A small portion will do all but the hungriest.

The contest being the Food Network Challenge or something like that? Was bleu one of the cheeses?

[DanaC]

Define 'small'

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Define 'small'

Oval dish, no longer than five inches on the major axis. About an inch deep too. A little dab will definitely do ya. (is there a burp smilie?)

Jinx, yeah, that's it. Certainly the sprinkle of bleu cheese really makes the dish... or Gorgonzola or Stilton. Lends it a piquancy. If you have to fudge on the cheeses, don't lose the bleu.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Crosspost from another thread. I'm not very much fish people, though I like blackened fish. Most of my ideas of fun seafood seem to center around shellfish and shrimp -- definitely not halibut! But this one looks like fun:

Phyllo-Wrapped Halibut

The recipe:

Phyllo-Wrapped Halibut


I created this easy entree to convince my husband that seafood doesn't have to taste "fishy." He likes the flaky, phyllo wrapping as well as the bright green and red vegetables hidden inside of it. —Carrie Vazzano of Rolling Meadows, Illinois

SERVINGS: 2

CATEGORY: Lower Fat

METHOD: Baked

TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 20 min.
Ingredients:

* 4 cups fresh baby spinach
* 3/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper
* 3/4 teaspoon salt-free lemon-pepper seasoning, divided
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
* 6 sheets phyllo dough (14 inches x 9 inches)
* 2 tablespoons reduced-fat butter, melted
* 2 halibut fillets (4 ounces each)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
* 1/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:
In a large nonstick skillet lightly coated with cooking spray, saute spinach and red pepper until tender. Add 1/2 teaspoon lemon-pepper and lemon juice. Remove from the heat; cool.
Line a baking sheet with foil and coat the foil with cooking spray; set aside. Place one sheet of phyllo dough on a work surface; brush with butter. (Until ready to use, keep phyllo dough covered with plastic wrap and a damp towel to prevent it from drying out.) Layer remaining phyllo over first sheet, brushing each with butter. Cut stack in half widthwise.
Place a halibut fillet in the center of each square; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with cheese and spinach mixture. Fold sides and bottom edge over fillet and roll up to enclose it; trim end of phyllo if necessary. Brush with remaining butter; sprinkle with remaining lemon-pepper.
Place seam side down on prepared baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 2 servings.

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

I'm not very much fish people, . . . Most of my ideas of fun seafood . . .

OMG! I almost choked to death laughing at this, trying desperately not to conjure up images of UGs ideas of "fun seafood" . . .

[Sundae]

I can't think of five cheeses I want want to waste in Mac n Cheese!
I'd rather have them with crusty bread.

Oh wait, yes I can think of cheese I'm happy to waste, but it's all the bland grim stuff which is barely worth the name anyway - and won't really get any better when served on my least favourite pasta anyway.

[LabRat]

Maidrites/Manwiches


2T +/- minced garlic
1/2 c. +/- onion (fresh is best, but flakes can be used if you cook them with the meat when it browns)
1 lb hamburger (or whatever meat or meat substitute you want)
1 can Campbells chicken gumbo soup
Heinz ketchup
French's yellow mustard
Seasonings of choice. I like Trader Joes 21 seasoning salute or Garlic Garlic and garlic or onion salt.
medium salsa/picante sauce (wtf is the difference, anyway??)

In large skillet brown hamburger. Pour cooked meat into spaghetti strainer sitting in 2 plastic shopping bags in garbage can*.

Use the residual fat in the pan to saute the onions and garlic while the hamburger is draining. When the onions are soft, add the hamburger back to the pan, then add the can of gumbo soup. Stir well.

From this point on, I don't really measure anything, I go by taste. My best guesstimates are:

Add ~1/4 c. yellow mustard, ~3/4 c. ketchup. (the last time i made this though, I cut back more on the ketchup and added more salsa/picante for a little more kick)
1 T. 21 seasoning salute.
1/2 T. onion/garlic salt
1 c. salsa/picante

Sorry, every time I make it, it's a little different depending on my mood and whatever seasonings I have in the cupboard.

At this point, you can throw it in a crock pot on low for however long you want, or let it simmer uncovered in the pan for 20 minutes then eat it right away. By letting it simmer with the lid off, it concentrates the flavors a bit, and isn't quite so 'runny'.

This keeps well in the fridge, I've never tried to freeze it. Leftovers are good on triscuits as well if you've run out of buns.



*Pouring grease down your sink will eventually clog your pipes and be very disgusting/expensive to clear. Even if you run the hot water. I learned this the hard way

[Shawnee123]

I'm the opposite: I love fish but hate seafood like shrimp or crab or lobster.

I love halibut, one of my favorites. Haddock. Salmon. Tuna.

I'm hungry.

[Jill]

Thanks for sharing that recipe over here, Urbane Guerrilla. My husband and I had "paper-wrapped" halibut as one of the entrees at our wedding, and it was so delicious I had to try it myself. I made that recipe one night as an experiment, because I had a bunch of leftover stuff I needed to use up, but that weren't enough for full portions of anything by themselves. We loved it, so I can definitely recommend it.

I haven't had a chance to read through this thread thoroughly yet, but I did search through it and didn't find any recipes posted for brisket, so I thought I'd share mine. I adapted it from my step-mother's recipe, which calls for sealing it in aluminum foil, putting it in a glass baking dish surrounded by water, then babysitting it for hours, replenishing the water constantly. Doing it her way and not getting to it soon enough to add water when it dried up, caused my glass baking dish to explode in the oven! This is truly the "set it and forget it" method. . .

Jill's Famous Brisket

The modification at the bottom is also mine (and doesn't have to be used only for the reason I created it - Passover, obviously), and I can tell you it's exactly as delicious as the soup mix version, in fact, maybe even better, as I like the real mushrooms that end up in the gravy, and Better Than Bouillon is to die for yummy.

Off to go read this thread from the beginning. . .

[Jill]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

The best Spinach Pie ever!

Ingredients:

1 lge bunch of spinach (or silverbeet) finely chopped
1 lge Onion finely chopped
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
2 cups of crumbled fetta cheese
1/2 cup of long grain rice (uncooked)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

2 sheets of puff pastry

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and then drizzle olive oil in the mixture until it starts to 'cling' together, but not drip.

2. Line a pan with 1 sheet of pastry.

3. Tip the spinach mixture into the pastry lined pan.

4. Make a lid out of the second sheet of pastry. Remember to poke holes in the top so the mixture can breath.

5. Brush melted butter or milk over the top of the pastry.

6. Bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour then turn the heat up to a hot oven for 10 minutes to brown the pastry.

7. Eat with gusto

This sounds incredibly yummy and I will definitely be trying it!

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I have some ground beef+pork+lamb here and will be needing your meatloaf recipes for tomorrow night.

I know it's well beyond the "tomorrow night" referred to in your post, but in the event that you find yourself with ground meats again, especially pork, I can highly recommend my mother-in-law's Danish frikadeller. They're similar to Swedish meatballs, but way, WAY better. Here's the recipe, translated from my husband's Danish cookbook, God Mad, Let at lave (Good food, easy to cook):

Ingredients

1/2 lb ground beef and 1/2 lb of ground pork (you can also use just pork, or pork and veal, whatever combination of ground meat you prefer)
1/2 cup flour
About a cup of liquid, such as milk, water or stock (we use milk)
1 egg
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 finely chopped yellow onion
Butter for frying

(This is an easy recipe to double, which we also usually do.)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients except liquid, and mix for roughly 3 minutes with a hand mixer on medium speed, adding liquid to get desired consistency, which should be moist but not wet.

Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes

Heat a couple of tbsp of butter in large skillet

Dip a spoon in the hot butter from the pan and use the spoon and your hand to shape meatballs into flattened football shapes.

Drop meatballs in the skillet and fry until crispy on the outside, roughly 4 - 5 minutes on each side.

Continue the process until all the meatballs are cooked (will require several batches, or, if you're good, several pans at one time).

When they're done, they should look like this.

Serve with boiled red potatoes and green beans.

Mmmmm. Enjoy!

[Alluvial]

Originally Posted by Jill

Serve with boiled red potatoes and green beans.

Yanno, I bet those would make good sandwiches too.