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Green bean casserole. Make it every thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter by demand.

I grow green beans every year and can the best specimens specifically for these casseroles. I use a canning technique that results in beans still possessing a bit of a "snap" to them out of the jar.

I use dried morels I pick every spring-ish season on my friends woodland property (lots of ramps out there to pick too). Rehydrate them in a bit of homemade veggie stock and cook them in homemade butter until the mushrooms take on a "rusty" color which I've found gives them an almost cheesy/nutty flavor akin to asiago. Throw in a scraping of nutmeg, a tiny bit of toasted&ground allspice and a shot of white wine (sauterne is good) and some minced garlic. Saute for a bit then add in local farms' cream and whole milk to make what I call half-and-half-and-a-half which is really just 2/3 heavy cream to 1/3 whole milk. Fire off two Justin Wilson-style dashes of homemade Worcestershire, taste for salt + pepper and cook to thicken it slightly finishes the cream of mushroom base.

Tried a new fried onions recipe this year and it's the Bees Knees frfr. Just a buttermilk dredge like you might do for fried chickee. Cut onions thin, soak in buttermilk for 10 mins then drain. Combine APF in a bag with seasoning (I use a homemade Cajun seasoning cus it's really good on these onions for some reason) and add onions into bag and toss. Fry at 350 degrees or so in peanut oil (id fry in lard but two in the family are vegetarians so we keep it friendly for them).

Toss beans and base together, top with onions and cook at 350 until bubbly.
 
Oh yeah, I love those japanese curry blocks. Java curry is good too.

And yeah, I've accidentally made curry stew before. Later attempts I eased up a bit on the water.
I love the "hot" curry roux (only hot by Japanese standards). Mostly when I make this it's just with a shit-ton of onions and whatever random root vegetables I have around, potatoes, carrots, celery, parsnips, turnips, ginger, even rutabaga from time to time.
 
Tried a bunch of recipes I had saved. They all tasted great, will make again.

Chef John's Bobotie (the mince was delicious but the egg layer didn't add much. Next time I'll put a fried or soft-boiled egg on top instead)
Mushroom Mapo Tofu (didn't have doubanjiang so I used veduya)
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Coconut Curry Meatballs
Sticky Tofu & Eggplant
Lemon, Peas, and Ricotta Pasta
 
Swiss steak. This is based on a recipe my grandfather always used to make in a pressure cooker and I always used to make too. However, I tried to retool it for a Dutch oven because the multicooker thing I have was cheap garbage and the seal blew out and I can't even figure out what Chinesium source I can get a replacement from. I'll probably have to get another actual brand-name one at some point.

Anyway, the main difference with a Dutch oven is onions don't dissolve, go all sweet, and completely incorporate into the sauce, so I switched the recipe up a bit and did the onions, celery, garlic, carrots, and green bell peppers in a slow sautee in butter. I let the onions go a long time. Usually I'm fine with onions but sometimes you have to cook for other people. And they have had it explained that onions are absolutely necessary and you can't live without them, but they still throw a fit upon seeing an onion.

Pressure cooker obliterates them and they completely dissolve into the sauce. But I had to do it beforehand because if you just put them right in the Dutch oven, they'll still be solid and even chewy. I added the celery and green bell peppers after a few minutes. Everyone likes the carrots to be a little crunchy so they didn't go in until the end.

I threw in some sage, thyme, a bit of paprika, and Marmite (like 1/8 teaspoon) to the pseudo-mirepoix.

Then the usual chop up the beef stage, in this case I took the lazy route and just started out with already smashed cube steaks, dredged them in the flour/salt/pepper mix, and fried as usual until browned. Then threw in the already heated beef broth (where I also had thrown the minced garlic rather than sautee it), deglazed with a wooden spatula, and the rest of the ingredients, like the diced tomatoes, and the "mirepoix" mix.

Simmered it on low for an hour, then cracked the cover a bit and simmered it another hour.

Seemed a little thin at the end so I took the remnants of the flour dredging coating and made a crude roux with equal amounts of butter in the last few minutes. I slightly overcooked it so decided to throw in a teaspoon or so of maple syrup to cover for that.

Looked like sloppa (and swiss steak is sloppa supreme) but tasted great and was very like the pressure cooker recipe I was trying to adapt. The meat (literally cube steaks from eye of round which is the worst imaginable cut of beef) was astoundingly tender and even tasty.
 
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I made some cream of chicken soup. Last night I tried thawing a roasted chicken but it took too long so i grabbed a fresh one from the store, and there wasn't room in the fridge so I threw both the frozen chicken and the remaining fresh chicken in a slow cooker to cook overnight in broth, then cooked some carrots and corn (thought we had frozen peas but we didn't) and made some cream of chicken using the broth (from scratch, meant to imitate the canned stuff) while I separated the bones from the meat (except the really big bones for decoration) and put everything together (except half the shredded meat which got frozen for another time).
 
My take on green bean casserole. Cream soup, French style green beans, fried onions, can of chicken, cayenne pepper till good and spicy, package of pasta sides either chicken or cheese flavor. Pour into a plastic Tupperware and microwave uncovered 6 mins, mix, microwave till Pasta is tender.

Quicker and just as good as oven made and great for those who lack ovens...or kitchens.
 
Got a little over two pounds of ground chicken for dirt cheap because the store had too much that was going to expire today. Divided and packed most of it for later, then used the rest to make chicken burgers. I created loaf patties with breadcrumbs, an egg, onion, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, a dash of paprika, and some parmesan cheese that I lightly breaded before pan frying in some olive oil. Topped a couple with cheese slices before serving.
 
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We've had a small decorative pumpkin sitting on our kitchen table for a few months given it was an entrance prize at a fall fair & we now have multiple feet of snow.

Decided to try to make pumpkin soup. Halved the pumpkin, kept the seeds, roasted it at 400 deg for 45 mins face down on a baking sheet. I was surprised how good of a shape both the inside & outside was in, considering I believe it dates back to September. No soft spots at all.

Cooked an onion in bacon grease, added carrots, garlic, nutmeg, thyme, chicken broth, cream and a bay leaf.

The cooked pumpkin flesh separated from the skin very easily.

Didn't bother pureeing the flesh separately, just added it to the broth and pureed everything at the end.

Color & texture turned out quite well. Served it with real bacon bits and a dollop of sour cream.

Quite pleased with the result. I usually add salt to soups on the table, but this one was very flavorful out of the pot.

Not sure if I'd be able to Pepsi challenge between squash & pumpkin soups.

Very comfy to have a bowl of homemade harvest soup on a Sunday afternoon even if I'm about a month late.
 
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We've had a small decorative pumpkin sitting on our kitchen table for a few months given it was an entrance prize at a fall fair & we now have multiple feet of snow.

Decided to try to make pumpkin soup. Halved the pumpkin, kept the seeds, roasted it at 400 deg for 45 mins face down on a baking sheet. I was surprised how good of a shape both the inside & outside was in, considering I believe it dates back to September. No soft spots at all.

Cooked an onion in bacon grease, added carrots, garlic, nutmeg, thyme, chicken broth, cream and a bay leaf.

The cooked pumpkin flesh separated from the skin very easily.

Didn't bother pureeing the flesh separately, just added it to the broth and pureed everything at the end.

Color & texture turned out quite well. Served it with real bacon bits and a dollop of sour cream.

Quite pleased with the result. I usually add salt to soups on the table, but this one was very flavorful out of the pot.

Not sure if I'd be able to Pepsi challenge between squash & pumpkin soups.

Very comfy to have a bowl of homemade harvest soup on a Sunday afternoon even if I'm about a month late.

Sounds delicious. Thanks for reminding me that I have a pie pumpkin that I should cut up and process before it goes bad. Bought two months ago and still looks the same it did when I brought it home… to process into puree and seeds.
 
I have slept 3 solid days after a surgery, coming off oxy, fent and 3 other drugs fully and now on just 800mg of ibprofin, come with me on a fucking adventure.

Husband had a case of the sads so I tried to be sweet by trying a new thing.
I should not have.
This is why i did it at 2am.
ANYWAY- I wanted to start with french toast but I couldnt find the fuckin vanilla so that went out the window. But i found rum extract!
It smelled terrible!
You use this in cooking!!
So in my loopy state of threatening the safety of my home via a kitchen fire, I whipped up some egg whites I very poorly made with milk and some seasonings.
I fucking wish I took pictures throughout because it looked like a sentient blob in pain at one point, no ai am not joking.
While this watery milky thing started to take a jelly form I made brown rice that was supposed to be a microwaved package and threw it in a pot. By some miracle I did it right.
So I dumped the yolk in the remainder of my sad pile and my house reeks of rum, so I threw more in!
I decided ai didn't spit in gods face/the mexican race enough so after I threw the remainder on a corn tortilla with the rice and made it mildly presentable:20241209_030436.jpg
I did say MILDLY. That thing on top isn't a bun, it's the sad cooked part of the yolk.

ANYWAY I didn't sin enough, I barely ate anything, so I took some buttered bread, threw on some strawberry jam and fucking turkey lunchmeat because I ate my leftovers already.
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Anyway it tastes terrible and extremely dry, 0/10.
Oh have I mentioned I'm normally a decent cook? You wouldn't fucking know it tho lmao!
I think I'm too hung over from withdrawls, I'm gonna go sleep off the rest of the week.

Eta: my normal cooking. Savory pumpion (yes that's the correct spelling) pie which uses the rind of a sweet pumpkin and you fry it before baking.
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I made a batch of sugar cookies, I got a set of snowflake cookie cutters around Halloween and finally got around to using them. Icing is not a gift that I naturally possess so I took it as a chance to practice, just as I was beginning to get the hang of it I ran out of cookies lol, sprinkled them with edible glitter.
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@John Andrews Stan It took me a while but here is that fish pie I said I’d make as promised.
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It was very nice, traditionally fish pie is made by poaching the fish in milk beforehand, the trouble is it has a tendency to stink the house out (partly why it took me so long to get around to it tbh). For this recipe, the milk was flavored with scallions softened in butter to make the sauce, and then the fish was added and placed in the oven while it was raw and we could not smell it at all! The fish pie mix I used was made up of smoked fish, white fish and salmon, I omitted the sweetcorn and added salt to the filling and the mashed potatoes.
 
I would inhale that any time of day or night, directly out of the hot dish. What was your sauce, a bechamel? Any cheese? I need to make a fish pie ASAP, it’s been too long.
The sauce was a roux with green onions and mustard added in at the end, I used Colmans mustard powder and added grated vintage cheddar on top.

Here is the recipe again if you’d like to try it, you will probably also want to also add some salt to it or have it on the table.
 
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