recipe of the day

[Babs]

PREP TIME       15 Min
COOK TIME     15 Min
READY IN     1 Day 30 Min
SERVINGS & SCALING
Original recipe yield: 4 servings

DIRECTIONS

   1. Place chicken, teriyaki sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and sesame oil in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal bag, and shake to coat. Place in refrigerator for 24 hours, turning every so often.
   2. Preheat grill for high heat.
   3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Remove chicken from bag, discarding any remaining marinade. Grill for 6 to 8 minutes each side, or until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with a fork.

[Lynx]

Alright, finally a random recipe thread!  Bwahahaha!

*goes off to find his recipes

[Babs]

wow its been awhile since i posted here lol

[Lynx]

SOURDOUGH BREAD



This looks like a loooooong recipe but it's not.  It's just really full of tips and tricks.

ABOUT SOURDOUGH YEAST

Sourdough yeast is a living organism.  It grows, eats, reproduces.   If it is kept warm (85-105 degrees) it will grow and reproduce much more quickly.  If it is in the refrigerator, it will grow very slowly, meaning you won't have to feed it more than three times a year or so just to keep it alive.  If you heat your starter beyond 120 degrees or so, or if you freeze it to try to slow its growth, you'll kill it.  If you accidentally spill your starter, you can scrape a bit off the inside of the container, put it in a new batch of starter food, leave it in a hotroom and you'll have a fresh batch of starter overnight.  If you put a cup of starter in five gallons of starter food and leave it out overnight in a hotroom, you'll have five gallons of starter overnight. 

IMPORTANT:  Always save some starter in the fridge for the next batch of bread.  Never use all your starter for the batch you're cooking now. 



HOTROOM

If your oven has a keep-things-warm setting use it, but make sure the starter doesn't get hot enough to die.  If you have a room you can close off, close it off and put a space heater in it.  If not, put a space heater on the floor, right in front of a big cardboard box on its side and put the starter in the box, and be sure to keep an eye on the temp.



HOW TO ACCQUIRE SOME STARTER

The easiest way is to get a friend to give you some.  Failing that, mix up some starter food, set it out for a week or two, stir it every day or so, and wait until it begins fermenting.  If your starter food attracts the right kind of yeast, it should get really foamy and taste sweet-and-sour.   Then, if left out longer, it will separate into a gummy layer on the surface and liquid on the bottom, with a sour, yeasty smell.



FEEDING YOUR STARTER

STARTER FOOD:

1 cup bread flour              (This is for one batch of bread, which will make about three loaves.
1/2 cup sugar                        Personally, I never make less than two batches at a time.)

1/4 to 1/2 cup potato flakes

water, enough to make it about the consistency of really thin pancake batter

Mix up all the ingredients, then take your starter out of the fridge and dump it in the starter food.  Mix up the starter into the starter food, then scoop out a cup of the mix and put in the fridge for the next time you want to make bread.  Set the rest of the starter out in your hotroom and leave it there for 12 hours or more, stirring about every 5 hours or so.



MAKING BREAD 

Making a batch of bread is in steps.  Setting out starter, after which you wait for the starter to grow and propagate; mixing up dough and first kneading, after which you wait for it to rise the first time; second kneading and put in loaf pans, after which you wait for it to rise again; baking.  Most of the time is in waiting, and you'll need 3-4 hours for each rising, so this will probably take the better part of a day.



BREAD DOUGH

2 cups starter                                     (Again, for one batch.  Too small to be worth it to me.)

1 and 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoon salt

flour, and lots of it

Take your starter out of the hotroom and put it in a really big mixing bowl.  Mix in the sugar, oil, water and salt, then begin adding flour.  Keep putting flour in until it's thick enough not to pour off the counter when you dump it out.  Now it's time to knead it.



FIRST KNEADING

Spread flour on the counter, then dump the dough on it.  Spread more flour on the top of the dough and keep adding flour on the top and sides whenever the surface gets too sticky.  To knead the dough, just push in on the center repeatedly with the heels of your hands and then pull it back.  Knead it for about 10 minutes (15 minutes for whole wheat bread.)  Then take your big mixing bowl, spread oil all over the inside surface, put the dough in it, and let it rise in the hotroom for about three hours.  PLEASE NOTE:  This ain't packaged yeast, and it doesn't rise as fast as packaged yeast.  With everything connected to sourdough, patience is a big requirement.



SECOND KNEADING

Second verse, same as the first.  Knead the dough again, then put in greased loaf pans.  Only fill the pans about half full, cause the bread will rise a lot.  Leave the pans in the hotroom for another 4 hours, or until they won't rise anymore.



BAKING

When the bread is through rising, put it in the oven, on the second rack from the bottom, at 275 degrees for 50 minutes, then dump it out on cooling racks.  When it's done, it'll be a golden brown.  If it is really hard on the sides, you've cooked it too long.  If it's still the color of dough and squishy, put it back in the pan and back in the oven.  After it's on the racks, let it ventilate for about 45 minutes, then put it in a plastic bag of some sort.  I went to the supermarket and bought a whole roll of those really thin produce bags for $12.75.  If you bag it too soon, the water vapor will ventilate to the surface and make it gummy.



IMPORTANT NOTE

Do not consider this recipe sacrosanct.  Experiment.  Use a little more salt, a little less oil, let it rise longer on the first rising, bake it longer on lower temperature, whatever seems to you to make it work better.  The baking time and temperature will depend on your individual oven.  The time for the starter to cultivate and the dough to rise the first and second times will vary depending on atmospheric pressure, height above sea level, temperature in your hotroom, humidity, etc, etc, etc.  There are so many variables in this whole thing that no two batches of bread will turn out exactly the same, and you'll learn something from each batch.



SIDE NOTES

I went to Dollar General and bought a plastic washtub and it makes a great mixing bowl for my 4-batch bread making.  Be sure to grease right up to the top of the loaf pan, as when the bread rises it will probably lap over the edges a bit and (if you didn't grease the whole thing) stick.  IMPORTANT:  Save a backup starter!  I've heard sad tales of how a houseguest was trying to be helpful by cleaning out the fridge and dumped starter out because it looked like something ruined.  To save a backup starter, spread some starter out on a piece of wax paper and let it dry, then scrape off the flakes into a bag and save it somewhere in the attic or a dresser drawer.  If you ever do lose your starter, reconstitute the flakes in a batch of starter food and leave it out for a bit.  Dried flakes will last as long as anyone has been patient enough to test them (years now) so it should work for you.  If you have a friend across the country who wants to start making sourdough, starter can be shipped easily.  Just take a bit of starter, mix in enough flour to make it the consistency of noodle dough, put it in a sandwich bag in an envelope and ship it.  As noodle dough it will easily last long enough for the postal service to get it there, and on the other end your friend can reconstitute it in a batch of starter food.



Have fun!

[Lynx]

                       NEIMAN MARCUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES




These are the cookies that were going around in that email.  They didn't really come from Neiman Marcus (they never had a cookie recipe until they made one specifically for people who were googling the story) but the email did spread a good cookie recipe over the internet really fast.  Long after I read the email I found the exact same recipe in an old, old cookbook in my grandmother's kitchen, 50 cookie recipes from 50 states.  This was the one from Montana.

Warning:  Makes a LOT of cookies.


2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups self-rising flour
5 cups oat flour
48 oz chocolate chips
10 oz chocolate bar, grated



Melt butter.  Mix up ingredients in order from the top of this list down.  When you get to the oat flour, just put some oats in a blender.  Put dough on greased cookie sheet in tablespoons.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Have someone hide cookies so you won't eat too many:P

[Tricia Lea]

wow its been awhile since i posted here lol

you ought to post more.
You did some good ones

[Lynx]

Red Beans and Brown Rice



1 c. brown rice, uncooked

6 slices bacon, cut into 1" pieces

2 large onions, chopped

1 can red or kidney beans (I use kidney)

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tblsp dried parsley

1 tblsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tblsp flour, heaping



Cook rice according to directions.  Meanwhile, fry bacon.  When done remove from the grease.  Add the flour, salt, and pepper to the grease in the pan.  Stir until browned.  Drain the liquid from the beans into a cup measure and add water to it to make 1 cup total liquid.  Add this to the pan to make gravy.  Stir and cook until thickened. Add the beans, onion and the spices.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Serve bean mixture over rice.

[Lynx]

RED VELVET CAKE



1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 BIG tablespoon red coloring

2 eggs

2 cups self rising flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 shake salt

1 cup buttermilk



Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Mix a cup of milk with two tablespoons confectioner's sugar and spoon across cake top.  Apply cream cheese icing with chopped nuts if desired.

[Lynx]

TRUFFLES

1 dark chocolate cake mix

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup peach preserves

1 tsp vanilla

16 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp crisco or parafin



Make cake as directed on box.  When cool, crumble in large mixing bowl.  In large pan over low heat, mix cocoa, margarine and sugar.  When smooth, add preserves and vanilla.  Blend into cake crumbles until evenly moist and roll into small balls.  Melt chocolate chips and crisco in a double boiler and dip each ball into it to coat.  Let stand on wax paper.

[Lynx]

SALMON DIP



1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 can (14 ounces or so) salmon, drained, bones

  and skin removed

1/4 cup sour cream

1 garlic clove, minced

2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke

1 teaspoon cilantro, minced

1 teaspoon parsley, minced

1/4 teaspoon dill weed

1/4 teaspoon salt



  In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and lemon juice

until fluffy.  Add all the rest of the stuff and stir.  Cover

and refridgerate two hours.  Serve with crackers, preferably Ritz.

[Lynx]

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
3 cups quick oats (NOT old fashioned oats)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 bowl cold water (for testing)

NOTE:  This will take some testing to get right.  You have to know when to take it off the heat, and I can't really explain it.

Mix the cocoa, sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan. Bring it to a bubbling boil, then let it boil for about 2 minutes. To test it, drop a small bit in the bowl of cold water.  If it forms a small hard ball you've cooked it too long. Remove it from the heat, and stir in the vanilla, then the peanut butter, then the oatmeal. Spoon onto wax paper, and let it cool.

[Lynx]

Deep-Dish Pizza
  (really, really deeeeeep dish)




3 cups Bisquick baking mix

3/4 cup cold water

1 pound ground beef

1 pound sausage

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 tsp salt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce

2 tsp Italian seasoning

2 Tblsp garlic powder

2 (4.5 oz) jars sliced mushrooms, drained

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese (about 8 oz)



Heat oven to 425. Lightly grease 13x9 pan.



Mix baking mix and water until soft dough forms; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Gently smooth dough into ball on flour-covered board. Knead 20 times. Pat dough in bottom and up sides of pan with floured hands.



Cook and stir ground beef, onion, salt and garlic until beef is brown.

Mix tomato sauce, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning; spread over dough. Spoon beef mixture over sauce. Top with remaining ingredients, cheese on top.

Bake until crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

[Lynx]

Russian Tea Mix



This is good for a little gift at Christmas time.  Mix up a big batch, put two tablespoons in a little bag, put the baggie in a tea mug with a cute card tied with a ribbon to the handle.  Might even print the recipe on the card.

5/8 cup instant lemon-flavored unsweetened tea

2 and 1/4 cup sugar

2 cups orange Tang

1 quart instant lemonade mix

2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger



Mix all of the stuff together and put it in a jar. 

[Lynx]

Sorry for the spacing.  This forum keeps misreading my copy-pastes from .txt Notepad files.  You should see what it keeps doing to fractions before I edit them.  Grrrrr.

[Melody]

Bump 


Babs, these are such good recipes.  Which one is your favorite?