What's A-cookin'?, Post your favorite dinner recipes! Options

[stargelman]

In our modern times, the ability to cook for oneself has become one of the most important cultural assets. In a world that is increasingly inhabited by "singles" - people who live by themselves - everyone has to have this ability.

In recognition of this fact I am opening this thread as an opportunity for everyone to share their favorite recipes. I will begin by posting one of my favorites.

The recipe I'm sharing with you I picked up in one of the finer italian restaurant in my town. It is a sardinian recipe that supposedly the shepards of that beautiful island enjoy.

Ingredients (2 persons):

500 gr (~1 lb) Pork meat
250 gr (~1/2 lb) sheep cheese - the soft kind
6-8 large tomatos
15-20 black olives
2 onions
1 TS Herbes de Provence
1/2 TS Salt

Preparing this dish is rather easy. First, you prepare your ingredients for frying:
Slice the meat into stripes, peel and cut the onions and wash and cut the tomatos to quarters.

Then, heat up the ole' frying pan at maximum burn. Be sure to put enough oil in it and get it well heated up - don't want your meat to get dry! When it's really hot (you can test this with a piece of onion - if you sink it into the fat and it instantly starts to fizzle, then you're set - watch your fingers!), you put the meat in and get it a good tan from both sides.

When the meat is good, add onions and decrease heat. Keep this up with regular stirring until the onions are glassy.

Now, add half a cup of water and the cut tomatoes. Put the lid on the frying pan and let this work on its own for at least 45 minutes on small heat - it can simmer a bit, but it shouldn't be too hot. Stir every now and then.

In the meantime, get the cheese and cut it into small pieces. We want the cheese to dissolve entirely, by cutting it in small pieces this process is sped up a little. Also, cut the olives into rings.

When the tomatos have become soft enough for your taste, add the cheese. Let this work for another 10 minutes, then add the olives, the herbes de provence, the salt and perhaps a bit of pepper if you like, but not too much.


After another 5 or so minutes, you're done! Serve with pasta of your choice. I recommend Rigatoni


Note: some people prefer to not melt the cheese entirely. This may look better, but the consistency of the sauce is better if you let it melt. Same goes for the olives: optic is better with whole olives, but taste is better with cutting them into pieces

[Scrooluse]

*smiles evilly, cracks his knuckles, and gets to reciting*

Alrigthy, here we go. These are recipes I myself absolutely adore beyond words.


Squash Casserole
Ingredients:

1/4 cup water
2 pounds small yellow squash, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons butter, melted, divided
3 tablespoons flour
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, divided
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. In a saucepan, bring water, squash, onion and salt to a boil. Cover pan and simmer until squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly, then mash. Thoroughly mix in pepper, 1 tablespoon butter, flour, eggs and milk. Set aside about 3 tablespoons cheese and mix rest into squash. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out almost clean, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix remaining butter with bread crumbs. Sprinkle over casserole, then sprinkle with reserved cheese. Return to oven until crumbs brown slightly and cheese melts, about 5 minutes.

Serves 8

Spanish Rice
1 1/2 cups rice
1 onion, finely minced
50/50 split of water and chicken broth
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 slices of bacon
1 small can of diced tomatoes with green peppers
**OPTIONAL** 4 minced white bullet habanero peppers.

Begin with pre-cooking the bacon roughly 30 minutes prior to beginning on the rice and preheating the oven to 200. From there on, steam the rice in the water & chicken broth mix until tender, transfer to oven-safe container and mix in the diced tomatoes, onion, 1 cup shredded cheddar and 5 pieces of crumbled bacon. Once mixed crumble the remaining bacon on top of the rice along with the rest of the cheese and set into the oven to bake until cheese is thoroughly melted.

Serves a veritable army.


Scroo's Sammich
Due to the varying levels of bread, this sandwich cannot be placed to a true recipe listing. However I will walk you through the construction of the ultimate hot sandwich.

First you take a ROUND loaf of bread about 6 to 10 inches in diameter and cut the top off it to make a lid. From there remove the bulk of the doughy bread portion and begin layering in mortadella, swiss cheese, ham, provolone, salami and marinara sauce until filled. Set the cut top back on and place into a preheated oven at 225 degrees for 10 minutes to allow the cheeses to melt, the meat to get hot and the marinara sauce to lightly bubble. As an option you can place jalapeno rings throughout the layers to give it a zesty bite.

Serves 6 to 8

[Alexander]

Scroo's Sammich
Due to the varying levels of bread, this sandwich cannot be placed to a true recipe listing. However I will walk you through the construction of the ultimate hot sandwich.

First you take a ROUND loaf of bread about 6 to 10 inches in diameter and cut the top off it to make a lid. From there remove the bulk of the doughy bread portion and begin layering in mortadella, swiss cheese, ham, provolone, salami and marinara sauce until filled. Set the cut top back on and place into a preheated oven at 225 degrees for 10 minutes to allow the cheeses to melt, the meat to get hot and the marinara sauce to lightly bubble. As an option you can place jalapeno rings throughout the layers to give it a zesty bite.

Serves 6 to 8

Just wondering, do you use white or brown bread for this? and which tastes better?

I fear I'll not be able to add a nice recipe myself, so far the most creative thing I've cooked myself are white rice with kerry sauce (not so hot curry) and meatloaf baked in small bits,
and eggs baked with ham :hehe: