Calling all Foodies and Lovers of Food!

@ Iron Croc gave me the idea to start a foodie thread. I love food. Everyone loves food, right? Food is fuel but it's also fun. Tell us about your favorite foods, new recipes, what you ate for lunch, whatever. Pictures are very welcome.

I'll start! 

I recently made an angel food cake (so many egg whites). I topped it with a strawberry compote but I kicked it up a little with just a tiny bit of lemon zest and mint extract. The whipped cream I made also had similar notes of the mint but some vanilla to match the flavor of the cake.



I am ashamed by the amount of time it took for the two of us to finish this cake.

clicks at extreme pace

I don't even know what im eating today, probably nothing homemade, and that cake looks really good.

I love scrambled omelets. You out in all the ingredients you would in an omelet and fry it up like scrambled eggs.

I didn't take a picture unfortunately, but I made some awesome Herb Roasted Chicken with Potatoes the other day.  I don't usually care for bone-in chicken just because of the hassle factor (I realize it keeps it more moist), but this was worth the hassle. It ended up being super easy to make for dinner too because I keep pretty much everything except the chicken around on a regular basis.

Tonight will be Beef Stroganoff, not the most photogenic meal I make...

Oh my, I'm drooling over that cake. I have a feeling if we were to ever hang out, all we would do would be drinking coffee and eating yummy food, lol!

I don't have any pictures at the moment, but my newest kitchen adventure will be canning! We are going to start by canning homemade lemonade concentrate. We recently got a 35 lb crate of lemons and were able to juice about 2 gallons of lemon juice from them. It's in the freezer now, waiting to be made into lemonade. I'll have to post pics when I can.

@ mlogan I think that is an accurate assessment. I really want to start canning things, too. I grow a large tomato and herb garden in the summer and make a lot of fresh salsa and pasta sauce from the efforts. It would be great to have some of that throughout the winter. 

@ Supertristan Omelettes are an amazing food because you can dress and spice them to take on the flavors of any cuisine. I can use left over chopped vegetables and greens and give a nice vitamin boost to breakfast. You can put it on toast, inside a tortilla, or just by itself. Use salsa on top. Or just ketchup. It's an anything goes kind of food, which is my kind of food.

@Athryl I'm the same way about bone in chicken! Like, I know it tastes so good but I hate the hassle and I hate picking the chicken. 

Ahahahaha, yay! You actually did it! :p  

I'm about to make a pasta sauce today... I suppose I'll take a picture of that once it's finished. They call it "Awesomesauce"... ahaha :D

What's your process for making sauce? I admit the way I do it is probably a bit strange to most and not really that traditional. But the end result is sauce and we love the way it tastes.

I chop up pretty normal stewing vegetables (carrots, celery, onion, garlic) and cook them until translucent in a bit of olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper. Then I usually cook down some white wine on top of that and  add a red chili (I like my food spicy). Then I'd add my tomatoes and some tomato paste. Sometimes I toss in some roasted red peppers, sometimes I don't. I add in a little more salt and pepper, bay leafs, and some sugar. Let that simmer until I get impatient. Finally I add in other herbs (basil) and usually let it simmer a bit longer. Then I cool it. Pick out the bay leafs. Blend it. Put it back in the pot and simmer it some more with chopped vegetables. Mushrooms, green peppers, that sort of thing. It's quite an event.

I do a lot of cooking at home, since I have a pretty severe food allergy that can even be triggered with a minuscule contamination (ex. using the same cooking tools). Since it's summer here and it gets pretty hot, I tend to do a lot of grilling and limit inside cooking to something quick and easy. Tonight, I'm planning on grilled chicken breast, garden salad and basmati rice with peas.

I bake a lot, especially during the holidays. Currently, everyone's favorite is "brookie cookies" which are half chocolate chip cookie, half brownie. I'm, personally, a huge fan of my triple chocolate bundt cake. It's the kind of cake that tastes best a day or two after baking, and it's wonderfully dense and delicious.

That angel food cake nearly killed me. It was so great! 

I usually cook with meat. love using Chicken or Steak (type depends on what on sale that day). Gotta be sure to get a good crust on the meat then add in some whine, onions, and butter. It's pretty basic but I think it tastes great when it's all done. 

Usually a 1 lb of ground beef (This time, I'm using ground italian sausage) is browned in s pan, then Six LBS of veggies are cooked in the same pan. Today, it'll be onion, tomato and bell pepper.  The tomatoes get sweet when you cook 'em, they're roma tomatoes.

I throw in a pinch of baking soda and a splash of vanilla to help cut the acid. (It' not conventional, Dalph, I know.)

Then I add Italian seasoning and if I have it, basil... it all cooks over 4 hours or so....   the result is absolutely heavenly and usually we serve it over Rotini!

Oh... also a container of ricotta cheese is added at the end.

We're all so lucky that having to eat to stay alive can be the highlight of our days o.o

I have a good metabolism now, but in the future I'm going to have to watch out since my favorite foods consist of sweets, bread, and cheese.  It's like the unholy trinity of calories xD

As for sweets, my favorite dessert would be between Baklava and Tiramisu.

And it's no contest otherwise, can't get enough of Pizza.

So in other words; I'm doomed unless I take up running now.

I don't care how much they make the house stink, it's always worth it. Best food in existence.

I can pretty much incorporate shrimp into any type of meal at this point and cooked any way possible. Unfortunately my youngest girl is the only other person in the house that likes shrimp at all so it's not on the menu as much as I'd like.
I don't generally take picture of food I make but I can make a lot of different foods, most of them of the American South variety passed down to me from generations of women and taught to me by my Grandmother. (to my knowledge I am the first male contributor to said family legacy, unless eating = contributing.) I even keep up the family tradition of a huge family lunch on Sunday even though now grandma (my mom) comes over to eat so the whole dynamic has sort of flipped. Probably by diners choice my best dish would be homemade bacon mac and cheese. I don't actually take pictures of my own food however... so here's a google image that closely resembles my mac and cheese:



As for desserts one of my favorites to make is what has been known in my family as "cake'n sauce'n". Basically just your typical angels food cake, unfrosted but warm. Then you make this drizzle that's really, really unhealthy and bad for you that consists of a stick of butter, a little flour, a lot of sugar and a pinch of vanilla flavoring mixed with water. Then everyone smothers way to much of it onto their cake and you end up having to make more sauce... yeah, that doesn't get made often (probably more than it should, honestly.)

...This thread has made me realize how unhealthy a lot of the foods I cook probably are... All in moderation though, right?

Oh duuuuuude.... That shrimp tho!

@ Alexander I'm allergic to shellfish and I actually have no idea what shrimp tastes like! It must be pretty good because nearly everyone I know loves them, and they're so healthy, too. Oh, well, my loss! That mac and cheese sounds amazing, too. 

@ Arkeica I must have missed the fast metabolism window because I can look at bread and gain weight. Moderation, right?

@ Lunarea My mom used to make a similar, cookie/fudge brownie hybrid. The recipe we use for brownies has been in our family since the 1800s and it's everyone's favorite thing to bake around the holidays. I also do a lot of my cooking because of food allergies. Mine is also easily triggered. Shellfish is fairly easy to avoid but I don't go to places with a specialization in sea food even if steak/chicken is on their menu.

Well, this may technically be a double post since I was the last one to update. But maybe bump? Bump. Bump. Sorry. I come with cheese cake. >_>

I broke my nice camera and still haven't replaced it so I had to take this photo with a PS Vita.



It's actually super simple to make this thing.

The crust is:

• 1 cup crushed graham crackers
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Press into a 9 inch pie pan and bake on 400F for 6 minutes, cool.

The filling is:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup sour cream

beat those with a hand mixer

• 2, 8oz packages of softened and cubed cream cheese

Add gradually while mixing

• 2 tbsp melted butter, added while mixing.

Add into cooled pie crust and bake at 325F for 35 minutes or until center is set.

Cool completely. Refrigerate.

The topping is:

• 1 1/4th pound fresh cherries (pitted, of course)
• 3 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup sugar

Combine ingredients and simmer on medium heat until cherries soften (10-15 minutes), don't overcook them! You can use any kind of juice and extracts you like. I'm even partial to amaretto myself but I made this cake for a minor, lol.

If you want a thicker compote, mix 1-2 teaspoons of corn starch with 1-2 teaspoons of water. Add in a little at a time and simmer to see how much it thickens up as well to cook off the starch. If you want it thicker, add more of the mixture, simmer, ect.

Whoaaa! a cooked cheesecake!

For me there has been no other way. I know that there are lots of no-bake cheese cakes out there but to me, baking it has always been part of the love. Yeah, that's really corny sounding but when I was a kid it was always special to help my mother measure out and level the ingredients and then plop down at the kitchen table and check our cakes.

I feel ya on that one Littledish.

For me it was the same thing, but the TRULY special thing for me is making ice cream with my dad.  During the.... thing.... he gave me his SUPER SECRET RECIPE on the condition I only share it on MY OWN deathbed... :o

But man oh man, its amazing... for me, more of the cooking than baking... add this, add that, what are you FEELING this time...  :D

I've never made cheesecake, I am going to have to try some time soon.  I almost gave it a go for Father's Day, but didn't want to mess it up hehe.

Anyway, here is today's homemade bread - turned out yummy!