Calling All Cooks

[Alelou]

Well, I use the tube kind of tomato paste. I'd say I gave one long healthy squirt out of a new tube. If you ask me tomato paste plus sugar and some liquid equals ketchup (or tamarind sauce, if that comes up on a recipe).

I'm sure you'll figure it out to taste. Bon appetit!

[Alelou]

Chilly gloomy fall day inspired me to make the season's first pot of chili and cast iron pan of cornbread.

[WarpGirl]

Oh YUM! I need to make another pot of chili soon. The question is, chicken or beef? Right now I have a fridge full of bad food. I've been sick so no cooking. All cheese and crackers. But Monday I'm going to the grocery store. I need to feed myself, I'm loosing weight. NOT GOOD.

[WarpGirl]

Sorry for the double... OMG I just found out by watching food network that nutmeg in large quantities works as a narcotic halucinigan! And here's what I'm wondering, other "plants" with the same effects are illeagal. So why isn't nutmeg?

[Distracted]

I would think that it's because nutmeg is a condiment and not a main course. Ground sassafras is a poison in large quantities but no one would ever eat enough to poison themselves. Licorice in high doses can be toxic as well.

[WarpGirl]

Well there is a difference between "toxic in large quantities" and giving you a psychadelic trip. It's funny I called my mom to tell her and she said "Yeah I knew that." As well as "Don't you know where cola comes from?" Now I know that Coca Cola used to have cocaine in it, but they have since reformulated that. But I'm thinking if they outlaw certain Mushrooms they should outlaw nutmeg. Just IN THEORY not for real.

[Asso]

Following WarpGirl's suggestion.



Bunet The typical dessert of Turin.

RECIPE
BUNET OF AMARETTO CAKE


Ingredients (for six people):

3/4 of milk

200 of beated amaretto cakes

30 gr. of bitter cocoa

200 gr. of sugar

5 eggs

1 yolk of egg

1 small glass of marsala (or cognac or spirit of amaretto)


The bunèt is the ancestor of the pudding. Neither jelly nor thickeners. It was very popular in the Southern Piedmont and the name of Bunèt comes from the copper cooking mould Benetta used for cooking that looked like a berret.

Preparation: boil the milk then cool. Thicken in a pot the crumbled amaretto cakes, the sugar, the eggs and the cocoa then beat well with a fork (also the albumens should not be in the traditional recipe because the cake should be compact and not soft and swelling). Add the milk and pour in cooking mould where burnt sugar had already been put in. Cook at bain-marie in an oven for 40 minutes. To prepare the burnt sugar just put in a pot 300 gr. of sugar and mix slowly with a woody spoon. After some minutes, the sugar starts melting and then boiling while forming a very thin foam. Take off the fire and cool in icy water. As soon as it cools, but before it becomes a solid, add a glass of water until getting a amber syrup that may be also kept in a bottle.



Panna cotta



Panna cotta is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. An Italian expression which literally means "cooked cream", it generally refers to a creamy, set dessert from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte. It is eaten all over Italy where it is served with wild berries, caramel, chocolate sauce or fruit coulis. It is not known exactly how or when this dessert came to be, but some theories suggest that cream, for which mountainous Northern Italy is famous, was historically eaten plain or sweetened with fruit or hazelnuts. Earlier recipes for the dish used boiled fish bones in place of gelatin; however, sugar, a main ingredient, would not have been widely available as it was an expensive imported commodity. After years this treat evolved into what is now a gelatin dessert, flavored with vanilla and topped with fruit or spices, and served chilled. Similar versions of this dish are also found in Greece and France.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg0mHYV1_qc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX7V010LyHM&feature=related

[WarpGirl]

OMG I just read that chocolate one really closely that is to DIE for. <whimpering like a pathetic puppy> Who needs a man? Just park me with that and leave me alone, it looks like sheer bliss.

[WarpGirl]

Help! In a moment of supreme idiocy I told my brother's wife that if they brought my neice to see me on Sunday I'd make dinner, including dessert! Now dinner I can handle with my eyes closed but dessert, is another thing entirely. My sister up in Canada bakes, I don't bake, and they asked for peach cobbler. Now today I wanted to take a test run with some blueberrys I have, but every cobbler recipy I've looked at has me panicked. Please help!

[Alelou]

Try the one on the Bisquick box. I don't think it could really be any easier. Mix stuff up, put it in a greased pan, add a can of blueberry pie filling, and bake. Ta da. (Mind you, you don't have to use Bisquick, and fresh fruit would probably be a little more exciting, but if you're already making a dinner and this is a new deal, don't sweat it. Nobody will complain; it's delicious.)

[WarpGirl]

Thanks but I don't have any mix.

[Alelou]

Then you have to use a recipe, but it can't be that hard. Really. It's hard to mess up.

[WarpGirl]

My baking talents are truly lackluster, and I don't know why! I follow a recipy to the letter, measure everything exactly, and it is never as good as it's supposed to be. Never! I'm proud of the fact I'm a good cook, particularly because apart from a few recipies I'm self-taught. But I can't bake. It makes no sense!

[Alelou]

Well, I've screwed up plenty of baked goods in my day too, particularly cakes with strawberries in them (something my son demands for his birthday and which always seem to end up soggy or leaden for me for various reasons such as adding twice the butter by accident or using expired baking powder...). But as with anything, practice makes perfect.

[WarpGirl]

Well thankfully Mama has decided she is also coming for dinner. She is also a very good baker, so she will help. I'm kind of nervous though I haven't really seen my brother his wife or their daughter since the gathering they had when their Emily passed away. We've all been so busy. I'm glad we're finally getting together again. Usually it was at least twice a month.