... wrapped it in bacon, and roasted it in the oven in a cast iron skillet.
Done! I very much want to try the bacon wrapped turducken recipe sometime, but we have a thread for that I guess 
Paleocon wrote:... wrapped it in bacon, and roasted it in the oven in a cast iron skillet.
Done! I very much want to try the bacon wrapped turducken recipe sometime, but we have a thread for that I guess :P
Try this sometime.
Take dried dates, pull out the pits, replace the pits with white almonds, wrap them in bacon, glaze them in maple syrup, and roast in the oven until the bacon is cooked.
Serve with a dry sherry.
Yum.
I'm in a very similar situation to Jonman - I cook adequately well from recipes, and usually enjoy the results. I've got a very good eye for picking out interesting recipes, and I can occasionally find the flaws, and correct them before I cook them, but my wife is a wizard in the kitchen. She'll think about ingredients and make great combinations off the top of her head. She also bakes, which is taking things into the alchemical plane, as far as I'm concerned - what she does there is pure magic, and I'm happy to enjoy the results without understanding.
I do have one advantage over her - I've had a much wider and deeper exposure to Asian cuisines, so I'm more comfortable cooking Indian or Korean food than she is, but she's adjusting there as well.
*shameless plug* - she's also started a cooking blog for beginners, and people more likely to set themselves on fire than complete a recipe: U Can't Cook
IMO a microwave shouldn't be looked at as a cooking device but a cooking technique. With that in mind, remember you can, technically, boil a leg of lamb, but you'd be a complete tard to do so.
I don't microwave anything that isn't specifically designed to be microwaved, with the sole exception of nachos.
That being said I do not own a microwave. Anything worth eating is worth preparing properly.
If anyone's a fan of Alton Brown's and wants to dive deeper down that rabbit hole, I highly recommend Shirley O' Corriher's two books, Cookwise and Bakewise. She is the crazy white-haired lady who sometimes appears on Good Eats who seems as though she could shoot science out of her fingers. After reading both of these, I'm pretty sure AB picks up quite a bit of his show prep from them. Anyway, part recipe and part serious science, they are great for the geeky end of the pool. I got them both for Christmas. I'm currently baking my way through the first chapter of Cookwise (yeast bread), and I'm learning a ton. My loaves have improved dramatically over the past couple of months. These are probably as close to culinary school texts as you can get without actually shelling out a Benjamin for On Cooking or something similar.
That being said I do not own a microwave. Anything worth eating is worth preparing properly.
I would counter that anything worth eating is worth preparing in larger batches and freezing the leftovers in individual portions so I can use my microwave to make tasty food hot come lunchtime. 
Nosferatu wrote:That being said I do not own a microwave. Anything worth eating is worth preparing properly.
I would counter that anything worth eating is worth preparing in larger batches and freezing the leftovers in individual portions so I can use my microwave to make tasty food hot come lunchtime. :)
This man is a genius.
I'm interested in oven cooking some pork ribs. Anybody have a good, simple recipe?
Ribs in the oven? Is it bad that my gut reaction is 'Don't'? Anyway, if you're set on it, just do em the same way you would on a grill. Dry rub the night before, Cook em covered on a rack in a pan to catch the drippings. I'd hit em with a wet sauce for the last hour. Oven at 250F, total cook time should be about 2.5-3 hours, maybe longer. Just watch for the meat to pull back from the bone.
I've read about the rack or something of that nature. Is this a special equipment?
I've read about the rack or something of that nature. Is this a special equipment?
Not really, just a metal rack. Toss that inside an appropriately sized baking sheet and you're good to go.
Love of cooking + living alone + low-carb diet = frustration. I still get to cook meat and veggie dishes, but most of the things I love to make are quiet carb-heavy (bread, pastries, baked pasta, etc.) and off the meal list. On the plus side, I am able to increase my bacon intake without too much guilt.
Someday when I have money to spend on fun things again, I am going to get either Damascus-steel or titanium-edged knives. My cheapies really need to be replaced, but I have far too many other projects higher up on the funding priority list. My other two goals are a Blendtec blender and a good set of cast-iron cookware.
I'm interested in oven cooking some pork ribs. Anybody have a good, simple recipe?
While I agree with AnimeJ, I confess to having done this on several occasions. We just have too many months of crappy weather here, and I sometimes I cannot hold out for ribs. Spice them to your liking, then wrap tightly in foil & put them in at low temp (200F or so) for 2-3 hours. Remove from foil, glaze with your sauce of choice, and crisp both sides under broiler. They're ribs. They will be good.
I love to cook and do it as often as I can, but my experience almost always is:
1. Spend some time to find a good recipe.
2. Make said recipe.
3. Voila! Good food has magically appeared and is happily going into my mouth.I know that the understanding and such will come with experience. For now though, I remain a recipe fanatic.
Have others gone through this phase too? Any tips to jump start the learning process aside from time and practice?
Actually, I have all but given up on following actual recipes. I have a pretty good feel for flavor combinations, and besides I can never find measuring spoons or cups
The real reason I stopped using recipes is because I get overly obsessive about following them & lose sight of the bigger flavor picture. The experience is not unlike chasing some XBL achievements--I'm prone to spending so much time finding all the flags in Assassin's Creed that eventually I start to dislike the game. I've learned not to chase achievements, and not to pay much attention to recipes.
That said, I do like Cook's Illustrated magazine, since so many of the recipes include very clever and useful techniques. I've taken away a ton of techniques from that magazine, but no recipes.
I used to compete in historical recreation cooking. Very fun if one is willing to do research and document everything used to cook down to the spices. It involved open fire pits, cast iron or copper pots. The modern copper pot is tinned and that was acceptable due local health regulations. Wooden, bone or metal cooking/eating implements. No forks. Forks are a modern invention which the Iron-Age Celt did not have. The foods were great fun. Most visitors would confuse us with Native Americans because our hair was braided and we had woad (indigo dye) on our faces/bodies. It was fun to educate folks that were not Native Americans that corn, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes to name a few are New World vegetables that Europe didn't have until after Columbus. Some folks thought we were putting them on called corn maize asking us to teach their children. The explaination was usually that we didn't have a maze.
Good fun and you would be suprized how warm rabbit fur socks are when worn with the fur side against your skin in snow.
I'm interested in oven cooking some pork ribs. Anybody have a good, simple recipe?
I've made Alton Brown's Baby Back Ribs a few times and they've been pretty tasty. Not as good as barbecue, but still pretty good. Leave the dry rub on overnight for maximum flavor.
I'd recommend tracking down heavy-duty aluminum foil. Standard grade just won't cut it for this application.
My newest gadget has been an Aerogarden. Apartment living in the north east doesn't lend it self to having fresh herbs on hand. After 5-6 weeks this thing is putting out more than I know what to do with. Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
My other recent gadget from Christmas was a Le Cruset grill pan/press. Again, a nice solution for winter/indoor cooking. I've been slowly building a collection good cast iron cookware.
My newest gadget has been an Aerogarden. Apartment living in the north east doesn't lend it self to having fresh herbs on hand. After 5-6 weeks this thing is putting out more than I know what to do with. Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
We had an aerogarden, and it grew plenty of herbs, with an occasional dead/moldy seed crop. Unfortunately, both of our cats seem to be grazers, so the harvest never survived long enough to be used.
I'm interested in oven cooking some pork ribs. Anybody have a good, simple recipe?
The ones my wife made above are cooked in an oven bag, and are amazingly tender. I'll try to get the recipe out of her.
Tanglebones beat me to it. Pickling is hands down the best thing to do with extra dill. Beyond that, no idea really.
I need to go home.... I am getting WAY to hungry
Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
Hopefully you mean as part of Dill & Mustard sauce. Cos that's good stuff.
Other wonderful uses for fresh dill:
chicken salad
tsatsiki
cheddar-dill scones or biscuits
just about any fish meal
salad dressings
compound butter
anything with cucumbers
Our dill never grows fast enough for us, really...
b slippy wrote:Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
Hopefully you mean as part of Dill & Mustard sauce. Cos that's good stuff.
Some major uses that that I can think of would be adding dill to salads like potato salad, egg salad, chicken, or tuna salad. It is also an ingredient in tzatziki sauce which is not just for gyros but also a great vegetable dip and a tad healthier than say ranch.
Gravelaks. Definitely not "basic" salmon and a metric butt-ton of good fresh dill is a moral imperative. Though I don't agree that turning it during the curing process is unnecessary, particularly if you're using a thick fillet.
And that site in general is good for geeks who want to start cooking. It reads a lot more like a hardware manual than Martha Stewart, so even the more complicated stuff seems doable.
Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
Steamed carrots, honey, dill.
Can you guys recommend me a good bread maker? My parents use to have one and waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread is awesome. But I'm not sure what brand or what kind of features I should look for.
Can you guys recommend me a good bread maker? My parents use to have one and waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread is awesome. But I'm not sure what brand or what kind of features I should look for.
We use a bread maker from time to time. I have no idea about the brand. Ours doesn't really have any features apart from a timer, I guess, I can't really say what else would you need? It does let you know when would be a good time to add in any dried fruit or nuts or whatever. I much prefer making bread by hand, but for the fresh morning baked toast thing it's useful.
My newest gadget has been an Aerogarden. Apartment living in the north east doesn't lend it self to having fresh herbs on hand. After 5-6 weeks this thing is putting out more than I know what to do with. Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
Wow, right now I think I want and aerogarden more than I want anything else on the planet.
Anyone have any good uses for dill (besides basic salmon or tuna steak)
You can also dry it or freeze it inside the ice cubes for instant use. Dill is one of those herbs that works great also when dried.
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