Cooking at home

[mredikop]

Originally Posted by blisstone

And your mini pizza idea reminded me of my childhood, when my French dad would make us croque-monsieur. Diferent flavors and all, but your voice spoke to me. I'll have to unearth that old recipe. I've never done it 'cause I'd forgotten.

thanks for your time.

Bliss

p.s. My family and I Looooove Firefly and Serenity... I do not understand what the networks were thinking, cancelling that show...Dadgummit!!

I can totally relate to the frustration over Firefly of course it was badly timed and ended up airing with little to no marketing and out of order. Oh well I can still go back and watch it and wonder what could have been. LOL

I did another mini-pizza with the left overs Saturday night. I had left over carne asada meat (basically skirt steak) which I threw on some bread and it was wondrous.

The meat was browned in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, when it was nearly done I put in about 4 cloves of minced garlic and dumped some salt, cayenne and cumin over the top. When it was done I folded in some chopped cilantro. Made excellent tacos by the way.

Then the next day I tossed the meat into a small skillet with a little more EVOO and just warmed it up a little. While it was going I put some leftover pasta sauce (red) on some crusty white bread then whole leaves of basil to cover, some thinly sliced onion, thinly sliced red pepper, the meat and then a slice of provolone and baked for a few minutes at 400 till the cheese melted. Mmmm good!

[blisstone]

I realize that I have a very weak ability with cheese and food pairing. I don't usually have a large selection at once, so I get frozen in the idea that if I don't have the exact, correct cheese at hand I can't try to throw in another kind with what I've got. So combining a leftover with diferent flavors is a stretch for me.

I'm a timid cook.

[mredikop]

Originally Posted by blisstone

I realize that I have a very weak ability with cheese and food pairing. I don't usually have a large selection at once, so I get frozen in the idea that if I don't have the exact, correct cheese at hand I can't try to throw in another kind with what I've got. So combining a leftover with diferent flavors is a stretch for me.

I'm a timid cook.

Generally with cheeses it depends on the taste/texture. Taste the cheese and see how it tastes. You can tell if it could work when you taste the cheese. Here is a link that might help a little.

http://www.gardemanger.com/cheese/cheese.html

Now as for being timid. What's wrong with being careful and calculated. If you can overcome your timidity the worst that happens is you have to bin the food or eat something that tastes dastardly one night.

[Grumio]

I fear this may not be very helpful, but it is true: You have to be willing to fail.

[kuan]

You really only need salt, pepper, and a heat source. I don't get it, but people always want recipes for this, that, but I find that a simple piece of chicken (good chicken from the farm) or piece of beef properly sauteed or roasted with salt and pepper is the best.

Pass the A1... NOT!

[Jayme]

Stranger-
Everyone seems to have given some great ideas...
The only things I would add to the shopping list is bread crumbs and tomato and/or spaghetti sauce.... I am a recipe cook- I can read through recipe books or magazines for hours (well ok I could if I HAD hours...)- start collecting recipes- start TRYING new recipes..... it doesn't take too long to expand your menu selections. Don't be afraid to alter recipes and try something new..... baking is science... cooking is ART!