cuisine

Apple Cinnamon Cookies With Maple Icing

Posted on October 18, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

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APPLE CINNAMON COOKIES WITH MAPLE ICING

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INGREDIENTS – COOKIES
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½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1⅓ cups diced*, peeled apple (Your preference: Granny Smith = tart, Fuji = sweet)
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* = 1 Granny Smith apple
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INGREDIENTS – ICING
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1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons milk
½ tablespoon maple syrup
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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electric beater
2 baking sheets
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Makes 30 cookies. Takes 40 minutes.
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PREPARATION – COOKIES
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add butter and brown sugar to large mixing bowl. Blend with electric beater set on medium until mixture becomes fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract. Blend with electric beater set on medium until thoroughly blended.
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Add baking soda, cinnamon, flour and salt to medium mixing bowl. Mix with whisk or fork until well blended. Gradually add this dry mix to large mixing bowl. Blend with electric beater set on medium until dough is thoroughly blended. Fold in diced apple.
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Roll dough into little balls about 1″ wide. Leave a 1″ gap between dough balls. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown. (Baking times for any successive batches may vary.) Let cookies cool for 2 minutes before transferring with a spatula to wire rack or cold plate. Let cookies sit until completely cool.
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PREPARATION – ICING
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While cookies bake, add confectioners’ sugar, maple syrup, and milk to small mixing bowl. Mix with fork until thoroughly blended. Use knife to gently spread icing over cookies.
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TIDBITS
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1) It is worth restating from time to time that not all cookies are particularly fleet of foot.
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2) Please notice that the last two letters of “of” are “of.” It’s true. You can tell just by looking.
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3) The first two letters of “foot” are “fo.”
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4) Culinary linguists call whenever the first two letters of the second word are the reverse of the last two letters of the previous word an “offo.”
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5) Use this fact to amaze you fellow partiers. It’s also a sure-fire pick-up line.
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6) Friend: How did you get Miss America 2009 to come home with you?
You: I used the “offo” fact.
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7) See, proof you cannot deny.
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8) Anyway, not all cookies can move on their own.
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9) True, all cookies next to fault line, such as the San Andreas, clearly move in one direction or another. However, culinary seismologists don’t count as cookian–adjective for cookies–self propulsion.
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10) However, some cookies do move rather quickly.
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11) In fact, culinary sports announcers, will tell you after they’ve had a few, that Apple Cinnamon Cookies With Maple Glazing can move rather fast. Indeed, these apple cookies set the record for the 1500 meters with a speed of 2 minutes 2 seconds.
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12) Unfortunately, poor-sports human had Apple Cinnamon Cookies With Maple Glazing from Olympic individual foot races, giving the spurious excuse that Maple Glazing is a banned substance.
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13) However, the humans felt no need to ban Apple Cinnamon Cookies With Maple Glazing from relay racing.
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14) So, these cookies hold their own marathons. They celebrate diversity with all types of cookies encouraged to enter. Poway, California holds one every April 1st. Book you hotel rooms early.
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15) Be sure to look for the Apple Cinnamon Cookies with their Maple Glazing uniforms.
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16) Please refrain from eating cookies in front of the contestants. It rather hurts their feelings.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Strawberry Milk

Posted on October 5, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

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STRAWBERRY MILK

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INGREDIENTS
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6 cups milk
1½ pounds fresh strawberries*
¾ cup sugar
½ cup water
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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blender
fine mesh colander
7 cups of mason jars or other airtight containers.
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* = There are only 4 ingredients providing flavor in this recipe. Please use fresh strawberries.
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PREPARATION
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Remove stems from strawberries. Cut strawberries into 4 pieces. Add strawberry bits, sugar, and water to pan. Bring to soft boil (just starting to bubble) using medium heat. Stir occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until strawberry bits become tender and mixture starts to thicken.
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Remove from heat. Add strawberry mixture to blender. Puree mixture until smooth. If strawberry bits remain, add strawberry puree to colander. Strain strawberry puree through colander.
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Add strained strawberry puree and milk to Mason jars. Mix with long wooden spoon. Will last 2-to-3 days in an airtight containers in the refrigerator.
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TIDBITS
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1) Many people in Medieval Europe believed in witches. Witches could strike you down with nasty illnesses, make off with you cattle, and turn into a newt. So naturally, peasants back then wanted to catch and burn witches. How did you determine if someone was a witch? Why, she had warts all over her face. People suffering from warts got burned at the stake all the time. While bad for suggested witches, such a practice went a long way to eliminating warts. The advent of modern law  meant that no more people went up in flames. Unfortunately, proving witchcraft beyond the shadow of a doubt, means that warts have made a comeback. There is a tradeoff to everything.
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2) It’s exciting to note that “straw” spelled backwards is “warts.” Indeed, Medieval chefs found that “straw”berries canceled out “warts.” Warty faced peasants drank strawberry milk to get better. No more warts, no more witches. No more burnings, a good thing surely. If you ever suspect the law wants to try you as a witch, may I suggest you make this Strawberry Milk right away?
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Egg Foo Young

Posted on October 2, 2023 by pauldelancey

Chinese Entree

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EGG FOO YOUNG

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INGREDIENTS – VEGGIE & CHICKEN MIX
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8 eggs
1 small chicken breast
1 medium white onion
2 stalks green onion
1 stalk celery
1 garlic clove
1 cup bean sprouts
2 teaspoons sesame oil
½ teaspoon cornstarch (3 more tablespoons below)
1½ tablespoons soy sauce (¼ cup more below)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons peanut oil
no-stick spray
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INGREDIENTS – SAUCE
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3 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
⅔ cup water
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Serves 4. Takes 35 minutes.
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PREPARATION – VEGGIES & CHICKEN MIX
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Beat eggs. Dice chicken breast, white onion, green onion, celery, and garlic clove. Put sesame oil in frying pan or skillet. Add white onion, green onion, celery, garlic, and sprouts. Cook on  for about 5 minutes on medium heat or until veggies are tender. Stir frequently.
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Add chicken breast, ½ teaspoon cornstarch, 1½ tablespoons soy sauce, salt, and white pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes on medium or until chicken bits have all changed color. Stir enough to prevent burning. Remove veggie/chicken mixture from frying pan and set aside.
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Spray pan with no-stick spray. Add peanut oil. Cook peanut oil on medium heat. Add ¼ of the beaten eggs and cook with medium heat until egg begin to set. Use a spatula to cut this big patty into 4 patties. Flip over all egg patties. (You might want to use two spatulas.)
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Add ⅓ of the veggie-chicken mix to the top of the 4 patties. Add another ¼ of the beaten eggs and cook on medium until egg on top begins to set. Flip these egg foo young patties. You should now have 2 layers of egg and 1 of mix for each patty. Repeat this step 2 more times until you have 4 layers of eggs and 3 of the mix. Don’t let the  egg layers burn. Place patties on serving plates.
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PREPARATION – SAUCE
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Add 3 tablespoons cornstarch and ¼ cup soy sauce to small mixing bowl. Mix with fork or whisk until well blended. Add dry sherry and water. Mix with fork or whisk until well blended. Add this mix to pan. Bring to boil using medium heat. Remove from heat. Mix with spatula until sauce thickens. Ladle or brush sauce onto egg foo young patties.
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TIDBITS
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1) Many solar orbits ago, 1728 in fact, the second half of the Foo clan finally set off from China in search of culinary freedom. But where to go? They decided to let the next morning Sun decide. As luck would have it, the Sun rose in the east. So they trekked east to America.
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2) Their leader Egg was a good man. So much so, that for ever after, whenever a man was held to be a nice guy, people would call him a “good egg.”
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3) Anyway, Egg Foo led his tribe to the Asia-North America land bridge, which no longer existed in 1738. The Land Bridge had only existed up to 16,000 years ago. The first half of the Foos had managed to cross the Bridge before it disappeared. But Chow Fun had lead the first Foos and he was a dynamic, go getter.
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4) The nice Egg Foo was not. In fact, the second Foos were rather disorganized. They really meant to leave only after the first Foos departed. But delay after delay occurred. The Foos would seem to be ready, then a little girl would forget her doll. Alfonso Foo–a Spaniard who’d married into the Foo clan–realized he’d forgotten his spear and went back into his tent to get it. Hunana Foo, decided to go through her mail. This reminded Xiangzhao Foo that she had forgotten to stop her mail and so hopped off to the post office to do so. In the meantime, Zingzin Foo had gotten peckish and decided to have a rather robust breakfast. Meilee Foo, went through her wardrobe for the 32nd time.
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“Did everyone remember to bring snacks?” asked Egg, No one had. So, all the Foos went back to their tents to make some. “Did everyone remember to bring caps?” asked Mama Xi. “It gets cold at the Asia-North America land bridge.” No one had. So the men folk took to shearing sheep and the women to knitting caps. And so it went. Before anyone knew it, ­­16,000 years had passed. The Bridge had long since been covered by rising water levels.
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5) Fortunately, Egg’s descendant, Egg DCXV–a brilliant man who really deserved to be remembered in history–made the Foos collect tons of krill. It was simplicity itself to trade this food to balleen whales in exchange for passage across the Bering Strait.
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6) In 1878, the Foos finally entered San Francisco. The locals remarked how young Egg DCLV looked. So, it was inevitable that Chef Egg’s first entry got called Egg Foo Young.
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7) Chjcken-egg historians claim that the Egg Foo DCLII joined the Cole-Younger that terrorized Missouri after the Civil War, heralding the formation of the Cole-Younger-Foo (CVF) gang. Naturally, lcocals referred to the Foo’s leader as Egg Foo Younger. In time, folks shortened his moniker to Egg Foo Young. Egg historians even aver that Egg Foo DCLII served this entree to the CVFs before train robberies. However, little evidence exists to support this preposterous, alternative claim.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Green Goddess Dressing

Posted on September 27, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Appetizer

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GREEN GODDESS DRESSING

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INGREDIENTS
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4 anchovies*
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¾ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons diced fresh chives
½ tablespoon fresh dill
2 garlic cloves
⅔ cup fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon
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* = 2 teaspoons anchovy paste or ½ the anchovy bits in a 2-ounce can.
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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food processor or blender
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PREPARATION
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Add all ingredients to food processor. Blend until smooth. Use now. Transfer unused portion to Mason jar. Store in refrigerator. Keeps for 1 week.
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TIDBITS
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1) Nearly all dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago (66 mya) when a bloody minded comet slammed into the Earth. The Dinosaur Greeting Card company died out as well. Both are mourned. Only a small percentage of dinosaurs survived this mass extinction. Those that did evolved into birds. But they never lost their dinosaurial–if that is indeed a word–traits. So a condor is a bird. An eagle is a bird. The pigeon that craps on your car is a dinosaur.
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2) The two-ounce hummingbird is a dinosaur. As of press time, the largest dinosaur, amphicoelias fragillimus weighed 100 to 150 tons. That’s quite a weight variance. Perhaps Amphi Fragilli alternated between dieting and binge eating.
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3) Anyway, gigantic mobile plants such as: estranikon (tarragon), anitho (dill) and maintanos (parsley) walked the land after the comet crash. Alas, for this vibrant, burgeoning genus, kinita votana, dinosaur birds and mammals stalked the active plants as an abundant source of vitamin-rich food.
 Noting that their mobility garnered the attention of their predators, mobile plants evolved into stationary and much smaller plants, like the ones we grow or buy at the store. This dish, Green Goddess Dressing honors the survival of these herbs.

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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Favorite Pizza Toppings Around the World

Posted on September 24, 2023 by pauldelancey

Craving a different sort of pizza? See what the world has to offer.

America: bacon, Canadian bacon, ground beef, bell pepper, extra cheese, mushrooms (ugh. Sorry, I don’t like them), onion, pepperoni, pineapple, sausage, tomatoes
Australia: shrimp, pineapple, barbecue sauce

Brunei: honey, garlic, barbecue, chicken
Brazil: green peas, hard-boiled eggs
Canada: spaghetti
China: thousand island dressing, eel sushi

Costa Rica: coconut, pineapple
France: flambée (bacon, onion, fresh cream)
Germany: egg, asparagus, tuna

India: pickled ginger, lamb, chicken tikka
Italy: pepperoni, prosciutto, sausage, pancetta, tomato, peas, olive
Japan: ketchup, eel, squid, and Mayo Jaga (mayonnaise, potato, bacon)

Korea: sweet potato, shrimp
Netherlands: double meat, double cheese, double onion
Pakistan: curry
Russia: mockba (a combination of sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon, and onions), red herring

Sweden*: allspice, artichoke, banana, bacon, beets, bell pepper, Bearnaise sauce, cabbage, caper, carrot, chicken, chocolate, crab, curry, duck, eggplant, filet mignon, French fries, fruit cocktail, gorgonzola, guacamole, ham, hard-boiled eggs, honey. kebab meat. leeks, mashed potato, mayonnaise, onion, peanut, pepperoni, pickles, pineapple, raisin, salami, sausage, shallot, shrimp, white sauce, taco spices, tuna, and zucchini.
Venezuela: corn, goat cheese

Enjoy!

* = Sweden really is the cutting edge of pizza toppings.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nepali Chicken Thukpa

Posted on September 23, 2023 by pauldelancey

Nepali Soup

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CHICKEN THUKPA

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INGREDIENTS
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½ pound rice noodles
2 garlic cloves
¼ cup fresh cilantro
2 green chiles
2 green onions
1 small yellow or white onion
1 bell pepper
2 carrots
⅔ pound boneless, skinless chicken parts
2 tablespoons olive oil
⅛ teaspoon asafoetida* or ½ teaspoon dried chives
1 teaspoon minced ginger
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon timur powder* or Szechuan pepper* or red pepper flakes
½ cup chopped tomatoes
½ teaspoon turmeric
5 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon lemon juice
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* = These can be found online. Use sonic obliterator on those who complained if you substituted.
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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sonic obliterator
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Serves 4. Takes 1 hour.
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PREPARATION
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Cook noodles according to instructions on package. Be sure to stir occasionally so noodles don’t stick together. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Mince garlic. Seed green chiles. Dice cilantro, green chiles, green onions, and yellow onion. Julienne bell pepper and carrots. Cut chicken into strips 1½” long and ¼” wide.
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Add olive oil, garlic, and yellow onion to pot. Sauté at medium-high heat for 4 minutes or until yellow onion softens. Stir frequently. Add chicken strips. Sauté at medium heat for 3 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Stir frequently. Add asafoetida, bell pepper, carrot, cilantro, minced ginger, green chile, green onion, pepper, salt, timur powder, tomatoes, and turmeric. Stir until well blended. Add chicken broth. Bring to boil using high heat. Stir enough to prevent burning. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add lemon juice and stir. Divide noodles into bowls. Ladle chicken soup over noodles.
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TIDBITS
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1) There are reasons why the Nepalis love Chicken Thukpa so much. It’s soup. Who doesn’t love soup?  It has chiles in it. Who loves chiles? People in hot climates, such as Mexico and Kenya.
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2) But just because you love to put spicy chiles in your food doesn’t necessarily mean you can abide your land’s hot, sweltering weather. You leave your homeland in search of cooler climes and you take along with you the seeds of your beloved in chiles.
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3) In fact, culinary historians and anthropologists say the first such migration occurred when Lucy of Olduvai Gorge, a hominid, butterfly* collector, persuaded her tribe to search out cool, pleasant pastures where chicken herds teemed. * = Butterfly fossils are hard to find.
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4) And so Lucy’s tribe trekked north. They got lost many times as their GPS didn’t work and the men refused to ask for directions.
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5) They continued their march to the European-North American land bridge, evolving along the way and relaxing with a good game of bridge during rest stops.
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6) A long time later, give or take a year, the Evolving Hominids–Isn’t that a great name for a rock ‘n’ roll band?–found Mexico where they naturally united with the Polloan Pueblo. The combined chile-seed-carrying Oldupo People crossed over the North American-Asian land bridge and eventually found themselves in what is now modern-day Nepal.
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7) The Oldupo loved the cool breezes coming down from Nepal’s Himalayan mountains and decided to settle down and finish their evolving there. So, we’ve explained the Nepali’s love of chile, but what about chicken? Chicken Thukpa has chicken it. What about that?
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8) The meteor of 66 million years ago that wiped out nearly all dinosaurs, did not result in the extinction of the gigantic Pullumosaur. This dinosaur chicken stretched to 90 feet in length and stood 80 feet high. It’s very size intimidated the heck out of the predators, who noted the Cretaceous maxim, “There’s nothing more dangerous than colossal giant chicken.”
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9) The pullumosaurs managed to dodge the extinction of its fellow dinosaurs with the simple expedient of burying their head in the sand until the meteor event ran its course.
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10) More than a bit skittish, the dinosaur chickens departed for a new home free of meteors. By a strange coincidence, the pullumosaurs–after many exciting adventures–found themselves in modern-day Nepal.
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11) Unfortunately, Nepal simply didn’t have enough food to support countless herds of gigantic chickens. Over time, evolutionary pressures shrank the pullumosaur in size to our current chicken.
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12) When the Oldupo of tidbit 7) arrived in Nepal, they naturally wondered if chickens would be tasty. Would they go with chiles? They wondered and wondered until Juana Lucy first ate one. “They taste just like chicken,” she shouted. “I bet they’ll make a great soup mixed with chiles.” Ever since, the Nepali descendants of the Oldupo have loved Chicken Thuka Soup. And so do I.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Banana Split

Posted on September 12, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

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BANANA SPLIT

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INGREDIENTS­
2½ tablespoons hot fudge sauce or chocolate syrup
1 banana
1 scoop chocolate ice cream*
1 scoop strawberry ice cream*
1 scoop vanilla ice cream*
½ tablespoon roasted chopped peanuts
¼ cup whipped cream**
3 maraschino cherries with stems
¼ teaspoon sprinkles (optional)
* = Should be fairly firm.
** = Oh heck, spray or spoon as much whipped cream as you want.
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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banana split boat or small oval dish
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Serves 1 or 2. Takes 5 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Microwave hot fudge sauce for 20 seconds or put hot fudge sauce in small pot. Heat on low until sauce becomes warm and fluid. Peel banana and split in half along its length.
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Place banana halves cut sides face up in banana split boat. Put ice cream scoops between banana halves. Drizzle hot fudge sauce over ice cream. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over fudge sauce. Spoon whipped cream over peanuts. Sprinkle sprinkles over whipped cream. Top everything with maraschino cherries.
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Note: Work quickly if the temperature in your kitchen is 90 degrees or more.
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TIDBITS
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1) In 1904, David Evans Strickler, of Tassel Pharmacy created first banana split for the nearby sweet-toothed college students of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The tasty dessert spread like wildfire across the world. Alas, swirling controversy enveloped the tasty dish with multiple towns claiming to have created the first banana split. In 2004 the National Association of Ice Cream Retailers (NAICR) declared Latrobe to be the birthplace of the banana split. Nine years later the Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission placed a plaque at the former site of Tassel Pharmacy. Someone later,  perhaps at midnight, erected a gigantic banana split statue nearby. Show up there to see the activities of Latrobe’s annual Great American Banana Split Celebration. Be sure to go there and see how exciting and tasty history really can be. Latrobe welcomes you with open arms and split bananas.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Strawberry Cucumber Water

Posted on September 9, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Appetizer

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STRAWBERRY CUCUMBER WATER

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INGREDIENTS – MAIN
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½ pound strawberries (¼ pound more later)
5″ cucumber (2½” more later)
8 cups water
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INGREDIENTS – GARNISH
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¼ pound strawberries
2½” cucumber
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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mandoline (optional)
colander
2½ quart or larger pitcher
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Serves 8. Takes 30 minutes plus 3 hours to refrigerate
PREPARATION – MAIN
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Remove stems from ½ pound strawberries. Slice strawberries as thinly as you can. Cut 5″ cucumber into slices 1/16″ to ¼” thick. Add strawberry slices, cucumber slices, and water to pitcher. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Strain contents through colander. Discard solids. This is the infused water. Return infused water to pitcher. Keeps for 3 days in refrigerator.
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PREPARATION – GARNISH
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Remove stems from ¼ pound strawberries. Slice strawberries as thinly as you can. Cut 2½” cucumber into slices 1/16″ to ¼” thick. Garnish with strawberries and cucumber slices before serving. Stir 2 times with long wooden spoon.
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TIDBITS
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1) Engineers do extensive analysis before building. This usually includes constructing a scale model and subjecting it to all sorts of tests.
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2) In this case a city, which shall remain nameless, wanted to build a bridge to tout their thriving strawberry and cucumber industries. This meant making the world’s first strawberry/cucumber bridge. Alas, the bridge failed on the very first and simple test. With the strawberry slices collapsing catastrophically under the weight of cucumber slices. (See the submerged red slices above.) A bridge that collapses under the weight of small vegetable slices is likely to collapse under the weight of vehicular traffic and even pedestrian traffic. City planners abandoned the fruit hybrid bridge.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, observations, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cool Vanilla Latte

Posted on September 6, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Appetizer

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COOL VANILLA LATTE

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INGREDIENTS
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2 cups coffee, cold
⅔ cup sugar
4 cups milk
2 tablespoons vanilla syrup
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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covered pitcher or mason jars equal to 7½ cups
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Serves 6. Takes 10 minutes.
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Note: You can make other Cool Latte flavors by changing the syrup flavor, caramel for example.
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PREPARATION
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Add all ingredients to large mixing bowl. Stir with whisk or fork until sugar dissolves.  Keep refrigerated.
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TIDBITS
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1) You should make this. It’s so tasty and simple to put together. It’s also economical. I figure using the ingredients I bought that it cost me 4¢ an ounce while the major brands’ versions run 18¢ to 25¢. Making your own tuna sandwich with tuna and mayonnaise is also easy and much cheaper than buying premade ones in the deli. There are many other instances where making your own is cheaper and more satisfying than purchasing processed foods and drinks.
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2) Now, suppose your neighbor is a complete oaf who blasts his music all night and says all sorts of hurtful things. You’d like to make him stop, but he’s much taller and stronger than you. What to do?
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3) The first thing that naturally comes to mind is to get a AH-64e v6 Apache attack helicopter. According to Boeing’s website, “AH-64E v6 is a lethal, survivable and agile system providing the reach, maneuverability and performance needed by ground forces and contributes to current and future joint mission success.” Just what you need for dealing with that next-door brute.
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4) And since I convinced you with the first tidbit to make your own things, you’re going to give building a AH-64e a go. Good for you! Unfortunately, it takes quite a lot of time–much longer than mixing up a Cool Vanilla Latte. Thus, you’re really unlikely to get your chopper up and flying before a dying and rapidly expanding Sun overwhelms the Earth. Especially if you’re unskilled in electronics. No, if you really wish to achieve overwhelming air supremacy over the beastly neighbor, you need to raid your savings account or look under sofa cushions and buy a $130 million AH-64E v6. If that price is too steep for you, wait for Labor Day sales or settle for a v5.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, motivational | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beef Lasagna

Posted on September 3, 2023 by pauldelancey

Italian Entree

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BEEF LASAGNA

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INGREDIENTS – PASTA­
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3 cups flour*
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
½ cup water or more
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* = More might be needed for dusting, texture.
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INGREDIENTS – BEEF & CHEESE
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3 garlic cloves
1 white onion
½ cup fresh Parmesan cheese (2 tablespoons more later)
½ pound mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 pound ground beef
⅓ cup red wine
1 26-ounce jar spaghetti sauce
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon basil
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon thyme
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INGREDIENTS – ASSEMBLY
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2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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9-inch x 13-inch baking dish
no-stick pastry mat
rolling pin
hand crank pasta machine
cooking scissors (If your baking dish is 8-inches x 8-inches, for example)
no-stick spray
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Serves 12. Takes 3 hours 10 minutes.
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PREPARATION – DOUGH
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Combine 3 cups flour, eggs, egg yolk, and water into large mixing bowl. Knead with hands for 15 minutes. Make a ball of the mixture. It should be only slightly sticky and should just be able to come off your hand. If some of the ball sticks to your hand, then add a bit more flour, mix again, and try the new flour. If the flour ball is powdery, it is too dry. Add a bit more water, mix again, and try the consistency of the next ball. There may be a number of these iterations but it must be done. Divide dough ball into 3 equal mini-dough balls. Wrap mini-dough balls with plastic wrap and let sit in refrigerator for 1 hour.
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PREPARATION – BEEF & CHEESE
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mince garlic cloves and onion. Grate, Parmesan cheese. Add mozzarella, Parmesan, and ricotta cheeses to medium mixing bowl. Mix with fork until well blended
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Add ground beef, onion, and garlic to frying pan. Cook at medium heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Add red wine, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, basil, bay leaf, Italian seasoning, oregano, pepper, salt, and thyme. Cook on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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PREPARATION – PASTA
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This preparation needs to be done 3 times. Dust no-stick pastry mat with flour. Remove 1 dough ball from refrigerator. Keep remaining amount in fridge until needed. Put this ¼ dough ball on pastry mat. Dust rolling pin. Roll out dough into oval shape 5½” wide and ¼” thick. (Anything thicker inhibits dough from going through hand-crank pasta machine.)
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Use pasta machine’s thickest setting. (#1 on mine.) Hold dough vertically and straight as possible over pasta machine’s roller. Turn crank slowly to feed dough oval through roller. Fold resulting dough sheet in half. Cut about ¼” off each side to make it rectangular and thus easier to feed into roller. (This also makes for uniform dough sheets.) Run this folded sheet through roller.
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Dust dough sheet. Set pasta’s setting the next narrower setting. (#2 on mine.) Again, hold dough sheet vertically and straight as possible over pasta machine’s roller. Repeat process, selecting a narrower setting each time, until final pasta sheet is about 1/16″ thick. Repeat entire pasta-sheet preparation until all dough is used. Trim pasta sheets to be 13″ * 4½”. The cutoff pieces of dough can be used to make another sheet.
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PREPARATION – ASSEMBLY
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Grate 2 teaspoons Parmesan. Use no-stick spray on baking dish. Put a layer of lasagna, 2 side-by-side noodles on the dish. If the noodles happen to be longer than your baking dish, snip off the excess length with your scissors. In this recipe, 6 noodles will make one lasagna dish with 2 layers of meat sauce. Reserve about ½ cup meat sauce. Divide remaining meat sauce and cheese equally between layers.
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Cover this 1st layer of noodles with a layer of meat sauce and a layer of cheese. Add a 2nd
layer of noodles, meat sauce, and cheese. Add a 3rd layer of noodles. Spoon just a little meat sauce atop the top layer along with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Put glass lid or aluminum foil on top of baking dish. Cook lasagna in covered baking dish in oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Cook uncovered for an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly. Remove and let sit for 5 minutes more.
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TIDBITS
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1) Beef lasagna with homemade noodles takes a lot preparation. I believe it’s worth it. The texture of the homemade noodles far surpasses what you would get from using dry, premade noodles.
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2) Still, it’s lot of continual work. So, be nice to the chef who makes this dish. In fact, lavish gifts would be appropriate.
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3) You might even proposing marriage to the chef who makes this entree. Could you do better with any other eligible bachelor or bachelorette? No, I didn’t think so.
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4) This dish is also complicated for the restaurant. Add in the cost of the beef and cheeses and you can see why can be expensive to order lasagna.
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5) Humor break!
Q: Why did the chicken cross to the other side?
A: It didn’t. It was on a Mobius strip.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
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6) The following are dishes that I’ve made that require a fair amount of preparation or regular monitoring.
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7) Tamales. Why that’s just a lot of corn floury stuff and lead pencil’s worth of filling. Should be cheap. Then you try to make it by hand.
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8) Mincemeat pies. As with this dish, Beef Lasagne, there’s a lot of fuss make the pastry.
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9) Ravioli. Lasagna’s cousin. You make the pasta the same way. However, you still have to form the individual raviolo–Yes, that is indeed the singular form of ravioli–one way or another from the pasta sheets.
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10) Enough of the complicated dishes. Let’s have something easy. Okay, peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That surely is the simplest thing to make. Or is it?
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11) Peanut butter sandwich.
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12) Two slices of bread.
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13) One slice of bread.
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14) Nothing on a plate. The virtue of the this dish arises from its utter simplicity in preparation and ingredients. You will never, I guarantee it, need to dash off to the store for a missing ingredient. You might never have on hand some rare herb, but you will always have something of nothing on hand and that’s something. Also, there’s no greater friend to the would-be dieter. There’s literally no calories in nothing.
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15) There’s one more simplification. Dispense with the plate. Serve your nothing on nothing. Nothing on nothing remains the most transportable dish ever devised. There you go.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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