Your favorite recipes

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Since this is a 30+ age group, I figured that most of us are independent or live at home and cook. I wanted to know what everyone's favorite recipe is and how often they like to eat it,

Mine is a thai peanut pasta dish which is all vegetarian. I do not eat it as much as I used to even though it is so super easy to make.

One of my favorites is hamburgers.

It seems like making a hamburger is obvious, but most people and most restaurants screw it up horribly. It is very rare to find a hamburger that is anything more than mediocre.

To make a good hamburger, the first thing to remember is that the more you pack and compress it, the worse the quality. By the time you massage it down to a nice round hamburger patty that everyone is familiar with, the best you can do is merely mediocre.

For a great hamburger, use the freshest meat (some people even grind their own) and form it into rough patties about half an inch to an inch thick with the least amount of handling you can manage -- just enough to get it to a rough hamburger patty shape and enough to keep it from coming apart but still loose.

Don't mix in anything else in the meat. You cannot do so without ruining the hamburger. The only way possible to mix in anything else like seasonings is to put it in the grinder along with the pre-hamburger meat. If you want a great hamburger forget mixing in seasons -- the result will necessarily be mediocre or less.

After forming the patty, some people like to indent the meat on each side slightly with their thumb. When cooking the meat will puff out and the indentation will disappear. Without the indentation, the patty may be rounded a bit on top and bottom. For what it's worth, I don't mind the slight rounding and so I don't indent the meat.

Salt and pepper each side before cooking.

Cook in a good oil in a heavy frying pan. I prefer butter but olive oil is okay, too. Sometimes I cook a couple of bacon slices cut in half first and then put the hamburger into the pan when the bacon slices are about 2/3 to 3/4 done, moving the bacon slices to the sides so that the hamburger goes in the middle of the pan.

Cook slowly using a little lower than medium heat. If you cook it too fast, the inside will be raw and the outside burnt and then it is even worse than mediocre.

One further note: If the hamburger meat is not fresh, don't cook it like above. If it isn't fresh you want to pound it flat and overcook it so that you don't taste the off flavors of meat that is past its prime. Don't worry about it being better than mediocre -- mediocre is the best that you can possibly attain with hamburger meat that is not fresh.

My limit is about two days after its ground if well refrigerated.

1. Open box
2. push buttons on microwave.
3.wait.
4.peel back cellophane
5.enjoy.

That and,
1.pull up to console
2.recite order
3.pull up to window
4.give person money
5.receive bag
6.drive home
7.enjoy.

Hey, those are two of my favorite recipes, too!

Also, here's an easy one that suits my level of ability to concentrate on things that don't interest me (e.g., cooking).


Spaghetti Pizza

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cook 1 lb spaghetti (I use thin or vermicelli) according to package directions. Drain, stir in 1/2 cup milk and 2 eggs. Pour into 13"x9" casserole dish (it helps with cleanup later to coat pan first with cooking spray). Top with one jar of your preferred flavor of spaghetti sauce (I like to use a simple tomato/basil sauce). Add any toppings you want, ending with 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese.

Bake on center rack for 40-45 minutes.

I'll sometimes cook this on a weekend and then eat it for dinner every night for a week.

That sounds perfect for me. Details please ...

As a favorite I guess i'll pick Toll House Cookies. My younger daughter loves making the dough together.

Lately I've been making bibimbap very often because it's simple and my older daughter likes it, but I haven't really perfected the balance of ingredients yet.

this plus: open a box, grab a fistful, consume.

I often make a squid salad. It has chilies and coriander leaves etc. Quite healthy and tasty. Requires a minimal amount of heating (for squid only).

I also make some simple pasta dish with chilies, parsley, garlic, mushrooms and olive oil. It's very tasty, too.

Throw a corned beef roast in the crock pot. (oven works too, can't remember the temperature I used in there though, maybe 275?)

Cover with Guinness or whatever stout.

Cook on high for 4 hours or so.


I embark on more complicated cooking projects pretty often, but that corned beef roast is the one that never fails and is the most mindless of them all.

My recipe calls for:

Sauce:

1. One 1/2 cup of peanut butter, soy nut butter, almond butter etc.
2. One table spoon of lemon juice
3. One bunch of cilantro
4. One stable spoon of soy sauce
5. One small ginger

Mix ingredients together in good processor or blender

One box of soba noodles (Buckwheat)
1. Boil water to soften noodles

Prepare bed of lettuce, pour noodles over lettuce, pour sauce over noodles, top with shredded carrots.

It is a very simple recipe. If you want anymore ideas, let me know.

I make pulled pork in my pressure cooker (used to use crock pot, but switched when I learned that a pressure cooker does an equally good job in only an hour), and put it on a grilled Portuguese roll with pickles, cheese and mayo. The Portuguese roll is sweet, and grills really nicely without getting soggy when I add the meat.

I don't know that it is my favorite food or recipe, but I'll make it fairly often, because I can make a lot and will have leftovers. I enjoy cooking with my pressure cooker, and it is great when I don't want to go through a whole big production.

One thing I like to do with ramen noodles is to stir fry some meat to match the flavor of the noodles (for example, stir fry shrimp with shrimp flavored ramen noodles). Cook the noodles and drain, add the flavor packet, stir in the matching meat, and top with chopped green onions. I bet some slivered carrots would be good on it, too.

Which cut(s) do you prefer over others? fat ratio? 80%?

I think a prime or select grade is good, choice if on a budget. Make it 100% ground sirloin, very good flavor, but chuck adds a really meaty depth, so maybe toss some in? I've also added homemade sausage to burger meat with some interesting results. Of course, fried onions, BBQ sauce and a little mayo never hurt either.

My favorite recipe is this chocolate chip cookie recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Baking book:
(modified by me)

2 Cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp sea salt, freshly ground
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 Tblsp unsalted butter, melted then cooled to room temperature
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup of white granulated sugar
1 cup of dark chocolate chips (or any kind, add 1 1/2 Cup if not using nuts in recipe)
1/2 cup of toasted pecan pieces (or any kind)

Sift flour into a bowl and mix in salt and baking soda, set aside.
Melt and cool butter.
Add cooled butter to a stand mixer or large mixing bowl
Stir in both sugars, add whisked egg/egg yolk and vanilla, combine until smooth
Add flour mixture and stir until just incorporated
Add in chips and pecans.

Using baking sheets for cookies, line with parchment or silicon mats. Bake in a 325F oven for 10-12 minutes for 2 inch cookies and 12-16 minutes for 3 inch cookies. Rotate baking sheets half-way through baking for even browning. Remove promptly from oven and allow to cool for 1-2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks. Cool for 30 minutes to an hour then seal in an airtight container or plastic wrap. Keep at room temperature for up to a week. Dough freezes well and you can roll it into a log so you can cut off slices later on. (Even frozen, just use a bread knife)

I really don't have a specific preference on cuts. A year or two ago, I read about someone in another forum trying a number of different cuts of meat and grinding it himself. I don't remember which was his favorite, but I do remember that it was a pretty expensive cut of meat.

If you really want something good, use grass fed beef, but be careful not to get it too lean. Also keep in mind that cooking grass fed beef of any cut generally needs to be at a lower temperature and for a correspondingly longer period of time.

When I was a kid, we'd keep back a steer or two every year when we sold our cattle. We'd raise that steer or two on grass for another year or so to bring them up to slaughter weight. When I was in high school, I went to a highly thought of steak restaurant once and was quite disappointed in their steaks -- the grassfed beef we had at home on the farm was considerably better than the steaks they served in their restaurant.

By the way, some fast food hamburger places reportedly buy foreign grass fed beef that is pretty lean and then mix in fat trimmed at other packing plants to bring the ratio up to whatever they prefer.

Spatchcock turkey. Juiciest turkey you ever ate. Cooks in less than 2 hours. leaves rack space in oven for side dishes.

First, using either an appropriate knife or kitchen shears, remove backbone from 15 pound turkey.. Turn over and break breastbone. Wash. Dry. Spread in turkey pan. Spread with butter and season. cover with aluminum foil. Place in oven at 450 degrees. After an hour remove foil. After another half hour check turkey with meat thermometer. It needs to read 160 degrees. It probably won't be quite done yet, but might be. If getting too brown, loosely cover with foil again. Keep checking temp until 160 degrees [total cooking time should be under 2 hours] As with any turkey, let sit for at least 20 minutes after removing from oven before carving. This is even juicier than a deep-fried turkey, much less mess, and you don't have to spend all that money on peanut oil.

To go with your spatchcocked turkey. Appear Not to Be totally clueless cranberry sauce.

Pour bag of cranberries in saucepan. Add one cup water and one cup of white sugar. Cook on medium high heat, stirring often with wooden spoon. as soon as it starts to boil lower heat until it's a slow boil. After about 5 minute remove from heat. Make this the day before serving.

Secret to non-starchy mashed or whipped potatoes, either fluffy or lumpy, is to make sure that your milk or cream is warm before adding and that your butter is room temperature.