Recent content by Puki

I am too afraid to even think about a pressure canner. I watched someone do pressure canning on tv and now I am afraid of pressure cookers. No joke. I either need to get over myself or go to a shrink who specializes in Small Appliance Therapy.

I didn’t even mention the part about the blade flying out and hurting my cat.

I got a Magimix 3200. I am very excited about having a food processor - so many recipes demand one and I am always passing them by, but no longer! I think. I have one now, so I should be able to make that stuff, but I am scared to death of the thing. I have visions of the top flying off...

Thanks! I will look for it!! :)

There are several recipes by Jacques Pepin that call for “Chinese Chile sauce” but I cannot figure out what that is. I don’t think it is five spice, but that is where the fruits of my investigations end. Any clue? I want to make one of those pork chop recipes. :)

I haven’t made pancakes yet. I was thinking that if the hoecakes turned out okay, I could try pancakes. With pancakes, if it isn’t good, the whole meal is shot. My hoecake recipe had white corn, so not that corny. I wanted to see how they’d taste without the corn-corn that I love so much. I...

They were underdone and burned. Both. I turned the heat down and they did better. That was the problem, right? Too hot? Do you think that a plain, non-stick pan would do better than cast iron? They were okay. Nothing to write home about. I had them with a little store-bought barbecue...

Thank you both so much. It is so nice to be able to ask all these questions and get trustable answers. Thank you. I can’t tell you how much of a genius this made me feel like. Like “I did something good cooks do!” :)

Lemon is probably my happiest yum of the fruit world. As a kid, I got Lemonheads as often as possible. I still love anything lemony. And the lemonier, the better. I was happily surprised to find it used so often in cooking. My favorite non-dessert recipe (so far) includes lemon with root...

That is it. How do you toast nuts? I have come across my second recipe that asks for nuts, “toasted and chopped.” The first one - I winged it. It was just stuff mixed together and I didn’t care about the toastiness of the nuts, really. I put them in my cast iron pan and heated them on the...

I’m so happy to read all of these. Thank you! Yes, the meat is cooked before freezing. First browned in a pan and then cooked (poached, I guess?) in broth. They have me using the poaching broth in the recipe, so no waste there. It is made to be frozen. They even say that if you don’t freeze...

I have four slots in my oven. So is the middle spot the second-from-top or the second-from-bottom? If nobody knows, that’s cool.

I hope this question is in the right place. I made these freezer Chicken Pot Pies (America’s Test Kitchen) and they are good. My crust sank in on about 1/3 of it and I’m not sure what I did wrong there, but the first one was tasty and I have five more in the freezer, which I love. Next...

That sounds yummy. I have to try Kroger for the potato. A lot of recipes call for those but my store only has giant bags of them. I cannot eat all those potatos before they go bad and cannot afford to buy food for the rats in the garbage dump. :) Kroger is a bit of a drive but I will check them...

Ha! They were a little overcooked. Mise en place. They aren’t kidding about that! I thought I’d have tons of time to throw a few things into a bowl and whisk. But between trying not to step on the cat AND microwave half of yesterday’s potato AND watch the frozen green beans in the oven whose...