TNL Cook Book II

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Originally Posted by napalm

Sometimes (all the time) when I'm too lazy to make grilled cheese sandwhiches, I toast the bread, butter it, toss some cheese on, and put it in the microwave.

It tastes alright for minimal effort.

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Fuck that ish. Toast a bagel ligthly, butter it and throw a piece of cheese on each and then retoast it.

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Originally Posted by Tehanu

Marmite looks like tar in a jar. What does it taste like?

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Hard to explain it if you've never tasted it. It's a good, savory-tasting spread. Kind of similar to Vegemite, but I like Marmite better, way better taste, very different texture, saltier too.

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Originally Posted by Rich

Fuck that ish. Toast a bagel ligthly, butter it and throw a piece of cheese on each and then retoast it.

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I must admit, that sounds infinately more delicious.

Also, a plain bagel with a slice of cheddar and some mustard is always very savory.

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Originally Posted by Grave

Hard to explain it if you've never tasted it. It's a good, savory-tasting spread. Kind of similar to Vegemite, but I like Marmite better, way better taste, very different texture, saltier too.

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I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

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Originally Posted by Hot Like Wasabi

I've been watching a ton of Food Network lately and I love trying to cook stuff up that looks good so I thought a new edition of the TNL Cook Book was needed. Feel free to post home made stuff, recipes you have found (and tried), alcoholic/non alcoholic drinks, etc.

This is one I tried lately and it turned out great...

Baked Herb Potatoes

What you will need:
Red Potatoes/White Potatoes (skinned), cut into small peices
Olive Oil
Minced Garlic
herbes de Provence

Preheat oven to 400. In a bowl, whisk about 1/4 olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence (however much you want). Then pour over potatoes. Transfer potatoes to an oven safe pan and let them cook for about an hour.

This is more of a side dish to a main dish but still good none the less. I finally put in the Sin City dvd and watched Robert Rodriguez's 10 minute cooking school and now I have to try make those breakfast burritos.

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There's a good variation of this involving a packet of onion soup mix. I think we use all-purpose potatoes though and don't bother skinning them. If I'm not mistaken I found the recipe on the actual box of soup.

The other easy thing to do with onion soup mix of course is onion dip. 1 tub of sour cream and 1 pack of mix = delicious.

Oh and just as an FYI, I think onion soup tastes like shit.

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Originally Posted by napalm

I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

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Yep that's marmite

Lately I've been using white wine to saute chicken breast in. Once its cooked well, cut some slits in the chicken breast and insert mozerrella. Put it in the oven for about 5 minutes so that the cheese melts. Wrap some zuchinni, peppers, and onions up in tin foil and cook in the oven for 20 minutes and serve it with the chicken. Easy, healthy, and tasty.

Man, I don't know how you guys can muster up the will power to prepare this kind of stuff. If I take longer to make something than I do to eat it, it's a no go... which probably explains why I eat so unhealthy.

When you grow up you'll realize how awesome cooking is.

I think only maruchan and a few other hispanic guys out there will appreciate this, but this is my standard weekly "real meal", since I live alone, I usally only eat sandwhiches and cereal all week long. This is a pretty stereotypical rice and beans meal, so it's not for everyone, but it is damn good, and extremely filling.

The Meat:

- Take any boneless meat, skinless chicken breasts chicken or whatever and marinade it with balsamic vinegar + basil + (the secret ingredient) Goya Adobo (I like the kind with the green top, with cumin).

- I'll usually let this soak up in the refridgerator for a day or two before cooking.

- Pour some extra virgin olive oil into a pan, and dump the entire meat/marinade concoction into the pan and let it cook until it looks ready (be sure to flip it periodically).


The Rice:

- You can use whatever kind of rice for this, but lately I've switched to brown rice, since it is the king of nutrition.

- I used to cook my rice in a pot, but now I just use a rice cooker (a must have). Here's how to cook rice: Pour Rice into container, then pour a 1:1 ratio of water into container, you usually want about a quarter inch of water to be above the rice. Now you pour some olive oil into the container, stir it up, and turn on the heat. You want to stir it periodically, turn down the heat when you see that the water has evaporated down to rice level and little bubbles are popping. If you're doing all this in a pot, be sure to not overcook the rice, because burnt rice sticks to the pot and is a bitch to clean off.

The Beans:

- I guess you can use any can of beans for this, but I'm a Goya man, especially their black beans.

- Open the can and dump it into a pot, then fill the empty bean can with water and dump that into the pot (this is the perfect ammount of water). Now take a small can of tomato sauce and dump that into the pot, finally, sprinkle some Goya Adobo into the pot and stir all that shit together (don't pour too much adobo in there because it will make your meal taste way too salty).

- Now all you have to do is turn the heat on high and stir periodically. When you decide to stop cooking is a matter of preference, I was taught to stop cooking it once the mixture is no longer runny, but not exactly super thick. As for me, I like to push it to point before it burns when it gets real thick. My mother bashes the shit out this method calling it the "mexican way" (which coincidentally, this shit makes a great tortillia dip).

- Okay, now just take this stuff and pour it ontop of the rice on your plate, then mix it all together and you are done.



This tastes really fucking good, and is not hard to clean (although I am lazy and leave the dirty dishes piled up for a long time, which stinks so fucking bad). Total cooking time is about 45+ minutes.

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Originally Posted by Regus

I think only maruchan and a few other hispanic guys out there will appreciate this, but this is my standard weekly "real meal", since I live alone, I usally only eat sandwhiches and cereal all week long. This is a pretty stereotypical rice and beans meal, so it's not for everyone, but it is damn good, and extremely filling.

The Meat:

- Take any boneless meat, skinless chicken breasts chicken or whatever and marinade it with balsamic vinegar + basil + (the secret ingredient) Goya Adobo (I like the kind with the green top, with cumin).

- I'll usually let this soak up in the refridgerator for a day or two before cooking.

- Pour some extra virgin olive oil into a pan, and dump the entire meat/marinade concoction into the pan and let it cook until it looks ready (be sure to flip it periodically).


The Rice:

- You can use whatever kind of rice for this, but lately I've switched to brown rice, since it is the king of nutrition.

- I used to cook my rice in a pot, but now I just use a rice cooker (a must have). Here's how to cook rice: Pour Rice into container, then pour a 1:1 ratio of water into container, you usually want about a quarter inch of water to be above the rice. Now you pour some olive oil into the container, stir it up, and turn on the heat. You want to stir it periodically, turn down the heat when you see that the water has evaporated down to rice level and little bubbles are popping. If you're doing all this in a pot, be sure to not overcook the rice, because burnt rice sticks to the pot and is a bitch to clean off.

The Beans:

- I guess you can use any can of beans for this, but I'm a Goya man, especially their black beans.

- Open the can and dump it into a pot, then fill the empty bean can with water and dump that into the pot (this is the perfect ammount of water). Now take a small can of tomato sauce and dump that into the pot, finally, sprinkle some Goya Adobo into the pot and stir all that shit together (don't pour too much adobo in there because it will make your meal taste way too salty).

- Now all you have to do is turn the heat on high and stir periodically. When you decide to stop cooking is a matter of preference, I was taught to stop cooking it once the mixture is no longer runny, but not exactly super thick. As for me, I like to push it to point before it burns when it gets real thick. My mother bashes the shit out this method calling it the "mexican way" (which coincidentally, this shit makes a great tortillia dip).

- Okay, now just take this stuff and pour it ontop of the rice on your plate, then mix it all together and you are done.



This tastes really fucking good, and is not hard to clean (although I am lazy and leave the dirty dishes piled up for a long time, which stinks so fucking bad). Total cooking time is about 45+ minutes.

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A few comments:

1. Adobo is a godsend. It makes anything taste awesome including burgers. It's similar to Lawry's seasoning salt (only 100 times better)

2. Goya beans are indeed delicious. The red labeled cans however already contain seasoning and may or may not be better.

3. I can't imagine brown rice going well with this recipe. Parboiled rice would be a better choice. Fuck health.

4. Yeah, this is the typical latino dinner that puts caserole or whatever shitty crap Americans call dinner these days to shame.