[Hotspur]

I love to cook, but I'm no culinary expert. I also love to eat. I bet we've got some food lovers out there who could share some great recipes and meals. From fattening to fit, share your creations! A handy tool you might need is a unit converter:
Cooking conversion online.

I'll share my pretzels to start with, because I know I have a photo of them.

Bavarian Pretzels

-1 package of active dry yeast dissolved in 1 cup or warm water (let it dissolve!)
-Stir in 1 �½ cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter. Some people say to put salt and sugar, and I do, but I use brown sugar. About a teaspoon of kosher salt and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. I vary these amounts based on how sweet I want the dough. Mix well.
-When the dough comes together, I take it out and knead in the rest of the flour, so spread flour on a counter top and knead in about another cup or so of flour. It might take more, might take less, but you want it to lose the tackiness it had when you took it out of the mixing bowl. Now, let it sit to rise. 20-30 minutes minimum for a good pretzel.
-Preheat the oven to 450º F, set out pans and put a little kosher salt down on the pan. (I put aluminum foil on the pan or cookie sheet for easy cleanup.)
-Make an egg wash. You can use just whites, just yolk, or the whole egg. Yolk gives a darker crust, so it depends on how you like your crust. I suggest playing with it.) You just put the egg in a cup and mix in a little water.
-Make a mixture of 1 cup water to 1¼ teaspoons baking soda in a pot, and bring it to a slow, rolling boil. I usually use 4-6 cups of water for this.
-After the dough has risen, tear off a good handful and roll it by hand. Sometimes I stretch it by doing sideways jump rope motions with it. If you kneaded it enough, it should be rubbery enough to do this.
-Form the pretzel, use a spatula or slotted spoon, and drop it in the rolling boil water/baking soda mix for 10-15 seconds.
-Remove the dough and place it on the pan. Do this until you fill the pan.
-Apply the egg wash. For me, it's much easier to dip my fingers in the egg and wipe it on the pretzels, but you could brush it on. Now, I sprinkle sea salt on top, so it sticks to the egg wash. (Egg wash is not a necessary step because the baking soda does the same thing, but I like a crunchy crust that splits open while baking.)
-Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of pretzels.

Pretzels

Pretzel balls


What do you have to share?

[pageofadiary]

This was a night time snack.
I usually make elaborate meals for myself, when I have the energy but it's usually off the top of my head. Experimental if you will. So coming up with the recipe to post, I'm not sure if I would be of much help. Plus I rarely take photos of what I cook! I will change this. I might copy from another site the photos and recipes I've done so far.

This was the other night when I was starving at 2am


1 Frozen Garlic Naan (I bought it at an indian grocery but I hear it's at Trader Joes as well)
2 Tablespoons Garden Vegetable Pasta Sauce or Tomato Sauce
2 handfuls Low Fat Mozzarella Cheese
1/4 of green Peppers sliced

Preheat oven at 350º then bake for 20 minutes (I think)

[mimisea]

Here's my apple pie, I had the photo handy. I'm terrible with measurements so I'll try my best with typing this recipe.


- flour, pour some in a bowl until it looks like enough - if its too much you can braid it & put it in the oven with a little butter salt & pepper on top or some nice cheese & it'll only need 20 mins. If its too little roll it nice & thin to stretch it :)
- about two fingers of super cold butter cut into little bits
- pinch of salt
------mix it well with a fork until it looks like beads or pebbles
- super cold water - just a little at a time then mix, then add more until it looks like a lump of dough, knead it a few times
------I like to wrap it in cling wrap in the freezer for a bit so it'll roll easier. Separate it into two even lumps, cover your hands, worktop & rolling pin with fresh flour & roll them nice & flat. Toss one into your pie tin, cut the edges off to make it pretty

- 6 to 8 granny smith apples, peeled & cut pretty thin
- I just layer like crazy - apples covered with a 3 or 4 little cubes of butter, tiny sprinkling of sugar & a bit more hardy sprinkling of cinnamon. I do it again & again until I have a wee apple mountain that is about 2 inches higher that the tin
- Top it with the other crust. Squeeze it with your fingers around the edges to make it look home cooked.
- Cut 4 vents in the top.
- Paint (I usually use a spoon) egg white over the top
- Bake @350/180 for 45min -1hr or until its brown & the smell is too much so you have to eat it

Making a cherry pie for my friends on Monday. I'll try to pay attention so I can give better instructions

[Hotspur]

Making a cherry pie for my friends on Monday. I'll try to pay attention so I can give better instructions

Yes! Tell us about cherry pie! I have no problem with this pie, either. I hope people share their favorite foods. I really will try to make a lot of things people suggest.

[Mei]

Great thread ! I think there is a huge element of creativeness in cooking. Will try and post some decent recipe, once I get going again. It's funny, cooking healthily is a current hobby of mine.

[dreamcatcher]

I love to cook, but I'm no culinary expert. I also love to eat. I bet we've got some food lovers out there who could share some great recipes and meals. From fattening to fit, share your creations! A handy tool you might need is a unit converter:
Cooking conversion online.

I'll share my pretzels to start with, because I know I have a photo of them.

Bavarian Pretzels

-1 package of active dry yeast dissolved in 1 cup or warm water (let it dissolve!)
-Stir in 1 �½ cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter. Some people say to put salt and sugar, and I do, but I use brown sugar. About a teaspoon of kosher salt and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. I vary these amounts based on how sweet I want the dough. Mix well.
-When the dough comes together, I take it out and knead in the rest of the flour, so spread flour on a counter top and knead in about another cup or so of flour. It might take more, might take less, but you want it to lose the tackiness it had when you took it out of the mixing bowl. Now, let it sit to rise. 20-30 minutes minimum for a good pretzel.
-Preheat the oven to 450º F, set out pans and put a little kosher salt down on the pan. (I put aluminum foil on the pan or cookie sheet for easy cleanup.)
-Make an egg wash. You can use just whites, just yolk, or the whole egg. Yolk gives a darker crust, so it depends on how you like your crust. I suggest playing with it.) You just put the egg in a cup and mix in a little water.
-Make a mixture of 1 cup water to 1¼ teaspoons baking soda in a pot, and bring it to a slow, rolling boil. I usually use 4-6 cups of water for this.
-After the dough has risen, tear off a good handful and roll it by hand. Sometimes I stretch it by doing sideways jump rope motions with it. If you kneaded it enough, it should be rubbery enough to do this.
-Form the pretzel, use a spatula or slotted spoon, and drop it in the rolling boil water/baking soda mix for 10-15 seconds.
-Remove the dough and place it on the pan. Do this until you fill the pan.
-Apply the egg wash. For me, it's much easier to dip my fingers in the egg and wipe it on the pretzels, but you could brush it on. Now, I sprinkle sea salt on top, so it sticks to the egg wash. (Egg wash is not a necessary step because the baking soda does the same thing, but I like a crunchy crust that splits open while baking.)
-Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of pretzels.

Pretzels

Pretzel balls


What do you have to share?

Oh my god!!!! Thank you thank you thank you @Hotspur!!!!! Love this thread!!

[modern_vagabond]

I have a gluten allergy and thus cannot eat any of the yummy foods posted thus far. Sadness.

[Hotspur]

I have a gluten allergy and thus cannot eat any of the yummy foods posted thus far. Sadness.

I'll try to come up with something gluten free!

[mimisea]

I have a gluten allergy and thus cannot eat any of the yummy foods posted thus far. Sadness.

I have a friend that lives a glutenless life --- I know I made him cookies or brownies or some sort of sweet. I'll ask him & remember what I did so I can share it with you

[Aviator8849]

I made stromboli from the recipe at Ham & tomato Stromboli recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

DSCF4739.JPG

I didn't have any ham so I browned some ground beef and onions to replace it, then added some diced tomatoes and pineapple because I needed to use them up. I didn't get the dough pinched together well enough and it split open about two-fifths of the length, but that doesn't matter because it tasted great. And now I have leftover for three or four more meals...or more likely one meal and a handful of snacks.

I also made Hotspur's pretzels today. I don't think I used enough egg because the first tray barely browned, but the second tray looked better. No split crusts either. The worst part was that I ran out of aluminum foil yesterday and between the water that dripped off the bagels, the salt, and the crappy cookie sheets I have (sadly the best I could find for a reasonable price...) all but two stuck to the pans and lost part of their bottoms in the process of prying them off. More than half have already been eaten, so suffice to say despite my failings, they still taste darn good!