Blue Gartr Meal Time: Bacon optional? Bacon required.

[Elizara]

Okay more potluck stuff.



Do NOT ask me for the exact recipe or I'll have to kill you, tho I'll ask here. Does anyone know of a good cheese sauce mix? (Been using some from a local company for a base but they may of quit making it..)

[kuronosan]

So you could just melt and fold soft cheese, cream cheese, and heavy cream together to make your own cheese sauce. You can thicken with whisking, a roux, or corn starch.

[Zetanio]

So you could just melt and fold soft cheese, cream cheese, and heavy cream together to make your own cheese sauce. You can thicken with whisking, a roux, or corn starch.

i use lots of shredded cheddar with butter and then add slices of american until its relatively stable. if you're looking for powdered, i have no idea. like kuro said, i use cream cheese as well if i have any on hand.

[Koul]

yeah, mine is usually milk and butter then when that's combined add cream cheese and a buttload of cheddar. Zest it up with paprika, cayenne, onion and garlic powder. salt/pepper to taste.

[Kirin]

Wife surprised me with a Big Green egg for christmas. Got some accessories with it already, (the indirect heat conveggtor, roasting rack, cast iron grate, egg genius for temp control), and was wondering if there was anything else that are go to must haves? Either for the egg specifically or for kamado style grill/smokers in general.

[Elizara]

Well, annual new year's spread coming right up.



Before you go drooling over the shrimp this time; I actually figured out a way to make a s'mores dip that should stay dippable all night long.

First off, you need a bag of GOOD milk chocolate chips(Ghirardelli or similar, you want good quality and not the cheap ones) and some heavy cream, as well as mini marshmallows and marshmallow fluff. Do a 2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream ganache in the microwave, pour into a mini iron skillet and put in the fridge for a hour at least. Then cover with marshmallow fluff, sprinkle with mini marshmallows, and put it under the broiler JUUUST until the marshmallows brown (you don't want to burn it unless you like a lot of Boy Scout Pepper (Tm) on your s'mores). Put it on the table on a hotpad and serve with graham crackers.

[Astylla]

Made my first ever pineqpple upaide down cake and am absolutely THRILLED it didn't completely turn into a disaster.

I was originally using a springform pan but then whike heating the brown sugar and pineapple prior to adding the cake batter noticed that it was leaking so pivoted to a traditional cake pan. My dumbass self forgot that the cake was meant to go into TWO cake pans so did my best lol.

I replaced the water with pinapple juice , added chopped bits of pineapple to batter and carmelized brown sugar and pinapple in oven some first before adding batter.
The flip had me questioning everything but I made it ! It is a little collapsed in the center but was clean to a toothpick test so likely from overfill on the cake.
Still looks amazing and will bring it over to my bf's place tonight to try. He mentioned last week he wanted a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday, which was a few days ago.



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[Byrthnoth]

I have been making chocolate chip cookies for years and now I shall share my recipe, which is basically the same as Joy of Cooking. You can bake them same day or freeze the batter and make them whenever, particularly if you have an air fryer or something and only want 6 at a time.

0. Preheat the oven to 375F if you are making them today.

1. Combine dry in a smedium bowl (I typically use one of the hand mixer's beaters to mix the powders):
* 1 cup flour
* 1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 cocoa or flour depending whether you want them to be chocolate

2. Combine wet in large bowl with a hand mixer:
* 9 Tbsp melted unsalted butter (or salted, and then exclude the subsequent salt, or don't. It doesn't matter that much.)
* 1C dark brown sugar (pack it until you don't feel like continuing and pad out with white)

3. Add to wet and combine until smooth with a hand mixer:
* 1 egg
* 1/4 heaping tsp salt
* 1.5 tsp vanilla

4. Combine dry into wet and beat until consistent.

5. Add 2C of chocolate chips (or a mix of chocolate and weird stuff like peppermint chips) and beat until consistent. Hold a few chips back if you want.

6. Use a 1tbsp melon baller (don't overfill) to scoop the dough out onto parchment on a cookie sheet for cooking or cutting board for freezing. Depending on your technique, the last few may not have many chips in them, in which case you can add the extra chips.

7. Put the ones you are cooking in the oven and freezing in the freezer.

8. From warm, ~13 minutes at 375F. From frozen, ~15 minutes.

The first time you make them, don't use cocoa and watch for browning to know when you are done. After that, just use however long it took. You should expect them to be a little bit puffy in the oven, brown, and deflate a little when they cool. Crinkle top! If you want something a little different, read below and alter the recipe.

Common problems:
A. If the cookie is too tall/structural, you have too much flour in that cookie.
B. If the cookie spreads too much, you have too much butter in that cookie.
C. If your cookies look very different from one another (e.g. some spread and some don't) then you need to mix the dry into the wet better.
D. If your cookies taste weirdly bad, your baking soda probably sucks.


I tend to use a mix of King Arthur Flour's black cocoa and normal Hershey's cocoa when making chocolate ones. This recipe ultimately can make a lot of different variations of chip-based cookies, which tend to be very well received. Also, it scales well. I have made up to 4x recipes no problems but you definitely want to hold back a few chips if you go that high.

[Ksandra]

Wife surprised me with a Big Green egg for christmas. Got some accessories with it already, (the indirect heat conveggtor, roasting rack, cast iron grate, egg genius for temp control), and was wondering if there was anything else that are go to must haves? Either for the egg specifically or for kamado style grill/smokers in general.

I have a Louisiana Grill Kamado, so not sure how the ash settles in the Big Green Egg, but if it’s like mine, I’d get an ash scrapper with pan to help clear it out. Also I haven’t gotten one yet but many people recommend getting a coal basket for the bottom. But you really have everything you need. Enjoy!

Aks that looks yummy!

And Byrth I will def try your recipe at some point!

[Elizara]

Okay BG folks, thought I'd ask.

I'm trying This recipe tonight mainly b/c 'Neko has been nagging me about food prices again. I hope it turns out good..But you guys have any good ideas on budget meals/meals on the cheap that aren't ramen noodles? Would like to expand our cookbook a bit. We have access to a Sam's Club (and I think they have good rotressire chickens; haven't tried one). Also it's for 3 people. ^^ Fish in our area, as a rule is too expensive for what you get but anything else..including vegetarian..is game. (Same with that roterssire bird or any leftover chicken.)

[Melena]

Okay BG folks, thought I'd ask.

I'm trying This recipe tonight mainly b/c 'Neko has been nagging me about food prices again. I hope it turns out good..But you guys have any good ideas on budget meals/meals on the cheap that aren't ramen noodles? Would like to expand our cookbook a bit. We have access to a Sam's Club (and I think they have good rotressire chickens; haven't tried one). Also it's for 3 people. ^^ Fish in our area, as a rule is too expensive for what you get but anything else..including vegetarian..is game. (Same with that roterssire bird or any leftover chicken.)

If you have Smart and Finals near you, keep an eye on their advertisements. Can sometimes get some good deals on bone in pork chops or fresh chicken breasts.

[Elizara]

Nope, we're in GA. But there is Food Depot down here that often has deals on meat. We also have a Aldi's. There's also Kroger and Publix but won't link those; Publix is the more expensive store so I rarely go in there. Yes, Dollar General's around too but for the most part, you can't pay me enough to shop for food in there...mainly since I DO like fresh veggies and fruit and stuff you can't get at Dollar General.

But yeah, it still gets pricy so I want to bring the food bill down. I know there's other budget stuff other than Budget Bytes (and almost all of their fish recipes are out of our reach!) so considering what's going on, let's share and find some cheap and healthy eats.

[Koul]

Okay BG folks, thought I'd ask.

I'm trying This recipe tonight mainly b/c 'Neko has been nagging me about food prices again. I hope it turns out good..But you guys have any good ideas on budget meals/meals on the cheap that aren't ramen noodles? Would like to expand our cookbook a bit. We have access to a Sam's Club (and I think they have good rotressire chickens; haven't tried one). Also it's for 3 people. ^^ Fish in our area, as a rule is too expensive for what you get but anything else..including vegetarian..is game. (Same with that roterssire bird or any leftover chicken.)

Instapot ziti? Just throw everything in there with ground beef - This lasts me about 3 days worth of lunches/dinner, depending
Baked chicken thighs - can do a rub or marinade em. My rub is just salt, pepper, paprika, onion and garlic powder. Sides are usually rice or frozen veggies - I usually get 6-8 chicken thighs and that's food for 3-4 days.
Shepherds Pie - Can use ground lamb or ground beef. Makes a TON of food with like 1-2 lb of meat - Good freezer food too

[Bardicrune]

For the Red Beans and Rice, I would recommend adding a smoked ham hock or two next time when adding the soaked beans and water to the pot. It'll add a much deeper flavor to the broth. When it's close to time to serve, just take it out to remove the bone and then shred the meat back into the pot.

[Byrthnoth]

Not sure what palletes you are dealing with but vegetarian chilis got me through grad school.

[Qalbert]

https://x.com/Qalpal/status/1916484485807218940

[Salodin]

Is that really what it is?

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[Qalbert]

I thought it would be funny/cursed to use refried beans as a spread and call it beans on toast, rather than baked beans in tomato sauce which is the actual british version

[Salodin]

Neither sound great...

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[Dimmauk]

https://x.com/Qalpal/status/1916484485807218940

Honkeys gunna honk