The BG Cookbook!~

[Miroku_Asura]

Carbonara of Awesomeness

5 slices of bacon
1/4ish tsp cinnamon
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup Parmesan Cheese (either freshly grated or from a can)
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 or a milk with a high fat content (see: 2%-whole)
1/2lb pasta- Chose a type that can 'hold' a sauce- rigatoni, fettuccine, linguine, and bowties work well
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


Boil water for pasta- salt it well. DO NOT OIL YOUR WATER!

Mix Yolks, milk, parm together with a whisk- set aside

Slice bacon

Cook bacon on med-high until almost brown- add the cinnamon- cook until crisp.

Lower heat on bacon to low.

Water should be boiling now- add pasta. Cook as per directions, about 8-10 min.

Add egg mixture to bacon. Cook on low and stir with a wooden spoon frequently while pasta cooks. Don't stop too often or the egg will curdle.

When pasta is done, drain pasta and add to pan with the sauce. Add salt and pepper at this time. Stir for about 3 min, or until the pasta is coated thickly.

Feeds 1-3ish hungry people.
Enjoy!

Side note: Double this recipe to feed about 6-8 not so hungry people... don't know why it feeds more, but it just does

[Dolmen]

This is a super easy one that's cheap, simple, and quick.

Ingredients:
•Rice
•Chicken Gravy
•Herbs - I use fresh Rosemary very finely chopped, but Herbs de Provence from a shaker works extremely well.
•Mushrooms - sliced white or whole baby bella are what I normally use.
•Chicken breasts chopped into 1"x1" pieces - the tenders variety is ideal because you can just slice them straight across for perfect chunks.
•Olive Oil
•Salt + pepper

Instructions:
•Begin cooking the rice.
•Add salt and pepper to both sides of chicken and then cook in a pan with liberal coating of Olive Oil. Throw some herbs into the oil before placing the chicken down. Once chicken starts to whiten, add herbs to both sides of the chicken.
•Add Mushrooms.
•Once you feel the mixture has cooked enough, add the gravy along with more herbs, salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil. Do not wipe out the pan as that adds a lot of flavor to the gravy. Your chicken does not have to be cooked all the way as it will finish cooking in the next step.
•Cook over medium heat (covered) until chicken and mushrooms finish cooking. Basically once the gravy is thinner than it was in the jar, and the food is hot, you're golden.
•Get a bowl, dish in some rice, and then dish in some of the chicken.

The only ingredients necessary are the olive oil, chicken, gravy, and rice. This was the first dish I really started cooking for myself, and my girlfriend fell in love with it after the first time I cooked it for her. The best thing is you can add pretty much anything you want. Start to finish takes maybe 20 minutes.

[Dolmen]

Chicken Milan

I semi stole this one from Uno's, but made it different from their style. Please note that quantities are to how much you like the ingredient.

Serves 2

Ingredients
•Thin-sliced chicken breats (normally 4 per pack)
•2-3 Eggs (beaten - for dipping breasts into, so judgment call on the number needed)
•All purpose flour (1-2 cups)
•Italian bread crumbs
•Arugula (you can get it in a bag if need be)
•4-5 Roma tomatoes, sliced - quarter each slice
•Red onion - amount is based on your liking
•Kalamata olives (optional)
•Tomato & Basil Feta cheese
•Olive Oil
•White wine
•Lemons (1-half per person)

Dressing - Play around with it to determine what you like. You can substitute bottled dressing.
•Balsamic Vinegar
•Olive oil
•Grated Parmesan cheese



1 - Make the salad mixture with the arugula, tomatoes, onions, olives, and feta. Mix dressing separately to your taste and add to the salad. I recommend going light on the dressing. Set aside. Note - keep stirring salad so the dressing does not just collect at the bottom of bowl.

2 - Trim excess fat off chicken breasts. Set up three plates or bowls, one with flour, one with the beaten eggs, and another with the Italian bread crumbs. Coat each breasts in the flour > eggs > bread crumbs order, and set aside.

3 - Heat a pan and add olive oil and white wine (I normally use $9 bottles, and you can tell the difference over a $4 bottle). Cook each chicken breast, getting them to a golden color. They don't take long to cook since they're thin, and they can burn easy if you don't watch it. The best method is to let it cook 20 seconds, flip it, cook 20 seconds, flip it, etc...

4 - Arrange 2 chicken breasts on a plate and top with the salad mixture, yes on top of the chicken. Serve with a half lemon to squeeze over the dish. I recommended light on the dressing because squeezing the lemon really adds excellent flavor to the dish. You might also choose to simply use a light olive oil and lemon for dressing, that works as well.

It's a good meal that has a good health value to it. Two chicken breasts and the salad might seem like a lot, but you have to remember the breasts are really thin.

[okziR]

Cornflake Tart!

All ingredients dependant on the size of the Tart your looking to make & how sweet/sickly you intend to make it.

- Kelloggs Cornflakes
- Lyons Golden Syrup
- Jam
- Icing Sugar
- Basic Pastry Ingredients ( Eggs, Flour, Milk, Butter, etc ...)

So, make up a big ol' nice pastry lined dish. Recommend you make the pastry relatively thick, as it is a heavy dish & you dont want it falling to pieces as you try to pick it up/eat.
Chuck your dish in your oven & cook your pastry. You wana take out the pastry just before its finished cooking.
When you reach this stage, take your pastry dish out, & line the pastry with a thick layer of Jam! Then, grab your cornflakes & fill the pastry upto the rim.
Grab you Golden Syrup, & proceed to pour it all over the cornflakes, ensuring to coat each cornflake.
Grab your dish, & chuck it in the oven for a couple more minutes just to finish off the pastry & thicken/warm up the syrup.
Remove your dish, & lightly coat in Icing Sugar for the spectular looking finish!

[Electro]

Bigrougabagel loves my roasted potato recipe and begs me to make them every chance he gets soooo.....here goes..

Baby Red Potatoes.....I usually get a 5 lb bag and cut enough up in large chunks to fill my baking dish..wash but leave skins on.

I premix extra virgin olive oil, garlic (minced or through a press..usually 4-5 cloves for a large dish), salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, and rosemary in a bowl...I eyeball it to get a good suspension of spices in the oil then pour over and mix with the potatoes in the dish. Sometimes I will play with different spices depending on my mood or the meal, a variety of them lend themselves well to this. After applying the oil mix I will sprinkle more parmesan cheese and rosemary on top.

Bake covered for about an hour on 350F....depending on your oven this could be more or less, so test for fork tenderness.

It's a super simple recipe but it has come out great every time.....even got compliments at the in-laws family reunion so I think it should work for you too! Enjoy!

Tried these last night! They were very delicious! This is one of those recipes I will add to my "scrapbook cookbook" Me and my fiancee have been putting it together for the last 3 years of the random recipes we love. Now has over 300 Recipes from simple recipes to full course meals! I will share some recipes soon. It's just hard for me to get on BG at home with all the stuff I have to do once I get home.

[Miroku_Asura]

In the spirit of the upcoming holidays, I decided to test out some pie ideas I've been throwing around in my head. I'm going to be running tests over the next few weeks and I thought I'd share my findings here

This is the new apple pie recipe I tried out today- It came out pretty good, but a smaller pie dish would have been nicer as the juices over flowed and went underneath the outer shell of the pie, while remaining in the dish... so it was sorta like an apple crumble with a pie crust top. Tasty though :3 Feel free to make your own crust

I baked this in a 9.5 inch pan, but looking back I would do it in an 8-8.5.

You will need:

6 Apples, cored, cut into... 16ths?- I used 3 Granny Smith and 3 Fuji- Don't use Red Delicious, or you'll end up with apple sauce; I found out the hard way >_>;
Juice of one lemon
1 Cup of sugar
some Cinnamon- like 1/2 a teaspoon maybe? I didn't measure
some Nutmeg- less than the cinnamon, didn't measure this either >.>
a TINY pinch of salt- we're talking TINY
3 Tablespoons of cornstarch
2 Tablespoons of butter, cubed
Pie crust- Frozen or homemade (I used Trader Joe's frozen crust- really nice quality for store bought)
1 Egg
Extra sugar for dusting

Preheat your oven to 375, and line a baking sheet (with sides) with foil. It can spill, nigh, will spill.

Okay so, take your cut apples, squeeze the juice on them, add the sugar and spices. Mix till it looks wet-ish. Add the cornstarch and mix it together until it disappears.
Put your Dough in the pie pan, if you're using frozen, make sure it's thawed properly to avoid cracks.
Fill the shell with the apples and the apple juices that are in your bowl.
Dot with the butter.
Crust on top.
Make some air holes to let the steam out otherwise, it won't cook right.
Egg wash + dust with sugar.
Bake at 375 for about an hour. check it at 55, but it may take longer.

DO NOT EAT HOT- let it cool otherwise you'll be covered in apple pie cum.

Enjoy

[Nuker]

Bgcon



Needed:1+ Strip(s) of Freshly pre-packed Bacon


Directions:

Fry til Good.

[Kyo]

Anyone have a killer candy yam recipe?

[Miroku_Asura]

Anyone have a killer candy yam recipe?

My dad has an awesome one- I think he just uses water, yams, brown sugar and butter. I'll double check for ya~

[Kyo]

Thanks :D

[Obiron]

I hope my mom doesn't mind me sharing this, she's kinda famous for these (well... famous among people who already know us ). Being the holiday season, this is the perfect time. Actually, I need to make some soon.

Soft Ginger Snap Cookies

Spoiler: show

4 cups flour		1 ½ cups cooking oil
4 tsp soda		2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt		2 eggs
2 T. ginger		½ cup molasses
2 tsp cinnamon

Sift together dry ingredients; set aside.

With beater, blend together thoroughly oil, sugar,
eggs, and molasses.  Stir in dry ingredients until
blended.  Refrigerate for 1 hr then form into balls
using 1 tsp dough.  Roll in granulated sugar
and bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees
for 8 minutes.  Cool on baking rack.  Makes 4 dozen
cookies (I get at least twice that many).

Seriously, soft ginger snaps are infinitely better than hard ginger snaps! I look forward to these every year around Christmas time.

Edit:
While I have my recipe folder open, I might as well add in another of my favorites.

In Utah we have a chain of Mexican restaurants called La Frontera. My brother came up with this recipe for Chile Verde sauce that tastes just like theirs (forgive some of the wording, I'm pasting it exactly as it was emailed to me).

Spoiler: show

BART’S LAFRONTERA CHILE VERDE

3 lbs diced pork
1 – 28 oz can whole tomatoes
1 – 28 oz can tomatillos
6 – 8 fresh jalapeños, chopped with fleshy part & most seeds removed
2 roasted anaheims, chopped after roasting
4 – 7 oz cans diced green chilies
1 can El Pato Jalapeno sauce
5 cups water
1 ½ - 2 T salt
1 lrg garlic clove or 3 medium

Fry diced pork in oil until golden brown in large pot.  Add all other ingredients.  (Bart said he puts the tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, all but one can of the green chilies, El Pato sauce, water, salt, and garlic in the blender and beats until fairly smooth before he mixes with the meat.

Simmer 3-5 hours stirring occasionally.

To make thickening mix ¼ cup vegetable oil and 1/3 cup of flour in a small pan.  Cook until just it starts to turn brown, stirring constantly.  Let cool slightly then add to chili verde sauce for last hour of simmering.  Stir the sauce until it thickens.  

Bart kind of uses this as his basic recipe but he is always tweaking here and there adding more or less of some of the ingredients.  Last time he made it he used tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers from his garden that he had frozen.  He did use one habanera pepper.  He said he probably used 4 different kinds of peppers that time.

[Elesirdur]

Not really a recipe per se, but more of a discovery I made this evening.

1) Prepare chili and set all the ingredients to simmer.
2) Add corn grits, maybe 1/4 cup per 5 qts of chili, but use your best judgement.
3) Receive deliciousness.

Doesn't add much flavour, but I swear I've never made chili that I could describe as slightly creamy. So good.

[Byrthnoth]

I just baked the Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cake that they advertise. I mean, it's pretty lame because it's right on the cocoa package, but I'll be damned if it isn't the easiest cake in the world to make and super freaking good.

It's also a great recipe because it uses so few dishes. I've edited the directions to include tips so you use a minimum of dishes. I'm a dish-washing jew.

Spoiler: show

Recipe obtained from - HERSHEY'S Kitchens: Recipes: HERSHEY'S "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake . . . or the back of every Hershey's cocoa box ever

Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cake:
2 cups sugar
1+3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa (Dark chocolate ftw, but it's the same recipe with normal)
1+1/2 tsp baking soda
1+1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
PAM for the lazy

Dishes required:
* Oven-safe Pan (~12in x 12in x 3in or anything similar works)
* Large bowl (Kitchenaid mixer size, or ~10-12 inch diameter. Big mixing bowl)
* Medium bowl (err.... large enough so you can use the beaters in it, but not big)
* Rubber spatula (the kind you scrape batter out of bowls with)
* 1/2 teaspoon
* 1 cup
* 1/3 cup
* 1/4 cup
* 1 cup (For liquids, microwavable glass)
* Electric mixer

Directions:
1) Butter/flour a pan. I spray and wipe with a papertowel because lazy. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2) Mix the dry ingredients together in a big bowl using the above measuring tools and stir it around some with a rubber spatula until it looks pretty even.
3) Add the liquids except for boiling water (eggs, milk, vanilla, vegetable oil) and mix it. Use an electric mixer.
4) Microwave the water about 2 minutes on High (doesn't actually need to boil) and add it to the mixture. Beat it until it looks soupy.
5) Pour it into the pan and scrape the rest in with the rubber spatula. Don't worry, it's supposed to be thin. Make sure the oven actually hit 350, then throw the pan into the oven.
6) Wait half an hour and clean everything except for the dry cup, teaspoon, and spatula. Don't put away the mixer yet. If you have a gas stove, put a stick of butter into the medium sized bowl and set it by the exhaust vent (so the hot air from the oven blows on your butterbowl).
7) Poke caek with the handle of your spatula and see if it comes back covered in liquidy-chocolate batter. When it comes back with stuff stuck to it that looks like cake and no liquid, you're done.
8.) Put cake somewhere to cool. Fridge works if you're trying to cool it quicker, but remember to put a hot pad under it. Also, it stays hot for a long time in there. If you have a nice cool breeze outside, that's going ot be faster than the fridge. This step takes the most time and is often ignored, expect 1 hour+.
9) Maek delicious frosting. Look down!



Delicious Frosting:
1 stick of butter
2/3 cups Hershey's Cocoa
3 cups Powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Get melted butter. Either by melting the butter in a microwave safe container, or by letting the stove melt it from step 6 of delicious caek.
2) Mix in the cocoa using the hand mixer.
3) Alternate mixing in powdered sugar and milk. I go 1 cup sugar -> dash of milk -> 1 cup sugar -> dash of milk, etc.
4) Mix in the vanilla.
5) If the frosting looks too stiff for you, put a little more milk in. I generally end up adding one more dash.
6) Frost your delicious cake. If you didn't wait for it to cool then there's a good chance you'll pull the top off while you're frosting. You can avoid it if you're careful enough, but it's easier to just start with a cool cake.
7) Wash up!

For the less baking-minded among us, here's a useful microwave recipe:

Spoiler: show

Egg-in-a-cup:
1 egg
A dash of milk (very optional)
Cheese (equally optional)

Dishes required:
Microwavable cup
Fork, knife, spoon, or a willingness to get your finger egg-y

Directions:
1) Put egg in the cup.
2) Break the yoke up and spread it around a little so that it looks fairly mixed. (Add milk during this stage if interested in fluffy eggs)
3) Put cup in the microwave on High for 55 seconds.
4) Add cheese if desired and mix/microwave for another short period.
5) Eat delicious egg out if the cup.

** I should note that you really should break up the egg yolk. I didn't about half the time either because I didn't want to get my finger/a utensil dirty or because I forgot. They really will explode if you don't break up the yoke (~50% of the time in my experience). Sometimes they don't explode until you poke them after they come out of the microwave, and that's how you get egg stuck on your eyebrows and glasses.

[Obiron]

Egg-in-a-cup

Just to add to this. Toast an english muffin and cook a sausage patty (throw a pre-cooked one in the microwave for a fast meal, or fry one if you prefer). Throw cheese on the egg after it's cooked (I also put it back in the microwave for 10 seconds to melt the cheese). There you have an Egg McMuffin better than McDonalds.

Side-note: A used sour cream container is the perfect size to make your egg the size of your english muffin.

[Sevilla]

I am sorry if this is some what of a necro post, but I wanted to share something that maybe some people never experienced. This is called quesadillas, however it isn't what most people think (the basic tortilla + cheese (maybe some meat)). I am Salvadoran and I currently live in Germany (I used to live in Houston where I had access to Salvadoran foods). Anyway, this is a sweet bread kind of like a pound cake, but has a cheese flavor to it. It is real easy to make and it is awesome with coffee in the morning (I don't really drink coffee, but I eat this with soy milk (lactose intolerant))

Quesadilla Salvadorenas (makes about 12 servings)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1.5 cups of queso fresco (Salvadoran unsalted cheese) or can substitute with Parmesan cheese (make sure you grate either choice you make). There really is no different taste if you use Parmesan, it is a very similar taste.
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk (use any kind, since I am lactose intolerant I ended up using Silk's unsweetened soy milk)
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
cinnamon sticks (do not crush them, just tear them (long ways) annoying thing is that they will be picked out when your eat the bread, or you can just use the powder kind and mix it in. Use as much cinnamon as you want)
1 large bowl (the egg mixture) and 1 small bowl (for flour mix)

1. Preheat the oven to a temperature of 350 degrees. While it is preheating sift the cinnamon (if using the powder), baking powder and flour together, set aside. This will be mixed in the next mixture.

2. In a large bowl. lightly beat the eggs (basically just breaking the yolk.) Add the cheese, milk, vanilla, and sugar into the eggs and whisk (or you can use an electric beater) to mix all the ingredients together smoothly. (the cheese will make it look bumpy, just make the sugar is dissolved, and you are good.

3. Slowly stir in the flour mixture into the egg mixture (if you are doing this by yourself, you can just do one tablespoon at a time).

4. The the final mixture into either muffin pans or loaf pans (which ever you want). This mixture will rise a little, so please take care not to fill the pans all the way to the top. A good rule of thumb is to fill 3/4 of the way.

5. I usually don't time this, I constantly check the progress, but you can start with 20mins of baking. Take a toothpick and stab the bread in different places. If the took pick comes out clean, then it is good to go.
6. Take it and let it cool. Serve warm. You are able to store the bread in the refrigerator and it should keep for a 1.5 week to 2 weeks.

[Miroku_Asura]

Necro post, but totally worth it~

Made this last night- was super refreshing during the hot night.

Strawberry Sorbet

1 lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
Pinch of salt
Chopped bittersweet/semisweet chocolate (optional)

1. Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor, and pulse until combined. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Puree the strawberries in a food processor, and add to the lemon mixture, along with the juice of 1 lemon. Taste and add more juice as desired. The lemon flavor should be intense but should not overpower the strawberries. Stir in a pinch of salt- it sounds weird, but the tiny amount of salt rounds out the flavor of the dish.
3. Chill the mixture in the fridge for about an hour in the fridge, or in the freezer for 30 min if you're impatent.
4. Pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn until frozen. It will be a lighter color.
5. Fold in the chopped chocolate and put in the freezer until ready to serve.

[fussel]

Made these recently:

Fanta Cake

4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup Fanta
1 bag vanilla sugar
1/2 bag baking powder

Mix everything. Put a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray, pour pastry on there, bake 15-20 mins at 180-200C (350-400F).

For the frosting:

2 tablespoons of powder sugar
Lemon/orange/lime juice (your choice)

Put powder sugar into a cup. Now very slowly add juice and stir with a spoon until you have a sticky paste. Spread this ontop of the cake just coming from the oven, when it's still warm, the paste will seem to "melt" (become more liquid). After cooling down, the top of the cake should be dry to the touch (but still sticky).


Puff pastry filled with ground meat

(Would that be "stuffed puff pastry"? Originally it's called "Gefüllte Blätterteigtaschen mit Hackfleisch" *g*)

deep frozen square pieces of puff pastry (this stuff)
250g ground meat
2 bell peppers
2 cloves of garlic
2 onions
1 egg
tomato puree
oil
milk

Wash and chop bell peppers, garlic, onions. Heat some oil in a large pot or pan and fry the ground meat. Add salt, pepper, and maybe a bit of curcuma. After all the water from the meat evaporated, add bell peppers, onions and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the egg and stir again, so that there will be small flakes of egg around the mass. At last, add some tomato puree and milk.

Thaw puff pastry plates, put a couple of spoons of the filling on each plate and make a cushion from them.

Bake at 180-200C for about 30-45 minutes. Serve with sour cream dip.

[Manako]

Cheesecake stuffed strawberries:

1 big pack of strawberries
1 pack of cream cheese
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice
Graham crackers

Wash strawberries, and cut their tops off and take the inner portion of of the center. Zest your lemon and then squeese about 2 tsp of juice (1/2 a lemon should be more than enough) Mix together sugar, creamcheese, lemon juice and zest. Spoon or pipe into strawberries. Crush graham crackers, and dip strawberries into crumbs.


These are killer soo good and soo easy to make!