Can You Cook Gourmet Food/Recipes -- In Just a Microwave?

[JohnDB]

Pasta and bread are staples made regularly in my home.

I bake two loaves of sandwich bread at a time. It's different from that cotton candy they call sandwich bread at the stores. You also have to crank the toaster to very dark to get the toast to brown.

But it's real bread....rich but satisfying at the same time.

Pasta?
8oz semolina (weight)
2 jumbo eggs
S&p
And a cap of olive oil....let set for 6 hrs at least and then roll it out. If HAND ROLLING add 1-2 tbs of water and it's possible but not recommended because it's sticky requiring flour on the board.

I'm gonna make some for dinner tonight to go with leftover BBQ chicken I cooked last night. Just Cappellini with an herb Alfredo sauce.

The two things about scratch foods. You eat less because the flavors and richness hit the satisfaction buttons within you quick and hard.
AND
Artificial foods and flavors taste artificial..

Like eating something made from chemical soup....completely nasty like drain cleaner. Like it's wrong to be in your mouth. Also makes it difficult to eat out.
From the crappy bread to nasty tasting sauce and everything drowned in cheese.....uggghhhh.

 

[Magenta]

Pasta and bread are staples made regularly in my home.

I bake two loaves of sandwich bread at a time. It's different from that cotton candy they call sandwich bread at the stores. You also have to crank the toaster to very dark to get the toast to brown.

But it's real bread....rich but satisfying at the same time.

Pasta?
8oz semolina (weight)
2 jumbo eggs
S&p
And a cap of olive oil....let set for 6 hrs at least and then roll it out. If HAND ROLLING add 1-2 tbs of water and it's possible but not recommended because it's sticky requiring flour on the board.

I'm gonna make some for dinner tonight to go with leftover BBQ chicken I cooked last night. Just Cappellini with an herb Alfredo sauce.

The two things about scratch foods. You eat less because the flavors and richness hit the satisfaction buttons within you quick and hard.
AND
Artificial foods and flavors taste artificial..

Like eating something made from chemical soup....completely nasty like drain cleaner. Like it's wrong to be in your mouth. Also makes it difficult to eat out.
From the crappy bread to nasty tasting sauce and everything drowned in cheese.....uggghhhh.

I buy an artisan unsliced sour dough bread... I used to buy just the plain one, partly because it was larger for the same price, but I really prefer the green olive loaf, and one time I got the cheese bread, now that was a sure guilty pleasure, but they were out of the others...

I eat it as bread with whatever topping (tuna? egg salad?) I am having at home, and toasted at work to soak in my lunch soup...

 

[seoulsearch]

I have never made my own pasta from scratch.... but I like the sound of dumpling-like pasta, heh, kind of like gnocchi!

I don't think I have even ever made a loaf of bread, either... of course I have made many loaves, along the coffee cake lines, and oh it was not too long ago that I was baking some type of cake almost every week, apple cinnamon or blueberry banana, throw in some nuts or seeds and chocolate chips, my goodness, I was making a lot of pizza then too, home made, haha I used the same recipe for my pizza dough as my cakes and loaves, the only difference being the sweetness via sugars and fruit, and chocolate chips too. It was very basic, two cups of flour and baking soda and baking powder, a dash of salt and a little water... I think I used to put apple sauce instead of oil, I would use those little individual servings. I did also many years ago enjoy making what I called a heart stopper, white chocolate cheesecake with fresh raspberries on top then covered with a sour cream and melted chocolate concoction. I swapped out the graham cracker base with mixed crushed shortbread cookies and chocolate wafers. It had a kilogram of cream cheese in it, a cup of butter, four eggs, and 12-16 ounces of white chocolate. People loved that cake. ..It was a lot of work to make compared to most other cakes I'd ever made but well worth the effort for special occasions.

I also make an effort to get healthy into my diet... that is why I had mixed veg with my noodles last night .

That is pretty impressive that you have maintained your weight, also!

Those look fantastic, Lady Magenta!!!

The other reason I don't experiment with cooking much is because I will get obsessed with something (always unhealthy) and will then eat it continuously.

One year it was sugar cookies -- but in my quest to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe, I was ALWAYS eating sugar cookies -- even though I tried to only make a half batch and bake only half of each half every time. I've read that trying to halve some recipes just doesn't work, so I wound up with several duds.

But I ate them anyway, because I didn't want to waste the ingredients, and I didn't really have anyone I could give them to. (After The World Health Scare, homemade goods aren't seen as share-able anymore, at least where I've lived.)

Another time it was fettucine alfredo, which again, in the search for the perfect recipe, I was eating alfredo every night for like 4 months.

There would be NO HOPE for me at all if I started making the delicious things in those pictures or what our own @CarriePie whips up, so I have to live vicariously through all of your wonder pictures.

 

[seoulsearch]

I just looked up porcupine meatballs. How is this different from meatloaf? You fraud! You like meatloaf and just won't admit it.

Now that was a low blow, even for you, Cat!!!

You take that back right now!!

Meatloaf does not have rice in it... and is a loaf, not balls sauteed in a sauce LOL

Exactly!!

Thank you for coming to the rescue, Lady Magenta!!


For anyone wondering what the hee haw is going on , several years ago, I wrote a thread about the Evils of MeatLoaf (long before the Very Controversial series was born.) A simple thread about meatloaf grew to something like 6 pages of raging controversy, leaving myself and at least one other member who BRAVELY stood our ground on the side of justice (aka, meatloaf is unworthy.)

I do like Porcupine Meatballs for the rice, and for the different texture. My mom made them without the sauce (saves on calories,) and so I've never had them with the sauce either (but now that you mention it, maybe I should try it.) The older I get, the less I like meat. But I still like these meatballs because I (gasp!) slightly overcook them in the microwave -- so the rice gets crunchy, and I like that bit of "crust" it gives to each meatball -- you just can't get that with Evil Loaf.

I guess it's kind of like people who love the brownies from the edge of the pan vs. brownies in the center.

And this is yet just another reason why I should never be allowed to cook for other people.

 

[Tall_Timbers]

One year it was sugar cookies -- but in my quest to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe, I was ALWAYS eating sugar cookies -- even though I tried to only make a half batch and bake only half of each half every time. I've read that trying to halve some recipes just doesn't work, so I wound up with several duds.

I'm not eating sweets right now, but I love sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are God's way of letting us know that "everything's gonna be okay".

 

[seoulsearch]

I'm not eating sweets right now, but I love sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are God's way of letting us know that "everything's gonna be okay".

Yes, and the year I was trying to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe, I was open to every kind of recipe -- those that use just butter and flour, those with sour cream, those with cream cheese, etc.

For several months straight, I ALWAYS had sugar cookies on the counter, and several balls of dough in my freezer.

They were quickly becoming my breakfast, lunch, dinner (not to mention 2nd breakfast and 2nd dinner,) and I knew I just had to stop!!

I wish I could find a suitable environment in which to give them away (as I'd said earlier, homemade treats are no longer considered safe in many setting here,) and my family tries to avoid sugar (though I'm sure my Dad would try every rendition I tried -- IF my Mom let him. )

But if sugar cookies are secretly a HUG FROM GOD, like @Tall_Timbers is saying...

WHO AM I to say no to a GIFT from the Lord!?

 

[Magenta]

I'm not eating sweets right now, but I love sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are God's way of letting us know that "everything's gonna be okay".

My daughter is a wisp of a thing who eats like a bird, but give her a *frisbee sized cookie* topped with sugar? Down the hatch it goes LOL

*only a slight exaggeration .

 

[JohnDB]

Cooking for others a "no-go"?

I have people currently vying to secure their plate of Christmas goodies (cookies and chocolates) now with people stopping by with odd gifts and etc to ensure I remember them come Christmas.
I bake over a thousand cookies (@ 20 per batch of nestle toll house and other varieties too...big cookies) and hand dip roughly 1,200 pieces of candy every year.

All my recipes have been adjusted and tailored to fit my high volume baking. Nothing artificial in mine. I use Butter, sugar, brown sugar and good quality ingredients for everything. You can definitely taste the difference.

Then consistency and a quality bake on the cookies is an absolute must. Every oven load is set on a timer. Every candy center is tasted for excellence using zero artificial flavors. Raspberry has raspberries I pureed, strained, and mixed with other things (including cordial) before placing in the center of tempered chocolate.

BTW chocolate has gotten VERY expensive this past year with a doubling or more price increase.

Nobody has refused cookies and chocolates....but it has caused some fights inside of the homes as to who ate the last one that was supposed to be saved.

I know nothing about a food scare....

One of my signature cookies named "Jacquelines" after my wife, has dried cherries, White chocolate chips, and candied orange peel in a blonde cookie base. These ones are almost equal to toll house which are usually the most popular.
By the time Christmas Day comes I'm sick of butter, chocolate and sugar in general.
But I've made a LOT of people very happy in the meantime.

 

[Lynx]

Those look fantastic, Lady Magenta!!!

The other reason I don't experiment with cooking much is because I will get obsessed with something (always unhealthy) and will then eat it continuously.

One year it was sugar cookies -- but in my quest to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe, I was ALWAYS eating sugar cookies -- even though I tried to only make a half batch and bake only half of each half every time. I've read that trying to halve some recipes just doesn't work, so I wound up with several duds.

But I ate them anyway, because I didn't want to waste the ingredients, and I didn't really have anyone I could give them to. (After The World Health Scare, homemade goods aren't seen as share-able anymore, at least where I've lived.)

Another time it was fettucine alfredo, which again, in the search for the perfect recipe, I was eating alfredo every night for like 4 months.

There would be NO HOPE for me at all if I started making the delicious things in those pictures or what our own @CarriePie whips up, so I have to live vicariously through all of your wonder pictures.

Up there they still think it's dangerous to eat something somebody else cooked?

Those poor Yankees... They wouldn't survive long down here in the south.

 

[seoulsearch]

Up there they still think it's dangerous to eat something somebody else cooked?

Those poor Yankees... They wouldn't survive long down here in the south.

I'm in an area where, for a very long time even after concern about The World Event That Shall Not Be Named died down, masks were required when you set foot inside any type of medical facility.

And many people still wear them in public by choice.

 

[JohnDB]

I just had to buy a new gizmo....
Uggghhhh
It had been past time for me to do so.

I usually buy whole meats. Like a whole strip loin instead of steaks....whole ribeyes instead....whole brisket, pork butts or shoulders and etc.

I then cure or do whatever and break them down to usable amounts.

This costs a stupid fortune in zip lock bags that still suck eggs in the freezer. Freezer burn is an ongoing battle.

I just got in my chocolate order. 22lbs of mostly dark but also some white. (Don't ask how much $$$$) and I just lost a bunch of white chocolate recently due to humidity in the South. Absolutely would not temper for anything. Turned into a hot fudge ball when melted. Ugggghhhh. That was a chunk of change.

So I got this ordered and on the way: (you can Google it to see it.

Avid Armor Chamber Vacuum Sealer Machine USV32 Professional Model

 

[Lanolin]

Short answer NO.

Long answer NO WAY!