Bear Down Wildcats

Turkey chili and cheese baked potatoes. Only 500 calories for a plate full and really hits the spot while losing weight and working out

Potatoes = carbs, cheese = fat.

Speaking of fatty cheese...

My son is on a low carb kick, and wanted pizza. I told him I heard you can make crust from cauliflower so he looked up a recipe.

i've thought about doing the cauliflower pizza thing. lemme know if it is good.

It was very good tasting, I couldn't detect cauliflower. Couldn't pick it up like you can regular pizza though so ate with a fork which was fine. Maybe he didn't prebake the crust long enough.

Ain't nothing wrong with potatoes and cheese. Just eat it in moderation along with everything else.

I'll give up my sriracha before I let them take away my cheese, my potatoes, and my pizza made with a real flour crust.

The only time in my life I was notably overweight was when I decided to shed a few extra pounds by omitting carbs. I gained weight, and took the advice to stick with the no-carb diet, which resulted in more and more weight gain. My life became a battle against the pounds. When I switched to calorie monitoring instead, I lost all of that no-carb weight. Never gained it back.

Potatoes are very healthy. So are whole grains and durum wheat pasta. And meat. Why not?

Given the belly fat and the insulin resistant pre-diabetic tendencies of my once skyrocketing triglycerides, my doctor told me that he'd be happy if I never ate another potato again. Pure starch/sugar glycemic overload on the system. But that's me - lots of diabetes on the family tree. The no-carb and exercise thing works damn good for me in terms of losing/maintaining weight. Dropped from 275+ to 220 a few years ago on my doctor's advice. Beer's a killer too, but I can't completely give up the frosty friends.

I tried the cauliflower pizza crust several times a few years ago. Agree with Merkin for the most part. Cauliflower is a pretty neutral so it tastes fine as a base for your pizza toppings. Don't get me wrong though, it ain't pizza dough/crust. I found the structural integrity of it as a platform to be pretty inconsistent. Sometimes you could almost pick it up, but most of the time it was fork material. I tend to pile on the toppings though. In addition to pre-baking long enough, as Merk suggested, I think you have to really work on getting the moisture out of it first so that it doesn't turn out soggy. I haven't done it in a while because it's kind of a process, but it's a decent alternative.

Longhorned wrote:I'll give up my sriracha before I let them take away my cheese, my potatoes, and my pizza made with a real flour crust.

The only time in my life I was notably overweight was when I decided to shed a few extra pounds by omitting carbs. I gained weight, and took the advice to stick with the no-carb diet, which resulted in more and more weight gain. My life became a battle against the pounds. When I switched to calorie monitoring instead, I lost all of that no-carb weight. Never gained it back.

Potatoes are very healthy. So are whole grains and durum wheat pasta. And meat. Why not?

Yup. I am just generally watching calories and getting more exercise. Not limiting any one particular kind of food (well...I did cut back beer and most sugar) and I've lost about 16 lbs in 7 weeks.

I don't eat potatoes as BD89 mentioned, but I do eat pasta, but it has to be whole grain.

Same with cereal.

I spent 40+ years eating Raisin Bran, but now only eat whole grain cereals.

For me, the key is to avoid any kind of processed food, no processed sugar, no processed flour and so on.

This is the cereal I eat and actually enjoy: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ED ... ge_o02_s00

I dropped from around 250 to 203 on the no carb diet, but now up to 218 eating healthy foods.

And cheese, I love cheese.

Merk, which whole wheat pasta do you cook? I do bionaturae and I think it's pretty good.

Creamed spinach on buckwheat pancakes

Tomorrow night I'm making Huy Fong Chicken. All of time will be delimited as before Huy Fong Chicken and after Huy Fong Chicken.

.

Longhorned wrote:Merk, which whole wheat pasta do you cook? I do bionaturae and I think it's pretty good.

I just get Barilla since it's cheap and Albertson's carries it/



Looking on Amazon (which I do have Prime) this looks tempting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042R ... VK20ZPJ1EN" target="_blank

Merkin wrote:

Longhorned wrote:Merk, which whole wheat pasta do you cook? I do bionaturae and I think it's pretty good.

I just get Barilla since it's cheap and Albertson's carries it/



Looking on Amazon (which I do have Prime) this looks tempting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042R ... VK20ZPJ1EN" target="_blank

I got to think about that comments section, though. I guess if it's truly whole wheat, the fiber content should be as high as the Barilla, etc.

*****

Huy Fong Chicken:



Serves two hungry people. Hope nobody come over.

Overview
This is an ancient dish, so ancient that it creates the illusion that a time before Huy Fong Chicken can be remembered. Like everything known to the ancients, its ingredients first came into being through the making of this dish. All things in it exist because of it. Nobody has heard of it. It is the deepest mystery of the ten thousand things. It is very secret.

Ingredients:
Yaki-soba noodles, as much as two people would eat
Peanut oil, 2 tablespoons plus 2 tablespoons plus 2 tablespoons
Sesame oil, a little bit
Thai fish sauce, just right amount
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 ¼ - ½ pounds boneless chicken thighs
Cornstarch, just enough to cover chicken
Raw peanuts, just around enough
Sunchang gochujang
Sriracha sauce
Ketchup
MSG
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, maybe a little more
2 tablespoons thinly sliced garlic
2 green jalapeno peppers, sliced - seeds, veins, and all
Soy sauce at the table

Procedure:
You need two woks, or just two big pans, it is same thing and everybody has them. One for chicken and sauce, one for noodles. Chicken is best in big flat pan anyway. It is the secret.

Assemble all the ingredients so they’re at hand while the cooking goes fast in traditional stir-fry fashion.

Start stir frying the noodles as soon as the chicken goes in the pan. Make them a stir fry like you know how.

Serve in wide, shallow red bowls, with the noodles first and then covered with the sauce, and garnished with the chili peppers.

Chicken:
1 ¼ - ½ pounds boneless thighs cut into big bite-sized pieces, dusted with cornstarch, and a handful of raw peanuts, fried in 2 tablespoons peanut oil in a big pan over high heat while seasoning with salt and pepper, 5 minutes per side. Don't stir or move around chicken pieces. Make seared coating, crisp like deep fry.

Sauce:
In an 8 oz cup, 3 tablespoons sunchang gochujang, a big squirt of Sriracha sauce (be confident), and the rest is ketchup, with scant ½ teaspoon MSG, all stirred together.

In the pan, put 1 teaspoon cayenne and 2 tablespoons thinly sliced garlic in the oil over medium-high heat until the garlic turns (nearly 2 minutes), then put in the sauce and cook for a minute or so before adding the chicken back to the pan.

Noodles:
Peanut oil
Salt
Onions
Carrots
Celery
Sesame oil
Fish sauce

Garnish:
2 jalapenos sliced - seeds, veins, and all

Its going to happen.

I am going to tackle the Traditional Christmas Goose.

Any tips? What makes for good sides? I'm a little too late to take a try at "plum pudding" (need at least 4 weeks in advance to sit, i guess)

Is my goose cooked, with this ambitious menu for Christmas Dinner?

It's almost impossible to screw up goose. You won't dry it out so there's basically no chance for failure. Get the internal temperature to around 165 (depending on your beliefs) and make sure the juices run clear instead of pink. Supposedly, on rare occasions the oil gland hasn't been removed down by the tail make sure you get that out of there before cooking, but I've never had that happen.

All the things that go with duck, same for goose. For Christmas I do cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and brussels sprouts.

I brine the goose, and I make a cognac gravy with the giblets.

Longhorned wrote:It's almost impossible to screw up goose. You won't dry it out so there's basically no chance for failure. Get the internal temperature to around 165 (depending on your beliefs) and make sure the juices run clear instead of pink. Supposedly, on rare occasions the oil gland hasn't been removed down by the tail make sure you get that out of there before cooking, but I've never had that happen.

All the things that go with duck, same for goose. For Christmas I do cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and brussels sprouts.

I brine the goose, and I make a cognac gravy with the giblets.

Thanks LH.

Looks like my goose is cooked. There were no fresh geese for sale in any supermarket, butcher, meat market, and coop from Davis to Woodland, Sacramento to Placerville, Lodi to Yuba City. I called everywhere today, and all were out. Darn, will have to wait till next year.

I guess I could go the Duck route, or just go with old standby Prime Rib. We'll see...

Duck feeds 2, in my opinion. I had that problem with goose running out, too. All the chickens buy them right after Thanksgiving and keep them frozen until ready to defrost a few days before Christmas.

Who freezes a goose? Seems sacrilege and Jamie Oliver would disapprove.

CalStateTempe wrote:Who freezes a goose? Seems sacrilege and Jamie Oliver would disapprove.

I mean they're flash-frozen and sold frozen, so they're already frozen. It's the only way to get goose in most parts of the country, mine included.

I see goose at sprouts most every holiday season and it is always frozen.

Christmas Eve menu:




Christmas menu:

As is tradition in our house on Christmas Eve we are doing homemade personal pizzas and margaritas while watching football!!

The usual Mexican Christmas Eve dinner: homemade tamales, beans, macaroni salad.
Christmas day: pepper crusted tenderloin with a gorgonzola sauce

Having Szechuan food tonight. I think that could be a new tradition! Prime rib tomorrow.

Scalloped oysters.

Pierogies (meat, cheese and sauerkraut), smoked and Polish sausage, kugele, clam chowder, roast beef, mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, shrimp.

Steak tomorrow.

New pants the next day.

You guys have some damn good Christmas dinners.

Driving down to Tucson tonight when the wife gets off work. I have no idea what's on the menu other than the Machaca we're bringing.

scumdevils86 wrote:Having Szechuan food tonight.

Say hi to Madeline Garish of Szechuan Omei!

Prime Rib
Creamed Spinich
End of Summer Vegatable casserole
artesian rolls
Steamed brussel spouts sauteeed in butter and garlic
Green Salad
Malbec
Homemade horseradish.
Homemade cherry pie. Cherry Compote made yesterday.

Seafood buffet here. Shrimp, lobster tails and crab along with 3 racks of baby back ribs for the non seafood eaters.

Roast beast and ham for Christmas dinner with mashed taters and the other traditional favorites

Merkin wrote:

scumdevils86 wrote:Having Szechuan food tonight.

Say hi to Madeline Garish of Szechuan Omei!

China Szechuan actually. Much better

Merkin wrote:

scumdevils86 wrote:Having Szechuan food tonight.

Say hi to Madeline Garish of Szechuan Omei!

Everything under five dollars, except for seafood and a the duck!

UAEebs86 wrote:

Merkin wrote:

scumdevils86 wrote:Having Szechuan food tonight.

Say hi to Madeline Garish of Szechuan Omei!

Everything under five dollars, except for seafood and a the duck!

Haha, hoping someone would get the reference, and guessed it would probably be Eebs being we went to school about the same period.

Looks like she passed on in 2010. http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/ar ... ne-gerrish" target="_blank

Considering I wasn't born til '86...

It's all good in the hood

I had banana leaf pork tamales like you wouldn't believe. With guajillo chili hot chocolate. Best tamales I've ever had.

Longhorned wrote:I had banana leaf pork tamales like you wouldn't believe. With guajillo chili hot chocolate. Best tamales I've ever had.

Pasteles? Ay bendito!

First batch of pork ribs is finishing up in the smoker in the next hour or so...so excited!

Longhorned wrote:Ever heard of this and tried it? Can anyone say if this is true?

You take a small can of these (any brand):



... and you open it up:



.... and you blend it into a chili-adobe paste:



And you add it to whatever you're making (red chili, sauces, soups, stews, etc.), causing you to nearly ignite and crash through the roof, and then you transform into this kind of enlightened being in search of high levels of spicy heat who nobody else can fully understand but they just kind of follow you around the world on your motorcycle, hoping to learn and experience some small part of your deep transcendent power?

Do you know anything about this? Does anyone here want to volunteer to go first?

You could vaporize from the heat level. Nobody's entirely sure what the intended purpose of these little cans is. But they're here because of some kind of rip in space and time, and their status is mythic.

Totally missed this post. I use the canned chipotles in adobo all the time. I usually use to to make a few heaps of shredded chicken nachos. Always a big hit if you can handle the heat.

dinner tomorrow night... really excited for it

drunken beans:

soak pintos overnight in salted water. sauteing garlic/onions/poblanos in reserved bacon fat from some chopped bacon i cooked previously. remove from heat and add a couple shots of tequila and stir till it evaporates off. return to the heat and stir in water, bay leaves, salt, beans, and a bouquet of cilantro stems and leaves and put in the oven covered for about an hour. remove from the oven and discard the bay leaves and cilantro. stir in tomato paste and a tecate/dos equis and let simmer for about 30 mins on the stove until thickened and looking delicious. serve over steamed rice with some fresh lime wedges, chopped cilantro, bacon and some crumbled cotija.

mmmmmm

Making sesame seed seared ahi tuna over arugula, avocado and boiled eggs. With a ginger ponzu reduction and grilled asparagus.

I don't know what you would call it, but my wife made this dish with two kielbasa sausages, one head of cabbage, one half white onion, and one package of large egg white noodles. Cook it in a pot for a couple of hours with basic spices (salt, pepper, etc.) and it'e ready to go. I find it quite yummy.

azgreg wrote:I don't know what you would call it, but my wife made this dish with two kielbasa sausages, one head of cabbage, one half white onion, and one package of large egg white noodles. Cook it in a pot for a couple of hours with basic spices (salt, pepper, etc.) and it'e ready to go. I find it quite yummy.

My mother in law used to fry up kielbasa, onions and sauerkraut, so pretty similar. Very tasty.


Early Easter dinner at the Merkin casa:

Are those your bacon wrapped stuffed peppers on top?

azgreg wrote:Are those your bacon wrapped stuffed peppers on top?

Yep, I should have finished them on the propane grill like I did the ribs though. Peppers weren't as roasted as I like.

Merkin wrote:

azgreg wrote:Are those your bacon wrapped stuffed peppers on top?

Yep, I should have finished them on the propane grill like I did the ribs though. Peppers weren't as roasted as I like.

I do them on the Weber Kettle off the coals indirectly and they come out great. One of my all time favorites. Pain in the ass to prep, but the GF takes care of that part . . . Recommend Greg - very tasty.

Easter dinner was papardelle with a tomato-based sugo of prosciutto, shallots, and porcini, with parmigiano reggiano
Roasted spring lamb shoulder (very Italian)
Chocolate snowman left over from Christmas

Longhorned wrote:Easter dinner was papardelle with a tomato-based sugo of prosciutto, shallots, and porcini, with parmigiano reggiano
Roasted spring lamb shoulder (very Italian)
Chocolate snowman left over from Christmas

I haven't had much in the way of interesting reportable dinners myself lately, but I will share that my 16yo daughter just returned from 10 days in Vasto, Italy on the Adriatic coast. She went with a friend who has extensive family there. By all accounts she was treated to many beautiful authentic Italian family meals featuring lots of fresh seafood and pastas. Her photos also depict lots of good looking pizza and gelatos. Interestingly, as an American kid, they assumed she drank nothing but regular Coca-Cola which she was offered at every visit. She never touches the stuff here. I asked her how she liked the shellfish and she said it all tasted like the sea.