Food Porn and Discussion.

[bono_212]

I didn't realize until the other day that stores sold tzatziki. This is not good for my health.


Also, smoking brisket for the first time ever. This may be the greatest cooking undertaking I have attempted. I am SO excited. It smells amazing.

 

[Rachel D.]

It's chili season! We are having some tonight since it's rainy and cold.

 

[bonocomet]

Ok guys, I have a recipe for you for the holidays.

Don't be turned off by pumpkin and chocolate together, the pumpkin flavor is extremely mild and these are incredibly yummy. They are super soft, and one batch makes about 140 bite size cookies. They make your house smell so good too. And the best part, they are vegan!

I'm not vegan or vegetarian, so I never realized what a difference an eggless cookie makes. I find I can easily eat about 15 of these and not even feel full.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups sugar
1 cup canola/vegetable oil
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can solid pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli brand semisweet chips are vegan!)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream the sugar, oil, pumpkin and vanilla together. Mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir gently until combined. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Mix together. Drop by teaspoonsful onto an ungreased baking sheet. (We put 36 bite size cookies on one sheet) Bake at 375 degrees F. for 12 – 15 minutes.


I'm totally addicted!

 

[Thora]

Oooh, yum! I'll definitely have to make those!

And speaking of vegan food, I just got a fabulous new vegan cookbook, so I'm excited to try out all the delicious recipes in there.

 

[Rachel D.]

I've been eating a lot of great desserts lately. I found a recipe for Bananas Foster Ice Cream and had to try it. It's actually really good! But I didn't have any rum and I left out the five (!) egg yolks, so it's a little altered from the original. We also made an apple coffee cake at home that was amazing, and I had a piece of Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake at a restaurant the other day. Maybe I should cut back on sugar this week...

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

it's finally soup weather so i made my broccoli soup. i love that crap so much. i'd post a pic but it doesn't look particularly appealing but tastes amazing.

 

[IWasBored]

Mmmmm soup. I don't like broccoli.

 

[Rachel D.]

Turkey quesadillas.

 

[bonocomet]

This year's home made Thanksgiving goodies:

Strawberry pie, marble fudge, vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pear cranberry pecan pie, and chocolate shortbread.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

you had me at vegan

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I don't like broccoli.

i'm shocked.

i'm kinda bummed, for thanksgiving i have no food porn to share. the only thing i really cooked was the mashed potatoes and someone (not me ) let the potatoes overcook. everyone else liked them but still. i've never had them come out like library paste. i still haven't even had a chance to make my dessert yet.

 

[bono_212]

What would you define "Library paste" as?

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

your face.

Spoiler

 

[bono_212]

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

 

[bono_212]

It is not easy to smoke a turkey in the cold, gang.

 

[Rachel D.]

I made tiramisu from scratch and it failed. The ladyfingers disintegrated and now they're mushy. They're good by themselves, though. I suppose some of it could still be salvaged if I flip it over and scrape the mush off the bottom.

Here's all the recipes I used:

Ladyfingers: Homemade Ladyfingers Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes

Mascarpone cheese substitute: Mascarpone Cheese Substitute Recipe - Food.com - 66077 (This would actually make a great base for a dip or cheese ball.)

Tiramisu: Tiramisu No Raw Eggs Here!) Recipe - Food.com - 326259

 

[mama cass]

i make a really good tiramisu - it's one of my fail-safe desserts when i'm entertaining...

i use homemade genoise sponge or French store-bought sponge fingers, real mascarpone and real raw eggs

if you whisk the eggs in a bowl while heating over a bain-marie that should kill any bacteria if you're worried about raw eggs... i always buy fresh eggs on the day i make any recipes requiring raw eggs though, just in case...

sometimes i make my own mascarpone - it's actually really really easy and is delicious!

it sounds like you soaked the sponge fingers in the coffee/alcohol liquor too long - i literally just dip them in for a split second...

best tiramisu i ever tried was in Italy and was more like a layered cake - it was amazing! and i managed to re-create it at home - i always make it that way now, hence use genoise layers instead of sponge fingers, don't soak, but brush lightly with the coffee syrup... it's so light and airy - a little piece of heaven!

 

[Rachel D.]

We don't have mascarpone cheese or ladyfingers here, so that's why I had to make my own. The tiramisu I've had at restaurants had ladyfingers in it that were a lot thicker than mine and were spongier. When I dipped mine in the coffee, they immediately fell apart, so I laid them in the dish and drizzled coffee over them with a spoon. Needless to say, that whole project was a waste of an afternoon and I'm never doing that again. I scraped the ladyfinger paste off of it and dumped it outside for the coyotes to enjoy tonight, so all that's left of my tiramisu is a chocolate cheese ball that's really not too bad.

 

[mama cass]

oh no that sounds really awful! it's a lot of work for it to go wrong - that must've been really upsetting...

the problem might have been that your ladyfingers were too fresh if you'd baked them yourself - the sponge fingers i buy specially for tiramisu are very very dry and dense - if i was baking my own, i think i would literally leave them out for a few days to dry out and go hard... when i bake the genoise sponge, i literally just brush the coffee syrup very lightly over the top otherwise it would crumble...

in case you want to have another go sometime, here's the recipe i've been using for my mascarpone in recent years - it's ever so easy and it's better than any store-bought mascarpone i've ever tried (and i've tried A LOT over the years ha)

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese - Baking Obsession

 

[Rachel D.]

I never thought about letting them dry out; that's a good idea! Thanks for the mascarpone recipe, too! I might have to give that a try sometime.

 

[Cactus Annie]

How about a nice bowl of healthy salad? Or maybe not

 

[Rachel D.]

It's Christmas, so here are some sweets:

My mom made toffee.

I can't stay away from that stuff, and I don't even like toffee very much!

And I made some raspberry and apricot rugelach:

They look a little messy because I put too much jam in some of them and they wanted to stick to the counter when I rolled them up, but they're still good!

 

[bonocomet]

OMG that toffee looks good.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

made toffee:

the one on the left is salt and nut free. but then i also forgot to add baking soda, so it also looks different than the one on the right. but other than not having nuts, it tastes the same.

 

[bono_212]

These are yummy. I'll have to buy a strawberry corer next time though, didn't quite get them hollow enough with knife alone.

 

[MsPurrl]

Coconut shrimp at The Hungry Heron, Sanibel Island, Florida

 

[Rachel D.]

Easter cake that has long since been eaten:



I used a white cake mix from a box with lemon zest, lemon juice, and orange juice added to the batter and has lemon curd between the layers. The frosting is buttercream, but it turned out almost too buttery. The cake itself was really good and I think I'll make it again sometime, but with a different kind of frosting. I was really impressed with how good lemon curd is with cake!

 

[bono_212]

Gonna smoke salmon this weekend, I think. Haven't had a chance to get the smoker out since last November. Think it's about time.

 

[bonocomet]

Okay earlier tonight I posted a recipe for the best brownies ever, but now it isn't here. Did I accidentally post it in a random thread somewhere??