Anyone fancy sharing some good recipes?

Oh man, you just gave Kardamom an amazing O.

Here is my recipe for Homemade Chicken Pot Pie. It is delicious, if I do say so myself.

Chicken Pot Pie
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3–4 Tbsps. butter
3–4 Tbsps. flour
2–3 cups cooked chicken meat, diced
3 ribs of celery, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
1 medium potato, cubed
⅓ bag of frozen pearl onions
⅓ bag of frozen peas
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup cream or half and half
Salt
Pepper
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 prepared pie crust for 9-inch pie (store bought or homemade)
Directions
Cook a chicken. Remove the meat.
Use the carcass to make chicken stock (recipe below).
Prepare the diced vegetables. Saute the celery and carrots a couple of minutes in 1 Tbsp of the butter. Mix together in a deep dish pie plate or shallow casserole dish, the vegetables, chicken, frozen onions and peas, and salt and pepper. Pull the leaves off of the thyme sprigs and add.
In the saucepan that you sautéed the vegetables in, melt the remaining butter. Stir in the flour and cook a couple of minutes. Add the chicken stock and stir until thickened. Add the cream and stir until smooth and thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetable mixture.
Place the pie crust over the dish, cutting off any excess except for about a one inch rim.

Chocolate Chip Scones I use chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips, and I leave out the cranberries. It’s even better if you buy a really good chocolate bar and break it up to put inside in addition to the chocolate chunks.

Cheeseburger Soup Play with the spices a little bit to make it perfect. I think next time I try it I will use some cheddar instead of just Velveeta, but it’s also really good as is.

“Banana Pancakes“http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-pancakes-i/detail.aspx These are great for breakfast or dessert. We eat them with whipped cream on top. I bet adding caramel would be incredible if you were using them for dessert.

Scotcharoos This recipe is great because it uses more peanut butter than most. They’re always a hit.

Orange Sauce This link is technically for a pancake recipe, but the pancakes are just ok. However, the orange sauce listed below the pancake recipe is fantastic. I really like it on french toast. Another great topping for french toast is apple slices cooked with butter, cinnamon, and sugar.

I also have a few of my favorite recipes that I have posted previously:

Persian Bread
2½ tsp yeast
1¼ cups warm water
1¼ tsp sugar
1¼ tsp salt
2½ Tbsp olive oil (½ Tbsp = 1½ tsp)
3 cups and 2 Tbsp flour

Disolve yeast in water and let stand 10–15 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. LEt rise at least five minutes, then spread on a greased pan (I use a cookie sheet). Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes. Brush with butter.

Personally, I don’t brush with butter after I bake it. Instead, I brush with olive oil, then sprinkle parsley, cilantro, garlic, and Parmesan cheese on top prior to baking. It’s incredible, and very quick to make.

Hot Fudge
12 ounces evaporated milk
½ cup butter
3 squares unsweetened baking chocolate (or 9 tablespoons cocoa and 3 tablespoons oil)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Combine milk, butter, chocolate, and sugar in a sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir occasionally until mixture comes to a boil. Stirring constantly, boil 5–10 minutes until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

You want to let it cool before you use it on ice cream, or you will end up with ice cream fudge soup rather than ice cream topped with hot fudge. This makes nearly four cups, and you can store it in the refrigerator for a while. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure it would be fine to freeze some, too.

Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2½ cups oats
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz chocolate chips

Cream the first five ingredients. Blend the oats to a fine powder, then combine the dry ingredients. Gradually add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a baking sheet. Bake at 375°F for 6 minutes.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
6 Tbsp butter
¼ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add the egg, vanilla, and peanut butter and blend well. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then add to the creamed mixture and blend well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop the dough by teaspoons onto a cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between drops. Bake at 350°F for 7 minutes (the recipe calls for 10 minutes, but 7 always comes out perfectly for me).

Any particular category?

Last night I made traditional fish n’ chips. I had some fish in my freezer I needed to do something with so….

I put some oil in a pot along with a fry basket and heated to 350. While that was heating up I cut a russet potato into strips and threw them in the oil.

While those were frying I made a batter with:

1⅓ cups of flour
2 eggs
salt
pepper
1 bottle of beer

After the “chips” were done I put them on a plate with some newspaper and paper towels to drain. Then I dunked the chunks of fish into the batter and plopped them in the fryer until golden brown. Of course, those went on to the paper to drain as well.

So as not to waste the remaining batter, I added corn meal until firm enough to be able to hold together, formed hush puppies, and plopped those in the oil to cook. When done, you guessed it, on to the plate to drain as well.

Served with a nice salad (in lieu of cold slaw).

Not the healthiest or fanciest of dinners, but pretty darned good and not too difficult to whip together.

If you want to look through quite a few recipes, here are a couple old questions you might be interested in. Also, the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog has a new recipe every day. There is a lot of variety there, and many of the recipes look delicious. I have loved the recipes I have tried from their blog.

@bongo Here’s a really easy but tasty recipe for chicken cordon bleu. Throw some chicken breast in a casserole dish (I prefer a covered dish). Cover it with chopped ham slices. Cover that with mozzerella cheese. Season with pepper if you like. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. While it’s baking heat up a can of undiluted cream of chicken soup on the stove. When the chicken is done, remove it from the dish and add the drippings and any melted cheese to the soup. Put the chicken back in the dish to stay warm. Add a little heat to the soup and mix well. Serve the soup mix over the chicken. The type breast is up to you. It can be tenders, whole breast etc. The ingredient proportions are up to you. Adjust as you like. Serve with rice.

I may be in trouble now for my previous crack.:)

@YoBob no particular category, just things I will need to try!

These all sound delicious, I am very excited to eat them all! Its so great to know you have tried them too, not just rooting through the endless recipes I find on the internet not knowing if they really work!

@bongo You could also try Taste of Home, they have a magazine, website and cookbook.

As a family, we discovered and love ‘Crashed Potatoes’ it’s an aussie recipe.
http://haphazardhomemaking.blogspot.com/2011/03/crispy-crashed-potatoes.html

And we recently fell in love with this fish recipe:
200g plain flour
3 eggs
140g matzo meal or cracker crumbs or dried bread crumbs
450g firm white fish fillets cut into strips
sunflower or groundnut oil for shallow frying
salt and pepper

Chilli Mayonnaise dipping sauce
2tbsp sweet chilli sauce
4–5 tbsp mayonnaise

Because we like it, hubby adds some shredded coconut to the dried bread crumb mixture… yum!

Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad with Prosciutto (Note: I altered this recipe when I made it with a few tweaks to make it vegetarian) Make sure that you use a mandoline to grate your Brussels Sprouts, it will be a lot less troublesome than trying to slice them with a knife like I did.

Gingered Carrot Soup

Hom Nom Noodles with Sweet Potatoes and Almond Butter

I’m guessing that you are not a vegetarian, but just in case you want some veggie dishes, maybe for you potential guests, I’ll post both. Here’s a new one that I just found Fresh Spring Rolls with Shrimp and Fresh Coconut

And here is a similar recipe for Vegetarian Fresh Spring Rolls

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage and Apple Salad This salad is reminiscent of the Danish and German style cooked red cabbage that I love so much.

Coconut Lime Salad Dressing You might have noticed that I love Thai food. And as @Adirondackwannabe pointed out so eloquently, this particular recipe did give me a Mini-O!

Tom Kha Soup (Note: this soup can easily be made into a vegetarian version by using mushroom or vegetable broth, and replacing the chicken with tofu, and omitting the fish sauce for soy sauce). This soup is amazing on a cold day and pairs well with the fresh spring rolls from above.

And for a really nifty snack or appetizer, you can make Roasted Chickpeas with a variety of different spice combinations.

You might have to wait until summer to try this one, unless you live in California, where produce is available year round. This is a drink called Heirloom Tomato Lassi with Fennel, Orange and Lavender Honey

Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burgers with Lemon-Basil Pesto

Poor Man’s Caviar This is a delicious multi-bean salsa which tastes great as a dip served with tortilla chips or pita chips, or served as a side salad with burgers or pulled pork sandwiches. I like to use fresh corn from the cobb rather than canned corn, but in a pinch canned or frozen corn is fine.

Now, if you like to serve fresh bread or baked potatoes or lots of vegetables, you might enjoy some of these Herbed Butters

And now for the Desserts!

Gingerbread with Guiness Stout

Orange Juice Poundcake with Strawberry Sauce

Rum Balls

Pralines

Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake with Walnut Caramel Sauce

Dried Sour Cherry, Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate Bars

Our favorite cookie recipe is No Chip Chocolate Chip cookies. Start with the Original Nestle Tollhouse Cookie recipe. Increase the flour to 2½ cups. Instead of 1 cup butter, use ½ cup butter and ½ cup vegetable shortening (Crisco). Leave out the chocolate chips. People go crazy over these cookies every time I make them.

A few months ago, I started baking homemade bread. It’s much easier than I thought, but don’t tell your guests because they’ll be super impressed with your efforts! My favorite recipe is a focaccia bread that doesn’t require a lot of time or effort or ANY kneading! You need:
2 cups warm (not hot) water
2 tsp active dry yeast
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
a few teaspoons olive oil
To make: Pour the warm water into a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast into the water and stir with a whisk until the yeast is dissolved. With the whisk, stir in 2 cups of the flour and the salt until the mixture is smooth. Then, use a sturdy wooden spoon to stir in the remaining 2 cups of flour. Stir until dough forms and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Good workout for your arm muscles, by the way. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free area for 45–60 minutes or until the dough is about doubled in size.

Next, heat your oven to 500. Oil a baking sheet well with olive oil. Use an oiled scraper to gently “pour” the dough onto the baking sheet. Drizzle a couple of teaspoons of oil onto the dough and rub some on your hands. Use your hands to gently pull and stretch the dough into a rectangle that pretty much covers the pan. Use your fingers to poke holes all over the dough. They’ll be indentations, not holes, actually. Sprinkle more salt to taste (sea salt or kosher salt works well for this) over the top of the dough. Place the baking sheet into the oven and reduce the temp to 450. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove the break from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack.

In less than an hour and a half, you can have homemade bread! Sometimes I skip the salt on top of the bread. Instead, when the bread is done I brush it with just a bit of oil and then sprinkle a mixture of parmesan cheese and Italian herbs and pop it back into the oven for just a minute or two to brown the cheese. The leftover bread is great toasted or cut in half lengthwise to make sandwiches.

Best cake recipe ever is the Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake recipe that can be found on the back of a Hershey’s Cocoa tin. Replace the boiling water with strong brewed coffee and frost with the Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting. Amazing.

Last but not least, something to go with the homemade bread: Meatballs!
You need:
1 pound meatloaf mix (best) or ground beef (still really good)
1 egg
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
¼ cup milk

Dump everything in a big bowl. You can mix it with a spoon, but using your hands works better. As you’re doing this, have a pot of your favorite marinara sauce heating on the stove. You’ll need about 6 cups of sauce (2 big jars should do it). Once the meat mixture is, well, mixed, form it into balls a little bigger than golf balls. Plop the meatballs into the sauce and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Make sure to keep it at the lowest temp needed for a simmer and stir several times while cooking to keep the sauce from burning at the bottom. Serve over pasta. The leftovers can be frozen. Usually, we’ll manage to eat the meatballs within a couple of days and then I freeze whatever sauce is left. Only two of us like red sauce, so we never manage to finish it off all at once.

OK, I lied. There’s one more. This recipe I love to make for guests because the time consuming labor (peeling and chopping) can be done ahead of time. The dish is then easy to throw together in about 20 minutes. It’s Orzo with Shrimp and Feta. I don’t quite make it like that recipe. I use plain feta and instead add a couple of cloves of minced fresh garlic when sauteing the shrimp. When I add the tomatoes to the pan, I add ¼ cup chopped fresh basil. This is great to make when tomatoes and basil are in season and you can pick them right from the garden (or local market). The colors and fresh flavors are amazing. When you stir in the feta, it mostly melts and mixes with the juices from the shrimp and tomatoes to form a creamy kind of sauce. Even the leftovers reheat well. YUM!

This cake is not a lie…