Food and Cooking

Things like frozen lasagna and stew are classics for new parents, but not exactly the greatest light fare. What are your faves that:

I'm aware that I can go out of my way to specialty stores to get superior dried meats, olive oils, and so on, but for cheap and easy pepperoni, I grab Bridgford -- but not without issues. I get these 16oz Old World Pepperoni sticks that are oily, hard to slice, and harder to peel (it has a thin casing), so I was happy to see Hormel's in my local Costco -- until I tried it. Hormel pepperoni has no flavor. It isn't noticeably oily unless you cook it (such as on pizza), but if you do cook it, you get a similar quantity of reddened oil pooling out of it as with Bridgford.

My brown rice protein is kinda clumpy and needs something for flavor so I was thinking to blend it with frozen blueberries and almond milk. But I don't want to wash the blender every day. Can I make a concentrated version and keep it in the fridge for a few days? How long would it last?

My neighborhood has a little free food pantry that I fill weekly. Problem is, I've been finding it difficult to provide a well-rounded variety of foods. Fresh fruit and veg are not allowed.

I'm trying to add more fruit to my diet, but I'm having trouble finding good deals.

It's my understanding that fruits typically are made to be consumed, in the sense that it benefits the evolution of the plant. An animal eats the fruit and perhaps some seeds along with it, the seeds don't get digested and end up in soil somewhere further than the plant could spread on them on its own.

Update: Turns out I was too concerned. The manual actually says to use the top rack.

Because I've been eating rice more often I realized via my energy bill that cooking in a pot on an electric plate for 30 minutes consumes massive amounts of electricity. Therefore I'm currently browsing for rice cookers, but the info on energy efficiency leaves much to be desired.

So, I bought a lemon thyme plant at a shop the other day and want to learn to use it. I read some.cooking blogs and it sounds pretty easy but I'd like to know if anyone here has any idea.

I'm one person and won't have a fridge for a few weeks as mine died. I can't stomach any more canned soup. Any ideas for small meals I can make with shelf stable ingredients?

I am craving something bready and sloppy for dinner, but I can't think of anything that fits the bill. I could make a giant vegetable pot pie (I've done that before and they are tasty), but for whatever reason, I'm wanting bread dough instead of pie dough and I don't think that would work as well. Focaccia by itself would be too much bread without enough 'stuff'. My better half is vegetarian, so I'd like to keep it meatless (cheese is fine). We have too much tofu right now, so I'm slightly tempted to make an S&B curry stew and then baking it inside bread dough, but would that work? It'd certainly have the sort of savory I desire, but it might be too gloppy. Really, I'm looking for something more like stromboli but I can't think of anyone but Italians that bake lots of filling inside a bread wrap.

I’m currently wondering what to do if my favourite recipes go offline or if my mom’s special traditional dish where i have the recipe in written form gets lost. Do you have a (preferably FOSS) app to store such recipes? I’m currently trying Cooky which is FOSS but is difficult to use for cooking: you can’t really group cooking steps well and when cooking a recipe you can only view one step at a time unless you’re editing the recipe. I like however that you can tag the dishes so it’s easier to find specific stuff like vegan or spicy dishes.

I recently went to Boston and had crab cakes at several different restaurants and they were delicious. Don't @ me, Maryland, but they were better than anything I've had in the Baltimore and DC area. For one, The "crab" was very forward rather than the "cake" part. Like good crab meat with enough "cake" to make it hold in a patty form, and some fresh greens.

Rice crispies and marshmallows were on sale, but I want to fancy them up a bit.

Pretend you have a fully functioning kitchen and filtered water. There is no limit to how much food you can bring, but you have to carry it. What would you bring?

A few years ago I got a Gorilla brand granite mortar and pestle. I seasoned it as directed and got quite a bit of use out of it, then I stopped cooking for a while and it got kind of...well, gross. It's possible that I spilled something on it, but portions of the bowl and exterior are a darker color now. I guess I'm afraid with the relatively porous granite that it's full of rancid garlic effluvium. Does anyone know how to clean this thing? Should I just pitch it?

Am trying to make a dark rye loaf like you'd find on a stall or in a shop. Not the really dense 'pumpernickel' style but round or oblong tin shaped.

They keep their flavor when I fry them, but I'd like to cut down on fried things.

Non bake cheesecake with gingerbread crumble, mascerated berries.

was just wondering if anyone had any great homemade breakfast recipes to share! I'm notoriously picky but wanted to start off by sharing my favorite baked oatmeal. a family member got it's recipe from a bed and breakfast, and I'm obsessed with it.

I've got a simple chickpea salad recipe that I would like a quick and simple alternative for. The recipe makes 10 servings.

I make a traditional pesto and use it for all kinds of recipes. I adore this pesto for soups, pasta, veggies.

Served with oven roasted broccoli and demi-baguette toasted with garlic butter!

So I've eaten everything from sardines and toast to balut. I have never really found foods I don't enjoy, except for Indian food..and balut but that's a whole other story.

Does asafoetida smell amazing to you? and if yes do you consider yourself someone with an accurate sense of smell (e.g. identify if someone needs dental work in a conversation, smell who someone has been hanging out with, identify spices and herbs used in a meal with high accuracy, identify the perfume someone wears etc)

So like the post says I will have about 30+ people coming over tomorrow. I want to cook this frozen pork shoulder in the slow cooker for pulled pork sandwiches. The thing is 13 pounds. How long and what temp? Also is it even possible?

I wasn't ready to deal with Thanksgiving when we had the post a week ago, but now I am.

Hello, I know this is a bit random, but I have a question about the preparation of microwave sandwiches ~specifically the likes of white castle sliders and jimmy dean breakfast sandwiches~ I follow the instructions as well as I can, and yet it either ends up frozen in the middle, or really hot and yet cold. it's strange really. even when I wrap the sandwiches in paper towels it's still frozen in the middle. perhaps i'm doing it wrong (most likely, i'm not the brightest bulb). yadda yadda im just wondering if there is a technique to this? I'm sorry if i'm bothering y'all I just wanted to hear what you guys think.

I love cooking, and I cook every day for me and my wife (home office since 2008 helps there), and I love hearing about new things. I have the book "The Science of Cooking" which was fascinating.

I always cook for myself alone which means I'm used to cooking just one portion, or 2 portions which I end up eating in one sitting anyway. I usually improvise my meals and my brain just seems hardwired to measure quantities for a single portion meal. Does anyone have any tips for scailing your cooking up to cook for groups?

Step 1: Add a little bit of oil to taste.

Is there a LLM/ChatGPT tuned to help with weekly meal planning that doesn't suck? Why not?

I have a tiny fridge so I need something I can put in my chest freezer and microwave portions of it to put in a thermos. I'm hoping for minimal prep work, though I have a Vitamix if that helps. I already eat the same thing every day, that I buy from work for 6 dollars. Not ideal. I'm thinking I can bring the soup and some crackers or something.