85 simple your Recipes

ground beef, onions, cut in 1/2, and sliced, green pepper, chopped fine (optional), garlic powder, to your taste, salt and pepper, to taste, ketchup (or more ), hamburger buns or 4 bulkie rolls

cream cheese, seafood cocktail sauce (or make your own for less swweetness), crabmeat (can use imitation ), garlic, crushed fine, cracker (i use triscuit, use any sturdy )

rotisserie-cooked chicken , meat shredded (about 5 cups), barbecue sauce (use your fave), pickled jalapeno pepper, roughly chopped (optional), hamburger buns (i like to use onion)

any liquid can be reduced just by heating it - but why would you want to do that, answer comes back to two of our old friends, flavor and consistency (texture)., by reducing any flavored liquid you intensify its flavor and at the same time thicken it. you can continue this process until what you have left is a syrup if it contains sugar, or a sauce if it does not., this is 1 of the most important tools in the kitchen , believe it or not, because a great sauce can rescue an indifferent meal., literally any liquid can be reduced ., a few uses, wine is frequently used in cooking , both as a marinade and as an addition to sauces for meat., there are some problems with it though, 1 of which is that you need a really good wine and quite a lot of it to produce a reasonable sauce for, say, six people., on the other hand , if you use pure grape juice and reduce it to a syrup, that syrup, added to any sauce (or gravy if you prefer) will lift it into the realms of gourmet ., more , you don tsp have to make your reduction on the night you prepare your meal. you can reduce a liter of grape juice at any time to the consistency and flavor you want; then just store it in the fridge., you can do the same thing with any fruit juice - prune is sensational - and store it until needed. just about all of them will do things for ice cream, pies or tarts that will have your guests demanding the recipe, pork with apple sauce use a carton of fresh apple juice from the supermarket and reduce it. and if you want a real sensation add in a glass of apple brandy during the reduction process., are you getting an idea of how simple this is, take any carton of fresh stock straight of the shelf and reduce it. you will transform it into something even the manufacturer won tsp recognize. but beware, you need to start out with good quality in the first place, because when you reduce a liquid you intensify all the flavors, and not just the good ones., if it s salty to start with, for example, it will be salty beyond belief by the time you ve reduced it even by half. so if you are going to use a supermarket stock, make sure it s an extremely good 1., believe me when i tell you that stock cubes should not be used for reduction sauces., thickeners, because you will be tasting as you go (won tsp you ), you may find that you get the flavor you want before the desired consistency is reached., a couple of hints right now for your sauces., sweet ones can be thickened successfully without loss of color by adding in liquid glucose early on in the reduction process. surprisingly, this will add little in the way of sweetness and produces a beautiful velvety sauce when whisked., if you get it wrong and add too much, no problem. stir in a little extra water to thin it., reduction pans, reductions need to happen rapidly in serving to preserve flavors. and the greater the surface area of the liquid the faster the water will evaporate., however you may want to whisk something into the sauce while its cooking - such as butter or olive oil for example - and for that i find a small wok is best; 1 with a handle., a wok is less likely to reduce so fast that the sauce is burnt while your back is turned. but try both methods and see which you prefer. you may even end up using something totally different., no magic to this. whatever works for you, that s what you should use, in this and everything else to do with cooking., just bear in mind that what you re after is speed and ease of use. as well as a great tasting result, of course. :>), keeping, if they should dry out , simply add a little water and heat through., sauces containing meat juices of any kind must be frozen if you re going to keep them, and should be brought to boiling point before being used again. there is no need to thaw them out to do this, in fact it s better not to. simply drop the frozen cubes into a saucepan, melt them over a gentle heat, and then bring swiftly to the boil., why do you do this to avoid food poisoning, that s why. you are making sure that any bugs introduced into the sauce during the preparation process are killed off., worry , this will not be because of anything you have done wrong (i hope!), but because bacteria are part of our everyday lives and they exist in every kitchen, however clean., in fact your food , and especially your meat, is crawling with wildlife that you will never see. don tsp worry about them. careful handling and simple precautions will ensure that these miniature monsters can never multiply enough to harm either you or your guests.

albacore tuna in water, mayonnaise (i like light mayo but increase to your liking), cheddar cheese, dill, croissant rolls (sourdough or english muffins or any bread you prefer can be used)

cilantro, crushed tomatoes (or you can use about 30 oz of your own fresh, canned tomatoes), minced garlic from a jar, fresh jalapenos , blackened, kosher salt

prepared horseradish, nonfat sour cream, mayonnaise substitute (i use fat-free smart beat. it tastes great and is actually healthy for your heart.)

ground meat, spaghetti sauce (whatever your favorite brand and variety), alfredo sauce (i use the 4 cheese variety), uncooked lasagna noodle, shredded italian cheese blend (may use 2 if you want a cheesier lasagna)

chicken thighs (family pack), frozen vegetables (i used corn and carrots), frozen dumplings (or make your own ), turmeric, roast chicken seasoning, chicken bouillon cubes, garlic (minced ), salt

boboli pizza crust, cooked chicken breast, shredded, red onion, finely chopped, roma tomatoes, sliced thin, approximate barbecue sauce (your own preference), mozzarella cheese, garlic salt (approximate to taste)

raw large shrimp, peeled and deveined, italian seasoned bread crumbs, oil (for frying ), your favorite prepared pasta sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, chopped fresh parsley

frozen hash browns (seasoned or unseasoned to your taste), melted butter, sausage (we prefer homemade or jimmy dean s sage), yellow onion, chopped, jumbo eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, curd cottage cheese

racks baby back ribs, rib rub spice blend, salt, freshly ground black pepper, celery salt, sweet original bam bq barbecue sauce , or your favorite barbecue sauce

ground beef, ground pork, eggs, lightly beaten, grated parmesan, plus more for garnishing soup if desired, italian bread crumbs, chopped garlic, italian essence, salt, crushed red pepper, olive oil, chopped onion, chopped celery, tomato paste, whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands, with their juice, beef stock or two 14 oz cans low sodium beef broth, ditalini or other small pasta shape for soups, chopped fresh basil leaves

cooked beef (diced or shredded ), beef gravy, diced green chilies, dozen flour tortilla

several years ago my sister (jan) and myself where playing with biscotti recipes. we came up with a very easy and simple way to make biscotti ( a semi sweet scone like bisquit), we used about 4 cups bisquick and about 1 cup sugar (use what fits your taste),1 cup chopped pecans and 1 cup chopped dried cranberries. mix the ingredients well (with enough milk to make a thick dough) and put on a non stick baking sheet. form the dough into a half moon shape and bake. let cool, slice and drizzle with an icing made from melted chocolate or powdered sugar, vanilla and milk mixed thick ( imperial icing). we made several kinds and this is the 1 we liked best. i hope you try this easy way, it is good., i found a hard biscotti recipe and you can see it below and it is the real way to make biscotti., we didn tsp cook the biscotti twice , because we liked it baked once. biscotti is baked once whole and then sliced and baked again. it comes out pretty crisp.

boneless chicken breasts, approximately chicken broth (can be low sodium), fat free cream of celery condensed soup, softened neufchatel cheese (can be light) or 8 oz cream cheese (can be light), knorr leek soup mix, fresh carrots, sliced or 3 -4 fresh carrots, diced, tastefully simple garlic garlic, fresh ground black pepper, ground cayenne pepper (adjust to your taste and may be omitted) or 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (adjust to your taste and may be omitted)

pk of rice paper rounds, (mine are 16cm in diameter ), approx. 2 cups of shredded lettuce, (mixed leaves , iceberg, whatever you have at hand), there , i use interchangeable fillings, bean sprouts , cucumber, finely sliced carrot, finely sliced red capsicum, fresh mint leaves, coriander, stir fry meat strips marinated and cooked in your favourite flavours (i like a mix of sesame oil, soy and garlic), shredded chicken, prawns, smoked salmon ect., vermicelli noodles are also a great thing to add bulk (can replace lettuce), as simple or as adventurous as you want, really. a wrap with some marinated meat and lettuce is delicious on it s own., soy or sweet chilli dipping sauce