There were rumblings in the NC thread about starting a thread like this, and some people said they'd do it. I've seen no such thread. Time to take some initiative.

So, what have you been eating lately? Better yet, what have you been cooking lately? Share some recipes you're trying out or some old staples. Tell us about your successes and failures, what worked and what didn't, and what you'll do next time. I don't think we need to be too picky about just making this a recipe list, though. If you want to brag about a fancy meal you went out to, go ahead and share that. Also, I don't think we need to be elitists about what we're cooking, either. If you found something prepackaged that was easy, cheap, and delicious, share it. It might make a good option for forum members who are hesitant to cook with anything more exotic than a microwave. Pics are always encouraged but aren't required.

As for me, the last thing I cooked for myself was this recipe for beef stew I found at epicurious.com. I'd made it before, liked it, and it sounded like something good as we're now into fall and the temperatures are dropping. I made a few modifications, though. I substituted a package of pre-sliced baby bella mushrooms for the pricier shiitake mushrooms in the recipe, which made no real difference in the outcome. I omitted the squash, since I don't really care for squash. And when I was sauteing the onions, I threw in some garlic, too. It worked out fine.

Bottom line: this dish isn't exactly fast, but it's fairly easy, as long as you watch the clock. It makes for great leftovers, too, so if you're willing to spend the time to cook it on a weekend, you can have something that's great to just zap quick during the week.

Bonus: the 3 cups of wine this recipe calls for means that if you use one standard bottle of wine, you'll have almost exact one typical glass of wine left over for the cook to enjoy while the stew cooks!

Garlic is almost always a good idea, good call. Unless you go overboard. In which case I tend to like it even more.

Can't get enough garlic and onions. So good and so good for you! Call me a primitive, I don't care.

Oh, and good idea for a community-type thread.

Great thread idea!

I have a request!!

I am looking for a relatively simple (because I am a simple kind of guy) recipes that use fresh tomatoes.. I have too many tomatoes from the garden and I want to make some stuff with them that is simple.

Stuff Like:
Salsa
Tomato/Spaghetti sauce
Chili

There are tons of online sites like epicurious.com and cooks.com that will have recipes, fish.

How about stuffing them? A big tomato stuffed with tuna or chicken salad is a pretty awesome cold lunch. Add into the tuna/chicken salad some finely chopped red onions and/or celery if you like. You can substitute mustard(a little salty) or olive oil(super healthy!) for the mayo usually used in those salads too, and it works pretty well. Stab into it the top of your meat blob a few curvy spears cut from long segments of green bell peppers, circle the tomato with some slices of cold peeled cucumber, maybe have some coleslaw on the side, a good crunchy pickle, etc. Refreshing high water content and lots of crunch to offset the density of the meat in the tuna or chicken salad, plenty of protein, nothing to send your bloodsugar up/store more fat due to insulin rush, as no bread or starchy vegetables are involved. At least if you don't eat a real sugary coleslaw on the side or something.

Maybe put a few of those marinated artichoke hearts we love on the plate, too, for a feeling of rich indulgence ...

Personally, my preferred recipe for garden fresh tomatoes is the following:

1 tomato
1 knife

Use the latter to cut up the former. Proceed to consume with or without the aid of additional utensils. Optional modification: salt and/or pepper.

Here's something new I tried from a set of disparate ingredients I found in the fridge/larder and the need to eat:

NAN PIZZA


1 big piece of Nan bread, some tomato bolognese sauce, grated strong cheddar cheese. Bake the bread for 5 minutes at around 180-200C so it's hot, then spread on the pasta sauce, and sprinkle on the cheese, and leave baking at about 180-200C for another 7-8 minutes.


It's floppier than your usual pizza, but it tasted pretty damn good.

WTTW: Celery salt.

P.S.: When I grow tomatoes, it's a miracle they even make it to the house.

gazpacho!

tomato (strain out seeds)
red pepper
garlic
wine vinegar
small bit of onion (red or shallot preferred)
cilantro
bit of olive oil

all in a blender. strain a bit if desired. (lots of fiber in there) let refrigerate and meld for a couple hours.
good, and good for you. goes with crusty bread. travels in a thermos well.

One simple recipe that I like that uses up lots of tomatoes is this one for Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup. It is a fairly easy recipe that takes a while but doesn't need very much attention so you can be doing other things while you cook. I'm afraid all of the numbers are guesses as I don't believe in exact numbers in cooking, I go on what looks about right and change it next time if it needs improving. I apologise if I am wildly off with any of my guesses at quantities but I don't think I am.

I'm guessing that for normal people, this will serve about 2 or 3 but we eat pretty large portions in our house so it doesn't go that far for us.

6 tomatoes (I use fairly large tomatoes so maybe use about 8 if they are a bit smaller)
2 red peppers
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion
1 1/2 pints decent veg stock
1/2 tub creme fraiche (not really sure how big the tubs are, I'm guessing you want to be using about 100-150g for this recipe)
black pepper
a few fresh basil leaves to serve (optional)
olive oil

Roast the tomatoes, red peppers, garlic and onion in olive oil until the skins are slightly blackened, turning and recoating in olive oil a couple of times as you go.

Blitz the roasted vegetables.

Pour the veg in to a saucepan on a medium/low heat.

Slowly stir in the vegetable stock.

Gently simmer for approx. 1 hour (you can serve it quicker than this but it tastes better if you cook it slowly)

Add the creme fraiche and stir it in.

Add black pepper to taste and serve with fresh basil.

If you want to be a bit fancy, add the creme fraiche right at the last minute and stir it in gently to get an orange and white spiral pattern.

How about Tomato Basil Saute for pasta? Very easy and everyone likes it.


- olive oil
- 8 ounces fresh white button mushrooms, sliced
- l large onion
- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped (cut open, pull seeds out with your fingers.)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2-3 tsp sugar
- 1/8 - 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (not sure about this portion; has to be fresh)
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup shredded fresh Parmesan cheese, or more!

Not sure about these portions. I didn't use 2 lbs of tomatoes; probably ended up making half this amount.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and onions; sauté until tender, 3-4 minutes. (Don't overcook!) Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and sauté, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until tender. Stir in the basil and parsley. Taste for seasoning. Serve with your favorite pasta (angel hair pasta is excellent). top with Parmesan cheese

variation: I like to add half-and-half cream to my version. Delicious.

Blarg -

I remember you mentioning once that you liked lentil soup and cook it (from scratch I'm assuming?) for yourself. Have a favorite recipe?

Also - question for anyone - have you ever used a rice cooker to cook soup? Does the soup turn out alright if you do that?

I usually eat garden fresh tomatoes before I get a chance to make anything out of them. But if you have some self control, just chop them up and mix them with other chopped veggies and herbs from your garden. Add some olive oil. Let it sit for a while. Do not refrigerate. And enjoy.

Some things that go real good with fresh tomatoes are: green onions, cilantro, parsley, basil, oregeno, fresh cucumbers, ground black pepper and fresh peppers (sweet or hot). Fresh mozerella and feta cheese also taste real good in this mix. The tomatoes are acidic to begin with, but you can also add balsamic vinegar or lemon juice if you want.

I also like to quarter them and drizzle them with melted butter or ghee.

Fresh Kale Salad
Everything is to taste, sorry no measurements.

Dressing
Juice from 1 orange (squeeze it yourself)
Juice from 1 lemon (see above)
Fresh ground pepper
Chopped garlic
Maggi or Soy Sauce
Raisons and/or dried cranberries
Olive Oil, tastes real good if you use orange or lemon infused

Salad
Fresh Kale, washed and rinsed
If available garden fresh or hot house tomatoes (don't use tomatoes if you can't get one of these two)
Raw Walnuts

Preperation
1. While the washed Kale is draining, mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl, adjusting for taste.

2. Squeeze the water out of the Kale. This is important. And place in your salad bowl.

3. Add tomatoes

4. Pour dressing on top and toss.

5. Cover and let sit for at least 1/2 hour. Do not refrigerate.

6. When ready to eat, put walnuts in covered pan and roast. Be careful as they burn pretty easily. I like mine a little burnt. Most people don't.

7. Pour the hot walnuts directly on the salad. Salad will sizzle a little. Toss salad again.

Eat

Note: Kale is pretty bitter raw. So you want this salad swimming in dressing to counteract the bitterness.

I do a few variations on it, and do it either in a slow cooker or pressure cooker mostly these days, but the basic recipe is so simple that you can do almost anything to it and it will still turn out great. I can give a basic guide to doing the soup, and you can adjust it as you like. I guess I'll talk about doing it the regular stove-top way, since that's easiest to relate to. Warning that it is really a sort of catch-all soup more than a purely lentil soup. Lentils are just the base.

A key point first -- if you don't have garden fresh tomatoes, used canned. The regular supermarket ones are picked for lack of perishability, not flavor. They are very bland. Canned ones are bred/picked for flavor.

Anyway, here are the ingredients for what will make four tupperware containers -- the ones that are about the size and shape of a one pound loaf of bread -- worth of dense soup. You can thin it out to taste, but I like it extremely heart, a one-pot meal. Still I usually thin it a little.

--2 large onions
--half a dozen segments of fresh garlic
--2 to 3 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes (I like Glen Muir organic best, and they have them cheap at Costco); whole canned tomatoes are fine too, with liquid
--1/2 a bag of supermarket dried lentils, soaked overnight in water, rinsed well and drained
--1/4 bag of black beans and/or 1/4 pound of white beans/great northern beans, dried, soaked overnight then rinsed and drained
-- 2 to 3 pounds of potatoes, cubed
-- 3 large carrots, sliced thin
-- 3 to 6 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped
-- thyme to taste
-- marjoram to taste
-- white pepper to taste
-- fresh ground black pepper on serving, to taste
-- olive oil

variations: add shredded chicken (1 or 2 pounds) and/or turkey sausage sliced extremely thin (no more than 1/4 pound)

Dice your first onion and start sauteing it in vegetable oil while dicing the next. Mince garlic and add in when both onions have started to wilt. Don't let it burn. I will often let do the first, or an additional onion, without oil, on very low heat, letting it caramelize(not burn!) to get the extra flavor out of it. This can be time-consuming so it's a good thing to do while chopping up all the other stuff.

Add thyme to taste (lentil soup has heavy flavors and can take plenty of spices without getting overwhelmed) and stir. Enjoy the aroma! Give it time to meld with the onions and garlic.

Add thinly sliced celery and carrots, stirring occasionally as veggies wilt. If in danger of sticking, add a little more oil. When veggies are well wilted but before celery leaves start to caramelize too much, add canned tomatoes(or fresh if available). Use the liquid to help you scrape up any fond(caramelized brown yummy bits) off the bottom of the pot and stir them into what is becoming your soup. Add cubed potatoes, lentils, and beans, and water to cover. Stir in a couple/few teaspoons of white pepper and marjoram (a tablespoon or so is fine).

Cook, covered, until carrots, beans, and lentils are tender. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Serve with freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste. If the taste is a little dull, add fresh squeezed lemon juice before serving. A side of fresh buttered bread is pretty sweet. This soup freezes very well.

Note: Salt is easy to overdo in this kind of soup. Additionally, they say it can toughen the skin of beans and lentils as you cook, which may or may not be an old wive's tale. So, I save salting till the end, only doing a little and letting others put in what they want at the table.

Re Variations: This is a very hearty and low calorie soup with plenty of protein already, but adding some meat can make a nice change and make it heartier/more man-friendly too. You can add chicken either raw or cooked, but I like to brown it then dice it. Flavors sometimes get muddier if the chicken is in the pot the whole time, but it's a very small thing. If adding sausage, add it when adding the potatoes, as the flavor permeating the soup is nice. You'll never need more than a 1/4 pound of sausage, or it starts to overwhelm the other flavors rather than perking them up.

Substituting potatoes with rice makes this a dull and muddy soup. Either have it with potatoes or without, but forget rice.

Your favorite sausage sliced will taste real good as a meat for Blarg's lentil soup. Strange as it may sound, sliced kosher hot dogs also go well with lentil soup.

Right after it's put in a bowl and ready to eat, add some vinegar.



Edit: Cook the sausage or hot dogs with the soup. Not as a side. Slice the hot dogs real thin.

I did this last night with a great big beautiful tomato and it was wonderful!!!!

Blag, some pretty darn good idea too. Your Lentil soup sounds really good!!!

Katy, that sauce sounds good and easy!!!!! I likey!!!

Olive oil craving time. Fish, you should try this fresh olive oil. I know it's better than any olive oil I've ever had.

man all this stuff seems very confusing/complicated. i'm very bad at cooking but want to improve. been trying very very very basic stuff (even just finding marinades for chicken). one basic marinade i used last night for 2 chicken breasts were 1/4 cups of soy sauce/sugar and 1/4 tblspoon of white cooking wine. (shove it all in a plastic bag and let it soak for a night). we'll see how it turns out.

Don't despair, most cooking is not really all that complicated, even if it takes a lot of steps or has a lot of ingredients. And even stuff that comes out far from flawless is usually pretty decent. It's a pretty rare dish that even a total birdbrain of a cook actually has to throw out.

Just start small, with things you like, like you're doing with marinades. Good marinades, sauces, and gravies add tremendously to cooking. And you can do quite a bit of experimenting on them without racking up sky high bills. I'd say just approach cooking with a spirit of play. You know, like Legos or something. And the learning process is filled with so many tasty rewards!

I think the scariest thing for most people is if you are cooking something for somebody else, and you've never cooked that recipe or done that particular kind of cooking before. That's why I like to use myself as my guinea pig and practice my favorite recipes enough to get good at them. In other words I don't expect perfection the first time out, or maybe ever. Unless you're cooking for a living, you don't have to get anywhere close. And your food will still taste good. So don't sweat it.

Oh, and don't lick everything in the kitchen when people are looking. Seeing that turns me sour on any meal.

I like mine:

1 tomato
1 trashcan

Throw tomato into trashcan. They are gross LDO.

ban

I agree with the wise diddy potter...tomatoes are nasty things that make me gag. Throw them all away...oh and MODERATOR ABUSE.

I almost hate to admit this now but up until this year's crop of tomatoes I really had no use for them either. I like Salsa, Catchup, spaghetti sauce and other things made with tomatoes but just tomatoes seemed horrible to me. One of my goals this year, inspired by the Lounge, I have decided to try and not be so picky with food and try more things, even things I didn't like such as tomatoes. After growing some and sacking up I decided to actually try some and I found that I really enjoyed the fresh ones from my garden.

I am a convert!!!

Tonight I am going to make Elk Tacos and I think I will try my hand at making a fresh Salsa with the tomatoes. I am going to try using chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, Garlic, Japalenos (or I do have one small serrano pepper, I wish the others would ripen up but they are STILL green) and I am not sure exactly what else. I do have some canned chilies I may throw in as well. I also haven't decided if I will leave it chunky or blend this up to make a smoother sauce?????

I prefer smooth salsa. Sometimes with chunky you end up getting a huge piece of onion on your chip which sucks

I tend to agree with diddy on raw tomatoes, but they are one of the best ingredients ever. plus they are incredibly good for you.

fish, learn to can/preserve tomatoes. they store well, and will be most welcome come winter.