I'm not normally a recipe follower.
I consider myself a culinary experimenter even though I have an entire bookshelf of cookbooks.
I like looking at the pictures! And I like to collect things!
One of my favorite things to do is to "tweak" a recipe and add my own spin on it.
My mother-in-law hates this about me. 
Anyway, I do have a number of recipes that I come back to regularly and I made one tonight for dessert.
I thought I'd share it here. This blackberry cobbler recipe is from the Pioneer Woman cookbook and it is great! You can eat it for dessert, for breakfast, an anytime snack. Once, when I was pregnant with my boys I ate an entire pan in 1 sitting!
It's berry season down here in GA, so the one I made tonight had fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. It was great ala mode!
Do you have any recipes to share? I'm always looking for new ideas!
here is my favorite Greek Salad . I also don't follow recipes exactly. Fortunately, my mother in law doesn't care about what i do with my recipes, LOL! I sometimes add some romaine lettuce to this recipe.
I have one that I love for tabouleh, but its not written down anywhere - its in my head. I adapted it from research and trial and error. Here it is (you'll notice the precise measurements
about 2 cups bulgar wheat
handful fresh mint leaves chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic
1 big can (14oz I think) of mixed beans (I think the one I buy is called bean salad mix by Unico)
about 1/2 - 3/4 chopped white onion
big handful fresh curly parsley chopped
about 1/2 cup lemon juice
about 1 cup olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
soak the bulgar wheat in tepid water. I usually let it soak about 1 - 2 hours. The package says only 20 minutes, but I find that its still like little rocks at only 20 minutes. Drain and rinse the bulgar wheat. Let it drain for about 10 minutes while you chop up the other ingredients. Drain and rinse the canned beans. Mix everything in a big bowl and season with salt & pepper to taste.
I love this dish because you can use it as a side dish or as a vegetarian main dish. And it is so delicious. If you try it, let me know what you think.
ETA: I forgot to say that its better if you use a garlic press for the garlic so that it gets mixed around better instead of little chunks of garlic. Also, this dish is better the next day when all the flavours have all melded together.
OMG Cat, I need a good tabouleh recipe, the store stuff is... not so good. Can't wait to try these, ladies. Thanks!
My husband makes a killer greek salad. The trick is using white balsamic vinegar. Totally ups the taste.
You guys are making me hungry!
One of my favorites that you can use for sandwiches, puff pastry, cream puff shells, in a salad etc - oh and you basically add everything to your taste:
chicken breasts, cooked and "chopped"
celery, chopped
grapes, sliced or quartered
walnuts
mayonnaise
curry powder
lemon juice
seasoned vinegar
celery seeds
sugar
Great for tea sandwiches or bite size appetizer puffs. Oh, and if you don't like curry you could leave it out. I make it the day before and fill the day of.
That is my favorite chicken salad recipe Janet! Although I don't normally add curry. Sometimes I'll add diced granny smith apples if I don't have grapes. My favorite way to eat it is with a slice of cheddar cheese on a croissant. Oh yum. I know what I'm making tomorrow!
I've got a tweaked Banana Pudding recipe...
Banana Pudding
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Ready In: 8 hours
Servings: 24
INGREDIENTS:
1 large pkg instant banana cream pudding, (6 ounces)
2 1/2 cups cold milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk, (14 ounces)
1 container whipped topping, (16 ounces)
sliced bananas
vanilla wafer cookies
DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix pudding and milk; add condensed milk. Blend well; fold in half the whipped topping.
2. Alternate layers of pudding, bananas and vanilla wafers; top with remaining whipped topping and a few banana slices.
3. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
And to make it healthier, you can totally use skim milk and sugar-free/fat-free/reduced fat products.
Mmmmmm.... just when I thought I'd had my fix of chicken salad, you ladies go talkin' bout it!
I like to make chicken salad like this:
1-2 sliced apples (I usually use whatever is in the fridge, which is often Gala, Fuji, or Golden Delicious)
1 sliced pear (any kind)
1 8oz can pineapple (crushed or chunks)
1 oz sliced almonds
1 6oz container vanilla Yoplait yogurt
1 10oz can Hormel 98% Fat Free Chicken Breast (because the chicken around here is nasty)
1/4 tsp curry powder
The best part of this recipe (for me) is that it is Gluten Free!
Usually, I eat this on a bed of spring mix salad, but sometimes for a treat I'll eat it on Udi's bread or toast some Schar bread. I LOVE how it's sweet and kinda spicy (and low in calories, too).
I dream of getting to eat it on a croissant or pastry bread... maybe someday I will either actually tackle baking that from scratch, or perhaps General Mills will someday make a pre-made GF croissant dough. I feel like I scaled the mountain when I finally got around to making GF angel's food cake, but I haven't had the courage to tackle pastry or bread yet...
@ Tina - BEST thing I ever did to instant pudding was add whipped topping! SOOOOO fluffy! ^___^
We bought ourselves a kitchenaid mixer a few years ago and it makes making bread so easy. We make all our own bread now. If you want a really good and easy cinnamon bun recipe, I've been using this one for about a year now and I absolutely love it (maybe a little too much according to my waistline). Try it out and I'm sure you'll love it too: One Hour Cinnamon Buns (for real!)
Oh, yes, I have a KitchenAid stand mixer. She's cherry red, named "Audrey", and I consider her the sports car of my kitchen!
I just know that baking Gluten Free bread is different than baking "regular" bread with wheat flour. For GF you've gotta mix a blend of different flours and add xantham gum to help make it fluffier - and I feel intimidated by that process, and by yeast, too. I plan on tackling it someday, but I just don't feel ready for all of it yet.
@Janet: We love chicken salad, too... We generally used shredded chicken, Hellman's mayo (or Vegenaise), and season with a little bit of salt & pepper to make ours... Depending on the mood we're in, we might add celery or chopped red grapes or chopped apple (granny smith or macintosh). However, one of our favorite things ways of doing chicken salad (as of late) is to layer, inside a hawaiian bun, a piece of cheddar cheese, plain chicken salad & fruit salsa (mango salsa, pineapple salsa or what have you). YUMMY!
I'm also a big fan of cucumber sandwiches (bread, Hellman's mayo or Vegenaise, and slices of cucumber). Something my mother used to make us when we were kids & I've loved them ever since!
@Lizanne, I love cucumber sandwiches. I eat them two different ways. One way is to have fresh bread (you know the kind that sticks to the roof of your mouth) and just butter, salt & pepper. The second way, is toasted with mayo. One of my favourite sandwiches aside from sweet onion sandwiches. yummy!
@Mollie Coonce I totally love that you named your kitchen aid mixer! Mine is red also. You've inspired me to name it! haha.
I'm not much of a cook, I consider myself a beginner. But I do love to try. I found a copy cat recipe of Olive Gardens Chicken and Gnocchi soup and he says mine is better, so that's comforting! I also love my Grandpa's homemade spaghetti and meatball. He boiled the meatballs in the sauce. It is so good! I haven't been able to perfect it yet, it's still a work in progress.
@Stefanee, I tend to name anything that is of importance to me... or things that WANT to be named, like electronic devices. It's just something I've done since I was a teenager.
My laptop is Phoebe and my nook is Nanuq. My last car was Big Blue (my Granny named it) and the one before that was Val. This current car doesn't have a name; it's been pretty good, but it's not comfortable for me to drive.
Everyone has to start somewhere!
When my husband first met me, I could burn Kraft Cheese & Macaroni, then I found out I was gluten intolerant, so I started to cook for myself more. Now, I rarely burn things, cook practically every meal, and unless we're feeling extra lazy my husband and I would rather eat in than eat out.
@Lizanne -- we make cucumber sandwiches with
1 pkg cream cheese, 1/3 c. mayo (you may want more), a package of dry italian salad dressing mix --
mix together, it's best if it's refrigerated for a couple of hours, or even over night --
spread on rye bread, cocktail breads, crackers, whatever you like (my sister had cute little bread tins from Pampered Chef that you put a can of biscuits in and it comes out shaped like a flower, then we slice it cracker thin) --
Top with a slice of cucumber and a sprinkle of dill weed. Yummy!
Janet, I'm making your chicken salad for dinner. Yummy!
The chicken salad looks very tasty. The Blackberry Cobbler looks very different to anything I have done with blackberries before. I have cup measurements, but what is a stick of butter?
Hi Angela! The chicken salad was tasty! To me, anything that isn't Mc Donald's and my kids will eat is good food!
I'm sorry I didn't even think about metric measurements when it came to the recipe link. Butter is sold here in the states in a 1 pound package that are four rectangle "sticks". Each stick is the equivalent of 8 tablespoons or 1/2 a cup of butter. A lot of US recipes just list a stick of butter because it is standard packaging and it's easy to just throw one in. You don't even have to measure!
I hope this helps!
A stick of butter is about 100 grams.
I try lots and lots of new recipes. When I was starting to getting serious with my boyfriend (now husband), I asked him what some of his goals in life were. He answered, "Never to eat the same recipe twice!" What a great person to cook for, never fussy, always willing to eat everything and anything I cook. During the summer, I have my three teenager daughters cook one full meal a week. All of them have one night assigned to them...all they need to do is provide me their grocery list by Sunday. We've had some great recipes from them, and I have three nights I don't have to cook! What a sweet life!
I have tried several Pioneer Woman recipes and loved them all
omg i want chicken salad u are all making me hungry!!
mm! this thread is right up my Alley! lol i food blog on the side, nothing special, just stuff i make, however MY favorite food blogger is Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking, he has A-mazing blog with free recipes. It's a "candy store" for those that like to cook. There is others i like, but i love his stuff the most.
just today he sent out this recipe zucchini ricotta Gnocchi
if you subscribe you can get the recipes in your email, and he will even send you a free cookbook, ebook style, pdf download for free..
here is his recipe index.. http://www.closetcooking.com/p/recipe-index.html he has a few cookbooks out that are ebook style and the one that i tend to "steal" recipes from the most is the grilled cheese book, i love cheese, do you? oh then you will love this, 30 grilled cheese recipes, all different and unique http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/04/30-amazing-grilled-cheese-sandwiches.html
And as a food blogger myself, i tend to try (aka cook or bake) things that you don't normally see everyday, like for instance this is going to be lunch for saturday for my family http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/07/balsamic-roasted-cherry-dark-chocolate.html Yummo!!!
I also like Pioneer Woman too!
Does anyone have any delicious tofu recipes? I bought some for a quiche recipe and have half a block left over. I don't want to make a typical stir-fry, help!!!
I have a nice easy chicken recipe that my mother-in-law gave me.
It's for 3 people - depending on portion size
450 g chicken (fillets)
1 cup (250 ml) mayo
1/2 cup superfine apricot jam - originally 1 cup of chuntey was used but I changed it cos I don't like chutney
1 tbsp syrup - I tried it with maple and it's just as good
1 tsp curry - medium
1/4 tsp tumeric - it was 1 tsp but it's a bit much for my taste so I changed this part too
olive oil spray - just to coat the pan a bit
Chop chicken into bite size pieces. Add oil to pan and heat/ Add all the ingredients. Cook for 30 - 40 minutes / until chicken is soft. A little hot water can be added if the sauce becomes too thick.
Serve with white rice and veggies of your choice.
Clearly I like changing things and experimenting with food. Lol
Can he come talk to my husband, who prefers to eat like the same 5 things?!?!?!?!
I, on the other hand, am far from picky!!!
My go to for guests and kids is Sausage Pasta. It takes only 15 minutes to make and I haven't yet met someone who DOESN'T like it.