Foodie Friday

Deneen is a foodie, I am a foodie, who the heck ain't a foodie?

At Deneen's request or urging or cornering of me...LOL, just kidding! I will post food thingies from now on on Fridays. Foodies Friday is born!

Somethings maybe common knowledge to many and I am no expert at anything, infact fairly mediocre at most, and I am happy with that, I do love food and made a pretty damn good living at it for the majority of my adult life. The Old Man was also a chef for 13 years.

I also want to point out I love gourmet foods for the most part however I believe good food can be made from the most basic of ingredients. No need to spend a fortune to feed yourself and your family filling, yummy food. I began writing a cookbook several years ago and well it has been doing a grand job of sitting in a drawer gathering dust. The basic concept was practical cooking for busy people.

Foodie Friday is gonna start slow with just a few tips. Soon I will add recipes when my wheels get greased again. LOL

Tips on fish:

Do not ever be afraid to ask to smell the fish in the market. Most people either buy it prepackaged or from the seafood market. Of course prepackaged you can't rightly rip it open but when purchasing it from behind the glass unwrapped, ask to smell it. Also look at it closely...and as much as I want to say feel it, I know ya can't. Fish should be firm and not slippery/sticky and surely you can sniff out a bad fish.

Also have ya ever noticed when you take a bite of fish sometimes it taste as if someone squirted a tube of fish oil in your mouth, ya know just really fish almost sickening. The night before you cook your fish,no matter what method you are using, soak the fish in milk overhight. For some reason it absorbs the overly fishy taste.

Try not to defrost frozen fish at room tempt. Do not run hot water over it. Either the night before soak in cold water in the fridge or kill two birds with one stone and soak it in the milk as described above, it will defrost.

Around the kitchen:
Several things should always be in your cabinet, fridge, or spice rack:

All purpose flour
Corn meal
Cummin
Course Sea Salt
Raspberry Jam
Instant chocolate pudding
Penne or elbow pasta
plain rice

Sounds silly, I know it does and I guess it looks wonky with no context. But some people just dont keep these things on hand. I think the all-purpose flour is self explanitory. Corn meal is used for baking certain breads, stretching pizza dough out over, and if added to the flour mixture for skillet fried chicken, totally rocks.
Cummin is a very nutty flavored spice, most often used tex-mex and curries. Don't be afraid to try this spice on things...make a dip for tenders or fried mushrooms or maybe soften butter add some cummin a bit of garlic and chili powder and use it to flavor a steak.
Raspberry Jam is something I keep on hand all the time. I make a mean moist chocolate cake and slightly melt the jam and put it between layers of the cake. Also its great for breakfast muffins...take a plain Jane muffin, make a tiny valley in the top of each unbaked muffin and put half a teaspoon or a full teaspoon depending on the size of the muffins, bake and there ya have it. Also Raspberry Jam makes killer dips when mixed with other goodies, sour creme, on and on...play around with it, see what happen.....
Course sea salt, just looks pretty...visual appearance of food is our first impression of food.
Instant chocolate pudding is great for a couple of things....boxed cake mixes and homemade cookies...When added to a boxed cake mix it adds depth and density. When in a pinch I dump the instant pudding a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips and sourcreme in cake mix and bundt it....makes a very rich moist cake. I added a box of instant cheesecake flavored pudding to choclate chip cookie mix and it was a nice compliment to the basic cookie...
I think the pasta and rice are self explanitory too.

Okay Im done rambling, Im starting to make myself sick,LOL!

Final tip:

Never be afraid to try something...you have an idea, you have a craving....go with it. Even if something doesnt seem like they "go together" try it....what's the worse that could happen?


Thanx Deneen this was fun....(insert hugging smiling smileys here)