Great Recipe for a Beginning Young Chef

Hi Guys.

First time poster, below I have shared one of my favourite, self created recipes that I beleive is a good little winner for any young person starting to fend for themselves. This meal is quick, easy, cheap and best of all kid friendly!

Emma's Mexican Chicken Casserole:



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Minnesotan meal suggestions: wild rice, hot dish, cranberry sauce, apple crisp dishes?

Hello there food enthusiasts. I'd really like to prepare a Minnesota-themed meal for a French family, and I'm looking for some suggestions as to dishes I can make with a few ingredients I have and want to include. Help, Minnesotans, and midwesterners?

First, they'll be cooking possibly salmon, and probably chicken, and I want to use wild rice as a side. Possibly a soup with the chicken, but a kind of fancied' up rice dish to go with the meat dish would be great as well.

I also want to make them a hotdish, not totally sure of which one to pick, but of course, tater tot hotdish is a classic. I'm thinking of the tots/beef/green beans variety (see here). I even used to eat this with a corn flake layer on it. But, I've also had these made amazingly well, and not so well...having never made it myself, I'd really appreciate anyone who can give me hints about how to make a hotdish that will impress foreigners who will probably think it's slightly insane looking.

For a dessert, when I think Minnesota I think lefse, apple crisp, and bars. Lefse seems a little too crêpe-like to make for French people who eat crêpes constantly, so I'd rather make an apple crisp. I'm wondering if I could incorporate the (smooth) cranberry sauce into it somehow...as well as possibly blueberries, or raspberries, since they never eat blueberries, and it's a pretty darn Minnesota ingredient in my eyes. Anyone know of a decent way to incorporate those together? I might just experiment, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask how to make a bomb apple crisp.

Any other ideas about excellent Minnesota-themed foods involving wild rice, hotdish, and desserts would be great, thanks in advance! I realize this is a pretty open-ended post, but that's the trouble with cooking a meal representative of a state in a foreign country. More often than not, there are ingredients you just can't find (partially due to the fact that you don't have the learned cultural knowledge of the exact terminology and places you would locate said ingredient), and have to substitute with somethin' else.

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tomatoes and cumin for dal recipe

Entry tags:cuisine: indian, help: substitutions

I'm craving Indian-spiced food like crazy, and just happen to have most of the ingredients for the "Everyday Yellow Dal" recipe found in this article (scroll down a bit to get to the recipe). What I don't have, and am hoping I can substitute, are:

-large tomato - the recipe calls for it to be cut into wedges and simmered with the dal/split peas. I don't want to go out to the store for just one tomato, and plus, any "fresh" tomato I'd get in February in Michigan is bound to be pale, mealy, and in general nasty. I do have several cans of diced tomatoes in my pantry. Think I could sub one of those?

-cumin seeds - the recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds. Again with the not wanting to go out to the store for one little ingredient - we are supposed to get "the blizzard of the century" tonight, whatever the heck that means (it has yet to start snowing!). I do have plenty of ground cumin. Could I use that instead - and if so, how much ground cumin would you substitute for 1/2 teaspoon of the seeds?

So, what say you,

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Best Most Favorite Fantastic Appetizers?

We're going to a dinner party this weekend, and I'm in charge of appetizers. The rest of the menu sounds completely amazing:

Soup
Creamed Celery Soup with Chili Oil

Salad
Shaved Vegetable Terrine with Sweet Corn Drizzle

Entree
Roasted Venison Loin with Mustard Spaetzle
Vegetarian Option:
Roasted Winter Vegetable Curry with Brown Sticky Rice

So, you know, I want to impress! There'll only be nine for dinner, so I'm thinking making a selection of two or three little appetizers won't be too overwhelming. We'll have our winter CSA share veggies to choose from - likely turnips, various greens, maybe daikon radishes, surely more rosemary, we've got it coming out of our ears, plus fresh eggs. (Inspiring, right? Sigh. Winter.) I can shop, too, but I'd still like to keep it seasonal. I'm the vegetarian, so no meat.

Any suggestions? What have you had that's blown you away lately?

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Ideas for cooking ridiculously spicy pickles?

had a sale on Mt Olive pickles and I made the mistake of buying the 'Zesty' variety. Now, I like hot pepper in my pickles, but this is inedible by itself. Truly, and not deliciously

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