Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My ex-husband's mother taught me a lot of things about cooking. Two handy things are:
To make the broth on a chuck or shoulder beef roast browner and more flavorful, flour the roast well, then wait a few minutes and flour it again.... put a 1.5 teaspoons of sugar in the oil and stir. Make sure the oil is hot and put in the roast and brown it well. Then put your water in and a tight lid and put in the oven. Apparently the sugar helps brown it better.
When making a cream soup, and to prevent the soup base from having lumps, slightly soften the butter then mix the flour into the butter. Stir the butter/flour mixture a little at a time into the hot milk/cream.
This ex-mother-in-law also told me to use a few mashed potato flakes to thicken potato soup if the soup appears too thin after mashing some of the potatoes.
As weird as it sounds to some I use evaporated milk in my mashed potatoes. I can't stand the flavor of evaporated milk on it's own but in the potatoes it makes it so rich and good. I've always been told I make great mashed potatoes.
I've put a peeled raw potato in my gravy/sauce while cooking. It reduces the acid and it works
Just be sure to take it out or someone might think it's some kind of meatball
I have an awesome recipe for a coca -cola cake and it is wonderfull and very sweet . my hubby loves it . also hash brown casserole is groovy too . I have so many recipes from family and friends it would blow your mind . just hit me up if you guys want to know some of them .
OK, I'll give up my meatball recipe. I worked on it over the years to get it just the way I want. They're almost perfect now1 So often in restaurants the meatballs are just big balls of unseasoned beef. Mine have all kinds of flavors in them. Enjoy!
Almost Perfect Meatballs
Makes about 28 medium meatballs
1 ½ lbs. ground beef, finely ground
½ lb. sweet Italian sausage, finely ground
1/1/2 – 2 cups bread crumbs from white loaf bread, the smaller the better,
soaked in whole milk, and squeezed out.
2 eggs
¼ cup minced fresh parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB. dried basil
1 TB. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. fresh ground pepper
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Mix all ingredients together. By hand is best for thorough mixing.
Wet hands and roll mixture into golf ball size balls.
Roast at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Turn once.
Test for doneness by inserting a meat thermometer. Temperature
Should be 160 degrees in the center of the ball.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.