0 Homemade Mustard Recipes

I had spent all night by searching for good recipes for homemade mustard. Weeding out some bad recipes or duplicates until I found what I want to make as my "own" mustard recipe.

One day of Saturdays, I went out and enjoy the day. Picked up good hot dogs for my family to munch on. Got something interesting with mustard as I was told that it is homemade mustard that "they" made in their kitchen. It tasted not same as I used to taste the mustard that I bought from stores. I could detect the cider vinegar in that and started to love it. I found myself that I regretted that I did not order good big brats so I can take that mustard after saw other customer carried a tray of brats....That big brats.

I got tired by store-bought mustard but never tired of Dijon Mustard for some reason that I used it so much for flavors, nice addition to sandwich and others. Until few weeks ago, my wife asked me to find a good recipe so she can make one for herself. Very nice of her to ask me.

I tried to convince her to accept my "Chinese" hot mustard recipe but she refused to love this sauce. (ROFL) Ok, Ok, she already tasted my hot air mustard for the Chinese dinner and made a rule that I can not make this hot mustard in house. Ok, I don't want to mention how her face grimace after tasting hot Chinese mustard....you should see her drinking gallons of water.

To sample some good recipes from other Chefs and Amateurs:
Homemade mustard Recipe from Simple, Good and Tasty
Homemade Mustard from Gourmet

Okay, I had seen many recipes that had similar ingredients as above, but interesting to see how many websites had shown their recipes.

If you like to know about homemade ketchup, go ahead and click it.

0 Happy Hallowweeennn!

Wish you all Happy Halloween. Play safe and check your candies before you give them back to your spooky kids.

Today, I don't have much time to blog, I have to do some fall cleanings before I can release my kid loose on trick or treating... and celebrate my wife's Birthday tonight.

Happy Halloween!

0 Hot Pepper Jelly Recipes

Nice Picture of Hot Pepper Jelly? In my wanderings through my own thoughtful mind, It might be very good on my hamburger for spicy and sweet. Hot dog, I don't know unless it is a gamey flavor sausage like elk or moose meat sausages. Maybe good with roasted pork along mixing in with Dijon mustard for little gourmet surprise? I can think more about all ideas I can do with that fantastic jelly.

I am very fond of real fruit or real something in jelly instead of that smucker or whatever they added funny things in jelly or jam. I have to admit that I complained most about commercial jellies and jams because of the ingredients that I don't know about but seeing many people bought them for home with little cringing feeling. Sometime, I wondered why we have so many fruits that we can use for something than eating them. Reading the canning information and how it processed in hot water bath. Have to learn many mysterious stuff through the processing....Very interesting. I hope I won't change myself into a mad scientist to scare my wife. BUT, I admitted that I bought some good jellies and jams for my bagels or toasts.

My wife had made real good plum jellies for me and my bagels. Sometime I will watch her processing the jellies. Pretty fun to watch but she don't allow me to come close to jellies. Well, she is a pro. I have to learn so much about canning and other things to "save" or stock all food for future--to save money, to have something available in case of "famine" or to give something to a needy friend or just keep my mother in law very happy.



Here is the recipe that I stole from Better Home cookbook, I am not guilty:

Pepper Jelly

Prep: 50 minutes Process: 5 minutes Makes: 5 half-pints

1 1/2 cups cranberry juice (not low-calorie)
1 cup vinegar
2 to 4 fresh jalapeno chiles, halved
5 cup sugar
1/2 of a 6-ounce package (1 foil pouch) liquid fruit pectin

In a medium stainless-steel, enamel, or non-stick saucepan combine cranberry juice, vinegar, and jalapeno peppers. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to remove all the liquid measure 2 cups and set aside. Discard pulp.

In a 6-quart heavy kettle combine the 2 cups liquid and the sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in pectin. Return to a full rolling boil; boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off foam.

Ladle at once into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims; adjust lids. Process in a boiling-water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water return to boil). Remove jars and cool on a wire rack until set (2 to 3 days).

Apple Pepper Jelly #2

7 sweet red peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 1/2 cup vinegar, divided
1 1/2 cups apple juice
1 package powdered pectin
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups sugar
red food coloring

Wash peppers; remove stems and seeds; cut into 1/2" pieces. Puree half the peppers and 3/4 cup vinegar in blender or food processor. Puree remaining peppers and vinegar. Combine purees in a large bowl; stir in apple juice. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Strain pureed mixture through a damp jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth. Measure 4 cups of juice. Add apple juice to make 4 cups if needed. Combine juice, pectin and salt in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved, return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Add a few drops of food coloring if desired. Ladle into hot jelly jars and adjust 2 piece caps. Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Makes about 6 half pints

From: HEATHER V

In my opinions, there are so many recipes--I have to read that and this recipe to make sure that I want for canning jams and jellies. The recipes above are the examples of what to do with all that chillies and jalapenos.

0 Cajun Shrimp Linguini recipes

In past, I had cooked several Cajun Shrimp Linguini which had heavy cream, fine garlic, little of bacon bits, and home-made Cajun seasoning to create the dynamite taste. I could share this recipe with you but I don't, sorry.

BUT, There is one nice recipe that I can share with you from Cooking Light website. It is lighter than I had cooked in kitchen, also it is low in sodium. This recipe, Creamy Cajun Shrimp Linguine, look so good to my tummy and gave me good ideas about little changes for best flavors in pasta--with that, I can change little--add garlic and omit salt for good flavor, and add flakey red pepper for lovely specks of color. Other recipe look so simple to me but it is not one of Cooking Light version--oh hell, enjoy your shrimps!

There are many good recipes about Cajun Shrimp Linguini. I have few of my own recipes that I saved for special occasions or one day I feel like to get my nice shrimps from grocery store.

0 Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Mozzarella

One of old recipes that I save in little index file box. I had cooked this recipe for a special diet group who believed in Natural food by their request to have me to make with all squashes. I think it was a low carb diet--that's when I firstly heard about "new" diet in 1990. With that kind of unique cooking, I have to learn so much about the squashes, what to do with them or what to cook them with.... And, learned about the low carb diet--(personally, I don't endorse all of low carb diets with the extreme viewpoints of cutting good carbohydrates, add more fats to their diet. There are many good carbohydrates that your body really need for energy. But only one I support is their diet to help good people to lose their body fats. And, I cooked a lot low-carb requests for customers with their good intentions.)

I enjoyed how garlicky pesto it tasted with squash. I remembered that first time I tasted them, and I started to buy the spaghetti squash when they are available. Love them!

Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Mozzarella
Serving Size : 8

1 spaghetti squash -- cooked
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup pesto sauce
4 ounces mozzarella cheese -- shredded
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, add spaghetti squash. Using a couple of forks to lift, mix in pesto. Cook just long enough to heat through, mix in cheeses, heat until everything is well mixed and cheese is beginning to melt. Serve immediately.
(In my personal opinion, I don't see any reason to add more olive oil since pesto sauce have so much oil to flavor spaghetti squash. Just take a dollop of good pesto sauce and add spaghetti squash, toss to warm it up. Topping with cheeses and viola!)

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 189 Calories; 17g Fat (77.5% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 21mg Cholesterol; 262mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

0 The Abuse of Salting the food

Had spending the time, watching the Food Channel and noticed something not right about their shows but one show did that right stuff that I gave that lady a praise. I have to show my wife to observe one after one: Salt, they put it on food without the measure, they just sprinkle over them--it looked too much for me. I gave her the approximate measurement of salt each after each since I knew how the big tablespoon of salt look like. I have to sign "1 tablespoon!", "2 Tablespoons!", "2 teaspoons!" and "Finally that lady measured her salt, yea." to my wife so she can understand "my mind" that I found them little disgusted and possible little sick after all salting on their food.

To make my entertainment more enjoyable is to see them measure their salt--it is f***ing simple and I would love to ask them how their food tasted? I have real simple way to do with salt, I do measure the salt to make sure my food tasted right. If it is not, I will add little salt until it tasted right. The spices and herbs are best seasonings along with salt and pepper, why not using them in place of salt.

I usually add the salt after tasting the cooked food or other than that, I don't add so much salt, I just let anyone season their own food with salt and peppers. So I can enjoy my own delicious bounty of food on my tongue. I have to mention that I had stopped smoking and there are major changes in my tasting--Since two months, I had stopped smoking. Honest to God! My family is my witnesses and my dog is my very dependable witness due to his "pee" breaks and his noticing me not smoking around while he find a place to do his private business over there. No! not in my garden!

I had noticed by tasting the food, there are something good and bad in food. Sometime, I discovered the saltiness in food, like so called natural deli meat, and it turned me off. There are major changes in my tasting, I can taste the real difference in food with salt or not. I had added the spices and herbs and I can taste them very well. I can tell how salty food are after I tasted them. I can tell how good it is without salt. I remembered how shock I was when I ate my favorite turkey sandwich which I usually get them together. Salty taste from bacon, peppercini and black olives for my nice "virgin" taste buds. After that, I have to change the way I make my sandwich to cut the saltiness down and I can enjoy the tasting experience with good ingredients.

At home, I cooked the dinner for my family. They understood that I cook, I will add no salt to food and they have to season their own dinner. They appreciated that and understood that I want to help them to taste before seasoning their food. They started to follow my rule by cooking so they can do whatever with their dinner while I enjoy the natural taste of food.

With all lunches I had eaten, I already made my own sandwich or pasta or whatever I can find in refrigerator. I had many concerns about ordering my lunch from restaurant or fast food joints or wherever I can get my lunch. I have to look for good food without salty seasoning on it but could not find one. I have to settle for green Salad with good oil and vinegar to play safe. Well, it is better to bring my own lunch to enjoy than stick to what "they" cooked your lunch.

Sometime, I cringed by observing some people salted their food before they tasted their own food. I had seen few did their own seasoning on their, after I worked so hard to season the food perfectly. In my opinion, better to taste first before adding the salt. I remembered that I had dated one pretty lady and saddened by seeing her salting her lovely dinner before she ever tasted. After that, I am very lucky by not taking her as my wife. Other one, I had interviewed a Chef for a opening job, found him as good candidate for my kitchen. Few hours later, I had seen him in restaurant, waiting for their dinner. Secretly, I hid and observed him for while because I want to see how he do with his dinner. I admitted that he blew this off by salting the perfect seasoned chicken before tasting. After that, I changed my mind to find other good second candidate that he mentioned taste the food before seasoning. I was pretty disappointed....but I am happy with my decisions by not hiring....

In my own viewpoint of tasting, now I fully understood what other non-smoking Chefs tell me about the difference in tasting between non-smoking Chefs and other hard huff-puffing smokers in cooking. I was told that when I decide to stop, I can notice how good food are or not. For some reasons the restaurants are not hiring the Chefs who are smoking--I had heard so many. I had seen few Chefs are shown the door out for whatever reason.

As your big kitchen buddy, I would recommend you to quit smoking--there are good helps to give you options to take like a nicotine patch, nice flavor gum or just plain cold turkey. There are so many people who used to smoke, had help me to get over my few cold turkey days with good patch on my arm. Yea, it worked very well with me.

Once you make your decision, there will be about 35 % increase in your tasting to know the difference in the saltiness, sweetness, sourness, and don't forgot the umami or whatever japanese word spell right.... I can list many but I don't want to bore you....

0 Oriental Beef and Noodles

Think you might like to try this recipe for wonderful dinner later. I like some good stews after surviving a cold weather day on boring Sunday.

Oriental Beef and Noodles

1 1/2 pounds lean, boneless sirloin, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, chopped
2 tbs. rice vinegar
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup sherry
1 tbs. oyster sauce
1 tsb. sugar
2 tbs. chopped peanuts
12 ounces cooked vermicelli

Combine all ingredients, except noodles, in Crock Pot. Cover; cook on
Low 8 to 10 hours (High: 4 to 5 hours). Serve over noodles. May be
doubled for 5 quart models. 6 servings

Source of Recipe: Jennifer from rec.food.recipes groups.