In our modern times, the ability to cook for oneself has become one of the most important cultural assets. In a world that is increasingly inhabited by "singles" - people who live by themselves - everyone has to have this ability.

In recognition of this fact I am opening this thread as an opportunity for everyone to share their favorite recipes. I will begin by posting one of my favorites.

The recipe I'm sharing with you I picked up in one of the finer italian restaurant in my town. It is a sardinian recipe that supposedly the shepards of that beautiful island enjoy.

Ingredients (2 persons):

500 gr (~1 lb) Pork meat
250 gr (~1/2 lb) sheep cheese - the soft kind
6-8 large tomatos
15-20 black olives
2 onions
1 TS Herbes de Provence
1/2 TS Salt

Preparing this dish is rather easy. First, you prepare your ingredients for frying:
Slice the meat into stripes, peel and cut the onions and wash and cut the tomatos to quarters.

Then, heat up the ole' frying pan at maximum burn. Be sure to put enough oil in it and get it well heated up - don't want your meat to get dry! When it's really hot (you can test this with a piece of onion - if you sink it into the fat and it instantly starts to fizzle, then you're set - watch your fingers!), you put the meat in and get it a good tan from both sides.

When the meat is good, add onions and decrease heat. Keep this up with regular stirring until the onions are glassy.

Now, add half a cup of water and the cut tomatoes. Put the lid on the frying pan and let this work on its own for at least 45 minutes on small heat - it can simmer a bit, but it shouldn't be too hot. Stir every now and then.

In the meantime, get the cheese and cut it into small pieces. We want the cheese to dissolve entirely, by cutting it in small pieces this process is sped up a little. Also, cut the olives into rings.

When the tomatos have become soft enough for your taste, add the cheese. Let this work for another 10 minutes, then add the olives, the herbes de provence, the salt and perhaps a bit of pepper if you like, but not too much.


After another 5 or so minutes, you're done! Serve with pasta of your choice. I recommend Rigatoni


Note: some people prefer to not melt the cheese entirely. This may look better, but the consistency of the sauce is better if you let it melt. Same goes for the olives: optic is better with whole olives, but taste is better with cutting them into pieces

Good thread idea, stargelman!

Here's a nice easy chocolate-oatmeal cookie recipe, and it's delicious. I got it from my grandma.

----

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar
1 stick of butter
3 tbsp. of cocoa
1/2 cup of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of peanut butter
3 cups of oats.

Instructions:

Put butter, sugar, cocoa and milk in a pot. Boil for 1 minute. Add vanilla. Take the pot off the burner and mix in peanut butter. Then after the peanut butter is mixed, mix in the oats.

Take a spoon and drop the cookies onto wax paper. Wait until they dry and then eat.

----
I may be weird because I'm a guy that cooks....but whatever.

Yummy.......recipes.....I´m looking forward to see a lot of them here!

So I´ll make a contribution then;

Joe´s Pork filet(invented by a colleague of mine)

1 large pork filet
1 package of sliced salami of your own taste
1-2 mozzarrella cheese in water
full fat cream
chili-sauce

Fry the pork filet in a frying-pan 2-3 minutes so it gets nice brownish on the surface
make cuts in it adverse to the muscle-threads, but do not cut all through it!

slice the mozzarella in 1x1 cm cubes sort of...
put a cube on a slice of salami and fold it around the cheese
put the salami-mozzarrella packages into the slices of the pork filet, open end down in the meat , to keep it there

put the prepared pork filet on a oven-fast platter.
whip the cream with chili-sauce to a nice strength of your own taste

pour the chili-cream over the pork filet, it doesn´t have to cover it but dot be too skimpy here , because it will make a great gravy!

Put the whole thingy in the oven, 200 degrees celsius for 20-30 minutes, check out so it won´t be overcooked, ovens are individuals.....

Serve with rice and a nice green salad....

A light italian red wine or mineral water will be perfect with this...

enjoy!

I have a folderfull of some of my (and my family's) favorite recipies, this is just one of my favorites out of favorites

Quinoa

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 bay leaf
• 1½ cups hot water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ red bell pepper, deseeded and diced
• ½ bunch scallions, diced
• ½ tsp fresh garlic, finely chopped
• ¼ cup carrot, grated
• salt (to taste)

In a heavy, medium saucepan place the ¼ cup olive oil and heat it on high until it is hot. Add the quinoa and stir it so the grains are well coated with oil.

Add the bay leaf. Stir the ingredients for 5 minutes or until the quinoa is lightly toasted.

Carefully add the water (it will sizzle), cover the pan, and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Simmer the ingredients for 20 minutes or until the quinoa is cooked. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.

In a large sauté pan place the 2 tbsp of olive oil and heat it on medium high until it is hot. Add the pepper, scallions and garlic. Sauté the ingredients for 2 minutes.

Add the grated carrots and cooked quinoa. Sauté the ingredients for 2 minutes more. Add the salt and stir it in.
o
Enjoy (if you can find quinoa to make it with, I don't really know how readily available it is)

The rest of my folder o' goodies is here, unfortunately all in .doc format, most of them are pretty nice

Filling and simple.

Combine a 2-3 pound pork roast and a bottle of your favorite beer in a crockpot. Drain a can of saurkraut and dump in all the solids, then add enough of the can's juice to make sure the meat is covered or floating. Leave the pot going for a few hours. Turn the meat every once in a while for even saturation. When it can be easily pulled apart with a fork, it's done. Serve over white rice or your favorite type of pasta.

*smiles evilly, cracks his knuckles, and gets to reciting*

Alrigthy, here we go. These are recipes I myself absolutely adore beyond words.


Squash Casserole
Ingredients:

1/4 cup water
2 pounds small yellow squash, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons butter, melted, divided
3 tablespoons flour
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, divided
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. In a saucepan, bring water, squash, onion and salt to a boil. Cover pan and simmer until squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly, then mash. Thoroughly mix in pepper, 1 tablespoon butter, flour, eggs and milk. Set aside about 3 tablespoons cheese and mix rest into squash. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out almost clean, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix remaining butter with bread crumbs. Sprinkle over casserole, then sprinkle with reserved cheese. Return to oven until crumbs brown slightly and cheese melts, about 5 minutes.

Serves 8

Spanish Rice
1 1/2 cups rice
1 onion, finely minced
50/50 split of water and chicken broth
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 slices of bacon
1 small can of diced tomatoes with green peppers
**OPTIONAL** 4 minced white bullet habanero peppers.

Begin with pre-cooking the bacon roughly 30 minutes prior to beginning on the rice and preheating the oven to 200. From there on, steam the rice in the water & chicken broth mix until tender, transfer to oven-safe container and mix in the diced tomatoes, onion, 1 cup shredded cheddar and 5 pieces of crumbled bacon. Once mixed crumble the remaining bacon on top of the rice along with the rest of the cheese and set into the oven to bake until cheese is thoroughly melted.

Serves a veritable army.


Scroo's Sammich
Due to the varying levels of bread, this sandwich cannot be placed to a true recipe listing. However I will walk you through the construction of the ultimate hot sandwich.

First you take a ROUND loaf of bread about 6 to 10 inches in diameter and cut the top off it to make a lid. From there remove the bulk of the doughy bread portion and begin layering in mortadella, swiss cheese, ham, provolone, salami and marinara sauce until filled. Set the cut top back on and place into a preheated oven at 225 degrees for 10 minutes to allow the cheeses to melt, the meat to get hot and the marinara sauce to lightly bubble. As an option you can place jalapeno rings throughout the layers to give it a zesty bite.

Serves 6 to 8

Just wondering, do you use white or brown bread for this? and which tastes better?

I fear I'll not be able to add a nice recipe myself, so far the most creative thing I've cooked myself are white rice with kerry sauce (not so hot curry) and meatloaf baked in small bits,
and eggs baked with ham :hehe:

I find a delicious dutch crunch bread works the finest

I have tried wheat and the like, but given my fondness for the aforementioned bread, I think it tends to work the best

Dutch crunch bread eh? let me google that for a second as even though I'm dutch, I've never heard of that


Edit:
I just looked at it, I've never seen a dutchman here sell it, maybe it's only used abroad?

Perhaps, it tends to have a rich, buttery flavor with a distinctive brown-baked and cracked surface.

But any "sweet" bread that can be purchased as a round loaf will work

Why do you use sweet bread? will that go with the sausage you use?

1000$
+
Candy Store



edit: Fuzzy! you are one of a kind!(minque)

I have a taste for the sweeter breads for some reason

But in theory the sandwich can go really well with just about any type of bread

*edit* Ahhhh, Fuzzy! Just the person I've wanted to see!

closest thing to cooking i've done: making Ramen on the stove.

Boil water
Throw in brick or crushed noodles
Stir for 2-3 minutes
Remove from heat and add seasoning
Enjoy!

Have to share this with you, it´s delicious!

Picadillo (from Mexico)

4-6 persons

800 gr minced meat (beef, not pork!)
butter or oil
1 large onion, neatly hacked
4 tblspoons red wine or sherry
3 tblspoons lemon juice (from fresh lemon)
2 tomatoes, peeled and hacked
2 jalapenos ot chili-fruits, hacked
20 pimiento-filled olives, sliced
3 tblspoons capers
75 gr raisins
2 big potatoes diced
1 segment of garlic, pressed
½ teaspoon grinded caraway seeds
salt
50 gr almonds, roasted and hacked..(take double amount.....)

1. Fry onions and minced meat in butter or oil in a large pot until it gets a nice colour. Add wine and lemon-juice, simmer for approx. 5 min.

2. Add tomatoes, chili-fruits, olives, capers and raisins. Simmer for another 20 min.

3. Fry potato-dices together with garlic and caraway seeds for 10-12 or till the potatoes are soft. Mix the potatoes with the other ingredients and simmer for a couple of minutes.

4. Spread the almonds on top......and ENJOY!!

Ok I´m double-posting but it´s on purpose!

It would be awesome if you posted your favourite christmas-food-recipes here, in tha way we all can learn what folks are eating in our different countries or states!

Come on...share your goodies with us all!

Lets see. I made the food that is widely known as the "I hate you" gift. Fruit Cake.

Can't really give any steps to cook it. I threw away the plastic cover for the cake.