What's the first thing you'll cook in your new kitchen?

12 years ago

... not to exclude the experienced among you, I'll entertain entries from this variant to the question: what's the first thing you _cooked_ in your new kitchen?

Me first: I am really tried of boxed cereal; I miss my granola! With that, please feel free to provide a recipe:

[me first - super easy, super good and think how much money you'll save. In my neck of the woods 4 cups of this stuff, less healthy, can sell for $10.

Combine in a giant bowl raw oats, the thicker the better, nuts and grains in about the following respective proportions: raw thick oat flakes:total flour (mixture of several is fine and good):nuts (mixture is likewise good)::8:3:2 [suggestions in no particular order: steel cut oats, ww pastry flour, brewer's yeast, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, buckwheat, corn flour, bran]

Liquid/sweetener: 1-2 cups; greater amount of liquid for clumpier, less for less. Sweeten with your favorite sweetener, honey or syrup are favorites around here - solution is faster obtained by heating the water first. Juice or juice concentrate can work.

Flavoring. Feel free to sprinkle tasty flavors, say cinnamon, cardamom, clove, whatever, into the dry mixture before adding wet. Some flavors pair nicely with certain liquids, say OJ and cinnamon, e.g.

Spread combined dry and wet onto cookie sheets and bake as long as you like at 225-300 or so. I prefer about an hour which gives a very brown, carmelized look and flavor, but the Swiss don't cook their oats at all (="muesli") - YMMV.

Store when cooled, add dried fruits (or fresh) at time of eating, not during storage, else moisture will "bleed" between 'dried' fruit and formerly crispy oats :(

NB absence of oil. I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone uses it for granola. Completely unnecessary.]

So *that's* the very first thing slated for concoction. I miss real food.

You? (over).

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aliris19
Original Author

12 years ago

Oh wow, what was I thinking when I asked for recipes? This is making me cry.... (we're still weeks away).

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Comments (36)

kitchendreaming
12 years ago
STEAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!
(cannot do it in the microwave)
sayde
12 years ago
Two things:
I cannot wait to get my espresso machine and grinder hooked up and make a decent latte!

I cannot wait to turn on the hood and make a stir fry!

I cannot wait to bake biscotti!

Oops, that's three . . .
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aliris19
Original Author
12 years ago
biscotti recipe please? (probably basically granola with white flour and sugar?)
celineike
12 years ago
Oh I want to just boil water!!!
I think im gonna make quinoa

My fav quinoa recipe goes like this..
Cook 1/2 c. quinoa per instruction but add a 1/4 tsp garlic salt
Cook. Fluff w fork. Add 1/2 c. EVOO
Add big hand full of fresh herbs... Cilantro, parsley, thyme, whatever u like
Green onion, chopped olives, chopped heirloom tomatoes. Sprinkle of feta

Season w S&P. I love cumin in it too.
willtv
12 years ago
Peperoni PIZZA!!
User
12 years ago
The kids wanted pancakes. It had been nearly a year. We made them for supper the night the range got hooked up, using the recipe in the back of my 8-year-old's copy of "Nate the Great."
plllog
12 years ago
The first thing I cooked was 12 quarts of chicken stock.

Recipe? 2 chickens, trimmed of most fat, plus any giblets, etc., languishing in the freezer. Large rutabaga, large turnip, large celery root, a couple of onions, a bunch of horse carrots, a small bunch of celery, a parsnip or two, and a chili pepper, all in the stockpot. Fill pot with water. Bring to boil and let bubble just under boiling for at least six hours. It's done when there's nothing solid left but strings and goo. Strain very well, and freeze in convenient sized containers, including ice cube trays. Stock ice is great for adding a little moisture and body to a sauce, or sauteing without a lot of fat. It's also easy to pare off whatever fat there is from a frozen hunk. May be cut into smaller portions with a clean, new hacksaw. There is no salt or seasoning in stock, so don't forget to flavor it, if you're going to serve it as chicken soup.
summersucks
12 years ago
the first meal we cooked (the kitchen's almost done, it's functional, just not 'finished') was a big ole rib steak that we cooked like a roast after searing in a skillet, and kale with bacon and garlic. ate with a baguette (we were soooo tired). it was soooooo goooooooooood after weeks of nothing but takeout!
brianadarnell
12 years ago
Sayde- I miss my espresso too! I can't WAIT to make my morning homemade latte.

But, the first dinner I make will most likely be shrimp and grits! My mouth is watering....
beekeeperswife
12 years ago
If not the First, certainly it was the first real meal...rotisserie chicken in my Capital range.

And I know this was enjoyed pretty early on too: A Cactus Pear Margarita!
zeebee
12 years ago
Whenever my kitchen gets done, I want to exult in having working gas burners. My current range won't give me either super-hot heat or a good simmer, so I'll do a shrimp and scallion stir-fry on a super-hot burner, and some brown rice on my simmer burner.

And as for the oven itself...oatmeal raisin cookies, recipe off the Quaker Oats canister top.
slush1422
12 years ago
Definitely chocolate chip cookies in my new Bertazzoni! My old oven looked like this and was on it's last legs:
{{!gwi}}From Kitchen - BEFORE & inspiration

And the recipe:
Dry mix:
3 C All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder

Wet mix:
3/4 C COLD Butter
3/4 C Brown Sugar
3/4 C White Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven 325 F-350 F. Use mixer and cream butter then add both sugars. Next add eggs and vanilla. Slowly spoon dry mix in. Then add one bag (2 cups) of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Place heaping table spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for around 10-12 minutes - make sure to remove when the cookies are barely turning brown for soft chewy cookies. Cool on wire rack.
celineike
12 years ago
Oh ya!! I forgot i will definitely bake gluten free, dairy free, egg free oatmeal cookies and LOVE them. It's been 3 months of no bAking for me.
I'm a pretty prolific baker normally and it's killing me! Can't wait for my bluestar!!! So excited to be done!!!!
Maybe a month more.
writersblock (9b/10a)
12 years ago
>gluten free, dairy free, egg free oatmeal cookies

Got a recipe, celineike?

Bee, you ought to make up a batch of those margaritas as a prop the next time you do a photo shoot. I bet the purple makes a great accent color in your kitchen.
sayde
12 years ago
aliris, my recipes are still packed away. I found several biscotti recipes online and combined them. I reduced the sugar by about a third. I vary the things I put in -- my favorites are pistachio, sometimes with currants added in as well. We like the biscotti pretty well done so the edges are browned and caramelized. I miss them so much! Once you make your own, just the way you want them, there is no going back .. . .

We're still at least weeks away too --
maruha
12 years ago
Steak, 1 1/2in filets, seared on a cast iron skillet to take advantage of our 1200cfm hood. Mmmmm....
happycook2
12 years ago
I'm with the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie gang - but would love to try the biscoti, recipe?
aliris19
Original Author
12 years ago
Sayde, we will all be rooting for your recipes to get unpacked!

I've been good keeping all wistful feelings at bay for a very long while now, but once you let a tiny one in the rest just clamour, gathering steam in the going. I do wish I hadn't started this thought. I am really, really wanting to cook "my" food.

Like chicken soup. I'm sick and I want chicken soup. Why can't you buy chicken soup, it's not like it's hard to cook (no offense intended)? But did you know -- re all the strings and goo -- that some cultures revere the goo? My MO was once to "strain thoroughly" as instructed above, but I've come to see the light that all that goo is all the protein and flavor. So my first batch may be just as ordered above, but without that strainer!

sigh.

You've already seen the matzoh meal, pawing the ground, waiting for the gong to jump in the broth. :)
plllog
12 years ago
No, no!!! The goo is starch from the vegetables, and all of the protein is cooked out of the chicken. What my mother calls "the good". At least it is when you boil it as long as I do. No one wants to eat what's left when I strain stock, I promise you. But it is stock, not soup. Soup is what you make with stock as a base.
sayde
12 years ago
My favorite biscotti recipe is "Mary Kay's Pistachio and Currant Biscotti" which is still posted online on a site called Piggly Wiggly. I usually make a double batch but I do not double the sugar because there is a lot of sweetness in the currants and I do not like the biscotti to be that sweet. I use a bit more pistachios than the recipe calls for.

I used to make these in the old electric oven and now I am wondering whether to make them in the Blue Star gas oven or the Miele Speed Oven. They take up a lot of room when they are all cut and placed on their sides -- you need cut up the loaves into biscotti to let them bake a second time at a low temperature to get crispy at the end.
paige16
12 years ago
To Celineike,
Re your quinoa maybe this is a stupid ? but what is EVOO?
writersblock (9b/10a)
12 years ago
>but what is EVOO?

Not celineike, but as someone who was also confused by this for a long time:

EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil
celineike
12 years ago
oops, ya it's Olive oil - too much food tv i guess :o)

I will post the GF, EF, DF Oatmeal cookie recipe when i get my stuff out of storage... they are really good - super chewy and you wont miss the other things - hard to believe i know!
writersblock (9b/10a)
12 years ago
Thanks, celineike!
happycook2
12 years ago
yea for the oatmeal choc. chip recipe and biscoti -
jolsongoude
12 years ago
Green Chile Stew:

Jay
aliris19
Original Author
12 years ago
Now *that* is a beautiful picture! Congratulations....
aliris19
Original Author
12 years ago
OK Celine, after the whole foods parking lot video, I just will never think of quinoa the same way. Though I'll know how to pronounce it: rhymes with "bra".

As it turns out, we crawled into the chocolate chip and pancakes camp. I've yet to make the granola. But dd1 insisted on making spice bars for a school potluck (to which I'm not invited? wha?) and dd2 needed to make choc chip cookies (though this hardly needed baking as all she wanted was the raw dough in truth) and there were some rotting bananas that I had to make into banana bread. Then it was father's day so verbotten meat (lamb) got roasted and eggs had to be scrambled because life without scrambled eggs is pretty close to a life not worth living....Last night, like mnerg, we actually had pancakes (p. 357, Diet 4 Sm Planet) for dinner; that's how syrup-starved we all were.

We've been busy here today! And the other night we did the obligatory paper-on-the-cc-burner to great acclaim. The young, strapping hungry hombres just-back from the field had to settle on outdoor-grilled food because I couldn't quite tackle the new indoor beast at the time, but we all enjoyed the simmer-road-show.

But truthfully, the very first thing that got made? It was boiled water for pasta. Isn't that pathetic? The second was to stew up some inedibly sour fruit. Funny how plebeian cooking turns out to be.

Recipe for green chile stew?

Here's for spice bars: boil 1 cp water and 1 cp raisins, remove from heat, stir in 1/2 cp apple sauce (or oil) and let cool; add 1/2 c sugar before all the way cool. Stir in 1 egg when cool.

Sift tog dry ingred and add to wet above: 1.75 cp ww pastry flour, 3/4 t salt, 1/2 t cloves, 1 t soda, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t nutmeg (opt: chopped walnuts, 1 t allspice(ick)).

Bake 20 min in 13x7x2 pan @ 375. When cool frost w/butter-cream: 2 cp confect sugar, 1/4 cp butter, 1 T milk, 1 t vanilla.
User
12 years ago
Alaris, I'm glad to see this thread again, since it has reminded me that I want to make your granola. Thanks.

Welcome to the somewhat sheepish pancakes contingent. Happily, though, with a very little bit of prodding my kids are moving farther afield. I've recently instituted the Mystery Produce of the Week Challenge. I'll hand them, say, a jicama or half a dozen tomatillos, and ask for an identification and then a way to serve it. It's funny to see the personality difference come out--one son reaches for a reference book and the other reaches for a knife to cut the thing up.
User
12 years ago
alIris, sorry about the misspelling.
frydmice
12 years ago
Got my kitchen back last week and my guys begged for a beef roast so I cooked a rib eye roast with roasted veggies. I never thought I would look forward to cooking but I sure did!
kellykath
12 years ago
After living in a two bedroom apt. with 5 other people, when we moved back in the house I made two huge pots (about 16 dinners) worth of spaghetti sauce. I poured most of it in 5 cup ziplocks to freeze for Sunday night dinners. I missed smelling the simmering tomatoes, sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, seasonings, etc. etc. I truly appreciate being back home in my own kitchen as well as all the other interior spaces. It's heaven just to have a garage AND a driveway!
celineike
12 years ago
aliris19! - that video is too funny! LOL!!!
I KNOW that Whole Foods!!!

my kitchen is getting so close - i cant wait to cook!!!!!
Quinoa Sista!
sallysue_2010
12 years ago
One of the best unintended consequences of new kitchen? My daughter says it makes her feel like she is on a Food Network cooking show when she cooks there, so now while she is home for the summer she cooks for us all the time. YAY!
aliris19
Original Author
12 years ago
Mnerg - I love that. I have to go out and get some jicama now. Long ago we were at a marine station with a cafeteria (someone else cooking - oh *joy*; sallysue your solution would work too!) and they set out jicama every single day. I'd never had it before - it was wonderful! Then it sort of fell off the map sometime a few years ago - I need to get it back! Thanks for the reminder.

credit to plllog for the link. Me and 1.5 million other viewers like it! Maybe it's up to 2m by now?

Oh kellykath - it's time to restart my CSA box. Oh quivering joy!

Celine - you're another one laughing at 'how we live on the westside of LA'? I had no idea...