Jaxson's is very pricey, but it's worth going once, IF you have room for dessert after Tarks!

SC, would you like me to tell you all about the thick, juicy succulent steaks we had tonight, and how sloooowly we ate them?

No.... I'd rather see pictures of crooked toes.

EW...foot fetishist. Since we're talking about food, though, how's this look to you??

Camel toe always looks good to me.

Where's that picture of Geoff???

ok guys, not gonna do this tonight seeing as its still pretty muggy around here but i've been wanting to do a meat sauce again as it's something i haven't made in ages so i'm open to any advice so please share. i usually use just groung beef, 80/20. do you guys use a mix similar to a meatball mix or should i stick with just the beef?

what i was gonna do was sweat some onions and garlic and put aside then brown my meat. drain off the excess fat and return it to the pan along with the onion/garlic. then a was gonna add a nice spoonful of tomato paste and toast it for a minute or two before degalazing with a small amount of red wine and a little veal stock. reduce and add my red sauce and simmer till done, maybe throw in a pinch of dried oregano and toss with some nice pappardelle. thoughts?

For the love of God, you're the wife my husband always wanted!

i dunno about that, i'm sure you have talents that i don't have and don't wanna learn

True. And much like your sauce and all your other great dishes you put up... a couple of those talents took me 15 years of marriage to perfect.

That being said, the whole, "I don't have to cook, I'm cute" isn't working it's magic anymore. The guy wants a homecooked meal, dammit!

^^^ i was gonna reply with something funny, but i thought lets keep it classy haha

on a more serious note find out what he likes and i'm sure that me and a couple of the other posters in my favorite thread would be more than happy to help you with a more "culinarily challanged" version and guide you through it step by step

When my brother first got married he and his wife had four cats. I was visiting them when one of the cats threw up his dinner and one of the younger cats ran over and started eating it.... I was half laughing and half grossed-out when I asked, "Why's he doing that"?

My brother replied, "He wanted a home cooked meal".

Still makes me laugh.

lol SC

Ok, being that he's born and raised in Sicily, he naturally likes those dishes. But being in the US for 19 years now, he has come to like many american dishes as well.
I usually take a lot of leftovers home (they make extra cause I'm pathetic) from my mom's and my mother in law's when they make things. Now my in-laws are officially moving back to Sicily so I'll have to pick up the slack there.
Anyway, I'm 40 years old, going on 16 years of marriage and I haven't even made a pot of sauce. I do simple things that any idiot can do, like chicken cutlet or meatloaf. The thing is I don't have an ounce of passion for cooking, it's more of a chore for me. But it's time to learn now.

I'm going to ask him as soon as he comes home tonight, what would be the one thing he'd like me to make and I'll post his answer here.
He loves tripe, but in the white sauce, not red, and my mother-in-law makes that for him..but again..she's leaving. lol
He loves any meats, osso bucco, veal with peppercorn sauce, steak, lamb. He likes most things really..he just wants me to make something! lol

The other night, I announced I was going to buy a deep fryer and start making riceballs. He asked, "And what are you going to do with the leftover oil?" I said, "Pour it down the drain?" He immediately vetoed my deep fryer purchase.

Anyway, I'll post what he says he'd like for me to make and we'll go from there. I need simple, don't forget. And thank you in advance for anyone's help.

Carm, i'm not too sure about tripe, peppercorn sauce is another story. i make a pretty good steak au poivre, sounds fancy but its quite simple.this isn't an exact recipe but i will try. this is for two steaks.

buy 2 nicely marbled(specks of fat running through the meat) fillet mignons, around 6oz give or take. not too thick,about an inch. season both sides with salt, and one side heavily with coarsly ground pepper. you can either hand crush your own or use a peppermill but be sure to set it on the biggest grind.

sear the steak pepper side first in a stainless steel pan in a small amount of canola oil, as it has a higher smoke point than olive oil. do not use non-stick for two reasons. #1 since you need the pan to be moderately hot i've found that the teflon can add its own burnt metal flavor,not good. #2 you dont get any fond(brown bits on the bottom of the pan) with a non-stick. this is the base for the sauce.

anyways, sear the steak on both sides browning nicely, but leave them on the rarer side. rest them on a plate to the side. after you pull them out add some finely chopped shallots(around 1/2 tbsp) and sautee quickly, about a minute. next deglaze with about 1/3cup cognac, and have a little bit for yourself for me having a drink while im cooking helps me relax and not worry about every little detail and just go with the flow, just like julia child. this step is actually very important as i usually have noticeably better results when relaxed and having a good time, it makes cooking fun and helps to motivate so

be very careful when adding the cognac as it will ignite instantly so you might wanna take it off the heat/open flame for this step. the next step is one of the most important when it comes to pan sauces. using a wooden spoon, scrape up all the little brown bits off the bottom of the pan. this is where your depth of flavor comes from. by this point you are gonna wanna turn your pan down to a low heat and add around 2/3cup of heavy cream and cook gently over low heat for around five minutes until the sauce thickens, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce from scorching. season with salt and i usually add a sprig or two of fresh thyme, but you can also use dried or leave it out completely if you like.

finally return the steaks that you seared off earlier to the pan along with any juices left on the plate to the sauce and cook until the steak reaches your preferred level of doneness. serve with roasted asparagus or any vegetable you like. one thing i forgot to add is that some people like to add mushrooms to the sauce. thats fine so if you want to add them a good mushroom for this would be cremini(baby portobello). simply slice them and sautee in a seperate pan and add them to the sauce at the same time you add your steak, but dont add too many.

like i said this recipe isn't exact, more like a basic overview but others on here can add in thier own twists or ideas.

^^^ FF this is great!! And easy enough for me. I can totally do this and it's something he'd love. I'm going to try it next week.

I did ask him what he would like and he really has no preference. He pretty much likes a wide variety. So, I'm going to go with this for now (with the mushrooms) and asparagus on the side. Thank you!!!!

let me know if you ever have any questions and i'll be more than happy to help.

Carmela, I know I've posted my recipe for Penne Vodka on the boards before. It came from a cookbook called "Simply Delicious". I can't tell you how many compliments I've gotten over the years! And, while making the roux can be a bit tricky (just remove the pot from the flame when you add the flour and stir very rapidly after returning it until it's mixed well with the butter), it's an incredibly simple and delicious recipe. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll repost.

FF..thanks. I'm sure I will have questions.

Sicilian Babe, actually I was getting around to posting to you, because you've put up great things as well. I do remember the penne vodka and he loves vodka sauce. I couldn't find it.
But, besides that..do you remember that rice dish you posted? It sounded amazing...but probably too complicated for me. lol I'm not sure. But a dish like that is perfection for my husband. Do you remember that dish? If you find it, I'd appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Carmela,
Here's the Penne Vodka recipe:

Penne with Vodka Sauce

2 tbsp. butter
½ onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp. flour
2 cups cream
¼ cup vodka
¼ cup tomato paste
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
Sprinkle of basil
1 cup grated cheese

• Melt butter in a pot
• Sautee the onion and garlic over a low flame. Do not allow garlic to brown
• Add flour and thicken
• Add the cream, vodka and tomato paste
• Stirring constantly, bring slowly to a boil. Sauce will thicken slightly
• Add the seasonings
• Add grated cheese, stirring constantly, until completely melted and blended
• Serve over one pound of cooked penne pasta

The seafood risotto is not difficult at all, but it is time-consuming. I will find the exact recipe and post it soon.

That looks terrific, Babe. Over the years there have been some great recipes generously shared here on the BB. Carmela, you can do this! You are a sharp cookie. Cooking for the people you love is one of the best and most rewarding things you can do for them and yourself. Mrs. Mark was not a big cook at first but now she is very good. Now I admit, I'm no Emeril but I have found out a few simple things that might help you out in this new cooking endeavor. If anyone else has some good simple advice, I would like to hear them because I never stop learning and welcome great tips & shortcuts!

C - First, pre-measure all your ingredients, put them in little bowls and double check them. That way when you are adding something on the fly, you don't have to worry about; "Oh, crap! Was that a half or whole teaspoon?!?".

Whenever you can, always use fresh garlic, basil, parsley, etc... only use dry stuff when you have to.

If you ever brown or burn (even slightly) garlic - throw out the oil and garlic and start over. If you continue to fry and use it, your whole meal will taste terrible & bitter.

Start small - find a couple of easy recipes and gain some confidence and experience. If you have an experienced friend or family member with a ton of patience have them mentor you while cooking.

Salt your pasta water generously while boiling.

When you purchase ingredients, always get a little more just in case you need to start over or add a little more for taste. Don't be afraid to test things out while starting out.

Personally, when I drain my pasta, I add a tablespoon of butter for every pound and mix it in before finishing off pasta with the tomato sauce.

If a sauce or gravy is too thick, simply add a little water at a time until you are good. If it is too watery, you can thicken with equal amounts of a little corn starch and cold water. Must be cold water. You must pre-mix in a separate bowl before adding.

A great way to get rid of fryer oil is to wait a day for oil to completely cool off. Drain into disposable plastic containers and freeze them until garbage day. We use to toss frozen oil overboard in the middle of the ocean (approved dump areas) in the Navy.

I hope some of these help and I would love to hear any other great advice. There are a ton of great cooks on this board! Good luck, Carmela!

this is a great tip not just for beginners but for eveyone. the french call it "mise en place", meaning evrything in its place. in other words prep. like mark said it means getting everything organized before you start. it actually speeds things way up if you spend the time in the beginning. another thing that i would do if the prep was complicated was simply write everything down that needs to be done and what time to start, how long to finish ect as well as any other notes. check things off when they are done,as it helps knowing certain things are finished.

Nice - good advice, FF. Another thing I do is before I start actually cooking, I fill up the sink with hot soapy water and as soon as I am done with a bowl, spoon or whatever, I drop it in the sink and clean up goes much quicker. Keep 'em coming! Before we know it, Carmela will get so good that she will have her own show on Food Network!

Mark gave you some great advice. The one thing I can add is his advice about sauce. If you like yours thinner, keep the cover on while you cook. If you like it a bit thicker, leave the cover off (you will lose some liquid to evaporation).

Also, when you do add cornstarch to thicken a gravy, never do it while it's boiling, and always take it off the flame. Add the cornstarch mixture, stir briskly so that it mixes well, and then return it to the flame. Bring it slowly to a boil. At that time, if it's still not thick enough, take it off the flame, and repeat the steps until it's to your liking. It's hard to judge how much to add, it will just come with experience, and remember that you can always fix it by adding water to thin it out, or more cornstarch to thicken it. If your family is anything like mine, we can never get enough brown gravy, so I usually add a cup of bullion to my drippings.

Agreed, but you may need a bit more when using fresh as opposed to dried, because dried herbs are more concentrated. I prefer fresh any day, though.


Here I disagree. You want the pasta to absorb the sauce. Coating with oil or butter prevents that. And never rinse your pasta after it's cooked for the same reason -- the sauce is less likely to stick to it.


If you used a lot of oil (for say, deep frying), and didn't burn the oil, you can strain it (coffee filters work well) into a jar with a tight lid and it should keep in a cupboard for a long time. I have 2 qts of oil from the last time I used my deep fryer (last summer lol), and the oil is still good (not rancid). A year may be pushing it, but it'll be good if you plan to use it within a few months. I probably would only re-use it once or twice, though.

Speaking of deep frying with oil, don't use olive oil. Canola and/or peanut oil are best because they have a higher smoke point.

If you really want to cook better, watch the pros on TV as often as you can. Even cooking competitions: I watch almost all of them (except the baking shows).

Search for recipes online. http://www.foodnetwork.com tells you what level of expertise one should have for each recipe. I also like http://allrecipes.com/ that has user-submitted recipes with voting. But I don't think I've ever followed a recipe 100% -- don't be afraid to doctor it up a bit. Experiment and enjoy!

Thanks guys so much!! Sicilian Babe, thank you for pulling that up. That's very easy for me to make. I have made numerous varieties of pastas but nothing overly complicated. I've made homemade pesto, alfredo, garlic and olive oil, pasta with ricotta cheese. And thankfully, my husband doesn't want to eat pasta everyday before main course, like his parents do. When he eats it, it's his main dish.

Also, a lot of great advice Mark, FF, and Geoff. One year my mother made me a complete recipe book compiled of all our family recipes. Czech and Polish dishes coming from her side and Italian dishes coming from my dad's side. She even put a pic of each dish next to the recipe. You'd think I'd have pulled that book out? Not yet. lol
She has gotten me subscription to Home Cooking magazine and Rachael Ray's magazine. I do read them every month, but it ends there.
And Geoff...I totally LOVE all the Food Network shows...Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, I watch them all. So what's my problem? I have no idea. I enjoy watching them, but just don't have the initiative to try anything on my own.
But that's all about to change, thanks to this thread here!!

There have been a lot of great recipes here posted by all of you and some relatively easy.

Great advice about doing all the prep ahead of time. Now that I know I'd do, because I'm very very organized and couldn't do it any other way.

Thanks everyone. I'll keep you posted. But don't rush me now.

Hey Carm, did you get a chance to check out my PM?

. About the Italian translation? I didn't get one after that. At least I don't think I did. Unless I deleted by mistake.

I'll resend it.

last night i made some buitoni beef and spicy sausage ravioli. gotta say they were really tasty and they had a good amount of filling, with nice chunks of sausage. after they boiled i tossed them with some sauteed garlic, broccoli and oil and topped them with a little cheese and some toasted bread crumbs. check this brand out guys as they are pretty tasty and a good quick meal.

its looking like pan-seared diver scallops tonight. just simple salt and pepper and a screaming hot pan. i like my scallops med-rare so they cook up quick. my arugula is coming along nice so i'm gonna do a simple salad with just some olive oil and lemon and top it with shaved locatelli.

Sounds great! Our local ShopRite has lobster for only $5 a pound, so we're having lobster tonight. YUM