Board 8 > Adventures in Cooking! [food] [kitchenaid]

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Looking through the kitchen and sifting through the cook book I've decided tonights dinner will be Spaghetti alla Carbonara. A simple dish which will require neither of my Kitchenaids or the Crockpot but thats fine.

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Hey SBell, when you make your red sauce do you ever use pancetta or proscuitto(sp?)?

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RayDyn on his Droid, probably at work.

I've never used Pancetta or Proscuitto in red sauce. I've never even considered that but it sounds delicious. Maybe a Bolognese with Pancetta.

I'm adding this to my list, RayDyn.

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We made some arrabiata (I think that's how it's spelled) sauce with both of those, soooooo f***ing good.

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RayDyn on his Droid, probably at work.

had chili for dinner again last night and it was just as delicious, I can't wait till next week when we defrost some for a quick and easy week night dinner.

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All the chili's I've seen made before had the beans cook with the rest.

The chili ends up really dry and nasty. I've always thought of chili as an edible sludge paste. Yours looks edible.

Cooking the beans separately sounds like it would solve some of the problems. I feel like there's probably more to it, though.

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"What if you just eat vegetarians?"-neonreaper
"^ You are what you eat. ^_~"-Koiji

I think if the Beans went in for the full amount of time in the slowcooker they would certainly end up becoming a sludge paste, but being added in the final hour allows them to absorb the flavor, get heated and not deteriorate.

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I will tag this topic for dinner ideas.

Kitchenaid is a great tool for enabling.

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##Alec
Congrats to Guru champ SuperNiceDog! All hail our Guru overlord.

Arrabiata is basically spicy marinara, I love it

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_foolmo_
'It's easy to get yourself in trouble if you start quoting people who don't like you in your signature' - Mods

No picture of the Pasta tonight. Just imagine a big bowl of spaghetti with a Cheesy Eggy Bacony Sauce on it. Now imagine it was delicious.

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not sure what to do for dinner tonight, need something quick and easy.

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sorry Nio, got home and everything was still frozen (really need to fix my fridge) and I was exhausted so we ate out.

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I've only cooked chili in the slow cooker once (just got it a few months ago), and the problem I had was that the slow cooker retains all the moisture so it can't reduce at all. I solved this by every hour or so taking the lid off, wiping off all the condensation on the interior, and replacing it, but this seemed suboptimal. How did you handle it?

Not sure I understand the problem with cooking the beans with everything else versus just cooking it for the last hour. Although except for that one time in the slow cooker I've always just put the chili on the stove for about an hour or so anyway, so I guess I was only cooking the beans for the last hour, it was just also the first hour!

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[NO BARKLEY NO PEACE]

Pizza Night. Everyone needs a pizza night now and again

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Dauntless Hunter posted...
I've only cooked chili in the slow cooker once (just got it a few months ago), and the problem I had was that the slow cooker retains all the moisture so it can't reduce at all. I solved this by every hour or so taking the lid off, wiping off all the condensation on the interior, and replacing it, but this seemed suboptimal. How did you handle it?

Not sure I understand the problem with cooking the beans with everything else versus just cooking it for the last hour. Although except for that one time in the slow cooker I've always just put the chili on the stove for about an hour or so anyway, so I guess I was only cooking the beans for the last hour, it was just also the first hour!

I actually noticed a lot of retained moisture and just went with it, having cooked chili without the crock pot in the past i always have it only partially covered so this is never a problem. The first serving was a bit liquidy but the rice did well to absorb it. Day two there wasn't that much of a problem. I was taught to never open the crock pot as soon as its going so i didn't dare do that.

As for the beans, they can get a bit mushy if over cooked. I think adding them in in the last hour gave them the heat and the flavor but kept them pretty solid which was the goal.

I really liked doing the Chili in the crock pot but i think i'd rather do it in the dutch oven on the stove.

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Cooking a 21lbs turkey today

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I forgot to post picture of the bird. I"ll have to do that later.

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have the pictures, but heading out the door.

I think tonight I'm going to heat up some frozen chili.

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Tomorrow I'm gonna be using my slow-cooker to make country captain chicken. I found the recipe in a crock pot cookbook I got for New Year's. It sounds tasty, hope it comes out good!

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County Captain Chicken? Sound interesting. I'm curious to know what it is.

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It's a dark-meat chicken dish. The main ingredients besides the chicken are crushed tomato, raisins or currants (I'm using raisins), and curry powder. It's served over rice. Here's a picture:



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Sounds and looks awesome. I hope it turns out well.

EAting more left over turkey for dinner tonight.

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