Kirsten's favorite recipes :)

[Kirsten]

I don't cook that much, but I love finding new and tasty (and preferably really simple!) recipes. Here are two of my favorites, sorry I'm not good at thinking up creative names :boots::

Stir-fried swiss chard

-Freshly picked swiss chard from the garden, both stems and leaves; slice leaves into strips about an inch wide, cut stems into lengths of about the same
-minced garlic (just chop up a clove or so, depending on how much chard you have)
-vegetable oil
-salt and sugar to taste

Heat up oil in a pan and when it's hot enough, drop in the minced garlic... let fry for a couple of seconds, toss in the swiss chard, and turn from time to time until stems are tender :) Add a little salt and sugar to taste.

I love this recipe... I'll make a big plate of it and just eat it all on my own. Be sure to wash the swiss chard super well, it tends to pick up lots of dirt...

Country fried new potatoes*

*This is a recipe I found awhile back in a magazine, so I'm keeping it's original title, but I've never bothered to use new potatoes. A big old baking potato will do just fine.

- Two large potatoes or three/four smaller potatoes; wash and cut into wedges of about 1.5 cm (I like to cut them in half, then fourths, then eighths, and from there just cut into small pieces). Leave the skin on.
- mince up a clove of garlic (or use garlic powder... I didn't have any when I first made this so I just minced some fresh garlic)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- Vegetable oil

Heat up the oil and let the garlic fry for just a few moments, then toss in the potatoes and cover. Let cook for about 8 minutes. Toss in the salt and black pepper and mix well, then let cook uncovered for about 10 minutes (or until tender). I like it when the outsides are just slightly browned to give it a nice flavor :)

[Riz]

thanks kirsten..

Ive never heard of swiss chard until you grew some.. so ill be growing that next season and hopefully eating it like you suggested, but i can defintley try the country fried potatoe reciepe, it sounds tasty espically with some salad and coleslaw :)

[~Obsidian~]

Will attempt that potato recipe with mine if they grow well :p My sister just made some in a similar fashion to that coincidentally, but they were typically currified lol!

[Tania]

You don't have a healthy recipe for potato chips :?

[Riz]

You don't have a healthy recipe for potato chips :?

what are they ?

crisps ?

[Kirsten]

I think you Brits call them crisps... we call them chips here :)

I don't have a recipe for potato chips, I'm sorry :( I've never tried making them, but if anyone finds one, I'd be interested to try it!

[Tania]

Until 1 month ago i never ate them, but now i really like them. I think crisps=chips and are very slim salted potatoes slices :) not so healthy.

[Te'oma]

Country fried new potatoes*[/B]

*This is a recipe I found awhile back in a magazine, so I'm keeping it's original title, but I've never bothered to use new potatoes. A big old baking potato will do just fine.

- Two large potatoes or three/four smaller potatoes; wash and cut into wedges of about 1.5 cm (I like to cut them in half, then fourths, then eighths, and from there just cut into small pieces). Leave the skin on.
- mince up a clove of garlic (or use garlic powder... I didn't have any when I first made this so I just minced some fresh garlic)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- Vegetable oil

Heat up the oil and let the garlic fry for just a few moments, then toss in the potatoes and cover. Let cook for about 8 minutes. Toss in the salt and black pepper and mix well, then let cook uncovered for about 10 minutes (or until tender). I like it when the outsides are just slightly browned to give it a nice flavor :)

Toss in 1/4 of a medium sized cooking onion, well diced, when you put in your potatoes and it just makes the flavour pop. I also recomend experimenting with flavoured salts like seasoned salt.
For an entire breakfast in a single pan, you can also add 2 eggs to this mix and just keep stirring it as it fries

[Kirsten]

Another one - a simple asparagus recipe:

1 bunch asparagus spears (the fresher the better)
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt/pepper to taste


Cut spears into segments about an inch long, slightly diagonal. Some people I know hate the flowery areas, I love them so I toss them in. Throw away the parts that are too hard. Boil in water for about two minutes until they're bright green, I like them a little softer so I might let it go for 3-4.

Mince up two cloves of garlic super well and fry in a little bit of olive oil until they're browning. Toss in the drained asparagus and turn. Add a little salt and pepper to taste (lemon juice optional, I don't bother with it). When the asparagus is browning just a little it's done.

I love making up a whole bundle of asparagus this way and eating it with steamed rice!

[Kirsten]

Here (http://i38.tinypic.com/fxunow.png)'s a pic of the potato recipe I made a few weeks ago with our home grown potatoes and home grown basil (on a whim, I diced some leaves and tossed them in at the last moment). They were super yummy!

[Riz]

Here (http://i38.tinypic.com/fxunow.png)'s a pic of the potato recipe I made a few weeks ago with our home grown potatoes and home grown basil (on a whim, I diced some leaves and tossed them in at the last moment). They were super yummy!

indeed, yummy yummy

i could have done with this recipe last night, i was sooo hungry around 2.00 a.m ish

[Hannah_B]

Does anyone know how to make jacket potatoes? and what's the difference between a brown potatoe and a red potatoe please? Which one cooks faster?

Thank you.

[Riz]

Does anyone know how to make jacket potatoes? and what's the difference between a brown potatoe and a red potatoe please? Which one cooks faster?

Thank you.


Red potatoes tend to have a lower specific gravity, which means they contain a higher ratio of water to solids than a Russet (brown) potato which has lower ratio of water to solids. The Red potatoes contain more sugar than the overall make-up of a Russet potato, giving red potatoes a sweeter flavor.

how to make a jacket or baked potato

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A400834

[Kirsten]

My super fast and easy pasta recipe - which is kind of cheating since most of the ingredients are premade, but I like my sauce a lot chunkier than what you can buy in stores, so:

- Get pasta boiling first in a small pot - this is usually the longest part. Add salt/a bit of oil to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot, however you make pasta

- Mince a few cloves of garlic and dice some onion (for about 2-3 cloves and a third of an onion, this usually takes 2-3 minutes.) Toss into a pan with some olive oil and heat. Cook until onions begin to turn clear.

- In the meantime, stir the pasta and chop up some sausage, leftover fried chicken (without the breading), leftover chicken breasts, any kind of cooked meat that's sitting around...I have a jar in the container where all leftover meat goes for this purpose Toss in with the onions and garlic -they don't have to be fully cooked yet. (2-3 mins... don't forget to thaw the sausage if it's frozen, you don't have to heat any meat taken out from the fridge)

- If you've got time and there are other things you want to add, chop and throw in. I hate mushrooms but I know people who add them. When onions are cooked (everything else is fast-cooking anyway), pour in some store bought sauce until your sauce is as chunky as you like it, and let it heat for maybe another minute.

- In that minute, wash the knife and cutting board and throw away onion peels, etc.

- Drain the pasta and pour the sauce directly into the pasta, right in the small pot. I'm busy and lazy and I hate washing dishes, so the fewer the better.

- Wash the pan, don't let it crust over or it'll be a pain to wash later.

- Eat!

This is actually really fast and usually only takes me about 10-15 minutes tops, as long as you don't waste any time (wash while things are cooking, for example) and then I can do other work, watch an episode of TV, etc. while I eat, and it tastes so much better than sauce directly from the jar.

[Riz]

Another great recipe form kirsten...

i love pasta anyway, and living on my own like i do,, its pretty quick and tasty albeit definitely without the sausage ...

[Kirsten]

If i were lucky enough to get enough tomatoes next year, I would love to try making my own tomato sauce... I have seeds for yellow tomatoes too, how cool would that look?

[farah]

yellow tomatoes? do they taste the same?

[Kirsten]

Supposedly :) Guess we'll wait and see, hopefully I get lots of tomatoes this year...

[~Obsidian~]

Hopefully you will! Are you all geared up for squirrel wars this year? :D

[Riz]

Hopefully you will! Are you all geared up for squirrel wars this year? :D

probably taste nice with potatoes :eek:

[~Obsidian~]

probably taste nice with potatoes :eek:

:eek:

:D

[Kirsten]

Yeah I'm gonna have to echo Obsidian .... :eek:

But squirrels are so cute :( If they have to be annoying animals, why can't they at least be hideous and hateable? If they had a few extra pairs of legs I would feel quite differently!

[Kirsten]

I made a very skimpy form of pesto (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1XqaZQ8bbnQ/Se8kvVBf43I/AAAAAAAAAA0/5eqFVI563UM/s320/pesto.jpg) today (not my picture, I wish!). Traditional pesto calls for lots of basil, pine nuts, cheese, garlic, and a little olive oil, but unfortunately I had neither the pine nuts nor the cheese. Nor did I have a blender...

I did have loads and loads of basil though, so I ended up lightly frying the minced garlic in just a little olive oil, and adding tons and tons of minced basil that I cut by hand with a very big knife. On a whim, I went ahead and added some minced swiss chard as well, since I have TONS of that too. Then I added some salt and pepper to taste and tossed some penne pasta in it - overall it was pretty good considering that I left out two critical ingredients!

And I was looking for other super simple ways to use basil and saw my potato picture from last year. Methinks that will be dinner tomorrow...

[Riz]

yummy yummy !!!

i bet it smelled really good too, i love pasta with mushrooms and spicy chicken cut up in small chunks, i had some last night...

do you eat meat k !?

[Kirsten]

I do, but I don't know how to cook it so I stick to the veggies ;)

I do love chicken in pasta though... mmmm

[Kirsten]

In a desperate attempt to use up more swiss chard, I made scrambled eggs with swiss chard yesterday. It looked a little like this (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3125/2858559112_dd4c9050df.jpg) except with the bits of chard cut much smaller and much more chard and less egg, lol :)

I am having trouble with my chard having an odd astringent taste that was present but not quite so bad last year, and I'm not sure why. Some sites claim that chard is "prized for its astringent taste" ... not so by me, so I'm trying to come up with some different ways to cook it so the astringency isn't quite so bad. I pretty much completely minced the leaves into tiny, tiny fragments, but as for the stems I diced them into segments about half a centimeter long to leave a little crunch with the eggs.

It was very good and I'll definitely make it again :)

[farah]

have u tried the country fried tatoes in a bun? great when you haven't got many potatoes esp. with a bit of mayo

[Kirsten]

I made some zucchini with onion today :) Can't believe I ate four zucchinis for dinner... mm!

http://i36.tinypic.com/2mmbk05.jpg

[Riz]

looks nice.. 4 is a lot for one person lol

[Kirsten]

Can you tell that I LOVE carrots - stirfried with a bit of chili sauce, I had this over rice for three meals straight!

http://i49.tinypic.com/1626xdu.jpg

[Riz]

LOL@ 3 meals straight.....

[farah]

:ty: simple, healthy recipes... stir fried carrots though is a new one..

[Kirsten]

Normally I like to toss in some green onions too, but I didn't have any :(