Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

I SUCK at cooking. I can make good breakfasts (omelettes, pancakes, etc.) but I am terrible at cooking dinner foods. My main problem is chicken and Pork. See, I am scared to death of poisoning someone with undercooked chicken or pork, so I tend to burn the hell of it everytime I try. Beef I have no problem with, as undercooking is tough when you like your steak rare.

Any suggestions on how not to kill people with my cooking?

Also, I'd like suggestions for doctoring up ready-made foods. For example, the other night I got ballsy and decided to spice up my boring frozen pierogies.

I boiled them for about 4 minutes, and then fried them up in butter, garlic, and onions. I added some crushed red pepper and salt. Success. It was deliciously unhealthy.

I'm looking for more things like that. Anything extremely simple that you can doctor up.

Feed me your cooking knowledge.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Broiled catfish (or trout, if you don't like catfish) filets are outstanding.

Take your broiler pan and remove the vented thingy that goes on top (where steaks would go). Line the pan with foil and coat it with butter or Pam.

Brush or coat the fish with regular old Italian dressing. Broil for... I can't remember, but less than 10 minutes.

Moist, succulent, delicious.

I learned a ton from this cookbook for beginners: Now You're Cooking

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

I have some Talapia in my freezer. Would your idea work with that, or do you need thicker fish steaks for it?

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

I bet it would work.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

3 ingredients: Pasta (I prefer penne), a jar of good sauce (some kind of basil/garlic/oregano/3 cheese whatever [censored] with some flavor), and a package of Italian sausage (mild or hot to your liking). You can either skin the sausage (that sounds so dirty) and break it up, or leave it tubed, or a combination of both. Brown the sausage in a pan over medium heat, pour in the jar of sauce and let it cook on low-medium heat until the sauce bubbles nicely. Stir so the sauce won't burn. Make sure the boil is not too high. Cook as long as you like to suit your paranoia; it's impossible to overcook unless you let the sauce burn, so don't. Cook the pasta, toss it with a little olive oil, and serve your sauce and sausage over it.

Very simple, very delious, no Jedi chef skills required.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Boro- You just gave me my dinner tomorrow night!

Drew- I will research how long the minimum cooking time for talapia is, so it is juicy, yet not deadly.

Please keep up the recommendations. This is awesome!

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
I have some Talapia in my freezer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Talapia has a really mild flavor, so it's really good for tricking up...

Try this:

In a 1 Qt. Ziploc bag (sandwich is too small...):

- 1 Handfull of unsweetened cereal (corn flakes, etc.)
- 1/2 that much parmesian cheese
- spoonful of basil
- spoonful of oregano
- 1/4 that much red pepper
- 1/2 spoonful of salt
- 4 or 5 grinds of fresh black pepper

Zip the bag closed & crush the cereal, mixing everything together.

Open the bag & add one of your talapia fillets. Close & shake until the fish is coated. Repeat until all are coated.

Bake in a glass dish @ 350 until the fish flakes apart easily with a fork. Should be about 12-15 minutes.

Nothin' too it!

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Cereal eh? Seems strange but I'll try anything once.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
Cereal eh? Seems strange but I'll try anything once.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or you can just use something like Italian bread crumbs instead of the cereal:

For great chicken, mix equal parts of those bread crumbs and fresh grated parmesan cheese on a large plate. Dip boneless chicken breasts in egg wash (raw egg plus some milk mixed up in a bowl) and then in the crumb/cheese mix, making sure it is well coated.

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet (one with a cover) over medium heat, and saute the chicken until just brown, about 3 minutes per side. Turn down the heat and pour in about a cup of cheap port or marsala. Simmer covered for 10 minutes per side. Done.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
For great chicken, mix equal parts of those bread crumbs and fresh grated parmesan cheese on a large plate. Dip boneless chicken breasts in egg wash (raw egg plus some milk mixed up in a bowl) and then in the crumb/cheese mix, making sure it is well coated.

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet (one with a cover) over medium heat, and saute the chicken until just brown, about 3 minutes per side. Turn down the heat and pour in about a cup of cheap port or marsala. Simmer covered for 10 minutes per side. Done.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is pretty much exactly how I make chicken parmesian, except obviosly I use a handy jar of Swiss Army pasta sauce instead (most things I cook get a jar of pasta sauce dumped in at some point). When the chicken and sauce are almost done, drop a couple of slices of fresh mozzarella on the chicken breasts and let them melt. Serve with pasta (again, I prefer penne).

To mix it up, get all "Southwestern" ingredients, i.e. southwestern style breadcrumbs or mix a little chili seasoning in the breadcrumbs, the same with the sauce, and use a good pepperjack cheese instead of mozzarella. You can try serving it with Spanish rice, but I would just stick with the pasta.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
My main problem is chicken and Pork. See, I am scared to death of poisoning someone with undercooked chicken or pork, so I tend to burn the hell of it everytime I try. Beef I have no problem with, as undercooking is tough when you like your steak rare.

Any suggestions on how not to kill people with my cooking?

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds largely like an experience problem. A few suggestions:
1. Practice a lot with firm recipes that tell you how long you need to cook the meat before it's done. Become familiar with how cooked pork and chicken look. Or you could just cut the meat open and see if it's done.
2. Get a meat thermometer.
3. Cook in liquid. Find a recipe for braised pork chops. You still shouldn't overcook, but this will make it less of a catastrophe if you do.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Like bobman said, cook in liquid, and also cook on low-medium heat. It is almost impossible to overcook meat under these circumstances; basically you are just simmering. The worst that happens is that the meat continues to get more and more tender until it basically falls apart.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Very good suggestions. I like the southwestern chicken idea. I have a meat thermometer, but sometimes when I use it, it says the meat is done but the chicken will still be pink on the inside. WTF? Should I be allowing it to sit longer before eating it so it will "cook" on the plate a bit more? I know steak does that.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Chicken breasts - buy different McComrmick's seasonings and stread on the meat. Bake for ~45 minutes at ~400 degrees. 10 minutes before finish, drain the fat from the container. Done. It's impossible to mess up and tastes great. You can try different seasnings for variety (Lemon Pepper is awesome)

Fish - salmon, etc. Do the same as above. Buy different seasonings, spread on fish, and bake at ~375 for ~40 minutes. 10 minutes before finish, drain the fat from the container. Done.

To spice things up more, you get get different jar souces that you can add when your dish is almost done baking. Trader Joe's has some really great sauces.

The added benefit of these two dishes is that they are pretty darn healthy. No excess fat/oil.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

These are pretty good...already seasoned, just throw them into the oven and they have a pop-up timer on each filet.

http://www.moreys.com/Products/marin...lantic_2pk.cfm

Once you cook more and more you can tell when meat or fish is done by touch.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
Very good suggestions. I like the southwestern chicken idea. I have a meat thermometer, but sometimes when I use it, it says the meat is done but the chicken will still be pink on the inside. WTF? Should I be allowing it to sit longer before eating it so it will "cook" on the plate a bit more? I know steak does that.

[/ QUOTE ]

The meat thermometer tells you that the chicken is safe to eat. Purists will tell you that properly cooked chicken breasts are still slightly pink, and that cooking until the pink is gone makes the meat too dry. If you prefer the chicken a little more done, either for the look or taste, that is up to you.

If you ever buy a whole rotisserie chicken, the breast meat is often a little pink, and it is very moist and tasty. These are generally cooked precisely by temperature.

When you cook a steak on high heat, the juices are driven in toward the center. Letting it sit for a few minutes allows the juices to move back out toward the edges.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Rotisserie chicken is the best...its really easy to find already cooked, and just pulling the meat to use in another dish works well, salads or pastas.

My sister bought one of these
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=...asin=B0000X6EQQ
or something like it, the smaller version I think.

She is not much of a cook, and loves it! Pretty much foolproof. She uses it for everything, not just chicken.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
Like bobman said, cook in liquid, and also cook on low-medium heat. It is almost impossible to overcook meat under these circumstances; basically you are just simmering. The worst that happens is that the meat continues to get more and more tender until it basically falls apart.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree strongly on the low/medium heat plan. An easier way to cook meat more slowly is to sear it over high heat, then move it to a 350 degree oven to finish. Using low heat in a pan is a one way ticket to mushy, bland food.

Realistically, the only way to get better at cooking is to keep trying it. If the chicken comes out underdone, throw it back in for a few minutes. You'll get the hang of it after a while. Experience can't be taught or read in a book.

For a cookbook suggestion, pick up any of the "60 Minute Gourmet" books by Pierre Franey. He's got very good recipes with relatively few ingredients that can actually be done in under an hour. I learned to cook the year I lived alone by trying almost everything in this book.

Amazon-60 Minute Gourmet

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

So I made dinner last night and the results were surprisingly awesome.

I didn't have time to get to the supermarket so I had to improvise a bit.

2 boneless chicken breasts
I defrosted them in the package in warm water (my buddy who is an awesome cook says this is the best way. I don't know why)
I made my breading out of: (bear in mind that my hands are small and the chicken breasts were pretty big)
1.5 handfulls of plain breadcrumbs
little more than half a handfull of Parmesean cheese
half handfull of basil
quarter handfull of Garlic powder
quarter handfull or crushed red pepper
less than a quarter handfull of salt and pepper

All that went into a freezer bag and shaken around until mixed. I then took my chicken and rubbed them with a little olive oil (very little, just enough to barely coat them). Into the bag they went and shaken around until covered in breading.

I covered my pan with tinfoil (less dishes for acoustix after dinner), and coated the bottom with olive oil. Chicken went on that and baked in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes.

I made some brown rice and steamed some broccoli for sides.

These came out perfectly. Perfectly done and juicy. My only complaint, and it's more of a lesson learned, is that a quarter handfull of red pepper was FAR too much. I like spicy food, but the level of spice almost took away from the otherwise great taste here. Other than that, it was the best dinner I have made yet, and really not too much of a hassle.


Todays lesson: Unless making something that is meant to be spicy, when it comes to red pepper, a little goes a long way.

Thanks guys!

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
3 ingredients: Pasta (I prefer penne), a jar of good sauce (some kind of basil/garlic/oregano/3 cheese whatever [censored] with some flavor), and a package of Italian sausage (mild or hot to your liking). You can either skin the sausage (that sounds so dirty) and break it up, or leave it tubed, or a combination of both. Brown the sausage in a pan over medium heat, pour in the jar of sauce and let it cook on low-medium heat until the sauce bubbles nicely. Stir so the sauce won't burn. Make sure the boil is not too high. Cook as long as you like to suit your paranoia; it's impossible to overcook unless you let the sauce burn, so don't. Cook the pasta, toss it with a little olive oil, and serve your sauce and sausage over it.

Very simple, very delious, no Jedi chef skills required.

[/ QUOTE ]

replace half of the jar of pasta sauce with a can of diced tomatoes. much better, and better for you.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Like bobman said, cook in liquid, and also cook on low-medium heat. It is almost impossible to overcook meat under these circumstances; basically you are just simmering. The worst that happens is that the meat continues to get more and more tender until it basically falls apart.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree strongly on the low/medium heat plan. An easier way to cook meat more slowly is to sear it over high heat, then move it to a 350 degree oven to finish. Using low heat in a pan is a one way ticket to mushy, bland food.


[/ QUOTE ]

I completely agree with you on steak, and probably pork (because I don't cook pork very often I will defer). But for chicken, or a ground beef or sausage, there is absolutely nothing wrong with simmering on low-medium heat. What you call "mushy" I call falling-apart tender. There's a reason crock-pots work. And you can't get bland food if you don't use bland ingredients.

I'm not a chef, though, so what do I know. I only make a few things, but I never get any complaints when I do. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

I haven't read any posts...

[ QUOTE ]
...then fried them up in butter, garlic, and onions. I added some crushed red pepper and salt. Success. It was deliciously unhealthy.


[/ QUOTE ]

You can do this to almost anything, and it'll be awesome.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Gratz on your success!

Here's one I use to make me look like a culinary expert at parties, and it's super easy. (requires a grill)

Buy a half a salmon, preferably a big one, feeds about 5 or 6.
3 lemons
2 cloves of garlic
Can of Old Bay seasoning

put the salmon on two long sheets of aluminum foil, curl at edges.
Press the garlic and apply liberally.
Squeeze the lemon juice all over the salmon.
Cover the entire fish with tons of Old Bay, when it's totally covered, put on more, more is better in this case.

Cook on the grill (covered) 30ish minutes, should be ready when white foam starts to come out and a fork stuck in comes out clean.

It's great, and super easy, and it's hard to screw up.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Here is a tip for pork but I have been told it works well for chicken and turkey as well. Try brining the meat first.

3/4 c. kosher salt, 3/4 c. sugar (molasses or honey can be used instead of sugar) and about a gallon of water. You can also throw garlic or what ever herbs you like. Boil enough water to dissolve the salt and sugar in and then combine with the rest of water. Submerge the meat in the brine and place in refrigerator for 6 to 12 hours depending on how much you are making. Make sure bring is cooled to room temp. befor placeing meat in it.

I love grilled pork chops but I could never keep them from drying out by the time they were done. This solved the problem. I bet it would work on chicken breast as well.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Kosher salt with pork. Hohoho!

Actually, brining is a trick for nearly any meat. Works especially well with turkeys, unless you buy a kosher one, in which case it's already been done for you. All kosher meat is brined at some point.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Buy those herb broasted chickens at the market and take the meat off the bone and discard as much fat and skin as you can. Use the meat in homemade pasta sauces, curries, etc.

The herb roasted chicken costs like $3-4 and it's the same for a whole raw chicken, and it takes a few hours to cook, so you're better off buying it pre-cooked.

The best thing to do when cooking chicken (raw) is to heat oil in a pan over high heat, and brown the chicken pieces for about 5-7 minutes on each side, flipping only once. Then you can finish them off in the oven for like 30-60 minutes at about 375. Always season the raw pieces with salt, pepper, and whatever before you fry. This is a good basic method that works with many recipes- brown first, drain on towels, simmer in sauce or bake in oven.

-J

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
Any suggestions on how not to kill people with my cooking?

[/ QUOTE ][ QUOTE ]
yet not deadly.

[/ QUOTE ]
Keep in mind, especially with chicken, we're not worried about killing people. If you get salmonela, you definitely won't die. Pork, on the other hand, is pretty bad.

Trichinosis << Salmonela. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
-Sam

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Don't scare me, man. I'm grilling porkchops tonight.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
3 ingredients: Pasta (I prefer penne), a jar of good sauce (some kind of basil/garlic/oregano/3 cheese whatever [censored] with some flavor), and a package of Italian sausage (mild or hot to your liking).

[/ QUOTE ]
I made this tonight. I used chicken-sausage, because I don't dig on swine, and I sauteed onions with the meat, but otherwise as you described.

Definitely very good. My local international-market sells loose sausage as well as cased, so I used loose in the sauce with a whole sausage on the side. I had a "Hot" sausage, and got my girlfriend a "Mild" one.

Steamed spinach made the meal healthy, and it was a fast, good weekday dinner.
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6671/snap0045rf1.jpg
Sorry my camera phone sucks. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

-Sam

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
I had a "Hot" sausage

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll bet you did.

Ho ho ho!

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Ok I'll share my easy to go pasta. I have another good recipe but I think it's too hard for me to explain in English [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I'll add a pics of ingredients because I am not entirely sure of names at times, and pics are fun... 1 pound is about 500 grams for conversion.

The Pasta (very filling, and everyone loves it. serves 4)

400 grams of pasta
400 grams of tomato sauce
1 onion
250 grams of mushrooms
1 prei?
1 red paprika?
250-400 grams of minced beef
1 bottle of wine
Spices - oregan and basil


Pasta 400g:
http://www.recipezaar.com/library/images/158.jpg

Tomato sauce 400g:

http://www.italie.nl/culinair/etensw...omatensaus.jpg

Onion:
http://www.onion-router.net/Images/onion.gif

Mushrooms
http://www.flensted.dk/images/indhol...champignon.jpg

prei thingy:
http://home.scarlet.be/~pin29174/prei.h1.gif

Paprika thingy:
http://www.kochpiraten.de/images/art...aprika_rot.jpg

Minced beef
http://www.spar.nl/images/GEHAKT.jpg

Oregan
http://www.alfa-food.cz/images/foto/oregano.jpg

Basil
http://anderswelt-import.com/images/...ges/1195_0.jpg

Prepare pasta as usual. Cut off rooty end of prei, take off the outside cover of it, then cut in circles until you reach a bit that is too green, then take off 2 more layers and cut off a little more. Cut circles through half, and wash and rinse. Cut mushrooms the way you like them. Then, when you start making the sauce, bake/cook the beef and mushrooms in 2 seperate pans. Prepare the beef in such a way that it's done properly (can't really mess it up.) When the mushrooms are being cooked, after the pan has become a little watery and some of the water evaporated, throw in about a glass of red wine. Then add the prei, paprika and onion (which should also be prepared of course). When those have had a bit of heat, add the tomato sauce and beef, let it heat up some, throw in another glass of red wine, add the spices and it will be done soon.

This is pretty easy to make but it tastes very good. Red wine makes pasta much better in my opinion.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

And the paprika, you cut it in pieces, remove the green, the seeds, and the yellow bits inside...

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Great post.

http://www.kochpiraten.de/images/art...aprika_rot.jpg
These are "red peppers".

http://home.scarlet.be/~pin29174/prei.h1.gif
These are "scallions".

Anyway, great post.
-Sam

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Rice: 400g:
http://www.recipezaar.com/library/images/158.jpg

Scrambled Eggs 400g:

http://www.italie.nl/culinair/etensw...omatensaus.jpg

Soybean:
http://www.onion-router.net/Images/onion.gif

Fungus Mold Thingy
http://www.flensted.dk/images/indhol...champignon.jpg

Garlic:
http://home.scarlet.be/~pin29174/prei.h1.gif

Tabasco Sauce:
http://www.kochpiraten.de/images/art...aprika_rot.jpg

Whole fish:
http://www.spar.nl/images/GEHAKT.jpg

Washington
http://www.alfa-food.cz/images/foto/oregano.jpg

Delaware:
http://anderswelt-import.com/images/...ges/1195_0.jpg



[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry, it was a good post with very nice pictures, but I couldnt resist.

-J

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3 ingredients: Pasta (I prefer penne), a jar of good sauce (some kind of basil/garlic/oregano/3 cheese whatever [censored] with some flavor), and a package of Italian sausage (mild or hot to your liking).

[/ QUOTE ]
I made this tonight. I used chicken-sausage, because I don't dig on swine, and I sauteed onions with the meat, but otherwise as you described.

Definitely very good. My local international-market sells loose sausage as well as cased, so I used loose in the sauce with a whole sausage on the side. I had a "Hot" sausage, and got my girlfriend a "Mild" one.

Steamed spinach made the meal healthy, and it was a fast, good weekday dinner.
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6671/snap0045rf1.jpg
Sorry my camera phone sucks. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

-Sam

[/ QUOTE ]

Very glad you liked it! Turkey sausage is also good.

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3 ingredients: Pasta (I prefer penne), a jar of good sauce (some kind of basil/garlic/oregano/3 cheese whatever [censored] with some flavor), and a package of Italian sausage (mild or hot to your liking).

[/ QUOTE ]
I made this tonight. I used chicken-sausage, because I don't dig on swine, and I sauteed onions with the meat, but otherwise as you described.

Definitely very good. My local international-market sells loose sausage as well as cased, so I used loose in the sauce with a whole sausage on the side. I had a "Hot" sausage, and got my girlfriend a "Mild" one.

Steamed spinach made the meal healthy, and it was a fast, good weekday dinner.
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6671/snap0045rf1.jpg
Sorry my camera phone sucks. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

-Sam

[/ QUOTE ]

Very glad you liked it! Turkey sausage is also good.

[/ QUOTE ]I just realized that my "steamed spinach" was, in fact, brocolli. You get the picture. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
-Sam

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Thanks for the names [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

especially scallion I had never heard of...

Red peppers are Spanish peppers, the really hot ones, in Dutch I think.. Anyway, glad to be of help [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Help Me Cook An Edible Dinner For Once
 

Thank you for posting pics... I didn't underswtand the recipe until I could see the mushrooms...