Tofu's not so bad, you just have to cook it well and flavor it with something :)

Also, I'm too lazy to make the Fufu (starch balls) that are supposed to go with the stew, so I'm doing some rice to go with it ;)

I'm sure most people know how to make rice, but just in case some here don't, here's how I like to do it. You'll need a sauce pan with a clear lid and basmati rice.

As a general rule use 1 cup of rice for 1.5 cups of water.

1. Rinse the rice thoroughly. I like using a sifter so the water gets through and I don't have to constantly stop to pour it out of a bowl. If I remember correctly, this gets rid of the stickiness that makes it clump together.

2. Once that's done, put the rice into the sauce pan and add the water. Let it soak for thirty minutes or more. This'll make it easier for the rice to absorb water later on.

3. For the actual cooking, start off with lid off and the heat on high. Once the water is at a boil, put the lid partly on and set the heat to medium. Watch for the water level to start lowering to the rice and steam holes to appear. When that begins to happen, put the lid on and the heat on low. Once the water looks to have disappeared, turn the heat off and let the rice sit for a few minutes.

4. Fluff and eat!

Remember to not take the lid off once it's on. That'll ruin the cooking process. Steaming should be pretty quick, under ten minutes I think. It's easy to end up with slightly dry rice, but you should quickly get the hang of when to move to the next step.

Dear Hammerbuddy
Buy a rice cooker friend, worth every penny as much rice as I use.

Here's something to spice up your day

Armadillo Eggs


2 to 3 cups of biscuit dough (all depends on how fluffy you want them)
1 pound pork sausage browned and drained
1 pound hamburger meat browned and drained
1 pound cheese shredded (Whatever is your favorite as long as it melts well)
2 cups crushed soda crackers or bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 dozen jalapeño peppers halved and cored

Knead biscuit dough, sausage, hamburger, black pepper, salt, and garlic all together till uniform.
Stuff jalapeño halves level with cheese
Surround jalapeño halves with dough mixture, make sure the ends are closed or the cheese will run out. make sure dough is packed firm.
Roll in crushed soda crackers/bread crumbs
Bake on a cookie sheet (With aluminum foil on the bottom cause one of them is gonna leak cheese, trust me) at 350 F for about 35-40 minutes, turning over half way

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/23...391211f664.jpg

I was doing my step father's taxes and while going through the files I saved off her computer I came across some baking recipes that my mother had stored and used (to my delight) I for one am a decent cook but a terrible baker so I thought I would share these with the AG community. Please enjoy them.

Peaches and Cream Cake


1 box yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla instant pudding (small)
4 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1-cup water
½ cup sugar
1 large can sliced peaches
3 T. peach juice
12 oz. cream cheese softened

Drain peaches well. Mix cake mix, pudding, water, oil and eggs. Spread into a 9x13 cake pan. Place peaches in a single layer on top of cake batter in the pan.
Mix sugar, peach juice and cream cheese until speadable and spread evenly over peaches and cake batter.
Bake @350 for 35 minutes (may take longer)

Kolaches


2 pkg dry yeast
½ c. sugar divided
2 c. warm milk 110 to115 degrees
4 c. all purpose flour
4 egg yokes
1 tsp. Salt
¼ c. butter or margarine
2 c. canned filling (prune, poppy seed, cherry or lemon)
1 egg white beaten

Dissolve yeast in warm milk with 1T. Sugar. In large mixing bowl combine 2 c. flour, egg yokes, salt butter yeast mixture and remaining sugar. Mix until smooth. Add remaining flour to form stiff dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size. Punch down and let rise again. Roll out to ½ inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter and place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise until double. Place an indent in each one and fill with filling. Brush with egg white and bake10 to 15 minutes at 350degrees

How do you pan sear chicken breast? What kind of heat and pan do I need? I'd only put some pepper and salt on the chicken.

I had to google the expression pan sear. I found this.

EDIT: Whenever I make chicken breast I use a non-sticky pan with a lid since you need to lower the temperature and cook under a lid to get the chicken well done.
Salt and pepper should be fine.
Serve with rice, tzatziki and veggies. Oven roasted vegetables is great to chicken.

Today I found a great potato recipe. In Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries we're fond of newly harvested potatoes: new potatoes and this is a great dish to go with grilled meat.

Potatoes in Rosemary

Boil new potatoes until they're almoste done. (I took 20 small/tiny ones)

While it's boiling, make a paste out of three cloves of garlic, grinded lemon peel (from one lemon), plenty of rosemary and a small amount of olive oil. I made the paste in a mortar.

Squeeze the potatoes slightly until the peel opens up a bit and then fry them while still warm in olive oil and some butter, preferably in a non stick pan. Mix the paste with the potatoes in the frying pan. While frying, put salt flakes and pepper over everything. Fry until the potatoes are crisp.

With this I served grilled fillet of pork, grilled Halloumi cheese, grilled zucchini and red wine.

I heartily dislike cooking, but here's a super-easy French toast that makes a good lunch or light dinner. I've been making it since I was about 10 years old, so pretty much anybody can do it if they're safe around fire!

French toast for one

Break 2 eggs into a flattish, wide sort of bowl. Add a glug of milk (or condensed milk is fine too), a small sprinkle of salt, and a pinch of sugar. Beat with a fork until mixed.

Lightly oil a frying pan or griddle, or melt a little butter in it, and heat until very hot. Test the heat by sprinkling a drop of water onto the pan -- it should sizzle and snap.

Dip a slice of bread into the egg mixture until it's coated all over but not soggy. Drop onto the pan and leave it alone until it's nicely browned on the bottom. It won't take long. Turn over and cook a little longer until it's browned on the other side.

Keep doing this until you're out of egg mixture, probably about 4 slices of bread. If you've got enough French toast and still have some egg mixture left, you can pour it into the pan and cook it as scrambled eggs. (You might want to add a little more salt to counteract the sugar.)

Eat quickly while it's still hot, in any way that you would eat pancakes, such as with maple syrup or jam. Delicious even without any topping.

I think good-quality white bread makes the best French toast, but you can try it with any kind of bread you like. If it's a little bit stale, so much the better, as it's less likely to go soggy and break apart.

Harvest Tagine

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons butter
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1 1/2 teaspoons tumeric
2 teaspoons cumin seed
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup canned tomatoes, with juice, coarsely chopped
6 cups reduced-sodium vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (20-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 pound green beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 eggplant, skin on, coarsely chopped
Harissa, optional

Instructions
1. Heat olive oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add garlic, tumeric, cumin, black pepper and red pepper flakes; sauté 3 minutes.

2. Transfer onion mixture to a slow cooker, along with canned tomatoes, vegetable stock and salt. Cover and cook on high 1 hour.

3. Add garbanzo beans, sweet potatoes, raisins, green beans, zucchini and eggplant. Continue cooking on high 1 1/2 hours or on low 2 to 3 hours, until vegetables are tender. Serve with harissa.

Serves 6.

Recipe by Crescent Dragonwagon.

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(I didn't use the eggplant, used a mix of beans instead of just garbanzo and didn't use the harissa as a side)

The flavor of this is fantastic (and it's healthy!).
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Well, since this thread popped up, might as well...

Here's something extremely easy:

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup kefir
1/2 cup orange juice
1 packet cyclamate(or other sweetener, but then might need a bit of salt added)

have you tried Stevia yet? It doesn't seem to have the aftertaste that other sweeteners do but if you use to much it does have a slight hint of anise.

Oh, yes.

Stevia varies a lot from brand to brand. I've tried "now" which is very weak, especially considering the 90mg it claims to have in each packet, and on top of that tastes quite mediocre, and "herbal select", which is a lot better. Still, on the whole, stevia is not known for its taste.

From my experience, stevia tends to go well with chocolate and the like*. Oh, and cinnamon-orange-rooibos.

But, it is rather expensive, so, because of that, I only find it to be worth using together with another sweetener. Like cyclamate, which has a lot of synergy with it(as I had mentioned a while ago). Oh yeah, so if I was making two cups of dairy-juice-drink instead of one, I would use two different sweeteners.

*Likewise, lo han guo extract is said to go well with chocolate. Hey, I had been wondering what to do with lo han guo fruit, I need to try it with some tisanes.

Sinner's Sangria

1 bottle of Sandeman Founders Reserve Port
1 liter ginger ale
1 orange cut in small slices
1 green apple cut in small cubes
4 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice

Directions: Combine all ingredients into a medium size punch bowl.
(they didn't say what size bottle of port!! I just kept putting it in till I liked the taste!)

Aye, that be grog, ya lubber!