What are you cooking?

[jaylach2 137]

Since they have a $9.99 special with 7 toppings I have a couple of large pizzas coming soon. LOL! NO! Not eating both tonight or even one. Makes for 4, 4-slice, dinners. I just didn't feel like cooking and it is a good discount.

 

[Fishmanic21 137]

@jaylach
So do you always get your pizza cut into 8 slices?
I always get my pizza cut into 6 slices, because I'm not hungry enough to eat 8 slices.

 

[jaylach2 137]

Left over pizza tonight and two more nights. Might be something in between but I have a lot of pizza.

No real need for this post other than to say how to re-heat pizza. When I lived in Florida I knew a guy that owned a private pizza shop. Actually he had the best crust I've ever had. He finally admitted, as I suspected, that he added a little honey to the dough.

The pizza guy told me the trick to re-heating pizza properly. Do not do in the oven as this just dries it out. Do not microwave as that just makes it soggy and the crust totally limp. He said to use a large skillet with a a lid that has been run under water. The water on the lid causes steam which freshens the topping and the dry pan bottom brings the crisp back to the crust. I've been doing his advice for years and it really works and the pizza is like new after re-heating. Keep in mind that this method is only good for a limited time; 4-6 days max..

As to this guy's crust I can come fairly close but can't totally duplicate. Since there were green specks in the crust I figure that he added some dry spices such as basil, thyme and/or oregano. This was the guy that showed me that feta cheese and broccoli are awesome on pizza. The guy was very well-to-do and didn't even need the shop but just liked making pizza and making other people happy. Shoot, he even did a sea food pizza but, due to his insentience on fresh, you had to place the order two days in advance so he could get the sea food as fresh as possible. The sea food pizza was done with a white garlic sauce. I never had one of these but other customers told me that it was one of the best sea food dishes they ever had. It was said that he would only make this for well liked regular customers that had become friends.

 

[fishorama 10]

We had soft flour black bean & gr. beef tacos yesterday after I started our taxes. That should be a good excuse for several days of not much cooking. I think I'll want "tada, taxes done" Thai food that my husband will go get.

Edit: I forgot to post this yesterday so I'm just adding. I just finished our Fed taxes today, still need a final double check...& printer ink. I feel proud I was able to guess within $78. Maybe our smallest refund or shortfall ever. I'm having a celebratory glass of wine & probably hot dogs since we found the MIA baked beans in the freezer. Yeah, we just had them...No Thai take out until I finish the state taxes too, an added incentive!

Jay, you know I was just teasing you about your meat-eating habits. We like mandarin oranges too. Tasty, easy to peel, seedless & just the right size for a light afternoon snack. Too bad they have a short season like the similar clementines. We have a Meyer lemon tree in our yard that almost always has fruit especially in winter. They have a vague tangerine smell, not quite as tart as Eureka lemons, the "usual" kind.

 

[fishorama 10]

I finished state taxes with much less bother than usual. No "mystery" income to figure out this year. I'll re check tomorrow. Now I still need printer ink, Staples didn't have it in the store grr.

We'll be having chili from the freezer & my only cooking will be making Jiffy corn muffins I almost have to have them these days. My dad did buttered white bread & @Fishmanic does (wheat?) toast with chili, not bad options, just not corn muffins

 

[jaylach2 137]

I finished state taxes with much less bother than usual. No "mystery" income to figure out this year. I'll re check tomorrow. Now I still need printer ink, Staples didn't have it in the store grr.

When I need ink I use the seller 'Jarbo' on Amazon. Good ink, good price. Ya, it's generic ink but I've been using for years without any issue.

Oh, other places that carry ink that may be in your area are Walgreens, Walmart, Office Depot, Best Buy to name a few. Also check local computer shops.

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Oh, just thought this may be of interest to some...

I was curious as to why you can put caned pineapple in jello but not fresh pineapple. Fresh pineapple has an enzyme that prevents the jello from setting. Canned pineapple is actually cooked. The cooking gets rid of this enzyme which, then. allows the jello to set. It is like the enzyme that prevents the nutrients in spinach from being taken in. In both cases heat destroys the enzyme.

While cooking could be considered an art it is also science. Take adding sugar to tomato sauces to cut the tomato's acidity. In reality sugar is neutral with a PH of around 7. Once again heat comes in. While sugar under heat is still neutral it changes the molecular structure and bonding making it act like a mild base while it really isn't. Still it will cut a bit of the tomato's acidity. I've actually tested this with sketti sauce. I did the main batch of sauce without sugar and removed some to another pan to which I added sugar. Probably not a good test but after cooking a while I used aquarium PH test strips and the sauce that had the sugar added was less acidic.

 

[fishorama 10]

Good ideas, thanks. 1 time we bought generic ink but the chip didn't work for our printer Of course, this is printer ink season, it may be easiest to order online.

 

[Fishmanic21 137]

I finished state taxes with much less bother than usual. No "mystery" income to figure out this year. I'll re check tomorrow. Now I still need printer ink, Staples didn't have it in the store grr.

We'll be having chili from the freezer & my only cooking will be making Jiffy corn muffins I almost have to have them these days. My dad did buttered white bread & @Fishmanic does (wheat?) toast with chili, not bad options, just not corn muffins

I remember Jiffy cake mix way back in the 1960s. Believe it or not, but a 9 oz box of Jiffy cake mix cost only 10 cents back then. Look it up on google. Now you're lucky to find a gumball for a dime..... inflation!

 

[jaylach2 137]

Good ideas, thanks. 1 time we bought generic ink but the chip didn't work for our printer Of course, this is printer ink season, it may be easiest to order online.

Yep, with generic, or OEM ink, the expiration chip can be an issue which is garbage and just a way to get you to buy more ink.

My Canon TS 8220 printer uses 6 cartridge. It has the normal 4 but adds another form of black and 'photo blue' to enhance photo printing. Since I haven't been doing photo printing lately my main ink is over a year old and the photo blue at least 2 years old. All are still working fine. I don't really know why this is but suspect that Jarbo modifies the chip to avoid the expiration.

Ink just does not die but it can separate especially with pigment based inks.... May be dye based that does this but I think pigment. The biggest problem with a cartridge failing is the little round sponge at the bottom drying out. To prevent this I have a little text document that includes a 'color cube' that uses all colors. I print this file at least once a month just to keep the sponges wet.

If you use cartridges that the ink can separate and start getting bad prints remove the cartridges and shake them to redistribute the ink. I've done this a couple of times with success and a couple of times with no success. It is a hit or miss thing that sometimes works. Oh, you would want to do a printer cleaning cycle after re-mixing the cartridge to cycle the newly mixed ink to the sponge.

 

[jaylach2 137]

Looking for opinions...

I think it pretty known that I love sketti sauce. In fact I consider pasta its own food group. I also REALLY like pearl onions.

I'll soon be making a batch of sketti sauce and am thinking about adding pearl onions but am a bit worried about doing so. I add quite a bit of red onion anyway but pearls have a strong and distinct flavor. I'm afraid that they may take over the sauce. A simple test would be to cook the sauce the first day without pearls and then add some with sauce in a smaller pan to test the second day of cooking.

Any thoughts?.

 

[fishorama 10]

My husband checked Office Max today & it wasn't in stock. Next day online to store, free shipping, easier than shopping & less than Staples. I don't know how the colors ever run out, it seems like we hardly ever use any. I've never used the photo black either. We used to go through more ink when we had to prints maps to anywhere new. We tried the "refill it yourself" ink & it was a mess. I will try shaking the cartridges. It could easily separate since taxes are mostly what it gets used for these days. Does the photo ink work on regular paper? Such a waste to not use it.

My sister has used Jiffy corn bread mix for years. I prefer muffins' crunchy outsides. I never tried Jiffy cake mix but remember it was inexpensive. Duncan Hines was the "usual" with homemade frosting when I was a kid. I haven't made a mix cake in many years. I do make spice cake with caramel frosting once in a long while.

I think trying the pearl onions in a small batch is a good idea. That way you'll know without possibly goofing up a big potful. I don't think I've ever cooked with them.

We're dinner indifferent tonight, maybe just a salad & a baked potato. No tax work today so no excuse.

 

[jaylach2 137]

My sister has used Jiffy corn bread mix for years. I prefer muffins' crunchy outsides. I never tried Jiffy cake mix but remember it was inexpensive. Duncan Hines was the "usual" with homemade frosting when I was a kid. I haven't made a mix cake in many years. I do make spice cake with caramel frosting once in a long while.

I'm not really a big corn bread fan but do use now and then. I also use Jiffy but add an extra egg to make it more cake like. Jiffy can also be used for muffins. I really only do corn bread for two things; put chili on it or Mexican corn bread.

 

[fishorama 10]

My ink came today to my house rather than the store a mile away. That's as close to taxes as I'm getting, I needed a couple days off

I'd like to try jalapeno corn muffins sometime, but my husband is less tolerant of some picante foods these days. He used to like food much hotter than I did.

I agree with raw pineapple not working with jello. But not all raw spinach nutrients are not available. (no, I'm not looking it up, lol) We do raw in salads sometimes, frozen in some cooked dishes & (eek!) even slimy canned. I put cider vinegar on canned, a childhood family thing.

 

[jaylach2 137]

I agree with raw pineapple not working with jello. But not all raw spinach nutrients are not available. (no, I'm not looking it up, lol) We do raw in salads sometimes, frozen in some cooked dishes & (eek!) even slimy canned. I put cider vinegar on canned, a childhood family thing.

Oh, I didn't mean that raw spinach was useless as it is still good. It just releases even more good stuff when there is heat..

 

[fishorama 10]

I'm making "real" Spanish rice. No mix, lol. Ground beef, onion, green pepper, crushed tomatoes, zucchini, crushed red pepper. I use brown rice these days, so I add extra water & cooking time. Husband is playing music for me to chop to, good man!