Why don't we have a food thread? We should have a food thread

Yes. I think it’s a FoodSealer. They should just give them out with Costco memberships - it’s key when you’re buying Costco-sized packages of meat or fish. It’s also great during a good salmon year like this fall. We don’t really use it all the time. We’re still working on the box of bags that we got with the vacuum sealer over a decade ago.

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i have one - FoodSaver is the name on it.
we bought it to vacseal fish we catch (as Duke points out, above).
some things from the garden; ginger root, long beans, get sealed and tossed into the chest freezer.
like Mr. Trout, we have yet to use the entire set of film/ bags that came with, but it is useful for when we need it.

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I’ve been trying to build up a bit of confidence to cook some more complex dishes, but meanwhile, i’ve been hacking premade food to be it a bit more up to my standards.

Example: Premade minced meat pizza, topped with extra BBQ sauce, sliced turkey breast and smoked cheese.

Frozen Pork Jiaozi cooked in their own juices, then sauteed with LaoGanMa, sesame oil and minced garlic:

Pisto (a spanish dish/sauce made with tomatoes, vegetables and sometimes meat) made with frozen veggies, tomato sauce and diced chicken.

I used part of it to make this pasta:

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Is Wisconsin the frozen pizza capital of the world?

Well, that video got me in the mood for a frozen pizza. Connie’s was on sale at the nearby supermarket, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Verdict: not bad for a frozen pizza. But why don’t they come pre-cut?

@Abe_the_honest Does my effort count as “hacking” pre-made food? (pun intended) :wink:

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no, but add some extra ingredients and it might :laughing:

That pizza is asking for some bacon, grated cheese and maybe a couple of sliced jalapeños :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’ve never seen a connie’s pizza come like that before.

The supermarket mentioned in the video (Woodman’s) is awesome. They’re gigantic, have things I can’t find anywhere else, and employee owned.

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No pizzas do, sad to say. That’s why I had to hack it to fit my pan!

(The instructions say to place it directly on the oven rack. I know that’s supposed to make the crust be better, but I’m just not going to do that. I had a co-worker who would put her pizza on the rack of the toaster oven in the break room, and the smell of the cheese that had dripped off and burnt would permeate the whole workplace and was decidedly appetite-reducing…)

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I’ve had frozen pizza’s come with cracks in the crust before, just not anything like that.

I use a pan like this:

and parchment paper to avoid dripping cheese.

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mando-way-this-is-the-way-4288369736

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wow, man! that pisto looks good! love your jiaozi (potstickers?). those were yummy, i can tell!
i don’t know if it is considered “hacking”, but i had a whole bunch of leftover cheeses from a party tray i made when DB was here a week ago that i used in quesadillas.
brie, gouda, sharp English cheddar were melted into extra large flour tortillas on the comal. to that was added roasted, diced jalapenos, cilantro (fresh coriander) and pico de gallo, and folded into a flat quesadilla tooppped with Valentina hot sauce and avocado slices.
those cheeses all melted together to make a gooey, tasty Mexican sandwich of cheesy goodness!
(yes, a quesadilla is a sandwich - fight me!)

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A quesadilla is a sandwich if you are using two tortillas. If you are using one folded over it is a hot dog.

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ope… shots fired!

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And a tostada is a pizza, right?

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Pizza/toast or breadbowl, depending on whether it is flat or not, I think.

ETA: tostada pizza is a thing up here, too. The Ambassador in Houghton used to have the best, but I can’t attest to their quality currently.

ETA2: ‘Level of wetness’ isn’t something that should have to be taken into consideration when rating a pizza. But it’s been a couple of years, so maybe they’ve sorted that out.

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Whenever I do bake a pizza directly on an oven rack, I put either tinfoil, or a tinfoil-covered cookie sheet on the rack underneath it to catch any cheesy drips.

…or is it an open face sandwich?

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Actually if you use two tortillas is not a quesadilla but a sincronizada. If is a tortilla sandwitch is a sincronizada, if is a hotdog is either a taco or a quesadilla :smiley:

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That sounds liike proper cooking to me. Hacking (or properly named: impostor cuisine) is more when you take something like a TV meal tray or the cheapest pizza base you can find and you add your “magic touch” to make it appear more like proper cooking, because most of the time premade food is as unappealing as it comes.

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Apropos - does anyone else here feel like the tall blond guy looks like a grown-up Calvin?

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draconym

Cucumber snake in baby carrot substrate. It has olives for eyes.
Cucumber snake in baby carrot substrate. It has olives for eyes.

Toasted baguette snake surrounded by a nest of jiaozi eggs. Also has olives for eyes. [Ed. Note: Jiaozi are a sort of Chinese pierogi. I hope no one stabs me with a fork for making that comparison tophat-wow]
Toasted baguette snake surrounded by a nest of jiaozi eggs. Also has olives for eyes.

Strawberry banana fruit slices snake on granola substrate. It has black sprinkles for eyes.
Strawberry banana fruit slices snake on granola substrate. It has black sprinkles for eyes.

The cucumber snake again.
The cucumber snake again.

The baguette snake.
The baguette snake.

The fruit snake again.
The fruit snake again.

Snake snacks for lunar new year.

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