What are you cooking?

[jaylach]

It's not an exact thing. It's an adaptation from a friend's chicken cordon bleu without the ham & bother of stuffing, the cheese just runs out anyway. We call it chicken with cheese.

I use 6-8 oz Alouette garlic & herb cheese or similar if it's cheap enough. Often I use whipped or regular cream cheese & add garlic (chopped fresh or powder) & herbs. I grease a 1.5 casserole using olive oil then blob on (heaping teaspoon) 1/2 the cheese, sprinkle herbs & garlic if using. Top with bite size cut up chicken breast (I use scissors). I often sprinkle on seasoned salt & maybe some parm, then blob on the rest of the cheese & more herbs. I add milk to ~3/4 inch of top layer so chicken is covered. Sprinkle on grated cheese (cheddar, jack &/or parm). Bake 350 -375F ~40 minutes until browned. Let stand for ~5 min. If it's a bit soupy we just use bowls lol.

Serves 2 with leftovers. I sometimes add more cream cheese to Alouette & more chicken if we have company but same idea. We like egg noodles better than pasta for this. Broccoli is a nice side with it.

OK, so you DO use a little milk which I would consider essential for Alfredo. Cream cheese also adds to the milk/cream aspect of Alfredo. Actually cream cheese is not a true cheese as it is made from raw cream, not milk. Subtle difference but cream cheese really is not considered a true cheese but, rather, a condensed cream product.

Anyway I can now see what you do and can see it working as an Alfredo. I just could not initially see your Alfredo as it normally is but you DO use some milk and the cream cheese adds the rest of the needed dairy.

 

[fishorama]

As I said, not really alfredo, hence the "ish" or "like" part, lol. But because of the creamy cheesy sauce, it sort of is. I can't handle real cream most times, too rich for me. I hate that the cream seems to "evaporate" (disappear) from restaurant Alfredo, leftovers are quite lacking in sauce. I'm always disappointed. My husband only likes little bites of any meat. I'm done with my steak or pork chop before he's done cutting his up, lol.

I never knew cream cheese isn't a "real" cheese! I thought it was like cottage cheese (which I also use in cooking "lighter" sometimes) or maybe "farmer's" cheese (what is that?). What do we call "cheesecake" now, maybe cream cheese cake? Good thing my S-I-L & I quit doing our birthday "diet" cheesecakes, often w/fat free cream cheese, lol. Actually, fat free works when "reduced fat" does not. Throw on a fruity topping, or caramel, chocolate & pecans & it was great!

Just try my version & make your own variations. This is work of 30? years of adaptations to our tastes. You can do it differently & it'll still be pretty good, I bet. Fat free cream cheese? Try it! That's the joy of cooking! Making food taste how we like it. More garlic for me, more different herbs for you?

Cooking is my creative outlet, can you tell?

 

[MaloK]

I call it a Trafficked Alfredo.

Start with a slightly lighter bechamel sauce and add some grated cheese to it. Add a cover of fresh ground black pepper before serving.

It's a lot less fatty, and re-heats very well compared to the cream only sauce.

Sooooo.... I add semi cooked and chopped maple bacon to the sauce, to give it a little smoked taste.

I also do the same with yellow cheddar, for a super home made Mac & cheese.

 

[lottabubbles]

Breakfast- butter fried an egg inside an onion ring.
real tasty and cute too.

 

[emeraldking]

What are you cooking?​

Nothing...! I had Chinese take out this evening...
I was too tired to cook...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Cooked an elk shank yesterday. The shank is so completely riddled with gristle that it is pretty much inedible...unless you pot-roast it, low and slow, all day. Then it turns into a magical substance that tastes like love, contentment, and unicorns.

 

[lottabubbles]

whooped up some stuffed peppers with Italian sausage, cream cheese, rice, spices and covered with mozzarella cheese.
bought 6 huge bell peppers and cooked them in a real deep roasting pan I got at Sam's club 10 years ago but never used it till now.
just one of them fed myself and the ol.

 

[Fishmanic]

whooped up some stuffed peppers with Italian sausage, cream cheese, rice, spices and covered with mozzarella cheese.
bought 6 huge bell peppers and cooked them in a real deep roasting pan I got at Sam's club 10 years ago but never used it till now.
just one of them fed myself and the ol.

sounds tasty for cheese lovers..

 

[MaloK]

whooped up some stuffed peppers with Italian sausage, cream cheese, rice, spices and covered with mozzarella cheese.
bought 6 huge bell peppers and cooked them in a real deep roasting pan I got at Sam's club 10 years ago but never used it till now.
just one of them fed myself and the ol.

Mom ??? is that you ???

You can make them with ground (minced) beef, and cheese is far from the principal ingredient in the final product.

In order it's like 50% your favorite meat mix, in 20% green pepper shells and 20% tomato sauce of your choice with 10% and less of your best gratin cheese on the top.

But in cuisine you can add 10% more sauce and make it 110% good.

I put Beef, Parboiled rice and tomato pasted in the mix.

Seasoned to your liking. Stuff as much as possible under pressure. And bake.

This is good high level comfort food

 

[fishorama]

I call it a Trafficked Alfredo.

Start with a slightly lighter bechamel sauce and add some grated cheese to it. Add a cover of fresh ground black pepper before serving.

It's a lot less fatty, and re-heats very well compared to the cream only sauce.

Sooooo.... I add semi cooked and chopped maple bacon to the sauce, to give it a little smoked taste.

I also do the same with yellow cheddar, for a super home made Mac & cheese.

I'm not sure what "trafficked" means, lol.

Bechamel is pretty much how I make stovetop mac & cheese, sometimes browned in the oven. I call it a "white sauce" (butter & flour roux & milk) with cheddar & mac so pretty much the same . My husband grew up on boxed mac'n'cheese, eek! I'd never had it before I married. Not truly awful, but not real mac'n'cheese at all. His dad always wanted my version or the old layered kind. He loved my cooking & that I'd try to make what he liked even if I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like. My in-laws thought it funny I'd check out library cookbooks (before internet).

Bacon might be good in either, but we try to pretend it's a special treat. I used to cook with bacon grease for many things like my great grandma did, but now mostly olive oil or butter (ahem). I still have a container of bacon grease in the fridge for some things, fewer now...

I also make a broccoli/ched/rye bread casserole with a bit of sauted onion that is similar. But baked so the cheese gets a nice brown.

We're having tacos tonight with black beans mixed into the ground beef.

 

[jaylach]

whooped up some stuffed peppers with Italian sausage, cream cheese, rice, spices and covered with mozzarella cheese.
bought 6 huge bell peppers and cooked them in a real deep roasting pan I got at Sam's club 10 years ago but never used it till now.
just one of them fed myself and the ol.

I don't often use boxed meals but there are exceptions and stuffed peppers are one. The Spanish Rice mix from Rice-A-Roni makes an awesome base for stuffed peppers. Use diced tomatoes with green chilies and whatever meat of choice.

While I LOVE stuffed peppers I'd have to take stuffed cabbage first.

I also use the same Rice-A-Roni mix for burritos adding spicy diced Ro-tel tomatoes, chicken and black beans. For this I use two boxes and roll in 12 inch flour tortillas. Makes 8 dinner size burritos. I make batches of 8 and throw most in my chest freezer wrapped in foil.

 

[lottabubbles]

While I LOVE stuffed peppers I'd have to take stuffed cabbage first.

my mother used to make those stuffed cabbages all the time back in the 50's. she called them piggies in the blanket.

the stuffed peppers I made this time were those huge green peppers. I'll not be using the very large ones anymore, took entirely too long to cook. I always clean out my peppers and turn them upside down and microwave them first before constructing the stuffing part for the oven.

 

[Fishmanic]

I usually boil the cleaned out peppers
for 5 minutes before stuffing

 

[jaylach]

I usually boil the cleaned out peppers
for 5 minutes before stuffing

Did you know that you can just push in the stem and it will pop loose. Pull out the stem and almost all the seeds come with it. A spoon will remove anything else you want out. Takes about 20 seconds to totally clean a pepper.

 

[jaylach]

I was just thinking about comfort foods I haven't had in ages. What is it about a grilled cheese sandwich dipped in tomato soup? Dunno: Especially if the soup happens to be a basil/tomato bisque (Actually Campbell's soups puts out a pretty good basil/tomato bisque.) and the grilled cheese happens to have crisp bacon or thin sliced ham and thin sliced tomato between layers of cheese.

As a note, if you like a grilled cheese sandwich, try mayo on the outside of the bread instead of butter. Actually makes the bread almost taste like sour dough. LOL! I wonder how many would ditch mayo if they know that it was made with raw egg yolks. Have never understood why the words egg and raw in the same sentence turned off so many people. Shoot, if you like fried eggs or basted (my preference) with a runny yolk you already like raw egg yolks. They may be warm but are still basically raw.

So, who likes pickled eggs? Personally I love them! From my experience there are two basic forms. I also consider these a comfort food.
1) The eggs are pickled in, well, left over pickle juice from a jar of pickles. I don't do this with dill pickle juice as I'm not the biggest fan of dill pickles. However, I do like with the juice from bread and butter or sweet pickles. If the eggs are white/yellow this is the method.
2) This is my preferred and I could eat a dozen a day with no problem. I THINK this MAY be regional in the U.S, mostly in the mid west. The boiled eggs are pickled in the juice from pickled beets with some beets and thin sliced red onions added to the pickling. These will be pink/red depending on the pickling time. The more red,the better.

Then there are beer batter fried button shrooms which are to die for and also seem regional to the mid west in the U.S.. Sigh, I could, and have, make a full meal in my 2 basked deep fryer. Have a butcher cut me a rib eye steak about a quarter inch thick and cut to strips. Batter fry with shrooms, onion rings and cauliflower and I'm totally set for a football game with a decent blue cheese dipping sauce. Many prefer ranch dipping sauce but I'm not the biggest fan of ranch. Actually I've gone away from blue cheese a bit as I came up with my own sour cream based dipping sauce. Whip in some garlic and onion powder along with basil and a bit of course black pepper and grated Parmigiano/Romano cheese and it is REALLY good! Really has a good heat and, if wanting more heat, add a little horse radish.