Man Food

[sailor]

Left on his own what would a guy cook for himself?

[sailor]

Mike's Navy Chili

One can of Castleberry's™ chili with no beans

One can of Bush's™ Navy Beans

One/half cup Chi-chi's™ Thick & Chunky Salsa (I prefer medium hot)

Those are the basic ingredients doctor it up with anything else per your own taste. I top it with grated cheddar cheese and chopped avocado and tomatoes.

The key thing, as you've probably guessed, is the use of Navy beans versus the typical beans used in chili.

I love this stuff! Serve it on rice or in a bowl with crackers. Pairs well with cheap red wine.

Mike

[brutus]

Take about a half pound of ground beef. Liberally sprinkle black pepper, salt, garlic powder and/or minced garlic. Add onion powder and/or chopped onion. Add a dash of sage and whatever else you like. Fold it all together and fry in a pan, or grill until done.
Makes for a nasty good hamburger!
~B~

[hartlikeawheel]

What? No beans?

I thought beans were de rigeur.

Here's what Marion made for lunch today:

Bake a potato and mash it up, skin and all.
Butter, salt and pepper.
Top with drained whole kernel corn.
Add slices of Mexican Velveeta.

Put back into microwave until the cheese melts.

[sailor]

Jan 27, 2010 22:34:56 GMT -5 brutus said:

Take about a half pound of ground beef. Liberally sprinkle black pepper, salt, garlic powder and/or minced garlic. Add onion powder and/or chopped onion. Add a dash of sage and whatever else you like. Fold it all together and fry in a pan, or grill until done.
Makes for a nasty good hamburger!
~B~

I love a good burger! And your's sounds great.

Mike

[sailor]

Jan 27, 2010 23:13:07 GMT -5 hartlikeawheel said:

Bake a potato and mash it up, skin and all.
Butter, salt and pepper.
Top with drained whole kernel corn.
Add slices of Mexican Velveeta.

Put back into microwave until the cheese melts.

Hart, that makes my mouth water. Sounds like it would also be a good candidate for pairing with cheap read wine.

Mike

[doctork]

Howard makes:

Tacos
Spaghetti sauce (preferably with clams) + spaghetti
Burgers
Hot dogs
Grills steak on the outdoor grill (especially if I ordered him those Omaha steaks for his birthday or Father's Day)

He cooks more than I do, but I go to Dream Dinners in self-defense because I get tired of that limited menu.

[BoatBabe]

Dahhlink is the best! He cooks nearly every night, and does the shopping besides. He is extremely talented in putting spices together for a great effect, spices I would Not put together. He is particularly good with seafood. He stuffs Dover Sole with crab, shrimp and scallops in some kind of cream sauce, or cheese sauce, or garlic cream sauce that is to die for! Unfortunately, he frequently says, "You like this? Too bad. You'll never have it again."

;D

However, left on his own, with me out somewhere, he routinely makes for himself peanut butter and crackers!

[hartlikeawheel]

I'm planning to take a few frozen packages down to my Bro- and sis-in-law's since she probably wont be cooking for a while.

Men like hearty soups, yeah?

Here's one my dad used to make. It's quick and easy. And hearty.

Slice up a package of Polish sausage and put in a pot with four cans of chicken broth. Add two cans navy beans (I use garbanzos,) an onion, sliced, a quart of canned tomatoes with liquid and a half head of cabbage chopped. Simmer.

Doesn't really need any seasoning. Maybe some cracked black pepper.

[sailor]

I mixed Bush's Best Golden Hominy into my Navy Chili, it tastes like Hot Tamale stew-- simply fantastic.

Pairs well with cheap red wine too!

Mike

[hartlikeawheel]

Batchelor son Matt called today to check on a recipe he was fixing. It's another crock pot recipe and just requires "dumping."

Beef cubes
Can of cream of mushroom soup (the food of gods on the prairie )
Button mushrooms, drained
Jar of pearl onions, drained
Pkg. Lipton onion soup, beefy onion, or beefy mushroom
And, yes, you can splash a little of that red wine in there, too.

Serve over rice or noodles. You could stir a little sour cream into the juice when the meat is tender, if you'd like.

[joew]

Saute an onion or leek with a green pepper in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. (I never use "extra virgin.") Sprinkle with dried oregano when you put it in the pan. When they are soft and browned around the edges, add two good sized cloves of garlic, minced, and let them get aromatic. Shove all that to the side and add chopped or sliced mushrooms (I like crimini, which they now call "Baby Bella") and a pound of ground meat — beef, pork, or lamb — which has had any herbs and spices you want mixed in, and brown the meat. (You can put the mushrooms in before the meat and sautee them a bit to release their juices a bit more.) If more oil is needed pour it through the onion/leek and pepper to pick up the flavor. When the meat is browned and crumbled, mix with the veggies and add a Julia Child tablespoon of red wine and then a small can of tomato paste, with plenty of dried basil. When it's all blended, add a jar of store bought spaghetti sauce (I like the Classico line) and mix it all together, adding more oregano and basil and whatever additional herbs and spices you want. Cover and let it simmer while you cook 76 grams of spaghetti or rotini. This gives me three hearty meals.* Sometimes for the second meal I'll add a generous bit of hot paprika in honor of Mad Magazine's "Neapolitan Goulash," and for the third a good sprinkle or four of curry powder.

*Clarification: You probably realize it anyway, but it's the sauce that is enough for three meals. 76 grams of pasta (before cooking) is for one meal.

[joew]

Preheat oven to 350°F. Start cooking a package of Rice Pilaf. While oven is heating coat bottom of shallow pyrex baking dish with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and pop it in the oven. Remove the ends of a small summer sguash, peel it and slice it lengthwise into four slices. (Or use zucchini. Eggplant might work.) If the squash is way too much, save some for another time. Sprinkle one side of each slice with seasoned salt, such as Beau Monde®. Place in baking dish, seasoned side up and turn, manipulate so that all sides are coated in olive oil. (You can use tongs or chopsticks, but it's so much more manly do do it with your fingers at this stage when the squash is still cool.) Sprinkle generously with dried oregano and pop back into the oven. Sprinkle the skin side of a 10 oz. filet of whitefish, such as haddock or cod, lightly with malt vinegar, spreading it evenly with your fingertips. Then sprinkle with a seasoned salt such as Old Bay®. (If not using Old Bay, be sure to include mild paprika in the sprinkle.) Turn the filet and repeat the process on the inside. Put the fish, skin side up, in the baking dish. Add a few pats of butter. Turn the fish with your fingers so that it is skin side down. (The inner side will have begun to cook and will have been coated with the oil. With thick pieces it may be necessary to rock the fish from side to side or to lace the cut end down in the oil before lowering the whole piece into the pan to coat all surfaces with oil.) Set timer for 20 minutes — less for a thin filet.) Wipe about 5 crimini mushrooms (3 oz. or so) with a moist paper towel to remove any clinging matter; slice off the stems; and slice mushrooms horizontally. Place mushrooms, cut side down, in the baking dis as close as possible to the fish so they'll abrob exuded juices. Flip the squash. Return it all to the oven and note how much time is left on the timer. When half the remaining time has elapsed, flip the mushrooms, and return to the oven. Rice pilaf should be finished by the time the fish is done. Sprinkle the fish with dried chervil, and plate it and the veggies with 1/3 of the rice pilaf. Immediately cover the remaining pilaf and let it cool on the stovetop overnight. Pour the fat and any mushroom and fish liquid from the baking dish over everything.

The next day, pit the rice pilaf pot into the fridge. I've left the pilaf, covered, for as long as 20 hours before refrigerating, and I have never had any ill effects from the leftovers. I think the fact that it is only briefly uncovered and is still hot when covered and left means that there is little growth of harmful bacteria. Whatever the reason, it's still good to eat when I take it out of the fridge.

You can also use bell pepper instead of or in addition to the squash. You can add a jalapeño pepper.

For baked stuffed fish, when you turn the mushrooms, sprinkle the fish with dried chervil and dried breadcrumbs. For an added bit of flavor you can even sprinkle a bit of grated cheese on top of the breadcrumbs.

[gailkate]

Good grief, Joe, I'm gobsmacked. You are a veritable Prudhomme! And I can picture you doing a manly TV show with more panache than any of the current celebrity chefs.

You could patent the JCTB* as your own contribution to culinary precision.

_{*Julia Child tablespoon}

[Gracie]

THIS was a fun thread! let's see if any of you have added to your repertoire

I gave a dear love a care package for his birthday one year, including a copy of A MAN, A CAN, A PLAN, because that was how he cooked. He said it was the only cookbook he'd ever liked!

My Grizzy is an inventive cook, although he doesn't cook as often as he did in our early years and his style has evolved a lot since being married to me. In our first years together he made a lot of hamburgers and added VegAll as a side dish. Now he likes to experiment with fresh herbs, try new cheeses, and so on, and he will often bring home a recipe or even an entire menu he thinks would be nice to try.

Things he eats and loves now but would not when we began:

Broccoli
Avocado
Tomatoes
Sushi (and in that he's up on me, because I still won't eat it)
Cabbage

I can see why the veggies were an issue; his mother cooks them to death. She does not believe in salt, or spices, except for pepper (which she uses too much of.) And she doubles the sugar in everything.

So yeah. He was really happy to eat vegetarian meals, lightly cooked veggies, and lots of fresh herbs and spices. It's kind of fun to see how our menus have evolved through the years.

That being said, when I'm gone for the summer, he reverts to a man, a can, a plan... (no, he's not the one I gave the book to!)

Mikey, I am more than ready for a glass of cheap red wine!

[Jane]

Bill makes his own breakfast--variations of egg(s), meat or meat substitute (like Morningstar Farms sausage) and English muffin with light cream cheese. Lunch too is on his own if he eats--soup or sandwich, maybe fruit. If I cook for myself for dinner, I make enough for him of vegetables, starch or whatever and he adds meat if necessary (I won't even touch it). I used to make a bigish meal every night, all the time the girls were home and even before Bill retired. But now he has time on his hands, and he's stepped up to the plate (so to speak). After over 40 years of cooking, I've pretty much lost the will to stir. I do cook a meal on the night I have Peter and Henry, and their dad will often join us (Annie works that night).

Bill tends to fry, overcook and over pepper. Is that a guy thing or a southern thing?

[Gracie]

I think frying, overcooking and overpeppering is a Southern thing, based on the meals I have enjoyed eaten choked down had at my inlaws' place.

I will never forget it, I bought a country cookbook when I first got serious with Gerald so I could cook for him the way I thought he'd like; it was an old Farm Journal one, just good simple farm wife style food. It is, in fact, where my pancake recipe comes from. And Gerald liked everything I cooked from it but he also liked whatever I cooked in my usual way, as well.

A few years later when we were married and working together as booksellers, he was unpacking books and busted out laughing, saying "HERE'S the cookbook you should have had if you wanted to duplicate the way I ate growing up!"

It was called "White Trash Cooking."