THE RELUCTANT GOURMET COOKING COMMUNITY

[wes18_21]

Figured I'd put this up to cover any random meals I make (or others make) that really goes by no recipe, is something you just threw together, or something where you may not have had the right ingredients, but tried to make work anyway.
Is there, by the way, a website that lists food combinations that are truly horrible, and should be avoided like the plague? I heard while watching the food network that fish and cheese do not go together, for example.

Anyway, on with my first dish. Decided to make spaghetti, but wanted it to be meaty. I did not pick up any ground beef at the store, but did pick up some venison from my parents, so I decided to use about 1.5 pounds of backstrap. I defrosted it, cut it into smaller pieces, and tenderized it (as it had not been tenderized at the butchers beforehand.) After tenderizing it, I cut it into strips, and threw it into a skillet with high sides (for lack of a proper term.) Before placing it on the stovetop, I used some garlic salt and a pretty generous amount of Hickory Flavor off-brand BBQ suace. After kneading it in to the meat (wash both hands, and just start mixing it in well,) I put it on Medium High until the venison was cooked thouroughly. After the spaghetti was done, I mixed the two together, and voila! a tasty meal. The venison has made an excellent substitute for some meatballs, and I wish I was enjoying it right now.

[ninjabut]

Actually, fish and cheese CAN go together. I have a great recipe that will make almost anyone eat spinach and fish!
I used to have a site that you could enter what you have in your fridge/pantry/freezer and they would give you several dishes to make.
I'm still searching for it. It seems to have gone away for now

[jfield]

I've heard that no-fish-and-cheese thing before, and for certain styles of cooking, it's true. But, I love me some cheesy tuna noodle casserole!

As far as absolute, objective no-nos in cooking, I'm not sure there are really that many. Use what you think would taste good together. Even some of the oddest ideas eventually have their day in the spotlight. Bacon ice cream comes to mind.

I prefer to stick with flavors that are complementary depending on what kind of food I'm preparing. If I'm doing a French-inspired meal, it'll probably have some wine, shallots and mushrooms in it, and maybe some Herbes de Provence or some tarragon. For an Italian-inspired meal: wine, basil, tomatoes, rosemary, thyme. Mexican: cumin, cilantro, dried peppers, coriander, maybe some chocolate or cocoa and cinnamon.

I like that you thought outside the box w/your pasta dish. Sounds like you cook outside of the box frequently. That's pretty much how I approach cooking, too. Basic techniques applied to good ingredients means you can cook almost anything that comes to mind.

[wes18_21]

I try to. Having less options helps, although I need to find the local houston market for fresh greens.

Helped growing up with parents that like to cook. Of course, there were the nights where the dinner theme was "Whatever" as in whatever you can find and make, because mom and dad don't feel like cooking tonight, but for the most part there were a lot of cooked meals. They used to have a garden where they grew squash, tomatos, and other things I can't remember, with a pear tree and some apple trees in the backyard, and blackberries growing wild (although we only did canning one year. I was propably 5 or 6, and I still remember how crazy it was.) I'll try to find my moms upside down cornbread recipe, it was something like "bunch of ingredients together to make some homemade chili on the bottom of a baking pan, with a layer of cornbread over the top." The chili flavored the cornbread well, the cornbread could be used to scoop up chili if you had some that was just sitting on the plate, and it was just an all-around good meal (although we added syrup to our cornbread, where everyone else I've ever heard of uses honey.)