ADD INS, THINGS TO MAKE RECIPES BETTER
Source of Recipe
Eccentric in North Carolina
Recipe Introduction
She shared these with me so I want to share them with you.
Eccentric: "Any of us can copy recipes out of a cookbook, but I want to share instead some of my favorite add-ins. They are add-ins, not recipes. If you need a recipe, then on your own you will have to find recipes to go with the add-ins."
List of Ingredients
See the appropriate Add-In for ingredients.Recipe
* Regardless of what banana pudding recipe you use, try adding a layer of strawberries next time. I guess we could call it “Strawberry Banana Pudding.” If you happen to make your pudding from scratch and bake the finished dessert in the oven with a meringue topping, the warm pudding may cause the finished dish to be pink. I like it that way. No-cook puddings with whip cream toppings are less likely to blend colors.
* I turn “Deviled Eggs” (a/k/a stuffed eggs) into “Protein Egg Bombs” by adding cheddar cheese (finely grated) to the yolk mixture with other seasonings. The mixture will not be smooth unless you choose to run it through a blender. I like it lumpy. Also, the cheese (depending on amount added) can greatly increase the amount of the mixture so the stuffed eggs are piled high with cheesy stuffing. My children love them and pregnant women should eat lots of them because it is such an easy and tasty way to keep up the necessary protein intake.
* Rather than adding pimentos to pimento cheese, I chop up pimento stuffed olives into the grated cheese mixture. It adds color, texture, and replaces the need for salt and some of the other spices and herbs.
* I’m real big on varieties in color and texture. To a large pot of green beans (cooked with ham and onions-yummy!), I like to add raw peanuts, chopped pimentos, and sliced mushrooms in the last five minutes of cooking. I guess at the amounts and make my decisions based partly on how much it takes to look pretty.
* For baked salmon steaks or white fish, I like to mix mayonnaise with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and any other spices in a quantity sufficient to ice the entire fish (top and sides) and spread the “icing” about 1/8 inch thick all over. Then I slowly bake the fish until the mayonnaise icing lightly browns. In the last 5 minutes, I like to add canned or previously cooked asparagus around the fish and bake until the asparagus is heated. The juices from the fish and mayonnaise make a great sauce for the asparagus. (I line my baking dish with aluminum foil so I can bring the edges up to contain the juices closer to the fish during baking, then I push the foil back to make room for the asparagus. This also makes
cleanup easier.)
* To get children to eat more veggies, I slice yellow squash (small young ones with smaller and fewer seeds) into potatoes a gratin. The kids can’t tell the cheese-covered squash slices from the similar-looking potato slices. They think they are just eating cheesy potatoes. I also like to add chopped red or green sweet peppers or pimentos for color, but I never call them peppers or pimentos. They are called “red (or green) decorations.” By adding some diced cooked ham, the dish becomes a one-pot meal. If I’m in a hurry, I use a pre-packaged A Gratin Potatoes Mix and then just add “stuff.”
* I also hide nutrition in salmon patties. This is a great place to hide finely chopped and sautéed broccoli stems after using the flowerets as a side dish. Whole kernel corn does not hide well in salmon patties, but it does add color that kids sometimes like. I shape the patties like little fish. (It’s almost as easy as making round patties.) I then cut black olives into slices that naturally make little black circles and press them into the proper positions in the patty to form fish eyeballs. Then fry those little “fishes,” and the kids love them. I once prepared these for a children’s Sunday School class along with rolls when the lesson was about Jesus feeding the 5,000. We all sat down and enjoyed “loaves and fishes.”
* There are wonderful tricks to getting children to eat healthy foods. Some of the secrets are in hiding healthy ingredients in the food, making the appearance kid-friendly, and calling the dish by some imaginative name. My son just loved his “truck wheels” (a/k/a battered and fried okra). When he peeled back the fried coating, he always discovered the little white seeds, which he believed to be the big white balls (bearings maybe) in the truck wheels.
* A long-time favorite idea that my Mom got out of a newspaper recipe about 40 years ago is as simple as smothering chicken with French Dressing and slow cooking it or baking it in a medium low oven for several hours until the meat falls off the bones. The dressing and juices blended together over rice or pasta is good, and the French dressing is not as sweet as Bar-B-Q Sauce.
There’s nothing new under the sun. All recipes are add-ins mixed together in different groupings. I strongly recommend keeping chopped add-ins in the freezer in zip-lock bags. (It’s important to use the bags made specifically for the freezer to better control unwanted air that otherwise may seep into the bag). I keep bags in the freezer with chopped meats (pre-cooked) and veggies. As I cook, I can remove any amount I choose and return the rest to the freezer. I try to keep a supply of chopped ham, chicken or turkey, sautéed ground chuck, sweet peppers, onions, broccoli stems, mushrooms, etc. Also, small amounts of left over vegetables make handy and nutritious add-ins.
Those who prefer exact recipes may not find my ideas useful. Those who love to experiment and play with recipes may or may not find something herein useful. Regardless, this is my best attempt at submitting anything.
Eccentric in North Carolina
If you really enjoyed this PLEASE, send me an Email to let me know. I'll forward all to her to show her how much we like this personal commentary. Thanks!
And to the few of you that seem to like to take recipes and things like this and put them into your recipe site, please respect Eccentric's request for you Not to do that. Her comments printed here ARE copyrighted and included here only with her written permission!
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