Recipies?

[Sunchaser]

im thinking of making a great dessert or a great dinner sometime soon for my parents. Have any recipies to share?

[Silvanon]

Do they have any specific likes or dislikes?

[SplitX]

Ditto. Any likes or dislikes? Also, are there any allergies we should be aware of? :3
I'm quite an amazing baker, not to brag. XD I've had people from school offer to pay me for my desserts & cookies by the dozen or by the cake. *glee*
I have tons of amazing, delectable desserts. Preacher cookies are my biggest specialty, but I've got tons of recipes I can fish out.

[Sunchaser]

we are actully not allergic to anything. We love to experiment. The only thing i dont like is tomatoes really but if its mixed in a dish andthe rest looks awsome im up for it :-p. We like to have fun lol

[Mr. Pooka]

I like serving fish or chicken with a bechamel sauce (or upgrade this to mornay or cheese sauce easily).  It's one of those simple things that always turns out nice and looks great.  It also looks really fancy and impresses people who don't cook a lot.  There is always lots of extra sauce too and it goes well with rice or potatoes etc...  If you'd like instructions or recipes just ask!  I've made this quite a few times for guests and family and its always a hit and you totally can't go wrong if you pair it up with a fancy salad (cesaer is always good, but my favorite salad when I'm being fancy is a grapefruit salad which I totally love!)

[Sunchaser]

oooo yes Mr. Pooka i would LOVE the instructions and what not. We all love fish and chicken and i definatly love an excuse to have a ceasar salad *nods*

[Mr. Pooka]

The key to 1000's of great recipies is Bechamel Sauce (also called white sauce).  Its really easy to make and is just generally awsome stuff.  

There are only three needed ingredients (and a couple optional).
3 Tbs of butter (you can do this with marg. but you'll flunk out of French cooking school.  Also it totally will not work if you use low fat marg.  The added water will not make the sauce come together right.)
3 Tbs of flour
2 cups of milk

Start to get a deep saucepan very hot (one or two clicks under max.) and add your butter and flour and mix.  The butter will melt and make a thick paste with the flour.  Cook this for just a bit (you can't really mess this part up, if you let the paste get really dark brown your just making a different type of sauce, but it'll work the same).  After its cooked just a bit add all of the milk and whisk together and keep the heat high.  Its going to look like lumpy milk soup and you'll be thinking 'That Mr. Pooka's a crackpot!' but trust me.  Just keep gently whisking till it comes back to a boil and a few minutes later it will start to magically thicken untill you have a really delicious sauce of a million uses.  It will just keep getting thicker, so just take it off the heat when it looks like you want.  Once its cool enough to taste you'll wonder why you even need anything else to go with it and want a bowl full... (-8     Its probably good to make this at least once before experimenting.  

While its hot, try...
If you add parmesan cheese to this you get whats called a Morney sauce (it goes good on anything, but traditionally is served on chicken and oysters)
You can also add shredded cheese (chedder is traditional, but almost any cheese would be awsome... I like to add a bunch of cream cheese and melt it in... super rich and yummy)
Dried mustard powder is also really good (especially if your serving with ham)

I could prob. go on but once you've got the basics just have fun and experiment.

Uses!
My first suggestion is from my first post.  Simply cook up some fish or chicken however you'd like (just in a pan with a bit of butter and whatever spice you like) and serve it on top of a bed of greens or rice then cover with the Bechamel.  It looks really nice with the white sauce on the white meat.

You can also cook things IN it.  Fry some onions till soft and yummy and pour in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Layer some chicken or fish on the onions and pour a batch of bechamel over it and cook in the oven covered till the meat is done (if you uncover near the end you can brown the top really nice like!)

Bechamel can be used for binding almost any casserole (try using it insead of tins of soup for a tuna casserole for example) and if you add shredded cheese it makes an exellent mac and cheese casserole (even better with leftover ham)

Its frequently added as a layer to things like Lasagne.

I use it as my sauce when I make seafood pizza (quick and simple recipe.  Make some simple bread dough, spread thin and smother with sauce.  top with whatever seafood you've got, tins of tiny shrip, frozen assorted stuff, whatever and then a bit of chopped spinach for colour then cook it hot till its done.. Yummy!)

I just noticed I've been typing forever and I've got a few more school projects to finish up, I'll find my cesaer recipe tommorow for ya (and the grapefruit one too, its seriously one of my fav things ever!)

[PookaWitch]

My cooking skills consist of 'boil the water, add the macaroni, dump out the water, add margerine milk and that kraft dinner powder'.

I have literally messed up boiling water before and wrecked the stove and a pan. O.o

There is a reason that my husband does 99% of the cooking, if you can't tell by his above recipe. XD

[Sunchaser]

oooooo sounds yummy. Okay so doing that with chicken to see if my sister will like it. I think ill definatly add parmasan to it *nods* lots of cheeeesssee

[bewilderness]

Easy easy cobbler:

1/2 stick butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 can peaches, cherry pie filling, or other fruit

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Put margarine or butter in glass baking dish and put into the oven until melted, then remove from oven.

Mix flour, sugar, egg, and milk together.  Pour into the butter in the baking dish.

Drain any excess juice from fruit.  Add fruit in spoonfuls to batter.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until edges begin to brown and  cobbler is done.

[Sunchaser]

mmm i tried the sauce Mr. Pooka and it was awsome! anyone have anything for chicken?