One thread, add water and salt, bring to a boil, then simmer

[Tigger]

People cook when they don't have to eat? What is this phenomenon you speak of? I cook when it's time for dinner, or lunch (although that's something microwavable).

[spikegirl7]

ya know, talking about food is kinda making me hungry... Time to make Breakfast Burritos!!!

(Goes off and makes burrito)

[thejerseyminx]

Some of the best things I've ever cooked have been things I've thrown together. Recipes make me nervous for some reason.

[spikegirl7]

i like recipes, but there is always room for experimentation

[thejerseyminx]

My track record for following recipes over the last month. Burnt my pizza, under cooked my Baked Pineapple, under cooked a pie, under cooked a batch of brownies.

However, the shrimp I just threw together with soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, chili pepper, and little olive oil was wonderful.

[Tigger]

If it doesn't have a recipe, or is as easy as "cook meat, side, veggie" then I don't do it. Aaron drives me batty by experimenting with my food.

[spikegirl7]

i need a recipe at least as a starting point

[jimkatai]

Heh, don't do it very often. It's just a way to avoid ruining dinner until you get used to some of the basic skills of cooking. Mostly, you want to get the ability to multitask while cooking down, as this can be the hardest part of cooking. Although, if you are a big fan of microwaving things for dinner this might actually be a good idea for you. Cook when you have time and reheat it for dinner.

Did some googling and came up with this recipe for you to experiment with. I'll rewrite it because the guy did it kind of unclear for newbies.
)
Meatballls, Sausage and Sauce

Materials (Must Have):
A somewhat shallow pot. (A saucepan)
A large spoon
An oven that broils (optional but really good if you have it and know how to use it) and a baking pan WITH A LIP!!!!! (broiling is better but not everyone has a broiler or even knows what it is)
Two large bowls

Materials (optional):
A wooden spoon (if you want to experiment with making a frond)

Ingredients (Must Have):
2 lb. of 80% lean beef. Any leaner and you will need
An egg
Some Oil, Olive oil preferably, Extra Virgin once you are good enough to warrant the spending and have the money to spend on it.
56 oz. of tomato sauce. Easiest way to get there is two 28 oz. cans
Oregano
Basil
Garlic (In any form, although Garlic Salt, you want to be careful with)
At least 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, doesn't need to be nice cheese, actually shouldn't be
1 cup of dried bread crumbs. This means crunched up crackers, breadsticks, pretzels, anything with teh grain
2 pounds ground sausage

Ingredients (Optional):
2 white Onions (diced [Just cut 'em up. It doesn't really matter if they are perfect]) or 1 can of pre-diced onions (If you want to find out how to sautee. It really is easy, I swear. :p)
Garlic Clove-form (1, it replaces the garlic you have in the must have category, but it also would be used in the sautee)


Sauce:
[Optional]0) If you want to make the fond or just want to be extra careful, use a wooden spoon here, so you don't mess up your cookware)
1) Set stove to medium heat and coat the bottom of the saucepan with your oil. If you want to be careful about this, about three tablespoons should do it on the oil
[OPTIONAL]2) Add your diced onions.
[OPTIONAL]3) Add some salt to the mix. Just a pinch. It makes the onions sweat instead of browning. browning you'll have to learn later.
[OPTIONAL]4) When the onions start to look translucent, ad garlic seasoning or (more preferably) garlic cloves.
[OPTIONAL]5) When the onions start to brown (don't let them brown if you can) add the tomato sauce
6) reduce heat to low and let simmer while you make the meatballs. Stir occasionally

[OPTIONAL] Frond (as far as I understand, with this recipe the frond is only useful if you sauteed the onions and such. I tend to ignore it)
1) Basically, I think it's pretty simple. All you do is make sure that you scrape the sides of the saucepan into the sauce.

Meatballs:
1) Get your large bowl
2) Put in your beef, your egg (if needed), your parmesan cheese (be liberal with this stuff, it's your only salt for the beef), and your bread crumbs, along with your spices that you used in your sauce
3) Start up your broiler if you have it. If you are baking them, set it to around 350
3)Squish it all together until it looks very well mashed together.
4) make golf ball-sized balls out of the product and put it on your baking pan.
5) Slip 'em in the oven. If you're broiling you want to do 10-15 minutes on each side. (Do flip them it just takes a poker and braving the heat). If you are baking them, it's around 15-20 minutes before you roll 'em over.
6) Add the meatballs to the simmering sauce. Let simmer while you do the...

Sausage:
1) Get your second bowl or wash your first one, although if you want to practice multitasking you can do this at the same time you were doing the beef.
2) Take your sausage and break it up into the bowl. Rinse the sausage.
3) While you are mixing, add salt, and the spices from the sauces. If you have it, some fennel seed and Sage goes good with sausage.
4) If you used the sausage with the casing, stuff the sausage back into the casing, if you didn't make balls like you did with the meatballs. Cook the same amount of time and temperature as the beef and add to the sauce. Remember FLIP THE SAUSAGE LIKE YOU DID THE BEEF!
[OPTIONAL]5) If you had the casing, slice into coin-shaped... things... and remove the casing then add to your sauce.

All in all:
Let simmer for at least two hours with the meatballs in there. Don't be stingy though, let it simmer all day if you can. Also, if you wanted to experiment with the frond, scrape the sides of the saucepan and stir before you serve.

Try this one out. It's fairly complicated but, step by step, it's simple so if you can cook it successfully, then kudos.

EDIT: I was apparently ninja'd multiple times while writing this. It's in response to Tigger's last response to me.

[wocket]

...BUT HOW DO YOU SPICE UP CORNISH HENS?

[StruckingFuggle]

Try taking a food processor to garlic, olive oil, salt, black pepper, lemon zest, basil, a bit of thyme, and a bit of cilantro, and some red pepper flakes, until it becomes a paste, then apply it between the meat and the flesh prior to roasting (oh, and give it a rubdown with olive oil and some salting before popping it in the oven to promote browning).

[jimkatai]

Yeah, I don't make cornish hens, so I don't know... Fuggle's suggestion sounds delicious though!

[StruckingFuggle]

Technically my suggestion is for a roast chicken, but I don't see why it can't work for a cornish game hen, too ... it's just a small chicken.

[jimkatai]

I would imagine a cornish hen has more chicken-y flavor to it, since it's a small hen. So, I would assume that recipe should still work, but maybe take out the salt because I'm assuming the cornish hen has enough of the salty flavor already in it.

[StruckingFuggle]

Alternative, or perhaps in addition, you could brine the hens. Cut the salt from the underskin mixture, and first soak it overnight in a mixture of water, salt, and brown sugar.

[Lizzegirle]

[quote="wocket";p="703956"]...BUT HOW DO YOU SPICE UP CORNISH HENS? [/quote]

My recipe is a crockpot recipe, but you could still just bake them the same way.

Ingredients:
Italian dressing mix packet
Chicken Stock
Hens
Butter (or margarine)
Salt & Pepper

Step: 1
Clean the hens out. Take out the giblets and the neck, then rinse the entire hen. (Inside and out.) Pat dry.

Step 2:
Take butter (room temperature) with a paper towel and cover the outside of hen with a layer of butter.

Step 3:
Salt and pepper chicken inside and out.

Step 4:
Open Italian dressing mix packet and season the inside and outside of hen with this delicious flavor.

Step 5:
Stuff chicken with vegetables or stuffing if you so choose.

Step 6:
Turn crockpot on low for 6-8 hours with 1-2 cups of chicken stock. (For conventional oven, this can be done at 350 for about 2 hours. Be sure to baste and use the stock in the pan.)

Step 7: Serve.