So, I discover I enjoy cooking a couple years ago. (At age 40.) Having had addiction problems most of my life most of my money went towards such things.

I lived on food that was either restaurant bought (fast food) or came in a can/box, ya know, cheap and fast things. (Read: Crap!)

My goodness, what I have missed!

I made dinner for a friend awhile ago when her husband and kids were away. It was a stuffed pork tenderloin wrapped with bacon. Inside was cream cheese, roasted almonds, sauteed onions and garlic with dried (though still moist) cranberries. It was incredible if I do say so myself. My friend really enjoyed it and told her husband all about it when he got back. (He referred to it as ranting on and on about it. Made me feel kinda good. I think I missed my calling in life.) He really likes to cook to and he has helped me with discovering new things and giving me ideas/suggestions.

I really like Risotto, of varying flavours. I was on a Risotto kick for awhile. Though I have to admit, I've kinda over done it lately.

I made an Asian style soup last week, and though good, I'd tweak it for next time. Mainly, not forgeting the ginger and using a little less crushed chillies!!

So today I am going to try something new. Living on the west coast of Canada, we have local Spot Prawns, and they are in season right now. (Off the boat fresh.) They are quite large for a prawn, and known for their sweet flavour. I'm going to make an avocado sauce (Known as "Green goddess dressing".) but tweak it a bit by adding real wasabi. (Not the fake horseradish most places sell.) The basic recipe I am using is as follows:

It's pretty simple, but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Oh yeah, forgot to add with a Greek salad on the side.

So with my discovery of my joy of cooking, I thought we could share "what's for dinner" to get ideas and maybe try things we may have never tried before. I can't believe I have the patience to stand in the kitchen, sometimes for hours, (I put on some music, usually ska puck and go to town) but it so pays off when all is said and done. Sure beats boxed/canned/processed foods by a country mile.

So, what's for dinner?

(Please keep it to home made meals and not fast food/canned/boxed foods.)

It was going to be smoked ribs, but a storm cancelled that thought. So now it's fried catfish (caught fresh this morning) battered with buttermilk and a beer batter chicken wing mix, and two smoked mullet split and folded. The only thing I bought was the seasoning and the buttermilk.

I'm thinking something cheap for tommorow if the storm doesn't let up. I didn't mention the bourban baked beans because they were canned can't do everything

Oh and Wolf, there's a http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1437511-cooking-and-sharing-recipes-thread/ filled with good recipes and ideas. feel free to add some!

At work, I am a fryer on Wednesdays and twice a month I make monkeybread, but other than that I am in charge of the salad portion of meals (the table that is next to our chef's stuff). I make coleslaw with pepper and pinapple, broccoli salad with coleslaw dressing, bacon bits, almonds, cranberries, etc. Fruit salad is just the usual cantaloupe and watermelon, etc. but the main salad is usual a ceaser with croutons that I or someone made from scratch. If it is not a ceaser day (usually Thursdays) I do a mixed salad with Romane and Iceberg, along with all the goodies like cucumber, corn, beets, etc.

I am sure there was other stuff I made (work kicks my butt and my memory, so don't blame me!). And yes, depending on what project I am doing, I stand for a good 20 minuets without moving

Damn, how did I miss that topic??? Thanks Nightingale. I haven't had catfish in 25+ years. It's soooooo good. (Also fresh caught at my uncles place on the river.)

Salads are something I am trying to eat more of. I've been kinda heavy on the meats and starches, and have the belly to prove it. I've been moving, as with this recipe, to more fish. I've even considered becoming a pescetarian (Only eat fish/sea food.) but I love food too much to start not eating other meats. I need to find a good balance.

One of my worst flaws, as far as I'm concerned, is that I'm really chicken when it comes to try new kinds of foods. Simply because there are many things I dislike that most people don't (like cheese), and many times I've tried something new it usually ends with me throwing up. This can be quite problematic when I'm a guest, and get something unusual served. But at the same time good since the only junk food I like are hamburgers with fries. That said, I rarely eat junk food but make my own stuff in the kitchen. It's just that I have fairly few dishes that I rotate and use (rice & codfish and spaghetti bolognese are used lots), and the only time I'm experimental is when I use different ingredients for stews (cause I really liked a stew I used to get for lunch in school as a kid but not sure what the ingredients were).

In any case, one meal I really like that require some effort in the kitchen is the swedish http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=12650. It looks disgusting, but it's one of my absolute favorite meals, and my goal as far as the kitchen is concerned, is to one day be able to make as yummy Kroppskakor as my grandmother

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=17327&sid=0defa8b31c672bcb61bf2ff2427f5cd4

I make way too much Thai food. Pad Thai, curries, stir fries, etc. Except recently, I've been making a lot of Mexican food. Last night I made Mole Poblano, which is a ridiculous assortment of a bunch of things blended together to create a thick, dark, and rich sauce to pour over chicken or whatever. This is a pretty good recipe: http://www.patismexicantable.com/2010/03/mole_poblano_de_los_angeles/

Today I had homemade tomato soup. Real nice, filling and healthy. Very easy to make.

You do need some kind of blending device but I got a hand blender stick thing for about a tenner, so that doesnt have to be expensive.

2 kilograms of tomatoes, sliced.

2 small onions, diced.

1 clove of garlic, mashed or very finely sliced.

1 bayleaf.

1 tablet of vegetable stock dissolved in 1 litre of water.

1 sugarcube, or about half a tablespoon of sugar.

Quite a bit of fresh basil leaves, sliced. I grow mine fresh in the windowsill, a supermarket will sell them or in a pinch freezedried herbs will do. Parsley and chives also work, but basil is tastiest I think.

Pepper, salt, to taste.

(optional) A dollop of tabasco sauce.

Start by melting some butter in a large pan. Add the onions and simmer until they get a bit of colour. Add the garlic.

Add the tomatoes and the bayleaf. Let simmer for about five minutes, occasionally stirring the vegetables around.

Add the vegetable stock and the sugar. (Like salt, sugar is a flavour enchancer. You dont taste that small an amount but it does bring out the tomato flavour.). Stir and slowly heat up until it is just on the boil. Dont vigorously boil it. Let simmer again for five minutes.

Take off the heat and dont forget to remove the bayleaf! Use the blender until it becomes a soup of a smooth consistency.

Heat again until it is almost boiling, add the fresh or freezedried herbs. Season with (fresh ground) black pepper, salt if needed and tabasco if wanted.

Tasty with bread or shredded cheese in or both.

Cross posting from the cooking thread.

This was one of those "I think these things would work together" random thoughts. I made it last weekend, and it was pretty good.

I tend to create using mainly packaged items.

Mac and cheese with sausage and tomato

1 pound (chub) medium pork sausage (slightly spicy)

15 oz can diced tomato with onion

1 package rotini and cheese (4 cup yield, just add water (I seldom have milk or butter in the house))

Brown sausage, breaking it up into small pieces

Drain tomatoes and add to pot, simmer until slightly dry

Add water and pasta/cheese mix, stir

Cover and simmer, stirring a few times, until pasta is done

I made this in an electric frying pan. It tasted great, but I think I'll melt some shredded cheese into it at the end next time. The sauce was a bit thin, and didn't coat everything as much as I'd like.

The plan for the next experiment is ground beef, rotini (maybe with the cheese sauce, maybe straight pasta), canned chili (no beans), and either marinara or sloppy joe sauce to get the right consistancy.

It all sounds so good. I'm going to get so fat if I am not careful.....

I need to get a blender. As it stands, tonight's meal requires one, so I called my neighbour to see if I could borrow hers. I invited her to dinner for the trouble. (Though she was out, so I left a message on her machine.) Worse case I'll use a fork then my small mortal and pestle.

I'm going to request this thread be locked seeing there is one already well under way, that I seemed to have missed.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1437511-cooking-and-sharing-recipes-thread/

Thanks to those that participated.