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recipes: appetizers ; main dishes ; side dishes ; breads ; desserts .
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Welcome to Ittadakimasu! I'm Discordia, and this is my little repository of recipes. As a graduate student, I am always on the run (not to mention broke!). If I'm going to eat at all, it needs to be filling, easy to make, fast, and most of all CHEAP. So I like to experiment with recipes to see what I can throw together in a few minutes and hopefully not spend a lot of money on. I'm also an aspiring "foodie," so I want something really tasty too. This is not as difficult to accomplish as you might think--you can throw together anything from breakfast to dessert in not a lot of time and have it taste fabulous! My goal for this site is to help myself and you, the home viewer, to do just that.
Don't do Japanese? "Ittadakimasu" is what polite people say before they dig into a meal--it's sort of like "the blessing," but it acknowledges the person who made the food. It's pronounced (roughly) "eat-ahdah-kimahs".
Credits and disclaimers: The little dollies in the layout are from the anime series Rozen Maiden, which I did not create and have no stock in. I'm not making any money here. If you reeeeeeally want the single moldy banana and overplayed copy of Warcraft III that constitute my worldly belongings, go ahead and sue, I dare ya.
Last updated: 17 November 2005; created new layout and moved everything to one page for ease's sake.
Here is a list of the recipes I've posted. There are a few things you should note about these recipes. First, I don't usually place much emphasis on exact measurements unless I'm baking something. So when you see the indications for "some pepper" or "a little cheese" it usually means "throw in as much as you like." Nobody has a taste just like someone else, and I really believe that if you're making this food for yourself, you should at least make it like you like it! Second, each of these recipes leaves a great deal of room for variation and experimentation. I love a versatile recipe. Feel free to experiment, and if you discover a tasty variation, do let me know!
Appetizers: {back to top}
Tomato-Basil Tortillas
It's like a little light pizza! Great for a light meal, cut into bites for appetizers, and goes great with wine.
Ingredients:
- Large tortillas (I love Mission's Garden Spinach Herb tortillas for this)
- Diced Roma tomatoes
- Minced garlic
- Fresh or dried basil
- Mozzarella and/or Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Put the tortilla on a baking sheet. In a bowl, combine diced tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Sprinkle mixture over tortilla. Sprinkle cheese over mixture. Add fresh ground pepper if you want. Bake at 350 degrees until tortilla is crispy and cheese is melted. The tomatoes make their own sauce in the oven, but you could add some sauce if you wanted, I guess. But the beauty of this is in its simplicity, so I wouldn't play with it too much.
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Main Dishes: {back to top}
Jamaican Patties
Spicy mini-pies made with beef, chicken, or veggies. This is as close as I have yet come to approximating the flavor of the yummy patties I had during 2 weeks in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and I am always working on it.
Ingredients:
- FOR FILLING: Ground beef or chicken, or the veggies of your choice (julienned cabbage, onions, and carrots are good)
- Jerk seasoning or sauce
- Flour
- Cheese is optional
- FOR CRUST: The recipe I have calls for French bread crumbs soaked in water, but that doesn't appeal to me at all. I tried phylo dough, but found it too flimsy and flaky; I tried frozen pastry crust, but found it too rich. Frozen pie crust seems to do the trick nicely, as do canned biscuits.
Directions:
Cook beef or chicken in a pan with jerk seasoning until fully cooked. Don't overcook, or the end result will be dry and nasty! If using vegetables, lightly saute with butter and a little jerk seasoning until tender. While your filling is cooking, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once your filling is fully cooked and tender, add flour in small increments to thicken the mixture. If using meat, the filling should look sort of jellied, thick and spicy. Flour your countertop and lay your thawed pie dough on it. It's okay to roll it out a bit, especially if you are feeding a larger number of people. You can cut it into about five-inch squares or circles. If using cheese, place a slice of cheese on each square. Place about a tablespoon of filling on each square. Dip your finger in water and lightly wet the edges of the square to help them stick together. Fold them over. I haven't yet mastered the art of getting them into a pretty shape, so use your imagination here. ^_^ Put the patties on a cookie sheet and bake until crusts are golden brown. Use care when serving and eating them, because they will be very hot!
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Breakfast In A Pan
It's almost everything you need, cooked up in one pan. Just slap some pancakes and fruit on the side and there you go. Great for dinner too!
Ingredients:
- Frozen (or fresh, uncooked) hashbrowns
- 2 eggs
- Sausage, bacon, or ham (or do it meatless and add veggies instead)
- Salt, pepper, garlic--add some red pepper flakes if you like it spicy
- Vegetable or canola oil (about a tablespoon). Or, if you're using meat, you can just use drippings from that--yumyum!
Directions:
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet, or cook your meat in the skillet and don't drain off the fat when you're done. Add the hashbrowns, spreading them in a thick layer and covering the bottom of the pan. Leave them alone for about 5-8 minutes or until the bottom is browned. Flip in sections so the other side gets browned. In the meantime, beat 2 eggs and add a dash of salt, a dash of pepper, a dash of garlic, and a small squirt of water. Make sure they are thoroughly scrambled. When hashbrowns are almost completely browned, pour in the egg mixture. Cook until eggs are thoroughly set. Serve it up hot!
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Side Dishes: {back to top}
Rice & Peas (& Shrooms)
A delicious Jamaican side dish that is almost a meatless meal. It's really rice and kidney beans, but Jamaicans call 'em "peas" so I will too. ^_^ I combine it with another recipe for rice and mushrooms cuz I luv teh shrooms. ^____^
Ingredients:
- 1 cup white rice and 1 cup brown rice
- Chicken or vegetable broth (about 2 cups)
- 1/2 a can of red kidney beans, drained
- Sliced mushrooms
- Chopped celery, onion, shallot, and minced garlic (I purchase a pre-mixed container of this from the Almighty Wal-Mart, they call it creole seasoning)
- Coconut milk (usually available in Asian section of Almighty Wal-Mart)
- Some butter
- Lotsa basil, fresh or dried
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine rice in a baking dish (a loaf pan works fine as well). Saute your celery etc. mix in a little butter, just enough to release the aromas. (If you want to add some little chicken bits, you can saute them with the seasoning mix. Makes for tasty!) Pour the broth into the pan and simmer. Add basil and stir. Add about a half cup of the coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Pour the broth mixture into the rice and make sure the liquid covers the rice. Add the drained kidney beans (you need to drain them well because the liquid they come in smells icky). Mix it all up and put it in the oven. In that same saucepan you just emptied into the rice, saute your mushrooms with a little butter and garlic. When they're done, bring the rice out of the oven and add the mushrooms. Return to oven and bake until liquid is absorbed. Stir, let it cool a bit and absorb the extra liquid, and serve. Goes great with any spicy chicken or pork dish--I recommend BBQ chicken, jerk chicken, or Jamaican patties, served with plenty of rum punch!
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Breads: {back to top}
Ridiculously Easy Fruit Bread
This bread is quick, easy to make, and versatile; you can make it with any kind of fruit you like, plop some chocolate or nuts in, or use that weird green candied fruit to make THE DREADED FRUITCAKE.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup each of flour, sugar, and milk
- 1 egg
- The fruit of your choice. I suggest bananas, blueberries or a combo of apples and cranberries. Use your imagination!
- A little vanilla, according to taste (I LOOOOVE vanilla so I really load it down; however, if you use anything wet like this, you'll need to add a bit more flour so the batter doesn't get soupy.)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour and sugar. Add milk and egg. Mix as thoroughly as possible (batter may be lumpy). If it's too wet, add more flour; if it's too dry, throw in a bit more milk. Once everything is mixed together, add your fruit, nuts, or chocolate, or a combination. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This is a VERY dense cake so it will take quite a while to bake. Once it is done, cool it in the pan for a while; you may de-pan it if you like, or leave it in there. This cake is great as a breakfast bread when fortified with fruit or oats.
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Desserts: {back to top}
Cake Truffles
These delicious truffles are so easy, you won't believe it didn't take you hours and hours of effort to make them when you taste the end result! And there are endless ways to vary the flavor by using different cake mixes, different jams (or no jam), and different coatings.
Ingredients:
- Any cake mix + its ingredients, or the storebought cake of your choice (I used Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix with Hershey's Chocolate Chips ^_^)
- Jam or fruit preserve of your choice (I used strawberry Polaner's All Fruit)
- Heavy whipping cream
- FOR COATING: I used vanilla almond bark coating, but you could use any kind of meltable chocolate, or use cocoa powder, sprinkles, colored sugar, etc.
Directions:
If using cake mix, bake the cake. When the cake is done, let it cool for just a bit and then demolish the cake into crumbs. Add jam and 1/2 cup of whipping cream and mix until you have a sort of paste. Add more jam and cream as needed to achieve a squishy mess that you can roll into balls, but don't let it get too wet! When you have a paste, roll the mixture into balls about an inch across. If you are going to dip them in chocolate, you may need to freeze them until they're hard on the outside. When you're ready, coat the truffles by rolling them in cocoa or sprinkles or by dipping them in chocolate. The result will be a candy with a filling that is very similar to the fluffy, creamy texture of fancy storebought truffles.
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Poo Cake
Moist, delicious devil's food cake, ruined by being made to look like a cow poop. Great for teenage boys or anyone with a highly developed sense of toilet humor. (I have a standing order for one from my little brother--he has to have it every birthday.)
Ingredients:
- Any devil's food cake mix (I prefer that with pudding in the mix, or that made with Hershey's chocolate chips)
- Chocolate frosting
- Chocolate chunks, white chocolate chips, peanut butter morsels, chopped nuts...use your gross imagination.
- I like to make "mushrooms" out of white chocolate...plastic flies are also funny dotted all over the finished product.
Directions:
Make the cake according to directions on box, but after all ingredients are mixed together, add about 1/2 of your chocolate chunks or whatever you're adding. Bake according to directions. Once it's out, you don't have to wait for it to cool--in fact, it's better (and grosser) warm. Get a big bowl. Dig cake out of the pan with a spoon and put it in the bowl. Warm your frosting a bit in the microwave so it's a little liquidy and mix it in with the cake. Add your chocolate chunks or whatever and mix well. Pile cake up on a big platter, making it look like a big cow pile. Drizzle some more frosting over the cake. If you have gross garnishes as suggested in #4 above, dot them all over the cake. For a birthday, I like to add wavy green candles that look kind of like stink lines in cartoons. ^_^ Serve warm if possible--if it isn't, this cake is FREAKING AWESOME when chilled in the fridge!
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Fruit Pizza
Delicious! Easy! Impresses your party guests! Makes you feel better about eating cream cheese and marshmallow creme! Looks gourmet, but is sooo easy to make!
Ingredients:
- Sugar cookie dough (make your own if you wanna, but I just buy it from Almighty Wal-Mart
- 1 pkg cream cheese (I use fat-free, doesn't taste any different at all)
- 1/2 jar marshmallow creme
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Fruit of your choice, sliced prettily (I like strawberries, raspberries, kiwi, bananas, pineapple, passionfruit, papaya, & mandarin oranges)
- Some sort of citrus juice (just a bit)
Directions:
On a round cookie sheet, use the sugar cookie dough to bake one big round cookie. Make sure it does not burn--a burned fruit pizza is a nasty fruit pizza! Cool thoroughly. In a mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and marshmallow creme. An electric mixer will probably help with this. Add vanilla and mix thoroughly until completely smooth. Spread over the cookie. Arrange your fruit on top of the spread--concentric circles look great, or whatever you want to do. Sprinkle the citrus juice over the fruit so it won't turn brown. Keep refrigerated until serving-time.
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Gochisousama deshita!
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