Nerd Pride Cookbook

[Phoebe]

Seeing this again, I shall report that I came up with a new favorite side dish: creamed spinach.

Anyway, that was not my purpose in this moment. Rather, I have seen many recipes for Irish soda bread because of the holiday, and I wonder if anyone here has made it before and has tips. Bread making is one of those things I'm not very good at and rarely do, but would like to figure it out.

[Phoebe]

Lettuce wraps! So many possibilities! I'm making one meatless and one with ground turkey. Great alternative dinner for using up odds and ends, and flexible for multiple eaters. I think the key ingredient is very finely chopped water chestnut, which gives that refreshing crunch. I have substituted cucumber as well, but has to be de-seeded and with very fine chop.
Garlic is the other essential. I find that onion is not needed but you gotta have garlic.

Then whatever you're putting in has to have something spicy. Sometimes we make them more like taco seasoned, in which case green chilies or hot sauce can be the spice. Sometimes we make it more like Chinese food, with a chile and Chinese 5 spice blend, or with Garam Masala and peppers. One spicy meat, plus one fine-chopped crunchy veg, plus random additions = wrap filler.

A perfect meatless option is a chopped falafel ball, or some of that meatless fake ground beef.

[Phoebe]

Ingredients used for those lettuce wraps:
Meatless: falafel ball chopped, garlic, water chestnut, rice, cilantro, diced cherry tomato, hot sauce
Meat: ground turkey, garlic, water chestnut, rice, corn, Chinese 5 spice, soy sauce, hot sauce

Sweet potatoes last for such a long time in the pantry. Today we make them as follows:
Saute 1/2 onion in avocado oil; add 2 diced sweet potatoes (I use a fairly small chop!), seasoned salt, peppAR (You need to pronounce it that way), garam masala sprinkled all over. After you remove from pan, use the pan to fry up an egg to serve with them, and top with cubed avocado.
Lunch is Served!

[Phoebe]

Have you all seen the waffle tots video? Someone had the genius idea to stuff tater tots into a waffle iron and make a crunchy tater tot waffle. Bless that artist! I'm going to try it tomorrow with broccoli tots.

[Mike]

French dip sliders! The whole process took me less than 30 minutes, and they are cheap and tasty as all get out. About 270 calories each.

French Dip Sliders

INGREDIENTS
SLIDERS
2 tbsp. butter, melted
1 c. Crispy fried onions
12 slider buns, halved
1 lb. thinly sliced deli roast beef
12 slices swiss cheese
Coarse salt
Garlic powder

AU JUS
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 c. beef broth
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°.

Place bottom halves of slider buns on a large baking sheet and layer evenly with roast beef, cheese, and onions. Top with other half of buns.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter and brush on top of buns. Sprinkle with garlic powder, coarse salt.

Bake until cheese is melty and sliders are warmed through, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make au jus:
Add 1 tablespoon butter to skillet and melt over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute, then add beef broth, Worcestershire, and season with salt and pepper. Simmer until slightly reduced, 10 minutes.

Cut sliders apart to separate and serve with au jus for dipping.

[Phoebe]

Mmm, sounds good. A little horseradish cheese maybe?

A favorite snack these days is toasted garbanzo beans. If I want to eat them plain then I use a recipe much like this one where they get baked in the oven for a few minutes to fully dry, and then tossed with minimal oil and a blend of spices before returning to toast in oven (it's easy to experiment on this with whatever you have in the pantry - seasoned salt, cumin, and garlic powder? Cajun seasoning? Garam masala? Whatever): https://joyfoodsunshine.com/crunchy-roasted-chickpeas/

Or if I want to put them on rice or salad or something, esp for my vegetarians here, I cook the spices in a TB of oil in saute pan on the stove, using more stuff like cumin seeds or caraway seed, crushed coriander seed, etc, and definitely a little asafoetida if you have it, plus the usual garlic, spices like ground cumin, onion powder, paprika, etc. Very experimental, whatever is Handy. They do need Salt imo, and hot sauce, but it's up to you. The stovetop method makes a wetter but more flavorful product that does well atop other things rather than as crunchy finger food.

Really good for "eating my canned food when no grocery trip is happening".

[Phoebe]

URGENT MESSAGE: DO THIS

And make the syrupchup. Do. I did this and experienced... Pleasure.

[Stan]

gourmet bacon bits:

take a slice of prosciutto, put on a plate (spray plate with oil if desired), cover with paper towel, microwave for ~1 minute so it's crispy. Crumble and apply.

The flavor is more complex than most bacon. It's thin enough that you don't have hard to chew bits.

I'm going to try thin sliced pancetta soon for hopefully similar results.