So here’s the Four Foods on Friday entry for this week. I missed last week and almost missed today because things have been so hectic and plague-ridden over here, but here we go.

#1. What’s your favorite form of potatoes?
That’s a tough one I really like potatoes pretty much anyway they can be made. Especially if they’re scalloped and covered in spices, and everything, or french-fried. How about my favorite way to have them is any way that I don’t actually have to make them, LOL.

#2. Pie crust. Premade or from scratch?
Pre-made. Definitely. I suck at pastry. Unless I cheat and do almost pre-made and get the kind that you get frozen and actually have to roll out, but don’t have to mix.

#3. Vegetables. Fresh, frozen or canned?
I lived with canned veggies for a while, but those are now only kept for hurricane emergencies and things like that. We mostly have frozen and occasionally fresh around here, depending on how quickly they’re going to get cooked. Frozen tends to be best/most often used.

#4. What one dish do you wish you could prepare better?
Hm. I think I’m pretty good at working out how to do anything very well. There’s not been much that I’ve tried to make that hasn’t been edible. I guess pies would be something *L* pastry. I’m a bit daunted by some of the Italian recipes my husband’s relatives gave us…but I can’t really say because I haven’t tried them all yet.

Here I go with my entry for Four Foods on Friday meme.

#1. What type of m&m is your favorite?
I like just the regular M&M’s the dark chocolate ones are nice but I can’t find them any more. I’m not too keen on the peanut or almond flavors though.

#2. Peanut butter. Smooth, chunky, creamy. How do you like it?
Smooth. I don’t eat much of it any more either. I used to have toast with peanut butter and jam or marmalade every morning, but I haven’t eaten it in a while. I particularly don’t like peanut butter mixed with chocolate. Reese’s Cups or things are right out. My husband teases me about this failing on my part, but not too much, because it means he gets to eat all of those types of candy if we’re given them at Yule tide or for Easter or something like that.

#3. Do you usually drink out of glass, acrylic, Tupperware type or paper cups?
For the most part lately I’ve been drinking directly out of cans. I will use glasses if I’m drinking water or something. We also have plastic and styrofoam cups at our house too for when our friends are over gaming, and because my husband maintains that hot drinks keep their heat longer in styrofoam rather than mugs so whenever he has coffee or tea he drinks it out of those and I drink it out of a mug.

#4. Share a chicken recipe.
Hm. Well, I’ve shared a few recipes in the past few weeks that use chicken. Let’s think what else I can…oh, General Tso’s chicken. That’s actually fairly simple, LOL, because I cheat with it a lot so I can make it quickly.

1 cup of rice per person eating.
1 lb pack of chicken breasts.
1 bottle of General Tso’s sauce. (I usually get the Iron Chef kind).
Birds Eye Microwaveable Steam Broccoli.

Chop the chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and fry them up.
Set the rice to cook with one cup of water per cup of rice either in a rice steamer or in a pan on the stove.
Once the chicken is browned add the General Tso’s sauce.
Once the chicken is thoroughly coated, steam the vegetables and then add them to the mix.
Serve.

There are ways to make the General Tso’s sauce for scratch, but any time I’ve tried it’s always come out tasting absolutely horrible, so I go for the cheat way. The sauce is usually about $4 but it’s worth it to not have the hassle of a horrible meal.

Be sure to check out the Fun Crafts and Recipes blog for a the Four Foods on Friday round-up.

It’s that time again, time for Four Foods on Friday!

Here are my answers to the questions.

#1. Do you ever use scissors to cut any foods? Which? Raw or cooked?
I use scissors a lot in the kitchen, because it’s a lot easier for me to be able to chop things up without having hand spasms from the FMS which makes me very temp sensitive, especially to cold things. I have three pairs of kitchen scissors now because a friend got us a pair as part of a wedding present then we got another pair with our kitchen knives, and then my Mum just got us some really good kitchen knives as a housewarming present and they came with yet another pair of scissors, but it’s great because I use them *all* them time. I just used them at breakfast time because I was chopping french fries and left over hotdogs to make an egg concoction.

#2. Popcorn. Homemade, microwave, bagged, hot, cold. How do you like it?
I’m really not keen on popcorn. If we do make it here it’s more likely to be microwaved, but I really only like caramel popcorn.

#3. Sushi. Love it or hate it?
I LOVE sushi! I just made a couple of batches last week, and I’m due to make some more. I just have to get some more fish to make it with, although I’ll probably need to get some more wraps after I do that.

#4. Share a dessert recipe.
By far my favorite dessert has to be Helen’s Layer, which I learned from my Gran. She used to make it a lot especially around the Christmas holiday time, as well as this wonderful Chocolate Meringue but I’m not even going to attempt Meringue especially when Helen’s Layer is SO good and so much easier to make. For Helen’s Layer you need:

1/2 pint Whipped Cream
4 oz Brown Sugar
4 rounded tablespoons of drinking chocolate
1 level tablespoon Instant Coffee
4 oz fresh white bread crumbs.
Chocolate to decorate.

That’s the ratio’s anyway. I often wind up making it in triple quantity so it will fill a huge trifle bowl and there’s plenty for everyone because it usually disappears REALLY quickly.

Mix drinking chocolate, coffee, bread crumbs and sugar together in a bowl.
Whip up the cream in a separate bowl, until it’s doing the thick, soft peaks and is somewhat stiff.

Spread alternate layers of the chocolate mix and cream in a new bowl finishing with cream.

Refrigerate for about 8-10 hours or overnight.
Before serving decorate with chocolate flakes,  chocolate chips or something else like that.

Voila!

Simple but GORGEOUS!

I’ve slacked a bit on blogging the past few days but I wanted to make sure that I answered this week’s Four Foods on Friday.

#1. Steak. Plain, steak sauce, hot sauce, ketchup or something else?
I like steak with steak sauce. I don’t make it very often because I’m not that keen on steak, but if I can get some on sale from the grocery store I will and I like to marinade it in steak sauce and then have a bit more on the side when I eat it.

#2. Water. Flavored, plain, carbonated. How do you like it?
Mostly if I drink water it’s plain and iced, but I have some crystal light sachets that I want to use up soon.

#3. What’s your favorite kind of waffle?
Leggo my eggo! Especially if they’re chocolate chip. Hm-mmm, and just fresh from the toaster so that the chocolate chips are melty.

#4. If you could have any one new small appliance for your kitchen what would it be and why?
A food processor. I used to have a mini chopper but it had an unfortunate accident with a fall from a great height and I miss it greatly, although if I were to replace it I would get a regular sized one. It was a big help chopping things up for me like mix when I was making pies or wontons. Although it still took a while because the most amount of food it could fit was a cup or so, which was fine when it was just me…but now with a family definitely need the full size.

Be sure to check Val’s Fun Crafts and Recipes site for her archive of everyone’s FFoF entries.

Here’s my entry for this week’s Four Foods on Friday from Val’s meme. If you want to participate check out the entry FFoF #17 and answer the questions and leave your link.

#1. What’s your favorite potato chip?
I’m a big fan of Pringles chips, particularly the BBQ flavor. Although I recently discovered a Mesquite Barbecue flavor from FritoLay Stax which is pretty nice. Before we emigrated my favorite was Salt n’ Vinegar Discos.

#2. Do you use butter, margarine, both or neither?
I use Smart Balance which is a margarine substitute.

#3. What’s your favorite mixed alcoholic (or virgin) drink?
My favorite has to be the White Russian, made with the fermented potato juice I mentioned last week. Vodka, and Kalhua and milk, poured over ice. I used to be a big fan of Absolut vodka, but my husband found Svedka vodka a few months ago and we’ve been getting that since. I like to make them frozen too by using vanilla frozen yoghurt instead of milk and mixing them in the blender.

#4. What’s your favorite vegetable and how do you prepare it?
Corn on the cob. I really like to steam it in the microwave. There are packs you can get from Birds Eye that you just nuke for six minutes and they come out perfect. I like to do Asparagus the same way.

It’s that time of the week again. Time for the Four Foods on Friday meme from Fun Crafts and Recipes. Check out everyone else’s answers, and look for Val’s round up later on today or tomorrow.

#1. What is your favorite kind of juice to drink?
I love mango juice. I used to really love lemonade but I can’t drink that any more. It’s another thing I sickened myself of while pregnant. I like fermented potato juice too ^_~

2. Pizza. What’s your favorite?
That varies depending on the restaurant. If I’m up in St. Augustine at Pizzalley’s (where I used to work) I have to get the fajita lovers pizza. If we’re here ordering from one of the local pizza chains I’ll either get a buffalo chicken pizza or a hawaiian pizza. I like to do the modified hawaiian also which is chicken with pineapple.

#3. Mustard. Yellow, brown, depends.
I’m not really a mustard person. My husband is. If I’m going to get mustard it’s honey mustard. My husband’s favorite is a “Beer n’ Brat” mustard which I’ve been scouring all over the local grocery stores trying to find it in the end I googled it and ordered some online. We’d thought it was a Boars Head mustard but it turns out to be made by “Silver Springs”.

#4. Share a side dish recipe that uses rice or pasta.
Hm. A lot of time if I’m going to do pasta side dishes I just get something like pasta-roni or rice-a-roni and mix it up that way. We have a lot of dishes which involve rice in some way, it goes with the curry I talked about last week, or I make asian dishes with rice like General Tso’s or Sweet N Sour chicken. I think my favorite noodle dish at the minute is Pad Thai, but that’s a cheater dish because I buy the box kits at Publix and just add water and chicken. So, no recipe from me this time. I’ll share some thing during the week. I’m going to make a curry over the weekend so I will take pictures and show off.

This is my second week of participation in the Four Foods on Friday meme. I’m not sure I’ll have a recipe this week but I’ll see if I can come up with something.

#1. What is your favorite kind of cheese for snacking?
When I was pregnant I got really into string cheese, but it’s one of those foods that I can’t stomach any more because of that. I tend to get Muenster cheese slices or Provolone if I’m getting cheese from the Deli, but if we’re just getting block cheese I usually go for the sharp cheddars and every once in a while colby jack.

#2. What is your favorite kind of jelly?
Hrm. It’s been a while since I’ve actually had jelly. I tend to be boring and just get strawberry. When we lived in England my Gran would make home made jams: strawberry, raspberry sometimes blackcurrent or gooseberry, the biggest deal of jam/jelly making was when she would make marmalade. Compared to that store-bought jam just doesn’t “cut the mustard”.

3. Yogurt. Regular or custard style?
… I’m not sure what the difference is, so I guess I probably just get regular. If I get yoghurt it’s usually the 7 for $3-4 deals that the local grocery store does. Although for a while I was really into the Yoplait mousses.

4. Share a recipe for a stew or soup.
I don’t really have any. On the rare occasions that we have leftovers in our house I tend to curry them, which is a tradition handed down from my Grandfather who got curry recipes when he was stationed in what is now Sri Lanka but was then Ceylon while he was in the British Navy. My Gran would make stews with leftovers some times and my MIL and FIL do tend to make things into soup, but I’ve carried on the tradition of “slinging it in a curry” because my husband loves spicy food.
I don’t really measure when it comes to spices and things I’ll just add bits here and there until the mix starts “chuckling” appropriately and gets a bit of a skin forming on it. We call that “melt the spoon good”. So, here are the spices I put in and how I make the curry itself, but if you’re making it yourself you can adjust to your own taste.

Core foods:
Leftover meat (turkey, chicken, beef…usually work best)
Leftover veggies (peas, carrots…etc for example)
Sometimes my grandfather would put sultanas or apple in the curry too.
I like to chop up potatoes and have them in the curry if I have some.

The curry sauce:
Coconut milk with equal parts water.
Curry Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Garam Masala
Turmeric
Ginger
Nutmeg
Paprika.

**cornstarch if needed.

To make:
Chop the leftovers into bite size pieces if they’re not there already. Put the leftovers into the pan over a low heat. I use a wok, but my granddad used to use a saucepan. Add the coconut milk and water, and mix until blended then add the spices at varying intervals stirring until thoroughly mixed. The Cayenne Pepper is what makes the curry spicy so it’s best to start with a little and work up on that one. The main essential spice for the curry flavor is the curry powder, the others can be added to preference. The Garam Masala is a spice which helps to blend all the other flavors together.

I’ll have to see if I can find my grandfather’s recipe for making your own curry powder, but most grocery stores sell yellow or red curry powder or both. It took me a while to find Garam Masala here in Florida though.

Well, that’s it from me. Happy cooking!

So, this is my first week participating in Four Foods on Friday. I have to give a quick shout out to Skeet’s Stuff for putting me on to this meme. It looks like fun! Here we go.

#1. Bacon. Chewy, crispy or burnt?
For me I like bacon crispy or burnt. The crispier the better. I like it to shatter when I bite into it. I haven’t had bacon in so long though. I was getting turkey bacon for a while, but mostly lately I’ve just been chopping up lunch meat into the breakfast concoctions that I make, or having cereal or toast.

#2. Mayonnaise or miracle whip?
Personally I prefer Miracle Whip, but hubbie hates it so I’ve switched to getting mayonnaise in the house. I don’t mind mayo, but I prefer the tangy zip.

#3. What green vegetable is used in Italian Wedding soup?
I have no clue. I would google it, but Skeet’s answers came into my feed reader and she says “Endive” so I will second it ’cause I have never had or made that soup.

#4. Share a recipe that you use Italian sausage in
Hrm. Well, the only times I use Italian sausage are when I make calzone or when I mash it up and put it in the breakfast concoction. Otherwise I generally just used mince turkey.

Calzone: 
Pre-made pizza dough from the grocery store.
Italian sausage.
Sliced ham.
Ricotta cheese.
Provolone.
Egg. Flour (small portion, or water if you don’t want to waste an egg).

Roll out the pizza dough into a circular shape. Spread the ricotta over half of it. Put chopped ham, mashed sausage and provolone cheese in side. Fold up. Seal with a little bit of egg and flour.
Bake at 350 for about a half an hour to forty-five minutes until golden brown.