Help!

[Bleeding Orange]

I would like some suggestions on what to cook for dinner tomorrow night, if anyone has any suggestions. I have to cook tomorrow because my mother is sick and my father has bursitis in the shoulder of his dominant arm. I mention the arm because he can't eat very well with his right hand, as we found out last night when he tried to eat beef stew. Anyhoo...

There are a couple of other things you must bear in mind when making suggestions:

1.) I don't cook very often. The only thing I cook well is spaghetti (I've been told that my sauce should be called "Your Sauce Sucks" because it is that good), and that is all I ever cook when I do. That wouldn't work very well with my father, I'm sure...

2.) I would prefer not to make sandwiches or burgers. We're having Wendy's tonight (at least its not Arby's), and I would prefer not to repeat anything that resembles this meal tomorrow.

3.) I am prone to Flipper-esque injuries. Any recipie that calls for deep frying, excessive slicing and dicing, or a multitude of boiling hot liquids would probably not be advisable. Trust me. g

I really would appreciate any suggestions.

Now, let's see how good you culinary technicians really are...

...with thanks in advance, of course.

[ZiggyZoomba]

[TG1996]

...and there ya have it! a 5-course meal1

[Bleeding Orange]

That is my other specialty.

Next.

[SaxyIrishTenor]

Obviously something on the softer side, so it doesn't require a lot of opposite-handed effort.

Maybe stuffed shells, with a side of garlic mashed potatoes? Its fairly reasonable that its in your realm of cooking because it's Italian, and I don't think anyone can screw up mashies.

[hammb]

Made some garlic mashed potatoes last night.

Roasted 2 heads of garlic in the oven for an hour. Then cooked up some redskin potatoes. Pulled out all the roasted cloves and mashed into a paste then mashed them in with the potatoes. Milk, butter, and about a cup or so of shredded cheddar cheese...Good stuff

I also made fried chicken. Pretty simple as well. Soak chicken in buttermilk (I skin it first). Coat with seasoned flour. Fry in butter (butter is the KEY to good fried chicken).

Homemade mac & Cheese is not too difficult either Bleeding. Way better than the boxed stuff, will impress your family for sure, and really is only marginally more difficult than boxed.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Doesn't your dad have a grill? Throw some meat on there you pansy. It's perfect because just last week your mom told me she wished she had more meat at home.....

[Zom]

If his right arm is out of action, the solution is left handed chop sticks and a bit of Chinese. Doddle!

The secret to chinese is slicing the meat fine. Since this is a risky option, I am sure you can probably find some pre prepared chicken, or maybe better still, how about some shrimp? If you're doing the chicken, get your hands on:

- a couple tablespoons of ginger paste
- a couple tablespoons honey
- half a wine glass of sherry
- about as much oil (pref not olive, maybe corn oil)
- a couple tablespoons of soya sauce
- bit of salt
- bit of pepper

Put all that in a bowl, throw the chicken in, and go away for an hour or so with the sherry bottle. Sprinkle a tablespoon of corn flour in if your adventurous, it will help thicken the sauce.

Next, have on hand:

- more oil,
- a bit more soya sauce
- half glass sherry
- some bean sprouts (and/or, if you're brave enough, sliced onions)
- some mangetout (no need to slice)
- some more ginger paste (1tbsp)
- maybe some lemongrass paste (1 tbsp)
- ditto garlic if you feel like it
- juice of two lemons

Put the oil in the pan, get it SMOKING hot. Fry the chicken, put to one side. Throw in the bean sprouts, soften if fresh, warm through if canned. Throw in the mangetout, warm through. Add everything above you haven't already put in, throw the chicken back in, stir it through, and serve with the rice.

Doddle. Just tell your Dad everyone uses chop sticks left handed, and he'll be so focused on his sticks he'll forget about his arm.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Here's a nice and easy mac-and-cheese with some broccoli.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 pound chicken breast tenders, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound macaroni elbows or cavatapi corkscrew shaped pasta twists
2 1/2 cups raw broccoli florets, available packaged in produce department
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
3 cups whole milk
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups yellow sharp Cheddar
1 tablespoon prepared Dijon mustard


Place a pot of water on to boil for macaroni.
Heat a medium pan over medium to medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and chicken and season with salt and pepper. Saute a couple of minutes then add onion and cook another 5 to 7 minutes until onions are tender and chicken is cooked through. Turn off heat and reserve.

To boiling pasta water, add pasta and salt to season the cooking water. Cook 5 minutes, then add broccoli and cook 3 minutes more or until pasta is cooked to al dente and florets are just tender.

While pasta cooks, heat a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Add butter and melt, then add flour, cayenne and paprika and whisk together over heat until roux bubbles then cook a minute more. Whisk in milk and stock and raise heat a little to bring sauce to a quick boil. Simmer sauce to thicken about 5 minutes.

Drain macaroni or pasta and broccoli florets. Add back to pot and add chicken to the pasta and broccoli.

Add cheese to milk sauce and stir to melt it in, about a minute or so. Stir in mustard and season sauce with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chicken and broccoli and cooked pasta and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings, transfer to a large serving platter and serve

[Zom]

Have you decided what to do for dinner, Bleeding Orange?

[hammb]

Have you decided what to do for dinner, Bleeding Orange?

Who wants to bet he ends up ordering pizza?

[jacojdm]

Instead of worrying so much, why don't you just to to Heinen's and pick up something nice and ready made?

[TG1996]

Who wants to bet he ends up ordering pizza?

I had considered that, but then I figured who wouldn't take the opportunity to fix whatever they damn well felt like for their parents and say "You'll eat what I tell you you're gonna eat!"??

Pizza seems like the go to option, but that wouldn't require soliciting advice on a message board.

So... I'm thinking that he's really bringing a new "friend" over, and needs a good meal to show his folks that they shouldn't love him any less for the lifestyle he leads.


You know, not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Bleeding Orange]

Who wants to bet he ends up ordering pizza?

I had considered that, but then I figured who wouldn't take the opportunity to fix whatever they damn well felt like for their parents and say "You'll eat what I tell you you're gonna eat!"??

Pizza seems like the go to option, but that wouldn't require soliciting advice on a message board.

So... I'm thinking that he's really bringing a new "friend" over, and needs a good meal to show his folks that they shouldn't love him any less for the lifestyle he leads.


You know, not that there's anything wrong with that.

There is no way around it - that is just plain funny. What a douchebag...

And no, I'm not going to order pizza, although that would be a lot less work. I think I'm actually going to try out J4H's maccaroni recipe. Yours sounds good, too, Zom, but I would probably end up spending $60 to get all of the ingredients seeing as how we don't have 90% of them in the house.

And for the record, I actually enjoy cooking. I just don't do it very often and I always, for some reason, have trouble finding a recipe that sounds doable and cheap enough. My parents have never been all that creative with what they cook (we grill out a LOT, and year-round), so we don't have a lot of specialty items in the house at any given time.

Thanks for the advice (to the two of you that actually gave it ), and keep it coming if you have any more ideas. Perhaps I'll discover some stuff I can start cooking more regularly.

[hammb]

Thanks for the advice (to the two of you that actually gave it ), and keep it coming if you have any more ideas. Perhaps I'll discover some stuff I can start cooking more regularly.

Hey, I thought I gave some advice in my first post Homemade Mac & Cheese was MY idea...J4H just held your hand a little more and provided an actual recipe.


His did look good though. I make Mac & Cheese fairly often, but have never added broccoli and chicken to it, that would be good. Generally I use butter instead of olive oil for my roux. I also would double the cheese that his recipe called for, because I like cheese

Oh yeah, make sure you get the whole milk, makes a WORLD of difference. I'll make it with the 1% that I have in the fridge if I'm just making it for a side dish, but when I make it to share I always use the whole milk...you'll be amazed how much better it will turn out.

Good luck man, just don't burn the roux, it's about the only way you can screw up mac & cheese If you do burn it, don't try to salvage it, dump it out and start fresh...you're out a little flour & some oil, but it's no big deal.