Thoughts on food 3-Ingredients

Hello,

This will be some ingredient recommendations by me but before I do that, I want to mention that I did try the Beaumont coffee as a French Press brew.  I have to admit though, the French style did not seem to improve the coffee after all.  Looks like drip coffee sometimes is the way to go.

Now on to the ingredients.  The first one that I want to mention has to do with baking cakes.  If you are using a cake mix, chances are the mix will call for some vegetable oil.  If you want to bake a richer, flavorful cake, use butter instead of oil.  The fat of the butter will provide additional flavor to your cake seeing as the adage of fat=flavor, is true.

A simple improvement to macaroni and cheese, is to add tuna.  After you have stirred up the noodles with the cheese and the macaroni is ready to serve, open a can of tuna and stir it into your macaroni.  The canned tuna will stick to the macaroni, you will not need mayonnaise.  And technically, tuna and macaroni counts as seafood pasta.

If you are baking or frying chicken and want to add a cheddar flavor to your chicken, try using cheez-it crackers.  Grind the crackers into powder then sprinkle or rub the powder on.

And don’t be afraid to rub powders onto meat.

Some have improved on their chicken by adding cornflakes cereal to their mix.  I have never  tried that and do not like mixing sweet and savory flavors so, I cannot fully endorse that.

Hot dog and hamburger buns can be improved by toasting them right before serving the hot dogs and hamburgers.  If you do not have or do not want to use a toaster, the broiler in your oven will work just as well, then add butter and serve.  Adding powdered garlic to your buns along with the butter gives them a garlic toast flavor, which I have never regretted doing.

If you are cooking Mexican food, be sure to season your meat with ground Cumin.  The Cumin will help give your food an authentic flavor.

Matter of fact, do not be afraid to over season your meat.  Under seasoned meat is bland meat, after all.

With some ingredients, it is best to let these ingredients disappear.  For example, when cooking a fridge cake, I have found that it is best to let any ice crystals melt before trying the cake…not that I have done that before or anything…

That’s it for this one guys, until next time!

Thoughts on Food 1

Hello!  This will be my first post on Norris Cafe.  I do have some experience in blogging, my last blog can be found here.  Anyway, these posts will be my thoughts and recommendations on food and drink, as well as product recommendations.  More photos will come along with this blog as well.

Also, if you want to get to know me, I have an introduction posted here.  The TLDR version is that I’m in my 30’s and can only get jobs in fast casual restaurants.

I recently blogged on coffee, specifically how to make regular coffee taste like French Press style coffee.  If you came here from that post, welcome!

One unique food idea that I want to share on here has to do with chili.  It might sound strange but, chili and beans are really good with ranch dressing on top.  Yes, it’s true.  You read that right, put ranch on top of your chili.  You can thank me later.

If you are still not convinced, remember that ranch has garlic in it.  Garlic tastes great with chili and the creaminess of ranch only makes it better.

Garlic has other benefits as well!  Aside from being a go-to herb to add flavor, it is also related to onions and shallots-other supreme flavor enhancers.  Garlic also contains Vitamin C, Manganese, as well as fiber.  Go ahead and add ranch and/or garlic itself to your chili!

I could mention the most obvious benefit of garlic on here but, that would be stating the obvious.  I do not want to talk down to anyone here so I will not bother to repeat that the fact that garlic repels vampires.

Garlic also has been known to ruin one’s own breath, which is an effective deterent against unwanted lovers.

As for ranch, I do prefer the traditional type.  Some stores carry spiced ranch but, I never wanted to try that.  Ranch can be made spicy at home by mixing it with your favorite hot sauce anyway.

I also do not recommend taking a bath in ranch dressing.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, chili is enhance with ranch because it contains garlic and/or onions.  I prefer white and green onions, myself.  Chili is also good as part of a Frito Pie, as long as it’s made with cheddar cheese.  Does Frito Pie taste good with ranch?  I don’t know, never tried it.  Let me know if you have.

That’s enough about ranch and chili.  As for the future of this blog, I have some product reviews coming up and some of my favorite recipes as well.  What are some products that you would like me to review?  Let me know!