Cook without recipes, does anyone else?

[MACKTEXAS]

What's holding the cake mix together to keep the cookie shape? Doesn't there have to be some egg or something to hold it together?

No. I made some just yesterday. Just mix the water and cake mix just how I wrote it in my earlier post and they will turn out fine. They are going to be soft - almost like cake, but they hold together and are firm on the outside.

 

[Lilac]

Here's a few sauces that I make if anyone is interested.

I like Pesto sauce & we usually make a big batches when it comes in from the garden. We freeze it in 8-ou jelly jars which is the right size for us. It's good over pasta & over cooked chicken breasts. I also use it in a green bean/potato salad which has a vinaigrette dressing over it. You can mix some in mayo & use it on sandwiches too.

Pesto Sauce

4 cups fresh basil leaves
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts, toasted
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil, enough to make a past
salt, to taste

Place in blender the basil, garlic and pine nuts along with some olive oil to make a paste. Add more olive oil if needed. Add cheese, process more adding more oil if need to make a smooth paste.

TO FREEZE: Leave out garlic and salt. These will fade with freezing and you will have to re-add again. Once in a jar, top with more olive oil just to cover the basil from turning dark. Freezes up to one year. I have had it in the freezer for two years without any problems.

Port Wine Sauce with Mushrooms

1 tsp. butter
1/4 cup minced onion

Saute until translucent. Transfer to bowl.

1 Tbsp. butter
8 ounce mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

Saute mushrooms until browned and tender. Salt slightly. Add onions back to pan.

1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup Ruby Port wine (Sherry or Madeira can be substituted)
1 Tbsp. butter

Add both to pan and simmer until reduced and thick. Add butter at end. Taste for salt and pepper.

Bacon-Gorgonzola Butter

1 pound butter, at room temperature
6 ounce gorgonzola, at room temperature
1/4 pound bacon, cooked and chopped very fine along with the grease
1 Tbsp. flat leave parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. Sriracha sauce
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Blend everything with a paddle mixer. Turn out on wax paper and roll into a 2" log. Wrap in wax paper and place in fridge to blend.

Cut in 1/4" discs and put on top of steak, burger or chicken.

Freeze portions wrapped in wax paper and wrap tight in plastic wrap. Recipe can be cut down to make smaller amount.

 

[Della]

Nothing I make is special enough to read a recipe. I use the crock pot a lot with cut up frozen vegetables and lay a piece of rotisserie chicken on top and leave on low 4 hours. Today, I opened a large can of Progresso chicken soup that had rice and carrots in it, then I steamed some broccoli and green peppers until tender, added those to it, cut up a small (left over) cooked thigh into chunks; added that - it made a bit pot to simmer on the stove until warmed. Had half that for lunch, froze the other half to thaw for later on. Spur of the moment things that can't be done wrong.

Here's a complicated recipe for you: Mix a 15.25 ounce of chocolate cake mix with 2/3 cup of water (nothing else). Use vegetable oil spray on a baking pan, shape your mixture into cookies, let bake for no more than 10 minutes on 350. These will be very soft. Add some chocolate chips if you want.

If I want fancy baked desserts, I pick them up at Walmart or the grocery store. Average price would be $8.00 to $14.00 for a cake, maybe less for a pie. I wouldn't make those because even the most economical concoctions would cost me at least half as much as the bought ones, if not the same as the bought ones, olus the work.

I love that idea! That means my vegan son can eat them because no egg or milk are needed. Kroger has buy-one-get-one-free cake mixes right now which means I could make a whole lot of cookies for $2.19.

I love to bake, but rarely bake from scratch these days because it means buying baking powder, brown sugar, a big bag of flour and a big bag of white sugar, plus other spices and ingredients. I could buy the smaller bags of flour and sugar, but they cost more!

 

[bobcat]

Cooking without a recipe is pretty much the only way I cook. Granted, I'm not remotely close to the good cooks on this forum, but that's Okay, it's just fun to be adventurous, and if it doesn't turn out that good, I try and doctor it a bit. Sometimes I learn not to do it again, and sometimes it's a delightful surprise. It helps to watch a few cooking shows now and then to learn new things, but taste is a very personal thing, so it kinda guides you when cooking I think.

 

[Pinky]

Haven't cooked from a recipe in decades.

 

[MACKTEXAS]

I love that idea! That means my vegan son can eat them because no egg or milk are needed. Kroger has buy-one-get-one-free cake mixes right now which means I could make a whole lot of cookies for $2.19.

I love to bake, but rarely bake from scratch these days because it means buying baking powder, brown sugar, a big bag of flour and a big bag of white sugar, plus other spices and ingredients. I could buy the smaller bags of flour and sugar, but they cost more!

Okay, just be sure to spray the baking pan well with vegetable oil cooking spray or they will stick, and don't make them too small. One cake mix should make 12-15 cookies, no more.

 

[SueBee]

The problem with recipes is the ingredients. I rarely, if ever, have the same ingredients as what is supposedly required. In this way things sort of morph…

That’s it for me, too. When I look at a long list of required ingredients, my brain shuts off! Therefore, I rarely bake because I know baking is a lot more scientific.

 

[Jackie23]

Once in a while I'll use a recipe to try something new but most of the time I do not....for the last year or so I've been learning cooking with no sugar or salt and that is an ongoing experiment.

 

[JBR]

It's varied with me. With soups or enchiladas with molé, I improvise and they usually turn out well.

I've experimented with quiche, scalloped potatoes, halibut, and a few other things, then when I've arrived at satisfaction I've written down my own recipe and then rely on it.

With pizza crust and cheese biscuits (scones), I use recipes I found online and which I then typed into notes on my laptop. Makes it more foolproof.

 

[Jules]

I read cookbooks, real or online, for inspiration. These recipes are copied to my word documents. Recently I realized some of my base recipes from Harrowsmith cookbooks aren’t digital so I’m checking out all the flagged pages and starting to scan them. Many that I would have loved in the 80s are too rich for now.