Crime & Punishment

Reserved

Reserved

You know when you've been Bumbled

Preserved

Do you love soup? I do. It’s a delicious, simple meal that can be tailored to any season, and contain almost any flavors. There are even chilled soups and dessert soups.

Most often, when people want to make soup, they go look for a recipe. “Do you want chicken noodle…vegetable beef…or clam chowder?” But you don’t really need a recipe to make a great soup. Even less experienced cooks can do this at home; it’s very easy!

So next time you want to make soup, try this method. You’ll be able to use whatever you have on hand (no last-minute trips to the store for one ingredient!) and you just might love the result.

Ingredients
1) Choose a type of fat

Your soup will (probably) need to start with some type of healthy fat, like butter or olive oil. This is to sauté any root vegetables or other initial flavors. Pick whatever you have on hand that will mesh well with your flavors. (I’d choose olive oil if I wanted an “Italian” soup with a tomato base, and butter if I were making a cream soup; otherwise it’s a toss up.)
2) Choose your base

What do you have on hand? Chicken, beef, or fish stock? Tomato purée? Cream or milk? Choose one — or two. Stock mixed with tomato purée is delicious, as is stock with milk. Or even cream with tomato purée! You choose the flavors you want.
3) Choose your meat

If you want meat, that is. Is this a chicken soup? Ground beef (like a chili, or made into meatballs)? Steak? Fish? Choose whatever you like. You’ll probably want this to match your base (beef with fish stock might not be such a great combination), but use what you have. I’ve used chicken stock in place of beef stock with great results, especially if I also added tomato.
4) Choose your veggies

Onion is a pretty standard veggie because it imparts so much flavor. Garlic, carrots, and celery are all fairly common too — though not always used. There are also beans, potatoes, spinach, kale, corn, and so on. Use whatever you have, and whatever you like!
5) Choose your spices

Sea salt and black pepper are your two most basic spices, so you will want to include them (well…at least the salt). Here are a few more popular flavor combinations.

Celery seed, marjoram, thyme, parsley, and sage go well with chicken.
Marjoram, rosemary and thyme go well with beef.
Basil, oregano or fennel can be a nice addition to tomato-based soups.
Chilis need chili powder and perhaps cumin.
Cream soups might benefit from a dash or parsley or thyme.

But, that’s just “common” ones – feel free to dream up any combination you like! Taste and adjust as you go, though!

So you want to know the best way to bake a potato? Golden, crispy brown skins and soft, tasty potato-goodness inside? It's quite simple and easy to do, and if you follow along with me I will show you how to do it every step of the way.

Baking potatoes will take you from 1 to 1&1/2 hours to do in the oven, which is the method I will be showing you here. Microwaves speed it up, but they destroy a lot of the nutrients and you just don't get the same crispy skin in the microwave and everyone knows that the skins are the best part!

First, you need some taters. Russet potatoes are the most popular for baking, either large or small. I like small so I can eat a few. This way I get more tasty, crunchy potato skin in my portion. Mmmmm..

You are also going to need some oil (Olive or Canola oil are preferred, but any non-motor oil will work, hehe) and some salt. Many people prefer Kosher, I use sea salt. Any will do.

Let's get to work! Clean your potatoes with a stiff-bristled brush and cold water. In a pinch the scouring side of a sponge will work, but be careful not to skin your potates!

After you've throughly cleaned the potatoes, look them over and remove any bruises or miscolored spots. I just dig them out with my finger nails.

Using your average fork work your way around each potato stabbing deeply into it's flesh. 6-12 stabs should do it depending on the size of the potatoes you are using. This allows steam to escape during the cooking process.

Your potatoes have now been cleaned and poked. Dry them off with a paper towel and preheat the oven to 350°F

Take a small bowl and add just a splash of your chosen oil, and have a container ready for the taters once they've been oiled.

The objective is to LIGHTLY coat each potato with oil. How you do this is up to you. My method is to lightly dab each potato in the oil and then use my hands to spread the dab around the entire spud like so...

Then lightly salt each one and put aside as you wait for the oven to heat up.

Now you should have a container full of cleaned, poked, and oiled potatoes. Arrange them in a 350°F oven over a baking sheet to catch any drippings.

Cooking time will vary from 1 hour and up depending on the size and quantity of potatoes you cook. For the above batch the magic number was 1:15. The skin should be puffed up, golden-brown and crispy, and the potato should squish easily and be very soft on the inside. Careful, potatoes retain heat for quite a while!

To open a baked potato, take your fork and stab a dotted line half way around a potato, then using your thumb and index finger squeeze at both ends of the line. It will pop right open.

There you have it, easy and delicious baked potatoes! Now that you've learned how to bake a potato, you get to have fun dressing it with your favorite topping and eating it! Yummmm..

coming from somebody with a face like said bell?
lulz

I'd like a reservation for page 5, please.

I'm sorry but that post will have to be removed seeing that you failed to reserve it.



Reserved.