kitchengoddess's Profile

If you're honestly trying to watch your intake, should you be eating brownies or muffins? : )

Stop with the f**cking food police routine all ready. Who died and made you Marion Nestle?

OP asked a question about low fat alternatives. If you can't answer the godd**MN question without adding in your moralizing and what you think she should/should not be eating, either start your own godsD**MN blog or STFU all ready.

OP-you didn't need this judgemental crap, nor did you need to justify why you asked this question with -"HEY, I WORK OUT!" stop feeding into this whole food cop judgmental foodie Bullshyte that goes on all the time.

those are some ugly mugs.

link please or recipe.

I am not picky

spritz it about five quick short bursts of your favorite olive oil nonstick spray. use your hands to coat each kernel.

But honestly, don't be afraid of the fat...seriously, the best "how I learned to stop worrying about fats and bacteria" were my two required classes, nutrition and general biology. So unless you think popcorn kernels should be delivered soggy with butter, relax just a tad on the whole "but it's a fat, I can't have it anymore" you will be so glad you did.

Personally, I grew weary of wasting buttermilk. We don't "southern"* or cakes in this house. Those foods don't do well here.

So, I switched to buttermilk powder. I found in the baking aisle. Just follow the directions on the can. The powder keeps forever, and does a really nice job of creating the buttermilk affect. It may not be a "purist" thing, and I am sure the elite food snobs here will look down on my trailer trash ways,** however, it beats wasting food in my book.

*Yeah, I know, southern style food is "trendy". It also clogs the arteries, and tastes greasy(fried chicken, and don't tell me your recipe is different, it isn't) and slimey, as in okra or collard greens. (see parentheses above).
Taste in food is subjective, and right now I am subjecting you to mine.

** Once any food elites have picked themselves off the fainting couch and are done clutching their pearls. A lot of times in cooking for families, good enough actually tastes pretty damn good.

Austrian garlic soup.

Miso ginger soup.

I have a chicken soup that my friends call the witch's brew soup, it heals everything.

84 dollars for tea towels I can stamp myself????!!!!

CRAZEEE!

what a bunch of food elitist snots you people are.

Kitchen Mage/OP-
Thank you for the idea. I love the thought of instant microwave mac & cheese and KM, you are totally correct when you say that kids love the magic portion of cooking. The bowl becomes extremely hot when you use the microwave kraft mac & cheese. I would have thought that food snots who hang out here would know the basic equation of heatwaves entering food/glass dishes hot=use a freaking oven mitt when taking things out of microwave, but apparently they aren't.

Carrie:

If you are attracted to the convenience of the slow cooker's "dump and go" canned cream of whatever certainly works well. However, there is no denying that when using canned soups taste is significantly sacrificed for said convenience.

While the blogger here will get no arguments from me that a freshly brewed roux(rhyme intended!) is indeed the best of both worlds, nor does making a roux take significantly more time than opening a can of soup; I have found that a powdered bulk cream of whatever soup on hand is convenient, and tastes fresher than the canned version. Of course, it also goes without saying that I can control the ingredients for health, such as using nonfat powdered milk, quality dried mushrooms and of course the salt.

Now, I only make bulk cream of mushroom soup because of an extreme dislike of the cream of celery soup. I also like mushrooms with a hobbitlike fanaticism, so I never make the plain variety of this, and always add dried mushrooms to my mix.

Here is my modified recipe with instructions for its uses.
I am sure you could find others using ye olde google.

Instant Cream Soup Mix
2 c. of nonfat powdered milk
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. instant chicken bouillon
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp of kosher salt(or omit it all together and use the season to taste when cooking the recipe)
1/4 c. of assorted dried mushrooms

Combine these and store in an airtight container.

To use for soup: combine 1/3 c. mix and 1 1/2c. water. Bring to a boil while stirring often. Add a vegetable for more flavor, such as diced celery (for cream of celery soup), or some sliced mushrooms (for cream of mushroom soup), or some diced broccoli (for cream of broccoli soup).

Use as a substitute for half a 10-3/4-ounce can of condensed cream of chicken, mushroom or celery soup. For half of a can of soup, in a microwave-safe dish, whisk together 2/3 cup water or milk for extra creaminess and 3 tablespoons soup mix, I heat it in the microwave for three minutes, but am also guilty of just dumping in the crockpot and whisking it vigorously.

After doing my own personal kitchen cure, I found a bunch of old cookbooks of my dearly departed mother's. One happened to be one I gave her that she never cooked out of, as it was too "Big City" to her cream of mushroom tastes.

The cookbook is called Mesa Mexicana by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger(are they the Two Hot Tamales?)\ and the last recipe in there is for homemade sweetened condensed milk. It's made with less sugar, so I think it would change a recipe's taste, but I always found the tinned stuff to be diabetic coma sweet anyway.

Here's the recipe:
6 cups of nonfat milk(one of the reasons Miliken and Feniger say they use their own recipe is because they want to use nonfat milk, but I bet if whole would work too.)
5 tablespoons of sugar

Pour milk into a medium heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the sugar and continue simmering 10 to 15 minutes or until reduced to 3 cups. Strain. May be refrigerated up to a week.

I think I am going to try this tomorrow.

P.S. I don't mind cream of mushroom stuff, but I prefer my own homemade.