Cooking for a Community Fridge

[patti]

20 hours ago, Shelby said:

Nah, I'm afraid of my stupidly expensive pizza oven so I never use it either 🤣

 

I'll search around on the IP topic here and see if I can find someone doing egg bites--I know someone did.  

 

I don't know how you feel about sous vide, but I've read that method does wonderful egg bites.

 

I have double ovens, an air fryer, and a microwave, but no sous vide equipment. And I’m okay with that. (Do I sound like a Luddite?) 😜

 

20 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

Rancho Gordo website has an interesting variety of bean recipes. You don't necessarily have to use the heirloom beans in the recipes. 

 

https://www.ranchogordo.com/blogs/recipes

 

This was a rabbit hole! I stayed awhile, and will return. Merci.

 

20 hours ago, Darienne said:

Hey!  I don't think you are close-minded at all.  (I wouldn't eat a number of things either...)  You don't have a northern constituent.  And I did back down before I closed off. 

 

I just remembered I have a recipe which calls for potatoes and corned beef and another one for potatoes and cabbage and a hamburger and cabbage one also.  I could message them to you.

 

I appreciate any recipes messaged to me, and I appreciated your sauerkraut suggestion! 

 

20 hours ago, Shelby said:

Here's a link to @kayb's egg bites 

 

Thank you! I’m tempted to get the silicone thingys even if I just use them to freeze stock. And then work up the nerve to try them in my IP. Haha!

 

13 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Back on the egg bites that @Shelby suggested (which might be easier to bake in muffin cups whether you have an IP or not) have you considered any other “breakfast for dinner” meals?  
Not sure how they’d be received but something like an egg bite (maybe with ham, bacon, sausage, cheese or veg like spinach, mushroom, etc) hash brown patty and fruit would be a decent meal that I’d be happy to eat at room temp. 

I see a lot of online recipes for breakfast sandwiches made with whomp biscuits that might work …though I never trust them 🙃

 

A big pan of polenta you could cut up and fry would make a good side or dipper but the frying part would be messy.  Little disks in muffin tins might be easier, but they’d still need to be fried or toasted in some way…sorry…thinking while posting! 

 

While I hadn’t yet considered breakfast for dinner meals, as a fan of them, it’s something to consider. I like the hash brown patty and fruit idea, as well. Thank you.

 

Funny you brought up polenta. An east Texas friend from many years ago introduced us to baked cheese grits as a side dish for barbecued and/or grilled meat. I just haven’t figured out which meat idea would work best. My husband said he’s unwilling to grill meat for 24. Too much pressure (he probably means from me, not the recipients) for it to be good! But it could ham or something else.

 

10 hours ago, JAZ said:

The egg bite idea also reminded me of "breakfast for dinner" possibilities. I wondered how strata/breakfast casseroles might work. I did a recipe for a sort of French toast casserole with breakfast sausage in one of my books, which turned out really well, but just your regular bacon, egg, and cheese would probably also work. 

 

A breakfast casserole is a great idea! I know they are very popular and not too hard to make. Thank you.

[patti]

20 hours ago, FauxPas said:

Still on beans, I am a fan of Smitten Kitchen's Pizza Beans because they have some decent veggies (which you can increase a bit, if desired) but still maintain a very basic cheesy appeal. And they can be spiced up. (you don't have to use the gigante beans)

 

https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/09/pizza-beans/

 

Deb also has another variation with sausage and chickpeas. 

 

https://smittenkitchen.com/2025/02/ziti-chickpeas-with-sausage-and-kale/

 

Do you have a food processor or chopper for dicing/chopping veggies? 

 

 

I am intrigued by Pizza Beans. Thank you for both of those. Yes, I do have a food processor and am not afraid to use it! 

 

18 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Thanks for the reminder on both the pizza beans and the chickpea recipe. I'd forgotten them, and agree that they might lend themselves well to this project. 

 

Another idea is for the Homesick Texan's Sunday Pinto Beans. It's dead easy, and delicious although as I reported here I found it much much too salty as originally written. I settled at 1/4 of the amount of salt she specified, but it's important to note that I wasn't using kosher salt. My fine salt by volume would have been considerably saltier. (Now that I'm reminded of this recipe, maybe I'll try it again -- and post the results somewhere.) Although the recipe is written without meat, I think it would be easy to add meat if you wanted.

 

My mother was originally from east Texas, but moved to south Louisiana as a teen and never left. She became a wonderful Cajun cook because of my dad, but was absolutely sometimes a “Homesick Texan” craving pinto beans and cornbread. Thank you for making me think of my mom, and also for the recipe.