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This is the Americanized version. Easy, hearty and oh-so-tasty! Comfort food at it's best.

Father Leo Patalinghug is not the kind of guy who steps down from a challenge. The 39-year-old priest is a former national full-contact stick fighting champion, a black belt in tae kwon do and an 80s break dancer who can still bust the moves with the best of them. So when Bobby Flay, a world-class celebrity chef, recently showed up in Frederick County and challenged the well-known “cooking priest” to a “throwdown” on the Food Network, Father Patalinghug’s response was simple: bring it on.

There are so many different variations of gumbo, but this one is tried and true!

I had a girlfriend who once said, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." We're talking about food, of course. Time is a commodity. Let's face it, we're all maxed out. Whether you're a working mother (who isn't), a single mother, a stay-at-home mom, or an empty-nester, we are all busy! Our busy schedules don't have to mean take-out or drive-thrus every night, though. Here are some tricks I've found that save time (and money!): 1. Since I don't grow my own vegetables, I have found that frozen or canned work just fine. 2. I don't make my own dough...

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- A southwest Florida woman was arrested after deputies said she assaulted her 71-year-old common-law husband after he complained about her cooking. A Lee County Sheriff's Office arrest report shows 66-year-old Meredith Hart Mulcahy was charged with battery on an elderly person Tuesday night. Deputies said the man got into an argument with her about undercooked potatoes and burnt bread.He went to the bedroom and began eating, and authorities said the woman then threw a phone at him. Deputies said Mulcahy became belligerent in the back seat of the patrol car and told them that she...

This morning I realized I forgot to buy bread so since it was nice morning, I walked down the street to the Latino grocery store. It was actually nicer than my usual grocery store - smaller, but neat and clean, all the check-out stands were open, and I was the only white person in there. Now that isn't unusual at my regular grocery store, but there people don't stare at me. Anyway, I was blown away by the produce and meat sections. Everything looked really nice (as opposed to my regular grocery store) and I didn't know what half of...

We just put a bunch of our new chef videos on Hulu.com I would really appreciate your feedback.

The rise of the Food Network from an obscure channel to cultural phenomenon and the explosion of celebrity chefs changed people’s perceptions about the culinary industry. Today, cooking and the culinary arts have become hip and sexy. The explosion in popularity has reached beyond television. Today, more and more people are seeking careers in the culinary arts. “Over the past three or so years, the number of people enrolling in culinary training programs grown tremendously,” said Shelly Ford, director of communication for The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Washington, located in Arlington, Va. The Art Institute launched...

ARE you welcoming home a prodigal son and not quite sure what to prepare for dinner? Or perhaps you have an angry army to appease and believe making an elaborate feast might just do the trick. Well, the Rev. Dr. Rayner W. Hesse Jr. and Anthony F. Chiffolo have just the cookbook for you. The two Hartsdale residents have written “Cooking With the Bible” (Greenwood Press), which is inspired by meals described in the Bible. It is newly released in paperback and filled with 200 recipes put together as 18 meals — 13 from the Old Testament and 5 from...

It’s the typical story of American ingenuity. Two buddies get together, get an idea to build something and before you know it, they’ve come up with a one-of-a-kind item. And of course there’s an engine involved. “We just started throwing parts at it,” said Russ Freeman, one of the inventors of the unique MotorHead Grill. Freeman’s good friend, Jay Thurman, had come into his garage and said he wanted to build a functional grill out of an engine block for his dad. The West Jones High School grads tried this and tried that. Eventually they had what looked like...

For me, purchasing shrimp is a moral dilemma. I have to have conversations with a pantheon of deities in order to just put a package of shrimp in my shopping cart. Why would something as simple and tummy-rubbing as shrimp do this to my already fragile psyche? Because the methods used to get it to my grocer’s seafood case are environmentally detrimental. Both wild-caught shrimp and farm-raised pose problems that just make me squirm. When I was younger I was Mr. Environmentalist. My school reports were always about natural power sources (that was before it was called “alternative energy” or...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2009 – When it comes to cooking, Army Sgt. Edmund Perez knows how to prepare a healthy, affordable meal in about 30 minutes. Army Sgt. Edmund Perez, an operations noncommissioned officer at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and a professional chef, brings his cooking talents to The Pentagon Channel in a cooking series called, “Microwave 101.” Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Perez, a native of San Antonio, is assigned to Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Garrison here, as the operations noncommissioned officer. And as a professional chef, he brings his cooking talents to a new...

The Freeper Canteen Presents Budget Friendly Cooking Good evening and welcome to our Cooking Thread! Tonight we will share some ideas for great meals on a tight budget! Chicken Chicken is inexpensive, versatile and nutritious! I watch the for sales on whole chickens. Cutting them up and using different parts for your recipes is a great way to save money! The plus is you get to use the bones for a base for stocks and soups! I slice up the breast meat for stir fry and freeze then for meals in a hurry. I use the legs and thighs...

It’s tough out there and may get tougher. Job cuts, pay cuts, and expenses are going up. What’s a conservative to do? Conserve, of course. That doesn’t mean you have to eat less healthy food, or eat foods that aren’t so good, or eat less. With a few of the right ingredients, some practice, some planning, and some time, you can produce excellent quality nutritious meals for surprisingly little money. The catch, of course, is the time it takes. But if you are unemployed, or under-employed (like me), you have more time than money. Fine cooking is about treating good...

These days, the idea of making a three-course meal for a family of four for less than $20 can seem impossible. Unless, that is, you shop at the 99¢ Only Stores. There are more than 200 of them throughout the West — not to mention other bargain variations like the Dollar Store — true to their name, everything costs exactly 99 cents. Christiane Jory thoroughly embraces this fact in her book, The 99¢ Only Stores Cookbook. The idea may sound silly, but the book is filled with recipes for gourmet items like gruyere beignets, salmon souffle and Pinot Noir poached...

The biannual Bocuse d'Or culinary competition in Lyon, France, ended on a familiar note Wednesday: A chef from Norway won again. It was a disappointment for U.S. contestant Timothy Hollingsworth, who placed sixth.

My oldest niece is graduating from high school next month and we are trying to come up with cool and different things to serve and other ideas for her open house. We'd appreciate any recipes, hints, what not to do, etc. etc..

I have grown tired of cooking (and eating) the same meals over & over again. Mostly we eat steak, beef ribs, fried chicken, fried pork chops, tacos, and enchiladas. With the occasional corned beef, spaghetti and (packaged) Chinese food thrown in. I have several cookbooks upstairs that I was considering perusing, then I thought about the fine folks on FR. Please add your favorite recipe(s) to this thread so I can start experimenting. The only thing that I will not cook is liver & onions (YUK). I would love to have a tried & true recipe of pot roast and...

I had another posting regarding using salad dressings to cook with, this is kind of a follow up, but with more detail.....and not for the weak of heart. My buddies came across something on the web about bacon cereal. This guy fried up his bacon, chopped it up and put it in a bowl (like it was cereal) and then added blue cheese (like it was milk).Naturally, under the theory that everything is better with bacon, we decided to come up with something similar. We would do the same thing, but instead of blue cheese, add bacon flavored ranch dressing...

Here is the question, in terms of both safety and taste. Can you cook or fry with salad dressing? I know you can marinate with some oil type salad dressings (alot of folks use italian salad dressing to marinate chicken, steaks and pork chops, etc). However, can you actually fry foods using say, creamy salad dressings? Like creamy italian or ranch style dressing? Or, also a weird but strange question, if you are eating something and pour creamy style dressing over it, can you put it into the fridge and reheat (probably via microwave) later on and eat it again,...

No, this topic is not about a huge fire in london. Can anyone suggest cooking times and temperatures for a 2.0 lb london broil? Its salted and peppered, and basted with a little olive oil. Its come to room temp and now I want to cook it. Outdoor grilling is not an option at the moment.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay missed the births of his four kids - because he feared it would spoil his sex life. Ramsay's fear was not hidden from his wife Tana. He told her everything honestly. "We have the most amazing life. We're very active in the bedroom and I think you're a beautiful lady," The Sun quoted him, as telling his wife. "I don't want to see something coming out of a sort of sci-fi movie. "I don't want to see a skinned rabbit or skinned pigeon coming out of your ninny and then get excited and hold it. "Give...

How to Boil an Egg So That It Peels Easily Cooked properly, an egg can be peeled easily and quickly. Steps Place your eggs into a saucepan . Add enough cool water to cover the eggs by at least 3 inches (8cm). Put the pot on a burner and set the temperature at high. When the water boils, lower the temp, and let the egg be in boiling water for 10 minutes. Turn off the range element you were using. Let eggs sit in hot water for 2 minutes. After the eggs have sat in the hot water for 2...

Cookery school siege as chef threatens to kill himself after failing exam By Neil Sears Last updated at 12:56 AM on 06th June 2008You can't be too careful when dealing with chefs - the heat, the drama, the tempers, not to mention those very, very sharp knives. And these officers were taking no chances when a trainee at a famous culinary school grabbed a knife and sparked a four-hour siege. Whether his souffle had taken a turn for the worse, or his truffle dipping had let him down, is not known. Taking stock: An officer breaks out the riot shields...

FAHAMA, Iraq, Jan. 30, 2008 – As the teal dump truck made its way down the muddy street, local citizens appeared from behind the gates guarding their houses. They walked to the truck, their hands full of an empty burden. Army 1st Lt. Nick Piergallini (center) and Army Capt. Enardo Collazo (right), talk with Sheik Emad Abdul-Settar Muhammad, the senior sheik for the village of Fahama, Iraq, Jan. 27, 2008. Soldiers escorted a truck filled with empty propane tanks from the villages of Fahama and Gumayrah to Boob Al Sham to exchange them for full tanks. Photo by Pfc....

If you've ever eaten eggplant salad and bitten into a piece of garlic that wasn't chopped fine enough, you're familiar with garlic's power to overwhelm your palate. Even with one clove, it can be hard to get that strong, garlicky flavor out of your taste-buds. After having such an experience, some people hesitate to eat any foods flavored with garlic. But garlic's potency depends on how it is used. The longer garlic cooks, the milder it gets. For example, chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, a French specialty, is not aggressively garlicky; the whole garlic cloves become mellow and sweet...

Tuesday, BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- It's the most talked about conflict in the world -- but the food remains a mystery. Despite decades of attention to the Mideast, Palestinian cooking is all but unknown to a world more familiar with images of angry Palestinians with AK-47s than chefs creating delicate salads or carefully roasted stuffed pigeon. "We do have (Palestinian) fighters," said Fadi Kattan, organizer of the Second Palestinian Culinary Competition, a recent effort to raise the profile of the region's cuisine. "But we also have other things that make us Palestinian." One reason so little is known about those...

Ready in 20 minutes ... boil-in-the-bag turkey with all the trimmingsBy DANIEL BOFFEY - More by this author » Last updated at 20:03pm on 22nd December 2007  It's a mammoth labour of love that takes many hours to complete: the creation of the traditional British Christmas lunch. But chef Anthony Flinn has decided to drag the seasonal turkey feast into the 21st Century – by creating a boil-in-the-bag version that takes a mere 20 minutes to prepare. Mr Flinn's "hassle-free" meal costs £20 per person, is delivered in a pizza-sized box and includes turkey, ginger-glazed carrots, red cabbage, roast...

Good Bless and Protect Our Troops Worldwide...Happy Thanksgiving!! Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies militaryand the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Corps of Engineers Continues Road Projects in Iraqto Protect U.S. Shores Eddy Arnold ~ Any Time Jimmy Wake & Margaret Whiting ~ Slipping Around Hank Thompson ~ Humpty Dumpty Heart Hank Williams ~ Lovesick Blues Slim Whitman ~ Indian Love Call America Supports You: Group Builds Custom Home for Wounded Warrior Michael Flatley ~ Carrickfergus Terry Jacks ~ Seasons In The Sun Ray Stevens ~...

Okay, we are just a few days away from Thanksgiving so let this thread be the Official Thanksgiving Turkey Guide. Tips on preparing turkeys and the trimmings. I am really posting this thread out of ulterior motives. I just bought two Thanksgiving turkeys and assured my wife I know everything about how to cook them. She doesn't since she is from Venezuela. Problem is that I fibbed a bit. My main experience in cooking Thanksgiving turkeys before was merely heating up pre-cooked turkeys. This time I will be doing it almost from scratch. Okay, I do have one small tip....

Peg Bracken, a Portland writer who taught a generation of homemakers how not to cook, died Saturday at age 89. Bracken was best known for "The I Hate to Cook Book," published in 1960. Bracken threw down the oven mitt to a generation of women who had been taught that their destiny was to be Suzy Homemaker. Her sharp wit and irreverent attitude made the book an immediate sensation. It sold more than 3 million copies. Bracken unashamedly embraced the then-new convenience foods, mixes and canned foods, with cans of mushroom soup a stalwart to many recipes. But most of...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2007 – Care packages from one Georgia group are keeping troops in combat support hospitals cooking. “Our mission is to send support, smiles and care packages, as well as small appliances, … to our combat support hospitals,” said Meredith Kelly, chairman of “Operation Stars and Stripes.” The appliances go beyond mere coffee pots, though those have made their way from the Peach State to foreign shores as well. Operation Stars and Stripes has sent mini-refrigerators, microwave ovens and hot plates to give troops some flexibility when it comes to mealtime. In addition to the support it...

Zimbabwe buys Heinz cooking oil company By Byron Dziva in Harare Last Updated: 2:04am BST 04/09/2007 The Zimbabwean government has bought the 51 per cent stake owned by HJ Heinz in the country's biggest cooking oil manufacturer, it announced. The move is the first acquisition by the Harare authorities since a law targeting foreign companies and requiring all firms to be majority-owned by Zimbabweans. The government-controlled Cotton Company of Zimbabwe paid £3.4 million for Heinz's stake in Olivine Industries, which has 1,200 employees. The government already owns the remaining 49 per cent. Cooking oil is among those goods to have...

Long story short, I am doing some renovation work at my house soon and am deciding on which items to get for my kitchen. So far, I am getting a viking oven, a sub zero fridge, probably getting broan range hood, but am a bit torn on a dishwasher and other stuff.Whats the best dishwasher, Bosch or Miele?Is Viking the best oven?Is sub-zero (not the mortal kombat character) the best fridge?The oven is going to be a 60 inch viking with grill and griddle, is this the best choice?I am kind of torn on which sub-zero fridge to get, between...

The Humane Society of the U.S. has, for years, been trying to frighten people away from consuming meat, milk and eggs -- but its recent testimony before a congressional committee reached a new low when the HSUS president, Wayne Pacelle, made the unsupported claim that pigs could be harboring the infamous and deadly British ‘mad cow” disease. Swine veterinarians quickly pointed out that “mad cow,” or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has never occurred naturally in swine. At the height of the British “mad cow” epidemic, both swine and cattle were exposed to the tissues from thousands of infected cattle and the...

It's down to four on "The Next Food Network Star" and there's six left in Hell's Kitchen. We've got pics and VIDEO you'll find nowhere else on the Internet plus fine reviews of both shows for yon cooking afficiandos.

The backyard grill: American tradition or potential crime scene? Canonsburg Mayor Anthony Colaizzo issued an executive order this week banning the use of grills -- propane, charcoal and wood -- after 8 p.m. in this town of 8,825 known for its grandiose Fourth of July parades. Linky Goodness Here

Sorry for the vanity but I need Freeper Help!!! Since I just arrived from Phoenix AZ to Maine last year my family wants me to bring a crockpot chili to the reunion on Sat Jun 30th. They also added the stipulation that is should be in a crockpot (to keep it warm) and mild (so everyone can eat it) I have made chili before, (long time ago) but it has never been either crockpot nor mild, and I don't think they will be willing to try anything else. Any help would be appreciated... Thanks... Lost Dutchman aka Sean O.

Increasing food imports from China could pose a risk to public health in Sweden, according to the food products governing body. During the first five months of the year, Sweden's National Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket) was made aware of 138 cases within the EU of food imported from China that was not fit for consumption. By the same time last year the figure had reached 88. Examples included food containing banned colouring, antibiotics, preservatives or pesticides. There were also cases of illegally imported, unclean or foul-smelling food, as well as products with high levels of heavy metals, poisonous mould and dioxins,...

We've got a wealth of reviews on reality shows in this TV post. Definitely we'll have info on the ongoing search for a new Food Network Star plus Hell's Kitchen. They're sending would-be famous chefs home and we're on it. Also, America's Got Talent.

Growing up in a family of seven posed all sorts of culinary challenges. It was impossible, for instance, to divide a 12-pack of Popsicles evenly, or a cherry pie, without angering somebody. Bruised feelings were also inevitable whenever my mom pulled out the cookie sheets or a Duncan Hines cake mix. After she finished making the batter, the kids fought for the beater, spatula and bowl. To end these kitchen free-for-alls, I decided to become the cook so I could claim ownership over any leftover cookie dough or icing. I started cooking in grade school and never stopped. In journalism...

(Hong Kong)--Four Hong Kong men sentenced to jail for slaughtering and eating two dogs launched an appeal of their sentence Friday. The men, aged 40 to 49, were sentenced to 30 days in December after pleading guilty to killing and cooking two mongrel dogs that had been raised by one of the men. At the hearing, they claimed that eating dogs was part of Chinese culture, but their argument was rejected by the magistrate, who said men and dogs had a bond of friendship that should not be abused. At the appeal Friday, their defence counsel asked the court to...

ALBANY, Ga. - For a quarter century, chefs at pricey steakhouses have been searing meat on burners that cook with infrared energy. Now the high-temperature technology may be coming to a backyard barbecue near you. With the expiration of a key patent, major gas grill manufacturers, including market leader Char-Broil, have scrambled to bring infrared cooking to the masses with models in the $500 to $1,000 range. Previously, such grills cost as much as $5,000. "Infrared is really hot," said Leslie Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, an industry group in Arlington, Va. "They're great for...

Have You Seen The Nine Minutes Of RATATOUILLE Online? But Have You Seen It In HD? Because if not, I highly recommend it. This is pretty much the experience I had when I went up to see Brad Bird at Pixar last month. We sat in the editing room, and he talked to me about the film and showed me some footage. Both of the sequences you’ll see in this nine-minute peek at the film were scenes he showed me. I also some more stuff I’ll tell you about in an upcoming piece, but I’ll put it this way: if...

As France goes to the polls many agree that change is vital to tackle the slowing economy and growing public debt. But they also want to keep the best of what makes the country so distinctive... so French. Earlier this spring, I found myself in the small sleepy Burgundy town of Donzy at one o'clock and very much looking forward to a solid French lunch. The pale sunshine beat down on the main square, giving the honey-coloured stone a golden tinge. On the narrow cobbled main street was a host of cafes, their blinds shading the tables outside. For once,...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2007 – TV cooking-show icon Emeril Lagasse offered a culinary salute to the military Friday when he filmed two episodes of “Emeril Live” featuring servicemembers and their winning recipes. “Emeril’s Army-Navy Cookoff” and “Emeril’s Military Contest,” filmed at the Food Network studios in the Chelsea Market building, will air on June 29 and 30, respectively Lagasse went looking for a few good recipes last fall and found them through a military-only cooking contest. “I was so impressed with the creativity from all ranks, from every branch of the service,” Lagasse said of the hundreds of recipes...

The Art of Eating~ A Freeper Canteen Recipe Exchange ~ It's the dead of winter.. A perfect time to dust off the cookbooks and try some new recipes! We all love and use convenience foods, but if your grocery cart is starting to fill up with these, this thread is for you!     Lets start with fresh ingredients!     We've got casseroles!       We've got Catfish!       We've got spices!      We've got to keep Ma out of the kitchen!       Come exchange your recipes! Have fun!  

Today's topic is: The Art of Cooking BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published Jan. 11, 1998.) Cooking was invented in prehistoric times, when a primitive tribe had a lucky accident. The tribe had killed an animal and was going to eat it raw, when a tribe member named Woog tripped and dropped it into the fire. At first, the other tribe members were angry at Woog, but then, as the aroma of burning meat filled the air, they had an idea. So they ate Woog raw. Yes, cooking can be hazardous. I learned this lesson...

"Come on," she said, "It'll be fun." Whether it's fun or not we have teenagers in the house so any excuse to get away will have a palliative effect on my disposition. So off we went to Rosa Mexicano for a Saturday morning adult education session entitled: Real Men Cook Mexican. And fun it was. The merriment started when I stepped to the breakfast buffet to discover that one of the attendees, a woman who looked like Mammy Yokum's grandmother, had left her upper plate on the buffet table next to the pitcher of pineapple juice. No thank you. I'm...