Toolbox Recipes
 

Alright guys and gals, after much anticipation, the DTR Toolbox Recipes are here. Please add your favorites. One pot, one pan or crock pot recipes are great for the bachelors in the crowd. Keep in mind that allot of us are "culinarily impaired" so don't make it too hard![laugh]

Garlic Baked Potatos
 

Pick out a couple of healthy spuds and take an apple core remover and take out a deep plug from both ends of the potato and save the plugs. The deeper the hole, the better. Place one segment from a garlic clove in bottom of each hole and then pack the holes with real butter. Now take the plugs you removed earlier and force them into the holes enough to seal them off and then break off what you don't need. Smear a little of that real butter on the outside of the potato and roll it in a little sea salt. Wrap them in aluminum foil and cook as usual. After you try it once you might want to add some additional garlic or punch out another hole for more butter. The more butter you get in the creamier the potato will be.

^ that sounds AWESOME!!!

Crock Pot chicken thighs
 

4 nice meaty chicken thighs.
A couple of potatoes, I like red potatoes for this, your choice.
An onion, size is how much you like onion, or what you have.
1/4 cup white wine or water.
Cut up potatoes, onion, palce everything in the pot, start in in the morning, dinner ready when you get home.

Beef "Prime Rib"
 

Get a rib roast at least 3 ribs with the backbone removed, about 6 pounds or more. Watch for a sale.
Wipe roast, rub with olive oil, or veggie oil, or what ever cooking oil you have.
Sprinkle on course salt, like kosher salt if you have it. Black pepper, course ground. Best of roast warms up to room tempature before cooking
Place on rack in roasting pan` fat side up, bones down.
Pre heat oven to 550,if it will go that high, or 500 if that is all it got.
Place roast in lower part of oven, leave at 550 for 30 minuits, turn oven down to 225. Roast should take about 2 1/2 hours to cook. Check tempature of meat at the largest part 140=rare
When done remover and set for 10-15 minuits.
Carve and serve. Should be juicy and tender.

oh boy, a "make you fat thread." gee thanks [laugh]

Let me add to it then.. hehe..

Santa Fe Chicken..

Pre-heat oven to 350*

Get 4 or 8 boneless skinless chicken breasts whichever you need if you have a small family or large one.

Wash them, then season them with some seasoning salt. You need to buy 1 jar of Pace Picante Salsa. 1 package of brown sugar, bottle of honey dijon mustard.

Pour 2 cups of salsa into a mixing bowl. Add 3 table spoons of brown sugar to the salsa, 1 table spoon of Honey Dijon Mustard. Mix this up, I just use a spoon to stir it up good. Place chicken in a baking dish and poor salsa over it.

Now if you are using the 8 chicken breasts, you will need to double the ingredients for the salsa mixture. The recipe above is for the small serving.

Place in oven for approx 30 mins.

I make yellow rice to go with this as the salsa is good spooned over it after it has cooked. I also cook green beans and cornbread to go with it..

Chow down...

Break out my cutom built by me mini smoker. Place 7-10 charcoal briquetts into the fire box. Take two or three fresh country rib slices and apply Cavenders dry rub, Old Bay dry rub, and some Paprika to the outside surfaces. Place them on the grill rack and close the lid. Come back in about 1 - 2 hours and remove the BEST slices of pork you will ever eat. Man I love my mini smoker I built. [guitar]

And yes, it sits on top of my tool box while I cook with it.

Pictures of this "mini" pit???? Im a die hard pit smoker and that sounded cool.[guitar]

Pic are on the way. I will get them downloaded and posted tonight possibly. If you like smoking food then you will get a kick out of this.

Yea I have a huge pit, but somthing I could travel with a little easyer would be nice. Thanks, Ill be looking for the photos.

This is a recipe I created:

J.R.'s Dodge Diesel's Spicy Parmesan Oregano bread/pizza crust/bread bowls

4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1½ warm water (100-110° F too hot and you will kill the yeast, too cold and the yeast won't culture)
2 packets (½ ounce) of bakers yeast (don't use the rapid rise yeast)

note, the above measurements will be a double batch (2 loaves of bread, 2 medium pizza crusts or one of each. Reduce all measurements by ½ for a single batch)

1 tbsp Oregano
1 tbsp Basil
1 tbsp ground red pepper
1 tbsp crushed red pepper flake (optional)
¼ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (please don't use that canned cheese for this, it turns out better with a grated block of Parmesan, trust me)

(you can omit the pepper if you don't like spicy food, the dough will still taste great)


Start by culturing the yeast :

Use the 1/2 cup of warm water and add the 2 tsp of sugar to it. Then take the yeast and add that too. Stir it good and let sit (note : some of the yeast will stick to the spoon and it may not dissolve fully. this is OK. Scrape as much yeast off the spoon and put into the water, it will dissolve as it cultures). Let it sit 5-10 minutes. It will froth and rise in the container so don't be alarmed.

While the yeast cultures, put the flour in a large bowl and add the salt, grated cheese, oregano, and pepper. Mix the dry ingredients by hand now. Prep for adding the wet ingredients; the remaining water, oil, and yeast mix. When the yeast is ready add all of the wet ingredients and stir by hand. You want the dough to be thick and difficult to stir, add some flour if it is too thin. Sprinkle some flour onto a counter top or other clean flat surface. put the dough on the surface, its time to knead it. Sprinkle flour on top and start working the dough. If it is sticking to your fingers work in more flour. Do not be afraid to add flour. You will have to occasionally sprinkle more flour onto the work surface. You have to knead the dough continously for 10 minutes. You want the consistency to be firm but pliable, it should not stick to anything. After 10 minutes of kneading, lightly grease a clean medium-large bowl. Put the dough in the bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Set the bowl in a somewhat warm, draft free area. Leave it alone for 1 hour, this is the first rise.

After 1 hour "punch down" the dough. This means to make a fist and lighly press down the dough to release the trapped air. Then dust another counter top with some flour and put the dough on that. (See next paragraph for pizza crust method) Lightly grease a 5x9 loaf pan. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough flat. You want the rolled dough to have a width of no more than 9 inches (it has to fit a 5x9 loaf pan), you can fold and roll flat to achieve this. Once you have the proper width, grab an end and start rolling the dough (like a jelly roll). Make the roll as tight as possible so as to eliminate large air pockets from the finished product. Pinch the seam at the end of the roll, and place seam side down in the loaf pan. Cover with the clean towel and let rise (2nd rise) for 30 minutes to an hour. 15-20 minutes prior to putting the bread in the oven, preheat the oven to 375° F. After 2nd rise, uncover and put on a middle rack in the oven. You can sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top for a lttle extra flavor(just a little). Bake for 30-35 minutes. The top will be nicely browned on top when done. When you pull it from the oven, turn the bread pan over and shake the bread loose onto a cooling rack and place right side up. Let cool and enjoy.

Pizza Crust

After 1st rise, simply punch down the dough and leave it in the bowl. Cover and let rise again for 30-60 minutes. Sprinkle yellow corn meal on the baking sheet or pizza sheet. After 2nd rise, roll out the dough on the corn meal dusted surface into the shape of pizza you desire. Roll the outer edge to form the crust with your fingers. Top with your sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake at 375° F until cheese starts turning golden brown. Remove from oven, cool and enjoy.

Bread bowls

After 1st rise, punch down the dough and remove from the bowl. Cut the dough into equal portions (double batch makes 6-8 bowls, single batch will make 4). Roll the cut dough between your hands and place dough ball onto a baking sheet. Gently flatten the dough ball until its twice as wide as it is tall. After all dough balls are prepped and flattened, let rise uncovered for 30-60 minutes and then place in a oven that was preheated to 375° F. Bake until bowls are golden brown on top and remove and place them on a cooling rack. Use a serrated knife and cut out a lid using a slight downward angle on the knife. Remove the lid and pull out the "guts" of the bowl by hand. Keep the chunks that you pull out, they go great with whatever you are putting in the bowl. Now the bowl is ready for soups, stews, dips, or chili.

Here is the baby smoker. Dont mind all the junk on the tool box. It gets cleaned off this weekend. This little thing works great.

Soupy spaghetti
 

Here's another easy one for you after you've had a long day. To a pot of boiling water add 1 pound of spaghetti. Under cook the spaghetti just a little. Drain off all the water and put the spaghetti back into the pot. Take one, 2 quart container of your favorite tomato juice and add it all to the pot and bring to a low simmer. You want to reduce the tomato juice without burning the spaghetti on the bottom of the pot. Stir often. Occasionally take a fork or tongs and pick up a noodle or two out of the pot, if it's mostly covered with the reduced juice you're there. Serve it on a plate or in a bowl and season at the table with garlic salt, Parmesan or whatever you like. It takes about an hour to make and it's cheap. Less than $3 to feed four people.:cool:

Double quarter-pounder w/cheese
 

First step: Start your truck and cruise down to the local McDonalds. Second step: Place order for Double Quarter and large fries. Third step: Drive back home, lay on the couch, and enjoy all the grease. [guitar] [guitar] [guitar]

Her is one for when you are grilling
 

Take a sweet onion( pref. Vidalia) slice and one large can of sliced pineapple drain fairly well.

put the onion and pineapple in ann alum. foil teepee with a little beer(for flover) a little Coke; for the yanks' that is soda/ pop); a let every thing caramelize. and enjoy.