ShortBread Cookies

Shortbread Cookies are awesome and so easily done that if you don't prepare a batch of them right now you will fail at life.

Ingredients

Butter (Let's say a cup)

Flour (Let's say a cup and a half)

Sugar (Powdered Sugar would be better. Let's say half a cup)

A tad bit of salt

Mix all the ingredients. Form cookies. Bake at 350 Fahrenheit or 180 Celsius (Which is the same amount of heat, by the way). Be careful becouse they bake really fast and you can end up with a disgusting burned mess.
See? Simple and effective. I could eat the raw shortbread dough for all my meals, in my opinion.
These cookies are very good by themselves. But they become even better when you put Dulce de Leche or Nutella on top of them.
If you feel like experimenting you can do many awesome things. You can make normal chocolate chips cookies dough and mix it half/half with the shortbread cookies dough, to obtain Chocolate Chips Shortbread Cookies. Or you can use them as a base for some sort of tart or cheesecake. Or you can mix a banana and some extra flour in the dough to obtain Shortbread Banana Cookies. Or you can dip the cookies in some good Porto.
The possibilities are endless.

BUON APPETITO

On the Importance of Ground Beef

This happens to me all the time. I go to buy groceries with friends, becouse we have to eat or restock the kitchen or something. And then the usual question appears "Soooo. I don't have any recipe in mind, I just want to buy random stuff. What are we going to get? I was thinking...".
The answer is: Ground Beef

Ground Beef is awesome. Always have it in your kitchen. What can you make with ground beef? Many things. Such as:

Hamburger
Meatballs
Ragù Sauce (Tomato Sauce with Meat)
Chili
Tacos
Stuffed Tomatoes (Or any other random vegetable you can think of)
Sausages without casing
And many other things


You can even make Hot Dogs with ground beef. That's right. They sell some sort of plastic thing that allows you to easily shape ground beef into an Hot Dog shape.
So, unless you are a vegetarian, buy ground beef. Seriously. If you have a vegetarian then don't buy it. Or buy so you can feed you non vegetarian spouse/friends/hobos

BUON APPETITO

Peanut Butter/Bacon Hot Dogs

Sounds weird? Sounds awesome?
Whatever. The important thing is the taste. And I can assure you that these hot-dogs taste like something that tastes good.

Ingredients

Peanut Butter
Bacon
Hot Dogs
Bread/Hot Dog Bun (Whatever)

So, here we go.

STEP N.1

Cook the Hot Dog and the Bacon

STEP N.2

Toast the bread. Or don't. Whatever

STEP N.3

Assemble your Hot Dog and smother it with peanut butter

STEP N.4

Eat

See? Easy enough. And tasty, very tasty. This is one of those Hot Dogs that makes you feel ashamed, but the tastiness compensates the shame you feel.
You can eat it with smooth peanut butter, or chunky peanut butter. Or, if you feel like having an adventure, you have it with almond butter or some other sort of nut butter. I've never tried it that way, but feel free to explore new realms

BUON APPETITO

Blind Russian

The Blind Russian is one of the most awesome cocktails ever. It's basically a White Russian, but it has Baileys Irish Cream rather than normal cream.
It's called a Blind russian becouse all of it's ingredients are alchohol, therefore if you drink enough of them you shall become blind (?).
Whatever. It's pretty good.

It's served on the rocks, in an Old Fashioned Glass.
To make one of these fellows you will need

Vodka
Baileys
Kahlua (Or some other coffee liqueur thing)

The normal recipe is five parts Vodka, two parts Kahlua and three parts Baileys. But feel free to change the recipe, if you want. Or if you don't want then don't do it.

This beverage tastes the best at eleven in the morning (Sunday mornings works the best). You shall wear some sort of robe and you shall not give a fuck about stuff while you drink it.

Enjoy good lads

PRO-TIP

If you are a poor fellow and cannot afford good Vodka do not worry. Buy stupid Vodka and then filter it with some sort of water jug filter type of deal. And with minimal effort you are going to obtain semi-legit Vodka

On The Importance of Spices

Let's say that you are poor. Let's say you are a college student, or a young professional, without much money or cooking expertise. You always complain that your food is bland, and tasteless. So, whenever you have some money, you use that money to order a pepperoni pizza.

WRONG

Think about all the spices that you could buy with the money you just wasted on pepperoni pizza. I am not saying that pepperoni pizza is a waste. Pepperoni pizza is awesome, when you have money. But when you don't have money it's not that awesome.
Spices, like I said, can turn a shitty meal into an awesome meal.
Let's say you only have pasta and some stupid cheese. You want to make Mac and Cheese? Meh.
But what if you also had soy sauce and tabasco sauce? Weird Mac and Cheese time? Hell yeah!
Let's say you only have bananas and bread. You want to make a grilled banana sandwhich? Meh
But what if you also had honey and cinnamon. Awesome grilled banana sandwhich? Hell yeah!

You get what I'm saying. Stop wasting your money, learn some basic cooking manouvers and buy spices and other tasty stuffs.
This is what I like to keep in my kitchen, at all times:

Soy Sauce (Use this insted of salt. Adds taste as well as saltiness)
Tabasco Sauce
Honey
Vinegar
Pepper
Sage
Oregano
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Cinnamon
Cloves
Paprika
Curry Powder
Mint
Basil

You get what I'm saying? Yes, you do

Lazy Guy's BBQ Sauce

Are you so lazy that you want BBQ sauce, but you don't want to actually cook the sauce yourself, but you are still not lazy enough to just go to the supermarket to buy the sauce? Yes ?
Let's say then that you are a middle ground lazy. Well, I here have something for you.

Lazy guy's BBQ Sauce

One part Ketchup
Half part Maple Syroup
A quarter part of Red Wine Vinegar
A quarter part of concentrated tomato paste
A dash of Worchestershire sauce
A dash of Tabasco Sauce
(If you want to add something else, add something else. Some Oregano is good, for starters. Or some Jack Daniels. I  don't know)

Mix all the ingredients in bowl/blender. Stir. Enjoy.
You can now say that you have made your own BBQ sauce. It's kind of an half lie. It's not as bad as buying the premade product and then saying you made it. It's kind of bad.
So, now that you feel bad about yourselves being lazy, you can make this boil for about one minute or so (It will taste much better).

Now acquire meat, vegetables, Mc Nuggets or whatever and use this sauce

BUON APPETITO

Provolone/Tomato Burger

Prepare yourselves for glory. Prepare yourselves for another burger recipe.

Ingredients

Ground beef
Bread Crumbs
Onion Powder
Paprika
Salt, Pepper
Provolone Cheese
Tomato (A big round one type)
Bread/bun (Whatever)

Cooking Activities

Take the meat and mix it with bread crumbs, onion powder, salt, pepper and paprika. Shape the mixture into a patty form. Meanwhile toast the bread/bun (Whatever).
When the meat is cooked (Cook it the way you like to cook it) and the bread is toasted we can assemble this burger.
Place the meat patty on top of bread, place a slice of provolone cheese on top of meat, place a slice of tomato on top cheese and place other bread on top of cheese.

This burger goes extremely well with dipping sauces. I shall share with you the secret of a very simple dipping sauce. Simple, cost effective, but good.

Dipping Sauce Ingredients

One part Mayo
One part Ketchup
Half Part Raspberry Vinaigrette
Italian Balsamic Vinegar to taste
Tabasco Sauce to taste

Mix the ingredients, obtain the sauce. You can either put the sauce inside your burger or you can put the sauce on top of the burger or whatever. It's a pretty good sauce for a pretty burger

BUON APPETITO