I need help from people savy with food seasonings!

HMMMM. "Daddy Hinkles" Almost spelt like my last name.....I just season the way we like it.

You can marinade chicken in Italian dressing...yummy!

When I make Pork Chops, I first sprinkle it with Worcestershire sauce, then soy sauce. Then, I sprinkle on "Mrs. Dash Table Seasoning". It comes out -very- good. The table blend works well with Chicken as well.

rosemary goes good with pork chops. mccormicks has a good seasoning called montreal chicken seasoning. if you marinate chix in italian dressing you can also put white wine vinegar in it and some of the montreal chix seasoning

Yes, that is good, Janet!

One thing I do in the oven is use an 8x8 baking pan. Put in chicken breasts, add Italian dressing, some soy sauce & Worcestershire sauce (I love mixing the two, mmm), and let it marinate. I usually do that in the morning for that evening. Then, I add Italian seasonings, a bit of garlic, and some powdered onion to the chicken, and bake it for about 20 minutes. Then I take it out, and spread the sauce mix over the chicken again, and I take cracker crumbs and add some more italian seasonings to it, then cover the chicken with it.

Bake for 10 more minutes, cover it again with more sauce, then sprinkle it with mozzerella cheese, and bake it long enough to melt the cheese.

You could also add noodles to it to make it more of a casserole.

When I was growing up, it seemed like everyone fried pork chops - they came out like shoe leather - my Mom baked hers, they came out nice and tender. I bake ours as well, but wash them first, add to a glass baking pan with chicken broth and some olive oil (we love olive oil here), a little parsley, oregano, black pepper, toasted garlic (or chop up a clove very fine) - let them be in the fridge covered and then bake slowly - they'll come out great tasting and very, very tender.
I've never used the Hinkle or Dash seasonings, so I don't know if they'd be somewhat the same as what I just typed.

we use lemon for the chick alot with parsley flake wrap in foil and bake at 30 minuste or so,,
I would go to food network and they will help you mix up different season for differeetn things

Oregano-I mainly use this for 2 things. Pasta(like in red and white pasta sauces). If you really like oregano, I have a basic recipe that will work:

Pasta(I prefer Angel Hair, but any you like will work), I add butter(enough to coat all the pasta), oregano(just a few sprinkles depending on how much you like it), Italian dressing(again, enough to coat the pasta), then parmesan cheese. It's clearly not low-fat, but it's awesome.

Parsley: I could put this pretty much on everything. Be careful of the difference between dried/fresh of course, since the taste is different with the spices you have listed. I put this on all pasta dishes, garlic bread, its great on pork chops at the end of cooking(after their cooked and going towards the table, sprinkle a little bit over the chops). It's also awesome in mashed potatoes.

These all sound good! I am going to try them all! I used the Italian dressing one time for a meal and did NOT liek it.. I think it must have been that meal seems like many like it.. also found a recipe that has vinegar in it for chicken today.. need to try that!

Oregano , basil and bay leave for spagetti sauce. Plus a lot of diced garlic or garlic powder or garlic salt.
Baked fish is great just buttered and dill on top.
cumin taste like Chili powder. good for homemade chili without the other poweder or added to chili powder to tone it down some.

Thanks for that place Steph.. Im going to check it out

Basil -pretty much same rules as Parsley. I use them both interchangeably and together. It's great on top of pasta, made into a basil pesto to go on top of pork chops, etc.

Thyme-I tend not to use thyme personally since it is a little bit stronger spice. A ton of people like it though. If you're looking for something different, they have lemon thyme that is awesome. That's great with italian dressing marinated chicken with thyme both in the marinade and on top at the end.

Cumin-I also tend not to use Cumin all that much. It has a smoky flavor, and my boyfriend's dad uses it in his marinade for ribs. He gets Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce and dumps about a teaspoon( i would use less till you know you like it) of cumin in the bottle and shake really well. Marinate/Grill as usual and enjoy.

Hope that helps and good luck!

I'm not very cooking savvy, so I can't help too much. Sorry!

cool thansk Norma.. we do make our own chili too soo good. wel my hubby does.. its his lil specialty

Alexis,

Whats the basil pesto.. basil and what? I hear that alot but not sure what it is

Basil Pesto: basic recipe

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add the 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper. If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months.

That's the recipe according to How To Boil Water on foodnetwork.com I thought I might tell you how you're supposed to do it before I tell you how I, the 26 year old graduate student/full time job holding normal person does it...

My recipe:

As much basil leaves as you have/can afford(they have to be the fresh ones that you find in the veggie section or at Good Foods, not dried).

Garlic(if you have real, cool, if not, use garlic salt)

Pine Nuts are optional(again, I'm a college student and poor. Pine nuts are not made for poor people. They have a massive bag at Costco that's reasonable as far as pine nuts go, but spending $30 on nuts is not something I can do at the moment).

Olive Oil-Do not use random oil, olive oil is necessary for this(you can use light or extra virgin, but don't substitute on this, trust me)

Salt/Pepper to taste

Parmesan Cheese-The original recipe insinuates that I'm a trust fund child, which would be nice, but the stuff from Kraft in the green plastic jar will work perfectly and not be $25.


Put as much basil and you have in the blender. Stuff them in there and dump olive oil over the top of it. Put the olive oil in a little a a time until the basil/oil looks like a paste kind of consistency. Put in pine nuts if you want. Then add Parmesan Cheese/Olive Oil until you get to desired consistency(you want a consistency of tomato sauce, not completely runny and not completely stiff either(I know that's descriptive).)

You basically just want all the ingredients to be a smooth even consistency. Many people use pesto on Garlic Toast, others use it solely as a pasta sauce.

If you're not sure you will like it, many Italian restaurants will give you a child size portion of spaghetti with pesto on it cheaply(under $10, and usually under $5), without you having to invest in all the above ingredients.

Hope you enjoy!(ps-actual recipes can also be found on www.foodnetwork.com if you need measurements, clear directions, etc.)

Somebody puts out a jar of Chicken Seasoning. I don't use it but know people who do and like it. Adobo has spices for chicken. I learned more from your article and the suggested recipes than any advice I can give.

I meant to add this in the original article as well. There are quite a few pre-made pestos on the market that will suffice as ones you actually made.

Several are sold at Amazon, just search for basil pesto(there are also sun dried tomato pesto fyi). Genova (region in italy, is where pesto came from so tons of places try to use that in the marketing).

There is one made my A.G. Ferarri foods that is awesome. I've never seen this anywhere but Amazon, but maybe Whole Foods would have it?

I like rosemary on baked chicken.

Cajun seasoning is good on chicken if you like it spicy. Sage and Thyme is good on chicken try alittle lime on the fish. You can buy chicken seasonings are available in the store. I usually just kind of randomly mix all kinds of spices on chicken cuz it's bland, just about anything tastes good with it.

I like the variety of the Mrs. Dash seasonings for many dishes.
I also use a Fajita seasoning for when I make steaks - they taste so good!

Basil, oregeno good in spaghetti, lasagna, etc.

I also like to use white pepper on dishes that I want to give a spicy kick to

rosemary is great with olive oil on red skin potatoes

awesome..

Alexis. thanks soo much! im going o try your recipe!!

i am by no means a cook, but recently had chicken marinated in italian dressing and it was wonderful - very yummy!

Also, basil and oregano are good in gravy (or you may know it as tomato sauce - you know the stuff that goes on spaghetti). That the Italian coming out in me.

How about parsley potatoes? My mom used to make them all the time growing up - basically they are new potatoes with parsley (I think she boiled them) - they are very good.

Walmart carries a coating called Kentucky Kernal... that is good for fish, chicken, and pork chops... real yummy :)

I am not big into recipes, I just mix whatever hits me at the moment. Heck, I might throw all of those that you mentioned on Chicken. Go light on the cumin though.

tarragon on chicken, as well as paprika and garlic.....but try this: mix italian dressing with apricot preserves and brush the mixture on chicken, and broil........
try this---rub cumin and garlic on chicken, put in baking dish, and put fresh figs and/or prunes around the chicken. As the chicken bakes, the fruit softens and the juices give a nice flavor!

I use whatever strikes me as good at the time especially on chicken. There are so many ways to make it taste great.

Coriander.

the orgegano is a strong herb, i prefer basil in my 'italian' dishes. Bay leaves i add to just about every soup/stew i make :) parsely's mild, goes w/anything yes, i make simple 'parsley-buttered potatoes' (boiled potatoes, don't smash, just drain, add butter parsley and salt to taste) :) Cumin is a GREAT seasoning in beefy stews and also in alot of dry rubs as well as thyme ... the oregano and thyme make a great 'greek' marinade w/olive oil and garlic, lemon for your chicken :) i used to make my own 'shake n bake' pork chops (and chicken) using, grlc &onion pwdr, seasoned brd crumbs AND some seasoned salt (or MrsDash works nicely) :)

I love tarragon with chicken. Before you cook chicken, you should brine it,especially the breasts. For bone in breast you use 1/4 cup salt or 1/2 cup kosher salt dissolved in enough water to cover the chicken. This sits in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour. Take it out and rinse the chicken to remove excess salt.

I use a lot of sage with pork. It goes well together.

When you buy dried seasonings, don't go for the really cheap ones. They are mostly filler and you have to use a lot to get any taste. My favorite brand is McCormick. This is a medium priced brand.