Cooking thread—good or bad idea?

In a forum with a high percentage of women, sooner or later a thread usually pops up with recipes, cooking tips, and the like.
Women just tend to do that every now and then—I’m one myself, so I can say that ;)

What do you think about that? Are you interested in that?

I’m currently going through a hummus phase (chickpea paste with oil, cumin, etc.).
Does anyone else here like it? We could share our experiences. I only like it crushed, not pureed—otherwise it looks like baby food.
Mine has a delicious nutty flavor, but of course it doesn’t taste anything like the store-bought kind.

Oh
one more question

is making your own jam only worth it if you have your own garden and don’t have to buy the fruit?
Because otherwise, I think it gets expensive.
I just wanted to try it out to see how it’s done. But I don’t have a garden, so I’d have to get the fruit from the store, so I’ll probably leave it. When you look at jam prices, it doesn’t cost much anyway.

I just wanted to know how to properly make jam.

Yeah, I know this is off-topic, but it’s in the chat corner ;)

Good idea—maybe I’ll finally learn to cook in my old age :)

But I can help out with the jam. Just this afternoon I went out and came back with 10 kg of picked strawberries—2 euros per kilo—which I didn’t think was that expensive. I’ll pay for it tomorrow when the muscle soreness kicks in.

I can get a few jars out of one kilo of fruit—so it’s probably worth it—and I think it tastes much better. On top of that, you know exactly what’s in it. These days, that’s not something to be sniffed at. And it’s quick, too: chop up the fruit, weigh out 1 kg, and puree it. Then into the pot. Add sugar (1:1 or 1:2, depending on your taste—ratio of kg of sugar to kg of fruit). Bring the whole thing to a boil (it has to bubble). Then pour it into jars right away and seal them. It’s best to use jars with those “pop-top” lids.
Since I don’t use alcohol or any powder for preserving, I only process 500 g of strawberries at a time—that’s about 3 jars. The strawberries are pureed right after harvesting and frozen in 500 g batches. That way, I can take them out of the freezer as needed, thaw them, and make the preserves.

Was that clear?
 

That makes sense, thanks :)
I’m just always so terrified of hot fruit stuff—I keep managing to scald myself every now and then.
I recently found a recipe online where you make fruit puree with pectin, pour it into jars, and pop the whole thing in the freezer so the pectin can set. I’ll have to see if I can find it again and check whether the fruit even needs to be cooked first.
I’d love to try it sometime, but making my own jam all the time would be too much work for me.
Hats off to you for doing it regularly!

P.S.:
Hey, if you’re so good at making preserves, then cooking shouldn’t be a problem for you, right?
I mean, making good jam is quite a challenge—compared to that, cooking pasta, frying schnitzel, etc., is almost a breeze.

*laughs* Everyone says that—but as soon as it comes to putting meat in the pan, vegetables in the pot, or pasta in the water, I’m somehow hopeless. I think it’s all in my head. I never had to cook—and still don’t have to—and when I do need something just for myself, there’s pizza delivery, the microwave, and frozen pizza :)

But I can bake beautiful cakes—much to the delight of my coworkers :)

You can also make great jam in a bread machine, if you have one—just close the lid, and even Sundown can’t get burned anymore. My machine even has a special program for it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a bread machine.

The jam thing was really just meant as an experiment.
I normally eat jam rather rarely. I buy a jar maybe once or twice a year.
It was more out of curiosity that I wanted to try making it myself.

Baking is nice. I recently found a recipe for shortcrust cookies with Smarties.
I could devour those. But I’ve always got a weakness for sweets, unfortunately.

You say you like making cakes.
Is it actually true that you can “tone down” a buttercream cake by replacing some of the butter with yogurt?
Every now and then I really like buttercream, but that stuff is really rich and also sits rather heavy on the stomach.

You can also use quark or crème fraîche—if the buttercream is too much for me, I just use vanilla pudding. I’d strongly advise against any strange suggestions to use margarine. It tastes awful. I’d much rather have real buttercream—and not too much of it. I have a recipe somewhere for a sheet cake à la Frankfurter Kranz. You can spread the cream nice and thin on that one, so I’d rather use a little more jam (homemade *laughs*).

Isn’t crème fraîche a little tangy?
But I’ll definitely try that tip with the vanilla pudding or quark :)

Margarine on cake? No way. :)

I’ve always wanted to try making a Frankfurter Kranz.

Right now, I’m thinking of something light and summery with raspberries. But that doesn’t really go with buttercream. I’ll wait until it cools down a bit.
Do you bake in this heat?

This thread isn’t funny—now I’m hungry, and it’s the middle of the night.
But I still have some cookies :)