Recipes

I need to tell you about this salad.  It doesn’t really have a name, I just made it up for this post. In fact, the salad was my mother’s creation on a whim.  She’s good at salads like that.  I LOVE a salad, but I’m extremely picky about the dressings.  I can tell you every restaurant in a 10 mile radius that has the “right” kind of ranch.  I’ve tried so many recipes but have never found one I like.  Anyway, I’m digressing from THIS dressing and salad.

We had lasagna for Lexi’s party on Wednesday, so Mom put together this oil and vinegar dressing she had served a few weeks ago and took note of the proportions.

Italian Dressing

1/3 cup of oil (I used olive)
1/3 cup of vinegar
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tblsp of Pampered Chef’s Italian Seasoning Mix

Now, there may be a right way to make this dressing but here’s what I did.

1. Pour the vinegar, seasoning and sugar in a jar
2. Shake.
3. Add the oil.
4. Shake.

Voila!  I poured about 1 tablespoon on my salad right away.

You can also use a blender. In that case, you can pour the oil in as the other is mixing with the blender on.  It’s best to let it sit to get all the flavors, but mine tasted just fine right away.  You can store in the fridge for 2 weeks.  (According to a quick google search.  Please don’t sue me if you get a tummy ache).

Anyone that likes their dressing a little sweet will LOVE it.

But the dressing is not all that makes this salad wonderful.

The other secret is to take just a few pieces of Candied Walnuts, chop them up and spread on the salad.  YUM. MO.  Now, if you not only have a sweet tooth but ALSO like a lot of crunch to your salad, this is PERFECT.

The rest of the salad can come and go.  Cheese, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, whatever you please.  But don’t skip the dressing or walnuts!  I’m sure Mom would jump in here and mention that she likes cut up pieces of apple and sometimes raisins in it too.

Enjoy!

This is a long-standing recipe of mine. Probably the first edible one I did after we were married besides Hamburger Helper.  Not. even. joking.

I made this Monday night and was able to get 3 small casseroles from it.  We ate one that fed 4 and then two smaller ones I froze that will be great just for me and the girls one night Scott is working.  Usually I make 2 medium sized casseroles.  OR, just make one big 9×13 casserole dish of this if you have a crowd or like leftovers.  I’m going to do the recipe as it is one big casserole but you can divide between however many dishes you want.

1 pkg of jumbo shells (I prefer these over actual manicotti shells)
2 jars spaghetti sauce
32 oz ricotta cheese (or 2 15 oz containers)
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoons parsley
2 eggs
Parmesan cheese

Cook the jumbo shells according to package.  While you’re waiting, make the filling in a big bowl by mixing the ricotta cheese, 3 cups mozzarella cheese, parsley and eggs.  It will come together like a  big ball when you’re done.

Put 1/2 of one jar of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the dish.

When the shells are done, run them under cold water and when they’re cool enough to touch, spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the filling into each shell. I like my filling where it makes the openings just touch or the filling puffing out just a bit.  Put the stuffed shell in the casserole dish.  There is no rhyme or reason here.  Continue until you can’t fit anymore shells in the dish.  I cram them in but usually have lots of shells left.

Top with the rest of the spaghetti sauce.  Cover with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Bake in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes or whenever the cheese is melted and everything is bubbly.

Optional: Brown 1 lb of meat and mix with the spaghetti sauce before using.

Enjoy!

Saturday at Trader Joe’s we attacked the cheeses with a recommendation of supreme brie and little other knowledge of what we were doing.   Back when we went to Grove Park Inn for our anniversary, we got the cheese and fruit plate and since have been randomly getting  “expensive cheese” and trying it.  Normally we stick it with a cracker or piece of fruit.  Very unblogworthy but today…today I have something you need to hear about.  I don’t know where I’ve been all my life without this brown sugar and walnut brie thing but I’m so glad it’s here now.

I did kind of my own thing, mixing the recipes here and here but tweaked it for a single serving.

• Half a block of the brie we got, about 4 oz.
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of chopped walnuts
• Toasted sourdough bread slices

Just stack the full block of cheese, sugar and then walnuts on a cookie sheet and then bake it for 2.5 minutes on 450.

Because we were out of any sort of crackers besides goldfish, I made very thin slices of a small sourdough bread loaf we were given and then toasted those in the toaster oven.  When both were done, I put a scoop of the mixture on the bread.  The brie is pretty soft and melted by this point so it’s more like a dip.

Somewhere around the last bite, I remembered I should have taken a picture so there you have it.

Please do not try to count calories. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Jo-Lynne inspired me to try this iced coffee thing at home.  She mentioned cold brew coffee and my interest was instantly piqued.  Cold brew coffee?  What is this?  So a-googling and youtubing I went.  Turns out cold brew coffees are less bitter when you use a cold brewing method.  This seems to be the key to making iced coffees at home.  Every other time I’ve tried to make coffee and refrigerate it, it was not a pleasant taste.

Cold brewing is really easy if you have a french press.  And if you do not have a french press, get thee to your local IKEA to get a very affordable one or Starbucks for a longer-lasting, recycled one.  Or, you know, Wally world probably has one too.  I’ve had the IKEA and Starbucks one and the Starbucks one is actually worth the extra money.   So to cold brew coffee with a french press, do this:

1. Put one cup of coffee grounds in your french press
2. Put 4 cups of water in your french press
3. Mix it up
4. Put the top on but don’t plunge it
5. Put it in the fridge.  The time spent there varies widely.  I read anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours.  I did 12 hours/overnight.
6. After whatever time you decide, plunge the press like you would normally

Voila!  Cold brew coffee!  If you don’t have a french press, don’t worry, you can still do this.  Just get a large jar (old spaghetti jar would work!) and mix the grounds and coffee and put it in the fridge to sit.  When it’s done in the fridge, use cheese cloth, a regular coffee filter or a metal strainer and pour the coffee into another container.  Easiest is probably just to use your regular filter basket and set it on the jar and run it through like normal.

The best part is the coffee lasts up to 14 days so don’t worry about making so much!

Now, what do you do with that coffee?  I found this video from Seattle’s Best to be the best instructions.

But here’s what I did with what I had on hand:

• 50/50 ratio coffee to half & half
• 2 teaspoons of super fine sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• Mix and pour in a handful of ice

Results:

It certainly will never replace my Starbucks Iced White Mocha.  I’m not going to lie.  BUT since I’ve been trying to limit myself to once a week coffee at Starbucks, it’s a nice alternative.  I’m hoping to get some white chocolate powder and use that in place of one of the teaspoons of sugar.  As you can tell from the video, there are lots of things you can do with the cold brew.  Who knew?

Alternately title: I’M FINISHED!!!!!!

I got so excited yesterday realizing I only had one left that I decided to go ahead tackle the end of the book.  I also realized I’d never made the Pot Roast either!  So I tackled both the Breakfast Bowls and Pot Roast as my last dishes of the book.

Breakfast Bowls

These were WAY yummier than I thought they’d be.  However, this took a ton of prep time and I already had the sausage cooked, left-over from the burritos the other day.  While I would eat this again I probably won’t be making it again.

Perfect Pot Roast

Here’s the thing with the pot roast.  The roast my mom taught me to make in the crock pot is one of my favorite recipes ever.  It’s so simple and yummy and I think I wrote this recipe off almost as soon as I saw it.  Not fair but true.   And while this take a lot more prep compared to my Mom’s version, this wasn’t as bad as it seemed.  I still prefer the flavor of Mom’s version better but Scott was ooh-ing and aah-ing the whole time he was eating and I think he preferred this one.  Simply because of the prep time, I’ll stick with the version I have but if I didn’t have a good recipe I’d definitely stick with this one.

So THAT’S IT!  I’M DONE WITH THE BOOK!!!

I’ll probably do some follow-up posts on this but I have to say this is by far one of the best things I’ve ever done.  I fell in love with cooking for the first time ever and I learned SO MUCH all while providing for my family.  Can’t get better than that!

I’ve said it before but this was a life-changer.  PW, I can’t thank you enough!!

Breakfast Burritos (although not exactly the same recipe I used in the cookbook)

As the second to last recipe I have to make, it sure did take a long time to get to.  The recipe calls for TWELVE burritos and it’s not often I’m feeding more than 2 for breakfast at a time.  So even at halved, it was a lot of burritos!  My uncle and his family stopped in town on the way to Myrtle Beach and I sent them (and my parents and sister for the day) off with these burritos.  I have to admit I was pretty nervous about making these.  It’s not something I’ve ever had so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Plus, with red peppers, I was a little scared it would be too spicy for a breakfast dish.  However, they seemed to be a big hit.  Or, at least an edible hit!  I didn’t eat one but everyone seemed to like it.  Well, when I say everyone, all the adults.  My younger cousins didn’t like the red peppers, Lexi didn’t try it and Emma would only eat the stuffing.  So, if you have a hungry adult crowd, this would be a great way to fill them up.

OK, these weren’t in the book, but they were so good I have to include them.  Both of them were featured by PW from her Tasty Kitchen site.

Coffee Cake

I’ve never made a coffee cake and I have to say this was yummy.  But boy, oh, boy at the sugar.  I mean, wow.  I’m a sugarholic and let me say that was a lot of sugar.  But in the end, it paid off.  The cake was beyond belief yummy and moist.  I have to say though that this cake was actually better the day after.  When it was still warm, it seemed to fall apart and just hadn’t gelled properly.  Also, I had to let it cook much longer than it called for because I used a different pan and I still had a little bit undone in the middle.  However, you’ll never seem me complain about a little bit of cake batter.

Mystery Mocha

This was SUPERB.  Quite possibly one of my favorite desserts ever.  Restaurants included.  I’m serious.  OK, maybe not THAT serious.  But, I mean, it was seriously yummy.  I made it one day when my parents and sister were over swimming and the 8×8 pan was gone literally in minutes.  The cake part was nice and crusty on the outside and the coffee mixed with the sugars to make the best fudgey gooey inside ever.  It was perfect with some vanilla ice cream.  The best part is it is super easy with simple ingredients.  It was so good I didn’t even have time to take pictures.

ONE more recipe to go to complete the cook book!!

Katie’s Roasted Corn Salad

Y’all. I have to admit I had SERIOUS doubts about this corn salad.  I even said right before serving, “I don’t know if anyone will like this, I just need to get it off my list.”  Not that I didn’t think it was good if you liked that sort of thing.  I’m not a huge fan of salads like this but WOW.  This really surprised me.  Somewhere, some way this salad was very sweet.  Scott likes to say Emeril explains it best when he says everything was just getting happy together.  Indeed.  And it made me quite happy. I went back for 2nds and 3rds.  We guessed that it might even better the second day like a lot of salads do but no, this was best as soon as it was made.

Simple, Perfect Chili

I don’t know why I waited so long to make this.  I really don’t.  Because this was some YUMMY chili.  I used it to make nachos and seriously best nacho/taco/Mexican meat I’ve ever had.  There’s no way I can go back to those seasoning packets.  Then again, for the size bag of masa I bought just to make these, I’ll need to make it at least 407 more times.

Panko Mozzarella Sticks

I have to be in the mood for mozzarella sticks and the day PW posted the link to this recipe, I found myself in the mood.  I made them less than 2 hours after she posted it.  And yummo.  These really came out to perfection.

I’m getting so close to the finish line here!  I only have 2 more breakfast recipes to go!