(I can't believe I made) Sweet & Sour Chicken

I made this after finding the recipe on a site that rhymes with "binterest".  I was skeptical, because I do not have much skill with making Chinese food.  I'm sure anyone actually from China would laugh their butts off an me for calling this "Chinese food", but it sure tasted like it to me and Corey.  (I wonder what passes as "American food" in other countries?  Probably something I would hardly recognize if it's anything like what we do here in the U.S.)  I didn't take a picture of the final product because I had no confidence that it was going to turn out to be blogworthy.

In fact, I think it would go reeeeeeally well with Alicia's delicious fried rice that she makes but can't really tell me the recipe for because it's all kind of done by feel (you know, like how real chefs cook).  I think that means we need to get her up to Michigan for a Chinese food night.  I'm not sure if I can handle visiting Tennessee just yet, because if the kids and I caught sight of the old house right now I think we would all burst into tears and Peter might just barge right in and insist on staying there.  Whenever he sees a picture of our Tennessee house, he stares at it for a long time and keeps exclaiming "dat's MY house!"

Until we figure out the logistics of the Marshall/Stringer Chinese food extravaganza, here is my version of the sweet and sour chicken recipe.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

1 lb. chicken breasts or thighs
Salt
Pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cups sugar
4 tbsp. ketchup*
1/2 cup white distilled vinegar**
1 tbsp. soy sauce***
1 tsp. garlic salt

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes and season with the salt and pepper.  Dip each cube into the cornstarch and then into the eggs.  Seems kind of backward, huh?  Trust me -- this works.

3.  Heat the oil in a big skillet on medium-high and brown those lumpy little cubes until brown on all sides.  Dump them into a baking dish (a 9 x 9 or 9 x 13 depending on how close you stick to the 1 pound of chicken guideline).

4.  Whisk together the sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt until smooth.  Dump it on the chicken in the baking dish and stir it all around until the chicken is well-coated.

5.  Pop the dish (uncovered) into the oven for 15 minutes.  Turn the chicken over and then bake for 15 minutes more.

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I served the chicken over brown rice and it was gooooooooood!  Even Corey, who is usually brutally honest with me when I try new recipes, raved about this one.  As usual, the shorties in the house turned their noses up at it and refused to even try a bite.  Oh well, more for us!  Might need to try this with pork the next time around.  I bet it would be fabulous.

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*  It's amazing how much I loathe ketchup but how much I love many recipes that use it as an ingredient (like BBQ sauce, my mom's meatloaf, etc.).  Any ketchup haters should not be scared off by the inclusion of this ingredient.

**  It's kind of funny to use the vinegar out of the huge bottle I keep around for mopping my floors.  Perhaps I should buy a small bottle dedicated to cooking so I don't feel like I'm serving my family cleaning products.

***  Make sure you have soy sauce in the fridge BEFORE you get to Step #4.  Otherwise, you have to make an emergency call to your husband on his commute home from work.  There really is no good substitute for it (especially if you also don't have teriyaki sauce on hand -- I'm still restocking my staples since moving a few months ago!).

Asian Ham Salad

Just the title alone should not turn you off of this recipe!  Yes, it sounds a little weird.  Looking at the list of ingredients may also make you question my sanity (and the sanity of my sister and mother, who made me this recipe last week when we were all together in Texas).  It's delicious though, and I bet you could try this with either cooked chicken or beef to give it a different twist.  It was still good the next day straight out of the refrigerator.

For the life of me I can't remember what my mom served as a side dish, so when I made it for Corey last night I just told him to hush when he asked what else we were having.  He quieted down when he tasted the salad, and the two of us devoured this entire recipe in one sitting.  We figured that the ice cream cones we had for dessert got us the dairy food group to make it a complete meal.  Yes, there are a lot of asterisks after the ingredients, but the recipe was pretty vague and I wanted to let you know how I interpreted each instruction.  The original recipe called for only one cup of rice, but my mom and I thought that was too skimpy.  It was also my idea to add the cilantro to the recipe because I'm pretty sure just about every recipe could be improved with cilantro.  Okay, maybe not brownies, but you get the idea.

Here is a photo of the salad as we made it at my mom's house.  Those are her gorgeous granite countertops -- not mine!

Asian Ham Salad

Salad:
2 cups brown rice, cooked*
1 cup shelled and cooked edamame**
1 cup chopped ham steak***
6 sliced radishes****
2 thinly sliced green onions
handful of cilantro leaves*****
crushed peanuts******

Dressing:
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes*******
salt and pepper to taste

Cool the rice and edamame to room temperature.  Whisk the dressing ingredients together.  Just before serving, toss the salad ingredients with the dressing.

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* This means to have about 2 cups AFTER cooking.  If you cooked 2 cups of uncooked rice, you would have 4 cups of cooked rice and that would just craziness.

** I steamed my edamame in the shells and then shelled them, but my mom boiled already shelled edamame, I think.  Both tasted great.  Yes, I hate beans but like edamame.  I have to pretend they are not beans.  Please don't tell me I'm wrong.  DON'T SPOIL THE ONLY FORM OF LEGUME I WILL VOLUNTARILY EAT, OKAY?

*** I got this near the cold cuts, but I bet it would be even better if you got it from the butcher and chopped it yourself.  I also want to try this with chicken or beef, because I bet it would be awesome.

**** I chopped up about 4 radishes because they're not my favorite veggie.  I really couldn't taste them in the salad, but Corey said he could.  They add a nice crunch if they're sliced instead of chopped, which is how my mom made it.  Next time I make this, I want to add sliced celery, because I bet it would be terrific.

***** I chopped my leaves, but I bet they would be good whole, too.

****** The recipe didn't specify how much of these, so I crushed about a half cup of dry roasted peanuts (I probably should have used regular old peanuts, but I wanted to have better-tasting ones left over for snacks!).

******* I used red cayenne pepper because that's all I had and I wasn't sure how it was different.  I also probably used more like 1/8 of a teaspoon because I'm a huge wimp when it comes to spicy things, but I don't think the salad was spicy when my mom made it with the properly-measured amount.

Grilled Vegetable and Mozzarella Sandwich

Ingredients

• 3 cups (1/8-inch-thick) diagonally cut zucchini (about 1 pound)
• 3 (1/8-inch-thick) slices red onion
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 4 pieces
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon extravirgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray
• 1 (1-pound) loaf ciabatta, cut in half horizontally
• 1 cup gourmet salad greens
• 5 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 8 fresh basil leaves

Preparation

Prepare grill to medium-high heat.

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, tossing to coat. Remove vegetables from bowl, reserving vinegar mixture. Place the onion and bell pepper on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 7 minutes on each side or until tender. Grill zucchini 3 minutes on each side or until tender.

Hollow out bottom half of bread, leaving a 1/2-inch-thick shell; reserve torn bread for another use. Layer grilled vegetables, greens, cheese, and basil in bottom of loaf; drizzle reserved vinegar mixture on top. Cover with top of the bread; press lightly.

Place filled loaf on grill rack; grill 4 minutes on each side or until cheese melts. Cut into quarters.

Recipe is from Cooking Light.

Marinated London Broil

So easy, and SO good!

Marinade-

1/2 C each of:

red wine vinegar

vegetable oil

soy sauce

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 cloves garlic, crushed

Combine all ingredients and pour into freezer bag. Score a London Broil (shallow cuts in a crisscross pattern on both sides.) Add meat to bag and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Grill on barbecue or under broiler until done. We like it medium rare, so about 3-4 minutes on each side. Will vary according to size. Slice thinly against the grain and devour.

Lamb Koftas

These little lamb koftas by Annabel Karmel are super easy to make and are really delicious. My 2 year old devoured them, as did my husband which in my book means a win-win situation! I've doubled the suggested recipe here and added a few ideas of my own and it fed the three of us with enough for a light adult lunch or a toddler main meal left over.

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1lb ground lamb

breadcrumbs from 2 slices of bread, crusts removed

1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

2 tsp clear honey

2 egg yolks

salt and pepper to season

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until softened

2. Add the cumin and garlic and continue to fry for another minute.

3. Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and add all the remaining ingredients (see I told you it was easy!). Mix well.

4. Take generous tablespoon sized portions of the mixture (you can make bigger or smaller but you'll just need to adjust the cooking time) and form into sausage shapes - it'll make about 12-16 - and put onto a broiler sheet. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so (they work ok without being chilled but have a tendency to fall apart more easily).

5. Pre-heat the broiler to high and grill the koftas for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway, or until cooked through. They won't freeze, but will keep for a couple of days in the fridge and to heat through, just pop in the microwave for 30 seconds per kofta.

I served with a cold potato salad (new potatoes, enough greek yogurt to coat and a couple of tablespoons of chopped mint), spinach leaves, tomatoes and cucumber. Yum yum!!

Chicken Tikka Masala

This is my favorite Indian dish and, if I do say so myself, IT WAS AWESOME. In fact, it was as good as in a restaurant. A good restaurant.

Chicken Marinade:
1 cup yogurt (I also threw in about a quarter cup of sour cream for fun)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoons salt (optional)
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
several long skewers (I bought the wooden kind at the store and used about 10)

Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh poblano pepper, finely chopped (if you want serious spice use a whole jalapeno pepper instead)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
salt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (if desired)

1. For marinade, in a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, teaspoons cumin, cinnamon, paprika, black pepper, ginger, and 1 teaspoons salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to broil. Cover grill with foil for easy clean up. Thread chicken onto skewers, and discard marinade. Grill until juices run clear, about 5 - 10 minutes on each side.
3. For sauce, melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and poblano pepper for 1 minute. Season with 2 teaspoons cumin, paprika, and a dash of salt (if desired). Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Add grilled chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with fresh cilantro, and serve over rice.

Macaroni-Cheese Puff

I found this recipe in the "all-time favorites" section of my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and it is so awesome! I hate pimiento, so I left it out, and my puff (kind of like a souffle) turned out the tiniest bit bland, but it was still fabulous enough that my husband, my 19 month-old daughter, and I all inhaled it. Does anyone have any ideas of a tasty ingredient that could be added to this souffle in lieu of pimiento? The only things I could come up with were bacon and corn.

It's not beautiful, but it's tasty!!


Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 50 minutes
Oven: 325 degrees

Ingredients:
1/2 cup elbow macaroni (uncooked)
1 1/2 cups milk
6 oz American cheese slices, torn
3 Tbsp butter (use the salted kind)
3 eggs (to be separated)
1 cup bread crumbs (about 1 1/2 slices)
1/4 cup chopped pimiento (optional)
1 Tbsp snipped parsley (optional)
1 Tbsp finely chopped or minced onion
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Directions:

1) In a small saucepan, cook macaroni according to package directions; drain and set aside.

2) Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine the milk, cheese, and butter. Cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted. Remove from heat.

3) Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks, putting the egg yolks in a small bowl and the egg whites in the electric mixer's bowl. Beat the egg yolks. Stir about 1/2 cup of the hot cheese mixture into the egg yolks. Pour egg & cheese mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the hot cheese mixture and stir to combine.

4) Add the drained macaroni, bread crumbs, pimiento (optional), parsley (optional) and onion to the egg & cheese mixture in the saucepan. Set aside.

5) Beat the cream of tartar and egg whites with the whisk attachment for your electric mixer* until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Gently fold into macaroni mixture.

6) Pour mixture into an ungreased 1 1/2 quart souffle dish (or a 2 quart casserole dish).

7) Bake in a 325 degree oven for 50 minutes. Serve immediately.

*If you do not have an electric mixer, con someone else into beating the egg whites. This is a TON of work to do by hand!! And if you don't have a whisk attachment, I think the normal attachment will also work, but it might take longer. I could be wrong about this.

Bow Down Before Me For I Have Made Pulled Pork Sandwiches!!

All I can say is this was pretty easy and it was damn good! Demetri ate 3 sandwiches and Zoey ate 1.5!!!!! Plus, it uses the CROCK POT!!!!!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 (4 pound) pork shoulder roast
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 extra large onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
8 hamburger buns, split
2 tablespoons butter, or as needed


1. Pour the vegetable oil into the bottom of crock pot. Place the pork roast into pot; pour in the BBQ* sauce, apple cider vinegar, and chicken broth. Stir in the brown sugar, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic. Cover and cook on High until the roast shreds easily with a fork, about 6 hours.
2. Remove the roast from the crock pot, and shred the meat using two forks. **
3. Spread the inside of both halves of hamburger buns with butter. Toast the buns, butter side down, in a skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Spoon pork into the toasted buns. Add BBQ sauce* to taste.

* I put Kraft honey BBQ sauce in the crock pot but then topped the sandwiches with KC Masterpiece - Original. The guy at the meat counter suggested I do this to sweeten the meat.
** The original recipe suggests putting the pulled port back into the juices in the crock pot. We did this with some of the meat and found that the juices were too oily and also made the buns soggy. And no one wants to eat wet bread (Hi Corey!!!)

My Mom's Amazing Sweet and Sour Chicken Stew

Ingredients:
2-3 chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 cup flour
salt
pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
several potatoes (I use 2-3 smallish ones), cubed
frozen mixed vegetables

1. Put flower, salt and pepper (based on your personal taste) into a freezer size bag. Add cubed chicken. Hold the bag closed with one hand and shake the chicken around so it becomes coated with the flour mixture.
2. In a big pot put olive oil and heat it up.
3. When olive oil is warm/hot add chicken and brown.
4. Once chicken is brown add the water, ketchup, brown sugar, apple vinegar, and worcestershire sauce and stir.
5. Add chopped onion, carrots, and potatoes. Stir.
6. Add however many frozen mixed veggies you want. I usually add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups.
7. Simmer for at least 40 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. The longer it simmers the better.

We usually serve the stew with bread and salad. YUM!

Update: Eggs in a Tomato improved!

Almost a month ago, I posted the Eggs in a Tomato recipe, and I mentioned the watery-ness problem. I requested ideas to fix the issue, and several people came up with some great fixes. Jennifer L. pointed out that the salt would draw out the moisture in the tomatoes, so perhaps nixing that would work. I cooked this recipe again tonight, and leaving out the salt WORKED!! Granted, we needed to add salt before we ate the eggs in tomatoes, but the texture and moisture was absolutely perfect. JLo, you rule!

Ham and Cheese Quiche---and freezer meals!

Hi all- It's been FOREVER since I posted. We had a beautiful summer here in the Midwest and I did not spend my time cooking! But alas, fall is here. And soon there will be several feet of snow on the ground. Ugh. So....time to hibernate!!!!

I came across an awesome cookbook at the grocery store the other day that I had to share with you. It's one of the Taste of Home ones, that you see at the check out line, and it's called Fall Freezer Meals. Every recipe in it looks WONDERFUL, and EASY, AND KID FRIENDLY (so far we have tried 2 and love them) and the best part is: the recipes are written so that you have one to eat, and one to freeze. It tells you how to cook it right away, as well as how to freeze the second and cook it later. I love it.

So below is the one we had last night. Another one is in the freezer for another time! I figure if I make 1-2 new recipes a week I'll have a freezer full in no time!

Ham and Cheese Quiche

2 pastry shells
2 cups diced fully cooked ham
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
2 teaspoons dried minced onion
4 eggs
2 cups half and half cream
1/2 teaspoon salt (you can omit this probably with all the ham---we thought it was a bit salty with it)
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Line pastry shells with a double thickness of tinfoil, bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes.

2. Divide ham, cheese, and onion between the shells. In a bowl, wisk eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Pour into shells. Cover and freeze for up to 3 months. Or cover edges with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

To use frozen quiche: Completely thaw in the refrigerator. Remove 30 minutes before baking, and bake as directed.

Okay, so with 2 cups of half and half, it's not the HEALTHIEST recipe!!!!! But you could probably tweak it and make it healthier? Would milk work instead?

Eggs in a Tomato

Holy moly, people-- this dish is SO good.... I adapted it from a recipe I found in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine (thank you, Niki, for the subscription!). But it has one tiny flaw, at least when I make it: it's a bit watery. Andrew and I have discussed several ways to sop up some of the liquid (put some tiny croutons or uncooked rice in with the corn?), and I'm interested to see if those will work, so I'm going to try them in the future. What other ideas can we come up with on this blog to make the guts of the recipe less watery?

Ingredients:

4 large, firm tomatoes
Kosher salt
Ground pepper
1/3 cup niblets canned corn
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh chives
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 inch square baking dish (or a pie plate) with parchment paper.

2) Slice off the top 1/2 inch of each tomato with a sharp knife (a serrated knife works well). Use either a spoon, a melon baller, or one of those grapefruit spoons to scoop and carve out the inner ribs and seeds of the tomatoes, creating the tomato version of a bread bowl. Don't break through the outside of the tomato unless you want the egg mixture to leak everywhere! Place tomatoes on the parchment paper in the dish/plate and season well with the Kosher salt and ground pepper.

3) Put 1/4 of the corn in each tomato.

4) Whisk together the eggs and chives, then divide them among the tomatoes. Top each egg mixture with 1/4 of the cheese.

5) Bake until the egg mixture is set (about 45-50 minutes).


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So, there you have it-- a really, really yummy dinner for two people (serve with rice, orzo, or toasted bread), or breakfast for 3 or 4 people. Let me know your ideas to solve the watery-ness problem. Maybe when you make it, it won't turn out watery.... Maybe I'm not scooping out enough of the insides of the tomato? Help! It just goes to show you how yummy this recipe is if I keep making it despite the watery issue.

And here's a gratuitous shot of my bestest little buddy, my daughter:


Sonia already loves scrambled eggs and cheese, so I'm going to see if she likes this next time I make it!

Beef Stroganoff: the cheater's version

I love me some beef stroganoff, but every recipe I have ever seen (except this one, which was adapted from one I found in the "Fix-It and Forget-It 5 Ingredient Favorites" book I've mentioned before) involves browning the beef in a skillet, making a huge mess on my stove top. I am the kind of clean freak who is not actually a fan of cleaning-- a lot of times, I'd rather not do an activity than do it and clean up after it. Honestly, this is one of my biggest problems with cooking-- the clean up involved. Hence, my love for crock pot meals that involve no pre-cooking.

When I made this recipe a few weeks ago, we happened to have some Parmesan cheese in the fridge, so we sprinkled it on top. Mmmmmm! It went very well with steamed green beans, too. For some reason, the sauce looks really pale in this picture-- I think it was because of the flash, because I don't remember it being this pale.


Ingredients:
10 3/4 oz can cream of mushroom soup (the condensed kind)
14 1/2 oz can beef broth
1 lb beef stewing meat (buy the kind already cubed in 1" pieces)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (buy the kind already sliced)
1 1/4 cup sour cream
2 cups egg noodles

1) Stir together the cream of mushroom soup and beef broth in the crock pot.

2) Add meat and mushrooms.

3) Cover and cook on High for 3-4 hours; reduce heat and cook on Low for 3-4 hours. (If you're not going to be home and won't be able to change the temperature, cook it on High for 5-6 hours, but the beef will be a bit tougher when you do that.)

4) At some point during the day, cook the egg noodles.

5) Right before you're ready to eat, stir in the sour cream (you can whisk it to make it combine with the broth more quickly), and then stir in the noodles.

*****

Seriously-- could this get any easier? I love this recipe so much!

White Fish with Olives

Yes, I'm posting yet another recipe that my sister won't eat. I'm considered the picky eater in the family, oddly enough! Niki won't eat potatoes, sushi maki rolls (even the vegetarian ones), or fish. I refuse to eat certain flavor combinations and a lot of vegetables. And baby animals. And really spicy stuff. Okay, so maybe I'm pickier. Whatever!

I adapted this recipe from one that I found in a Real Simple magazine a few years ago. The original recipe was a bit too spicy (ahem), so I needed to tweak it a bit. Now for the part where I admit the way in which I screwed this recipe up the first time I made it: I used olives with pits still in them. Whoops! Kind of annoying, but not disastrous. So-- make sure you buy the pitted olives (the ones sold in the refrigerated section next to the fancy cheeses).

A few more notes: There's no need to use a lemon zester.... I didn't know we owned one, so I used a cheese grater, and I liked the zest that came from the grater better than the zest I got from the lemon zester when I made it the second time. This recipe serves 4 people, but make sure you have a substantial side dish and veggies to go with it. Go ahead and buy a dry white wine that you like because you will use barely any of it in this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 pounds white fish filets
3/4 cup dry white wine (like Sauvignon Blanc)
1/2 cup mixed olives (or kalamata olives)
Zest from one lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place fish in small roasting pan (or a casserole dish). Add enough wine to reach halfway up the sides of the fish. Scatter the olives around the fish and the lemon zest on top of the fish. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with the peppers and salt.

Roast until fish is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork (about 20 minutes). Remove dish from oven and sprinkle with the parsley.

***

When I made this recipe recently, our side dish was some insanely awesome foccacia bread I found in the bakery at Super Target. I highly recommend picking some up! Mmmmmm....

Whole Dinner Roast Beef

I love when the main dish contains enough food groups that you don't need to add a side.... This crockpot meal is so easy, but it has some of the same problems that the roast beef with tomatoes and garlic has: sometimes there are too many leftovers and unless you want it to taste like I imagine soylent green would, you have to splurge on expensive meat. But this recipe is still really tasty and extremely easy, so in my repertoire it goes! It was adapted from a book called "Fix-It and Forget-It 5 Ingredient Favorites". You can add or subtract vegetables as desired-- the recipe is really flexible!

Ingredients:

3-4 lb roast beef (rib roast is a good choice)
10 3/4 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
4 cups baby carrots
2 potatoes (cut into quarters)
1 cup sliced celery
1 small onion (cut into quarters)

1) Place veggies in crockpot.

2) Put meat on top of veggies.

3) Dump mushroom soup and dry onion soup mix on meat.

4) Cover and cook for 8 hours on LOW.

*****

When we made this recipe and I took this picture, I didn't add the celery or onions.



I also just realized that you can see the baby monitor in the upper right-hand corner of this picture. Ha! Andrew and I aren't able to eat dinner while Sonia is awake because he gets home from work only 15 minutes before she goes to bed. Maybe once she gets older, we can push back her bedtime so we can eat as a family, but for now, it's kinda easier (and more relaxing!!) to do it this way.

Whatever-You-Want Quiche (without crust!)

mmmmmmm! Quiche! The great thing about this recipe is that it's totally flexible. Use whatever kind of cheese you want! use more or less spinach depending on your taste! Forgo the onions! Add garlic! Get cray-zee!

1 tbsp olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
about 1/2 a bag of fresh spinach, chopped
about 1/2 a block of feta, chopped (or about 1.5 cups of other shredded cheese)*
5 eggs, beaten
1/8 tsp pepper

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 inch pice pan.
2. Saute onions and spinach in olive oil until spinach is wilted and onions are tender.
3. In a large bowl combine eggs, cheese, pepper, (maybe salt)*, and the spinach and onion mixture. Stir until mixed well.
4. Scoop mixture into pie pan.
5. Bake in over about 30 minutes or until eggs have set. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve.

* If you don't use feta, add a 1/4 tsp salt

Get on the Quiche Train! Toot! Toot!

Ham Asparagus Strata

I was perusing my BHG cookbook for dinner ideas, and I suddenly remembered that Andrew and I both love breakfast for dinner. In fact, we have been known to parrot my dad's frequent comment whenever my mom made breakfast in the evenings: " I LOOOOOOOOOVE breakfast for dinner!" Anyway, I looked through the "eggs" section of the cookbook, and on the last page, I saw this "strata" thing. What in the heck is a strata? Well, according to Wikipedia, it's a layered casserole dish most commonly made with eggs, bread, and cheese. YUM! Plus, the prep time is only 25 minutes (perfect) and you actually MUST make it ahead of time (at least 2 hours if not an entire day ahead). So, I gave it a whirl, and this is now one of our favorite dishes. The first couple of times I made this strata, it turned out a teensy bit watery, so I modified the recipe a bit.

******

Prep: 25 minutes
Chill: 2 to 24 hours
Bake: 50 minutes
Oven: 325 degrees

4 whole-wheat English muffins, torn/cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup (6 oz) cubed fully-cooked ham
1 cup (5-6 oz) asparagus cut into bite-sized pieces
6 oz swiss cheese (either grated or sliced & torn into small pieces)
4 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion (or 1 tsp dried minced onion)
1 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard ("Pardon me sir....")
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
1/8 tsp pepper

1) In a greased 2-quart square casserole dish, create a layer of half of the English muffin pieces. Top with layers of the ham, asparagus, swiss cheese, and then spread the remaining English muffin pieces on the very top.

2) In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, sour cream, onion, mustard, caraway seeds, and pepper. Pour evenly over top of the layers in the casserole dish.

3) Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but no longer than 24 hours.

3) Uncover the dish and bake for 50-55 minutes in a 325 degree oven or till a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. If you have reached an hour and the knife still doesn't come out clean, go ahead and take the dish out-- you're just stuck with slightly watery strata. It's still really yummy! Let is stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

******

This theoretically makes 6 servings, but it's pretty heavy and a little goes a long way, so for once, this "yield" is pretty accurate, no matter how hungry you are! Leftover strata keeps really well in the fridge and is great either cold or re-heated.

Oh, by the way, the first time I made this, I somehow missed the part about the asparagus being cut up. I baked it with a layer of long asparagus spears. Not that it affected the taste in any way, but it was a bit hard to serve. WHOOPS!

Here's a picture of the strata I made two weekends ago for my in-laws, who were visiting from the Dallas-Fort Worth area:



The chef and her strata! (picture taken by my father-in-law)


On a related note, can someone else please tell me that they, too, didn't realize that ham came from a pig until way later than most people figure it out? I mean, ham bears no resemblance to and tastes nothing like pork in any way (I guess it's because of the curing process).... Boy, between Niki's recent admittance of her "yield" confusion and my late epiphany about ham being from pigs (it happened in college, I think), you'd think the Evans twins should be barred from the kitchen for the greater good....

Roast Beef with Tomatoes & Garlic

I found this recipe in Real Simple magazine, and after modifying it a bit, Andrew and I decided it was good enough to be included in the dinner rotation. The bad part about this recipe is that it's not all that cheap, and we have way too much leftover beef. A good roast is kind of a splurge, and unless you go to a real butcher, you can't buy it in a quantity that is appropriate for two adults and a baby who refuses to eat meat. So, we only make it once a month or so. But we end up craving it when we haven't had it in a while because seriously, roasted grape tomatoes + garlic + beef = heaven!!!

Note #1: I recommend peeling the garlic cloves ahead of time (perhaps the night before while watching Big Bang Theory on TV?). The original recipe says that the hands-on time is 10 minutes, but unless you buy those pricey already-peeled garlic cloves, it's going to take way longer! The fastest way to get the stuff off of the cloves is to take the flat part of a chef's knife blade, lay it on top of a clove that is sitting on a cutting board, and smash it firmly with your fist. Andrew taught me that-- he learned it by watching hours and hours of Bobby Flay on the Food Network. Here's a picture of the head of garlic after I peeled all of the cloves:


Note #2: Make sure the roast is 100% thawed. Every time I use a frozen roast, I inevitably forget to thaw it far enough ahead of time, and then I end up cooking it while it still has a frozen core. This results in chewy, underdone meat on the inside and gray, overdone meat on the outside. What a great way to waste a bunch of money.....

Note #3: Do not substitute table salt for Kosher salt unless you also adjust the measurement! Kosher salt has much bigger grains-- you will end up over-salting your recipe if you use the same amount of table salt. In case you forget to buy Kosher salt, use this conversion table so that you don't need to drink a gallon of water with your roast. Speaking of Kosher salt, Check out this totally awesome Le Creuset salt crock I got for Christmas.... I keep my Kosher salt in this crock out on the counter because I use it so often.


Hands-on time: 10 minutes (excluding the garlic peeling!)
Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes (see above)

2 pounds boneless rib roast
1 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
3/4 tsp pepper
2 dry pints grape tomatoes
1 head garlic, cloves peeled
1 tsp dried thyme
3 Tbsp olive oil

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Rub the beef with 1 tsp Kosher salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and place in a large roasting pan. Scatter the tomatoes and garlic cloves around the roast. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle remaining Kosher salt and pepper over tomatoes and garlic.

This time when I made this recipe, I accidentally bought only one dry pint of grape tomatoes. Whoops!!!!


Put the roast in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 325 degrees and roast to desired doneness (around 45 more minutes-- this is going to vary with the shape/size of your roast.... check with a meat thermometer and make sure the internal temperature is appropriate, such as 125 degrees for medium rare). Transfer beef to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing (and make sure you slice it fairly thin).

This last time I made it (when I didn't buy enough tomatoes), we served the roast with steamed green beans (I've grown up, Mom! I no longer like green beans only from out of a can!) and brown rice (Uncle Ben's Ready Rice, of course).

Chicken Delicious

Andrew and I found this awesome cheesily-named recipe in a pretty decent crock pot cookbook that I'm pretty sure Andrew's mom bought us at Sam's Club. I could have made that part up, though. FYI, I refuse to call it a slow cooker, even though crock pot is technically a brand name. We have made a few modifications to the recipe, and now it RULES. No pre-cooking of the meat (you know how I feel about that), no other bowls/pots/pans needed, and the potential to have an almost-full bottle of wine left over afterward to drink with dinner. This recipe will make enough for two hungry adults, and it would be really easy to double (or triple if you have a big crock pot) the recipe for a larger group.

Ingredients:

2 cans (10 1/2 oz) cream of mushroom soup

1/3 cup dry white wine (buy a bottle you like, 'cause you'll have a lot left over)
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (unfrozen!)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp celery salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp paprika
Grated parmesan cheese (fresh is awesome, but dried will work okay)
Hot cooked rice

Pour the cream of mushroom soup and wine into the crock pot and stir until they are combined. Place the chicken breasts on top of the mixture and pour the lemon juice over them. Sprinkle the salts, pepper, and paprika over the chicken. Spoon the soup/wine mixture over the top of the chicken breasts so that they are well covered. Sprinkle as much grated parmesan cheese over the chicken as you want. Cover the crock pot and cook for either 4-5 hours on High or 8-10 hours on Low. Even though the chicken is being cooked in a crock pot, it can still get dried out, so I would recommend staying on the low end of the cooking times. Here's what it looks like when it's done cooking (crock pot meals never look as good as they taste!):

This time when I made it, I put a ton (probably way too much, if there is such a thing) of parmesan cheese on top, so the grease you see floating in the sauce isn't going to be there every time you make this recipe, I promise!

We serve the chicken with brown rice (the Uncle Ben's Ready Rice, of course) and spoon generous amounts of the sauce onto our plates. If you wanted to, you could use bread to sop up the sauce. It's so good!!!


So, there you have it. Only one dish dirtied (woo hoo!), and it takes just about 15 minutes at the most to dump all of the ingredients in (that's mostly from having to measure stuff). The picture above of the meal in the crock pot may make it look like the crock pot needs to be soaked and scrubbed to get off all of the crusties, but I assure you, it doesn't (unless you leave it sitting in the sink overnight before cleaning it, and even then, you could just fill it with water to avoid this problem). There's something about the way crock pot meals are cooked with all the steam and whatnot that make for fairly easy cleanup. But if you're worried about it, just let the crock pot soak while you're eating!

Another one Carla can't eat, but still good anyway...

This is so simply delicious -- mainly because it relies on store-bought croutons for the seasoning. Healthy, right?!?! My husband would live on a diet of croutons and nachos (not together though) if he could, so he loves this recipe. Except it doesn't have anything to do with nachos. But I digress...

BAKED SWISS CHICKEN
(aka "Niki's Cheesy Chicken")

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (or equivalent of 1.5 lbs. chicken)
1 can (10.75 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1/2 cup white wine OR chicken broth (I prefer the broth)
6 slices Swiss cheese
1 cup crushed seasoned croutons

--Place chicken in a greased 13"x9" baking dish. If you're like Joslyne and have no working knowledge of the size of your baking dishes and an inability to estimate what size a 13"x9" dish is, then get the one out that is about the size of a legal length piece of paper. Or get a tape measure. Or read the nearly illegible numbers on the bottom of your dish. Or wait until someone with street smarts stops by and ask her.
--In another bowl, combine the soup and wine/broth. Then pour it over the chicken.
--Top with cheese and sprinkle with crushed croutons.
--Bake, uncovered, at 350˚ for 35-40 minutes or until chicken juices run clear (which I have never been able to use as a guide, so I usually sacrifice one piece and cut it open to check).