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Recipes
BaconNEggSalad
Bacon 1 or 2 pieces cooked and left over, preferably maple flavor
Eggs 4 or 5 hard boiled
Celery 2 stalks/stick sliced and/or diced
Pickles 1 to 3 depending on size
Onions sweet, yellow, white, or red sliced & diced
Ranch Dressing Buttermilk homemade or what ever you have
Bread Hoagie, Rolls, Bread, Pita whatever you have
Seasoning Salt, Pepper, Mrs. Dash, what ever you like
Slice, Dice and chop what ever you are going to put in, I.E. the veggies you have on your list. Boil the eggs for about 10 minutes and remove from the boiling water. I tend to put them in to Ice water to make them easier to work with, for one they are not so hot to the touch, and for two, I sometimes find the peal easier, but not always.
But your eggs in a medium size bowl an use a fork to sort of mash them up against the side/bottom of the bowl. Then combine all of your veggies in the bowl with the mashed up eggs and pour some of your dressing in. Start out with a little dressing and stir it up and if it is to dry, add some more. Just remember it is easier to add then it is to remove once you pour, so take it slow.
Finally crumble by hand your bacon strips in to the bowl and add your spices, once again start off slow, taste and add more if necessary . The final step is to choose your bread and make a sandwhich any way you like, you could even do and open face with some cheese on top and stick it in the toaster oven. Get it the way you like and enjoy…
BaconSalamiSoup
A soon to be winter time favorite
Beef Broth Swanson’s or what ever you have, at least 4 cups
Beef Bouillon Cubes 2-3 depending on how much flavor you want
Salami Genoa or Hard style 3-4 pieces
Bacon Maple flavor preferably 4 pieces cut in to 4 smaller pieces
Stewed Tomato’s Italian style, 1 can
Carrots 1 Whole on if big, 2 or more if small 8 if baby style
Celery 2 sticks give or take, depending how much you like celery
Mushrooms 2-4 if good size and fresh, jar style use what you want
Onions Red, while, yellow, sweet, what ever 2-3 slices, then chop
Elbow Noodles About a half of a box. Any form of small pasta will work
Water Upwards of 2 cups
Garlic 2 cloves at least
Seasonings Salt, Pepper, and Basil or use what you like even Mrs. Dash
Get all of your ingredients out and cut up what ever veggies or meat products you have in order to make this soup. Every thing can be cut from medium to small size. The bacon should be cut in half and each half cut in half again. Once this is all done, get a decent size pot and put your bacon in the bottom and turn on high. When the bacon starts to render off some good puddles of fat, as in liquid, throw in your carrots, celery and onions. Stir all these items together and keep them moving, on high heat it doesn’t take long to burn things. About one minute later add the mushrooms and follow 30 seconds later with the garlic and what ever other spices you have. By now the kitchen should smell wonderful and you are well on your way. Roughly 2 minutes after adding the last spice, remembering to keep all ingredients moving in the pan as mush as possible, go ahead and add your beef broth and follow with your bouillon cubes as well. Dump in your stewed tomato’s, juice and all. Also this might be a good time to add your water as well, the idea is to make sure all food items are submerged in liquid at least and inch or two under. Depending on what size pot you use, the water might not be necessary , but have it handy just in case.
When you start to see a light bubbling, just before a rapid boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer for between 1 and 2 hours. The longer it goes, the more tender things like carrots become. Just before you put the lid on and walk away, shred by hand the salami in to small ¼ to ½ “ size pieces and throw them in the soup give it a good stirring and put the lid on it. Check it about ever 10 to 15 minutes and give it a good stir when you do check it.
In a separate pot, fill with water and a few drops of cooking oil and boil your pasta for about 10 minutes. Dump in to a colander and rinse well to get all the starch out, or at least as much as possible. The choise is your, you can throw the noodles in right the and let them simmer in the soup or you can wait until the end and just put them in a bowl and the soup over the top of them as a finished product. The will become more and more tender as they sit in the soup simmering and some people might find them to mushy that way, so you make the call that is right for you and your family.
A little mozzarella cheese tops it off nicely once it is in a bowl or some biscuits or bread of some sort goes good with it as well. Enjoy and good eats..
BarChickCasserole
This on was inspired by left over grilled chicken breast and extra barley from a soup recipe last week.
Chicken Breast 1 ½ to 2
Barley 1 to 2 cups of cooked Barley
Carrots 1 big carrot or about 6 to 8 baby carrots
Celery 1 to 2 sticks
Onion 2 to 3 good slices sliced again and diced
Zucchini 4 to 6 inch section sliced and diced
Yellow Squash 4 to 6 inch section sliced and diced
Mushrooms 4 whole white or Bella’s or a good handful of what ever you have sliced
Black Olives 10 to 12 Sliced
Garlic 2 cloves sliced and diced (add or subtract as much as you want)
Cream of Chicken 1 can Campbell’s soup or what ever brand you can get
Milk enough to fill about half your soup can
Spices Basil, Mrs. Dash, Pepper, Salt What ever you like
Butter ¼ stick Give or take
First we must start by getting all the veggies cut up and set aside. I cut the carrot long ways in half and then cut each half in half again so I had 4 “sticks” then I turn them length wide and section those 4 sticks in to about ¼ inch wide pieces. You could follow the same basic technique with the celery except only cut each stick length wise once. You will still end up with 4 stick to cut into ¼ pieces. These sizes are approximates and don’t require a ruler to make precise cuts. The idea is to keep all things as uniform as possible, because they will all cook more evenly if they are all about the same size. Continue cutting the Zucchini and Yellow Squash. I cut them side ways into 4 sections and then length wise in 4 sections and then finally into about ¼ inch pieces. Take the onion and cut off two good size slices and lay them flat and follow the same procedure to dice them up. Do as best as you can with the garlic, but it is about the same procedure and just slice the olives each in to about 4 to 5 slices.
The chicken is more fun. Mine was still on the ribs, so I just tore it off with my hands and then ripped it with my hands as well doing my best to keep the pieces as close to the same sizes as each other as possible. Since the chicken is already grilled all you are doing is warming it back up, so the keeping all as uniform as possible really doesn’t matter, because we will not be cooking it from raw. How ever if you are cooking this with raw chicken and wish to throw it right in the dish will cooking, cut it all as uniform as you can during prep work. I think the flavor from grilling the chicken a few days ago is what really made this dish so awesome.
Now that the prep work is done, start by putting the butter in a large pot or pan, what ever you have to work with and turn it on high or pretty close to it. Once the butter is starting to melt, add your Carrots and Celery, give it about a minute and add your onions. After about an other minute add your mushrooms, Garlic and what ever other seasoning you are going to use, remembering to stir it all with each new ingredient added. When cooking on high heat, you don’t want to let any one thing rest in the same spot to long, that is just an invitation for burnt whatever.
Give it about 2 to 3 minutes and then add the Zucchini and Yellow Squash and finally the chicken. Stir it all together and add the Barley. Give it an other good stirring and add your can of soup. Fill the empty can about half way with milk and dump it in to the pot/pan too. At this point, drop your heat down to low and continue to stir it until it has a nice consistency, not to thick nor to thin. Give it 4 to 5 minutes on low and serve on a plate or in a bowl. A spoon or Sour Cream goes nice on top as well as your favorite hot sauce. You might even try sprinkling some shredded cheese or grated cheese over the top. Good eats and enjoy. Any thing can be added or subtracted from this recipe, follow as a guide and do what you like.
Beef Stew
Beef for Stew about 1 + Lbs. Of it
Carrots about 2 Large or 8 to 10 mini ones
Celery 2 sticks sliced about ¼ to ½ in.
Potato’s 5 give or take cut in to ½ to 1 in. pieces
Mushrooms 5 or 6 whole sliced or one medium jar drained
Onions Sweet if you can get it, about 1 half sliced and diced
Beef Broth about 16 oz.’s give or take
Flour All purpose, the more you put in, the thicker it will become try about 1 cup
Garlic 2 cloves sliced and diced or one heaping spoonful of prefaced diced garlic
Seasoning Salt, Pepper, Basil, Parsley, or what ever you want. Add what you like.
Once again, this works best in a crock pot type cooking vessel. First things first, dump your Beef Broth in the crock pot or large pot. If you have it, use a sifter to sift the flour in to the broth, stirring the broth constantly trying to avoid lumps. To much and it will be very thick and not enough will leave it sort of like soup. Depending on what size pot you have, it may take a few tries to get this just right. Once you have done this with all of your flour, start cutting your veggies and throwing them in as soon as they are cut. It is really simple and basic.
Once you get to the meat, I usually wait until last to avoid cross contamination with my unused Veggies that I’ll put back in the refrigerator, although beef for stew is usually cut up decent, I like to cut it to smaller pieces and try to keep them uniform in size. I’ll usually find the smallest piece in the package and if it isn’t to large, I’ll cut all the other pieces to that size. If it is to large, I’ll cut it in half or quarters and then work the rest of it to the size I desire.
The final Step is to add what ever spices you intend to use and put the lid on and cover it and turn the power on low. My rule of thumb for this form of cooking is, if you work a regular 9 to 5 job, put it on before you leave for work and it is ready when you arrive home from work. You can make biscuits to go with it or regular buttered bread. Good eats and enjoy.
Broke in Chicken
This came about do to lack of funds and working with what I had. Talk about simple and cheap, yet very delicious.
Chicken thighs 4 to 6 bones in, but skin removed
Stewed or diced tomato’s I used Italian style, but use what you have
Garlic Fresh, pre diced or powder, what ever you have, to taste
Rice I used left over yellow rice from a few days earlier, use what you have
Spices Salt, pepper, Basil, or what ever you love, or avoid salt and use Mrs. Dash
I grabbed the crock-pot early in the morning and opened up a can of Stewed Tomato’s and dumped it right in, juice and all. Then you want to throw in your chicken thighs, I had six of them. I chopped up two cloves of garlic an threw them in, then add what ever spies you choose to use. You certainly can add any thing you have or love to it as well, such as carrots, celery, onions, bell pepper, jalapenos, or even corn or Lima beans, what ever. Finally put the lid on and turn the crock-pot on low. I let it go until about 4:30, then I popped the top off and removed the chicken one by one and de-boned them. Be sure to get any cartilage or small bone also. I try and remove a fair amount of fat too. You are not going to get all of the fat, so don’t be a freak about it, not to mention a little fat is good for you and it also adds flavor. Basically you really want to focus your attention on getting all of the bones and cartilage out. The chicken will be very tender at this point and it is almost effortless to do this job. The bones add flavor as it cooks and they are so easy to remove at the end, this is why I do it this way.
Next take your rice left over or if you have none, make it fresh and add it to the crock-pot. Give it a good stirring to mix it up thoroughly. Since mine was left over and chilled from being in the refrigerator, I put the lid back on and let it go for about 30 more minutes. If you made your rice fresh and it is piping hot, you are done and can start serving it up. Simple, very cheap and delicious. I like to top mine off with some grated Parmesan cheese and hot sauce.
Chicken & Rice
This one takes about 5 ½ to 8 hours to cook, so this one is really for winter time, to feed the family right on a cold windy day. Talk about hitting the spot. This is an other time I really recommend getting a crock pot if you haven’t yet. I some times will prep this one the night before in my removable crock pot and leave it in the refrigerator, so in the morning all I have to do is put it in its base and turn it on.
1 ½ lbs. Chicken this really works best with dark meat, Thighs preferably
Rice 1 cup uncooked white
Chicken broth 1 large can Swanson’s or make from scratch
Bouillon cubes 5 give or take what ever you like
Onions about 3 good thick slices and then chop ½ “ give or take
Carrots 2 large or 8 + or - to your liking
Celery 4 sticks give or take sliced ¼ “ thick
Mushrooms 6 white or baby Bella’s sliced ¼” thick or less
Garlic 2 cloves slice and diced or use a press, what ever
Spices salt, pepper (white or black fresh ground), Basil
Before I get started on this one, let me just remind you that all of these ingredients are subject to change according to your taste buds, if you don’t like mushrooms but do like stewed tomato’s, then switch it up, do what you have to do. That being said.
Dump your Chicken broth into the crock-pot and add your bouillon cubes and of course your chicken. I throw the whole thigh in with out the skin, but leave the bone in. If you are stuck with nothing but a big pot on the stove, do the same with it.
By now you should have sliced and diced what ever you had to so just toss it all in or keep cutting and tossing in as you go. You can use jar/can mushrooms, but fresh is best for every thing else. Once every thing, spices included are in the crock pot you can go about this a few different ways. If you are putting it on as you are heading out the door, turn it on low and let it go. It can go from 8AM to 6PM and still be worthy of eating, just remember to use nothing but low and literally turn it on low just before you walk out the door. You can also speed things up and turn it on high as soon as you put the broth and Chicken in, follow by adding the rest of your stuff and leaving it on high for about 1 ½ hours and turn down to low at that point. I’ve literally turn the switch on at 12 noon and been eating it by 5:30 pm.
In a pot you have to start by putting in just the chicken and broth and bringing it up to a boil for about 5 minutes and dropping it down to low and let it simmer for about 3 to 5 hours at least. Add the rest of your ingredients once the pot is no longer boiling. Sift as much fat as you can off the top of the broth before adding everything else to it.
Back to the crock-pot, open it and stir it once an hour if you are around the house, you will find fat floating up to the top, sift as much out with a spoon or mini strainer as you can, the soup is better and healthier with out it. No matter which way you ended up cooking it, just before it is done, you will need to pull the pieces of chicken out and separate the bone from it and put it back in. This will be easy if it has cooked long enough, it will simply fall right off the bone. The soup keeps the flavor from the bones, but not the bones.
Now it is time to get the rice cooking. You should need 2 cups of water, one cup of dry rice and 1 teaspoon of salt. Start by putting the water and salt in to a pot and bringing it up to boiling, dump the cup of rice in and stir it around for a few minutes. Reduce heat to low and let simmer about 15 minutes.
The magical moment is when you put some of that rice in a bowl and dump the chicken soup on top of it. Wow, Good Eats there. You can use any form of pasta instead, egg noodles, elbow, bow tie, what ever. Just remember to boil separately and rinse and strain before adding to soup. Biscuits are a nice touch too. Don’t forget a few drops of your favorite hot sauce!
Corned Beef Casserole
Corned beef casserole all inspired from a left over Black Berry glazed Corned Beef….
Corned Beef About 6 slices, some what thin, about 1/8th of an inch thick
Potato’s Roughly 6 medium adjust accordingly to size of your potato’s
Mushrooms About 6 of them sliced
Onions (sweet) 2 thick slices, then diced to about ½ inch square pieces
Scallions 2 whole sliced ¼ inch wide
Garlic About one Tablespoon full chopped
Sour Cream 1 cup
Velveeta Cheese 5 slices about ¼ inch thick
Shredded cheese I used the Mexican 4 cheese, use what ever you have
Milk 3 table spoons add more for thinner sauce or less for thicker sauce.
Spices White pepper, salt, basil, or what ever you like
Olive Oil Extra Virgin or Extra Extra virgin, Heck use butter if you have to or bacon fat.
That is right, I was looking at that yummy corned beef and thinking what an I create wit it? So then it hit me and I stated pulling stuff out. First thing is get your potato’s cleaned and pealed and cut, I cut mine like French Fries but a little thinner and then cut them in half when I was done so they were only about 2” long. Then I put them in some water and started to boil them, letting them boil for about 5 minutes, and then pouring them out in to a strainer and removing them quickly in to a bowl full of ice and then filling it with cold water and letting the ice melt and just sitting there while I got on to other things. This is called blanching for those of you who have never done this before, it sort of partially cooks the potato’s but then stops the cooking process dead in its tracks by doing a quick cool down. You will see why I did this in a few, so read on.
During the time I was boiling them, I was working on the rest of my stuff. I put the sour cream in a pot and added the slices of Velveeta, the milk, a small hand full of the shredded cheese and some white pepper. I turned it on to low, in the area of 2 or 3 on the turn knob. The idea here is to turn it in to a nice creamy sauce, I’m sure heavy whipping cream would substitute nicely for the milk, but I didn’t have any.
I also cut up the onions, mushrooms, scallions, and garlic at this point. This can really be a personal preference thing here as far as sizes of all items, some people may like them bigger or smaller then I do, so all I suggest is keep things uniform, they will cook more evenly in a consistent manner. Some people may even choose to leave items out all together, this is fine too. Final prep is to cut up the Corned Beef. I slice it about 1/8th of an inch think then slice it long ways down the center and finally turn it sides way and cut it in to about ¼ x ½ inch pieces. You can go bigger or small, you be the judge.
Now the fun stuff, turn on the oven to 375 and while it is preheating, put about 2 table spoons of your olive oil in a pan and turn on high. Add your sweet onions followed by your mushrooms and stir. After a few minutes add your garlic and continue to stir. Finally add your scallions, Corned Beef and any other seasonings you wish to use, salt, pepper, basil, what ever.
Make sure to keep checking your cheesy sauce and stir it from time to time too. Also take your potato’s that have been in the ice bath, mostly melted by now an pour them back in to the strainer and get as much water off of them. Get a large lasagna style backing dish and pour the potato’s in it. Then add the veggie and meat mix and finally pour the cheese mix over the top. Stir it to the point that it is all mixed together well and put in to the oven for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil. After 30 minutes put it out and put in on the table and let is sit for a few minutes before serving. I also put about 1 or 2 more handfuls of the shredded cheese over the top and let the residual heat melt it.. As always I like to top off something like this with hot sauce and maybe even a little Parmesan cheese… Enjoy and Good eats….
Don't Throw That Chicken Away
Chicken 1 to 2 cups been cooked and sitting in the refrigerator for almost a week now
Celery 1 stick slice it slice it and dice it
Onion Use as much as much or little as you like I prefer a sweet onion
Pickles I used 2 medium size, sliced them in to 4 sections long ways and diced them
Ranch Dressing 2 to 3 table spoons, if you like it really wet add more, really dry, add less
Seasoning Salt, pepper, and what ever you like, I added some basil to mine
This just couldn’t be much easier. Slice and dice all the ingredients. I try to cut all my ingredients to the same size or as close as I possibly can. The chicken can be a bit bigger then all the rest, but I still try and keep it all uniform…
Put it all in a big bowl, add your ranch dressing, I prefer to do the home made kind which consists of Butter Milk, Mayonnaise, and Hidden Valley Ranch dry powder mix, you can find it in the salad dressing section of your local grocery store. Now mix it all up and add your spices. It is that simple.
You can eat it with a fork, make a sandwich with any bread you can find, including pita bread, make a wrap with a tortilla shell or even make an open face melt smothered with cheese and topped off with hot sauce… What ever!!!! Good eats and enjoy…
Easy Noodles
Pork About one cup ¼ “ cubed, chops, tenderloin, what ever
Velveeta Three slices, ¼” thick
Corn Frozen corn in butter sauce 1 bag.
Raman Noodle Three bag beef flavor
Salsa About ¼ cup what ever you like or have
Spices Salt, Pepper, Basil, what ever
This is so easy, with prep and cooking it took me roughly 10 minutes to make this dinner. The pork I cooked on the grill a few days ago and was sitting in the refrigerator, so I started by getting it out and cutting it in roughly ¼” square cubes. While I was doing that, I threw the corn in the microwave and did the old quick on for about 3 minutes just to defrost it and get it close to done, but yet it still had a little cooking time left before it was fully hot and ready to eat. While all of that was going , I also threw a pot of water on the stove and turned it on high.
After cutting the port, I opened the three packet of Raman noodles and pulled the flavor seasoning packages out. Once the water was boiling, I threw the remaining content of the three packets of noodles in the water and let it go for about 3 to 5 minutes. While it was boiling, I cut three slices of cheese off the brick of Velveeta and put then on the side.
Now take the noodles and pour them in the strainer and put the pot back on the stove top. Grab your corn out of the microwave and cut it open and dump it in the pot butter sauce and all. Throw your pork and what ever spices you are going to use. Give it a good stirring and add your cheese as well. As soon as you notice the cheese starting to melt add your salsa. Stir occasionally and when it is all mixed and melted well pour your noodles back in (give them a good rinse with hot water and shake the excess off) and give it all a good stirring.
That is it, DONE. Not to fancy, but a good cheap and easy dinner. As with any recipe, this is just a guide, you could always add anything you like and it would be great. Bell peppers, onion, carrots, if you like it, it could easily work with this recipe. I added a little grated cheese and hot sauce to mine. GOOD EATS AND ENJOY
Florida Cracker Chile
Florida Cracker style Chile
Sirloin Steak Roughly 1 LB. Cut in ¼ to ½ in. cubes
Tomato Sauce 2 cans
Light Red Kidney Beans 1 can Drained
Dark Red Kidney Beans 1 can Drained
Chile Beans 1 can Drained and Rinced
Stewed Tomato’s 1 can Draining is optional with this can works either way
Garlic 2 cloves, sliced and diced
Onion sweet if you can get it other wise yellow or white will do
Mushrooms 5 to 6 fresh whole sliced or medium jar will do
Celery 2 sticks sliced ¼ in. thick pieces
Green Olives about 1cup sliced with the pimentos included if possible
Chile Con Carne Powder I shake the jar about 5 good times
Basil about 1 cap full from the lid of the jar it is packaged in
Parsley about the same as the Basil
Pepper about 8 grinds of fresh pepper with a pepper mill
Do all of your pre work first, I.E. Cut all the veggies and open all the cans and drain and rinse as necessary. The onion I usually slice into ¼ in. slices, lay them flat cut them in half and turn 180 degrees and slice in half again, which quarters them. Take the celery and wash them, cut the ends off and with them side by side, cut them at the same time trying to get ¼ in. or so pieces. Try and keep pieces uniform in size, it helps them all cook evenly. If you bought whole green Olives, cut them in to pieces. You should be able to slice them in to about 5 slices with ease, but it is easier to just by the Olive pieces, then just use about 1 cup of them.
As you are doing your prep work, just keep throwing all the ingredients into a crock pot, if you don’t have one, you really should invest in one, but a regular pot will do, just cook it on very low and slow all day on the stove top. I really recommend don’t this in a crock pot though. Back to the crock pot, just add all of your ingredients as you have them ready. Once all items are in add your spices and garlic and what ever you want to add, I make mine a little to mild because my kids don’t much care for spicy food, but you can add cayenne pepper if you like spice, you can even add Jalapenos if you like spicy stuff or Habaneras or what ever it takes to spice it up for you.
Once every last thing is in the pot that you intend on adding, just put the lid on and turn on low. I usually let it cook for about 8 hours. Basically, you can prep this the night before, if you have a removable style crock pot and stick it in the refrigerator and the next morning just before you walk out the door for work, put it in the base and turn it on. When you arrive home from work it will be ready for you, that is unless you only work a two hour day. Most folks work an average of 9 to 5, this works well for the cooking process.
Once you pull the lid off, smell, eat and enjoy. Obviously crackers go well with it, you could even cook some plain white rice and pour the Chile over it. We also like to make some super pretzels (large soft toasted pretzels), and dip them in some French dressing as a side to Chile. What ever!
It's in there Casserole
“It’s in there Casserole” . Follow this one if you dare.
Chicken Mine was smoked a few days ago, use what ever you have, about ¼ cup
Steak Grilled if you have it, about ¼ to ½ cup
Rice Mine was left over Yellow, use what you have, about 2 cups cooked
Carrot One good size pealed and diced
Celery 2 sticks slice down the center long way then dice ¼ inch
Onions Sweet if you can get them, cut two slices then slice and dice them
Cabbage One ½ inch thick slice, then slice and dice it
Mushrooms I didn’t have them, but they would go great, about 5 whole, sliced
Zucchini Cut 2 1 inch sections, stand them up right & slice like pizza in to 8 slices x2
Garlic 2 cloves + or -, to your taste, sliced, diced, and chopped
Bacon fat About 2 tablespoons, I save the juice after I cook bacon, you can use butter
Cheese shredded Mexican, 4 slices white American, 3 sliced Horseradish cheddar
Stewed tomato’s 1 can Italian style if you can get them, or use what you can get
Tomato Soup 1 can Campbell’s
Kidney Bean 1 can dark red or what ever you have
Zinfandel Wine About ¼ cup + or -, this one is a personal preference, some may want to omit it
Spices Salt, Pepper (Fresh ground if possible), and any spice you like
Whew, a lot of stuff went in to this one. Ok, get all of your veggies prepped if you haven’t already. You know, slice and dice as needed. Open your cans of Kidney Beans and Stewed Tomato’s and dump them into a strainer and let them drain of all their liquids, or as much as reasonably possible. Do NOT RINCE WITH WATER! Then get out a large pot or HUGE skillet and start by adding your bacon fat first, about 2 tablespoons. Add more if you feel the need and turn the stove on high. Next, when the fat gets hot add your Carrots, Onions, and Celery stirring often. About 2 minutes later add your Mushroom, Cabbage and Garlic and what ever spices your intend on using, salt, pepper, etc. Continue to stir for about 2 more minutes and add your Zucchini and let them go for about a minute before adding your wine. Things should really be sizzling at this point and the wine should evaporate fairly quickly. Pre heat you oven to 350 degrees at this point.
About 1 minute after you add the wine, you can go ahead and dump in your Kidney Beans and Stewed Tomato’s. Give the whole thing a good stirring and let this go for about two more minutes before dumping your can of Tomato Soup in and follow with the Steak and Chicken and finally the Rice. Once again don’t forget to stir, always keep things moving in the pan, you don’t want to let things sit still when cooking on high or you will burn some part of it for sure. You can go ahead and turn off the burner now and just continue to cook with the heat from the bottom of the pan and burner. Stir Stir, Stir!
Get out a baking dish, like a lasagna dish or casserole dish, what ever you have. Dump all of this wonderful creation you have going on in this pot or pan that you have been working into this baking dish and sprinkle on the shredded Mexican Cheese. You want to use enough to put a thin layer over the entire top of the casserole. Now, on top of that put your Horseradish Cheddar and White American Cheeses on top of that thin layer of cheese, putting one kind on one half and the other kind on the other half and shove in the oven for between 5 and 10 minutes. All ovens seem to vary from the actual heat range, all you really want is for the cheeses to be good and melted. Some folks may want to go a little longer and get the cheese a little dark and crusty, what ever way you like, but keep an eye on it, because it will happen fast. When you see the top you desire, pull it out and serve it up.
You can sprinkle some Parmesan Cheese on top or some hot sauce goes well too. You may ever want to try some fresh Salsa, who knows, be creative. Good eats and enjoy.
Le Mon Chick On Pasta
Chicken Breast Roughly 1 ½ diced roughly ½ “ squares
Carrot 1 large
Celery 2 medium
Onion 2 medium slices
Mushrooms About 5 sliced plus or minus
Black olives About 8 to 10 sliced
Chicken Bouillon 4 cubes
Water 2 cups
Flour Honestly didn’t measure, it was left in my sifter after the last use
Spices Fresh Ground Black Pepper, Salt, Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Lemon Juice Just enough to wet the bottom of the pan
Pasta I had Angel Hair, Spaghetti, and Fettuccini all left over so I combined them
Bacon Fat or Butter or Olive Oil
This was awesome, but I made it on a whim one night trying to figure out what to cook. As with all dishes, start out by prepping all of your ingredients. I started with the carrots. I cut them once down the center long ways, then cut each half one more time down the center long ways, which left me with 4 long carrot sticks. I then turned them sideways and diced all 4 sticks in to about ½ “ inch pieces. I did pretty much the same with the Celery sticks. Then I diced the onions and sliced the Mushrooms. Lastly I sliced the Olives, and finished off the Veggie prep. I then sliced the Chicken and diced it until I had pieces roughly ½ “ square.
At this point, I put the two cups of water in a pot and added the 4 Bouillon Cubes in and turned the heat up to high. If you have a can of chicken broth, you can use it instead, however I didn’t have one, so I did the next best thing. Once it came up to a boil and the cubs had been dissolved in to the water, I turned it off and let it sit and cool slowly.
As this was taking place, I put my Bacon fat in to the next pan, about 2 table spoons, and tuned the heat on high for that pan as well. Once it was good and hot, I added the Carrots, Celery and Onions. Roughly 2 minutes in to this sautéing, I added the mushrooms, taking time to stir as often as I could. An other two minutes later, I threw in the chicken pieces. Add your spices at this point too, which ever you choose to use. I used Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Fresh Ground Black Pepper, and some Basil.
This is where things really get interesting. I poured lemon juice, squeeze lemons or get concentrate, in to the pan, pouring just enough to wet the whole bottom of the pan. I honestly didn’t measure it, I just poured it out of a bottle. Once the bottom of the pan was wet, I stopped pouring and continued to stir. When most of the liquid had simmered off, I took my flour sifter and sifted some flour in, once again I really didn’t measure this either, it was flour left over in the sifter from a few days earlier. It was basically enough to coat the top of the food in the pan. Once again I stirred and got the flour to cook in with every thing else. Things started to get a golden brown color and that is when I poured in the chicken broth I had made.
Let this get up to a boil for a few minutes and the liquid should start to get a gravy like consistency. I did it in a manner that it wasn’t thick or thin, sort of in the middle. This was when I threw the pasta in the pan I had used to make my chicken broth. I added more water to the pot, just enough to cover the pasta and turned it on high. Don’t boil if you are using already cooked pasta, the goal here is only to warm it back up.
Finally the best part, place some pasta in the middle of a plate and pour the Le Mon Chick On on the pasta and enjoy the feast in front of you. As always I love to put some hot sauce and grated Cheese on top to finish it off. A salad also makes a great side dish for this dinner. Enjoy an Good Eats…
Mexican Seafood Trio
Shrimp ½ lb
Fish I used one fillet of Tilapia, it is a white and flaky Fish, use what you can
Baby Scallops ½ Lb
Mexican Rice Vigo makes a Mexican rice with corn in it
Onion I thick slice of Sweet Vidalia then dice
Scallions Mine grow wild in the front yard I cut up about 6 of them
Mushrooms Baby Portabella, use five give or take and slice them medium
Bacon Fat I save all my grease when I make bacon, butter or olive oil will work
Diced Tomato 1 can of your favorite seasoned diced tomato’s
Garlic Fresh is preferred, but powdered will work
Cream Sherry Bottle by your side
Seasonings Salt, pepper, and what ever you like
Outside of a little bit of prep work, this is pretty simple. The very first thing I did was to get my rice stated, just follow the directions on the package it came it and it should turn out just fine. Next, prep all of the rest of your stuff. The sweet onions should be slice and diced in ¼ or ½ inch pieces, the scallion should be cut at about the same, use your best judgment for the way you like it. The mushrooms should but sliced at about ¼ inch. As for the seafood, the baby scallops are perfect just the way they are, if you can’t get the baby ones, you can get the larger ones and cut them to about the size of the baby ones. The shrimp need to be pealed and cleaned, you can dice them or leave them whole, your call on that one. As for the fish, I cut it in to long strips and then turn the strips sideways and cut them at about ½ inch. If you choose to use fresh garlic like I prefer, now is the time to slice and dice it, the smaller the better it will infuse into the dish. Also open up your can of diced tomato’s and throw them in a strainer if you have one, if not, I would open the can about ¼ of the way and turn it sideways in the sink to drain and when ready to use, open it the rest of the way.
The rice should take about 20-25 minutes to cook, and I strongly suggest using a timer from the time to put the lid on it and turn the heat down. When you are roughly down to about ten minutes left on the rice is the time I start to heat up my bacon fat (or butter/olive oil) on high. As soon as it is good and hot, add your onions and mushrooms. Give them about 2 minutes and throw in your shrimp and scallops, when you see the shrimp starting to turn that redish/orange color, it is time to add the garlic and what ever seasoning/spices your are going to use, about an other 2 minutes is right. Toss the fish in now as well. About 1 minute later add the cream sherry, I usually add just enough to wet the bottom of the pan, so I don’t really have a measurement for you on this one do to the fact everyone has a different size pan. No matter what size pan you use, keep the liquid at about an 1/8 inch or less. The idea is to have the liquid boil off and keep the flavor. As the Sherry reduces, add the tomato’s and scallions. Drop the heat down to LOW and let it simmer.
By now the timer for the rice should be going off, so remove it from the burner and let it sit for a few minutes. After 3 or 4 minutes, pull the lid and give it a good stirring, if all has gone well, the rice should be perfect, so put a nice pile of it on the center of a plate. Your simmering seafood should be just about right at this point too, so top off that rice with a heaping pile of the seafood mix and ENJOY. Hot sauce and grated cheese make a nice topping for this dish. GOOD EATS!
Not Cho Snack
This can be done with a variety of leftover meat types. Taco style ground Beef/Turkey/Pork, or even sloppy Joe’s. Cut up some leftover chicken breast and add some diced onions. The point is you can do just about any thing with this one and it is very fast to prepare.
Oven Gas or Electric or Wood, just hot OK
1 baking pan Cookie style, flat and wide
Sheet of aluminum foil Big enough to rap around edges of cookie style baking pan.
Chips Tostitos, Doritos, Local brand corn chip, what ever you got
Cheese Shredded, they shred it, you shred it, what ever flavor you got
Salsa Homemade, best, get what you can
Whatever Green onions, Red Onions, Cabbage, what ever you like
Sour cream Breakstone’s preferable, but what ever you can get
Pre-heat your oven to 350 Degrees. Take your sheet of Aluminum Foil and cover the baking sheet with it, making sure to wrap it around the edges of the pan. Pour your chips out in the center and spread them out until you have an even layer covering the entire surface of the pan. Take your meat, whatever you have and spread it out over the top of the layer of chips. If there is any thing else you have cut up like green onions or bell peppers, this would be the time to put them on too. Finally top it all off with the shreded cheese you have sitting there. Stick them in the pre-heated oven and give it about 3-5 minutes. Keep and eye on them because the cheese will burn pretty quickly when it get hot.
With a few minutes to go, it is time to fill a bowl with some salsa and get a spoon in the sour cream. When the cheese is all melted pull them out of the oven and one by one eat them with Salsa and sour cream. Guacamole even goes well with them. I find it helpful to put the meat to be used in the microwave oven for a few minutes to pre warm it before putting on chips, this helps from keeping them in the oven to long trying to warm the meat up.
Oh My Chicken Pie
I can’t imagine any one else having these exact ingredients, so modify where you want or need to, but it really turned out great.
Chicken I stuffed a chicken with wild blackberries and smoked it, I had about 2 cups leftover
Carrots 2 sticks, sliced long ways in to 4 pieces then turned sideways and diced
Celery 2 stick, sliced long ways in to 3 pieced then turned sideways and diced
Onion about ½ cup
Scallions 2 cleaned and diced
Yellow Squash 1 extremely large one, I used about ¾ of it. You may need 2 or 3 if yours are small
Cabbage 4 leafs, carefully pealed and sliced and diced
Corn 1 ½ cobs, I cut it all off and broke it up in to single pieces
Campbell’s 1 Family size can of Cream of Chicken, I used about ¾ of it
Ramen Noodles 2 bags, don’t use the seasoning it came with, unless you really want to..
Garlic 1 table spoon of sliced and diced garlic
Pie Shells I used 2 frozen deep dish you can get from most grocery stores..
Spices Salt, Pepper, Basil, and what ever you like.
Bacon Fat 2 table spoons full or use butter or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Cheese I had 2 half bags of Mozzarella and Mexican 4 cheese, I mixed them and used it all
Start out by prepping all of your ingredients. You should be able to figure out what to do just from the description above. If not, cut it all up and get it ready. You are always welcome to modify what ever you have to or want to. You could used left over baked chicken or even fried chicken. How ever you do it ,this dish needs to be stated by throwing the bacon fat in a large frying pan or pot and turning the stove on high. When it gets hot and melts what ever you are using, throw you carrots, celery and onions in and stir for a few minutes on and off. About 3 minutes later, throw the corn in and continue to stir.
In the mean time, get an other pot out and fill it with water. Take the Ramen Noodles and open the bags and carefully take the noodles out and brake them long ways so that when you cook them, they will only be a few inches long, say 1 to 2. When the water starts to boil, add them and boil them for a few minutes. This shouldn’t take long, when they become soft, usually about 3 to 5 minutes, dump them in to a strainer and rinse with hot water. Now would be a good time to turn you oven on and pre heat it to 375 degrees.
Back to the other project, add you cabbage, garlic and what ever seasonings you are going to use. One minute later, add you yellow squash that you cut in to sections about ¼“ by ¼ “ and also add your chicken now. I stirred it around for about for about 3 more minutes and add about ¾ of the can of Campbell’s cream of Chicken soup. That then required about an other 3 minutes of stirring and finally I added the noodles that were still in the strainer. After mixing it thoroughly I poured ½ in to one pie shell and the other half in to the other pie shell and stuck them both in to the pre heated oven for 25 minutes.
After twenty five minutes, I pulled them both out and took half of my shredded cheese blend and stuck it on top of one and the other half and stuck on top of the other one being very careful to cover as much of the top as possible. Finally I sprinkled some basil on the top. Then I stuck them both back in the over for an other 5 minutes. After that 5 minutes was up, I pulled them out and let them cool for a few minutes before digging in. As with most things, I ended up putting some hot sauce on top to finish it up. Good eats and enjoy..
Philly style Steak
This is so simple you will ask why you haven’t done this one yet!
Steak left over, sirloin, tenderloin, t-bone, porterhouse, whatever
Onion How ever much you want sliced and then cut in half
Mushrooms How ever much you like sliced
Garlic How ever much you like chopped or diced
White American Cheese Sliced and as much as you can stand
Bread Soft hoagie roll preferred, but use what you have got or like
Extra Extra Virgin Olive oil Tilt the bottle and count to one if not enough tilt again
So simple, start off cutting your onions, garlic, and mushrooms, you can also do bell pepper of any color or what ever other veggies float your boat. Also cut your steak up, I tend to cut it what ever way makes the shortest pieces as thin as I can with a sharp knife. Then cut again until you have about 1 inch very thin squares.
Put your oil in a pan, you can use any oil if you don’t have olive oil including butter, and sauté your veggies on high for about 3 to 5 minutes depending on how much you have in the pan, stirring constantly . When the onions are starting to have that sort of almost see through appearance, you are about there, now add your garlic and steak to the mix. Drop the heat down to Med/Low and start to build a blanket of white American cheese over the top of this wonderful mixture. At the first sign of melting, which will not take very long, start to stir the whole mess together to achieve the end result of a cheesy masterpiece.
I like to take my hoagie roll and hollow it out like a canoe, at this point I put some Mayo on the bottom, then some sliced dill pickles and then the cheesy steak mix and finally some ketchup or A-1 depending on my mood that night on the very top, cut it in half and enjoy.
As with any dish, change it to satisfy your palette. This goes well with Orida Steak fries, tator tots, or what ever.
Saubage Omelet
With any luck, you had some left over smoked sausage and cabbage. This is what inspired me to do this dish. Very simple indeed
Sausage-N-Cabbage I had about 1 cup left over
Eggs 2 or 3, depends if eating alone or sharing it, you make the call
Cheese I used two thick slices from a block of Velveeta, use what you like
Onions about ¼ cup diced, give or take
This is very basic, the only prep work was to dice the onion, slice the cheese and crack the eggs in to a bowl and whip/beat them. If you don’t like onion you can skip that part and if you have pre-sliced or shredded cheese you life just got even easier…
Put the left over sausage and cabbage in a pan, and turn on medium. The should be just enough fat sticking to it from night you originally cooked it, whether it is bacon fat or butter or olive oil, so you shouldn’t need to add any more. Throw your onions in at the same time. The goal here is just to warm things up, do to the fact that it is already cooked, minus the onions. When it is good and warmed up, dump your eggs on top being sure they spread evenly through the pan. Add your cheese to the top and any seasonings you plan on using, IE salt and pepper and what ever else…
I like to finish my omelet in the oven on broil, so it is a good idea to pre heat the oven on broil. The idea is to cook the bottom of the omelet on top of the stove and the top of the omelet in the oven under the broiler. If you are good enough that you feel you can flip it on top of the stove and have it not brake, go for it and eliminate the broiler. I personally find the come out perfect, almost like a pizza when I use this technique.
When the bottom is cooked, usually on a minute or two, I place it in the oven under the broiler. Now if you have pre-heated it, it will usually on take two to three minutes to finish the top off. Keep an watchful eye on it, because it will burn in a huge hurry if you walk away. The idea is to finish the egg off and melt the cheese, you can go an other minute if you like your cheese to be a little crispy. You will also find the omelets fluff up very nicely doing this technique as well.
Pull it out and put it on a plate to serve, down right awesome…. MMMmmmmMMMMM
I find salsa and sour cream top this well, and as always, hot sauce isn’t bad either
Saw such Clam Soup
What are the odds of your having any of this stuff left over?
Sausage Gravy (maple Sausage if possible) about 2 cups
Little neck clams (shells included) between 1 and 2 dozen
Liquid reserved from boiling artichokes about 2 cups Plus or minus
Carrots 6 babies or 1 whole give or take
Onions two full slices then dice or chop
Celery two sticks sliced and diced
Mushrooms 2-4 whole sliced
Garlic two cloves chopped or two tsp. Jar chopped
Seasonings what ever you got basil, Mrs. Dash, pepper, salt
Extra Extra Virgin Olive oil Start with about a 3” diameter and add as needed
I know this is a shot in the dark, but if you have these ingredients, is sure makes a heck of a good soup. My 5 year old approved. Start out by having some sausage biscuit gravy left over after a nice morning breakfast, we use Jimmy Dean Maple sausage and McCormic Country Sausage Gravy mix. It worked terrific in this recipe. Next you need the flavored liquid left over after steaming some full size artichokes. Finally you need to get some little neck clams and save the shells after cooking as well as a portion of the clams. I grilled the clams and everyone is the house was sick with a flu bug and just couldn’t get the job done and I had a bunch of left over food, so I ended up making this dish to be enjoyed a few days later as a left over. As fate would have it, I steamed up a few artichokes that night too. So this is how it all came together.
First I started by pulling my steaming basket out of my big pot and putting my boiling basket in. I left the artichoke flavored water in there and threw in all the clam shells I had, exactly 2 dozen. By now I had removed all the remaining clams and reserved them on the side for later use. I put more water in the double pot until the clams were completely submerged under liquid. Throw in some Sweet Basil if you have it too. Bring to a rapid boil and let boil until the clams are completely exposed, and no longer covered by liquid. Pull the top boiling pot out of the bottom pot removing the clam shells from the mix. Continue to boil the liquid until you reduce it about an other inch in the pot. At this point pour this liquid through a fine mesh strainer and save it for later. Also, if there is any meat left in the clam shells this would be the time to pick them clean, add what ever meat you come up with to the other clams you have sitting on the side there, and throw them shells out once and for all.
Using your same boiling pot, pour about a three inch diameter circle of your olive oil in to the center of your pot and put your carrots, celery, and onions in and turn on high. Sauté them for about 1 minute and add the mushrooms about one more minute add your garlic and what ever other seasonings you have, pepper, cilantro, thyme, salt, or what ever you want. By now the kitchen should be smelling wonderful and about two minutes later you need to add the boiled liquid you have saved from the artichoke/clam broth to this mix of veggies, bring to boil and then reduce to medium heat.
At this time add the clam and clam pieces you have sitting on the side and what ever spices you still have left and feel the urge to use. Dig in to the refrigerator and find that left over sausage gravy and scoop it out and put it in this wonderful soup mix you have going and let it simmer on medium low for about 10 more minutes. That’s it, you are done and the craziest soup ever, but in a good way, is right in front of you. Dig in and enjoy. If you pulled this one off, you have an amazing array of left over stuff in your kitchen… LOL
Scrapple Pie
Potato’s At least 6
Scrabble One Package if you can find it.
Corn One package Frozen with or with out butter sauce
Celery 2 stick, sliced and diced
Carrots 2 large or about 8 baby style
Onion about ½ sliced then diced
Mushrooms 4 to 6 fresh or as much as you want out of a jar
Yellow Squash a half should do give or take
Cabbage 2 whole leaves
Garlic 2 plus cloves
Cheese shredded taco mix or cheddar or what ever you have
Basil to your taste
Black Pepper whole ready to be ground
Bacon Fat Save it when you make bacon, a few ounces
Butter about half a stick
Start out by pealing the potato’s, dicing them up and throwing them in a pot of water. Bring to a boil and boil until the potato’s are soft, about 10 minutes. Once they turn soft, dump in to a colander or strainer and let drain. Put half a stick of butter in a bowl big enough for all the potato’s and put them in on top of the butter. Mash the potato’s what ever way you can, if you boiled them enough you could probably do it with a big fork. Use what ever you have, even if it plugs in to the wall..
If you haven’t done it yet, cut up all of your vegetables. Every thing should be fairly diced up, you can go as big as you want, but I’ll usually cut things in to ¼ ” to ½” size and do the garlic about 1/8 ”. Once all veggies are diced up, put your bacon fat in a pan and bring the heat up to high. If you don’t have bacon fat, you can use extra virgin olive oil or even butter. Throw the veggies in starting with the carrots first, then the celery followed by the onions. After about 2 minutes throw in the mushrooms, squash, and garlic. Now’s a good time to add the rest of your seasons, basil, pepper and salt for those of you who need it. Add the cabbage and corn last, continue to stir the whole time you are adding the veggies. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
While that is finishing cooking, which shouldn’t take to long, get out a lasagna type pan, about medium size and take about half your mashed potato’s and put a thin layer on the bottom of your pan. Spread it as evenly as you can. By now your veggies should be just about done and you take them and pour them on top the potato’s you just put in the baking dish and spread them out evenly. The next step is take the rest of your potato’s and carefully spread them over the top of the veggies.
Cut the scrapple out of its package and slice it in to about ¼” pieces and lay them on top of the final layer of potato’s, doing your best to cover as much as you can. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees covering with a sheet of aluminum foil. After about 20 minutes pull it out and put your shredded cheese over the top and do you pest to completely cover it. Put it back in the over for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted and to your liking.
Cut it up like lasagna, in little squares or bigger rectangles. A good hot sauce goes nice on it. Eat up and enjoy.
This is just a guide, if you don’t like some thing omit it, or add some thing you do like, like bell peppers. If you can’t find scrapple, just sausage or ground turkey, but add it to the veggies when you are cooking them and have only potato and cheese as your top layer. Be creative, have fun and eat good.
SherrysSeaNoodles
Left over egg noodle, medium style led to this one
Egg Noodles about 2 cups cooked
Shrimp ½ LB.
Tilapia ½ LB. Or what ever white fish you can get
Onions 4 slices sliced and diced
Mushrooms 4 to 6 good sized sliced
Zucchini 4 to 6 inch section
Yellow Squash 4 to 6 inch section
Garlic 2 to 4 cloves sliced and diced
Butter ¼ stick
Spices Salt, Pepper, Basis, Mrs. Dash, Nature’s seasoning, what ever
Cream Sherry Bottle by your side
Like with any good recipe this one starts by prepping all the ingredients, so get out your knife and slice and dice all of your veggies. As I always try to stress in all of my recipes, use this only as a guide. If you love all the foods I’m using and nothing else, then my all means follow it to the letter, how ever if you hate onions leave then out, better yet, if you love something I left out, then add it in. Have fun, be creative.
Back to our objective, after prepping the veggies in to similar size and shape pieces, do the same with the seafood. Peal and clean the shrimp if it didn’t come that way and I usually will cut them in to three pieces for a dish like this. The fish I’ll usually cut in to ¼ to ½ inch strips and then line them up sideways and square them off to what ever size I chose for the strips. The key is to try to keep things uniform. For one it will all cook more evenly, but it also just looks nicer when you plate it.
Once all the prep work is done, put a big pot/pan on the stove, add butter, and turn on high heat. Add the onions once the butter starts to melt. Give then a minute or two to sizzle and add the Mushrooms, remembering to stir as often as possible. About one minute later add the shrimp pieces, then the Garlic and what ever spices you intend to use now. Continue to stir often and add the Zucchini and Yellow Squash a minute later. Once again continue to stir and finally add the Fish.
The aroma is outrageous at this point, but you are not done yet. As soon as your fish pieces are starting to look cooked, pour in the Creamed Sherry, use enough to wet the bottom of the pan from one end to the other. You should hear some sizzling and popping that this would be a really good time to add your cold, but already cooked noodles. If you don’t have egg noodles, any type noodle will just about work, I.E. Bowtie, Elbow, Penne, what ever.
Turn the burner off, but leave the pot on it, continue to stir for the next few minutes on and off and finally put in on a plate or in a bowl. It tops off well with hot sauce and grated or shredded cheese. Good eats and enjoy.
Bacon 1 or 2 pieces cooked and left over, preferably maple flavor
Eggs 4 or 5 hard boiled
Celery 2 stalks/stick sliced and/or diced
Pickles 1 to 3 depending on size
Onions sweet, yellow, white, or red sliced & diced
Ranch Dressing Buttermilk homemade or what ever you have
Bread Hoagie, Rolls, Bread, Pita whatever you have
Seasoning Salt, Pepper, Mrs. Dash, what ever you like
Slice, Dice and chop what ever you are going to put in, I.E. the veggies you have on your list. Boil the eggs for about 10 minutes and remove from the boiling water. I tend to put them in to Ice water to make them easier to work with, for one they are not so hot to the touch, and for two, I sometimes find the peal easier, but not always.
But your eggs in a medium size bowl an use a fork to sort of mash them up against the side/bottom of the bowl. Then combine all of your veggies in the bowl with the mashed up eggs and pour some of your dressing in. Start out with a little dressing and stir it up and if it is to dry, add some more. Just remember it is easier to add then it is to remove once you pour, so take it slow.
Finally crumble by hand your bacon strips in to the bowl and add your spices, once again start off slow, taste and add more if necessary . The final step is to choose your bread and make a sandwhich any way you like, you could even do and open face with some cheese on top and stick it in the toaster oven. Get it the way you like and enjoy…
BaconSalamiSoup
A soon to be winter time favorite
Beef Broth Swanson’s or what ever you have, at least 4 cups
Beef Bouillon Cubes 2-3 depending on how much flavor you want
Salami Genoa or Hard style 3-4 pieces
Bacon Maple flavor preferably 4 pieces cut in to 4 smaller pieces
Stewed Tomato’s Italian style, 1 can
Carrots 1 Whole on if big, 2 or more if small 8 if baby style
Celery 2 sticks give or take, depending how much you like celery
Mushrooms 2-4 if good size and fresh, jar style use what you want
Onions Red, while, yellow, sweet, what ever 2-3 slices, then chop
Elbow Noodles About a half of a box. Any form of small pasta will work
Water Upwards of 2 cups
Garlic 2 cloves at least
Seasonings Salt, Pepper, and Basil or use what you like even Mrs. Dash
Get all of your ingredients out and cut up what ever veggies or meat products you have in order to make this soup. Every thing can be cut from medium to small size. The bacon should be cut in half and each half cut in half again. Once this is all done, get a decent size pot and put your bacon in the bottom and turn on high. When the bacon starts to render off some good puddles of fat, as in liquid, throw in your carrots, celery and onions. Stir all these items together and keep them moving, on high heat it doesn’t take long to burn things. About one minute later add the mushrooms and follow 30 seconds later with the garlic and what ever other spices you have. By now the kitchen should smell wonderful and you are well on your way. Roughly 2 minutes after adding the last spice, remembering to keep all ingredients moving in the pan as mush as possible, go ahead and add your beef broth and follow with your bouillon cubes as well. Dump in your stewed tomato’s, juice and all. Also this might be a good time to add your water as well, the idea is to make sure all food items are submerged in liquid at least and inch or two under. Depending on what size pot you use, the water might not be necessary , but have it handy just in case.
When you start to see a light bubbling, just before a rapid boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer for between 1 and 2 hours. The longer it goes, the more tender things like carrots become. Just before you put the lid on and walk away, shred by hand the salami in to small ¼ to ½ “ size pieces and throw them in the soup give it a good stirring and put the lid on it. Check it about ever 10 to 15 minutes and give it a good stir when you do check it.
In a separate pot, fill with water and a few drops of cooking oil and boil your pasta for about 10 minutes. Dump in to a colander and rinse well to get all the starch out, or at least as much as possible. The choise is your, you can throw the noodles in right the and let them simmer in the soup or you can wait until the end and just put them in a bowl and the soup over the top of them as a finished product. The will become more and more tender as they sit in the soup simmering and some people might find them to mushy that way, so you make the call that is right for you and your family.
A little mozzarella cheese tops it off nicely once it is in a bowl or some biscuits or bread of some sort goes good with it as well. Enjoy and good eats..
BarChickCasserole
This on was inspired by left over grilled chicken breast and extra barley from a soup recipe last week.
Chicken Breast 1 ½ to 2
Barley 1 to 2 cups of cooked Barley
Carrots 1 big carrot or about 6 to 8 baby carrots
Celery 1 to 2 sticks
Onion 2 to 3 good slices sliced again and diced
Zucchini 4 to 6 inch section sliced and diced
Yellow Squash 4 to 6 inch section sliced and diced
Mushrooms 4 whole white or Bella’s or a good handful of what ever you have sliced
Black Olives 10 to 12 Sliced
Garlic 2 cloves sliced and diced (add or subtract as much as you want)
Cream of Chicken 1 can Campbell’s soup or what ever brand you can get
Milk enough to fill about half your soup can
Spices Basil, Mrs. Dash, Pepper, Salt What ever you like
Butter ¼ stick Give or take
First we must start by getting all the veggies cut up and set aside. I cut the carrot long ways in half and then cut each half in half again so I had 4 “sticks” then I turn them length wide and section those 4 sticks in to about ¼ inch wide pieces. You could follow the same basic technique with the celery except only cut each stick length wise once. You will still end up with 4 stick to cut into ¼ pieces. These sizes are approximates and don’t require a ruler to make precise cuts. The idea is to keep all things as uniform as possible, because they will all cook more evenly if they are all about the same size. Continue cutting the Zucchini and Yellow Squash. I cut them side ways into 4 sections and then length wise in 4 sections and then finally into about ¼ inch pieces. Take the onion and cut off two good size slices and lay them flat and follow the same procedure to dice them up. Do as best as you can with the garlic, but it is about the same procedure and just slice the olives each in to about 4 to 5 slices.
The chicken is more fun. Mine was still on the ribs, so I just tore it off with my hands and then ripped it with my hands as well doing my best to keep the pieces as close to the same sizes as each other as possible. Since the chicken is already grilled all you are doing is warming it back up, so the keeping all as uniform as possible really doesn’t matter, because we will not be cooking it from raw. How ever if you are cooking this with raw chicken and wish to throw it right in the dish will cooking, cut it all as uniform as you can during prep work. I think the flavor from grilling the chicken a few days ago is what really made this dish so awesome.
Now that the prep work is done, start by putting the butter in a large pot or pan, what ever you have to work with and turn it on high or pretty close to it. Once the butter is starting to melt, add your Carrots and Celery, give it about a minute and add your onions. After about an other minute add your mushrooms, Garlic and what ever other seasoning you are going to use, remembering to stir it all with each new ingredient added. When cooking on high heat, you don’t want to let any one thing rest in the same spot to long, that is just an invitation for burnt whatever.
Give it about 2 to 3 minutes and then add the Zucchini and Yellow Squash and finally the chicken. Stir it all together and add the Barley. Give it an other good stirring and add your can of soup. Fill the empty can about half way with milk and dump it in to the pot/pan too. At this point, drop your heat down to low and continue to stir it until it has a nice consistency, not to thick nor to thin. Give it 4 to 5 minutes on low and serve on a plate or in a bowl. A spoon or Sour Cream goes nice on top as well as your favorite hot sauce. You might even try sprinkling some shredded cheese or grated cheese over the top. Good eats and enjoy. Any thing can be added or subtracted from this recipe, follow as a guide and do what you like.
Beef Stew
Beef for Stew about 1 + Lbs. Of it
Carrots about 2 Large or 8 to 10 mini ones
Celery 2 sticks sliced about ¼ to ½ in.
Potato’s 5 give or take cut in to ½ to 1 in. pieces
Mushrooms 5 or 6 whole sliced or one medium jar drained
Onions Sweet if you can get it, about 1 half sliced and diced
Beef Broth about 16 oz.’s give or take
Flour All purpose, the more you put in, the thicker it will become try about 1 cup
Garlic 2 cloves sliced and diced or one heaping spoonful of prefaced diced garlic
Seasoning Salt, Pepper, Basil, Parsley, or what ever you want. Add what you like.
Once again, this works best in a crock pot type cooking vessel. First things first, dump your Beef Broth in the crock pot or large pot. If you have it, use a sifter to sift the flour in to the broth, stirring the broth constantly trying to avoid lumps. To much and it will be very thick and not enough will leave it sort of like soup. Depending on what size pot you have, it may take a few tries to get this just right. Once you have done this with all of your flour, start cutting your veggies and throwing them in as soon as they are cut. It is really simple and basic.
Once you get to the meat, I usually wait until last to avoid cross contamination with my unused Veggies that I’ll put back in the refrigerator, although beef for stew is usually cut up decent, I like to cut it to smaller pieces and try to keep them uniform in size. I’ll usually find the smallest piece in the package and if it isn’t to large, I’ll cut all the other pieces to that size. If it is to large, I’ll cut it in half or quarters and then work the rest of it to the size I desire.
The final Step is to add what ever spices you intend to use and put the lid on and cover it and turn the power on low. My rule of thumb for this form of cooking is, if you work a regular 9 to 5 job, put it on before you leave for work and it is ready when you arrive home from work. You can make biscuits to go with it or regular buttered bread. Good eats and enjoy.
Broke in Chicken
This came about do to lack of funds and working with what I had. Talk about simple and cheap, yet very delicious.
Chicken thighs 4 to 6 bones in, but skin removed
Stewed or diced tomato’s I used Italian style, but use what you have
Garlic Fresh, pre diced or powder, what ever you have, to taste
Rice I used left over yellow rice from a few days earlier, use what you have
Spices Salt, pepper, Basil, or what ever you love, or avoid salt and use Mrs. Dash
I grabbed the crock-pot early in the morning and opened up a can of Stewed Tomato’s and dumped it right in, juice and all. Then you want to throw in your chicken thighs, I had six of them. I chopped up two cloves of garlic an threw them in, then add what ever spies you choose to use. You certainly can add any thing you have or love to it as well, such as carrots, celery, onions, bell pepper, jalapenos, or even corn or Lima beans, what ever. Finally put the lid on and turn the crock-pot on low. I let it go until about 4:30, then I popped the top off and removed the chicken one by one and de-boned them. Be sure to get any cartilage or small bone also. I try and remove a fair amount of fat too. You are not going to get all of the fat, so don’t be a freak about it, not to mention a little fat is good for you and it also adds flavor. Basically you really want to focus your attention on getting all of the bones and cartilage out. The chicken will be very tender at this point and it is almost effortless to do this job. The bones add flavor as it cooks and they are so easy to remove at the end, this is why I do it this way.
Next take your rice left over or if you have none, make it fresh and add it to the crock-pot. Give it a good stirring to mix it up thoroughly. Since mine was left over and chilled from being in the refrigerator, I put the lid back on and let it go for about 30 more minutes. If you made your rice fresh and it is piping hot, you are done and can start serving it up. Simple, very cheap and delicious. I like to top mine off with some grated Parmesan cheese and hot sauce.
Chicken & Rice
This one takes about 5 ½ to 8 hours to cook, so this one is really for winter time, to feed the family right on a cold windy day. Talk about hitting the spot. This is an other time I really recommend getting a crock pot if you haven’t yet. I some times will prep this one the night before in my removable crock pot and leave it in the refrigerator, so in the morning all I have to do is put it in its base and turn it on.
1 ½ lbs. Chicken this really works best with dark meat, Thighs preferably
Rice 1 cup uncooked white
Chicken broth 1 large can Swanson’s or make from scratch
Bouillon cubes 5 give or take what ever you like
Onions about 3 good thick slices and then chop ½ “ give or take
Carrots 2 large or 8 + or - to your liking
Celery 4 sticks give or take sliced ¼ “ thick
Mushrooms 6 white or baby Bella’s sliced ¼” thick or less
Garlic 2 cloves slice and diced or use a press, what ever
Spices salt, pepper (white or black fresh ground), Basil
Before I get started on this one, let me just remind you that all of these ingredients are subject to change according to your taste buds, if you don’t like mushrooms but do like stewed tomato’s, then switch it up, do what you have to do. That being said.
Dump your Chicken broth into the crock-pot and add your bouillon cubes and of course your chicken. I throw the whole thigh in with out the skin, but leave the bone in. If you are stuck with nothing but a big pot on the stove, do the same with it.
By now you should have sliced and diced what ever you had to so just toss it all in or keep cutting and tossing in as you go. You can use jar/can mushrooms, but fresh is best for every thing else. Once every thing, spices included are in the crock pot you can go about this a few different ways. If you are putting it on as you are heading out the door, turn it on low and let it go. It can go from 8AM to 6PM and still be worthy of eating, just remember to use nothing but low and literally turn it on low just before you walk out the door. You can also speed things up and turn it on high as soon as you put the broth and Chicken in, follow by adding the rest of your stuff and leaving it on high for about 1 ½ hours and turn down to low at that point. I’ve literally turn the switch on at 12 noon and been eating it by 5:30 pm.
In a pot you have to start by putting in just the chicken and broth and bringing it up to a boil for about 5 minutes and dropping it down to low and let it simmer for about 3 to 5 hours at least. Add the rest of your ingredients once the pot is no longer boiling. Sift as much fat as you can off the top of the broth before adding everything else to it.
Back to the crock-pot, open it and stir it once an hour if you are around the house, you will find fat floating up to the top, sift as much out with a spoon or mini strainer as you can, the soup is better and healthier with out it. No matter which way you ended up cooking it, just before it is done, you will need to pull the pieces of chicken out and separate the bone from it and put it back in. This will be easy if it has cooked long enough, it will simply fall right off the bone. The soup keeps the flavor from the bones, but not the bones.
Now it is time to get the rice cooking. You should need 2 cups of water, one cup of dry rice and 1 teaspoon of salt. Start by putting the water and salt in to a pot and bringing it up to boiling, dump the cup of rice in and stir it around for a few minutes. Reduce heat to low and let simmer about 15 minutes.
The magical moment is when you put some of that rice in a bowl and dump the chicken soup on top of it. Wow, Good Eats there. You can use any form of pasta instead, egg noodles, elbow, bow tie, what ever. Just remember to boil separately and rinse and strain before adding to soup. Biscuits are a nice touch too. Don’t forget a few drops of your favorite hot sauce!
Corned Beef Casserole
Corned beef casserole all inspired from a left over Black Berry glazed Corned Beef….
Corned Beef About 6 slices, some what thin, about 1/8th of an inch thick
Potato’s Roughly 6 medium adjust accordingly to size of your potato’s
Mushrooms About 6 of them sliced
Onions (sweet) 2 thick slices, then diced to about ½ inch square pieces
Scallions 2 whole sliced ¼ inch wide
Garlic About one Tablespoon full chopped
Sour Cream 1 cup
Velveeta Cheese 5 slices about ¼ inch thick
Shredded cheese I used the Mexican 4 cheese, use what ever you have
Milk 3 table spoons add more for thinner sauce or less for thicker sauce.
Spices White pepper, salt, basil, or what ever you like
Olive Oil Extra Virgin or Extra Extra virgin, Heck use butter if you have to or bacon fat.
That is right, I was looking at that yummy corned beef and thinking what an I create wit it? So then it hit me and I stated pulling stuff out. First thing is get your potato’s cleaned and pealed and cut, I cut mine like French Fries but a little thinner and then cut them in half when I was done so they were only about 2” long. Then I put them in some water and started to boil them, letting them boil for about 5 minutes, and then pouring them out in to a strainer and removing them quickly in to a bowl full of ice and then filling it with cold water and letting the ice melt and just sitting there while I got on to other things. This is called blanching for those of you who have never done this before, it sort of partially cooks the potato’s but then stops the cooking process dead in its tracks by doing a quick cool down. You will see why I did this in a few, so read on.
During the time I was boiling them, I was working on the rest of my stuff. I put the sour cream in a pot and added the slices of Velveeta, the milk, a small hand full of the shredded cheese and some white pepper. I turned it on to low, in the area of 2 or 3 on the turn knob. The idea here is to turn it in to a nice creamy sauce, I’m sure heavy whipping cream would substitute nicely for the milk, but I didn’t have any.
I also cut up the onions, mushrooms, scallions, and garlic at this point. This can really be a personal preference thing here as far as sizes of all items, some people may like them bigger or smaller then I do, so all I suggest is keep things uniform, they will cook more evenly in a consistent manner. Some people may even choose to leave items out all together, this is fine too. Final prep is to cut up the Corned Beef. I slice it about 1/8th of an inch think then slice it long ways down the center and finally turn it sides way and cut it in to about ¼ x ½ inch pieces. You can go bigger or small, you be the judge.
Now the fun stuff, turn on the oven to 375 and while it is preheating, put about 2 table spoons of your olive oil in a pan and turn on high. Add your sweet onions followed by your mushrooms and stir. After a few minutes add your garlic and continue to stir. Finally add your scallions, Corned Beef and any other seasonings you wish to use, salt, pepper, basil, what ever.
Make sure to keep checking your cheesy sauce and stir it from time to time too. Also take your potato’s that have been in the ice bath, mostly melted by now an pour them back in to the strainer and get as much water off of them. Get a large lasagna style backing dish and pour the potato’s in it. Then add the veggie and meat mix and finally pour the cheese mix over the top. Stir it to the point that it is all mixed together well and put in to the oven for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil. After 30 minutes put it out and put in on the table and let is sit for a few minutes before serving. I also put about 1 or 2 more handfuls of the shredded cheese over the top and let the residual heat melt it.. As always I like to top off something like this with hot sauce and maybe even a little Parmesan cheese… Enjoy and Good eats….
Don't Throw That Chicken Away
Chicken 1 to 2 cups been cooked and sitting in the refrigerator for almost a week now
Celery 1 stick slice it slice it and dice it
Onion Use as much as much or little as you like I prefer a sweet onion
Pickles I used 2 medium size, sliced them in to 4 sections long ways and diced them
Ranch Dressing 2 to 3 table spoons, if you like it really wet add more, really dry, add less
Seasoning Salt, pepper, and what ever you like, I added some basil to mine
This just couldn’t be much easier. Slice and dice all the ingredients. I try to cut all my ingredients to the same size or as close as I possibly can. The chicken can be a bit bigger then all the rest, but I still try and keep it all uniform…
Put it all in a big bowl, add your ranch dressing, I prefer to do the home made kind which consists of Butter Milk, Mayonnaise, and Hidden Valley Ranch dry powder mix, you can find it in the salad dressing section of your local grocery store. Now mix it all up and add your spices. It is that simple.
You can eat it with a fork, make a sandwich with any bread you can find, including pita bread, make a wrap with a tortilla shell or even make an open face melt smothered with cheese and topped off with hot sauce… What ever!!!! Good eats and enjoy…
Easy Noodles
Pork About one cup ¼ “ cubed, chops, tenderloin, what ever
Velveeta Three slices, ¼” thick
Corn Frozen corn in butter sauce 1 bag.
Raman Noodle Three bag beef flavor
Salsa About ¼ cup what ever you like or have
Spices Salt, Pepper, Basil, what ever
This is so easy, with prep and cooking it took me roughly 10 minutes to make this dinner. The pork I cooked on the grill a few days ago and was sitting in the refrigerator, so I started by getting it out and cutting it in roughly ¼” square cubes. While I was doing that, I threw the corn in the microwave and did the old quick on for about 3 minutes just to defrost it and get it close to done, but yet it still had a little cooking time left before it was fully hot and ready to eat. While all of that was going , I also threw a pot of water on the stove and turned it on high.
After cutting the port, I opened the three packet of Raman noodles and pulled the flavor seasoning packages out. Once the water was boiling, I threw the remaining content of the three packets of noodles in the water and let it go for about 3 to 5 minutes. While it was boiling, I cut three slices of cheese off the brick of Velveeta and put then on the side.
Now take the noodles and pour them in the strainer and put the pot back on the stove top. Grab your corn out of the microwave and cut it open and dump it in the pot butter sauce and all. Throw your pork and what ever spices you are going to use. Give it a good stirring and add your cheese as well. As soon as you notice the cheese starting to melt add your salsa. Stir occasionally and when it is all mixed and melted well pour your noodles back in (give them a good rinse with hot water and shake the excess off) and give it all a good stirring.
That is it, DONE. Not to fancy, but a good cheap and easy dinner. As with any recipe, this is just a guide, you could always add anything you like and it would be great. Bell peppers, onion, carrots, if you like it, it could easily work with this recipe. I added a little grated cheese and hot sauce to mine. GOOD EATS AND ENJOY
Florida Cracker Chile
Florida Cracker style Chile
Sirloin Steak Roughly 1 LB. Cut in ¼ to ½ in. cubes
Tomato Sauce 2 cans
Light Red Kidney Beans 1 can Drained
Dark Red Kidney Beans 1 can Drained
Chile Beans 1 can Drained and Rinced
Stewed Tomato’s 1 can Draining is optional with this can works either way
Garlic 2 cloves, sliced and diced
Onion sweet if you can get it other wise yellow or white will do
Mushrooms 5 to 6 fresh whole sliced or medium jar will do
Celery 2 sticks sliced ¼ in. thick pieces
Green Olives about 1cup sliced with the pimentos included if possible
Chile Con Carne Powder I shake the jar about 5 good times
Basil about 1 cap full from the lid of the jar it is packaged in
Parsley about the same as the Basil
Pepper about 8 grinds of fresh pepper with a pepper mill
Do all of your pre work first, I.E. Cut all the veggies and open all the cans and drain and rinse as necessary. The onion I usually slice into ¼ in. slices, lay them flat cut them in half and turn 180 degrees and slice in half again, which quarters them. Take the celery and wash them, cut the ends off and with them side by side, cut them at the same time trying to get ¼ in. or so pieces. Try and keep pieces uniform in size, it helps them all cook evenly. If you bought whole green Olives, cut them in to pieces. You should be able to slice them in to about 5 slices with ease, but it is easier to just by the Olive pieces, then just use about 1 cup of them.
As you are doing your prep work, just keep throwing all the ingredients into a crock pot, if you don’t have one, you really should invest in one, but a regular pot will do, just cook it on very low and slow all day on the stove top. I really recommend don’t this in a crock pot though. Back to the crock pot, just add all of your ingredients as you have them ready. Once all items are in add your spices and garlic and what ever you want to add, I make mine a little to mild because my kids don’t much care for spicy food, but you can add cayenne pepper if you like spice, you can even add Jalapenos if you like spicy stuff or Habaneras or what ever it takes to spice it up for you.
Once every last thing is in the pot that you intend on adding, just put the lid on and turn on low. I usually let it cook for about 8 hours. Basically, you can prep this the night before, if you have a removable style crock pot and stick it in the refrigerator and the next morning just before you walk out the door for work, put it in the base and turn it on. When you arrive home from work it will be ready for you, that is unless you only work a two hour day. Most folks work an average of 9 to 5, this works well for the cooking process.
Once you pull the lid off, smell, eat and enjoy. Obviously crackers go well with it, you could even cook some plain white rice and pour the Chile over it. We also like to make some super pretzels (large soft toasted pretzels), and dip them in some French dressing as a side to Chile. What ever!
It's in there Casserole
“It’s in there Casserole” . Follow this one if you dare.
Chicken Mine was smoked a few days ago, use what ever you have, about ¼ cup
Steak Grilled if you have it, about ¼ to ½ cup
Rice Mine was left over Yellow, use what you have, about 2 cups cooked
Carrot One good size pealed and diced
Celery 2 sticks slice down the center long way then dice ¼ inch
Onions Sweet if you can get them, cut two slices then slice and dice them
Cabbage One ½ inch thick slice, then slice and dice it
Mushrooms I didn’t have them, but they would go great, about 5 whole, sliced
Zucchini Cut 2 1 inch sections, stand them up right & slice like pizza in to 8 slices x2
Garlic 2 cloves + or -, to your taste, sliced, diced, and chopped
Bacon fat About 2 tablespoons, I save the juice after I cook bacon, you can use butter
Cheese shredded Mexican, 4 slices white American, 3 sliced Horseradish cheddar
Stewed tomato’s 1 can Italian style if you can get them, or use what you can get
Tomato Soup 1 can Campbell’s
Kidney Bean 1 can dark red or what ever you have
Zinfandel Wine About ¼ cup + or -, this one is a personal preference, some may want to omit it
Spices Salt, Pepper (Fresh ground if possible), and any spice you like
Whew, a lot of stuff went in to this one. Ok, get all of your veggies prepped if you haven’t already. You know, slice and dice as needed. Open your cans of Kidney Beans and Stewed Tomato’s and dump them into a strainer and let them drain of all their liquids, or as much as reasonably possible. Do NOT RINCE WITH WATER! Then get out a large pot or HUGE skillet and start by adding your bacon fat first, about 2 tablespoons. Add more if you feel the need and turn the stove on high. Next, when the fat gets hot add your Carrots, Onions, and Celery stirring often. About 2 minutes later add your Mushroom, Cabbage and Garlic and what ever spices your intend on using, salt, pepper, etc. Continue to stir for about 2 more minutes and add your Zucchini and let them go for about a minute before adding your wine. Things should really be sizzling at this point and the wine should evaporate fairly quickly. Pre heat you oven to 350 degrees at this point.
About 1 minute after you add the wine, you can go ahead and dump in your Kidney Beans and Stewed Tomato’s. Give the whole thing a good stirring and let this go for about two more minutes before dumping your can of Tomato Soup in and follow with the Steak and Chicken and finally the Rice. Once again don’t forget to stir, always keep things moving in the pan, you don’t want to let things sit still when cooking on high or you will burn some part of it for sure. You can go ahead and turn off the burner now and just continue to cook with the heat from the bottom of the pan and burner. Stir Stir, Stir!
Get out a baking dish, like a lasagna dish or casserole dish, what ever you have. Dump all of this wonderful creation you have going on in this pot or pan that you have been working into this baking dish and sprinkle on the shredded Mexican Cheese. You want to use enough to put a thin layer over the entire top of the casserole. Now, on top of that put your Horseradish Cheddar and White American Cheeses on top of that thin layer of cheese, putting one kind on one half and the other kind on the other half and shove in the oven for between 5 and 10 minutes. All ovens seem to vary from the actual heat range, all you really want is for the cheeses to be good and melted. Some folks may want to go a little longer and get the cheese a little dark and crusty, what ever way you like, but keep an eye on it, because it will happen fast. When you see the top you desire, pull it out and serve it up.
You can sprinkle some Parmesan Cheese on top or some hot sauce goes well too. You may ever want to try some fresh Salsa, who knows, be creative. Good eats and enjoy.
Le Mon Chick On Pasta
Chicken Breast Roughly 1 ½ diced roughly ½ “ squares
Carrot 1 large
Celery 2 medium
Onion 2 medium slices
Mushrooms About 5 sliced plus or minus
Black olives About 8 to 10 sliced
Chicken Bouillon 4 cubes
Water 2 cups
Flour Honestly didn’t measure, it was left in my sifter after the last use
Spices Fresh Ground Black Pepper, Salt, Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Lemon Juice Just enough to wet the bottom of the pan
Pasta I had Angel Hair, Spaghetti, and Fettuccini all left over so I combined them
Bacon Fat or Butter or Olive Oil
This was awesome, but I made it on a whim one night trying to figure out what to cook. As with all dishes, start out by prepping all of your ingredients. I started with the carrots. I cut them once down the center long ways, then cut each half one more time down the center long ways, which left me with 4 long carrot sticks. I then turned them sideways and diced all 4 sticks in to about ½ “ inch pieces. I did pretty much the same with the Celery sticks. Then I diced the onions and sliced the Mushrooms. Lastly I sliced the Olives, and finished off the Veggie prep. I then sliced the Chicken and diced it until I had pieces roughly ½ “ square.
At this point, I put the two cups of water in a pot and added the 4 Bouillon Cubes in and turned the heat up to high. If you have a can of chicken broth, you can use it instead, however I didn’t have one, so I did the next best thing. Once it came up to a boil and the cubs had been dissolved in to the water, I turned it off and let it sit and cool slowly.
As this was taking place, I put my Bacon fat in to the next pan, about 2 table spoons, and tuned the heat on high for that pan as well. Once it was good and hot, I added the Carrots, Celery and Onions. Roughly 2 minutes in to this sautéing, I added the mushrooms, taking time to stir as often as I could. An other two minutes later, I threw in the chicken pieces. Add your spices at this point too, which ever you choose to use. I used Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Fresh Ground Black Pepper, and some Basil.
This is where things really get interesting. I poured lemon juice, squeeze lemons or get concentrate, in to the pan, pouring just enough to wet the whole bottom of the pan. I honestly didn’t measure it, I just poured it out of a bottle. Once the bottom of the pan was wet, I stopped pouring and continued to stir. When most of the liquid had simmered off, I took my flour sifter and sifted some flour in, once again I really didn’t measure this either, it was flour left over in the sifter from a few days earlier. It was basically enough to coat the top of the food in the pan. Once again I stirred and got the flour to cook in with every thing else. Things started to get a golden brown color and that is when I poured in the chicken broth I had made.
Let this get up to a boil for a few minutes and the liquid should start to get a gravy like consistency. I did it in a manner that it wasn’t thick or thin, sort of in the middle. This was when I threw the pasta in the pan I had used to make my chicken broth. I added more water to the pot, just enough to cover the pasta and turned it on high. Don’t boil if you are using already cooked pasta, the goal here is only to warm it back up.
Finally the best part, place some pasta in the middle of a plate and pour the Le Mon Chick On on the pasta and enjoy the feast in front of you. As always I love to put some hot sauce and grated Cheese on top to finish it off. A salad also makes a great side dish for this dinner. Enjoy an Good Eats…
Mexican Seafood Trio
Shrimp ½ lb
Fish I used one fillet of Tilapia, it is a white and flaky Fish, use what you can
Baby Scallops ½ Lb
Mexican Rice Vigo makes a Mexican rice with corn in it
Onion I thick slice of Sweet Vidalia then dice
Scallions Mine grow wild in the front yard I cut up about 6 of them
Mushrooms Baby Portabella, use five give or take and slice them medium
Bacon Fat I save all my grease when I make bacon, butter or olive oil will work
Diced Tomato 1 can of your favorite seasoned diced tomato’s
Garlic Fresh is preferred, but powdered will work
Cream Sherry Bottle by your side
Seasonings Salt, pepper, and what ever you like
Outside of a little bit of prep work, this is pretty simple. The very first thing I did was to get my rice stated, just follow the directions on the package it came it and it should turn out just fine. Next, prep all of the rest of your stuff. The sweet onions should be slice and diced in ¼ or ½ inch pieces, the scallion should be cut at about the same, use your best judgment for the way you like it. The mushrooms should but sliced at about ¼ inch. As for the seafood, the baby scallops are perfect just the way they are, if you can’t get the baby ones, you can get the larger ones and cut them to about the size of the baby ones. The shrimp need to be pealed and cleaned, you can dice them or leave them whole, your call on that one. As for the fish, I cut it in to long strips and then turn the strips sideways and cut them at about ½ inch. If you choose to use fresh garlic like I prefer, now is the time to slice and dice it, the smaller the better it will infuse into the dish. Also open up your can of diced tomato’s and throw them in a strainer if you have one, if not, I would open the can about ¼ of the way and turn it sideways in the sink to drain and when ready to use, open it the rest of the way.
The rice should take about 20-25 minutes to cook, and I strongly suggest using a timer from the time to put the lid on it and turn the heat down. When you are roughly down to about ten minutes left on the rice is the time I start to heat up my bacon fat (or butter/olive oil) on high. As soon as it is good and hot, add your onions and mushrooms. Give them about 2 minutes and throw in your shrimp and scallops, when you see the shrimp starting to turn that redish/orange color, it is time to add the garlic and what ever seasoning/spices your are going to use, about an other 2 minutes is right. Toss the fish in now as well. About 1 minute later add the cream sherry, I usually add just enough to wet the bottom of the pan, so I don’t really have a measurement for you on this one do to the fact everyone has a different size pan. No matter what size pan you use, keep the liquid at about an 1/8 inch or less. The idea is to have the liquid boil off and keep the flavor. As the Sherry reduces, add the tomato’s and scallions. Drop the heat down to LOW and let it simmer.
By now the timer for the rice should be going off, so remove it from the burner and let it sit for a few minutes. After 3 or 4 minutes, pull the lid and give it a good stirring, if all has gone well, the rice should be perfect, so put a nice pile of it on the center of a plate. Your simmering seafood should be just about right at this point too, so top off that rice with a heaping pile of the seafood mix and ENJOY. Hot sauce and grated cheese make a nice topping for this dish. GOOD EATS!
Not Cho Snack
This can be done with a variety of leftover meat types. Taco style ground Beef/Turkey/Pork, or even sloppy Joe’s. Cut up some leftover chicken breast and add some diced onions. The point is you can do just about any thing with this one and it is very fast to prepare.
Oven Gas or Electric or Wood, just hot OK
1 baking pan Cookie style, flat and wide
Sheet of aluminum foil Big enough to rap around edges of cookie style baking pan.
Chips Tostitos, Doritos, Local brand corn chip, what ever you got
Cheese Shredded, they shred it, you shred it, what ever flavor you got
Salsa Homemade, best, get what you can
Whatever Green onions, Red Onions, Cabbage, what ever you like
Sour cream Breakstone’s preferable, but what ever you can get
Pre-heat your oven to 350 Degrees. Take your sheet of Aluminum Foil and cover the baking sheet with it, making sure to wrap it around the edges of the pan. Pour your chips out in the center and spread them out until you have an even layer covering the entire surface of the pan. Take your meat, whatever you have and spread it out over the top of the layer of chips. If there is any thing else you have cut up like green onions or bell peppers, this would be the time to put them on too. Finally top it all off with the shreded cheese you have sitting there. Stick them in the pre-heated oven and give it about 3-5 minutes. Keep and eye on them because the cheese will burn pretty quickly when it get hot.
With a few minutes to go, it is time to fill a bowl with some salsa and get a spoon in the sour cream. When the cheese is all melted pull them out of the oven and one by one eat them with Salsa and sour cream. Guacamole even goes well with them. I find it helpful to put the meat to be used in the microwave oven for a few minutes to pre warm it before putting on chips, this helps from keeping them in the oven to long trying to warm the meat up.
Oh My Chicken Pie
I can’t imagine any one else having these exact ingredients, so modify where you want or need to, but it really turned out great.
Chicken I stuffed a chicken with wild blackberries and smoked it, I had about 2 cups leftover
Carrots 2 sticks, sliced long ways in to 4 pieces then turned sideways and diced
Celery 2 stick, sliced long ways in to 3 pieced then turned sideways and diced
Onion about ½ cup
Scallions 2 cleaned and diced
Yellow Squash 1 extremely large one, I used about ¾ of it. You may need 2 or 3 if yours are small
Cabbage 4 leafs, carefully pealed and sliced and diced
Corn 1 ½ cobs, I cut it all off and broke it up in to single pieces
Campbell’s 1 Family size can of Cream of Chicken, I used about ¾ of it
Ramen Noodles 2 bags, don’t use the seasoning it came with, unless you really want to..
Garlic 1 table spoon of sliced and diced garlic
Pie Shells I used 2 frozen deep dish you can get from most grocery stores..
Spices Salt, Pepper, Basil, and what ever you like.
Bacon Fat 2 table spoons full or use butter or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Cheese I had 2 half bags of Mozzarella and Mexican 4 cheese, I mixed them and used it all
Start out by prepping all of your ingredients. You should be able to figure out what to do just from the description above. If not, cut it all up and get it ready. You are always welcome to modify what ever you have to or want to. You could used left over baked chicken or even fried chicken. How ever you do it ,this dish needs to be stated by throwing the bacon fat in a large frying pan or pot and turning the stove on high. When it gets hot and melts what ever you are using, throw you carrots, celery and onions in and stir for a few minutes on and off. About 3 minutes later, throw the corn in and continue to stir.
In the mean time, get an other pot out and fill it with water. Take the Ramen Noodles and open the bags and carefully take the noodles out and brake them long ways so that when you cook them, they will only be a few inches long, say 1 to 2. When the water starts to boil, add them and boil them for a few minutes. This shouldn’t take long, when they become soft, usually about 3 to 5 minutes, dump them in to a strainer and rinse with hot water. Now would be a good time to turn you oven on and pre heat it to 375 degrees.
Back to the other project, add you cabbage, garlic and what ever seasonings you are going to use. One minute later, add you yellow squash that you cut in to sections about ¼“ by ¼ “ and also add your chicken now. I stirred it around for about for about 3 more minutes and add about ¾ of the can of Campbell’s cream of Chicken soup. That then required about an other 3 minutes of stirring and finally I added the noodles that were still in the strainer. After mixing it thoroughly I poured ½ in to one pie shell and the other half in to the other pie shell and stuck them both in to the pre heated oven for 25 minutes.
After twenty five minutes, I pulled them both out and took half of my shredded cheese blend and stuck it on top of one and the other half and stuck on top of the other one being very careful to cover as much of the top as possible. Finally I sprinkled some basil on the top. Then I stuck them both back in the over for an other 5 minutes. After that 5 minutes was up, I pulled them out and let them cool for a few minutes before digging in. As with most things, I ended up putting some hot sauce on top to finish it up. Good eats and enjoy..
Philly style Steak
This is so simple you will ask why you haven’t done this one yet!
Steak left over, sirloin, tenderloin, t-bone, porterhouse, whatever
Onion How ever much you want sliced and then cut in half
Mushrooms How ever much you like sliced
Garlic How ever much you like chopped or diced
White American Cheese Sliced and as much as you can stand
Bread Soft hoagie roll preferred, but use what you have got or like
Extra Extra Virgin Olive oil Tilt the bottle and count to one if not enough tilt again
So simple, start off cutting your onions, garlic, and mushrooms, you can also do bell pepper of any color or what ever other veggies float your boat. Also cut your steak up, I tend to cut it what ever way makes the shortest pieces as thin as I can with a sharp knife. Then cut again until you have about 1 inch very thin squares.
Put your oil in a pan, you can use any oil if you don’t have olive oil including butter, and sauté your veggies on high for about 3 to 5 minutes depending on how much you have in the pan, stirring constantly . When the onions are starting to have that sort of almost see through appearance, you are about there, now add your garlic and steak to the mix. Drop the heat down to Med/Low and start to build a blanket of white American cheese over the top of this wonderful mixture. At the first sign of melting, which will not take very long, start to stir the whole mess together to achieve the end result of a cheesy masterpiece.
I like to take my hoagie roll and hollow it out like a canoe, at this point I put some Mayo on the bottom, then some sliced dill pickles and then the cheesy steak mix and finally some ketchup or A-1 depending on my mood that night on the very top, cut it in half and enjoy.
As with any dish, change it to satisfy your palette. This goes well with Orida Steak fries, tator tots, or what ever.
Saubage Omelet
With any luck, you had some left over smoked sausage and cabbage. This is what inspired me to do this dish. Very simple indeed
Sausage-N-Cabbage I had about 1 cup left over
Eggs 2 or 3, depends if eating alone or sharing it, you make the call
Cheese I used two thick slices from a block of Velveeta, use what you like
Onions about ¼ cup diced, give or take
This is very basic, the only prep work was to dice the onion, slice the cheese and crack the eggs in to a bowl and whip/beat them. If you don’t like onion you can skip that part and if you have pre-sliced or shredded cheese you life just got even easier…
Put the left over sausage and cabbage in a pan, and turn on medium. The should be just enough fat sticking to it from night you originally cooked it, whether it is bacon fat or butter or olive oil, so you shouldn’t need to add any more. Throw your onions in at the same time. The goal here is just to warm things up, do to the fact that it is already cooked, minus the onions. When it is good and warmed up, dump your eggs on top being sure they spread evenly through the pan. Add your cheese to the top and any seasonings you plan on using, IE salt and pepper and what ever else…
I like to finish my omelet in the oven on broil, so it is a good idea to pre heat the oven on broil. The idea is to cook the bottom of the omelet on top of the stove and the top of the omelet in the oven under the broiler. If you are good enough that you feel you can flip it on top of the stove and have it not brake, go for it and eliminate the broiler. I personally find the come out perfect, almost like a pizza when I use this technique.
When the bottom is cooked, usually on a minute or two, I place it in the oven under the broiler. Now if you have pre-heated it, it will usually on take two to three minutes to finish the top off. Keep an watchful eye on it, because it will burn in a huge hurry if you walk away. The idea is to finish the egg off and melt the cheese, you can go an other minute if you like your cheese to be a little crispy. You will also find the omelets fluff up very nicely doing this technique as well.
Pull it out and put it on a plate to serve, down right awesome…. MMMmmmmMMMMM
I find salsa and sour cream top this well, and as always, hot sauce isn’t bad either
Saw such Clam Soup
What are the odds of your having any of this stuff left over?
Sausage Gravy (maple Sausage if possible) about 2 cups
Little neck clams (shells included) between 1 and 2 dozen
Liquid reserved from boiling artichokes about 2 cups Plus or minus
Carrots 6 babies or 1 whole give or take
Onions two full slices then dice or chop
Celery two sticks sliced and diced
Mushrooms 2-4 whole sliced
Garlic two cloves chopped or two tsp. Jar chopped
Seasonings what ever you got basil, Mrs. Dash, pepper, salt
Extra Extra Virgin Olive oil Start with about a 3” diameter and add as needed
I know this is a shot in the dark, but if you have these ingredients, is sure makes a heck of a good soup. My 5 year old approved. Start out by having some sausage biscuit gravy left over after a nice morning breakfast, we use Jimmy Dean Maple sausage and McCormic Country Sausage Gravy mix. It worked terrific in this recipe. Next you need the flavored liquid left over after steaming some full size artichokes. Finally you need to get some little neck clams and save the shells after cooking as well as a portion of the clams. I grilled the clams and everyone is the house was sick with a flu bug and just couldn’t get the job done and I had a bunch of left over food, so I ended up making this dish to be enjoyed a few days later as a left over. As fate would have it, I steamed up a few artichokes that night too. So this is how it all came together.
First I started by pulling my steaming basket out of my big pot and putting my boiling basket in. I left the artichoke flavored water in there and threw in all the clam shells I had, exactly 2 dozen. By now I had removed all the remaining clams and reserved them on the side for later use. I put more water in the double pot until the clams were completely submerged under liquid. Throw in some Sweet Basil if you have it too. Bring to a rapid boil and let boil until the clams are completely exposed, and no longer covered by liquid. Pull the top boiling pot out of the bottom pot removing the clam shells from the mix. Continue to boil the liquid until you reduce it about an other inch in the pot. At this point pour this liquid through a fine mesh strainer and save it for later. Also, if there is any meat left in the clam shells this would be the time to pick them clean, add what ever meat you come up with to the other clams you have sitting on the side there, and throw them shells out once and for all.
Using your same boiling pot, pour about a three inch diameter circle of your olive oil in to the center of your pot and put your carrots, celery, and onions in and turn on high. Sauté them for about 1 minute and add the mushrooms about one more minute add your garlic and what ever other seasonings you have, pepper, cilantro, thyme, salt, or what ever you want. By now the kitchen should be smelling wonderful and about two minutes later you need to add the boiled liquid you have saved from the artichoke/clam broth to this mix of veggies, bring to boil and then reduce to medium heat.
At this time add the clam and clam pieces you have sitting on the side and what ever spices you still have left and feel the urge to use. Dig in to the refrigerator and find that left over sausage gravy and scoop it out and put it in this wonderful soup mix you have going and let it simmer on medium low for about 10 more minutes. That’s it, you are done and the craziest soup ever, but in a good way, is right in front of you. Dig in and enjoy. If you pulled this one off, you have an amazing array of left over stuff in your kitchen… LOL
Scrapple Pie
Potato’s At least 6
Scrabble One Package if you can find it.
Corn One package Frozen with or with out butter sauce
Celery 2 stick, sliced and diced
Carrots 2 large or about 8 baby style
Onion about ½ sliced then diced
Mushrooms 4 to 6 fresh or as much as you want out of a jar
Yellow Squash a half should do give or take
Cabbage 2 whole leaves
Garlic 2 plus cloves
Cheese shredded taco mix or cheddar or what ever you have
Basil to your taste
Black Pepper whole ready to be ground
Bacon Fat Save it when you make bacon, a few ounces
Butter about half a stick
Start out by pealing the potato’s, dicing them up and throwing them in a pot of water. Bring to a boil and boil until the potato’s are soft, about 10 minutes. Once they turn soft, dump in to a colander or strainer and let drain. Put half a stick of butter in a bowl big enough for all the potato’s and put them in on top of the butter. Mash the potato’s what ever way you can, if you boiled them enough you could probably do it with a big fork. Use what ever you have, even if it plugs in to the wall..
If you haven’t done it yet, cut up all of your vegetables. Every thing should be fairly diced up, you can go as big as you want, but I’ll usually cut things in to ¼ ” to ½” size and do the garlic about 1/8 ”. Once all veggies are diced up, put your bacon fat in a pan and bring the heat up to high. If you don’t have bacon fat, you can use extra virgin olive oil or even butter. Throw the veggies in starting with the carrots first, then the celery followed by the onions. After about 2 minutes throw in the mushrooms, squash, and garlic. Now’s a good time to add the rest of your seasons, basil, pepper and salt for those of you who need it. Add the cabbage and corn last, continue to stir the whole time you are adding the veggies. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
While that is finishing cooking, which shouldn’t take to long, get out a lasagna type pan, about medium size and take about half your mashed potato’s and put a thin layer on the bottom of your pan. Spread it as evenly as you can. By now your veggies should be just about done and you take them and pour them on top the potato’s you just put in the baking dish and spread them out evenly. The next step is take the rest of your potato’s and carefully spread them over the top of the veggies.
Cut the scrapple out of its package and slice it in to about ¼” pieces and lay them on top of the final layer of potato’s, doing your best to cover as much as you can. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees covering with a sheet of aluminum foil. After about 20 minutes pull it out and put your shredded cheese over the top and do you pest to completely cover it. Put it back in the over for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted and to your liking.
Cut it up like lasagna, in little squares or bigger rectangles. A good hot sauce goes nice on it. Eat up and enjoy.
This is just a guide, if you don’t like some thing omit it, or add some thing you do like, like bell peppers. If you can’t find scrapple, just sausage or ground turkey, but add it to the veggies when you are cooking them and have only potato and cheese as your top layer. Be creative, have fun and eat good.
SherrysSeaNoodles
Left over egg noodle, medium style led to this one
Egg Noodles about 2 cups cooked
Shrimp ½ LB.
Tilapia ½ LB. Or what ever white fish you can get
Onions 4 slices sliced and diced
Mushrooms 4 to 6 good sized sliced
Zucchini 4 to 6 inch section
Yellow Squash 4 to 6 inch section
Garlic 2 to 4 cloves sliced and diced
Butter ¼ stick
Spices Salt, Pepper, Basis, Mrs. Dash, Nature’s seasoning, what ever
Cream Sherry Bottle by your side
Like with any good recipe this one starts by prepping all the ingredients, so get out your knife and slice and dice all of your veggies. As I always try to stress in all of my recipes, use this only as a guide. If you love all the foods I’m using and nothing else, then my all means follow it to the letter, how ever if you hate onions leave then out, better yet, if you love something I left out, then add it in. Have fun, be creative.
Back to our objective, after prepping the veggies in to similar size and shape pieces, do the same with the seafood. Peal and clean the shrimp if it didn’t come that way and I usually will cut them in to three pieces for a dish like this. The fish I’ll usually cut in to ¼ to ½ inch strips and then line them up sideways and square them off to what ever size I chose for the strips. The key is to try to keep things uniform. For one it will all cook more evenly, but it also just looks nicer when you plate it.
Once all the prep work is done, put a big pot/pan on the stove, add butter, and turn on high heat. Add the onions once the butter starts to melt. Give then a minute or two to sizzle and add the Mushrooms, remembering to stir as often as possible. About one minute later add the shrimp pieces, then the Garlic and what ever spices you intend to use now. Continue to stir often and add the Zucchini and Yellow Squash a minute later. Once again continue to stir and finally add the Fish.
The aroma is outrageous at this point, but you are not done yet. As soon as your fish pieces are starting to look cooked, pour in the Creamed Sherry, use enough to wet the bottom of the pan from one end to the other. You should hear some sizzling and popping that this would be a really good time to add your cold, but already cooked noodles. If you don’t have egg noodles, any type noodle will just about work, I.E. Bowtie, Elbow, Penne, what ever.
Turn the burner off, but leave the pot on it, continue to stir for the next few minutes on and off and finally put in on a plate or in a bowl. It tops off well with hot sauce and grated or shredded cheese. Good eats and enjoy.
