Crockpot Italian Beef Sandwiches

I took this recipe from online.  Thought I'd give it a try.  Full recipe is HERE

Ingredients

Pre-Cooking

After Cooking - the "Shred"

Due to the fact that I waited too long on New Year's Eve to get fresh italian

rolls at Claro's, I opted for a side of beef with linguini tossed with olive oil & 

shredded Asiago and parsley. The beef is moist, and surprisingly not super 'hot' 

despite the pepperoncinis.  Very good! I can't wait to try it on a hoagie roll with 

some cheese.

Traditions Abound!

My grandmother handwrote this recipe for me for Corn Flake Wreaths.  She made them every year for us when we arrived in Spokane for Christmas and they became synonymous with holidays at her house, along with peanut butter kiss cookies!  They're nothing spectacularly difficult, but they're so popular in my house that when I hadn't made them yet, both my boys bugged me about it: "where are the wreaths! There's NO WREATHS!!"  Thus, I give you a simply yet satisfying holiday treat tradition:

Ingredients:  1/3 cup butter, 10 oz marshmallows (large), 1 tsp green food coloring, 6 C Corn Flakes, cinnamon candies, holiday sprinkles

Melt the butter over slow heat, then add the marshmallows.  Melt slowly until completely liquid, then add the coloring and stir until green evenly.

Add the corn flakes and stir until combined.
Drop mixture by 1/4 c measurements onto parchment paper.
Use buttered fingers to shape into wreaths.
Sprinkle with jimmies and add 3-4 cinnamon candies per wreath.

Allow to cool, then use scissors to cut around the parchment and leave each wreath on a circular parchment sheet to store in a cookie tin.

Enjoy.  

Italian Night

Mild Italian sausage,  bow ties with butter & sea salt,  & Claro's garlic bread.  Followed by home made butter cookies. Mmmmm....

Snowstorm Cookies

Courtesy of my sous-chef, here are the first batch of holiday cookies:

Snowstorms
1 stick of butter
1 1/4 c Brown sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c Flour
1/2 c cocoa
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
Granulated sugar
Powdered sugar

Cream butter & sugar.  Add egg & vanilla.  In separate bowl, whisk together flour,  salt,  bkg soda,  & cocoa. Slowly mix into butter mixture. When combined,  refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Roll into balls. Roll in granulated sugar,  then preferred sugar.  Place on cookies sheets 2" apart.  Bake 10 minutes @ 350º.

 

 

Pioneer Woman's Meatloaf

I've seen this twice on Rhee Drummond's Show, so I had to try it.

 Ingredients

• Meatloaf:
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 6 slices White Bread
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 cup (heaping) Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/3 cup Minced Flat-leaf Parsley
• 4 whole Eggs, Beaten
• 10 slices Thin/regular Bacon
• Sauce:
• 1-1/2 cup Ketchup
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• Tabasco To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.
Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, Parmesan, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs.

   

With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined.

Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. (Line the bottom of the pan with foil to avoid a big mess!)

   

Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.

 

Make the sauce: add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together.

 Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon. 
Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Slice and serve with remaining sauce.

     

Serve with mashed potatoes. Yummy!

Joy of Cooking's Turkey Tetrazini Recipe

It would not be Thanksgiving Week without this recipe.  I just love it!

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer is so old that my own copy fell apart years ago.  Thus, I had to hunt online for this one, rather than purchase the whole cookbook.  There are some really good recipes in it, however, for a basic cookbook.  I just wish it had photos to accompany it.  But I learned that it was written by a woman who lost her husband to a suicide and had children to literally feed, so she published it, and now I feel like I should go buy a new copy.  Here's to single parents making a living!

 

 Ingredients

• 2-3 c. shredded, cooked turkey meat
• 1/2 lb spaghetti or macaroni (2 c.)
• 1/2 c. blanched, slivered almonds (optional:  I LEAVE THIS OUT!)
• 1/2 to 3/4 lb mushrooms sauteed with 3 tbs dry white wine
• 3 tbs butter or chicken fat
• 2 tbs flour
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1 c. heavy cream or half 'n' half
• grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 385 degrees. Shred 2-3 cups chicken into small pieces.  (I season with a bit of salt and parsley).

   

Boil the pasta in salted water; I love this fusilli- looks like my hair in the morning!! :)

Saute mushrooms with white whine.  Make a roux of the butter and flour, 

then add warmed broth and cream.  

Mix pasta with chicken and mushrooms.  Arrange in 13 x 9 inch casserole.  Slowly pour over the cream/broth mixture.

 

Sprinkle top of casserole with parmesan cheese.  Place in the oven for 30 minutes, uncovered.

Serve warm.

Only for the leftovers....

I'm always happy to go somewhere else for Thanksgiving, but there is something about not being able to do a midnight snack of turkey or having leftovers for breakfast the next day or making Turkey Tetrazini just because you don't know what to do with all the remaining bird that is unfortunate.  Therefore, I always make a turkey dinner during the week of Thanksgiving so we can benefit from the leftovers.  Today, I'm making a dry-brined "Judy Bird" and homemade dinner rolls with THIS recipe for Pillow-Soft Dinner Rolls.

"What's a 'Judy Bird'?" you ask.  It's a dry-brined turkey made by this lady named Judy Rogers of San Francisco's Zuni Café in San Francisco.   I've done the wet brine, the dry rub, the buttered, and this time, I wanted to do something a little different.  Her recipe is HERE.  The turkey is salted, spiced, and set in a bag inside the fridge to complete dethawing; it rests for an hour outside the fridge before cooking:

Also made homemade mashed potatoes with Yukon Golds.  They are smaller, quicker to cook, and I love the flavor.

 Before the milk & butter...

...and with the yumminess added!

And the finished Judy Bird:

 

The bird was cooked through, but also very moist, and the skin was awesomely salty and crisp.  I know, digusting, but it's still my favorite part of the turkey!  It'll be lovely for leftovers- though the skin was salty, the meat was perfectly flavored. Not too much salty flavor, just moist meat! Way to go Judy!!

Knock-Off Chik-fil-a Sauce

• ½ cup Mayo
• 2 tsp prepared mustard
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tbs smokey BBQ sauce

It's unbelievable how close this is to the real thing!

Lasagna Night

This is Dom Deluise's recipe and I love that you can cook it without precooking the noodles.  It's really good!

1 pound lasagne noodles
2 quarts Marinara sauce of your choice
2 pounds ricotta cheese
1 pound mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Dom's Note: When you just don't have time to prepare this dish and you want it yesterday, do what I do: I simply start with a deep lasagne pan and all cold ingredients. Start with 1/2 cup sauce and use raw, uncooked lasagne noodles, one layer of ricotta, mozzarella, and grated cheese, then sauce...another layer of raw, uncooked lasagnes noodles at right angles to the first, and so on and so on. You finish with the sauce. Cover with foil very snug around the top, place in a 350 degree F. oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Let stand 20 minutes.

Tortellini & Italian Sausage Soup

Ingredients:
*1# italian sausage (casing removed) [use mild or hot depending on your preference]
* 1 T Olive Oil
* 4 carrots, chopped into 1 inch chunks
* 1 onion, chopped into small chunks
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 tsp basil (or 1 T fresh chopped basil)
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 zucchini, chopped into small pieces
* 1 15 oz can canellini beans
* 2 15 oz cans diced tomatoes
* 8 C chicken broth

Steps:
First, remove the sausage from the casings and brown the meat in a pot.
When brown, remove the meat to drain.

      

Next, add 1 T olive oil to the pan and add the carrots. Cook until carrots are softened.

Then add onions, zuchini, beans.  Add garlic, basil, and bay leaf.  Then add the tomatoes 

and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.  Add 2 cups tortellini & simmer 5-7 minutes.

The soup will look like this:

  

Add the sausage back into the soup.  Heat through: 

 

Serve!

**Note:  You can add spinach if you like, just as your heating the sausage.  Serve when spinach becomes wilted.

Easy Crock Pot Roast

1 10 oz cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix1 1/4 cups water
5 1/2 pounds pot roast

Directions

In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.Cook on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

Apple Cinnamon Detox Water

2 thinly sliced apples (red or green varieties)
2 cinnamon sticks
Ice
Water

Slice apples thinly and line bottom of pitcher.  Add two cinnamon sticks, not powder. Fill pitcher half full of ice.  Fill with water.  Refrigerate for 15 min or longer.  Refill pitcher 4 times before discarding fruit & sticks.

RIP Chef Trotter

 

As a Wisconsin alumnus, I must acknowledge Charlie Trotter's passing.  At UW, he studied Poli Sci, but never used his degree.  He taught himself to cook and worked his way up in the culinary world.  Thanks for your contributions fellow Badger! RIP.

Crock Pot Chicken Fettucini Alfredo

1.5 # boneless chicken breasts
2 pkgs white mushrooms,  slices
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
16 oz cream cheese,  cut in chunks
2 sticks butter,  cut in pieces
1.5 C grated parmesan
1.5 C whole milk
1 pound fettucini

Spray bottom of crockpot with nonstick spray.  Place chicken in one layer in pot.  Sprinkle chicken with salt,  pepper,  paprika.  Top with mushrooms. In saucepan,  stir remaining ingredients together,  except pasta.  Stir often, heating through, then pour over chicken.  Cook low 6-8 hrs or high 4 -5 hrs. You can add broccoli if desired,  2 hrs before serving.  Serve over hot fettucini.

You Had Me At Bourbon

Maple Bourbon Pumpkin Pie

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bruleed-bourbon-maple-pumpkin-pie

 

Photo would have been much better if my torch were working properly.  Dang it.  2nd cooking torch that went bad on me.  Anyway, the result was tasty, but the crust was not popular in our house.  Gonna try the Weight Watchers crustless pumpkin pie instead.