BBQ Ribbs

Last week I made BBQ ribs an they went over really well. They turned out really tender and juicy.

Ingredients:

Ribs (I used western style spare ribs bc they were on sale)
BBQ Sauce (Your fave)

Directions:

1) Boil ribs in a large pot for about an hour.
2) Drain ribs and love to deep oven proof pan.
3) Cover all sides with BBQ Sauce.
4) Bake at 375 F for 45 min-1 hr.
5) I like to turn them and add more BBQ Sauce (if needed) about half way through.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Meat Sauce

This week I got a bunch of pasta free at Kroger (sale and coupons), so I wanted to share one way that I enjoy topping it.

Meat Sauce

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground beef (or sausage)
1/2 Sweet Onion
Salt, Pepper, Garlic, and Paprika to taste Paprika is one of my fave spices, but it's great with
Italian spices or whatever you fave is)
1 can of diced tomatoes

Directions:

1) Brown the ground beef with onions, and drain the grease.
2) Return beef to heat and add everything else stirring until heated through.
3) Pour over pasta and enjoy.

Easy Chinese Dinner

Hey, tonight we had a really easy Chinese dinner.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Chicken breasts
1 large bag of frozen stir fry veggies
1/2 cup Kikkoman stir fry sauce
Rice (as much as your family will eat, and any type you prefer)
just enough oil to fry the meat and veggies in (about 2 Tbs.)

Direction:

1) Cut the chicken into small strips, and fry in the oil until fully cooked. Set aside.
2) Fry the veggies until they reach desired tenderness.
3) Add the chicken and the stir-fry sauce stirring until well coated.
4) Serve with rice and enjoy.

If you like you can always add egg-rolls and fortune cookies or anything else you prefer (I usually purchase these pre-cooked and just warm them in the oven)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Popcorn and Apple Crisp

Okay, so I have completely neglected this site for quite a while. Recently Patricia asked me to share some new recipes, so to kick it off again I will start with one we just tried for the first time tonight. Recently I went to the store looking for some Gluten Free snacks for my son, and he found this chocolate covered popcorn. It did not sound so good to me at first, but when I tried it I was hooked. The catch is it is not cheap, so I decided to try my own at home.

Chocolate covered Popcorn:

I popped some plain popping corn in a large pot (5 quarts).
Pour 1/4 cup veggie oil (or popcorn oil) in pot with one kernel. Cover and heat on Med-High.
When the kernel pops, add enough corn to cover the bottom of pot with a single layer.
Slide the pot back and forth as they kernels pop.
When popping slows, remove from heat.
Pour the popcorn out onto a cookie sheet in a thin layer (be sure to cover sheet well so the
chocolate stays on the popcorn).
Sprinkle with some salt and set aside.

Then I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave.
Pour some chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and microwave on high for about 1
min.
Then stir and pour over popcorn.
If you like you can repeat this with white chocolate (the way the store brand did)
*Note: I found that a 12oz bag seemed to cover just right.

Set it in the fridge to cool for a while. (You can stir it first if you want a more even coating, I like the nice lines you get from pouring).

I thought you may also like the Apple Crisp:
This one is from my old Betty Crocker Cookbook.

You need:
4 cup sliced apples (I like to you red delicious)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened (I prefer butter)

1-Heat oven to 375 F.
2-Arrange apples in greased 8x8 pan.
3-Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle over apples.
4-Bake until topping is golden brown and apples are tender (about 30 min).
5-Serve warm, and I like to add ice cream (the cookbook also suggested pouring cream over it).

Hope you enjoy these, and I will be sure to add more soon.

Over the past couple of weeks we have tried SourDough Bread, a Souffle, and Bourbon Chicken. All of them went over really well. The Sourdough was one that I had to be very patient with. It took over a week just to get the starter ready to make dough, and then that was an all day process. Here they are, I hope you try some and enjoy them.


SOURDOUGH STARTER:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour

Disolve yeast in warm water. Stir in milk. Gradually stir in flour. Beat until smooth. Cover and let stand in warm place until starter begins to ferment, about 24 hours ( bubbles will appear on surface of starter). Stir well, cover with plastic wrap and return to warm draft free place. Let stand until starter becomes foamy. At this point you sould probably feed it (3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup flour). Let it sit in warm area again until it doubles and then goes back down in size. Let it sit for a few more days feeding occasionally until it has a nice sourdough smell (very similar to a sourdough bread, it took mine about 10 days total to get to this point). Now you are ready to make bread. When you are making bread, you will use 1 cup of your starter, be sure to feed it after this so you will not deplete it. You can now feed it with 1 cup of your finished dough, or the same as you were before.


SOURDOUGH BREAD:
1 cup sourdough starter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups warm water (105-115 F)
3 3/4-4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
vegetable oil
water

Mix starter, 2 1/2 cups flour, and warm water until smooth. Cover, and let stand in warm,draft free place for 8 hours.

Add 3 3/4 cups flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and oil to mixture. Stir until smooth (dough should be firm enough to gather into a ball, if not add flour as needed).

Turn dough onto heavily floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 min).Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover and let sit in warm draft free place until double (about 1 1/2 hr). (Dough is ready when you make and indentation and it remains).

Punch dough down; divide into halves. Shape each half into a round sightly flat loaf. Do not tear dough by pulling. Place loaves on apposite corners of greased cookie sheet. Make three 1/4 inch-deep cuts into tops.Let rise until double (about 45 min).

Heat oven to 375. brush loaves with cold water. Place in center of oven without sides touching. Bake, occasionally brushing with cold water, until loaves sound hollow when tapped (about 50 min).

SPINACH AND CHEESE SOUFFLE:
1 1/2 tablespoons plus 4 tablespoons softened butter, divided
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 lb. spinach, stemmed and chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3 eggs, separated

Brush the inside of a large soufflé or deep casserole dish with 1 1/2 tablespoons of softened butter. Sprinkle the buttered surface evenly with Parmesan cheese and set aside the dish.

In a large saucepan, sauté the spinach until it wilts and the juices have evaporated. Preheat the oven to 375F. In a separate medium saucepan, melt the remaining butter over medium heat and stir in the flour and salt. Cook the flour, whisking constantly, for 30 seconds. Add the milk to the flour and cook, still whisking constantly, for about 4 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Add the spinach and continue cooking over medium heat for 1 minute. Season the mixture with black pepper and nutmeg.

Whisk ½ cup of the hot spinach into the egg yolks, and then add the egg yolk mixture back into the hot spinach, stirring to completely incorporate. Beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Stir one-third of the egg whites into the spinach, and then fold the remaining egg whites into the mixture. Spoon it into the prepared dish and bake for 30 minutes, until the soufflé is puffed up and cooked through.

BOURBON CHICKEN:

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup soy sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove chicken. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium Heat until well mixed and dissolved. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over hot rice.

Enjoy.

* Keep in mind that none of these recipes are my own, I got them from friends, family, cookbooks, and just off the web.

Okay, it's been a while. Sorry. I have been keeping busy getting back in the grove with the new school semester. So I have tried a few new things. I made Chicken Noodle Soup and Turkey Chili. We also had a family favorites that I would like to share; Frickadelin. I am not sure if I spelled that correctly, but it is a German food that is similar to meatloaf in the shape of a hamburger patty. The great thing about this is that you can have meatloaf in about a half hour instead of two hours. Everyone loved all three of them, so take one and try it, let me know what you think.


CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP:

4-5 Chicken breast tenderloins
1 stick of celery
1-2 medium carrots
1 small onion
4-5 chicken bouillon cubes (to taste)
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
parsley (just because I like to add green)
3-5 quarts of water
egg noodles (any shape you prefer)

1) Cut chicken into cubes (this is easier if you do it while they are still frozen).
2) Put the chicken in about 3-4 quarts of water, and let it boil.
3) Meanwhile, cut your celery and carrots into small bite size peaces. I like to cut the carrots in
quarters length wise and then slice them thinly, and I slice the celery in half length wise and
then slice it thinly as well.
4)Chop the the onion, and now you can add all the veggies. The longer they cook together the
better it will taste.
5)Add you bouillon cubes, salt, and pepper to taste.
6) The parsley you can just cut up with kitchen scissors and add in.
7) Let all this cook and add water as needed to get the desired ratio.
8)About 10 minutes before you are ready to eat add about 2 hand fulls of noodles ( I used really
thin little German noodles that I picked up in the international section at Meijer's)


TURKEY CHILI

I really cheated on this one. I just got 2 packets of chili powder, and basically followed the direction using ground turkey in place of ground beef. The kids and I did not notice the difference, but Brian said he could tell. The one thing I did do differently is use small cubed tomatoes in combination with tomato sauce. I also added additional tomato sauce because I like my chili a little bit thinner. I also made a couple of boxes of Jiffy corn muffins to go with it.


FRICKADELIN

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 sweet onion(medium)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 Tbs Paprika
3 eggs
3-4 slices of bread and/or bread crumbs
oil of Pam

This one is simple.
1) Put everything in a bowl, mix well, and then form into patties.
2) Lightly spray you pan with Pam (I use olive oil) or just poor about 2 tsp of oil in the pan and
spread it around.
3) Once the oil gets hot, lay some of the patties in the pan.
4) When the sides begin to brown, turn them over and let them cook until you can not see
anymore pink around the edges. (At this point they should be cooked through, but you can cut
one open to double check if you like)
5) Serve hot with ketchup, mustard, BBQ Sauce, or anything you like, or just eat them plain. James likes to make a sandwich out of them.

Enjoy!

My son Gage has been asking me for artichokes lately, so i decided to make them tonight. I wanted to try something other than butter with them, so I decided to try my hands at hollandaise sauce. It took me two tries, and I got it, it looked and smelled great. When I tried it it was a whole different story. Gage was the only one who liked it (I'm starting to think that boy will eat anything). The combination of the eggs and the lemon juice just did not go well in my opinion. Here is the recipe just in case you decide you would like to try it anyway.


HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp Water
3 egg yolks
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

First melt and clarify the butter. Then whisk the egg yolks, water, and lemon juice in a double boiler until they become thick enough to make a ribbony pattern in them. Now whisk in the butter one tsp at a time. The sauce should be thick, fluffy and shiny looking. At this point you can add salt and pepper to taste.