I’ll admit, this is one of those recipes that people think took you hours to make because it is so tasty, but in fact there are only 6 ingredients (two of which I didn’t really use), and the whole thing probably took me about 15 minutes (minus refrigeration time).
The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay’s book, Fast Food. Seriously, this is some fast food!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (125 ml) light brown sugar
3 tbsp (45 ml) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups (550 ml) whipping cream, chilled
4 large ripe bananas, (chilled in the freezer 1-2 hours)
squeeze of lemon juice
semisweet chocolate for grating
First add the sugar, butter and 2/3 of a cup of cream in a pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted.
Continue to cook, letting it bubble for a minute or two stirring frequently (you don’t want it to burn!). Remove the sauce from the heat and allow it to cool completely.
Next get out your blender and add the remaining cream, bananas you have cut into smaller pieces,
and a squeeze of lemon juice, into it.
Blend away until its smooth, creamy and thick. Really. That’s all you have to do. No really, thats it!
Next Gordon has you make them all fancy into separate dishes, but since I was taking mine to a party this is what I did. Spoon about 1/3 of the caramel sauce into a 9 × 9 glass baking dish (or well whatever you want to serve this thing in). Next add the banana mousse. Then spoon another 1/3 over the top of the bananas. Stir until swirled. Add the last 1/3 and swirl into the banana mousse again.
Finally shave some chocolate over the top, or do like I did and just sprinkle some chocolate powder you use for baking over the top. Its really not too bitter considering how sweet the rest of the dish is.
Refrigerate for a few hours and serve!
That’s it, really!
Told you it was fast!
No Images Version:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (125 ml) light brown sugar
3 tbsp (45 ml) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups (550 ml) whipping cream, chilled
4 large ripe bananas, (chilled in the freezer 1-2 hours)
squeeze of lemon juice
semisweet chocolate for grating
First add the sugar, butter and 2/3 of a cup of cream in a pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted. Continue to cook, letting it bubble for a minute or two stirring frequently (you don’t want it to burn!). Remove the sauce from the heat and allow it to cool completely.
Next get out your blender and add the remaining cream, bananas you have cut into smaller pieces, and a squeeze of lemon juice, into it. Blend away until its smooth, creamy and thick. Really. That’s all you have to do. No really, thats it!
Next Gordon has you make them all fancy into separate dishes, but since I was taking mine to a party this is what I did. Spoon about 1/3 of the caramel sauce into a 9 × 9 glass baking dish (or well whatever you want to serve this thing in). Next add the banana mousse. Then spoon another 1/3 over the top of the bananas. Stir until swirled. Add the last 1/3 and swirl into the banana mousse again.
Finally shave some chocolate over the top, or do like I did and just sprinkle some chocolate powder you use for baking over the top. Its really not too bitter considering how sweet the rest of the dish is.
You’ve heard of cherry coke, there’s even vanilla coke, there are weird diet cokes, and random odd flavors that come out every now and then. This concoction you have to make on your own though.
Last year at an Italian festival nearby, there was a stand advertising, vanilla coke, cherry coke, and chocolate coke. I’m a coke addict so I had to see what was going on, and the lady at the stand showed me how to make it, and now I will share it with you!
Ok, its not that big of secret. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the ingredients are simple:
Pour in the coke.
Add some chocolate syrup and stir. (It has to be syrup, chocolate milk powder mix DOESNOTWORK. Believe me, I tried.)
I recommend adding ice, after mixing in the syrup, otherwise you get little chocolate globules floating throughout the drink.
Also don’t worry when it fizzes up when you add the syrup, its just what it does.
I made this salad a few weeks ago to take to a friends 4th of July barbeque (I’m really late, I know). I love basil, it is so tasty. I’ve got three plants growing in my back yard and I have more than I know what to do with!
I’ve always wanted to make my own pesto, and now I finally have enough fresh basil to do so! The recipe consists of a creamy buttermilk based dressing with garlic and pesto, mixed with noodles, fresh veggies and real mozzarella cheese chunks. Its really easy and really tasty.
I came up with this recipe by taking bits and pieces from all over the internet, and mixing in some of my own tastes! It has quite a few steps, but that’s only because I made my own pesto, but its relatively simple.
Ingredients
Dressing:
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoons rice vinegar
Pesto:
(or use 1 cup pre-made jarred pesto)
(this part is from simply recipes)
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or chopped walnuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salad:
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup green beans
1 cup chopped zucchini (about one squash)
(if you prefer different veggies, use whatever you want!)
1/2 cup shredded fresh Parmesan cheese
1 big ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed (or a bunch of the little balls, shredded if that’s all you’ve got!)
16 oz your choices of pasta (I used fusilli, but was seriously contemplating some bowtie)
Boil the pasta according to the box directions, drain, and allow to cool.
Mix together the buttermilk, sour cream, mayonnaise and garlic, set aside to let those flavors meld.
Prepare the pesto.
Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Set aside.
If you don’t like crispy veggies, lightly steam the zucchini and green beans. Don’t let them turn to mush though, it’ll just make the salad a mess
Toss together the pasta, and other salad ingredients, reserving a handful of Parmesan, mozzarella and tomatoes to top the salad.
Just before serving mix together everything but the reserved ingredients. Top the salad with the reserved ingredients and a few whole basil leaves to make everything look pretty.
Its one of my favorite vegetable dishes, and really easy to make. Almost as easy as opening a can, but better.
When its tomato season again I plan on making this with fresh tomatos. As part of the natural food diet I’m on, I’m trying to eat more locally and seasonally (not saying I am able to do this all the time, but I’m trying).
Ingredients:
1-2 small zucchini (or more if you have many)
1 can of plain tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (plain)
olive oil
basil
oregano
garlic
Clean and slice the zucchini into chunks. Slice the zucchini longways, then again if needed, then into small slices. Half or quarter circle chunks are a good size depending on the diameter of the zucchini.
Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan and add the zucchini. Saute until tender.
Next add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.
The tomatoes I used already had garlic, oregano, and basil in them. Normally I use plain diced tomatoes, and they usually aren’t organic. This is just what my parents had in their pantry, so its what I used.
At this point, add some garlic powder, oregano and basil to flavor.
Stir and cook until the tomato flavor is saturated throughout the dish.
I’m told that when I was a baby/toddler my grandfather used to give me whole onions to just munch on like you would an apple. I’m not as fond of onions now as I was then.
Whenever I order something like a hamburger or sandwich, I very strictly specify no onions. I can’t stand the things, most of the time they’re little crunchy chunks of strong taste that usually just mess up whatever I’m eating. If they aren’t crunchy then they’re long and stringy.
The first time I made cucumber salad I left the onions out because I thought they were gross. The resulting salad was even worse though.
One thing that does include onions that I love, and don’t even mind eating the onions in, is french onion soup. I’ll admit, the only reason I ate it in the first place was the the melted cheese on top. Then I found out french onion soup, doesn’t taste like onions.
Up until this point I had been dining on soup from restaurants. The canned stuff was just disgusting and my mom’s was just lacking.
I’m still working on perfecting on my personal recipe every time I make it, but this is what I have so far:
Ingredients:
1 large spanish onion (I prefer this to a yellow or sweet onion)
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp flour
4 cups beef broth (or vegetable)
pepper
1/2 tsp ground sage
For toasty cheese topping:
1 slice of toasted bread cubed or sliced (your preference)
1-2 slices of swiss cheese, or shredded, (or mozzarella, or gruyere)
Peel and slice the onion very thinly. If you don’t want long stringy pieces of onion cut the slice in half.
Melt the butter in the olive oil on low heat in a large soup pot, making sure it doesn’t burn. Add the onions and stir to coat.
Cook the onions on low heat until translucent and soft.
Add the salt and sugar, stir.
Bring the heat up to medium, medium-high heat, and cook until a deep golden brown throughout. Stir frequently making sure that they cook, but not burn. At this point they’ve broken down, and only partially still look like onions.
When they are cooked, turn the heat down again to low and stir in 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir with the onions until the onions are coated and the mixture is paste-like. If the flour is not sticking, add another tablespoon of butter. Cook another minute or two so that the flour browns.
Add about 1 cup of the beef broth and mix well. It should be a thick consistency without any lumps but the onions.
Add the rest of the beef broth and stir to combine.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and sage.
Allow to simmer for approximately 1 hour.
Serve as is, with cheese topping:
Toast some bread in a toaster, or brush with olive oil and brown under a broiler.
Pour the soup into am oven/broiler proof dish, top with the toasted bread and sprinkle with cheese (or place a slice of cheese over the entire dish).
Broil or bake at 400 degrees F until the cheese is melty and tasty.
So, potato soup is boring and white looking, with maybe little bits and pieces in it. But the taste is much more exciting.
I started with a basic Potato Leek Soup from Simply Recipes and modified it a little to fit my taste, ending up with a tasty smooth simple potato soup.
Ingredients:
3 large leeks
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)
4 medium to large sized potatoes
Salt & Pepper
Start with three leeks:
Trim the leafy bits and the hairy bits from them:
(Dude! They took my hair off!)
Slice them lengthwise:
(Wow, man! Look at your insides!)
Then chop them all to pieces, and rinse them well in a colander:
(Well this sucks.)
Melt the butter in a really big soup pot:
Add the leeks and cook on low for 10 minutes. DO NOTLETTHEMBURN OR BROWN! They’ll taste gross if you do.
While those are cooking, peel and chop the potatoes into about 1/2 inch pieces (or smaller if you want them to cook faster):
(Dude, you’re nekkid. Yeah man so are you!)
Add them to the leeks and add the water and broth:
Cook for 20 Minutes. The soup is almost done when the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, and the mix looks kinda goupy:
Now comes the tricky part.
If you have a stick blender you can stick in the pot to blend up some of the potatoes, this is the easiest way.
If you don’t very very carefully, pour out half of the soup. Put that into a blender and blend until smooth. CAREFULLY! This stuff is hot hot hot!
Add the blended mixture back into the other half still in the pot and stir to combine.
Carefully do a taste test without burning your tongue. Add salt and pepper as needed until you like how it tastes. There are other things you can add to it like hot sauce, marjoram, or other spices, but I like things like this to be simple.
In the past week I have made two different types of baklava. One traditional style with sheets of phyllo and nuts, another with phyllo, nuts, and a custard.
The traditional name for custard baklava is Baklava Muhalabiyya in Arab cuisine, and Galaktoboureko in Greek cuisine. There is a difference between the two, the greek custard contains eggs, where the Arab custard does not.
Seeing the custard baklava got my brain wheels a turning. What would happen if I combined the traditional nut baklava with the tasty new custard baklava that I found?
The results are mixed. The custard in the baklava I created is only okay for a day or two, whereas nut baklava usually gets better with age. Add to that fact the forgetting of the dish on food day at work, and not having the will to actually eat an entire pan of the stuff, leads to kind of runny sugar syrupy, custard lumpy, but the nuts and the top phyllo still tasty as can be.
So that recipe is a half fail at the moment.
Because that was slightly a fail, and I still had plenty of phyllo left over, I mad a smaller pan of traditional nut Baklava, but only with pecans instead of walnuts or pistachios. Its my Baklava, I’m using pecans if I want to.
It is best if you make the syrup first. It needs to be cool when you pour it over the just out of the oven baklava. If it is still warm when poured, instead of cooking and bubbling when it hits the hot dish, it will just soak into the phyllo and make it soggy.
Ingredients:
1 c sugar
1 c honey
1 1/2 c water
2 tbsp lemon juice
Combine all of the above ingredients in a heavy saucepan.
Bring mixture to a boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves.
Boil for about 5 minutes, without stirring until it forms a thick clear syrup.
Set aside to let it cool completely, not moving it or moving it as little as possible.
6 cups of whole milk
1 c semolina flour
3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 c white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 eggs
1/2 c white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bring the milk to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
In a medium bowl whisk together the semolina, cornstarch, 1 cup of sugar and salt so there are no clumps.
When the milk comes to a boil, gradually add the semolina mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
Cook stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and returns to a full boil.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Beat the eggs until the yolks are broken and slightly mixed.
Add 1/2 c up of sugar,
and whip until thick and pale about 10 minutes. (10 minutes here people, I’m not kidding.)
(Before – dark yellow, After – light yellow)
Stir in vanilla.
Fold the whipped eggs into the hot semolina mixture, cover lightly with plastic wrap (to keep from getting that nasty milk film on the top of it), and set aside to cool.
Nut Filling:
1 lb walnuts finely chopped or coarsely ground, or pistachio (I used pecans, because I like pecans, but walnuts or pistachios are traditional)
1/4 c sugar
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
There are many different blends for Baklava fillings, search the internet and experiment to find one that you like. According to a taste tester, this one has an apple pie flavor because of the cinnamon and cloves.
Finely chop the nuts, by hand, by blender, or food processor. Use whichever method you have available and are comfortable with. I don’t have a cutting board yet, so I put my blender to use. (Living in different houses and using what they already have leads to having a blender, but not a cutting board.)
Mix together the chopped nuts, sugar, cinnamon and cloves.
You will need:
Approximately 1/2-1 cup clarified butter (see below)
A pastry brush
One package of phyllo dough
Clarified Butter
To make clarified butter for this recipe melt two sticks of butter in a microwave safe bowl, do not stir while the butter is melting. Otherwise you will have to wait for the butter to separate.
When the butter is done melting there should be three layers, a fluffy white layer on top, a translucent yellow layer in the middle, and thick white fatty looking layer on the bottom.
Skim the foamy layer off the top, using a spoon and a paper towel.
When the majority of the foamy white stuff has been skimmed off the top, carefully pour the translucent yellow liquid into another bowl, making sure none of the white goop on the bottom goes with it.
This translucent yellow liquid is the clarified butter.
It helps to read up on Baklava and working with phyllo dough before starting, this is a very handy guide written by an at home Baklava baker.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Set up your working station:
Setting up the work station is important. Phyllo dough dries out very quickly so you have to work just as fast. The basics of what you will need are phyllo dough, clarified butter, pastry brush, a damp towel, plastic wrap and a water spritzer. Have both or either filling close at hand as well.
Note that most of the images below are from my nut only Baklava, using a 9 × 9 inch glass baking dish. The images with the 9 × 13 inch baking dish are from my custard/nut combination. I had my roommate take the pictures this time too, so you get to see both hands! (And no, those are not my pajamas, really…)
Roll out your phyllo dough onto the waxy sheet that comes with it, or onto some wax paper. Cover with the damp towel and plastic wrap.
Brush down the dish you are making this in with the butter.
Lay in the first layer.
If your phyllo sheets are larger than your dish (like below) lay one side into the dish with part of it hanging over the edge. Spread butter onto the portion on the bottom of the dish with the pastry brush. Fold over the extra edge then brush that with butter as well.
Go lightly with the butter, you don’t want to drown the sheets of dough.
Continue building layers like this brushing each one lightly with butter before adding the next until there are 8-10 layers of dough in the dish.
If your dough is longer than your dish, but not twice as wide, alternate sides that the dough folds over on. That way there is the same number of layers on each side, and your desert isn’t lopsided.
If you notice your damp towel is getting a little too dry, and your phyllo is becoming brittle, spritz the towel with water lightly. If you soak the towel it will get the phyllo wet and it will stick together.
Pour in your filling, and even it out (for both the custard and the nuts). I wanted more than one layer of nuts, so I reserved about half of them for later.
Lay another layer of dough on the filling and brush with butter. Be careful if you are using the nut filling, it is easy to tear the dough at this point, especially if you are using a sticky brush, since it doesn’t stick to the nuts very well. The dough sticks very well to the custard though, and I didn’t have any problem with tearing at this layer.
If you do tear the dough (which is likely), just piece it back together the best you can and brush it gently with the butter. I have found it didn’t matter too much with tearing except the top layer, but that is only because I wanted a pretty top layer.
Add about 8-10 more layers, brushing with butter between each, as directed above.
If you are just using one layer of filling you can stop at this point. If you are using more than one continue, adding another layer of filling, then another 8-10 layers of dough, and so on, until you have as many layers as you would like, or until you run out of filling.
I don’t recommend having multiple layers of the custard. The dough in the middle is likely to become soggy and ick, it works best with one solid layer in the middle of flakey dough.
You can add as many layers of dough at a time you would like, its your Baklava. Most recipes I found recommended 8-10 and I found it worked well in mine.
When you get to the very top layer of dough, using a nice solid piece of phyllo press it onto the top of the dish. If like in my case, your phyllo is larger than your dish, lay what would be the extra in the dish and brush with butter first, or trim a sheet to the proper size. Lay over the larger piece to cover the entire dish with one solid piece of dough.
Using a VERY sharp knife carefully slice through the top layer of dough.
Do not cut through the bottom layer. If you only have one layer of filling (like with the custard) only cut through the top layer. If you have multiple layers slice through them, but not the bottom one. The cuts make the top bake golden and crispy and pretty, and leave space for the sugar syrup to flow through the entire dish. Cutting directions can be found on this site.
Spritz lightly with water
Bake 40-45 minutes if you have a custard filling, and 30-35 for a nut filling. I have seen recipes that have you bake the phyllo for up to an hour. Take the Baklava out of the oven when the top is golden brown and crispy looking. The custard does need to be in the oven for at least 40 minutes though so that the custard can cook long enough to set.
Immediately after removing it from the oven pour the sugar syrup over it making sure to pour some on all of it getting into the corners and along the edges.
Allow the dish to cool completely. COMPLETELY.
When cool, using a sharp knife, slice through the baklava, following the cuts already made, slicing all the way through to the bottom.
The custard Baklava is best eaten within the first day or two. After that it gets soggy and liquid-y.
On the other hand the nut baklava gets tastier with age. I’m not sure how long until it goes bad. It never lasts very long.
My friend and I have spent over half a year renovating a house to live in. Its an old house, over 100 years old. The plaster was falling down and everything was painted bright blue and ugly pink/brown/orange. It wasn’t even awesomely kitchy in tacky 1970 colors, it was just downright ugly.
I would post the pictures directly here but the Realtor is a friend of mine, and she seemed doubtful when my roommate said he’d take it. We plan on having her over once its done completely and hope she doesn’t have a heart attack at 23. So if you’re my house selling friend, don’t look yet! Everyone else click on through.
The plaster from all walls except for one closet was torn down (now that was fun), and this is what the kitchen looked like (and thats after cleaning it up a bit). The kitchen along with the rest of the house has improved greatly. The kitchen is so big I almost don’t know what to do with myself.
Except cook.
The only problem is that we hadn’t done any real grocery shopping since well, I don’t even remember. All we had were little bits and pieces that had made it through packing, storage, and then floating around the house for a while. I realized though, that we did have enough for a quick stir fry like meal.
Start by thawing about 1/2 to 1 pound of chicken (whatever kind of chicken you may have) or if you’re vegetarian – tofu, meat substitute or whatever you’ve got.
When you are done using the microwave for thawing (or if you don’t have to thaw the meat at all) cook some boxed rice according to the package’s microwave instruction (this is gourmet cooking we’re doing here).
If you have enough cookware, feel free to cook the rice on the stove. I couldn’t find my saucepan, but I could find a large microwave safe bowl, so that’s how I made it.
Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and lightly shake on some soy sauce.
Heat up a large skillet with a little bit of oil in it (or skip the oil if you don’t have any).
Cook the chicken until cooked through and tasty and golden (or not if you prefer that sort of thing).
Add the frozen vegetables. Yes add them frozen, we’re lazy here people. Use however many vegetables you want. I used a box of Asian teriyaki vegetables, and 1/3 a bag of green beans. Add about 1/4-1/2 a cup of water to help steam the veggies.
Normally this is where I would cover the food to let the steam help thaw out and cook the veggies, but I have no idea where the lid is. I was just happy to find this pan. So if you have a lid, stick it on. Stir occasionally to break up the veggies as they thaw.
When the veggies have separated, its time to add some sauce.
We had some bottled sweet and sour sauce and some soy sauce, so I poured some on. I contemplated using some oriental sesame chicken marinade we had on hand too, but there was already teriyaki sauce in some of the frozen vegetables.
There was still alot of water left in the pan so I decided to thicken it, But then I realized we didn’t have any cornstarch. So I used a few spoonfuls of flour instead, and it actually didn’t turn out too badly.
Spoon out some of the cooking water into a bowl and then whisk in the thickening agent with a fork. Make sure its as smooth as possible before adding it back to the food, otherwise there will be lumps.
Take the rice out of the microwave and laugh at the smiley face the seasonings made as it was cooking, and contemplate selling it on ebay along with mary on toast.
Cook the stir fry for a few more minutes until things thicken up a bit and you’re done!
I made this smoothie this morning to hide a bunch of stuff I didn’t want to taste. I’m suffering from my second spell of illness in the past month. It has not been fun. (It’s also why I haven’t been posting, who wants to eat something a sicko ate?)
My dad gave me some anti-viral elderberry extract to help me get better, and stay better. Its not that it tastes bad, its elderberry extract, its just stronger than strong. Usually when you think of extracts you think of little bottles of alcohol-y fruit flavored liquids you add to things you are cooking or baking. Not this stuff, this stuff is almost as thick as honey, and as dark as molasses. Usually I take a spoonful of the stuff and pour it right down the back of my throat. This morning my brother’s magic bullet sitting right next to the bottle of extract was calling to me.
4 oz wide rice noodles
hotwater
1 lime halfved
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
pinch red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp peanut oil
1/4 c cilantro chopped
1 egg
1/4 c unsalted peanuts
1 c bean sprouts
Soak the noodles in hot water in the medium mixing bowl while you make the sauce and scramble the egg.
Squeeze the juice from the lime into a small mixing bowl. Dig out any seeds with your fingers and discard the seeds. Add the fish sauce, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar, and the peanut oil to the lime juice. Beat with a fork to combine.
Scramble the egg in the skillet over medium heat. When the eggs are solid drain the water off the noodles and add them to the skillet.
Add the sauce, the peanuts, and the bean sprouts to the skillet. Stir everything together with the tongs, and cook until its all warm.
Turn off the stove, take the skillet off the burner, and transfer your super fly ad thai to serving plates with tongs. Sprinkle with cilantro.
1 1/2 cups chopped bell peppers
1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli florets
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup diced radishes
1/2 cup Orange-Oregano Dressing or Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing
1 tablespoon minced red onion
Place bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, radishes, dressing and onion in a medium bowl. Toss to coat. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
NUTRITIONINFORMATION: Per serving: 64 calories; 2 g fat (0 g sat, 1 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 10 g carbohydrate; 2 g protein; 3 g fiber; 198 mg sodium; 371 mg potassium.
Nutrition bonus: Vitamin C (240% daily value), Vitamin A (140% dv).
2 6-oz cans chunk light tuna, drained
1 15-oz can small white beans, cannellini or great northern
10 cherry tomatoes
4 scallions, trimmed and sliced
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
ground pepper to taste
Combine tuna, beans, tomatoes, scallions, oil, juice salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir gently. Refrigerate until reado to serve.
Prepare the greenbeans. If they are fresh cut them into bite sized pieces and trim off the ends. Cook until tender, steam in microwave or blanch.
While the green beans are cooking, prepare the bacon. Its best to used the vacuum sealed slab you get at the grocery store that is already cut into slices, partially frozen. The frozen part makes it easier to cut into slices. Working from the end cut off 1/4 inch wide slices for about 2 inches or as much bacon as you’d like. Fry the bacon until cooked. Drain all but a tablespoon or two of the bacon grease.
Stir 1-2 tablespoons each of the mustard and brown sugar. Use as much that suits your tastes.
Then take this bacon/mustard/sugar sauce and mix it into the greenbeans.
The holidays just aren’t the holidays with this tasty
Cocktail Weenies
Currant Jelly
Yellow Mustard
Mix equal parts mustard and jelly, enough to cover the cocktail weenies (but don’t add them yet!). Warm in a small crock pot until jelly blobs are gone. Add weenies and cook until warm.
(You can also slowly microwave the sauce instead of using the crock pot.)
This turns out just like the canned stuff, but its not.
1-2 small zucchini
1 can of plain tomato sauce
1 can tomato sauce with tomato bits (stewed tomatoes, canned tomatoes)
oil
basil
oregano
garlic
Wash the zucchini and cut it up into small pieces, slice longways slice that piece in half then cut into little triangular pieces.
Add a small amount of oil to the pan and sautee the zucchini until just tender.
Pour in the tomato sauce and add the sauce with the bits in it. If using whole canned tomatoes, squish them in your hand (or cut them into smaller pieces with a knife) before adding.
Add some basil. I use about a table spoon of basil and a teaspoon of oregano because I loooove basil.
Crush a garlic clove or two (to your liking) and add to the sauce. You can also add it when sauteeing the zucchini, but I have a tendancy to burn it when I do that then it just tastes gross. If you dont have fresh garlic go ahead and use some powdered garlic to your taste. Fresher is better.
Let everything simmer and mellow out for a while. If I’m makingthis for dinner I usually start it first so it can simmer while I’m cooking everything else.
This is sort of like alfredo sauce, but not. Its really good and really creamy
1 8oz Package of Cream Cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp Dried Basil
2 tbsp Dried Parsley
1 tsp Garlic Powder or 1 garlic clove chopped
1/4 c Grated Parmesean Cheese
1/4 c Olive Oil
1/4 c Boiling Water
Melt the butter in a saucepan at low and add the basil and parsley, dont let the butter burn.
Cut the cream cheese into smaller chunks and add to the butter herb mix.
When the cream cheese begins to melt add the olive oil.
Then add the Parmesean cheese and garlic powder. You can adjust any of the herbs or parmesean cheese to your taste. (Although adding a large amount of parmesean cheese makes it a little stringy).
When everything is incorporated and beginning to come together (its ok if things are still lumpy and separated), add the boiling water. This is an important step, without it everything stays separated and is gross (I know this from expirience). Stir at low heat until everything is blended and creamy.
Serve over noodles of your choice.
While cooking or after refrigerating the sauce it may separate. If it separates during cooking you may have it too hot or too cold, adjust the temperature until it blends together again, dont worry. If it separates in the refridgerator, just warm the sauce again slowly stirring occasionally (like 10-15 seconds in the micro, stir, repeat) until blended together again.
This is a really tasty and easy dinner. If you forget about marinating the steak until the last minute, dont worry let it marinate while you cut up the pepper and drain the pineapple, instead of cooking it while you do those things. Its also a good way to use the steak that has been in your freezer for a while or if you cant afford expensive stuff.
1-2 lb steak (doesn’t have to be expensive)
1 Can Chunk or Tidbit Pineapple
1 Green Pepper
Soy Sauce
Cornstarch
1 c White Rice
Slice the steak into thin strips cutting against the grain.
Place the steak into a large bowl and add soy sauce until the steak is pretty much covered.
Let the steak marinate 1-2 hours (or overnight if you really like
soy sauce).
Cook the rice (I’m assuming you know how to do this).
Heat a large pan and add the steak and sauce from the bowl.
While the steak is cooking wash and cut the pepper into bite sized pieces.
Cook until almost all of the pink is gone.
Add the pepper and cook until almost tender.
Drain the pineapple juice from the can reserving it in a bowl.
Add about 1 tbsp of cornstarch to the juice and mix well.
Add the juice to the steak and pepper.
When the sauce has thickened slightly add the pineapple and heat just long enough to warm.
Stumble It! | Comment
These are kind of like pancakes, but they’re not. They’re fluffy and they grow and are really good with syrup.