Breakfast Casserole

We actually had this for dinner Monday night. There were no leftovers....

5 eggs
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can milk
1-2 t good mustard
4-5 shakes hot sauce
½ - 1 lb sausage (you can use turkey breakfast sausage as I do, pork breakfast sausage, turkey or pork Italian sausage
5 slices good bread - cubed (My sister in law Sherry uses tomato rosemary focciacia sometimes)
1 cup shredded super sharp cheddar

Cook and crumble sausage. Drain well. Spray casserole dish and put bread cubes and then sausage in dish. Wisk eggs, soup and milk. Add in mustard & hot sauce. Wisk. Pour over bread & sausage. Top with cheese. Spray foil with Pam (or use no-stick foil) and cover tightly. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 for at least 1 hour if not 1 ½ hours. Uncover for last 15 minutes. Yum.

You could also add sauteed fresh mushrooms, or canned , finely diced onions or celery or all three. If you used Italian sausage, you could top with Mozzerella or provolone.

This will puff up and look awesome. It will also look like way too much food. People always love this and I rarely have leftovers. But it re-heats very nicely.

Pot Roast Stew

So - I didn't have pot roast but I did have beef stew meat.

2 onions - sliced into sixths lengthwise
carrots - I had baby ones on hand - used about ½ bag
4 stalks celery - sliced into thirds
1 T olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves
1 lb beef stew meat
salt
pepper
sugar
wine
flour

Heat oil in a dutch oven until it is very hot. Meanwhile pat beef chunks dry and season with salt, pepper and sugar (the sugar gives it a GREAT carmelized sear). Sear the beef in two batches. Set beef aside. Add in wine - white or red - your preference. I used about ½ bottle of rose for this - cause it's what I had on hand. Using your garlic press, press garlic into wine. Add in veggies and beef. Cover with tin foil or ovenproof lid of dutch oven. Roast at 350 for 2+ hours. Remove meat and veggies. I use a big wok slotted spoon. Add more wine depending on how much is left and start it boiling. Make a slurry with 1/3 cup wine and 2-3 T flour. Add some hot wine into slurry and then add the whole thing into the dutch oven. Wisk to keep it smooth. Add back in meat and veggies and serve over mashed potatoes (as I did), egg noodles, good bread (for a pot roast hot shot), rice, whatever you have on hand!

I realized in the middle of the night - when I have all my great realizations - that the recipe I was cribbing off of called for a can of whole tomatoes - crushed. Totally forgot but this was great anyway. Scott loved it. There were no leftovers.

Whole Wheat Bread

So - a slight whole wheat bread obsession - compliments of my husband - has overtaken me. He doesn't like the white bread I make. It's too dense and too white for him. (one of his solutions? Yellow food coloring. Really.)

So - I started with this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Six or so loaves later I think I've got it.

I used this yeast. I had the thought on about loaf 4 to use more yeast. This caught my eye at the grocery and I like the brand.

I proofed the yeast according to the package (1/4 cup warm water, 1/4 t sugar) BEFORE I added it to the flour mixture.

I used this whole wheat flour and added it first so that I would be sure to get the full amount in the bread.

I used this white flour and only added about 2 1/4 cups. But that always varies.

Wow - a whole wheat dough that actually rose! It responded to the second rising (a problem I'd been having) and baked up wonderfully. The loaf is almost gone - I made it Sunday and it's Tuesday.

Success!

Kale Soup

Lisa's making Kale soup on the WILL show and I've been thinking about it ever since she mentioned it. At Wal-mart on Saturday they had HUGE bags of triple washed kale. HUGE. about 16x12 inches. And I had a turkey kielbasa in the freezer so....

Smoked Turkey Kale Soup

1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic - mashed
1 T olive oil
3 medium potatoes diced
1 cup white wine
2 cans chicken stock
1-2 cups water
1 Turkey Kielbasa (1 lb?) chopped
a lot of kale
salt
pepper

saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add potatoes and saute the whole mess for a while. (I don't know why - but sauteing the potatoes in soups first makes them more palatable to me.) Add kielbasa and brown a bit.

Add white wine, and start ripping up and adding kale (I had about a 6" long piece of kale in soup at a restaurant recently and it was NOT GOOD.) Let kale cook down a bit. Add some more kale, the chicken stock. Cook down. More kale. Water. Cook down. More kale. I would guess I used about 1/3 of the bag of kale. Let kale simmer and cook down. It really doesn't ever get mushy (a la spinach).

I just had some for lunch. Tasty.

Exciting pieces of news:

Scott reports that Papa Del's now has signage up & equipment inside at their long-awaited restaurant at Village at the crossing.

Secondly - Seth won! Seth Won!! Seth will be cooking live on WILL TV, 3/9/09. He submitted his beef stew recipe and was the only child selected. I have never seen him so excited! Details to follow.....

DARN! Taco Filling

This was a huge hit and I really wasn't paying attention when I was cooking it.... I *think* this is pretty close.

1 lb beef stew meat (I get ours from Marketday.)
1 can diced or crushed tomatoes
1 onion - diced
4-6 diced pickled jalapenos
1 cup chicken broth
½ -1 t sugar
salt
pepper

saute onions and peppers in olive oil. Season meat and brown in two batches. Add tomatoes & chicken broth. Simmer for 2-3 hours until the beef shreds. Use as taco, enchilada, mexican lasagna filling, etc.

And - I'm working on more pictures!

Chicken Tetrazzini

This was an attempt to get everyone to eat the same thing for dinner. If I make something very very basic (chicken breasts or steak with [plain] pasta) everyone will eat it. But really - how often can you eat that....

Everyone did eat this. Maya, Scott and I loved it. Seth tolerated one serving and filled up on Clementines. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when that season is over.

Adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe

8 oz. pasta ( I used angel hair broken into thirds) cooked al dente
2 Market Day chicken breasts - cubed
1 onion - chopped fine
2 stalks celery - diced large (the better to pick it out...)
2 T flour
1 cup skim milk
3-4 oz sharp cheddar - separated
Potato Chips [because Seth will eat ANYTHING with potato chips]

Saute chicken in a bit of olive or canola oil. Set aside. Saute veggies and add flour. Cook flour for 3-4 minutes. Add milk and ½ the cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.

Pam a casserole dish. Mix everything together. top with chips and the rest of the cheese [grated]. Bake at 375 for approx. ½ hour. I made this the night before and once again - was SO happy to have a dinner to pop in when I got home.

What are YOU doing tomorrow?

I'm making these two recipes. I counted and I have 24 small and 12 large goodie bags to make!


Puppy Chow

My kids love this stuff. It goes for $4 for about a 3 cup container at our County Market grocery - and it's so easy to make at home. My friend Maggie calls it Trash because she coats it with powdered sugar in a trash bag. I have my eye on a 1XL Glad bag to do my mixing this year. I'll likely make 4x this recipe in two batches.

1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/4 cup Butter
1 cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
9 cups Crispix cereal
1-1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

1. Combine peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.

2. Microwave for one minute then stir to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Add 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Stir well.

3. Pour over cereal. Coat with powdered sugar.

Buckeyes

My friend Judy from Chicago calls these diabetic coma cookies. When I was growing up in Ohio these were a standard at holiday parties. Once my girlfriends and I made a game of counting how many one of the mom's at the party ate. It. Was. A. LOT. These freeze perfectly.

1 lb. box powdered sugar
1 1/2 c. smooth peanut butter
1/2 c. soft butter
3 c. Rice Krispies
dark chocolate or whatever you prefer

Put peanut butter and powdered sugar into bowl. Melt butter, blend into peanut butter until smooth. Add Rice Krispies and combine. Cool for a bit for easier handling. Coat hands with butter and form mixture into "small" balls. Return to refrigerator to re-cool.

Melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave. Once balls are cooled, insert a toothpick as a "handle" and dip 1/2 of peanut butter ball into chocolate. Place onto waxed paper and allow to cool. I have NO idea how many batches of these I'll make, probably at least three.

Perhaps I need to get out more?

Two cool things I came across at lunch today.

One - from a children's Hannukah cookbook - grate the potatoes for your latkes over a colander and let them drain. Amazing! I just never thought of this.

Two - from a co-worker's plate of holiday goodies - she took a picture of the plate then put on labels for all the items, printed it out and taped it to the cover. Amazing again! Like a map of a box of chocolates.

Two cool cooking things in 1 hour! Fun!

Three (or more!) Cheese Lasagna

This is a hit at potlucks with kids.

12 pieces dry lasagna (NOT the "no-boil" kind)
2 jars of your favorite pasta sauce
1 medium container cottage cheese
1 medium container ricotta cheese
shredded mozzerella, provolone, maybe a little cheddar to make 8-16 oz. - depending on how cheese-y you are feeling.
1 egg

These are the bare bones ingredients. I usually doctor up the sauce with by sauteing some onions, garlic & mushrooms in olive oil first, and adding some wine or balsamic vinegar.

Mix all the cheeses except for about 4-6 oz of the shredded, with the egg. You could add a little parsley too if you wanted.

Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Ladle in one cup sauce (A 1 cup ladle is a MUST in any kitchen!) Line pan with uncooked lasagna, breaking pieces to fit as necessary. Top with ½ of the of the cheese mixture. Top with 2 cups (approx) of the sauce. Repeat with lasagna, cheese & sauce. Add one more layer of lasagna and sauce and top with reserved cheese.

THIS IS THE KEY TO THIS RECIPE: Spray a large piece of foil with cooking spray. Tightly and completely cover the pan with the foil. You can make ahead and refrigerate at this point.

Bake at 350 for 1 1/4 to 1 ½ hours. Remove foil and broil a couple minutes if you like your cheese browned.

For potlucks - this is a nice non-meat dish that kids love. If just the family is eating - I would add some ground sirloin to the sauce - browning with the onions, etc.

yum.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Just thinking about cooking for them them is fun for me. This is what I typically make - recipes to follow throughout the next couple weeks:

Cheddar Jalapeno Crackers - from my single days

Poor Girl's Turtles
This is what the kids love to make - although Seth wants to try something "real" this year. Cover a pan with mini pretzel twists. Top each with a Rollo. Put in oven for 3 minutes on 300 - watching very closely. Remove from oven and carefully press a pecan half into each one. Cool and enjoy! Make WAY more than you think you will need. Unwrapping the rollos is a highly recommended activity for kids ages 4-ish on up. Just give them a limit of how many they can eat while unwrapping.

Buckeyes - cause you know, you can take the girl out of Ohio but you can't take the Ohio out of the girl.

Sugared Walnuts - both this and the fudge are recipes my mother and I always made

Fudge - always always dedicated to my maternal grandpa Ray Wheeler

Potato Latkes
potatoes
onion
carrots
oil
egg
salt & pepper
flour

grate potatoes, onion and carrot. If you want to get all fancy, place them all in an old dish towel and squeeze the moisture out. This involves help from your husband and makes him feel all strong and macho. If you don't want to be all fancy, just add into bowl and use the technique described later. Add in egg(s) salt & pepper, and a little flour.

Heat oil. Fry one latke first to ensure the oil is hot enough. This is one for the trashcan. It never turns out right. I find that smaller latkes work the best. Fry latkes and place on an oven-proof plate in layers of paper towels. Place on low/warm in the oven. Serve with applesauce and sour cream. We like to have horseradish in our sour cream.

If you do not remove moisture from the potatoes, quite a bit will accumulate in the bowl. I tilt the bowl and try not to get too much of it in the latkes when I scoop out the potatoes.

Puppy Chow also known as Trash - a delightful combo of chex mix, peanut butter, chocolate and powdered sugar. A recent discovery and a new fav of the kids.

Seth and I are looking for cookie recipes to add to our holiday favorites. Any ideas?

Sick Mom Crockpot Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - frozen is okay (of course we use Marketday)
1 box rice pilaf
several splashes of your favorite zesty italian dressing

spray crockpot with Pam
put in chicken and splash with dressing
add 1 cup water
put in pilaf and seasoning packet
add another cup water and splash again with dressing.

Cook on low all day. Splash with some more dressing if it seems to be getting dry.

This was a hit with the kids and not just cause I served it with whole cranberry sauce. I used the dressing to keep the chicken moist - mostly cause that's usually what I marinate it in and the kids love it. The pilaf comes out sort of risotto-y. Very comforting when you are sick.

After I put this on to cook I took some Nyquil and slept all day. I was SO HAPPY to have dinner all ready to go!

A Small Preview of the Halloween Party

When I saw these on Suburban Bliss I knew we had to make them. Scott already found me the arms.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I had some at the new Houlihan's a month or so ago and knew it was something I could re-create at home. Both the kids love this.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion - chopped
1 small can of those little peppers found in the hispanic food aisle (the real name is TOTALLY escaping me at the moment.)
2 T olive oil
3-4 ribs celery chopped
1 pattypan squash (I threw this in cause I had some on hand from the farmer's market - totally optional)
2-3 cloves garlic - put through press

brown onion, celery, garlic, peppers in olive oil. Add in cubed chicken about 1/2 way through.

Add: 1/4 - 1/2 c white wine and a squirt of lime juice

Add: 1 of those huge cans of chicken stock - or homemade stock (which I am out of - guess what I'm doing NEXT weekend...)

Simmer for 1-4 hours.

Add in: 2 large flour tortillas sliced into thin strips.

When ready to serve slice up two more tortillas, lay on baking sheet and spray with olive oil spray. Cook at 375 until brown (watch closely).

Ladle piping hot soup into bowls or mugs. Add in: 1 T fat free 1/2 & 1/2 (Optional - again - I had it on hand). Sprinkle with tortilla crunchies and shredded cheese (if you like!)

This is going to be great later this week when it gets cold here. The leaves are changing, fall weather is almost here. This is why I love the Midwest and will never leave.

Obsessed

I know - I've made challah 3 times in the past 5 weeks or so.

This is the original recipe I've always used and it's really the best one I can make. This is "Scott's" recipe - from the News-Gazette and it pre-dates me - so it's from before 1995!

Scott's Challah
7 - 7 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 T active dry yeast (I use 2 packets)
2 c water
1/4 c sugar
1/4 margarine
2 t kosher salt
3 eggs
1 egg
raisins, popppy seeds, sesame seeds (optional)

Combine water, sugar and margarine in a saucepan and heat until just barely over body temp (a tip from Alton Brown I recently tried. Apparently I had always heated my water too hot!)

Meanwhile - mix 3 c flour and yeast in stand mixture with hook. When water mixture is just hot enough add to flour and mix well. Add in 3 eggs. Add in flour 1 cup at a time until the dough is moderately stiff and elastic - mixing for 6-8 minutes.

Place in clean oiled bowl and let rise until double. Divide dough into thirds and each third into thirds again. Work in raisins at this point if you are using. Braid into three loaves. If it's a holiday - make into a round loaf. Otherwise you may leave straight. Let rise until double again. Brush with beaten egg and top with seeds if desired. Bake in 350 - 375 degree oven for about 28 minutes. Knock on loaf when it looks done - if it sounds hollow - it's done (a tip from Cathy Holcomb.) Cool on wire rack.

This is delicious. My kids could eat nothing but this with butter for days when it's fresh. It also makes wonderful french toast when it's not so fresh. (mix egg, 1/2 & 1/2 or milk, vanilla, a splash of oj. Soak slightly stale slices of challah and grill until golden brown.)

The Weekend & Baking for Rosh Hashanah

This past weekend I hosted my parents in for a quick trip from Ohio. The kids love to see them and it was all the more fun because Seth won third place in the state-wide Town & Country Art show. We were all thrilled.

Sunday they left early as is their habit. I spent the day baking for Rosh Hashanah and doing laundry. I made two recipes from the Smitten Kitchen, Challah and Honey Cake. Deb is my new hero. Next time I am putting either raisins or chocolate chips in the honey cake - just to see. Maybe do a loaf with both? It would also be tasty with apples, as in one of her comments.

L'Shanah tovah.

Have a sweet new year.

Isn't This What EVERYONE Does With Their Saturday?

Yesterday I bought 5 lbs of ground sirloin. HOW FUN!

I made:

Meatballs
2 lbs. ground sirloin
1 large chopped onion
2 cloves pressed garlic
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 T Italian seasoning
salt
pepper
1/4 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs (I threw some pieces of almost stale french bread into the blender)
2 eggs

Mix well and form into balls. I baked mine this time b/c the stovetop was full. This made approx. 70 meatballs.

Chili
1 1/2-ish lbs ground sirloin
1 large onion chopped
3 pressed cloves garlic
3 stalks celery chopped
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large can whole tomatoes
3 cans of beer
1/4+ cup chili powder
1 can kidney beans (I would have put in another if I had one on hand!)

Brown meat with onion, garlic & celery. Drain any grease.

Add everything into dutch oven and simmer the heck out of it for 3+ hours. Mash whole tomatoes with potato masher after 2 hours.

We eat Cincinnati style - spaghetti, grate super sharp cheddar, crackers. Maya just has the pasta and cheese!

Empanadas
1 1/2-ish lbs ground sirloin
1 large onion chopped
3 pressed cloves garlic
3 stalks celery chopped
2 T chili powder
1/3 cup dried fruit - I had cranberries. You could also use raisins
Shredded sharp cheddar
refrigerated biscuit dough

Brown first 4 ingredients. I actually did the chili meat and the empanada meat together.

Add chili powder and cranberries.

Fancy way (for when the queen comes to dinner) roll out rounds of biscuit dough. Place small amount of meat and cheese and fold over. Seal with fork. I did about 10 of these, got bored and placed the rest of the biscuit dough (I used almost all of 4 small cylinders) into muffin tins (the tin I used is somewhere between mini & regular sized). Smash meat mixture with fingers. Top with cheese. Bake @ 350 for about 20 minutes. I had 10 regular and about 24 muffins. We ate the regular and I froze the muffins.

Now I have a bunch of meals in the freezer! Yay for me!!!

Dinner Tonight

I'm home with Seth, who is sick. You may have heard me whine about this already today.

So tonight for dinner - what are you making? Here's mine

Beef & Bean Enchiladas

1/2 lb of some kind of cheap steak. I'm marinating it in olive oil, garlic and red wine (WHINE) vinegar as we speak. I'll cook this slowly in the oven with some onion and then shred
1 can black refried beans
1 large can red enchilada sauce (I would prefer the green but the store didn't have any today)
2 cups cooked brown rice (Since Scott is not home to see me cook - I'm sneaking in the brown that he doesn't like as much of the white) Cooked in microwave in a Pampered Chef rice cooker - BEST. EVER. RICE. COOKER.
salsa - I have like 1/2 jar in the fridge.
grated cheese - we like sharp cheddar
whole grain tortillas

Mix together shredded steak and onions, beans, rice & salsa. Maybe add in some chopped pickled jalapenos. Stuff tortillas with bean mixture and cover with enchilada sauce. Bake for about 1/2 hour and then add cheese and back for another 10 minutes or so and broil at the end.

Serve with: sour cream - Maya, avocados - the rest of us.

Not too fancy but I know everyone will eat it! We some great honey crisps - so I'll serve those on the side.

Kids & Food

Is your child picky?

Read this. And the comments. I find them so interesting. I am a bad mother. I don't push things I know my kids won't eat. I ask occasionally.

Seth - I started to write a list of what he *will* eat and then realized it was pretty comprehensive. He will not eat most veggies however. I try to fill in with fruit and he will eat raw veggies over cooked. He refuses anything "fuzzy" (soda) and love milk and lemonade. He loves sushi, pate (a direct result of his trip to France this past summer). He is not big on sauces (on his chicken nuggets, pasta sauce, etc.) He will eat beans in any form: chili, hummus, black beans with his tacos, you name it. Often he tells me he LIKES something (such as mushrooms) but he's just not in the MOOD for it right now....

Maya - would willingly live on mac & cheese (she likes Easy Mac the best! Better than Stouffers!!), grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, cheese pizza. You get the picture. She would rather die than drink milk, however. She LOVES soda. Ugh. She does realize when she has eaten too much cheese or sweets and will self ration at times (No more sweets today, Mom. No cheese until Tuesday!) HOWEVER, she will eat other standard things we have a lot, with not *too* much fuss. And, she will always pick the apples at a fast food restaurant over fries. She also loves Greek food.

They will both eat Chinese, Thai - any Asian. We took them for Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and they were both in heaven. They love any type of berries and will pick those for a treat over candy at the grocery .

SO - I know I need to push the veggies more. When I was growing up, we always had carrot and celery sticks and if you didn't eat the vegetable served with dinner, you ate those. I need to start doing that!

Scott and I eat Indian, Greek, Asian, sushi, lots of veggies, spicy food, a broad range. I love to cook (obviously) and try new recipes and we love to try new restaurants. In the winter we eat a lot of soup. I think this food electicism (is that a word) is rubbing off on my kids. They are always willing to at least try new types of foods, or foods they like cooked in a different ethnic way, and for that I am happy. This is not to say they don't eat pasta with butter & cheese at least once a week. Cause they do. And they love it.....

Trader Joe's

Who can tell me why we don't have a Trader Joe's in Champaign? That, in addition to the rumored SuperTarget off the new Curtis Road interchange, and I could die a happy woman. We are reduced to gigantic shopping trips at the one in Kettering, OH, minutes from my folk's house. Here's what I usually get:

Annie's Organic easy mac
roasted red peppers
pitted calamata olives
roasted red pepper dip
orzo (SO MUCH CHEAPER)
dried tortellini (again with the cheap-ness)
frozen pot stickers
frozen artichoke hearts
Two Buck Chuck - 6+ bottles (I use the white for cookin' and the red for drinkin')
dried fruit
dark chocolate - if in bulk
marinara sauce
feta cheese
goat cheese
frozen tuna burgers
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
peanut sauce
mango chutney
Indian shelf stable entrees
Laughing Cow garlic & herb light
various chicken sausages (last time I got chicken andouille which is so hard to find)
some type of fun beer.

Since we go so rarely - I buy in bulk - usually at least two of everything but the vinegar & oil.