Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 pound extra lean ground beef (the leanest you can find)
1 pound pork sausage (just the plain sausage in a tube like you’d eat for breakfast)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
2 eggs
3/4 cup plain bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.   Dump all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl.  Make sure your hands are super clean and mix together all the ingredients by hand.  (Yes, with your hands.  It’s the most efficient way to do it, and you can feel when everything is mixed well enough.)  Once it’s well incorporated, dump the meat mixture into a 9×13 baking pan and shape into a loaf.  Bake in your preheated oven for one hour.  (For an all-beef meatloaf, you’d usually cook it at 350 for an hour.  The pork sausage requires a higher temperature to be done in the same amount of time, since pork needs to be cooked hotter than beef to be safe to eat.)  Remove from the oven and let rest, as you would a roast, for about 5 or 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

Make sure you leave some leftover, because this meatloaf makes excellent sandwich meat.  It holds together very well when sliced, especially cold.

Some tips for mashed potatoes

• Boil your potatoes whole with the skins on.  This makes the potatoes all gooey and starchy when they’re mashed.  The resulting mashed potatoes will be about 10 times better than they would if you cut up your potatoes.  Put the whole potatoes in a big pot of salted water and boil for half an hour.
• For garlic mashed potatoes (which mine almost always are), add some whole peeled garlic cloves (I usually put in about 2 per potato because I love me some garlic) at the same time you add the potatoes to the water.  Mash the garlic with the potatoes.
• For goodness sake, use real butter, not margarine.  (This is a good rule to follow for just about any food that calls for butter.)  I usually use about 4 potatoes, add in a few tablespoons of butter and a couple splashes of milk.
• I usually don’t bother to peel the potatoes.  I just mash them peel and all.  Gives an interesting texture.  (My mashed potatoes are usually left just a little lumpy too.)  Just make sure your potatoes are well-scrubbed before cooking them.

I bought a three pound pork roast, cut it in thirds and put it in my slow cooker.  To this, I added two packets of taco seasoning and filled the pot half full with water.  I cooked the roast on high for about four hours, long enough for the meat to easily shred with a pair of tongs.  Served up in warm corn tortillas (double them up because the meat is juicy, even when you try to squeeze the juice out a bit) with cheddar cheese, sour cream, salsa and chopped romaine lettuce.   Super easy, but everyone went nuts over them.  The meat is tender, delicious, and nearly melts in your mouth.

Usually when I make this, I use a roast half that size and only use one packet of taco seasoning, and obviously a bit less water.  With slow cookers, you want to use less water than you would when cooking on the stove, as water does not evaporate out of the pot.  When doing this, I usually just put enough water to halfway cover the meat, and stir things around about halfway through.

You could probably do this just as well with a beef roast, or even an equivalent amount of chicken breast, but pork is my favorite meat, so I always use that.

I love to cook, especially for other people.  So, I suppose it’s only natural that it occurred to me to make tasty treats to give out.  Last night, my kitchen (and I) turned into a cookie making factory.  It was a lot of fun to make them, all the while thinking of how much the folks who received them would enjoy them.  (Yes, there is a little selfish element to this…)

Armed with recipes (and ideas for a little modification), I made (dozens of) three of my favorite kinds of cookies.  They’re represented in the picture above.  From left to right:  Peanut Butter Blossoms, Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Cookies, and Jam Thumbprints.  Click through for the recipes.  And Happy Whatever Holiday(s) You’re Celebrating.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

From the Hershey’s Chocolate website

Ingredients:

48 Hershey’s Kisses
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Extra granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended.  Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around the edges.  Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.

About 4 dozen cookies.  (I actually got more like 3 dozen, so mine must have been a little big…)

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Jam Thumbprints

From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (stick and a half), softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fruit preserves or jam, any flavor**

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and egg yolks.  Mix in flour a little bit at a time until a soft dough forms.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls.  If dough is too soft, refrigerate for 15 – 20 minutes.  Place balls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Use your finger or an instrument of similar size to make a well in the center of each cookie.  Fill the hole with 1/2 teaspoon of the preserves/jam.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom.  Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

** Preserves come out less runny when the cookies are fresh out of the oven, and set quicker, since they’re thicker than jam.  But I used blackberry jam and they turned out just fine.  I usually use apricot preserves, but there are dried apricots in the recipe below, so I thought of my next favorite jam.

———-

Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe under the lid of the Quaker Oats carton

Ingredients:

1 stick plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add combined flour, baking soda, and salt; mix well.  Add oats, walnuts, and fruit; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack.  Cool completely.  Store tightly covered.

Yields 4 dozen

I love those ridiculously simple foods that always somehow turn out being more than the sum of their parts.  To me, baked pasta dishes are included in this category.

Tonight, I wasn’t in the mood for meat.  (Don’t get me wrong, I love meat, but I don’t eat it at every meal.)  I made some baked rigatoni with a bunch of vegetables, and topped with a ton of cheese.  Simple, easy to fix, delicious, and filling.

Ingredients

• 1 lb box of tube-shaped pasta (rigatoni, penne, macaroni, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound baby cut carrots, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 zucchinis, halved and sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (I LOVE garlic.  Use less, or none, if you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons dried sweet basil (or several fresh basil leaves, chopped)
• 1 – 26.5 ounce can or 1 jar of plain pasta sauce (I use a can of Hunt’s “Traditional” – It’s usually on sale for a dollar or two, and with all the added extras, there isn’t a noticeable difference from more expensive varieties)
• 2 cups shredded cheese (I used Tillamook “Italian” blend, which has mozzarella, smoked provalone and parmesan, which is fantastic, and was on sale – Usually I just use a cup and a half of mozzarella and half a cup of parmesan)

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions, minus a minute or so.  Drain and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In the now empty pasta pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions with a little salt and saute until just starting to soften.  Add the carrots and bell pepper and continue to cook until they just start to soften.  Add the garlic and zucchini, again cooking until they start to soften.  The idea is to get the veggies about half as done as you’d like them to be when serving.  Just as everything is about done, add half the basil and crack in some black pepper.

Dump in the pasta sauce and stir well.  Let everything cook together for a few minutes.  Remove from heat, add in the pasta.  Stir well, making sure your pasta is thoroughly coated with sauce, inside and out.

Pour the pasta into a greased 9″ x 13″ baking dish and spread evenly.  Everything should just fit.  Spread the cheese over the top.  Sprinkle the remaining basil on top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for half an hour.  Let stand for 5 minutes or so before serving.

YUM.

The dish is a staple in Northeastern Pennsylvania where we lived when Billy was young. It is an Eastern European dish, with roots in Ukraine, Poland, and all Slavic countries.

So just what is Halushki? Peasant food, cheap food but heartwarming food. Let me tell you how to make it.

Ingredients are simple, cabbage, onions, egg noodles and butter. Chop your onion, saute it  in butter. Shred your cabbage, steam it and then add it to the onions and butter. Boil your egg noodles, drain and after the cabbage fries with the onions and lots of butter, mix it all together. Salt and pepper to taste.

Eat this as a main dish or side dish. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!

We in Western Washington are experiencing a cold spell.  And let me tell you, when you’re used to winters where it rarely drops below 40 degrees in the day time, 25 degrees during the day and 18 degrees at night just feels damn cold.  (Anyone out there in places that get actual weather in the winter, please keep your chuckles to yourselves.)  Nothing is better than a warm bowl of soup on days like the ones we’ve been having around here. (Well, except perhaps for someone cute to cuddle up and keep warm with, but our specialty is food, so we’re sticking to that.)

Yesterday, I had the day off.  In addition to being good cold day food, it’s also good day off food because it’s such an easy thing to make.  Toss some stuff in a pot, add some water, let it boil for a while, and eat.  Nice and simple for a day when you’re not up for much but relaxing.

When it comes to soup, I’m ok with something fancy and adventurous once in a while, but what I really love are the standards.  Chicken noodle, navy bean, split pea (extra ham, please), and yesterday’s soup du jour, beef barley.

Here’s how I made it.  I usually improvise soups (and most other foods, now that I think about it), so this is not an exact recipe, and you can adjust it all you like.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion
2 ribs celery
1/2 pound baby cut carrots
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound beef stew meat
2 bay leaves
About a quart and a half of water
About 1/2 a cup of dry pearl barley

Directions:

So, I do everything as I go along when I cook…

Put your soup pot on the burner, on medium heat.  Heat up the oil while you chop the onion.  Toss in the onion and a little salt and stir.  Chop the celery, add it to the pot, and give things another stir.  Cut the carrots into pieces about an inch big, add them to the pot, and stir again.  Let the onion/celery/carrot mixture continue to cook while you peel and mince the garlic.  When the onions in the pot are just starting to get brown, toss in the garlic and mix it in.  While the veggies are finishing, take the stew meat chunks and cut them into quarters, so you have little cubes.  Once those are cut, toss them into the pot, add the dried thyme and some black pepper, and cook, stirring occassionally, until you can’t see red on the meat anymore.  Add the water and bay leaves and stir, making sure to scrape any of the gooey sticky oniony beefy stuff off the bottom of the pan to get it mixed into your broth.  Bring the pot to a boil, then turn the heat down low to medium low (just hot enough to keep it slowly bubbling) and cover.  Let simmer for 3  hours or so, stirring occasionally.  Add the barley, give the pot a stir, and let your soup continue to simmer for another hour and a half.

Your house will begin to smell fantastic about as soon as the soup gets to a boil.  And yes, that is a rather long cooking time, but believe me, when you try the meat, you’ll know it was worth it.  It should just about melt in your mouth.  Also, the long simmer gives plenty of time for all the flavors to incorporate.  And I’m about to go find out how much better it is after spending a night in the fridge.

For the vegetarians out there, I have made a reasonable substitute for beef barley soup using lentils in place of the beef.  Obviously, you wouldn’t have to cook the soup for so long.  For the same amount of soup, I would probably use about half a cup of dry brown lentils, put in after the veggies are done.  For a little extra flavor, I used a couple of drops of sesame oil.  Mushrooms would probably work well too, if you like them (I only like mushrooms if they do fun things to my head, so I rarely cook with them, so decide that one for yourself…).  I would say about 2 hours should be enough cooking time.

(Photo from Marthastewart.com)

Okay, Okay, I know many people hold some strong reservations for anything Martha Stewart. I used to be one of those united in Martha bashing. However, I guess over the years my German heritage has taken ahold of me including the studious OCD homemaker genes which were passed on to me from my amazing German Grandmother, in turn leading me to embrace a large portion of the Martha Stewart culture. I will admit that when I want to find one of those tried and true classic recipes passed on down through generations I head to Marthastewart.com. Before I go hide in shame from these confessions, I must first share her recipe for Stuffed Cabbage Rolls which is actually her Polish Mother, Mrs. Kostyra’s recipe and it is mighty good.

This was a group effort cooking adventure by my husband and I. We are vegetarian and we love taking childhood comfort food recipes and transforming them into healthier vegetarian dishes. So, what we did for this recipe is substituted the 16 oz of meat for a 12 oz. package of Morningstar crumbles and 4 oz of TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein, you can find TVP in the natural section of your local market). Instead of butter we used Extra Virgin Olive oil as well. I also included at the bottom of the recipe the few other changes we made.*

The link to the recipe is inlcuded as well as a picture of the final dish from the site above. I decided to not take the time to take a picture because honestly our final dish looked EXACTLY like the picture they included. I hate to admit it, but this recipe was much better than the dish my very own beloved Grandmother made when I was a child. They are deliciously comforting and one of those perfect cold weather meals. I highly recommend making these and they are toddler approved! One more noteworthy addition that only having a toddler can inspire is serving these with goldfish crackers, trust me it’s a good thing (hahah, I couldn’t resist).

I can’t wait to enjoy the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I hope you take the time to make them. Enjoy!

 Stuffed Cabbage Rolls a la Martha Stewart

  Ingredients

Serves 8

• 2 quarts water
• 1 large green cabbage (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 8 ounces ground beef
• 8 ounces ground pork
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 medium green pepper, grated
• 2 celery stalks with leaves, finely chopped
• 4 cups tomato puree
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

• 1/2 cup sour cream, plus more for garnish

Directions

1. Using a paring knife, remove center core of cabbage. In a large nonreactive stockpot, bring 2 quarts water to a boil. Add cabbage and cook 2 to 3 minutes or until outer leaves are bright green and tender. Lift cabbage from water, and remove outer leaves. Return cabbage to boiling water, and repeat brief cooking and removal of leaves until all leaves are cooked. Reserve 2 cups cabbage cooking water. Trim thick center vein from bottom of each leaf. Reserve four large outer leaves to line bottom of pan.
2. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until golden and tender, about 8 minutes. In a large bowl, combine onion mixture, rice, beef, pork, salt, pepper, parsley flakes, green pepper, and celery. Stir to combine.
3. Add about 1/3 cup rice filling to one cabbage leaf. Fold sides of cabbage over filling, and, starting with the stem end, roll the cabbage up. Repeat with remaining leaves and filling.
4. Line a 5-quart Dutch oven with reserved outside leaves. Transfer stuffed cabbage leaves to Dutch oven.
5. In a large bowl, combine tomato puree and the reserved 2 cups of cabbage cooking water. Pour some of the tomato sauce over cabbage to almost cover. Sprinkle apple over top of cabbage leaves. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a gentle simmer; cover. Cook for 1 hour or until cabbage is very tender, adding additional tomato sauce as needed.
6. Place sour cream in a small bowl, and ladle in about 3/4 cup of tomato sauce from the cooked stuffed cabbage rolls. Whisk to combine. Add sour cream mixture back to Dutch oven, and stir to combine. Serve with additional sour cream.

*We did a few other things differently than the recipe called for. One, we omitted the apple and quadrupled the amount of garlic, I prefer a very savory dish and did not feel like being adventurous with the added sweetness from the apple. Two, we used a Napa cabbage instead of a green cabbage and did not cut the veins out of the leaves. I prefer the flavor of Napa Cabbage, however there were not quite enough leaves so I wound up having to use the big leaves that were supposed to cover the bottom of the pan. Three, we did not simmer it for the full hour since we were not using meat and had a hungry toddler eagerly awaiting his dinner. I think the hour long cooking is less about the raw meat and more about making sure the cabbage is fork tender. Plan ahead for that hour long cooking otherwise you will need a sturdy knife to go along with that fork. I would also suggest taking the time to cut out the veins in the cabbage leaves as they were tough in the end. It still turned out amazing though!

Pizza Romana Basil Pesto with Mozzarella & Tomato

This, kids, is not some 99-cent Totino’s “Party Pizza,” fake cheese and watery plain “sauce” on a large, round saltine cracker.  It also is not some Digiorno, beckoning you with “It’s not delivery…” promises which will be sadly broken.  (But it is roughly the same price.)  This is a chewy-crusted marvel of deliciousness.  No exaggeration.

According to the box, it is  “made in Italy with hand-stretched dough, authentically baked in wood-fired brick ovens.”  Sure.  However it’s made, the thing is damn good.  And I like the ingredients list:

Crust: Wheat flour, water, olive oil, salt, yeast, malted flour.  Sauce: Fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, walnuts, fresh tomatoes, pinenuts.  Parmesan Cheese (Pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, rennet.)  Mozzarella Cheese (Pasteurized milk, enzymes and salt.)

Whatever they want to say about it, it’s awesome for frozen pizza, and better than any other pizza you could buy for $5.99.   Found at the Lower Queen Anne Metropolitan Market.  I imagine you could find them at a Whole Foods (but I wouldn’t know because I won’t set foot in one…) or similar let’s-make-yuppies-feel-better-about-themselves-by-overcharging-them-for-everything type grocery store.  I’ve tried this kind, and the Margherita variety, which really was just a cheese pizza.  But it was an amazing cheese pizza.

Our menu consisted of: Turkey with sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed rutabaga, gravy and roasted Brussels sprouts.

I made a no bake pumpkin cheesecake, which was tasty but could have been sweeter. I made a ginger snap cookie crust and mixed cream cheese , butter, cooked pumpkin, spices, and some confectioners sugar. If I make it again, I will add more spice and more sugar, as there was only 1/4 cup of sugar.

All in all, successful, delicious dinner with my family, which is all that matters.

Sweet Potato (Yam) Pancakes

I had a good deal of leftover sweet potatoes (yams, for anyone born and raised outside the South).  Somehow, this is always the Thanksgiving item that lurks in my fridge for days, usually getting eaten last.  Inspiration struck yesterday morning (ok, early afternoon) when I was thinking of what to make for breakfast.  I took a basic pancake recipe and modified it to use up some of my roasted sweet potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup of cooked sweet potatoes (yams)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and spices.  In a separate bowl, mash the sweet potatoes with a fork.  Add the brown sugar, milk, egg and butter, and mix with the fork (or a whisk).  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or large frying pan over medium to medium high heat (use your judgment based on the accuracy of your stove knobs – mine runs hot, so I used medium – you don’t want your pancakes to burn before they’re done, but you also don’t want them to take forever).  Pour or scoop batter onto griddle or into pan, using approximately 1/4 cup per pancake.  Cook until new bubbles almost stop forming and flip.  Cook until done on both sides.  (To avoid tough pancakes, you should only flip them once.)  Serve with butter and maple syrup and you’ll have a sweet and slightly spicy breakfast treat.

This made twice what I could eat (I live alone, so usually any cooking is solely for myself).  I took the rest, wrapped them in a paper towel, and put them in a big plastic zipper bag in the freezer.  Now I have a ready-made breakfast for later in the week that I’ll only have to take from freezer to microwave.

Turkey Noodle Casserole

Casseroles are great because you can get a satisfying dish with minimal effort.  You throw some things you have on hand together in a baking dish, and 30 to 45 minutes later, you have a tasty meal.  With this, I was able to use up a bunch of turkey, and my leftover green beans.  Since the beans were cooked with bacon, onion, and chicken stock, they added a lot of flavor.

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni (just about any other pasta would work)
Handful baby carrots, cut into chunks
2 ribs celery, diced
1 1/2 cups cooked green beans
2 cups cooked turkey, cut into 1 inch (or so) pieces
1 – 2 teaspoons dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup + 1/2 can of water or milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup plain dry breadcrumbs

Cook the pasta according to package directions, minus about a minute so it doesn’t get mushy during baking.  Drain and set aside.

In the pot, saute the carrot and celery until slightly soft.  Remove from heat and add all remaining ingredients, except the butter and breadcrumbs.  Mix thoroughly.  I used one of my cast iron pots, which can double as a baking dish.  If your pot can’t go in the oven, dump the mixture into a 9 x 9 or equivalent casserole dish.

In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and melted butter, and mix with a fork until incorporated.  Spread the buttered breadcrumbs over the noodle mixture evenly.

Put your casserole in a preheated 350 degree oven and let it bake for 40 minutes, then cook for a few more minutes under your broiler to finish browning the breadcrumbs.  Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes or so before serving.