Saturday, December 29, 2007

turkey...

Cook your turkey upside down. It's way yummier. WAY!!!!

My sis-in-law (who does not cook!!!, go figure!!!) taught me this little trick this past Thanskgiving...... and I made one the other night. It is so juicy and tender and yuuuuummmmy!!

Rub the bird with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, or what ever spices you want......and stick it breast side down in your pan or roaster oven. Cook........and eat.....YUM!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Jen's version of a Ceasar Salad

Another mish mash of various recipes with a touch of pure Jen thrown in......

a bag of romaine lettuce
fresh shredded parmesan cheese

Dressing:
2-3 tsp chopped garlic
1 (ish) tbsp Dijon mustard
2 (ish) tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tsp Mediterranean Pesto (made with back olives, anchovy, and a bunch of other stuff) could probably just throw in some black olives and anchovies, but I didn't have anchovies.....
1-2 tsp capers
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pc GF bread toasted, almost burnt, really really dry!!! crumbled up

dump all the ingredients for the dressing in a food processor and give it a whirl until everything is good and mixed up and chopped real fine. I had to add a smidge of water as it was a bit thick, maybe a tsp or so of water......

Toss that with the romaine and fresh parmesan and enjoy. The kids came back for seconds, and there wasn't enough for Sean and I.........

Sauteed mushrooms

This was like eating the yummiest mushroom ever. Even Charles agreed they were good!!! Although next time, I will just use all portabello and forget the white mushrooms, the white were good, but the portabello was just divine!!!

Saute about 2-3 cups cubed or quartered (depending on how big of mushrooms you use) in a tbsp (or so) butter with about 1-2 cloves garlic on high heat. Salt and pepper to taste while cooking.....

When mushrooms start to look tender add about a cup or so of white wine. I happened to have a bottle of Pinot Grigio open, and so that is what I used tonight. Usually I use a Chardonnay when cooking, but now I don't think it matters.

Anyway.........simmer on med. low heat until all the wine is evaporated. Took about 20 minutes maybe. I left a bit of sauce in the pan, and put the lid on to keep warm until the rest of the meal was done, then jsut reheat it right before serving and cooked off the last bit of liqud.

so ok....here is the list of ingredients.

2-3 cups mushrooms cut into bite sized pcs.
1-2 tbsp butter
1-2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 cup white wine

YUM Apple Pie

OH this was seriously SERIOUSLY YUMMMY!!!!

I had a frozen GF (Grandma Ferndon's) premade pie crust in the freezer that needed some filling and so I did this:

4-5 large apples peeled and sliced, I used a mix of Macintosh and Granny Smith
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup Chebe cinnamon roll up dry mix
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all that up and stick it in your pie crust. It should be pretty high, over the top of the pan, as the apples will smoosh together as they bake.

Then mix this for the crumb topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Chebe cinnamon rollup dry mi
1/2 to 1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup rolled oats (if you can't find Bob's Red Mill oats, you can probably leave this out)

With fork mash all that to form a soft crumbly mixture and spoon that onto the apple's. With your hands kind of press it into the top of the apples. It didn't completely cover all the apples, some were poking out, but it didn't end up mattering at all.

Place that in a preheated oven at 350 for however long it takes to be brown and bubbly. I think it was about an hour, but I didn't really keep track of the time. Sorry.........at least I am being honest!!! Anyway, let sit till cool enough to eat and enjoy with some vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.

This was WAY yummy.....I think the brown sugar gave it a more caramel-ly taste, which we loved!!!!

Prime Rib

4 -5 lb prime rib roast (with bones)
salt
pepper
Dijon mustard


Let roast set out to room temp. Preheat oven to 500. Liberally apply salt and pepper, coat with mustard. Place in baking dish, fat side up, bone side down....cover with foil tent. Bake for 5 minutes per pound of meat (20 minutes for my 4 lb). Turn oven off, leave door closed and let set for 1 hour. Check with meat thermometer to make sure it is the right internal temp.

Serve with horseradish sauce.......fresh horseradish mixed with sour cream and a little lemon.

Creamed potatoes

1/4 to 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
1 cup milk
1/4-1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2-3 tbsp fresh snipped chives
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1 bag sliced potatoes (about 3 1/2 cups sliced potato)


Preheat oven to 350. Place half of the potatoes in a buttered casserole dish.

Wisk the cream cheese and milk until smooth, add rest of ingredients, pour half this sauce over half the potatoes in casserole. Layer rest of potato over that and pour remainder of sauce on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 20-30 minutes in preheated 350 oven until hot and bubbly.

The boys loved this, no leftovers at all!!!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Tropical Amaretto

Can we all say YUM!!!!

3-4 oz pineapple orange juice
1-2 oz strawberry kiwi juice
a shot or so of Disaronno

Mix over ice and enjoy!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

JD Fred's Lettuce Wraps

Sean and Charles are out and about, so it's just me and the younger dudes, which means I am not making a big meal for them. BUT I do have some chicken breasts thawed that need cooked.....soooooooo, I made chicken nachos for them and lettuce wraps for me. YUM!!!

I Googled for the recipe, got several and ended up with this mish-mash as my recipe. They weren't bad for a first time, even with some of the substitutions I had to make. I will make them again. Although I will try to find garlic and red chili paste next time.

"Special Sauce"
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup
water
2 tablespoons
soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons
ketchup
1 tablespoon
lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard

1 teaspoon garlic powder and chili powder

Dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the other ingredients and set aside. I used spicy brown mustard, since that is all I had. I am sure PF Changs does NOT use what I did, but I am not going out in this weather!

Stir Fry

2 chicken breasts, cooked and either chopped fine or run through the food processor.

1/2 cup carrot, chopped fine

1 cup water chestnuts, chopped fine

1 cup mushrooms, chopped fine

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce (GF tamari)

1/2 tsp rice vinegar

throw all the above (except the special sauce that is still set aside) in a large pan and saute on high heat with about 1 tsp oil for jsut a few minutes, until all heated through. Serve in lettuce cups with special sauce.

Now I jsut need to figure out how the make that chocolate dessert that PF Changs serves. That is a little blob of heaven in raspberry sauce.....

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Amaretto Cheesecake

Made this for a Christmas thing I went to this morning. I decided to try a different cheesecake base and am still not sure if I like this better or not. It is really creamy, almost custardish, so depends on your texture preference. There wasn't much left to bring home, so I guess that is a good thing.

For the crust I used Healthy Valley Rice Bran crackers. Now these say "gluten free ingredients" on the box, so I use them, but have talked to other GF people who don't quite trust that labeling.......so whatever.......you can use a box of Kinnikinik K-Kritter cookies, or whatever animal cracker you have found as a substitute....jsut run them through the food processor to make fine crumbs.

so, on to the recipe....

1 1/2 cups (or one box) cookie crumbs, finely crushed in food processor
6 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup powdered sugar

16 oz Ricotta cheese
16 oz cream cheese, softened
4 eggs
1/3 cup Amaretto liquer
1/2 cup white sugar
3 more egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
fresh berries (I had raspberries on hand)

Mix crumbs, powdered sugar and butter in greased (or buttered) 10" springform pan. Press partially up sides and covering bottom of pan. Chill.

Preheat oven to 325. Place a pan of water in oven during preheating and leave in during bake time. Beat Ricotta and cream cheese together until smooth. Add eggs, yolks, sugar and vanilla, beating well after each addition until smooth. Pour mixture into prepared springform pan. Place a sheet of foil under pan and onto a cookie sheet, put in oven. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 25 minutes (depending on the oven). Turn off oven and let sit until cool. Place in refridgerator and chill. Before serving, remove springform pan and pile on the berries. Enjoy!!!

Bacon wrapped tenderloin

OH HEAVENS!!!

This was GOOD!!! Not low fat, and probably not real good for our arteries, but every so often you just need to do this!!!

At Sam's again (I know, big shocker) anyway, for some reason the extra large gigantuan sized bacon package was calling to me, and those of you that know me, know that I do not buy raw bacon, I do NOT like the grease. But anyway so I decided to try something.....

about 2 lbs beef tenderloin steaks
6-8 slices bacon, cut in half
1 stick of butter
garlic, salt, pepper

toothpicks

melt butter in large baking dish. Preheat broiler. Cut beef into large chunks, season with garlic, salt and pepper. Wrap beef chunks with bacon slice, push toothpick through to hold bacon in place, place in baking dish.

Place dish on 2nd to top rack under broiler. Broil 4ish minutes, remove, turn beef over to brown other side, broil another 4 minutes or until red to your liking.......and eat!!!! No leftovers, none, and I probably should have made more......YUM!!!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Wassail (aka hot cider punch)

1/2 gallon apple cider (you can use juice, it's just sweeter)
2-3 cups cranberry juice
2-3 cups orange juice
4 cinnamon sticks
20ish whole cloves
several dashes of the following spices:
allspice (about 1 tsp)
nutmeg (about 1 tsp)
about 1/2 the amount of dashes of ginger (about 1/2 tsp)
a couple dallops of honey

2 small oranges sliced thin
a big handful of whole cranberries
(I keep a bag of fresh cranberries in the freezer so when I want to use them, I have them)

stick the cloves in the orange slices, dump everything in a crock pot, heat for 6-8 hours on low, serve in mugs to warm bellies.......Grant LOVES it when I make this!!

Mkae sure you stir it up real good once it is warmed to get the honey mixed in good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassail FYI

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

YUM!!!!

Ok, so Sean is on call, haven't seen him all day.....been snowing all day, took littlest dude to see Santa, spent $300 at the grocery, fought with a digital picture frame all afternoon and am now listening to a very cranky, overly tired3 year old wine.......well, ok he's whining, I want to be wine-ing...anywhooooo, baking the title of this here post and here would be the Jen recipe.....

3 medium portabello mushrooms
about half a log of breakfast sausage
handful of Italian shredded cheeses (1/2 cup or so)
3 tbsp cream cheese

breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs, about 1/2 cup (I used some smashed Glutino crackers)
Parmesan cheese

clean the portobello's, take the stems out, chop and saute stems with sausage. Stir in cream cheese and shredded Italian cheeses. Spray tops of mushrooms with olive oil and place on baking sheet. Place spoonfuls of the sausage mixture into the mushrooms and sprinkle with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Broil under low broiler, 10 minutes or so, until mushrooms are softened slightly and cheese is melted and browned nicely.

Eat.

later, dudes and dudettes!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Turtle Cheesecake

We were at Sam's (like we are every week) and David tasted a sample of turtle cheesecake. He wanted me to buy one, but being that I wouldn't be able to eat a bite of it, I said no, I will make one.



Fast forward to this weekend......David asks me when exactly I am going to make his turtle cheesecake????? Now, I guess......


CRUST:
1 pkg chocolate K-Toos, crushed
2 tbsp melted butter


FILLING:
3 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened to room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips


TOPPING:
1/2 bag Kraft caramels
1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1/2 cupish chopped pecans

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips



Preheat oven to 350.



Mix cookie crumbs and butter in bottom of springform pan, press onto bottom and partially up sides of pan. Place in oven and bake 15 minutes. Cool.



Place a pan of water on bottom rack of oven. This will make the oven more humid and keep the cheesecake from cracking (learned this trick a long long time ago).



anyhooooo. Blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth, add vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, blending after each addition. Melt the chips in micro and pour into the cream cheese mixture, blend thoroughly.



Wrap some foil around base of springform pan and pour cheese mixture into prepared pan (on top of cooled cookie crust). Place pan on middle rack in oven and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or until center is set.



Chill in refridgerator 4 hours, or overnight. Before serving, melt caramels and whipping cream in microwave 2-3 minutes, stirring after each minute, until caramel is smooth. Drizzle over top of cake. Sprinkle chopped pecans on top of caramel. Place chocolate chips in glass dish and melt in microwave for 2-3 minutes, stirring after each minute until smooth. Spoon the melted chocolate into a baggie, snip the bottom corner and squeeze chocolate on top of pecans and caramel. Sprinkle with more pecans. Let chocolate set and serve with a large glass of milk!!!



Happy boy!!!!

Friday, December 7, 2007

Chocolate Turtle stuff

I used this to fill those chocolate shells, but could also put it in indiviual servings with a crushed cookie crust (K-Toos, etc)

1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1 pkg (4 serving size) chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
1/2 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate chips

Blend cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Add milk, pudding mix, blend until mixed in good, add the melted chocolate, continue blending until smooth, will get pretty thick.

Spoon into prepared pan, shells, whatever.

Drizzle caramel sauce (either the apple dipping stuff, or an ice cream topping), chocolate magic shell ice cream topping, and pecans on top. Chill and serve.

Licking the spoon and beaters was good, I'll let you know if it is a hit tonight!!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

24 fresh uncooked large shrimp (about 1 lb.)

1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove

hat oven to 350. make sure shrimp has all veins removed, clean and rinse shrimp. Place shrimp on ungreased baking sheet with sides, to prevent drips in oven.

Mix remainging ingredients and brush over shrimp. Bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.

Double Layer no bake pumpkin pie

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp sugar
8oz whipped topping

1 cup milk
15 oz can pumpkin
2 pkg vanilla flavored pudding
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves

pie crust........use crushed, Healthy valley Rice bran crackers, or whatever you like to substiute for graham crackers......mix about 1 1/2 cups crushed crackers with 1/2 stick melted butter, and press into the bottom and up the sides of your pie plate.

mix cream cheese, 1 tbsp milk and sugar in large bowl with wire wisk until blended. Gently stir in half of the whipped topping. Spread onto bottom of crust.

Pour 1 cup milk in large bowl, add pumpkin, dry pudding mixes, and spices. beat with wire wisk or hand mixer until well blended, spread over cream cheese layer.

refrigerare 4 hours or until set, top with remaining whipped topping and serve.

Hash brown dinner

1 pkg hash browns, about 2 cups
2 cups diced ham
1 pkg frozen broccoli florets
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

place all that in a large baking dish.

4-6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
pinch or 2 of basil
black pepper and salt
1 tbsp cornstarch

mix that all thoroughly, pour over ham mixture. Sprinkle more cheese on top, bake in 350 degree oven for 40ish minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand a few minutes....serve with a salad and you are done!

Can also be put into the crock pot in the morning and left all day to cook.

Strawberry fluff

I found some chocolate shells that need a filling, and this is one of the options I have to fill it with. You could make this without a crust, or you could bake a crust using whichever is your favorite GF pie crust mix. I like GF pantry's crust personally.

1 small pkg (4 serv.) strawberry flavor jello
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 8 oz container whipped topping
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

more fresh strawberry halves

combine jello, sugar and water, stir until dissolved. Refrigerate until mixture begins to thicken and get syrupy about 10 minutes.

Add whipped topping to mixture, stirring to blend. Fold in strawberries, spoon into cool baked pie shell, individual chocolate cups, or whatever you have...... arrange strawberry halves on top, chill in fridge 2 hours and serve.

Bacon, tomato pasta stir fry

2 cups cooked, drained pasta, fusilli, penne, elbow, etc.... try to keep warm..

6-8 slices bacon, cut into pcs....I use the Hormel fully cooked bacon, less fat to drain
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into pcs.
1 cup baby carrots
1/4 cup water
2 cups sugar snap peas, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes

dash or 2 garlic pepper blend, salt

lots and lots fresh shredded or grated parmesan cheese.

cook bacon until crispy, remove, set aside and cook chicken in same large family size skillet, cook until browned, add carrots and water, cover. Cook a few minutes, until carrots are starting to soften. Add sugar snap peas, tomatoes, seasonings, mix well, cover and cook a few more minutes, until veggies are tender and chicken is done. stir in cooked pasta, bacon and toss, to heat...add cheese and serve!

Pesto Pasta with Chicken

This is an old favorite, from waaaaayyyyyy back when....and the original recipe calls for refrigerated ravioli, but I can't use that anymore, so we make do with Tinkyada...

drizzle olive oil
15ish oz chicken tenders
3/4 cup water and 1 tsp Better Than Boullion Chicken flavor
9 oz noodles, penne, elbow, corkscrew, etc, cooked and drained.

3 small zucchini, sliced
1 large red bell pepper, sliced
1/4 cup pesto

lots and lots of fresh grated parmesan cheese

cook chicken in oil until brown, add zucchini, and pepper, cook until veggies are tender crisp, add broth, noodles, cook just till heated, and chicken is done. Toss with pesto and cheese.....gobble up.

can easily substitute broccoli or whatever veggie your hoodlums like....

fruit smoothie

1/2 cup o.j.
1 1/2 cups flavored or plain yogurt (close enough)
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit
1 banana
2 t. honey (if desired, I usually don't)
4-6 ice cubes (less if using frozen fruit)

blend all in blender until smooth.....slurp up!! The boys LOVE this, with any number of combinations.....

more sangria.....

as you may notice, I am cleaning today and finding all those bits of paper that I have scribbled recipes on and putting them on here real quick so I can toss the paper.......

4 oz. red wine
2 oz ginger ale
2 oz 7up
pour over ice, garnish with lemon and lime twist


cabernet sauvignon
Shakka apple liquer
pineapple juice
cranberry juice
grenadine
over ice, garnish with cherry, orange, lime, fresh apple

peanut butter balls

1 1/4 cups Healthy Valley, Rice Bran crackers crushed

2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 cup powdered sugar.

mix crumbs, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Add peanut butter and corn syrup, stir well.

roll heaping teaspoons of mixture into balls.

place on large plate covered in wax paper, put in fridge for one hour.

roll each ball in powdered sugar until it is covered.

****this is a recipe David brought hom from summer school (well slightly adapted to make GF), the other thing you can do is reduce the amount of crumbs, and replace it with powdered milk, then dip in melted chocolate..........this is my favorite way of making it!!!!******

White Wine Sangria II

1 small orange
1 red apple
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 750 ml bottle dry white wine, chilled
2 cups chilled lemon lime soda

cut in half and thinly slice orange

core, cut in half and thinly slice the apple

combine fruit in large pitcher, fill half full of ice, add wine and soda, serve immediatelywith more fresh apple slices and strawberries....yum!

Pineapple Cranberry Salad

1 8oz can crushed pineapple
2 (4 serv.) pkgs OR 1 (8serv) Raspberry Jello
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 medium apple, cored and chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Drain pineapple, saving juice. Add enough cold water to juice to make 2 cups.

Heat to a boil and add dry Jello mix, stir until dissolved. Add cranberry sauce, stir till blended. Refridgerate 1.5 to 2 hours until just starting to thicken.

stir in pineapple, apple and nuts. Spoon into a 6 cup mold sprayed with cooking spray. Refridgerate 4 hours or until firm, inmold onto serving plate. Store in fridge till serving time.

Obviously, you can also just toss this all in a pretty bowl if you dont have a mold, or just don't want to fool with it.

Actually this recipe came from my mother in law!!!! A couple years ago...it's purty tasty, I think I shall be making it for Christmas Bunco!!!