Cold Rice Salad

Sick of mushy gluten free noodles not holding shape in pasta salad???? try RICE!

My sister made a version of this over the 4th for me and my mom, it was lovely!!!

1-2 zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 pint grape tomatoes sliced in half or quartered
red, green, yellow bell pepper cut into bite sized pcs
snap peas cut into pcs

half bottle Italian dressing

4-5 cups cooled cooked rice, brown or white, or a mix

Place veggies in dressing to marinade while rice is cooking. Just prior to serving mix with rice and add some shredded cheddar or crumbled feta if you like. Enjoy!

Sweet potato pie

Personally I think the secret to fabulous sweet potato anything is to bake the potatoes in the oven. The microwave works ok too, but I do NOT recommend boiling or etc.

2-3 sweet potatoes (about 2 cups), baked and cooled
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar (I am going to try brown sugar next time)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tbsp good quality dark rum
4 tbsp melted butter

one pie crust (I used a Gluten Free Pantry mix, but I prebaked it and let it cool, I just have better luck when I prebake those)

Preheat oven to 425. Skin the potatoes and cube, place in food processor. Run processor until smooth. Add eggs, milk, sugar, seasonings, rum and butter, run processor until well blended and no lumps or chunks.

Pour into prepared pie crust. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes, reduce heat to 300, bake an additional 40-50 minutes or until center is set. Add some mashmallows if desired and bake an additional 10 minutes or until marshmallows are browned and puffy (they will set as they cool)...enjoy!!!

Brie stuffed 'shrooms

Ok, so I had this Brie that i've been working on and decided it was high time I finished it off. AND I had some leftover crab meat from New Years that needed to be used NOW and I had about 20 minutes to make dinner.....so I made this up.....

*a half a thing of Brie, rind removed
*about a cup or so (whatever was leftover that I spent a half hour digging out of the damn claws) shredded crab meat,
*about a half cup of shredded Italian cheeses ( mine was a blend I got from Sam's, but whatever you ahve would work)

take off your rings and use your hands to mash it all together.

Rinse off 2 ginormous portabello'shrooms. salt and pepper and garlic them, place them top side down on a pan, I always cover my pans with foil, so you might want to use a bit of olive oil if you don't cover yours, just to make sure it doesn't stick. Then smash half of the crab cheese mixture into each of the mushrooms tops, bake in preheated 350 or 400 oven for 10-20 minutes until 'shroom is soft and cheese is melty....let cool and chow down......tres yummy with a salad and beverage......and EASY!!!! WAY!!!

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

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!

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....

homemade salsa

YUM!!!!

so you know how I planted that garden...welllllll, I have jalapeno's and tomatoes coming out of my ears!!! YEAH!!!

The tomatoes aren't quite ripe yet, some of the grape ones are, but we have been eating those as fast as they ripen as we pick them...anywhoooooo, so I bought some home grown tomatoes and used my jalapeno's and a red onion and bit of lime juice and made some fabulous salsa. It's all gone, already.....too bad for yoU!!!!!

Anywhoooo, Paula, add some of this to the corn and black bean salsa and you are going to pass out, it is soooooo good.!!!!

of course the sangria could have affected my taste buds, but everyone else ate it too, and not everyone else is drinking sangria....so anywhooooo...off to eat ribs......later....

p.s. I have a jalapeno story, but I will post it tomorrow........Charles ate one...that's all I'm sayin' for now!!!