Just say "No" to Chicken Sausage

I am doing my best to branch out and try new foods and dishes, but I honestly don't know why right now, other than that my new job with Motor Trend means traveling 6 months out of the year, which I am sure will cut down on my spare time for cooking.

So being as adventurous as I get, I purchased Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage the last time I went to the grocery store. And finally decided to use some of it last night. I cut up one link and added in to baked ziti/rotini (I was using up random pasta) instead of the usual hamburger.

We both ended up picking it out. I was ok until I got a mouthful of seeds of some kind. They were not good and that pretty much killed it for me.

So now I have 4 sweet italian chicken sausages and I have no desire to make them into anything. Lucky me. That's what I get for veering away from what I know that I like!

Grillin!

Saturday night we had guests for dinner, and then we all went to watch some fireworks (the only useful thing I see out of my township taxes).

It was so nice out that I couldn't see cooking inside and decided to make kabobs on the grill.

I used 1 lb cut up beef stew meat, 1 quartered onion, 5 diced potatoes, and a handful of grape tomatoes.

The grape tomatoes were placed in a bowl with some Italian dressing to marinate.

The potatoes and meat each mixed with olive oil, steak seasoning, salt and pepper and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Then just stick on the kabobs! I alternated meat chunks with the onion quarters, and the tomatoes were alternated with some of the potatoes. The rest of the potatoes got put into a foil packet to cook. The potatoes cooked for approximately a half hour and the kabobs for about 15 minutes on the grill on medium. And they turned out great! Josh has already requested them again.

I also made pasta salad earlier that day.

2 cups ziti noodles, cooked and cooled

handful of grape tomatoes, halved

handful of sliced olives

as much mozzarella cheese as you want, diced

mix together with Italian dressing and balsamic vinegar until covered.

Chill.

So easy and so good.

Strawberry Shortcakes

I am not a baker by any means. In fact, I do it very rarely. But after getting some fresh strawberries (not from the grocery store, yay!) I was really craving strawberry shortcake.

I used this recipe from Betty Crocker for the shortcake.

1/3 cup butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
2 1/2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon granulated or coarse decorating sugar

1. Heat oven to 400°F.

2. In medium bowl, cut butter into flour, 1/3 cup sugar, the baking powder and salt, using pastry blender or 2 forks, until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in milk.
3. Place on lightly floured surface; knead 5 to 7 times or until dough forms. Pat dough 1/2 inch thick; cut out 12 rounds with 2 1/2-inch round cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush egg yolk over rounds; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar.
4. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.

I also whipped my own cream for the first time! It wasn't very sweet (I like everything to be overly sweet) but it was beautiful and easy!

Only the best.

Josh will eat one kind of steak no matter how many times it is offered to him - filet mignon.

Especially if I am the one preparing it. I picked up this recipe the first time I purchased filets from L.D. Weaver Meats at the Farmer's Market. They had this on a card on their counter, and I swear by it!


1 lb of filets (usually 2)
4 tablespoons melted butter
salt and pepper to taste


Heat oven to 425 degrees, place filets in shallow baking dish with melted butter and turn until coated. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 25 minutes, turning and basting frequently.


They turn out perfectly every time.


I also made Josh's favorite Ranch potatoes (see potatoes label) and green beans with bacon for me.


I chopped up 2 pieces of bacon, sauteed them in a small pan on the stove top, added some onions, sauteed them as well, then added about 1 cup of chicken broth, and several handfuls of green beans. (Love 'em!) Season with salt and pepper, and boy are they yummy!

Love me some Apps!

Last night's dinner had to be something quick, easy, and able to be eaten with minimal distraction from the Wii acquired earlier in the day. (We were so lucky, we just happened to go to Best Buy on a day they had gotten a shipment of 30. There were 3 left when we were there around 3 PM!)

So I thought making little appetizer type things that Josh could just shove in his mouth would be perfect and he could eat in between songs on Guitar Hero.

His step mom always has the best recipes, and this was no exception.

1 package of mini phyllo cups

1/2 lb ground beef or sausage (I used beef)

enough Ranch salad dressing to coat said ground meat

handful of shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the ground meat while heating oven to 350, or whatever your package of phyllo cups says.

Drain meat, and transfer to bowl.

Mix in Ranch dressing and cheese.

Distribute mix evenly among phyllo cups, and place on baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 5 minutes.

So easy, so good, so fattening!

We only ate a few because he was pretty into the game, but they actually reheat pretty well too!

Holy Chalupa!

Now, I'm not usually one to celebrate holidays for other nationalities. I let the Irish have St. Patty's Day, and Cinco de Mayo is not really in my family background. But I just had to have an excuse to make something that had me laughing for hours... (ok not really that long)

One of the many names Josh has decided to call me is chalupa. I had no clue what it was or if it was even a word. Come to find out, it's basically a crispy fried soft taco shell. (Bear with me, I'm not Latin, so if there's another difference, please let me know, nicely.)

I decided to use pork as the meat to change things up a bit, and shredded it and added taco seasonings to it, and then fried up the soft tortilla shells. That was fun, and I'm very proud of myself for not burning my arm with scalding hot oil.

So at this point my understanding of a chalupa is a crispy shell with shredded taco pork, and lots of taco toppings. I couldn't figure out how to eat the damn thing! I couldn't really stab it to eat it, so I ended up basically dumping the stuff off of it and scooping it up with the fried tortilla shell.

I didn't take any pictures because I was way too embarrassed at my first attempt at ethnic food that's not Italian.

It's official...

I don't like fish. I can't help it, I just don't.

Last night I made salmon, with tomatoes and garlic - two of my favorite things to help ease me into it. It smelled delicious! It looked great! It tasted like crap to me!

This is the recipe I used from RealSimple.com. I had to make some alterations, since I don't think Josh likes beans much and I didn't have any tarragon. (I need to stock up on spices...)

1 1/2 pounds salmon steaks, about 3/4 inch thick

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 14 1/2-ounce cans diced tomatoes

2 garlic cloves, minced

Dredge the fish in the flour. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the fish and brown about 3 minutes on each side. Carefully lift the fish out of the skillet and set it aside on a platter; sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the skillet and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low, return the fish to the pan. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until the fish flakes when tested with a fork or the tip of a knife.

Thank God Josh liked it and I didn't feel like I wasted a perfectly good piece of salmon. But I did have to make something else for me (popcorn for dinner, yay!). I think that having to skin the fish may have taken some of the enjoyment away for me. Josh will just have to stick to ordering fish when we go out!

Chicken Pockets

I can't even try to remember where this recipe came from, just that we have made it in my family for years! It was also the first meal I made for Josh's dad and step-mom, and has become a favorite of Josh's, second only to chicken pot pie.

2 chicken breasts (1 per pocket)

2 potatoes (1 per pocket), peeled and thinly sliced

handful baby carrots, thinly sliced

1 slice of onion per pocket

1 Tbsp butter per pocket

1 can of cream of chicken soup per 2 pockets

salt and pepper to taste

mushrooms (optional)

Place each chicken breast on a separate piece of foil. Add potatoes, onion, carrots, butter, soup, salt and pepper (mushrooms too if you want them).

Fold foil around ingredients and place on a baking sheet. Cook for 35 minutes at 425 degrees, check for doneness.

These can also be done on the grill, which makes them even better. It takes slightly longer, about 45 minutes.

It's not pretty, but it is delicious!

Chicken Dip

Apparently this was the week for me to cook for all of my co-workers. Saturday at my part-time job, we did a pot luck, and I made this chicken dip that Josh's step-mother made for Easter. It was way easier to make than I thought it would be, but it still didn't turn out quite like hers!

Two chicken breasts, boiled, cooled and shredded

1 8 oz block of cream cheese

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix

Hot sauce to taste

1 cup Cheddar cheese

Mix the cream cheese and Ranch dip. Spread in the bottom of a small baking dish.

Add hot sauce to chicken, just enough to coat the chicken, or as much as you would like.

Evenly apply chicken over the cream cheese spread. Top with Cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until warm.
Serve with flour tortilla chips or anything salty that can handle a lot of dip!

It was a big hit with my co-workers, and disappeared quickly! They have already requested that I bring it in again.

P.S. I just realized that this recipe is a variation on what the What's Cooking board on the Nest likes to call "crack dip." I think it lives up to it's name, but I'm not sure that I'd like it all mixed together as much as I like it layered.

The Breakfast Club

At my office, we have a "breakfast club" where two people are assigned to bring breakfast once a month in to the office for all 17 of us. We eat a lot of bagels. So my partner and I decided we would do something a little different, and made breakfast casseroles. She did a meatless version, but mine had sausage. It was a good chance to use sausage that my parents had given me the last time they butchered a pig. I don't even like sausage, but I ate it!

Recipe is as follows:
8 eggs beaten with 1 cup milk, salt and pepper
1 lb sausage, browned
6 pieces white bread cut up into cubes, no crust
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Spray a 13 x 9 pan with non-stick spray, and place bread cubes on the bottom of the pan. Put sausage evenly over the bread. Pour milk and egg mixture over sausage and bread, sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

It was a big hit, and I think I'll be making it again, because Josh didn't get any.