Mega Egga Macaroni Salad- 4th of July!

The 4th of July is all about celebrating this wonderful country, spending time with family and friends, and cooking out! This recipe is so simple, but so classic and delicious. The recipe is from Aaron McCargo Jr. aka "Big Daddy" from the Food Network and winner a while back of Next Food Network Star. His website:http://www.aaronmccargo.com/. I'm a big fan and really love his recipes and this is my absolute favorite! The recipe is huge and can feed a big crowd- here I have cut the recipe in half.

 Chop a small onion and two stalks of celery finely. Next mix up the sauce: 1 1/2 cups of mayo (I use light), a good squirt of sweet relish to taste, a few dashes each of hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. The recipe doesn't call for it, but I add some dry chopped dill. I like to mix the sauce right in my storage container- the pasta soaks up all of the sauce and there is one less bowl to clean. 

 There are times when I'm a fan of whole wheat or "healthier" pasta- this is not one of them! I am all about good ole plain elbow macaroni for this recipe- 1 lb.

Combine the macaroni with the sauce and then chop 6 hard boiled eggs and gently fold in. My secrets for this job are my "food mover" and my awesome pairing knife courtesy of my parents from Amish country.

Season with S & P to taste and chill in the fridge so the flavors get all yummy and combined. Sprinkle with a little paprika for color.  Enjoy!

Meatless Monday Sautéed Veggie and Cheese Quesadillas

After a long Monday I was craving something hearty and spicy, but reasonably healthy. I really enjoy my meat, but in an effort to eat a little healthier and to fit in more veggies I decided to try out a new quesadilla combination. I love quesadillas because they're quick and cheap and the combinations are endless. 

For this particular quesadilla I combined button mushrooms, cremini mushrooms (gives you an almost meaty flavor), red onion, red bell pepper, Hungarian wax pepper, and pickled jalapeños. 

I like to sautee my mushrooms a couple minutes before adding the rest of the veg. After they've started to cook a bit I add in the other veggies:

I love this combo of peppers, but you could use any you like. Sweet bell pepper combined with Hungarian wax which give just a bit of heat and bright flavor, along with jarred, pickled jalapeños. I love those little guys- yes the ones you see with that awful electric yellow cheese sauce on nacho chips. I think they give a more consistent heat and good zippy flavor.

Along with red onion and the mushrooms, sauté the peppers until soft, about ten minutes. I then add salt (wait until now for salt so your mushrooms don't get soggy and rubbery), fresh ground black pepper, and a dash of smoky cumin.

Next, place a soft taco size tortilla in a small skillet sprayed with a bit of nonstick spray on medium heat. Add your choice of cheese: I like Mexican blend and some pepper jack. Top with another tortilla- small aside here- Am I the only one who buys two packages of tortillas to make sure I can find ones that match up perfectly? Cook for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown, then flip and cook for an additional 2 or so minutes. 

Slice into triangles and enjoy! Great with some salsa and/or sour cream! What is your favorite filling for a quesadilla?

Chili For a Cause

Women's Bean Project Chili (Chili for a Cause) 

www.womensbeanproject.com

Well, Old Man Winter has come to visit for the new year here in Ohio. When I look out my front door and see this:

it means one thing for me: TIME TO MAKE CHILI!

Chili is probably hands down my favorite thing to make. I love all the chopping, the simmering, the smell it fills the house with, and the spice on a cold winter day. It seems each time I make chili it tastes just a little different from the last batch and I love that too. This weekend's chili has to be the most unique and flavorful I've made. 

At the end of last school year last year I was given a lovely gift from a lovely family whose son I taught. They gave me chili mixes and salsa mixes from the Women's Bean Project. The chili mix comes looking this way:

I don't know about you, but I only crave chili in the cold months, so I tucked it away and hadn't thought much about it until my chili craving hit hard this weekend. I hopped on the website of this wonderful organization and learned of their mission and vision, which I've listed below right from their website:


Our Mission: To change women's lives by providing stepping stones to self-sufficiency through social enterprise.Our Vision: Women’s Bean Project strives to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty by helping women discover their talents and develop skills by offering job readiness training opportunities.

With this stepping stone toward success, the women will be able to support themselves and their families, and create stronger role models for future generations.

Not only is this mix for a great cause, it is DELICIOUS! The beans are small red beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans. Yes, folks you have to soak and simmer them the old fashioned way, but I think that's half the fun and leads to better flavor in my opinion. The real treat here, though, is the spice mix that comes with the beans. I made the Firehouse #10 hot chili http://www.womensbeanproject.com/sou05.html, but don't worry the mix pictured above is for you wussies who like things mild. 

I sort of followed the pouch instructions. I followed the bean preparation, of course, but took my own liberties in making the chili. Here's how I went about it:

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. hot Italian sausage (my grocery stores never carry it in bulk and I end up ripping it out of the casings- not a fun job!)
2 or so glugs of Worcestershire sauce (however much you like)
1 Tbsp or so EVOO 
2 bell peppers, diced. I prefer a red and an orange.
3 jalapenos, 2 diced with ribs and seeds removed, 1 diced with seeds, ribs, and all.
5 garlic cloves
2 medium onions
Women's Bean Project Seasoning Packet
2 paper containers beef stock (I prefer Rachael Ray's- it's the lowest sodium content I can find)
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
Beans prepared according to package instructions

Brown beef and sausage in large stockpot over medium high heat. Add Worcestershire sauce when almost browned. Remove from the pan, drain, set aside. Add two turns of the pan worth of olive oil to the stockpot and add onion, peppers, and garlic. Mix in seasoning packet (this step will make your house smell absolutely delicious!). Once vegetables are tender, add the meat back to the pot and combine. Add rest of ingredients (liquids, tomatoes, and beans) and bring to a boil. I know the crushed tomatoes sound a bit weird, but trust me it makes a nice broth. Can be eaten right away, but I prefer to reduce the heat and let it simmer at least 30 minutes. 

Enjoy and please check out the Women's Bean Project Website for chili fix ins and many other awesome products!

P.S. I highly recommend some shredded cheese and oyster crackers :)    

Lazy Weekend Breakfast

Lazy weekends around our house, especially long weekends (like July 4th!) call for a late breakfast that usually lasts us until dinner. This is my personal favorite! It is my version of a cross between a skillet breakfast and a hash. First, I brown some smoked sausage in a skillet (we prefer turkey) with a touch of olive oil, then transfer to a plate. I then cube some red skin potatoes and get them working in the same pan, adding a touch of olive oil if needed. The ones for this batch were dug out of my mom and dad's garden the day before. Talk about fresh...

Once the potatoes start to brown I add a good pinch of salt, lots of black pepper, about a teaspoon of ground cumin, a pinch of red pepper flake, and a pinch of dried oregano. Then, in goes the bell pepper and red onion.

After cooking for about ten minutes on medium, slide the smoked sausage back in and cook for about 5 minutes longer, or until the sausage is warmed through and the vegetables are tender crisp. A fried egg or two on top and there you go! As you can see below, I like to add a few pickled jalapenos to mine for a kick.

Mindy's Breakfast Hash Skillet

Serves two hungry people, four not so hungry people :)

6 medium size red skin potatoes, cubed

1 link of smoked sausage, diced

drizzle of olive oil

1 red bell pepper

1 red onion

pinch of oregano

pinch of crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon of cumin

generous amount of salt and pepper to taste

4 fried eggs

Brown smoked sausage in a skillet with a touch of olive oil over medium high heat. Remove from pan to a plate and add cubed potatoes and cook until brown, adding additional oil if needed. Add oregano, cumin, crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper. Add in bell pepper and onion and cook until vegetables are to desired doneness, approximately ten minutes. Add smoked sausage back to skillet and cook about five minutes longer. Place hash in a bowl and top with fried eggs.

Cichetti Olives

Thursday the hubs was off work and it was hot, hot, hot here in good 'ole Ohio. We decided it was time for a "snackable" dinner. I took a departure from the international cookbook I've been delving into and made some yummy cichetti olives with the book Great Bar Food at Home  as a starting point. These yummy bites apparently are common in Venetian wine bars.




This book has some interesting small bites you may not typically think of. My departure from the original recipe was to use queen olives stuffed with jalapeno. The recipe suggested olives stuffed with garlic and while I like myself some garlic, I'm not a fan of biting into a whole clove in my olive.

I started out with a jar of my jalapeno olives, some flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. My Kroger carried lots of options for stuffed olives: almond, pimento, garlic, cocktail onion. We also considered trying blue cheese stuffed olives next time to see if they'll hold together. The book gave the great idea of breading these guys in small food storage containers. Just pop on the lid and shake it up!

I chilled these guys for an hour and a half so the breading would get good and stuck on them.

Next, it was into the frying pan for about 3 or 4 minutes. The result was absolutely delish! We dipped them in some light southwest ranch dressing.

We'll certainly be experimenting with different varieties of these little fellas.

Pierogi Party!

Yes, it was a pierogi party at our house. By that I mean that the flour was flyin', I was cookin' it up and my "sous chef" was assisting.

Yeah, he gets pretty nosy when he smells something good.

I will admit outright that I am not a baker. I don't like to bake, mostly because I don't have much patience and exact measuring is tedious to me. Having to make dough for pierogi was a bit anxiety producing for me. It worked out okay for my first time, though. It seemed to be a basic dough of flour, egg, salt, and butter. The 2 inch circles could be cut out with a drinking glass and it was time to get stuffing.

The book I've been using, Signature Dishes From Around the World, tells of how this is a traditional Polish dish and the recipe calls for a traditional filling without meat for Christmas Eve. The filling is simply ricotta cheese, an egg and chives.

Once the filling is all mixed up, the trick is putting it in the pierogi and sealing them up into cute half moon shapes. Those of you who bake probably have some tips for how to do this (Please share!), but being a novice I just crimped them the best I could. I also crimped a fork around the edges because that seemed like a good idea I had seen somewhere?  Next, it's into some boiling water. They weren't as pretty as the book's picture or as pretty as Mrs. T's, but it would have to do.

The hubs and I both love anything you put with peppers and onions, so I crisped up the pierogi with those and the result was a pretty good dish. Next time I hope they're a little prettier, but hey they tasted better than Mrs. T's.

Tzatziki Time

Well, dish number one from Signature Dishes from Around the World came out a success in my kitchen over the weekend. It was steamy here over the weekend and we had planned to grill out some burgers. The hubs says to me "Why aren't you just waiting until we make gyros for this tzatziki stuff?" I thought it would be wonderful for dipping veggies and pita chips. As most guys are, he isn't into dipping veggies in anything unless it's some celery in blue cheese following a chicken wing. By the end of the evening he was dipping EVERYTHING in this stuff (think Doritos). He also had a good idea for some Greek nachos that I'm going to try. Anywhoo, here's the deal:

The recipes in this book are written pretty simply and give a good deal of history. The first and very important step is to grate one cucumber over a colander. I used an English cucumber. One thing the recipe didn't say was to grate it into short, manageable ribbons in order to have it bite size in your dip. You then leave the cucumber to drain with a sprinkle of salt for an hour.

Once your cucumber has drained for an hour, squeeze it out in a clean kitchen towel to get rid of the excess liquid. Combine the cucumber with the following:

2 cups plain Greek yogurt
5 Tbsp EVOO
3 cloves of garlic, chopped and mashed
Dill and salt to taste

The book suggested grating the garlic into a paste using a mortar (which I don't have), so I just smushed it with my knife and some kosher salt until it formed a paste.

End Result!

Creamy, fresh, and delicious!