Ingredients

• 6 to 8 cups of al-dente cooked pasta.  I used elbow macaroni, but use whatever you prefer
• 1 large white onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons bacon grease
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 cups of coursely chopped mushrooms, whichever variety you like
• 1 to 2 cups of spiced flour. I use Kentucky Kernel, but there are regional brands and blends in most grocery stores
• 2 to 3 cups of milk
• 3 to 4 cups fresh peas, boiled or steamed to preferred doneness.  Steamed broccoli florets would probably be a good substitute/addition.
• 2 cups shredded mozzerella or cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and bacon fat together and roll the pan to coat the bottom.  Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion begins to soften.  Add mushrooms, mix with the onion/garlic mixture, and cover.  Stir occasionally.  If the mushrooms soak up too much of the fat, add more, but sparingly.  Once the mushrooms cook down a bit and give up most of their moisture, stir in the flour one or two tablespoons at a time.   Once all of the liquid in the pan is absorbed, stop adding flour, but continue to stir until the mixture starts to form doughy balls that are starting to brown on the bottom of the pan.  Add milk one cup at a time, stirring constantly, until all of the dough is floating and starting to dissolve into the milk.  The resulting sauce should be runnier than cream gravy, but thicker than milk.  Stir in the peas and pasta, then transfer all of it to a 13 x 9 inch pan.  Spread the pasta into an even layer in the pan, then sprinkle the cheese over the top.  Put into a 350 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  This will cause the cheese to melt and toast, and the pasta to soak up any excess liquid in the sauce.  Let stand 5 minutes after taking out of the oven to let the cheese cool down from “lava” to “edible”. 

This went really well with the baked turkey breasts we had with it last night, and should compliment just about any meat dish.  The spiced flour adds enough salt, pepper, and other flavors that I didn’t add anything else, but the sauce can be adjusted to fit any taste.  It isn’t exactly health food, but it is a great side dish.

Ingredients

2 cups white or brown rice
4 cups water
Salt

Olive Oil
1 large white or yellow onion, chopped fine
2 jalapeno peppers, cleaned and deseeded, then chopped fine
2 bell peppers, cleaned and deseeded, then chopped fine
Chili seasoning to taste (Choose your favorite or make your own)
1/2 pound ground beef (optional)
1 dozen roma tomatoes
1 dozen canning tomatoes (Big Boy or Better Boys were used tonight)

In a saucepan, combine rice, water, and a couple pinches of salt.  Cover and bring to a rolling boil.  Shut off heat and leave covered until rice has absorbed all of the moisture.  Note – Nothing smells worse than scorched rice, so as soon as it comes to a rolling boil, shut off the heat.

In a large frying pan, heat olive oil, then add onions, peppers, and chili seasoning.  If desired, add meat as well, but this dish is great without meat.  Cook until onions are soft.

While that is cooking, clean the tomatoes.  Cut off the stems and butts, then chop.

Add tomatoes and all resulting juice to the onion/pepper mix in the frying pan.  Cook at high heat, stirring occasionally, until all of the tomatoes have broken down.  There will be a lot of juice.  Shut off heat and add cooked rice and mix thoroughly.  Rice will soak up most of the juice in the pan.

Goes well as a side dish or as a main dish with sliced fruits and vegetables.  Makes enough to feed a small army, so either have a lot of hungry people or be prepared to freeze leftovers.

Ingredients

2 large Vidalia or white onions, chopped fine
1 pound white mushrooms, or your favorite variety, coursely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
1 pound boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
10 to 15 roma tomatoes, coursely chopped
1/2 to 1 pint heavy cream
Olive Oil

In a large saucepan, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom, then add onions, mushrooms, and garlic.  Saute until the onions soften, then add chicken.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until chicken is browned. Add tomatoes and mix well.  Cook until the tomatoes fall apart.  There will be quite  a bit of juice in the pan.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces by about 1/3.  Add cream until the sauce is a light pink.  Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until the sauce cooks down about 1/3 and darkens a bit in color.  Serve over rice or pasta.

One of the benefits of taking vacation but staying home is that I get to cook.  Usually, I get home too late to make dinner during the week.

Ingredients from the garden:

6 to 10 jalapeno chilis

3 to 5 sarano chilis

3 small green bell peppers

2 large red bell peppers

30 to 40 roma tomatoes

5 to 10 canning tomatoes (We used better boys from the garden)

1 or 2 cups of grape tomatoes

Ingredients from the store:

1 bunch celantro (about 2 loose cups)

5 cloves of garlic

2 large red onions

4 tablespoons salt

Lime juice from 4 limes

Assembly:

Wash all of the ingredients thoroughly.  Remove stems and butts from the tomatoes.  Remove the stems from all of the chilis and remove seeds and veins to your liking.  The more seed and vein you leave in, the more heat your salsa will have.  In batches, move all of the ingredients through a food processor.  Use the processor to chop them to your desired chunkiness.  Mix thoroughly in a LARGE container.

Makes about 15 pints of salsa.  When sampled immediately after mixing, it had a nice fresh flavor with a good bit of heat.  If canning, put in prepared hot canning jars and then give a water bath for 15 minutes.  Will lose some of its deep red color during canning.

It’s not mild enough for Boo, but it’s not so hot that the flavors of the tomatoes and onions are overpowered.  This is going to taste great when it’s cold and snowy outside and I need to taste sunshine.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 large eggs

3 to 5 bananas, very ripe, peeled and smashed into a chunky puree

2 cups cold milk

Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl,  In another bowl, thoroughly mix the eggs, bananas, and milk.  Mix the wet ingredients with the dry, but only until the dry is absorbed.  There should still be a few small chunks in the batter.

Heat up your favorite griddle over medium heat and grease with either butter or bacon grease.  My cast-iron griddle works the best because it’s essentially non-stick and holds a good even heat over its cooking surface, but whatever works for you.  Spoon enough batter onto the griddle to make a circle approximately six inches across.  Allow to cook until the top is full of bubbles and the batter firms up a bit, which for me is between two and three minutes.  The cooked side should be golden brown.  Flip and cook the other side until it is also nicely browned.  Repeat process to use up all batter, as it does not keep well.

I prefer these pancakes just as they are, but the kids like them with butter and syrup.  I’ve also seen people put peanut butter or Nutella on them, but that gets very rich very fast.  These go well with sliced fruit and your favorite breakfast beverage.

Ingredients:

1 pound hamburger

1 white onion, cut in half and sliced very thin into half moons

1 green bell pepper

4 cups fresh broccoli florets

5 carrots, cleaned, peeled, and sliced thin on a bias

2 cans chicken broth

Canadian Steak Seasoning, to taste

Red Pepper Flake

2 cups dry couscous

2 cups water

1 tablespoon butter

In a medium saucepan, combine water and butter and bring to a boil.  Shut off heat and stir in couscous.  Cover and let steam.

In a wok, combine the onion, bell pepper, red pepper flake, carrots, and hamburger.  Begin browning the hamburger.  Mess up which side of the lid on the Canadian steak seasoning, and dump about 1 cup of salt, pepper, and garlic into meat.  Try desperately to scoop it out before you realize you’re spitting into the wind and dump the entire thing into the trash and start over.

Go to the refrigerator and realize you have no other thawed meat or bell pepper.  Look in the freezer and grab a package of mild Italian sausage.  Throw the sausage in the microwave to defrost.  Cut up another onion and five carrots.  Cut the sausages into coins about 1/2 inch across and put in the wok.  Add onion and carrots.  Season with red pepper flake.  Check the lid on the Canadian steak seasoning, then check it again, and just to be sure, a third time.  After making sure you don’t make the same mistake twice, sprinkle lightly over the meat and mix well.  Once the onions, carrots, and sausage are cooked most of the way through, add one can of the broth because the sausage gave up a lot more liquid than you thought it would.  Put broccoli on top of the food in the wok, cover, and let simmer for 5 minutes until the broccoli is bright green and softening.  Shut off heat and mix broccoli in with the rest of the meat mixture.

Serve vegetables and sausage over couscous with a crusty bread.  Try to find a way to explain why there’s a pound of hamburger and onions in the trashcan when queried by your wife.

I must have something wrong that the doctor told Irish Woman about today.  She left me home with Boo this afternoon to hit up the grocery store and came home with the makings for one heck of a good feed.  It was good enough to be a last meal.

Irish Woman’s Peel-n-Eat Shrimp With Mushroom Pasta

1 pound unpeeled but deveined shrimp.  Irish Woman had to get frozen, pre-cooked shrimp tonight, but you can do this with fresh as well.  If frozen, soak in warmish water while you cook the rest of the food and drain well  before putting in the pan.

1 pound of your favorite pasta

1 large white onion, coursely chopped

2 cloves of garlic,

1 to 2 cups cooking wine

2 cups sliced mushrooms

Pepper to taste

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water to your desired level of tenderness.  I like mine al dente, which seemed to work really well with this dish.

In a large saute pan, warm up 1 tablespoon of bacon grease or olive oil over medium heat.  Add in onions, garlic, and mushrooms and cook until onions are beginning to become transparent.  Sprinkle liberally with pepper.  Add in wine and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until about 1/2 of the liquid is gone.  Toss with the pasta.

Heat up a cast iron frying pan or griddle over medium-high heat, and coat it lightly with bacon grease or olive oil.  Once the oil heats up, add your shrimp and saute until done.  If your shrimp are pre-cooked, all you have to do is heat them through.  If they are fresh, cook them until they are firm but not rubbery and all of the meat has turned pink or white.

Irish Woman served several shrimps with a plate of the pasta sprinkled liberally with cheese, a few pieces of steamed asparagus, and a stuffed salmon fillet she also got at the grocery store.  This went really well with a cold beer and some sourdough bread.

Chicken Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

1 pound of your favorite chicken cut, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes.  I used thighs
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Olive Oil
Basil, Thyme, Rosemary to taste
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1 large yellow onion, coursely chopped
1 quart spaghetti sauce
1 pint diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 dry pound of your favorite pasta
1 pound grated mozzarella cheese

Place chicken, vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, herbs, and garlic in a zip-lock bag,  Shake to distribute the ingredients evenly, then place in refrigerator for several hours.

Bring a large kettle of water to boil with salt.  Add pasta and cook until the pasta is just barely soft.  Drain and put back into kettle.

Coat the bottom of a large saute pan with olive oil, then add onions and mushrooms.  Saute until onions soften and become translucent.  Add chicken and marinade.  Cook until chicken is cooked through.  Add spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, and tomato paste.  Mix thoroughly.  Sauce will should be a bit runny.

Add tomato/chicken mixture to pasta and mix thoroughly.  Place in either a large lasagna pan or two 13 x 9 inch baking pans.  Sprinkle layer of cheese on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15 minutes, or until cheese is browned to your taste.  The pasta should absorb most of the extra liquid from the sauce.

Serve with your favorite bread, a salad, and your favorite beverage.  Boo enjoyed this with a Chateau le Moo 2012.

Makes enough to feed an army.  Can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated, then put into oven just before dining.  Leftovers freeze well.

It’s a cool, stormy day here in IndiUcky.  I think dinner tonight needs to be filling, simple, and comforting.  This is one of the first things my grandmother taught me to make.

Ever notice that a lot of my recipes between October and March have that description?

Ingredients:

6 to 8 russet potatoes, washed and cut into 1/4 half moons
2 large yellow onions, coursely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar or red wine
Salt and Pepper to taste
Your favorite herbs to taste.  If I have it, a little fresh dill tastes good in this dish.
One or two of your favorite chili peppers.  I used two dried jalapenos from last year’s garden.
1/2 pound each of two different kinds of link sausage, cut into 1/4 inch coins.  I used spicy Italian and kielbasa

Combine all ingredients in a crockpot.  Cook on medium heat for six to eight hours.  Goes well with a glass of good earthy beer, fresh whole grain bread, and either a salad or your favorite green vegetable.

I’ll call this the “Clean out the ‘fridge scramble”

Take one leftover baked potato, cut it in to quarters, then slice into 1/8 inch triangles.

Take the Italian peppers and red onions from three takeout salads that no-one wanted and coursely chop them.

Melt a spoonful of bacon grease in the bottom of a skillet and add onions, peppers, and potato.  Saute until potatoes start to brown and the onion softens.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add leftover chicken meat from burrito night, and continue to turn until the chicken is warmed through.

Beat three whole eggs and add to the hot mess in the skillet.  Cook with frequent stirring until the eggs are done to your liking.

Serve sprinkled with your favorite shredded cheese and hot breakfast beverage.  If you need a little more heat, a little salsa would be wonderful.

Makes enough to feed one adult.  No pictures because it didn’t last that long.

Warning:  The steam from sauteing pepperoncini in bacon grease smells wonderful, but the experience of taking a good whiff of it directly from the pan is close to being maced.  However, if you are at all stuffed up, this will give you at least temporary relief.  Have tissues handy.