Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

A Great dish to make when you have left over Ham!

2 cups ham cut into bite size pieces
4 or 5 potatoes depending on size, peeled and cut into pieces
1/2 onion, diced
3 carrots, sliced
1 can soup (cream of Mushroom, Onion, Celery or Chicken...they all work just fine)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper
chives and/or parsley to garnish

Heat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients in a large pot that you can put in the oven. Cover and bake in the oven about one hour or until potatoes are tender.  Garnish with Chives and Parsley.

French Toast

This French Toast is made with thick cut Egg Bread and pairs so nicely with pork patties or sausage.

For the port patties, we like to buy ground pork, and then form into patties and season with Season Salt and Pepper. They are best when cooked on the grill, but you can also pan fry them, like we did here.

For the French Toast:
Heat the griddle to about 350 degrees.
Cut the egg bread very thick 1 to 1 1/2 inches.
In a mixing bowl, beat 4 eggs and 2 cups of whole milk, add in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
When the griddle is hot, smoosh down each piece of bread one at a time in the egg mixture, turn the bread over and press the other side down so it absorps the egg batter.  The bread doesn't have to soak, but do push it down and get it really immersed in the eggs.
Put the bread on the griddle and fry until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side.
When done, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Serve with butter and real maple syrup.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe banans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or butter loaf pan.

Mix the softenend butter and brown sugar, add in the eggs, sift the dry ingredients together and add into the mixing bowl. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla and mix until blended. Peel and mash the bananas with a fork, then add to the batter, and just stir gently until mixed in.

Pour into greased pan, and bake for 50 minutes.

Cool for 10 minutes before turning out of pan.

Salmon with Dill Sauce

This is such an easy Salmon Recipe that is great plain, and oh so good with the creamy cucumber and dill sauce.

Salmon, cut into serving size pieces
1 lemon, sliced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced finely
dill
salt and pepper
butter
1/3 cup mayonaise
1/2 cup sour cream

Line a sheet pan with foil. Preheat the over to 400 degrees.
Put the salmon on the foil line pan, then put a spoonful of butter on each piece of fish and spread it around. Season with salt, pepper, and lots of dill, and a slice of lemon.

Bake for about 15 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon.

Meanwhile, prepare the suace:
Mix the mayo and sour cream, add in the cucumber, salt, pepper, and dill. Chill this until the salmon is ready.

Serves with whatever you like. I think it goes great with veggies of all kinds!

Key Lime Pie

I love traditional pie crust so I made my version of the pie using a homemade pie crust recipe. You could use a pre-made store bought crust, or graham cracker crust too!
Also, I went to the store and they didn't have any key limes so I got Persian Limes and they were great!

For the Pie Crust:  (This will make 2 crusts)
2 cups flour
3/4 cup crisco
1 tsp salt
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 egg
5 to 8 Tablespoons cold water (start with 5 and add more if needed)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, crisco and salt together with a pastry blender until the size of peas. In spearate small bowl mix the egg witht the vinegar and 5 T cold water. Add to the flour mixture, and stir, adding more water if needed.

The dough works better if you have time to let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 2 portions.

Flour the counter really well.

Roll out the dough into the size for your pie pan. (I like to use the large glass ones), adding flour if necessary.

Using the rolling pin, roll the dough around the rolling pin to transfer the dough to your pie dish.

Fit the dough to the dish, trim off excess around the top, then crimp the edges with your fingers by pinching the dough between your thumb and finger (flour your fingers well) and go all the way around the pie.

Prick the dough in the pie dish with a fork.

Bake until browned, 8 minutes or so.

Let cool completely!

Bake and Cool the Pie crust before proceeding! 

For the Pie Filling:
6 or 7 Persian Limes juiced (about 3/4 cup)
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
Zest from 1 lime

Garnish:
1 tub whipped topping
1 lime to slice and zest

Preheat Oven to 350.

Beat together the filling mixture and pour into a pie shell that has already been baked and cooled.

Bake the pie in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for about 20 minutes.

Put the pie in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours, or freezer if you are short on time to get really cold.

Top the pie with whipped topping and then sprinkle a little zest on top and decorate with lime slices.

This recipe was adapted from All Recipes Key Lime Pie VII.

White Sangria

This Sangria is great for summertime as it is so refreshing!

2 bottles white wine ( I used LakeRidge as I had it on hand, and is a little sweeter which I like)
1 two liter bottle Gingerale
2/3 cup peach schnapps
1 to 1.5 pounds frozen fruit (mango, pineapple, strawberry)

Mix everything in a large pitcher and let sit for about 6 hours before serving. Was just the right amount for a small party!

Chicken Salad

This Chicken salad recipe was a hit at my last party so thought I'd share it. I actually doubled it for a party of about 10 to 15 people and it was perfect. Using the rotisserie chicken was a time saver. If you have time, you could roast the chicken your self.

1 rotisserie chicken, remove skin and chop into bite size pieces
1 stalk celery, diced
1 green apple, diced
bunch red grapes, sliced in half
1/2 cup real mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of tarragon to taste
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted (save a few for spinkling on the top of the bowl)

Mix all ingredients together and serve in a big bowl, Garnish with a few of the toasted almonds. Serve with Croissants and lettuce.

Fruit Pizza

This recipe came out of one of my old cook books and I have been making it for years. It is a great dish to take to parties and everyone loves it.  You can use what ever fruit you like too.

Crust:
½ cup butter                           2 cups flour
½ cup shortening                    ½ tsp cream of tarter
1 cups sugar                          ½ tsp baking soda
1 egg                                     ¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

In mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and blend into creamed mixture. Press dough onto pizza pan or cookie sheet. It may be hard to roll out, just add flour as needed. Bake 350 for 8 to 10 minutes; cool.

Cream Filling:
1 carton cool whip - thawed
2 ( 8 ounce) packages cream cheese room temp
1 cup powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until smooth, add powdered sugar and cool whip. Spread over cooled crust.

Glaze:
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup orange juice
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Combine juices and cornstarch and cook over low to med heat until thickened. Cool. Reserve ½ cup, spread remaining glaze over cream filling layer.

Fruit:
2 to 3 bananas sliced
3 to 4 kiwi fruit, peeled and diced
1 quart sliced strawberries
1 can pineapple chunks or tidbits (save juice for glaze)

Arrange fruit over glaze, then brush reserved ½ cup glaze over fruit. Chill until ready to serve.

Best to eat it the same day, as it does not keep very well. (Tastes okay later, but doesn’t look at pretty the next day.) You can really use any fruit that you like. These are our favorites.

Easter Bunny Cake

This recipe will make two Bunny Cakes. We have made these cakes in our house as long as I can remember, my mom made then when we were kids, and then we took over the tradtion years ago. It is a fun project and the cake tastes great too!

1 white cake mix
White Mountain Frosting Recipe (or your favorite white frosting recipe)
Coconut
Green Food Coloring
Jelly Beans
Paper for the ears

Prepare the cake mix per directions and pour the batter into 2 round cake pans. When done remove and cool the cake.

Once the cake is cooled, cut each round in half and stand the cut edge up on a cake plate. Cut out a 'v' sahpe just above where the face would be for the ears. Take one of the little pieces you just cut out for the tail, and eat the other one.

Make the frosting, we have always used a White Mountatin frosting which is very fluffy and tastes like marshmallows, it is also very sticky which works great with the coconut.

Once the frsoting is ready, put some between the two pieces and sandwich them together. Frost the outside generously.

Cover the cake with white coconut. Color some of the coconut green with food color and scatter around the bunny for the grass.

Decorate the face and grass with jelly beans.

Cut out the ears with pink construction paper.

Repeat for second bunny.

Roasted Vegetable Grilled Cheese

This grilled cheese sandwhich is made by taking some leftover roasted vegetables and adding them to the grilled cheese. 

I am using the leftover roasted cauliflower, red pepper, garlic and green onion from this mornings  roasted vegetable omelet. When I am roasting vegetables, if I have some leftover, I just put them in a food storage container and put them in the fridge. Then when trying to come up with the next meal, just look to the fridge, there is always something that can be used again.

Heat a pan on the stove, butter one side of each piece of bread and put both slices of bread butter side down in the pan.  Put a slice of cheese on each piece of bread, whatever kind of cheese you have is fine.

Then spoon the leftover roasted vegetables on each peice of bread and top with more cheese. We had leftover shredded motzarella and parmisian which worked really nicely with the vegetables.

Put a cover on and cook over low to medium hear so the cheese can melt and warm the veggies.

When done, put both sides of the sandwich together.  Goes well with ketchup, need to add a touch of spice though and make a spicy ketchup next time.

Roasted Vegetable Omelet

This omelet is made in the same pan that was used to roast the vegetables, you could make it in the traditional way so it looked more like an omelet.

1 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 head Cauliflower
3 Green Onions
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup grated Parmisian Cheese
6 Eggs
Parsley
Salt and Pepper

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop up the cauliflower and red pepper into big chunks and put on small 9 x 13 baking pan. Add Garlic and green onions to pan. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and salt and pepper.
Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to prevent burning.  When done, remove from oven and place vegetables on cutting board to cool, then chop up vegetables and garlic a bit more, and mix together.

Reduce oven to 350.

Mix together eggs, little bit of water, salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour Egg mixture into the same pan you roasted the vegetables in. Sprinkle with cheese, and put back into the oven. Cook until set about 15 to 20 minutes, or until firm.  Remove from oven and sprinke with parsley for color.

We cut ours into six square pieces and put it on a toasted onion bagel with cream cheese, and made a sandwich out of it. Oh so good, the cream cheese just takes it to another level.

Pistachio Salad

One of the easiest and best salads out there, and it's green!

Mix together:

1 small box instant pistachio dry pudding mix
1 can crushed pineapple
1 container cool whip, thawed
1/2 bag mini marshmallows

Makes a nice salad to take for a pot luck too!

Our Version of Eggs Benedict

Okay, so this isnt quite Eggs Benedict, but it reminds me of it, and I think even better!

It is a Whole Grain English Muffin toasted topped with Seasoned Taco Meat, Cheese, a Poached Egg, and then Creamy Tomatillo Sauce.

Since I love the Tomatillo Sauce, I keep thinking of new things I can eat it on, and this breakfast idea is great!

The recipe for the Creamy Tomatillo Sauce is already posted on my blog.

You can either use leftover taco meat, or make it fresh using about 1/2 pound of hamburger and taco seasoning.

American or Pepper Jack Cheese would be great.

We prefer poached eggs, but you could scramble them or even fry them (better with the yoke runny and oozing all over.)

You could also use a Biscuit instead of the English Muffin.

Stuffed Red Pepper

This Red Pepper is stuffed with Quinoa, Chicken and Spinach. You can do so many vairiations with this, like using rice instead of quinua, or adding different veggies, or a different sauce.

2 Chicken Breast with Bone
4 Red Bell Peppers
1 cup quinoa
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 bag spinach
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Creamy Roasted Tomatillo Sauce (recipe is already on my blog)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Put chicken breast on cookie sheet. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until done, 30 to 40 minutes depending on size. Let rest.

If you are also making the roasted tomatillo sauce, get the veggies ready and roast them in the oven with the chicken.

Mean while, make the quinoa by putting 1 cup quinoa in a pan with 2 cups chicken stock. Add in the cumin and chili powder. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn down and simmer about 15 minutes or until done.

When the quinoa is done, add in the spinach and mix well. The hot quinoa will wilt the spinach.  Dice the chicken and add it along with cranberries, nuts, or anything else you want to add into the cooked quinoa.

Cut the tops off of the red peppers and fill them with the quinoa mixture.  Top stuffed peppers with the creamy roasted tomatillo sauce and put in the oven on 350 until the top is bubbly and golden.

There are endless vaiations you can do with this idea....a roasted red pepper sauce would be good too!

Grilled Chicken Breast with Rub

4 Bone-in Chicken Breast or what ever kind of chicken you prefer

Rub
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 Tablespoon brown sugar (you can easily omit this if you have given up sugar in your diet)

Mix rub together in a small bowl. Wash chicken and pat it dry. Press the rub on it and let it set up in the fridge for about 4 hours or so.

Heat the grill, and cook over indirect heat low and slow. These took about an hour. Let rest for a bit before serving.

Juicey and Flavorfull Grilled Chicken!

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

These are the condiments we made for our Mexican Feast Dinner...

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce, Creamy Roasted Tomatillo Sauce, and a Fresh Salsa

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce
8 Tomatillos
5 Pobalano Pepper
2 Jalepeno Pepper
1 Onion
4 Garlic Cloves

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash Peppers and let dry. Peel and wash tomatillos, cut in half. Peel and chop onions and garlic.

Place all vegetables on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with Olive Oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until they look and smell like they are done.

Cool until you can handle them and remove any stems and seeds from the peppers.

Put the mixture into a deep bowl and with an immersion blender blend up everything, check for seasoning and add more salt if needed. Add in some cilantro and a little lime juice.  Refrigerate until needed.

Creamy Roasted Tomatillo Sauce
1/4 cup real mayonaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup of the roasted tomatillo sauce

Mix together and chill until ready to serve.

Fresh Salsa
4 to 5 Roma Tomatoes
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Onion
1 Jalepeno
Juice from 1 Lime
Salt and Pepper
Cilantro

Dice all of the veggies very finely, sqeeze lime and add salt, pepper, and cilantro to mixture.  So Good!

Mexican Feast With Chicken Tacos and/or Buritos

This is what our big mexican feast looked like and it was fantastic....This is great family style dish where you can pile all of the foods up and let everyone dive in to make threir own creation!

The big platter contains the mexican chicken which was cooked and then diced up, spanish rice, and refried beans, and grated cheese.

There are flour tortillas which have been heated.

The condiments are a roasted tomatillo sauce, a creamy version of the roasted tomatillo sauce, and the fresh salsa, along with some tortilla chips (the chips with a hint of lime work great).

We also served lettuce, which didn't make it in the picture.

The leftovers work great the next morning, get everything out again and make a big pan of scrambled eggs and make burritos.

Breakfast Burrito

These breakfast burritos were made using our last nights dinner leftovers...We had a big mexcian feast of mexican chicken, spanish rice, refried beans, and lots of yummy condiments...

Flour Tortillas - Warmed slightly
Big Pan of Scrambled Eggs - We make ours by heating the pan on the stove top. Add a bunch of eggs, little bit of water, salt and pepper, and then after they have cooked a couple of minutes, add in some grated cheese to make them light and creamy. Don't over cook the eggs.
Leftovers - Chicken or whatever you have

Warm the tortilla slightly on a dry hot pan, or in the microwave, put the ingredients down the center of the tortilla, add more cheese, and conditments of your choice, roll up, cut in half, and enjoy.

We served these with roasted tomatillo sace, creamy roasted sauce, and fresh salsa.  The tomatillo sauce goes really well with eggs.

Chicken Quesadillas

We saw this and adapted it from the Pioneer Woman on hgtv.

For the Quessos:
Flour Tortillas
2 to 3 skinless, boneless chicken breast
4 cups grated cheeses ( we used Jack and a Mexican Blend)
1 onions, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
3 garlic gloves, minced
Sprinkle of Red Pepper flakes
Sprinkle of Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder

For the Fresh Salsa:
3 roma tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 jalepeno
1 onion
juice of 1 lime
sprinkle of salt, pepper, cilantro

For the Poblano Sauce:
1 pablano pepper
1 jalepeno
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
sprinkle salt, pepper
dash hot sauce

Heat a big cast iron pan on the stove top, add in some olive oil,  when the pan is good and hot, add in the chicken breat. Sprinkle the chicken with the seasonings of salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic and onion powders.  Let cook until nicely browned on one side and about half way done, then turn and season the other side and finish cooking.  When the chicken is done, remove from pan and let rest.

While the chicken is cooking, start on the salsa, and the sauce:
For the sauce, roast the jalepeno and pablano peppers until charred. Put in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for about 10 minutes. Remove charred skin and dice up peppers very fine.  Add them to the mayo and sour cream, season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Set aside.

For the Salsa, dice all vegetables very fine, add the juice of the lime, and season. Set aside.

By this time the chicken should be done, so remove it from the pan and let rest.

Slice thinly the green pepper, red pepper, and onion and cook the vegetables in the pan you used to cook the chicken, add in the minced garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Cook the veggies on med high heat until desired doneness. Remove from pan and set aside.

Dice up the chicken into small pieces. Grate the cheese.

Heat an electric fry pan or large skillet, medium high, and grease it lightly with oil/butter.  When the griddle is hot, put down you tortilla, add a good helping of cheese, put on some chicken, add on the cooked peppers and onions, then more cheese, and top with another tortilla.  I used the large electric pan so I could cook two at a time.

Let cook until golden on one side. Flip over with a large spatula and cook the other side until golden.

Serve with the fresh salsa and the poblano sauce.

Jack Lalane versus Breville Juicers

I started with the Breville shich does a great job juicing my greens...Then I got a Jack LaLane juicer for Christmas and was excitied to try it.  The Jack LaLane juicer is very quiet and does seem to extract more of the liquid from the veggies, however, after only a couple of weeks the vegetables are getting stuck in the chute and not juicing. This juicer also does not seem to have the power of the Breville. So today, I went back to the Breville after not using it for the past couple of weeks. I have to say that it seems so much easier to use, and is so much more powerful. So the winner for me, no comparison, is the Breville!