Heaven On A Bone and Rice with Pine Nuts…

This might seem like a strange combination, but it is wonderful!

 Many of you might be saying to yourself, “Pine nuts? I have never had those.”  Well if you have eaten Pesto sauce, then you have had pine nuts.

Pine nuts are actually a little sweet and tender. There is a miniscule taste of pine, that if you are not looking for it you will miss it. Where can you buy pine nuts? The baking aisle, in your grocery store or health food store.

I love this recipe it is super simple.  The broth seasoning and butter, mixed with the pine nuts, gives plain rice a warm woody taste. There are golden raisins in this recipe. My family does not care for raisins in their food; I just omit them. If you do omit them, try adding in ¼ teaspoon of crushed red peppers.

I like to pair this with a baked chicken breast recipe called Heaven on a Bone.

The recipe calls for skinless chicken breast.  I personally don’t care for bones in my chicken breast, so I use boneless skinless chicken breasts. When I received this recipe, it was a recipe of ingredients only, no amounts or measurements. I have tinkered with the ingredient amounts. I think I have come up with the correct proportions.

 Feel free though to add or subtract any of the amounts to your own liking… After all, we are not baking pastry we are cooking chicken!

The recipe calls for breadcrumbs mixed with butter. I prefer to use Ritz brand crackers because of their butter taste and omit the extra butter.

So what does this taste like? The honey gives the chicken a hint of sweetness, while also sealing in the juices. This will not be a dried out chicken breast! The crackers add a crunchy, mild saltiness and the cheese makes it a bit sharp; it really is heaven!

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Scalloped Carrots...

Many of us have eaten scalloped potatoes, but have you had scalloped carrots?

This dish is simple, tasty, travels well, and will please your fussiest eaters. Scalloped carrots puts a fancy twist on plain baked carrots!

If you want a variety, try substituting half the carrots for sweet potato.

For cheese lovers you can sprinkle ¼ to ½ cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese on top

Ingredients:

10 carrots, cleaned

1 cup milk

3 eggs, beaten

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup bread crumbs or crushed Ritz crackers

¼ cup melted butter or margarine

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a small skillet sauté onions until transparent

In medium pan boil carrots in a small amount of water until tender, drain and mash carrots

Blend onions and remaining ingredients to mashed carrots, and then pour into a greased baking dish

Place dish in a pan of water, bake until firm approximately 45 to 60 minutes

Vidalia Onion Casserole…

My brother-in-law loves onions; he has sliced onions with every almost every meal. When we were house hunting and living with them, I was in charge of the cooking.  I wanted to find a way to cook the onions, to entice the kids to eat them too. I found this recipe from Sandra Lee, of Semi-homemade. The casserole wasn’t a big hit with the kids, the adults loved it.

The onions were sweet, cheesy and the Ritz crackers are the ingredient to pull it all together. If you can’t find Vidalia onions, try a similar sweet or yellow onion.

Ingredients:

6 Vidalia onions (peeled and sliced very thinly)

½  cup butter

30 Ritz Crackers (one sleeve, coarsely crushed)

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

Over medium heat, melt butter in a saucepan

Sauté onions until they start to turn golden brown

Butter or spray a 2 qt baking dish, then layer half the onions, Ritz crackers and cheese

Repeat layering topping with cheese.

Bake uncovered for approximately 25 minutes, or the cheese on top is slightly brown.

1.      Set

2.      7

Repeat

Broccoli Casserole…

Yummy and cheesy way to get kids to eat broccoli!

I like to add a cup of chopped cooked chicken breast to make it a one pot meal. Serve tossed salad and French bread.

20 ounces of frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped

1 10-3/4 ounce can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of mayonnaise

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated

8 ounces Velveeta cheese, cubed

2 eggs

16 Ritz crackers, crushed

¼ cup Butter

Directions:

Butter or spray with cooking a 9X13X3 glass baking dish

Preheat oven 350°F

Mix broccoli, soup, mayonnaise, onion, garlic, eggs and cheeses in a medium bowl until blended.

Pour into buttered pan then sprinkle with crushed crackers, dot top of crackers with butter

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

Crock-Pot Shepherd’s Pie…

For this recipe, I took two recipes and combined them. I wanted something simple, quick and tasteful that would be warm and savoring to come home after the kids bowling practice.

A traditional shepherd’s pie is made with ground lamb. I used ground beef, since it was what was in my freezer.

I also cheated a bit, for the gravy; I used a jar Heinz beef gravy. I made instant mashed potatoes. You could cheat there too and use pre-packaged ones, for me it was a cost over convenience.

When I made the mashed potatoes, after pouring in the milk, I added a handful of finely grated cheddar cheese and half a sleeve of crush Ritz crackers. Again, you can use breadcrumbs, I used what I had on hand.

I did not add in any spices besides garlic and dried Rosemary. I was worried about how salty the dish would come out using the canned soup and gravy. My family thought it was missing something and added salt. They said it was missing… I thought it was fine. You could add a 2 tablespoons of red wine (if you have it on hand) to increase the flavor a bit.

1 lbs lean ground beef or lamb

1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (I used PicSweet Brand 12-16-ounce bag of frozen carrots, peas, corn and green beans)

Half of a small onion, diced

2 Tablespoons of minced garlic

2 Tablespoons of dried rosemary

2 cups hot cooked mashed potatoes

1 sleeve of Ritz crackers crushed

1 cup of Kraft Cheddar Cheese, finely grated

1 10 ounce can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup

1 12ounce jar of Heinz Beef Gravy

Optional 2 Tablespoons of red wine

Directions:

Brown ground meat, drain

In crock-pot on low heat, combine meat, vegetables, soup, gravy, 1 tablespoon of rosemary, 1 tablespoon of garlic. Wine if you chose

Mix ½ cup of cheese, remaining rosemary and garlic with half of the crushed crackers into the mashed potatoes.

Pour and spread potatoes evenly on top of meat mixture.

Top with remaining cheese, cover cook for 4-6 hours.

Dressing or Stuffing, which do you prefer?

While the ingredients are similar here is another case interchangeable words like yam and sweet potatoes.  So what is the difference?

Dressing is used to dress up a platter and cooked in a pan.

Stuffing is stuffed inside usually of a foul.

I love dressing. Stuffing can be a bit tricky. If the cook is new or I do not know them that well, I tend to stay away from the stuffing. I know that is not fair or nice, since anyone can make a mistake.  Stuffing inside of a bird, if not cooked correctly can lead to Salmonella. Salmonella and E Coli are both food poisoning diseases you can get if your cook is not diligent cooking their holiday meal.

E Coli and Salmonella can be caught by consuming under cooked meat. The best way to know if you meat is cooked to the correct temperature is use a thermometer. Your turkey needs to be cooked to 165 degrees; the stuffing should also be cooked to 165 degrees.

 Here is where for stuffing it gets tricky! Most people will check the turkey temperature, see 165 degrees, and call it done. You cannot pull out a stuffed turkey without testing the temperature of the stuffing. If you do, you will have under cooked stuffing and could sicken everyone who eats it. What you have to do is get your thermometer into the stuffing and take a temperature reading. This means you might have to pull some of the stuffing out of the bird to get to the middle. If it is not reached 165 degrees inside just replace, the stuffing you moved and cook longer.

Our neighbor in Virginia, Cheryl, would always make two kinds of dressing, or what she called with or without. For the holidays, she would make corn and oysters along with oyster dressing, for her husband Victor. Victor was the only one who ate these dishes, I am not sure who was happier when he found out I loved to eat them too.

Oyster Dressing

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, divided

1 cup chopped onion

2 green onions, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

4 cups crumbled cornbread

2 cups soft bread crumbs

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

salt and pepper, to taste

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 pint shucked oysters, reserve 1/2 cup liquid

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine cornbread and bread crumbs in a large bowl

In a large skillet over medium heat sauté onions and celery in the2 tablespoons butter until tender, not browned.

 Add sautéed onions, salt, pepper, and parsley to bowl of bread

Add beaten eggs and moisten with the oyster liquid until moist but not soggy

Gently fold in the oysters.

Turn dressing into a large lightly buttered rectangular baking pan.

Chop remaining butter into small chunks and place on top of dressing

 Bake about 45 minutes, until golden brown.

Ritz Cracker Dressing

Ingredients:

1 pound Ritz crackers, crushed
3 Tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
2 medium onions, diced

5 stalks of celery

1 pound of ground pork

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
3 eggs
1 can vegetable broth
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

In large bowl add crushed crackers and set aside

Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, reserving liquid, and mix into the bowl with cracker crumbs.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, slowly cook and stir the onion and celery in 3 tablespoons of the reserved sausage liquid until soft.

Mix the onion and celery into the cracker crumb and sausage mixture

Add seasonings, eggs and broth

Put mixture into a well-greased baking pan.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

What is in your meatloaf?

After doing some research on the meatloaf, I can tell you there is not one pinpoint date or country where it might have come from. Some who say it started with the Romans, 17^th century France or even the Pennsylvanian Dutch in the 18^th century. There is a consensus that meatloaf became popular with Americans around The Depression. The meatloaf filled the need to stretch the family food supply while be filling and nutritious.

The ingredients in a meatloaf are just as diverse as its origins. Most articles I read all agreed that Veal was probably the first meat used since it was cheaper than beef. Other items used in meatloaf, vegetables, breadcrumbs, oatmeal, rice, wheat germ even cornflakes. My mom used to make it with oatmeal onions, carrots and two slices of bacon on top. My mother-in-law makes hers with breadcrumbs. There is one constant ingredient in every meatloaf and that is a single egg.

I make my meatloaf a bit differently from both my mom and mother-in-law. I have also tried experimenting by wrapping the entire loaf in bacon before cooking. The recipe that follows makes a nice juicy meatloaf that freezes and reheats without drying out.

Paige’s Meatloaf:

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef, extra lean

1 pound ground pork

1 egg

1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tablespoon, dried parsley

2 Tablespoons, minced onions

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

4 ounce can of tomato sauce

Bacon grease

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven 400°F

Combine with hands first eight ingredients until fully blended.

Thickly grease 11” X 7” Pyrex glass baking pan with bacon grease

Form meat mixture into a loaf and place into prepared pan

If you have extra bacon grease, gently rub to outside of meatloaf then season with salt and pepper.

Pour tomato sauce over top of meatloaf, covering the entire top and sides.

Bake in oven until internal temperature is 160°F

Green Bean Supreme and Honey Smoked Pork Chops



It is well know I cannot leave a recipe alone, I have to tinker with each of them. The green bean supreme recipe came from my mother-in-law, when I married her son. This dish is a staple on our holiday table, and to be honest, I did not really tinker with this one too much until the other day.

Green Bean Supreme
Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 small yellow onion minced

2 Tablespoons of flour

2 Tablespoons of water

½ teaspoon of fresh lemon peel

1 large 28-33 ounce can of French style green beans (drained) I prefer Del-Monte brand

1 cup sour cream

½ cup of crushed Ritz crackers

1 cup Kraft Colby/Jack finely shredded cheese

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F

In skillet melt butter add onion and sauté until translucent.

Gradually stir in flour, lemon peel, and then water making a roux.

Add drained green beans and sour cream into skillet mix well.

Pour into a 2 quart baking dish, sprinkle with crushed red pepper.

Cover top with cheese then crushed Ritz crackers

Bake for 30 minutes

** You can omit the red peppers, if you prefer. They give a bit of spice and heat but not enough to be spicy**

Honey Smoked Pork Chops

3 Tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

3 Tablespoon minced garlic

¼ teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon hot Chinese mustard

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

4 thick center cut pork chops

Ingredients:

Pre-heat oven 350°F

Mix ginger, sage, garlic, liquid smoke and honey in bowl.

 Line small baking pan with aluminum foil,

Brush all sides of pork chop with butter then place on pan.

Brush honey smoke mix on chops, place in oven for 15 minutes

After 15 minutes flip chops over and brush with remaining mix cook an additional twenty minutes