It is getting colder....

You need to make soup and crackers. 

Crock Pot Potato soup--- the Cheaters way....

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen country style  hash browns
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box chicken stock
 1/2 cup dried onion (or cut some fresh ones if you like)
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese
Salt and pepper
                   
Directions:
Put the potatoes, stock, soup, and onion in a crockpot.  Salt and pepper to taste (I always use fresh ground pepper and sea salt).

 Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  Go do something else (like make the crackers below)

 Set out the cream cheese to soften and add it 30 minutes before serving.  Stir it in well and let cook the last 30 minutes.  Check salt and pepper levels and adjust. 
Curl up with a blanket in front of the fireplace and enjoy with the Dilly Ranch Crackers below.







 Dilly Ranch Crackers











Ingredients:
1 pkg. oyster crackers
3 T. Ranch dressing powder (or use a 1 oz. package of Ranch Dressing Mix)
1 (scant) teaspoon dill weed (or to taste.  This is a pretty strong dill flavor.)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 c. canola oil (or use vegetable oil--  I like the flavor of the canola)
Salt if you want it.  I did not.




Preheat oven to 275 degrees. 
In a large mixing bowl, combine dry Ranch, dill weed, garlic powder, salt if you want it, and oil.  Mix well.  Toss  crackers in and coat well.  Spread onto cookie sheet in one layer.

Bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.  Cool.  Store in Zip lock baggie when completely cool.

"Play with your food, Wednesday!"

OK.  We have been playing with the rice krispies......  Bob's creation:

Mine:

Here is how it happened:

I cannot give you exact measurements, because I just guessed.  I buttered a round cake pan (I used one that the bottom comes out of, so it was easier to remove the RK treats when they were set, but a regular pan will work if you butter it really well. 

Start with yellow.  (Ok.  I started with orange---- don't ask me why---????---  anyway, that is why Bob had a blob of orange to play with.  I already had a nice orange ring around the outside of the pan before she said, "Mom, yellow goes on the bottom."  oops.)

Anyway, don't do that.  Melt a small blob of butter with some miniature marshmallows.  Add yellow food coloring to the desired shade, then mix in some rice krispies.  Make a ring around the outside of the pan, patting it in really well.  If you wet your hands, the marshmallow stuff won't stick to you.

Next do the orange.  You need a bigger amount of orange, but don't double the amount as I thought I should.  You need it about twice as wide as the yellow, but you are working in a smaller area, duh.  (Oh well, that gave Bob more for her creation.)  Press that into a ring pushing it hard against the yellow so they will bond.  Leave a hole in the center for the white.

Make just a really small amount of white--- (We are talking  a half teaspoon of butter and 1/4 cup marshmallows here)   unless you want to share some with whoever is helping you lick the pan, or just a bunch for yourself.   Smash the white into the center hole.  Pat really well.

Let set for an hour or so.  Dump out of the pan and cut into wedges.  I cut mine straight across in half, fourths, and finally eight.

Wrap in celophane and tie with a ribbon.  Send to Christopher.  No, seriously, if you make these, send one to Christopher.  He cannot get enough candy corns!!!!!  (I love you, Christopher!  Watch for some in the mail next week.)

Redneck Bacon Turtle Burgers

This is for you Dennis.......

I saw this somewhere (probably Pinterest) and thought of you.  So here is supper:

Start by making a hamburger patty.  (Mine of course has chopped onion, Alpine Touch, and sea salt mixed into the hamburger)   Top with a slice of cheese (this will hold the shell on)

Cut 2 hot dogs in half.  Shove into the 4 corners of the patty.  (Yeah yeah, I know the patty is round.... there are no corners.... Punt.)   Cut another hotdog into 3rds.  This will make 2 heads and 2 tails.  Shove head into place, Cut center section of this hotdog on a 45 degree angle to make the tail and shove it... yeah.  there.

Make a shell of woven bacon... wrap tightly around the turtle with the ends under his belly.  OK.  Now here I must say that I laid the bacon out basketweave style on my cutting board and put the turtle cheese side down onto it, then wrapped the bacon tightly around.  When I turned him over, I had to shape him a little because his back was flat, but that is not hard.  It was easier than trying to do it right side up.

Cut slits in his feet.  You can get all artistic and carve him a face with eyes and a mouth slit, but I think the end of the hotdog looks good enough for me....

 The instructions say to now place them gently onto the grill and cover with an aluminum foil dome.  Only turn them once while grilling.  However, if it is winter out like it is here today, and you are not interested in cooking outside, you can place them on a pan, covered loosely with a foil dome  (The instructions say to put them directly on the oven rack, but I DON'T THINK SO!  Not in my oven.  Bake them for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.


OK here they are all cooked up. (sorry about the graphic gutted turtle picture)  Their feet split really cute.  A carved face might have turned out cool.   I  do think if you like crispy bacon, you should take the foil off the last 10 minutes.  I hate bacon, so I took the BACON off mine.   It was really too much for me to eat a whole one even without the bacon, but you men might be fine with it.

Well, it was an experiment......  I think hamburger patties and (ick) hot dogs on the barbecue would be fine without all the work to make it look like a turtle, but this would be fun if you have kids. (or adults who act like kids like we have)

It has no name, but it was good....

So, I needed dinner. Looked in the cupboard (because I am broke and am not allowed to buy new food until I use up what I have). Started with this:

Sautéed about a half cup of onion and a clove of minced garlic in butter (the real kind). Cooked a cup of orzo per box. Drained the orzo and added it to the onion and garlic with a can of stewed tomatoes (no judging - I was out of fresh tomatoes). Heated that up.

Then added about this much fresh mozzarella cheese (this is a 10-inch skillet):

Stirred that in until it was nice and melty. Then, added about this much fresh chopped basil:

Stirred that in and added a handful of fresh spinach:

 After I stirred it in and let it cook down a bit, it didn't look like enough, so I added another handful:

Cooked it down for a little bit (only took about 3 minutes) and viola!! Look at that perfect sheen - Italian moms would be proud of me. And it was delicious. (one bad thing - it is dinner for 3-4 nights....it may not be as great the 4th time I eat it in a row. I don't think it will freeze well.)

Mini Fritattas

Mornings in our house are EARLY.  And Bob takes FOREVER getting ready to leave.  This is my experiment to have something (other than PopTarts... ick) that is fast and easy so she will eat breakfast.  These can be frozen and popped into the microwave to heat up quickly in the morning.

 

 

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• pepper to taste  (you can add some Alpine Touch or other seasoning if you like)
• Assorted mix-ins (such as shredded cheese, diced vegetables, and cooked and chopped bacon, ham, or sausage)
• Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

 

Instructions:

 

          Heat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 6 cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together the eggs, half and half, and seasonings in a medium bowl, then evely distribute mixture among the muffin cups.  Don't fill each cup more than 1/2 full.

         Add about 2 tablespoons of mix-ins to each cup, then sprinkle on a bit of Parmesan cheese, if  you like.

Bake the frittatas until they are puffy and the edges are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.  These puff up pretty high in the oven, then sink back down as they cool. Mine looked a bit like popovers while they were in the oven......

I left them in the pan until they were set and cool enough to handle.
 (If necessary, run a butter knife around the edge of each one to loosen them before removing them from the pan.  My newer pan let them loose much better than the old seasoned pan--- which made no sense to me)

This is supposed to make 6 mini frittatas.     The actual amount you make will depend on the size of your muffin cups. One of my pans is deeper than the other because it is pretty old. Just make sure the cups are only 3/4 full with all the fixin's and everything. I filled a couple too full, and they make a mess.

Be sure they are totally cooled before you put them in the freezer.

Note:  I actually used a dozen eggs and 1 cup heavy cream plus 1/2 cup milk (because I did not have half and half on hand), and made 2 dozen fritattas.

I will let you know if this improves  the "I don't have time to eat anything... I will be late" scene that occurs every morning.

 

 

 

Wait! Don't toss it!

So, I had one ripe banana. One. Started to just toss it and thought, no - let's see what it can become. (I have no pictures because I was in a hurry this morning)

I took the banana, a qtr cup of flour, a tablespoon of sugar, a splash of milk, and an egg and mixed it with the banana. Fried it up in a little oil and butter. Sprinkled it with powdered sugar. Voila` - the banana became a great frittata! Made me happy.

Messing with the Philly Cheesesteak

I got this recipe from a culinary genius.  (I won't take credit for this because Philly Cheesesteak experts will be all over it... How DARE anyone mess with perfection?)

Now ignore the fact that in my pictures, I am making 6 of these.  I needed that many, but the recipe is to make 4.  Oh-- and a tip for you:  When choosing bell peppers, count the bumps on the bottom of the pepper.  Peppers with 3 bumps are sweeter and best used in dishes requiring  a sweet pepper taste.  Peppers with 4 bumps are sturdier and best used in dishes where the pepper is a vessel for the rest of the ingredients (i.e. stuffed peppers). One of the peppers I used had 5 bumps.  It seemed to fit into the 4 bump category.  (I always wondered about that.  No one ever told me about 5 bumps!)

Anyway, the recipe: 

PHILLY CHEESESTEAK STUFFED PEPPERS

Ingredients:
8 oz. thinly sliced roast beef
8 slices Provolone Cheese
2 (4-bump) large green peppers
1 medium sweet onion
6 oz. Crimini or Baby Bella mushrooms
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice onions and mushrooms.  Mince garlic.  Saute over medium heat with butter, olive oil and a little salt and pepper.  Saute until onions are mushrooms are nice and caramelized, about 5-10 minutes or so.

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture.  Allow to cook an additonal 5 to 10 minutes. 

Cut peppers in half lengthwise.  Remove ribs and seeds.  Line each half with a slice of provolone.

I had rather large slices of cheese, so I only used haf a slice  in each one.  Fill each pepper with the mixture until they are nearly overflowing.  Mine are a little skimpy because I made 6, but you should  pile the stuff in and use it all in the 4 shells.

Put another slice of cheese over the top. (again, I used half a slice.)

Bake for 20 -25 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown.  The thickness of the peppers' shells will make a difference.  Thicker shells will take longer to cook.  However, I like my stuffed peppers a little on the crunchy side rather than the soft side, so 20 minutes was perfect for me.

Let me know if you forgive me for messing with the Philly Cheesesteak.