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This is really my rip off of Rachel Ray's cheeseburger meatloaf, but since Natty calls it Hammerberger Loaf, that's what we're going with. In an effort to a) control portion size and b) ensure there were leftovers for dinner later in the week and for the freezer, I made these in a muffin tin. I found it worked much better than I anticipated, probably because there are so many wet ingredients in this recipe. I ended up with nine mini loaves. I served with smashed skin on potatoes and sautéed cabbage.
Hammerberger Loaf
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 white onion, grated
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tblsp sweet relish
1 egg, beaten
4 oz cheddar cheese, cut into small chunks
2 slices american cheese, broken into small pieces
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
Mix ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into a large greased muffin tin. Cook at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165. Done. Easy!
Alright, I'm sure this isn't much of a challenge for the majority of you out there, but since my Asian cooking skills mostly amount to finding the carryout menu, it's an ingredient I need help with. Tonight, I sauteed it with eggplant, garlic, and ginger and finished it with cilantro. It was a nice accompaniment to our totally gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches (wink), but certainly nothing that would count as a meal. So, what are your thoughts? What's your favorite thing to do with bok choy?
I'm not big on making things like cookies since I generally just end up eating all the cookies in the house. I tried out this recipe so that I had something to give for a small thank you gift. I reduced both of the sugars by 1/4 cup each and swapped out 1/2 cup of the AP flour for 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. They were tasty!
Lately I've been dying for either Casa Mia's or Cafe Hon's salad dressings with every salad I've eaten, so I figured I would take a stab at making a dill dressing of my own. This isn't exactly there (it still needs something with a little bite, so I'll add some plain yogurt next time), but I wanted to make sure I had a starting place recorded for next time. This was pretty good as it stands though.
Dill Dressing
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 1/2 tblsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup chopped dill
1 tblsp sugar (could have definitely used less)
Combine ingredients and mix thoroughly. Let sit in fridge for at least an hour before serving.
Here's another recipe that comes courtesy of my tenure at Fazzini's. It had been a while since I made it and I spent the entire time I was cooking trying to convince a two year old that I would be done in just a second, so it wasn't my best execution, but it still hit the spot! I served it with a side of pasta with red sauce since there are few things better to do with leftover marsala sauce than to mix it up with pasta and red sauce... Mmm...
Chicken Marsala
1 package chicken breast
1/4 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tblsp clarified butter
1/2 container button mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cup marsala wine
1 tblsp butter (optional)
salt and pepper
Melt clarified butter over medium high heat. While the pan is heating, lightly coat each piece of chicken in flour. Place chicken in hot pan and cook for 3-4 minutes per side depending on how thick your chicken is cut. Remove from heat when nicely browned and cooked through. Immediately add mushrooms to pan and cook until nicely browned. Deglaze pan with marsala wine. Reduce sauce by half. If you are using butter, remove pan from heat and add butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and serve.
This was supposed to be our Meat Free Monday dinner, which ended up being meat free Tuesday, which ended up being way to chaotic to accommodate anything that was going to take an hour in the oven, so it ultimately became our regular old Thursday night dinner. Thanks to Amanda for the idea!
Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers
1 package boil in bag brown rice
4 cloves garlic, chopped
handful basil, sliced
4-5 small/medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 large zucchini, chopped (and sautéed in olive oil)
1/4 jar leftover pasta sauce
3 large bell peppers
1/4 cup grated provolone cheese
Mix all ingredients up to the bell peppers together. Stuff peppers with rice mixture. Place in baking dish in a 350 oven. Cook for 30 minutes. Top with cheese. Cook until cheese is melted and lightly browned (15-20 minutes). Enjoy!
When I was little, I would only eat pork chops with ketchup, which is probably why I hardly ever consider cooking them. But since both the husband and the kiddo love pork, I've been trying to make it more often. In an attempt to make it more than just pork chops, I made a little pan sauce to go with it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough liquids, but it was still quite tasty.
Pork Chops with Lemon Butter Pan Sauce
1 tblsp clarified butter
2 bone in pork chops
juice of one lemon (really should have been
1/4 onion, sliced thin
1 tblsp capers
1 1/2 tblsp butter
Melt clarified butter over medium high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and place them in the pan. Cook for 4 minutes. Flip chops and cook for 3-4 minutes more. I cooked mine to an internal temp of 150, but I think you can cook to 140 if you're not pregnant (you should look it up instead of taking my word for it). Remove chops from pan and cover. Deglaze pan with lemon juice. Add onion and cook until lightly browned. Add capers. Remove from heat and immediately add butter and stir to combine. Top chops with sauce and serve.
Okay, truthfully this is not a CSA challenge in the normal "Hey, what is this thing and what do I do with it?" way. But, I'm looking for ideas for things I got at the farmers' market, so I figure it's close enough. I ended up buying both cilantro and dill for recipes that I need only a 1/4 cup or so of each. Given that I'm a) currently off the Mexican food courtesy of baby #2 and b) not necessarily a big fan of dill, I'm wondering what else I can do with these herbs while they're fresh. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Lately, I have been trying to convince myself that a dinner of just mashed potatoes is an acceptable thing to serve to my family since a) I have a ton of potatoes and b) c'mon doesn't it just sound delicious. Anyway, since I failed to convince myself, I decided that a potato soup would have to be close enough and I had pretty much everything I needed on hand, which is always a big selling point when I'm trying to figure out dinner.
Baked Potato Soup
2 tblsp butter
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 small carrots, sliced
6-8 slices of bacon, diced (mine was already cooked and frozen)
5 medium potatoes, cut in 1" cubes
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup water (more or less as necessary)
salt and pepper
1 cup provolone cheese (the only thing I didn't have on hand was cheddar cheese, but the provolone worked surprisingly well)
1/2 cup whole milk
Melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and carrots and cook until tender. (If you're bacon isn't already cooked, you can cook that first and then sweat the onion and carrots in the bacon fat and a touch of butter if more fat is necessary.) Add bacon once onion and carrots are tender. Let cook together for a few minutes, then add potatoes, stock, and salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Monitor the potatoes while cooking to make sure they remain covered in liquid. Add water to keep potatoes covered. Once potatoes are fork tender, remove from heat and use a stick blender to smooth out the soup. Add milk and cheese and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. Serve with a nice baguette.
I got a curry squash this week at the CSA. When I tried to look it up online, all I got were recipes for currying other kinds of squash. Anyone know what a curry squash is and what to do with it?
After being totally stuck for something to make for dinner, I turned to Facebook for some suggestions. When I got "ground beef and peas," I was inspired to make goulash. I had actually set out to make goulash last week, but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called and had to ask my mom over the weekend. So, it was a perfect suggestion. I ended up looking up a few recipes and settling on a variation of Rachel Ray's.
Quick Goulash
1 lb ground beef
2 small carrots, sliced
2 cups cut up orange peppers (I had these delicious little guys, so I just sliced them in half and then into strips)
1 small onion, chopped
3 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tblsp flour
1/2 box elbow macaroni
1 cup chicken stock
1 large can whole peeled tomatoes
salt and pepper
Brown ground beef and carrots in a soup pot over medium high heat. (If you're using lean beef, drizzle a bit of olive oil in as well.) Add peppers, onion, and spices. Stir to combine. While that is cooking, start cooking elbow macaroni to package directions. Sprinkle flour on beef and veggies. You might need a little more than a tblsp depending on how much fat is in your mixture. Add stock and deglaze pan. Add tomatoes with their juices to the pot. Break up tomatoes. Bring to boil and let sauce thicken. Add macaroni and let it soak up the sauce for a few minutes.
Nothing better on a steaming hot day than a nice hot bowl of soup. Made by first firing up the oven for an hour. Yes, yes, this is a brilliant recipe for a hot summer day. It did however, help me accomplish my goal of not having to put up any tomatoes this week. This is a mix between an Ina Garten recipe and my mom's recipe.
I should also note I tried to use the food mill on this recipe. I thought it would get rid of some of the seeds and skins and it did, but it was also a giant P.I.A. and I could have just used the stick blender (which is what I ended up doing in the end).
Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup
3 lbs tomatoes (I used a mix of plum and cherry tomatoes)
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2.5 cups stock (mine was veggie)
splash marsala wine
1 cup basil, sliced thin
3/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 325. Cut large tomatoes in quarters. Toss all tomatoes in olive oil with salt and pepper and place on roasting pans. (I kept the kinds of tomatoes separate so that I could take one out earlier if the cooking times were different, but I don't really think that's necessary.) Roast for 45 minutes. When the tomatoes have only a few minutes left, heat a couple tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Sweat onions and garlic. Remove tomatoes from oven and add them to the onions and garlic. Make sure you scrape all the juices in the roasting pan into the soup pot as well. Cook everything together for 5 minutes. Add stock and bring to boil. Add marsala and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add basil and milk. Use a stick blender to smooth the soup out to desired texture. Adjust seasonings and serve (preferably with grilled cheese sandwiches - the best accompaniment to tomato soup!).
