Corn Salad

Of course there is not a picture. I made this for Mark's birthday and quite frankly it was a little too hectic for me to stop and take a picture of the food. I'll give you a run down --

Brats

Chicken Sausages

Cheeseburgers

Potato Salad

Corn Salad

Boston Creme Pie

All cooked and served from our camper! While camping!

I thought the star of the show was the corn salad. Got the recipe from http://lacucinadilauren.blogspot.com/2009/05/corn-tomato-and-avocado-salad.html where you can actually see what it looks like. Mine was a little sloppier though, but, it was really good. Don't be stingy with the salt - it really soaks it up.

Just like Mark 'soaks up' getting presents for his birthday!

Honey Yeast Rolls - Finally!!

Well...I did it. I made something with yeast. I utilized the recipe from Brooke at '...and a cookie for dessert' http://brooke-cookiejar.blogspot.com/2009/01/honey-yeast-rolls.html.

I liked the recipe because it utilized the bread machine and I've had so much trouble getting dough to rise. And ya know, my mom never baked bread. She is a great cook but I never 'saw' bread being made -- so when someone says (for instance) 'the dough should be slightly sticky...' I have no idea what that looks like! But anyway -- these turned out nicely and I already have plans to make some hamburger and hotdog rolls the same way!

Honey Yeast Rolls

2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 cup warm water (105°-115° F)

1/4 cup honey

3 tablespoon canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

4 cups bread flour, separated

vegetable cooking spray

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 tablespoon honey

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the yeast and warm water. Add the honey, oil, salt, and egg and mix well. Add 3 cups of the flour and mix until the dough comes together in a sticky mass. With the mixer on low speed, add the remaining 1 cup flour and mix until it is incorporated into the dough. Switch to the dough hook, and continue kneading on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in bulk, about 2 hours.*

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 30 seconds. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.Punch the dough down and divide into 12 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball and place into a round, lightly greased baking dish, spacing evenly. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 20 minutes. Mix together the melted butter and honey, and brush lightly over the tops of the rolls. Bake at 400° for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*To utilize your bread machine, put all ingredients (through flour) into the machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer and select the dough cycle. Once dough is done, proceed with paragraph 3 of the recipe.

Mozzarella Quesadillas

As irritating as she can be, I tend to like Rachael Ray recipes. We like recipes with lots of sauce and lots of flavor and they usually don't disappoint. This recipe, however, did disappoint. Absolutely no flavor at all. I've thought about what to do differently next time and decided there wouldn't be a next time -- too many other recipes in my to-do pile. The only good thing about the recipe was how wonderful and creamy the fresh mozzarella got as it melted.

Just in case you want to play around with this -- here's the recipe. Maybe some additional garlic?

Caprese Mezza Luna
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray, 2007

Ingredients
1/3 to 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves crushed garlic
4 large flour tortillas, about 10 to 12 inches
1 ball fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
12 leaves fresh basil, shredded
2 vine ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a small pot with garlic until it bubbles, simmer a minute. Brush a skillet with garlic oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add the first tortilla and blister it 30 seconds, flip and cover half of the surface with arranged layers of mozzarella, basil and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and fold over the quesadilla, cook 30 seconds on each side to set. Remove from pan and repeat. In less than 10 minutes, you'll have 4 half moons (mezza lunas). Cut into quarters and serve.

Beef Stew Ala Campfire

Last weekend my brother braised a chuck roast and produced a wonderful tender roast and some very flavorful pot liquor to go along with it. Beef broth with seasonings, soy sauce, garlic...it's all good. Then Monday night (while we were camping in Suwannee) he broke out the dutch oven and placed it over a fire that had been going all day.

He sauteed --

Fingerling potatoes
Mushrooms
Onions
Carrots



in some oil.

Then added the beef and beef broth to the pot. That simmered for a bit until the veg was tender and then added a slurry of cornstarch and beer.



The final result was served with chunks of crusty bread that had been toasting slowly on the grill. Both the stew and the bread had a nice smokey flavor to it. It would have been nice to get a final picture of it had I not dove head first into my bowl forgetting all about my camera!

All In The Family

My brother is a brilliant cook.

I'm a good cook which means I can read, I know what a teaspoon of salt looks like without using a teaspoon, and I can improvise a bit when I need to. My brother can re-create meals he's had in restaurants and can whip up a creation on the spur of a moment. We're going camping with him and his family next week so I'm excited to see what he whips up for us.

When we were kids, my mom would let us pick out a recipe that we wanted to cook (once a week) and she would buy the ingredients. My first pick was veal parmesan -- she told me that veal was too expensive and that she would get round steak instead -- haha. Anyway, one of my brother's creations during those dinners was his 'sizzle burger.' He would get the skillet screamin' hot with butter, put the hamburger patties in the pan and then doused them with worchestire sauce. What a mess it would make - splattered grease, butter and worchestire sauce all over the stove and cabinets....but oh my gosh, they were good.

Here's his Slab-O-Grouper and Green Beans that he had for dinner a few days ago. Wow...I just noticed his old-school platter. He must have stolen that from Mom's kitchen back in the 70's. Now I know what to get him for Christmas!

Eating in Ireland

I've been lucky to be able to visit Ireland twice (so far). The first time I went with my Mom and we took an organized motorcoach tour that turned out to be wonderful. We didn't really know what to expect but it was very cool - there was only a couple of times we wanted to stay someplace longer than the tour allowed, or stop at a place we drove by. But we stayed in wonderful B & B's and had traditional breakfasts that were incredible, visited pubs and local restaurants.

A few years later we returned with Megan and felt brave enough to handle the island on our own. We flew into Shannon, rented a car and made our way around the south of Ireland, ending in Dublin. We had a blast -- it was adventurous and so unlike us to travel without set plans or an itinerary (I make an itinerary when we take day trips to Orlando!). We ate in small waterfront restaurants, famous tourist spots, and got snacks at local bakeries and grocery stores. We walked the cities we visited looking for traditional Irish music at night. We played with a schnauzer in an abandoned church yard and we veered off the motorway at the last minute to find a monument of some sort.

I know this is a food blog and not a travel blog so let me get to the point -- THEY DO NOT SERVE CORNED BEEF IN IRELAND!! I never saw it on a menu! It never touched my lips. Here's what they do have that we will never forget and never be able to re-create or find at home:

• Butter
• Beef Stew at Greta's
• Roasted Potatoes to put in the Beef Stew
• Breakfast Sausage
• Butter
• Cheese
• Brown Bread for Breakfast
• Shepherds Pie
• Butter
• Toasted Special's!!
• Club Orange
• Bulmers Irish Cider, and finally,
• Butter

I did see Bacon and Cabbage on a few menus, but bacon in Ireland is not like our bacon. It's more like our country ham.

Regardless, I love Corned Beef. I buy them primarily around St. Patricks Day because they're on sale. And....here is my second use of the slow cooker this week.

Corned Beef

1 Corn Beef (I use the flat cut)

1 Bottle of Guinness

1/4 cup of Spicy Brown Mustard

Water

Mix the beer and mustard and that funky flavor packet that comes with the meat. Pour over the meat in the slow cooker. Add enough water to cover the meat. I cook on low ALL DAY LONG until the beef is cooked through and passes the slice/crumble test. I kind of want it to fall apart like pulled pork. That's just me though.

Crock Pot Chicken

I always *want* to use my crock pot more. I just don't know what to do with it. Crock pot meals are always so 'DONE.' And maybe a little mushy. That probably doesn't make sense but I think the food breaks down too much in the slow cooker. My work days are longer than the 6 to 8 hours cooking time that's normal for slow cooking. I know I could get a timer but it's never been really worth all of that. In spite of all this, I used my slow cooker twice this week! And it worked out well.

The first is a BBQ Chicken. Remember the chicken I thawed for the sweet and sour dish?? It was a huge package of bone in chicken breasts (for the sweet and sour chicken, I deboned them) and I had three left. I think I feel better about the slow cooker now. :)

Pulled Chicken

3 Large Chicken Breast
1 Bottle of Sweet Baby Rays Chipolte BBQ Sauce
1 Large Onion, Sliced
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder
1/2 Bottle of Beer

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and place the sliced onions on top. Mix the BBQ sauce with the beer and the spices. Pour over the chicken; cover the pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove the chicken breasts and shred using the two-fork method. Return to the pot to coat with the sauce. Serve on fresh bakery rolls (or the cheap rolls in the bread aisle...it doesn't really matter).

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I'm not one to be left out so I needed to get on this sweet and sour chicken bandwagon. Credit goes to Melissa at http://madebymel.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/sweet-and-sour-chicken/ for the inspiration. She credits a few other bloggers for the recipe as well.

I don't cook anything Asian and have it turn out tasting Asian. And when I read things that say 'better than take-out,' I'm thinking yeah, right.... I was going to first make this for my mom on her birthday and then I chickened out; then it was on our weekly menu for two weeks after that but I somehow managed to avoid it.

But then I THAWED THE CHICKEN. And that means commitment in our house! So here ya go. I followed the recipe exactly but next time I would add some red pepper flakes to the sauce. Also I chunked the chicken into about 1 inch cubes but some of the pieces were thinner and smaller due to the dynamics of the chicken breast of course... anyway, Mark commented that he liked the smaller pieces better so I will cut them smaller next time. Oh....one more thing -- I had to read and re-read the cornstarch and egg bit because it seemed backwards to me. But it works -- dredge in cornstarch and then roll them around in the egg. Gives it a great crunch and color.




Sweet and Sour Chicken

Chicken:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce:
¾ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup vinegar ( I used rice wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes. If you like extra sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stove top. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced - about 6-8 minutes.

Friday Night De-Lights

My Mom made these meatballs for dinner Friday night and we were lucky enough to be able to take a couple home for lunch on Saturday. They were almost better the next day. The gravy is fantastic! Don't you love it when someone else feeds ya??

Funny thing...this is a Rachael Ray recipe and while we were eating the episode in which she made it was on tv! Ha! Anyway she served them with garlic mashed potatoes with spinach.

Gorgonzola Filled Meatballs, Bay and Onion Creamy Tomato Gravy

(Rachael Ray)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground veal (Mom used pork)
1 pound ground beef
Salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 handfuls grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 handfuls plain bread crumbs
3 tablespoons sliced or finely chopped sage leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces Gorgonzola
1 tablespoon butter
2 fresh bay leaves
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place meat in a mixing bowl and season with salt, pepper, add in garlic, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs and sage. Mix meat, roll into 8 large balls and arrange in a baking dish. Coat balls with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. Using the end of a wooden spoon, make an indentation half way into each ball and fill the cavity with some Gorgonzola. Bake until golden and cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil and butter in a sauce pot over medium heat, add bay and onions and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken stock and tomatoes and heat through, stir in cream, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer to thicken slightly 8 to 10 minutes.
Ladle sauce into shallow bowls and top with big stuffed meatballs and potatoes alongside, if desired.

Eat More Chikin'

As much as we like to support our local businesses, Mark and I LOVE Carrabbas. I mean LOVE IT. And we talk about it all the time. More than we talk about our kids.

We start out by ordering two dishes of spices and olive oil because Mark doesn't share this well and doesn't care if any one else gets any. A small order of mussels comes next along with a request for more bread. Because really -- what else would you do with all that sauce in the bowl of mussels if you didn't sop it up with bread.

Mark's entree is usually pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and I get the chicken marsala. Mark always says...next time I'm getting that...but he never does!

So - here is my version of Chicken Marsala. I served it with steamed broccoli. There's probably an easier way to do this but this is how I manage it. And, surprisingly, it comes together very quickly.

Chicken Marsala

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 large container of mushrooms, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

4 slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cup of chicken broth

1 cup of marsala wine

2 tablespoons of butter

Seasoned flour (I used Lowreys Season Salt and Pepper)

Saute the bacon in a large skillet until almost done. Add the mushrooms and onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until tender and bacon is done.

While that is sizzling away, pound out the chicken breast until they have an even thickness about 1/2 inch. Dredge in the seasoned flour.

Remove the bacon and vegetables from the pan. Drizzle in a bit of olive oil and place the chicken in the pan. I cook for about 5 minutes on each side. Take those out of the pan and put the mushroom mixture back in. I sprinkle a bit more flour and let that cook for about a minutes. Then add the chicken broth and wine. I let that cook for a few minutes, remove from the heat and whisk in the butter. Once you get that nice smooth sauce, I put the chicken BACK IN and let them heat back up a bit.

Now if we were skinny people I would serve this over spaghetti, but we're not (please refer to the first paragraph of this post and you'll understand WHY we're not).

The Star of the Show

Roasted Vegetables. Wonderful. A few years ago, my mom suggested cooking my veggies this way and I (most) always listen to my mom! Good thing too, because, these are so good. I've roasted everything.....cauliflower, butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, zucchini!

Tonight I had zucchini, a sweet florida onion and a tomato. I tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper. They roasted on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Should have cranked the oven to 450, but.....there is some spillage on my 'easy clean' oven mat that I need to clean unless I want the smoke alarm to go off. Sorry, Mom...I'll do it this weekend, I swear!

To go with the veg, I lightly breaded some thin pork chops and fried them in a bit of oil. They were ok. Just ok. I was counting on the vegetables to be the big taste at this meal and it was.

Chinese Craving Taken Care of? Check!

Friday night, Mark, Mom and I went to the Panda Garden in Bradenton. It's located on 14th Street just south of the Ford dealership.


I hadn't been to Panda Garden in years but I've been wanting Chinese food in a real restaurant. I have good memories of getting those massive quantity entrees that everyone at the table feeds from. Hoping that it was still good, we gave it a go. What a good decision.


First of all - I didn't see anything on the menu (I'm talking dinner) that was over 7.50. The prices are unbelievably low, the family who apparently owns and works at the restaurant are tireless, attentive and somewhat intimidating. Mrs. Owner made us laugh with how fast she talked and how strong her accent was -- throwing Mark into a tail spin when she asked what kind of soup he wanted......wontonoreggdropsoup?....huh? WONTONOREGGDROPSOUP? Oh, right....Won Ton please!

Portions were huge. Mom ordered the dumpling appetizer. She got (and shared) 6 very large fried dumplings. Then she ordered the MooShu Pork that was enough to feed three people. I mean, three HUNGRY people. Mark got a combo platter with Shrimp and Lobster Sauce, Soup and an Eggroll. I had Mongolian Beef with an Eggroll. Again, enough to feed three people. When Mrs. Owner brought our food out, she was so cute (and scary) and wouldn't let us lift the covers off our dishes! Next time we'll be splitting a meal.

Our bill for all that food was 30.00. Ok...honestly....Mark and I can spend 20.00 at McDonalds (Not really. Ok. Yeah, sometimes). We'll go back and maybe next time I'll have the nerve to snap a picture. Of Mrs. Owner, of course AND the food.

Super Eats

Superbowl Sunday. Here's the scene.

My cocktail.

Super Dog.

The Food.

During Pre-Game -- we had ham salad 'tea' sandwiches and a veggie tray. Followed by a salami and cheese.

Second Quarter. Crabbie Melts

1/4 cup butter

1 (5 ounce) container sharp processed cheese spread

1 can of cooked crabmeat

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

6 English muffins, split

Preheat oven on broiler setting. In a medium bowl, mix together margarine and cheese spread. Stir in crabmeat, mayonnaise, garlic powder, and parsley. Spread the mixture on the split English muffins. Cut into quarters. At this point I put them on a cookie sheet to flash freeze (about an hour) and then I put them in a freezer bag. When ready to eat, stick under the broiler until hot and bubbly. No need to defrost.

Halftime. Stuffed Mushrooms.

1/2 Pkg of Bulk Sausage (I used hot)

1/4 Onion, finely chopped

12 (about) Large Mushrooms

1 Garlic Clove, minced

Season Salt

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1/4 of Parmesan Cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook sausage, onion, garlic and the mushroom stems (that you chop very fine) until done. Add seasonings. Set aside to cool. Mix in the cream cheese and parmesan cheese. Place on a baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Enough Said :)

Guest Photographer

Megan sent me a picture of her breakfast this morning. Megan is working with a personal trainer who has her working out intensely (BEFORE she goes to work in the morning) and eating low fat, low carb, high fiber, low calorie, and whatever else he feels like....the tyrant that he is! I do know that she is eating a LOT of veg and fruit these days.

Don't these strawberries look good?

Superbowl Sunday

My menu for the Cardinal's victory on Sunday is --

• Stuffed Mushrooms
• Cheese, Meat (Hickory Farms), Veggie Tray
• Crustless Mini Sandwiches
• Crab Melts

and maybe (because I really want them....but, depends on how lazy I get)

• Crab Rangoon

I met Kurt Warner once. My friend Mary and I were at the Press Party when Tampa hosted the last time (2001?). We actually crashed the party because the person who was supposed to sneak us in didn't show up.....so while I hid around the corner, Mary (who I still can't believe did this) -- went to the check in desk and was like....Uhhhhhhh, yeah, uhhhhhhh, right, we should be on the list! We're not!?!? Well....we're with King World Productions and you can ask 'mumble, mumble, mumble...' and then she grabbed a couple of badges and took off. Ok. I'm kind of exaggerating that last part but we got in due to her making up some name of the person authorizing our attendance and they said ok.

And while I'm confessing -- we didn't really meet Kurt Warner but he was there and we were there so it was dang close! Along with Dante Culpepper, Stone Cold Steve Austin and lots of other sport celebrities that I can't remember because it's been at least 8 years!

The Perfect Diet Dinner

I love Kabobs. I think it's all very handy -- everything cooks together in one little package. I once even made a 'kabob bar' if you will for Mother's Day. When the guests arrived, they got a list of ingredients on a slip of paper. They put their name on the paper and then chose the meat and veggies that they wanted on their individual kabobs. My preferred side would be a flavored rice or couscous but since we're watching the carbs I steamed three broccoli crowns.

Beef (I used a sirloin)

2 small tomatoes (or some cherry tomatoes)

1/2 medium onion, cut into wedges and separated somewhat

14 medium mushrooms, left whole

Marinade

I cut the sirloin up into 1" cubes and marinaded them in Wish Bones Bountifuls dressing that Mary sent me from Las Vegas (from where she works). I ended up with 12 ounces of beef.

Soak your wooden skewers in water for a good while (I'm just saying this because it's the right thing to say. I never do this. It seems that they burn no matter what!)

Now....I microwave my veggies for about 3 minutes before skewering them with the meat. This way, the meat and the veg get done at the same time. I alternate the items going on the skewer, starting with a cube of beef and ending with a cube of beef (I put three cubes of beef on each skewer). So....beef, onion, mushroom, tomato, beef, onion, mushroom, tomato, beef. When finished with the six skewers I take the rest of the marinade and brush it over all the veggies and then salt and pepper the entire lot.

Now by this time your grill is screamin' hot. Oh...did I mention turning on the grill? If you didn't, do it now and get yourself a glass of wine. When the wine is gone, the grill is probably hot enough.

How long you cook these things is a personal choice. Mine are seared on the outside and then moved to the other side of the grill to cook the veg up a bit more resulting in a nice med-rare center on the beef. I don't lower the lid because I don't want the beef to 'bake.' They cook probably a total of (less than) 10 minutes. So be sure your sides are done before you put these on the grill!

Try them also with pork, chicken or shrimp! They never disappoint and you get a good portion of your '5 a Day' out of the way!

Moments and Memories

Mark asked me the other night what the best meal I'd ever eaten. I told him that I didn't have ONE favorite meal of all times, but, I had moments or days or events that were favorites in my memory. Were they gourmet meals? No. But they're the events that have helped define my life, my relationships, my weight issues....

Not in any particular order and certainly just a sampling -

1. Potato Puffs at Two Friends in Key West during Mark's and my first trip together.

2. Cold meatloaf sandwich from a deli on Pike Street (Seattle) with my mom. We had a picnic at Chateau Sts. Michele in Seattle and watched a Mary Chapin Carpenter concert.

3. Shrimp Fajitas in Cozumel at Casa Denis with our friends Mary and Dennis.

4. The antipasta platter at Amicci's in Baltimore's Little Italy.

5. Eating dungeness crab with my friend Maureen on the waterfront in Seattle. The best I've ever eaten.

6. NEW YORK PIZZA!! At Big Nicks on Broadway in NYC. Sitting at a sidewalk table.

7. After driving all over Los Angeles looking at the sites, Valerie and I stopped at Gladstones in Malibu late afternoon, got some appetizers, and watched the sunset while sitting on their deck.

8. Sitting in the Italian Restaurant at Snowshoe with Mom and the twins and it began to snow. Through the twinkly lights outside. It was a magical moment for me -- can't even remember what I ate. Oh who are we kidding -- chances are it was spaghetti and meatballs.

9. The smell walking into the Pancake House in Gatlinburg with Mom and Mark -- smelled like my Grandmother's house when I was little. Coffee. Strong, rich coffee intermingling with the smell of pancakes and bacon cooking....OMG!

10. The best salsa and freshly fried tortilla chips I've ever eaten at this motor inn right outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon. I even put it on my eggs the next morning.

Gotta Have Me Some Noodles

So we are nearing the end of three weeks of dieting. It has gotten easier -- mentally, but I'll be tell ya -- the hard part is planning the meals (and TRUST ME I get absolutely no help from Mark), figuring the calories, fat, carbs and protein. Then you've got to measure how much all those ingredients made and then divide it into servings.

For instance, tonight I made a Carrabbas Style Pasta. I had to collect all the nutritional values, multiple it by the number of servings (the can of fire-roasted tomatoes was 30 calories per serving; 3.5 servings per can) and then I divided by 4 overall servings. And what's up with the pasta measurements -- a serving is 2 oz dry. What am I supposed to do with that? I had to cook the box and measured it by a cup. Here's my recipe --

Carrabbas Style Pasta

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

Olive Oil

1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

5 links of hot turkey italian sausage

6 big basil leaves, cut into confetti strips

1 healthy pinch of crushed red pepper

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon of sugar

4 cups of cooked spaghetti (I used whole wheat)

Saute (in large skillet) the garlic in olive oil until it smells wonderful. Remove the casing from the sausage and brown in the same pan, breaking it up as it cooks. When all the pink if gone, add the can of tomatoes, crushed red pepper, sugar and salt. Let simmer away for about 15 minutes. Actually I let it simmer until the spaghetti water came to a boil and the spaghetti was cooked and drained. Then stir in the basil.

Measure 4 cups of the spaghetti into the skillet with the tomato/sausage mixture and toss. Top with a bit of parmesan cheese.

I'm not one for making up recipes and having them work...that's my brother's gig. But this was pretty darned good. And...I have two servings leftover. I have to decide it I'm going to give them to Megan when I see her this weekend. Good Mom? Selfish Mom? Good Mom? Selfish Mom?

Can't Get These at the Red Lobster!

Ya know how you see the Red Lobster commercials on tv and all the food looks so good and fresh and bouncing all over the plate. And now they claim to have a GRILL MASTER cooking these wonderful dishes with grill marks all over them. Well I have to admit that I haven't been to Red Lobster in years. Reason #1 - Mark got sick there and ended up in the ER; Reason #2 - we live in a coastal town in Florida....there is absolutely no reason we should be supporting a national chain seafood restaurant when we have locally owned restaurants with fresh seafood; #3 - it's EXPENSIVE; #4 - When you get the food, it's a mess. Bland looking, small, not appetizing at all. Granted if you lived in the middle of Ohio or somewhere like that maybe Red Lobster is the best you can get! But not here and not at my house. Seriously these are the best fried shrimp you could possibly eat. I got the breading sequence from Elise at http://www.elise.com/recipes/.

My, oh my....this is some fine eating my friends!

Pound of large shrimp (think 16 - 20 count) peeled and butterflied. I even took off the tails - I don't want to have anything in my way when I eat!

1 cup of flour with salt and a bit of cayenne pepper
2 large eggs beaten
1 cup of panko crumbs (is that what they're called?? doesn't sound right.)
1 big bottle of canola oil

Put oil in skillet to heat. I used my 30 year old electric skillet, poured the oil halfway up the side and heated to 350 degrees.

Put the flour mixture in a ziploc baggie. I put all the shrimp in at once and shaked 'em up a bit coating them thoroughly with flour. I then dipped each of them into the egg making a bit of a glue on the shrimp -- then on to the panko coating each one completely. I did about half the shrimp at a time letting the coating rest a bit before plunking them into the oil. It was a quick fry - about 5 minutes on one side and maybe 2 or 3 on the other side.

A bit of fresh lemon juice and some awesome cocktail sauce -- oh my!! These are so crispy and good. Even good the next day for lunch. I reheated in a 400 oven on a cookie sheet with some cooking spray until I heard them start to sizzle a bit.

Acceptable Lasagna

Mark reminds me often of the things I can't make as well as his mother or grandmother or aunt...whatever. It doesn't really bother me but I do attempt to make things he likes since he's my only audience these days. One of these items is lasagna. He likes DRY lasagna. Here's what I did which produced a product that he announced 'very good.'


Box of no-boil noodles
Leftover homemade sauce with spicy sausage
32 ounces of whole milk ricotta
Parmesan - the powder stuff
4 cups of shredded mzzerella
2 eggs
Garlic powder
Dried basil
Dried Italian seasoning


I basically followed the directions on the noodle box. Except the ricotta mixture. I mixed the ricotta with the two eggs and seasonings, a handful of mozzerella and a handful of parmesan. This doubles the cheese mixture. Bake as directed.


Wished (now) that I had taken a picture of a slice of lasagna. It really held together well and was quite pretty!