a few new recipes

This morning I crawled out of bed, slipped on my shoes, and went out to get in my exercise. I wasn't looking forward to the running that I was scheduled to complete, and then I opened the door. The weather was PERFECT. So cool and just a light breeze. The entire time I was thinking that it would be perfect weather for grilling tonight, so I started making plans. I had found some recipes in the June issue of Southern Living a few days earlier and had everything I needed on hand.

When Lovey came in for lunch, I asked him if he felt like grilling (he had not felt great the night before). As soon as I got the okay from him, I sent Carrie and Liz a text. Can't let this wonderful weather go to waste. Supper on the deck tonight. Around 6:30. Who's in? Liz had to go cheer on her boy in a double header, and Clay had previous plans. So it was to be a small group. When Carrie arrived, I put the finishing touches on the sangria.

We grabbed our glasses and went straight to the deck. We have had such a hot spring, and tonight's temperture was juuust right.

The view was great, the weather was perfect, and the sangria was tasty. Shortly, Lovey got the grill going.  Supper included Broccoli Slaw with Candied Pecans, Grilled Pineapple, and Porkchops with Basil-Garlic Rub. Early in the afternoon I had prepared the basil-garlic rub. About an hour before grilling time, I put the rub on the chops.

I had also prepared the salad dressing and had the broccoli slaw waiting. When Lovey put the pork chops on the grill I added the glazed pecans and mixed the slaw and dressing. The prep ahead made supper time easy.

The pork chop was amazing. And grilled pineapple is perfect with porkchops. But that broccoli slaw? It was goo-oo-ood. These two recipes will be repeated for sure.

Tomorrow we are trying the Buttermilk-brined Grilled Chicken from the same issue. I'll let you know how it turns out. Tonight, I've got one more glass of sangria to finish. Yum.

Sangria recipe
Grilled Porkchop with Basil-Garlic Rub
Broccoli Slaw with Candied Pecans

new recipe - mexican mac and cheese

I never thought that one new recipe a week would be the most difficult of my resolutions to keep. Not that I've been doing great on the others during the last few weeks either. I think what has made this one the most difficult is two fold - I just don't use recipes when I cook on a daily basis, and making new recipes means lots of planning. But I am determined to get back on track with all of the resolutions, so when I saw a pin for this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it, or at least a version of it, ASAP.

I did my cooking at my friend Carrie's so that she and her husband could hep me with another project and because it has been several weeks since we had supper together and that was one of the resolutions also. Whew!

So here's my version of BHG's Mexican Mac and Cheese.

I used elbow macaroni because that's what Carrie had, and she started it cooking while I was still on my way.

While the macaroni boiled, I cooked the sausage. Another of my adaptations - I switched the pork sausage to turkey sausage in hopes of making it just a tad healthier.

When the macaroni was ready, Carrie drained it off and put it back into the pot. I used that for mixing to save washing another bowl. I added the sausage to the macaroni and then cook the onions in the same skillet. I'm all about as few dirty dishes as possible.

Once they were just softened, I add them to the pot too.  Then added the salsa Verde and two packages of pepper jack cheese. I'm glad I was stirring in that big pot - or Carrie would have had cheesey macaroni in her floor with no Lucy or Jacob to clean it up.

Next the mixture was poured into a large baking dish and ready for the oven.

After it was bubbly, I added sliced grape tomatoes and black olives (another adaptation) and put it back into the oven for just a few minutes.

It was just a little spicy, a little cheesey, and a lot yummy! I will be making this dish again.

I brought home some leftovers for the boys. Jus really liked it too.

** a revision to the revision: I made this to take to church yesterday. I had been considering this change since the night I cooked it. This time I added about a 1/2 of a jar of sundried tomatoes in oil. I also used jalapeno pepper slices with the tomatoes on top rather than olives - I plan to use both the next time I make this.

this week's new recipe

Wednesday night (before the Pepe Le Pew fiasco), I was trying to decide what I would cook for our Friday night gathering. I had almost decided to do baked shrimp, but then found a link to The Pioneer Woman's Spicy Whisky BBQ Sliders - and I knew I had to try it. And it counts as my new recipe for the week.

I wasn't exactly sure how many people would be here, but I knew I would need more than the twelve sliders the original recipe would make. I used a 5 lb. package of lean hamburger meat, and got 32 or 33 sliders. I sprinkled the patties with Famous Dave's Steak and Burger seasoning.

the magic ingredients

I browned the patties in batches (until almost done) and then because I was cooking many and wanted to keep them warm, transferred them to my dutch oven.

waiting for sauce

 The last few patties were transfer to another skillet to finish cooking. I knew that there were be a few kids here that wouldn't want the spicy sauce.

these will be regular sliders for the non-spicy crowd

Finally I had a skillet full of bits and pieces - because I used lean ground beef there was very little fat; I added a bit of olive oil to brown the onions. And I chopped two medium onions for this large batch.

look at the brown bits mixed with the onions - yummy

When the onion were nice and soft, I added the whisky - the whole bottle. And OH. MY GOODNESS! Why have I never cooked with whisky? When that whisky hit those lovely browned onions, the smell was amazing. I will definitely be using onions and whisky in more recipes. Maybe onions and mushrooms with a reduced whisky sauce for steaks?

Sorry, I got distracted just thinking about the possibilities. After the whisky, I added the bottle of barbeque sauce. I love Sweet Baby Ray's any flavor, but the Raspberry Chipotle is one of my favorites. I decided it wasn't enough and added another bottle of plan bbq sauce. After adding the jalapeno slices, I poured the sauce over the patties waiting in the dutch oven and let it all simmer for about 30 minutes.

wish you had scratch and sniff

Lovey came in at about this time. I could hear him "mmmm - mmmming" all the way into the kitchen.

While the sauce simmered, I split the buns, buttered them, placed them on a large cookie sheet, and when we were ready to eat I just popped them in the oven to toast them up.  Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in the eating that I didn't take any pictures of the assembled sliders. As a matter of fact, I completely forgot about my camera for the rest of the night.

**I wasn't compensated in any way to mention the products  pictured here. The Pioneer Woman, Sweet Baby Ray, and Famous Dave do not know me. But I'm sure they would love me if they did. I'm fun! 

one tried and true; one new

Thursday night I had a few friends over - actually I hosted a Silpada party. You know Silpada, don't you? You can check out an online catalog here.

I worried that the yucky, wet weather we have been experiencing would ruin the party. And for those that came - I can only apologize about the muddy road you had to drive down to get here - thanks for coming! Our road was worse that night than it had been all winter. Log trucks going in and out over the summer and fall, and then slow drizzly days of rain are a horrible combination for a gravel road.

My friend Carrie texted me that she was only coming for the appetizers. I hope she wasn't disappointed.  When planning what to cook, I knew that I wanted to do Cha-Cha Chicken Salad. I first made it a few years ago when I found the recipe in Southern Living. I love it. It tastes great and looks fanatastic - but it really isn't hard to make.

Sangria was at the TOP of my list. So I did some recipe research. I looked at tons of recipes. I found this site through pintrest. I liked number five, Grapefruit Sangria; although, I must say that the picture there doesn't match that recipe - a juicy red wine just will not be that golden color. I tweaked the recipe just a bit (who's suprised by that?). You can find my version here. The original recipe was a confusing. It's grapefruit, and the recipe calls for 1/2 of a grapefruit, but it only mentions adding the zest of grapefruit and maybe using grapefruit soda.

See. It looks nothing like the picture on the original link. It's rich and dark and red and oh so delicious. I'm counting the sangria as my new recipe of the week.



this week's new recipe

Because I get bored with the same meals over and over, I have decided to mix it up and try a new recipe once a week. This week I have been struggling with just which new recipe to try.  Part of the deal I made with myself was that I would actually follow the recipe - I don't usually do that. It's Saturday. I hadn't planned on making a run to town, but this morning Lovey gave me spouted off a list of things he needed. I told him that I could make the trip because I still needed to decide on a new recipe to cook tonight. He reminded me that he wanted burgers which sounded pretty easy to me, and I agreed to cook burgers. But I still wanted to do a new recipe.

I decided on mushroom Swiss burgers. Not really a new recipe because I didn't have a recipe. But kind of a new recipe because I've never cooked mushroom swiss burgers.

I picked up the ingredients for the burgers. Lean Angus beef, cheese, Texas toast instead of plain hamburger buns, and of course mushrooms.

While Lovey cooked the patties, I cooked the baby bella mushrooms and red onion with a bit of Worcestershire.

This smelled so yummy while it cooked. Lovey melted Swiss cheese on the patties as they cooked. I mixed some garlic powder, chili powder, Worcestershire, and black pepper with the Miracle Whip for a spread.  And finally I built my burger.

It was huge. And so GOOD. I added a few of the mushrooms and onions on my plate. I just love mushrooms! Try as I might, I couldn't eat all of that giant burger.

So it wasn't technically a new recipe, but it was something new. Baby Jus loved his. I think this is one I'll do again.

I have to say Lovey didn't eat the same burger we did. He had cheddar cheese and no mushrooms and onions. Sometimes it takes a while to get him to eat something new. He's just a tad bit picky - if his momma didn't cook it, he has to work his way to trying it. Maybe next time he'll give these a try.

something new

Earlier this month I posted my resolutions for the year. Of course one involved losing weight. I've set my goal to lose five pounds a month. It's January 11, and I just weighed for the first time. Now I've got to really get busy to lose those five pounds by the end of the month. Crap!

And I resolved to exercise 30 minutes a day for at least five days of the week. Maybe I should just change that to four. Four seems to work so much better for me. Four it is.

So, I'm not doing so great with those two, but it's not all a fail. I have been cooking some new recipes. This requires me to do a bit lot more meal planning than I have normally done. But I've picked some yummy recipes to try.

Tonight I cooked a recipe from a Rachel Ray cookbook. It was a black bean soup (or as she says stoup) and monte cristo sandwiches. In all my years of eating, I've never had a monte cristo sandwich. Why is that?

The soup was pretty easy. Chop some garlic, jalapeno, onion, celery, and bell pepper. Throw these in a pot with some olive oil, add some cumin, bay leaves, a can of tomatoes, three cans of black beans, and some chicken stock. The recipe called for coriander. I didn't have any. The grocery store didn't have any. The soup didn't get any. Oh, and some Tabasco - it did get Tabasco.

One reason I chose this recipe is that my daddy and step-mom gave us some Harry and David's jellies for Christmas. The monte cristo sandwich needed a pepper jelly. I had a pepper and onion relish that I thought would work.

The sandwich also had turkey, ham, and pepper jack cheese. I dipped it in a milk and egg concoction that was spiced up with some more Tabasco, then cooked it like a grilled cheese sandwich.

Add a bowl of soup and it was a meal.

Tonight's supper was a win. Just a bit of chopping and the rest of the soup was opening cans and dumping them in the pot. And the sandwich was just a fancy grilled cheese. It only took about 30 minutes to prepare it all. And there's enough soup leftover for lunch tomorrow.

Any suggestions for next week's new recipe???