Can cooker

So life has once again returned to a normal pace following a move and a job change or two and it appears that I may once again have time to think about cooking.  The most recent addition to my kitchen was a gift from a good friend.  It is a can cooker from Cabela's.  This was design is based on an old style of cooking where a milk can, or similar item, was filled with the ingredients for dinner along with some water and and after punching a small hole in the top of the can it was placed on a fire.  The items in the can were cooked quickly thanks to the steam building up in the can.
Since receiving this gift I have used it to two to three times a week on average.  We have made everything from seasoned potatoes, to a polish soup call zurek, to pork chops.  I even tried a curry dish in the can which failed miserably and will never be repeated again.  So far our favorite has been seasoned potatoes and pork chops.
 For this dish I started by coating the inside of the can cooking to ensure the food does not stick, either olive oil or a cooking spray works fine.  Then I added several potatoes, 4 to 5 cloves of garlic, a few carrots and one onion.  This was seasoned with season salt and pepper then mixed to ensure all the vegetables were well coated with seasoning. The pork chops, similarly seasoned, were placed on top and approximately 12 to 15 oz of beef broth was added along with about a 1/4 cup of balsamic vinaigrette.  Finally I placed some additional chopped garlic on top of each of the 3 pork chops.  The can was closed and placed on the stove.  Our meal cooked for about 30 minutes after the steam began to leave the can.

The result was very tasty and has been a family favorite ever since!

High Country Stew

Tonight's dinner was a a Rocky Mountain take on the Polish favorite, bigos.  Bigos is a traditional hunters stew from Poland utilizing several different kinds of meat and is heavy on the sauerkraut. I use about 3 pounds of the stuff when making bigos.  Bigos take about four hours to cook in the dutch oven and the result is a thick mixture that tastes like a little bit of heaven in a bowl. 

This recipe is geared more towards the foods found in mountains where we live.  I included onions, peppers, potatoes, mushrooms, chicken, italian sausage, smoked sausage and leftover pork chops.  These are similar ingredients, other than substituting potatoes for sauerkraut, and all are easily obtained here in our little hamlet.  A better hunter would have used wild game for this including venison, elk, and antelope in the mix but this year I am a bit short on wild game so I had to resort to using what was available at the grocery store.

I started by cooking up the italian sausage, chicken, smoked sausage and 2 left over pork chops in the dutch oven with 1/2 of an onion, approximately 4 cloves of garlic, 1 finely diced serrano pepper, and 1/2 of a red, yellow and orange bell pepper.   This was seasoned with salt, black pepper, paprika and cooked in marsala cooking wine until the italian sausage was cooked through.  To this mix one can of diced tomatoes was added along with 8 cubed potatoes, 2 cups of chicken broth, 1 cup water and about 1/2 cup marsala.  I used marsala cooking wine for liquid but beer could be used also.  Personally, I prefer to use wine in a recipe like this because of the taste.  This was left in the dutch oven until the potatoes were cooked through.

To complete the meal we served rolls with the stew and the result was a slightly spicy stew great to help keep you warm on a cold evening.

As a side note remember to watch the amount of seasonings you add.  I added enough to make this just right to my taste but it was a little on the warm side for my kids :)

Tortilla Pizza

So after a long day of church related activities it was discovered that no one remembered to take the pork chops out of the freezer.  I took a quick look through the cupboard and decided to combine two things my kids enjoy, tortillas and pizza.  I ransacked the refrigerator and came up with kielbasa, mushrooms, onion, ham, left over meaty marinara and cheese.  From the cupboard I took spaghetti sauce, tuna fish and tortillas.  Using the tortillas to replace pizza crust we made several different pizzas including one based on a pizza I encountered while in Cape Verde.  This had a light tomato sauce with onions, and fresh tuna sprinkled with basil.  For the kids, I used the other ingredients and the result was a fast, tasty, unique dinner that the kids had fun eating.  As for pictures, well the tortilla pizza disappeared so fast I did not have time to grab the camera.

Dutch Oven Chicken

A few nights ago my wife strongly suggest that chicken would be nice for supper.  Me, being the dutiful husband that I am, and loving to cook agreed and ran to the grocery store.  I picked up a whole chicken, one lemon, one onion, some red potatoes and got to work.  First I cleaned and and prepped the bird in to which I promptly shoved my lemon.  The lemon was first  filled with holes, using a fork, to allow the juice to moisten and flavor the chicken from the inside out.  After being lightly seasoned with lemon pepper, the chicken was placed in the dutch oven and the sliced red potatoes and onions were layered around the chicken.  One can of beer was added for flavor and liquid then more lemon pepper was added.  This was all cooked at 375 degrees for about two hours.  The result was a tender, great tasting chicken served with potatoes and a salad.  The juice left in the oven made a wonderful light gravy for the potatoes.  The best part, however, was seeing the smiling faces around the table.

Quick Halloween update

A lot of time has past since I was last able to sit down in front of the computer and update the blog.  Many meals, desserts and fun times have gone by so it is time for a quick update in my life of food.  Most recently my wife’s birthday past.  Being a Halloween child means a lot of fun on your birthday including a great cake.  This year I opted to make a modified black forest cake.  This is an amazing cake but one that is difficult to make while living in a small Wyoming town.  Traditionally this cake is make using a German liquor called kirsch or kirschwasser, a clear cherry flavored brandy.  This differs from a cherry liqueur as it is not as sweet.  While trying to find a recipe for this cake I discovered that there are as many ways to make this cake as there are bakers. One of the most common versions uses chocolate cake layers with a cream filling covered with a type of cherry glaze and cherries on top.  My version was admittedly a bit different.  I baked two chocolate cakes using a recipe almost identical to the one on the Hershey’s cocoa box which is a tried and true very yummy recipe.  Instead of cherries soaked in kirsch, I mixed cool whip with cherries for my filling.  From one of the cakes I carved out the center leaving about a 1/2 inch of cake on the sides and bottom. This cavern was filled with the strawberry mix, and the second cake was placed on top.  Because this was a Halloween cake the glaze I used was red and although I covered the top of the cake I let it drip down as though the cake was bleeding.  The glaze was made using corn syrup, butter, vanilla and Guittard’s Melting Drops.  The top was decorated with pumpkins and other typical Halloween candy.  The result was a great tasting fun birthday cake that the whole family enjoyed.

A few good things

Having lived in a few places throughout my life I have found that there are a few things that most people have in common.  Most people are good, honest and hard working.  Mankind regardless of race, creed, religion or gender also seems to have an inherent love of a good cookie.  Unfortunately, there are people like me whose cookie eating desires are hampered by their inability to consume either milk or eggs.  While there is not yet a solution that will allow us to enjoy a really good omelet, I have solved the cookie dilemma. 

This past week I had a couple days off work and finding none of my girls willing to help me fulfill my cookie cravings I set about creating my own recipe for eggless cookies.  These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies use very few ingredients and are very simple to make.

First cream together 1 cup butter or margarine, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl mix 1 and 1/2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 cups of oats.  Add this to your butter/sugar mixture and when thoroughly combined add approximately 1/8 cup of chocolate chips.  Using a spoon form the cookie dough into small balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until cookies turn a light brown color.

Enjoy!

 

del.icio.us Tags: Cookie,eggless,chocolate chip,oats,oatmeal,recipe

A Danish Delight

I have not posted for quite some time so in order to make up for this today I have a special treat.  This is something I have been thinking about making for quite some time but finally had the opportunity tonight. 

Aebleskiver is a traditional Danish puffed pancake cooked in a cast iron pan which looks like a cross between a muffin tin and fry pan.  Essentially simple to make this pastry can be used as a breakfast or a dessert.  Recipes range in variety from sweet to savory, from filled to plain, and no matter what you choose they are all scrumptious.

All of the recipes I could find contained only a few basic ingredients.  Eggs, milk (or buttermilk), flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder (or soda or both).  As I can’t eat eggs, and every recipe I found calls from 2 to 4 eggs per batch, this poses quite a problem.  I created an eggless version tonight.

Mix 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, and 2 tblsp sugar.  Add to the dry ingredients 2 cups of buttermilk and mix until smooth.  I After making sure the aebleskiver pan is throughly heated grease lightly with butter and fill each hole 3/4 full with batter.  To each aebleskiver I added one apple slice.  When the pastry is fully cooked on one side, this takes 2 to 4 minutes, Rotate the pastry to cook the other side.  Upon completion I removed the pastries and coated with  powdered sugar.

This was a dessert that the whole family enjoyed and one that will be repeated many times.

Lunch Time Burritos

I hate wasting food, so I am constantly trying to find ways to use leftovers.  Sometimes this drives my kids nuts, but someday they will thank me—hopefully
Today we used the left over steak and potatoes to make burritos for lunch.  I spread out the leftovers on tortillas, added some cheese, baked until warm and an easy lunch was created.  This was quite tasty especially when topped with fresh salsa.

Easy Oven Steak and Potatoes

After wandering through the local grocery store the other day when I was needing a tasty but easy dinner I found some thin sliced steaks on sale and decided it was another dutch oven night.

I sliced the steaks into strips and seasoned with McCormick’s Cowboy Rub seasoning.  This was quickly browned in a hot dutch oven.  Then, mushrooms, onions, and peppers were added and sautéed until the onions started to turn clear.  Thin sliced potatoes were thrown into the mix along with sherry cooking wine and a little more seasoning.  This was cooked until the potatoes were tender and supper was served.

This is an easy dutch oven dinner that is great at home and while camping.  You can replace the sherry with another liquid such as beef broth or beer, just be careful not to let the liquid evaporate so much that the potatoes fry and stick to the bottom of the oven.  You could also add other veggies as desired such as peppers or squash.

Grilled Jalapeño Burgers

Independence day has always been a great day for grilling and fireworks so today I chose to combine the two and eat a grilled jalapeño burger for supper. 

I used about 1/3 of pound of ground beef, 1/2 of a fresh, chopped jalapeño mixed this together adding only some of McCormick’s cowboy rub seasoning.  This mixture provided me with a pleasantly spicy burger which was topped with cheese and lettuce.  Combined with a side of chips and salsa this provided a great independence day meal.

Leftover Soup

Yesterday, after the dutch oven chicken turned out to be such a success, I decided to use the leftovers to create another meal that would help my wife while on the 17 day diet.  The diet allows her to eat large quantities of vegetables and proteins so that is exactly what this soup had.  I used one and a half of the chicken breasts from supper and all of the leftover veggies in the oven.  To this I added one onion, one and a half cups of chopped cabbage, one can chopped tomatoes, one large carrot, and two celery stalks.  The book, 17 day diet, recommends using fat-free broth for soups.  Lacking this I used bullion cubes to make two cups of broth and this was added to the oven along with approximately four cups of water.  This concoction was simmered until the carrots were cooked.  The result was a very tasty chicken and vegetable soup that was very similar to menu plan that my wife is following.

A Quick Thank You

I was just checking the stats provided by Blogger.com and happily surprised by the traffic my blog has seen.  It has been getting visits from as far away as Russia, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Brazil!!
I do have to appologize for not posting much recently, life has just been kind of busy.  I am getting back into the swing of things and with summer approaching expect to see more updates happening soon.
Thanks everyone for visiting this blog.  I hope you leave finding good recipes and a desire get out and cook.  Speaking of recipes I am always willing to try new things so feel free to send over your favorite recipes or ideas for new ones.

Thanks again,
Stonefamdad

Dutch Oven Chicken

My wife recently started using the 17 day diet.  After reviewing the way this is setup I have have been trying to incorporate the meal plan that the diet uses into our daily menu so that I can help her stay on the diet and still get the kids fed.  This diet is a high protein and vegetable heavy diet which is great and reasonably healthy but because it is also a low carb diet this can at times present a challenge.  Tonight, we had a version of dutch oven chicken on rice and my wife was able to use the chicken on her salad so every one was happy.

I started the dish by using on container of fresh, juicy salsa from the local grocery store and adding 1/2 cup of water to dutch oven. On this base I placed four large chicken breasts which were sprinkled with a seasoning by McCormick called “fiesta citrus” and then topped by red and green peppers.  The result was fantastic!  We placed the chicken on a bed of rice and and covered this with a scoop of sauce that remained in the oven.  This was great as my wife was able to skip the rice and add the chicken and veggies to her salad enabling her to stay on her diet and please the kids at the same time.  This dish was a hit that I will definitely repeat!

Dutch Oven Manicotti

My kids seem to like noodles.  Mac and cheese, spaghetti, fettuccini alfredo etc. That being said  I was thinking about how to combine noodles and a dutch oven a few days ago and came up with dutch oven manicotti.  This is a great dish filled with cheesy goodness, sausage and of course noodles!  I started by par-boiling the noodles.  This cuts down on the cook time in the oven and makes the noodles semi pliable to aid the stuffing. 
For the filling I used one 32oz container of ricotta cheese mixed with one 6oz tub of feta cheese.  To this mixture dried parsley and basil were added.  Please note that the feta and ricotta mixture have enough salt that you should not need to add any to this dish. This mixture made almost enough to stuff two packages of manicotti noodles.  For the sauce I browned one pound mild Italian sausage in the dutch oven and added one container mild, fresh, and very juicy salsa along with one jar of spaghetti sauce.  Then the manicotti were spread throughout the oven and topped with cheese.  This was cooked until the noodles were finished cooking.  The result was a very tasty dinner enjoyed at one of the local parks with watermelon for dessert. 
As a side note remember when cooking with a dutch oven to monitor the temperature.  I left my cooking to run an errand and overcooked everything!  Cleaning burnt noodles and cheese from the oven is not fun…

Squirrel Poop Pancakes

*Spoiler Alert* NOT A HEALTHY BREAKFAST
I like camp food.  For some reason few things taste better than food cooked over a fire in cast iron pans.  This was  inspired by our trip to Yellowstone this summer where a plump little squirrel was always in our camp.

Dad: Good morning kids!
Kids: Good Morning Dad!
Dad: I want you all to know that today’s breakfast is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world.
Kids: Faces covered with grimaces and blank looks. (this is usually what happens when I preface a meal with a similar quote-enter evil laugh here)
Dad: I present to you “Squirrel Poop Pancakes”
Kids: Yuck!
LOL the kids ended up loving breakfast and as a result ran downstairs to put away their clean clothes to burn up their new-found yet short lived burst of energy.
To make this kid appealing breakfast you need the following items:
2 cups of flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vanilla
milk
squirrel poop (chocolate chips work fine)
Make sure to mix all of dry ingredients first, without the poop, before adding the vanilla and milk.  After your batter is prepared simply drop for or five pieces of poop on the pancake as it cooks.  As I said it is not a healthy breakfast but hey every once in a while we all need something fun right?

Quick Ravioli Dinner

Tonight we needed a reasonably quick, kid friendly dinner.  We chose to use the frozen ravioli  we purchased this week and make a sauce to go with it.  This sauce used some leftover roast beef and the most common vegetables we had in our house.  Despite the amount of vegetables in the sauce it was a hit.  Combined with an easy garlic and cheese toast dinner worked out quite well. This quick and easy meal is sure to please!

Sautee one small onion, 1/2 of a green pepper, 1 cup chopped roast beef, 1 small can of mushrooms in olive oil until the peppers start to soften.  Add 1/2 cup sherry cooking wine, 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce and 1 small can of sliced olives and simmer while the ravioli cooks.

This kid friendly recipe is something the whole family can help make and is easily complimented with a fresh green salad.

A Taste of Chicken

While browsing the web a few days ago I stumbled across a video of three guys in the UK preparing a dish that reminded me of my time in Portugal.  There were several times while in Lisbon that we visited a small grill that made a unique style of chicken that I will never forget.  It was flavored with a regional red chili pepper called Piri-Piri.  The Piri-Piri pepper, also know as the African Birds Eye chili ranks at 175,000 units on the scoville scale placing it below the habanero, which averages about 200,000 units, but still way above other common chilies such as cayenne and jalapeno. This fiery little beast makes a great marinade for for just about anything but is particularly great on chicken.  Unfortunately Piri-Piri is not available in my area, and is a bit strong for my kids anyway, so I replaced it with dried arbol peppers. The particular recipe that I modified also called for fresh thyme and sea salt which I also did not have available.  For this recipe simply blend all the ingrediants together and use it to season the chicken for grilling or baking.  Tonight we had a baked version complimented with salad and rolls.  The family all seemed to like it, however, the most common comment was “Dad, why does this taste like fish?”  Oh well, I guess I just chose the wrong main ingredient for tonight's meal…

Ingredients:

1. 4 cloves of garlic
2. 160 ml olive oil
3. 50 to 60 ml red wine vinegar
4. 3 tbs lemon juice 
5. 2 dried chilies de arbol
6. 1 tsp salt
7. 2 tsp dried thyme leaves
8. 4 chicken breasts

Please note that using fresh ingredients instead of substituting dried items such as chilies and herbs will make an incredible difference to your meal.  I would suggest using 2 of the fresh Piri-Piri peppers in this recipe.  Also, as this is a kid friendly recipe more dried chilies can be added to kick up the heat.

Baked Breakfast

Last night Adelle requested to help make breakfast this morning. I was a little worried because I do not like her using the stove so I came up with a baked breakfast idea. Adelle whipped 4 eggs 1 cup mil some salt and pepper together and then we added the last of the Italian sausage from the soup (browned), 2 mushrooms sauteed with the sausage, and some shredded cheese. This we baked at 350 until the eggs started to turn brown on top like an omlette. To finish off our breakfast we had cantaloupe and hot chocolate.
To bad Magda is not feeling well today :( she would have enjoyed the breakfast we made.

Foodie Jr

Lately Adelle has been showing a real interest in cooking. She has been asking to help with more of the cooking that I do for the family and really enjoys being around food. Her 4-H group just started for the summer and she was able to take a cooking class. Her first assignment for the class was to create her own muffin recipe. After researching online and in various cookbooks to learn basic muffin ingredients and measurements she produced a vanilla muffin recipe and tested it on the family. It was very good!; I expect to see great things from her in the future :)

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tsp vanilla
cook at 350 until light brown


I suggested that she add cranberries but my idea was out voted.  Regardless, for a first try her muffins were pretty good!

A supper for Magda and Anna

Tonight Magda was not feeling very well so I decided to do a supper based on her request of something with noodles.  Anna, however, had other plans and decided that we needed to have soup.  So, after a quick trip to the store I had supplies for a soup with pasta and a surprise dessert.  We had an Italian inspired soup using 3 sweet Italian sausages, 1 can diced tomatoes with some garlic, onion and oregano, 1 can cannellini beans, 3\4 can of tomato sauce
, 1 bag frozen mini ravioli, 1\2 cup fresh sliced mushrooms, 3 cubes of beef bullion, 2 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1 dash of crushed red pepper, and 6 cups of water.  The produced an excellent soup that everyone was happy with.
For dessert I made a lemon very-berry cobbler using 1 bag of frozen mixed berries, 1\4 cup water, 1 lemon cake mix, and one can of Mountain Dew.  These were placed in a square casserole dish and baked at 375 for 1 hour.  It was then topped with turtle tracks ice cream.  I have also made something similar in the dutch oven and it turned out perfectly there also; in fact that is how I prefer to cook cobbler.
It was great to see everyone enjoy supper and the dessert.  The best part of cooking is seeing the smiles when everyone enjoys your food :) :) 

quick cinnamon rolls

I know it has been a long time since my last post and I apologize.   There have been many meals using both new and old recipes to post but no time to do it.  This morning, however, I found myself with enough time to  try something new and post about it.  I am currently cooking quick cinnamon rolls in my dutch oven for a late breakfast.  After looking around the net for easy roll recipes and finding that most of them involved using a pre-mix like Bisquick or pre-made dough like Pillsbury crescent rolls I decided to make my own.  For the dough I used 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp baking powder.  After mixing this together I added 3/4 water.  I found out that the measurements on this did not work quite right.  The dough was too sticky and I had to add about 1/4 more flour to get the dough stiff enough to roll.  After rolling the dough into a long rectangle I brushed on melted butter and sprinkled it with cinnamon and brown sugar.  This was rolled and sliced like traditional cinnamon rolls.  Currently they are baking at 350 degrees.  They will be covered with a simple glaze using powdered sugar and a little water.  I will post again later with the results :)

Update--

Ok, they look great!  The top was not as brown as I would normally like but that was due to the depth of the dutch oven.  The bottom was browned nicely and they were yummy!  We ate strawberries as well to complete our breakfast.

This would make a great camp breakfast with wild raspberries!   It is also very kid friendly as they can always help mix the dough and roll it out.

Cast iron \ dutch ovens

If you have not noticed yet, I like cooking in my dutch oven. In fact, this very short post is to let you know that cast iron cookware is on sale at amazon!  Keep in mind that all dutch ovens are not created equal...  Some are stainless steel, some are enamel, and some are cast iron.  The cast iron are the more traditional version.  They are easy to care for and if well seasoned they are naturally non-stick.  A good cast iron dutch oven is all one thickness to ensure even heating.  Some of the cheaper brands do not focus as much on quality as they should and tend to ignore this fact.  An oven with thick or thin spots in iron has hot spots.  This means you end up with more burnt food, or food that cooks unevenly.  Here is a list of links about dutch ovens.
Lodge Dutch Oven
International Dutch Oven Society
Chuckwagon Supply
Dutch oven dude
Papa dutch
Dutch oven history on wikipedia
Dutch oven university

Breakfast

Alas, not enough cereal this morning for the kids so I had to actually make breakfast.  Ok, that is not so strange, I make breakfast for the kids a few times each week.  Today it was bacon and pancakes.  One thing have not understood for years is the use of bisquick or other pancake mixes.  I know a lot of people who never have and never will make pancakes from scratch.  Personally, I will almost never use a mix for mine.  I can see the debate headline now "To mix or not to mix, that is the question."  My recipe for pancakes is quick and easy; it takes almost as much time as using a mix :)
Cinnamon Pancakes 
2 cups flour
1\4 to 1\2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1\2 tsp salt
1 to 2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
milk

Mix all the dry ingredients, add the milk and vanilla.  It is hard to get too much easier without buying a mix, and the kids love it :)  I have made up to 4 or 5 quarts of mix with this recipe, using our kitchen aid mixer, for large breakfasts  and it has turned out great.

Creative use of leftovers

Everyone enjoys corned beef hash, right??  Well this morning I created a twist on hash for breakfast using last nights leftovers.  Yesterday I had some errands to run after work and did not have time to cook.  It also did not help to forget to take the chicken out of the freezer. . .  Anyway I ran to a local burger stand and brought home food for the family.  When ordering I had forgotten that this particular place gives you more than your moneys worth.  After dinner I had an enormous amount of french fries leftover.  It was then I decided to try and make a breakfast hash this morning using the fries instead of cooking more potatoes.  So, I fried up some onion, added leftover ham and corned beef, then a large helping of diced up fries.  After this was heated up I topped it with 3 poached eggs and there you have it--leftover breakfast hash!

Easy Chili

On Monday nights we have a combined dinner and family night with some of our friends and this week it was our turn to cook.  We had Navajo Tacos this week, which fortunately everybody enjoyed. I used a simple fry bread recipe with only flour, baking powder, salt and water.  The bread was topped with chili, cheese, sour cream and salsa.  Nothing smells quite like a pot of chili. The sauteed onions and peppers, the browned meat and all the spices mixed together create a unique and wonderful scent that fills the house for hours.  However, I cheated last night and used a spice mix I picked up at the grocery store.  It was Carroll Shelby's Original Texas Chili mixand is by far my favorite store bought chili seasoning.  For our chili we sauteed 1 onion and 1 green pepper.  To this I add almost two pounds of bite sized steak pieces lightly seasoned with Lawry's seasoned salt.  After the meat was browned I added 1 can black beans, 1 can dark red kidney beans, 1 can corn, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce and the Carroll Shelby spice packet.  The chili was then simmered for about two hours and served hot on top of the fry bread.

This is also a great crock pot recipe! I prepare everything as mentioned above but let it simmer in the crock pot for at least 6 hours.  I have done this for pot luck dinners before with great success.

Somedays...

There are days when you have time to cook and days when you either don't want to cook or days when you have no time.  Today is not one of the fancy cooking days.  Supper tonight is buffalo chicken strips from the grocery store (I bought a bunch on sale and froze them) and an easy tortellini salad.  Anna and Paul both like the salad but neither really like the spicy chicken :)  The salad has frozen broccoli florets and peas combined with tortellini, miracle whip (or mayo) and basil.  It is basically a bowl of creamy goodness easy to prepare on those days when you just don't have time.

Cheesy dutch oven potatoes

Tonight as I was looking for a way to use some of the leftover ham, I came across a recipe for scalloped potatoes.  This got me thinking and we ended up with a cheesy ham and potato dish in the dutch oven.  It tasted great and has very few ingredients which is a good thing when camping or using leftovers.  I used leftover ham, sliced potatoes, 1/2 of an onion thinly sliced, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, cheese and about 1\3 cup water.  The potatoes went into the dutch oven first followed by ham chunks and onion.  This was covered by another layer of potatoes, ham, the can of soup, water and cheese.  After baking until the potatoes were cooked through we had a delicious leftover dinner!  We complemented this with a small green salad using 1/2 bell pepper (mine was orange), carrots, cabbage and lettuce.  I also cut up a couple leftover tortillas into strips and fried them, using my new fry pan, to add to the salad.  We all enjoyed the supper, even Anna and Paul cleaned their plates.

Beans Beans Beans

Ever since living in Portugal and Africa I have been hooked on beans. After coming back to the U.S. I have tried to find an easy baked bean recipe that everyone in the family enjoys. A couple years ago I made a simple pot of beans in a hurry and my kids loved it. Tonight we will be having my simple baked bean recipe and spiral cut ham for supper. The ham is in the dutch oven now cooking, and the beans could be done either on the stove or in a smaller dutch oven or bean pot.
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can pork and beans
1\2 tsp dry mustard
1\2 tsp garlic powder
1 chopped onion
1\2 cup brown sugar
1\4 cup vinegar
Simply saute the onions, then add everything else and cook until thick. This takes 30 to 45 minutes.

This recipe is really easy to modify! If you prefer spicy beans add 1 chopped jalapeno or 1 can Rotel Tomato & Green Chilies with green chillies. You can also add bacon or sausage while sauteing the onion for added flavor. Tonight, I am using cannellini beans instead of the pork and beans. I also added about 1 tsp molasses .

Cornbread revisited

Ok, so the title of this posted sounds like a corny southern horror movie where the evil cajun threatens his captive to death by overeating. . .

The reason for this post is an update on my cornbread recipe. Yesterday I made a batch using the same recipe as before adding only 1 cup honey to the mix. The result was a great batch of cornbread that my kids loved!! The honey added great flavor to the bread and helped it remain moist. This is sure to become a family favorite.


A quick note about honey--Not all honey taste the same. I use a local honey from Cache Valley Utah that comes from clover.  Here is a site which briefly describes different types of honey. 
At Amazon.com you can find a variety of different types of honey including clover, elderberry and agave.

New Purchase

I have been trying to decide what types of pots and pans to use for catering or in the restaurant if I ever get it open, and today purchased a stainless steel pan through Amazon.com. I am really excited to test drive this pan! It is a Cuisinart Chef's Classic Fry Pan and has received good reviews on other websites. Why did I choose stainless steel over aluminum, anodized aluminum or not stick? One reason is that pots and pans release minerals, toxins and various substances when heated. Aluminum is toxic to humans and when pots and pans are heated to high temperatures the toxins are released into the food. All the research I have done around the web indicates that his is not true with stainless steel. Steel also does not warp the way aluminum does. The only drawbacks to SS that I have found is that it does not heat the same way aluminum does and it is not non-stick. The heating problem is, in part, bypassed by added copper or aluminum plates to the pan. These are often layered in the SS allowing for a similar type of heating that you would find in an aluminum pan. I have read that seasoning the SS pan, similar to using cast iron, will help solve the non-stick problem.

The pan should arrive by Tuesday!!! I will post an update on the pan soon after it arrives.