• 15Sep

    Chicken Satay Noodle Salad

    This is based on a Rachel Ray recipe from her Every Day With Rachel Ray magazine website. It’s supposedly a 30 minute meal – I think it would be if you had the pasta already cooked – or if your water heated faster than mine did. :) Of course, if I’d actually put the burner on high, not on medium, things would have gone faster.

    When I try a new recipe for the first time, I try to make it exactly as written. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen – I forgot to buy something, or thought we had an ingredient but didn’t, that kind of thing. This is one of those times. I had only crunchy peanut butter (which I’d bought for something else). I don’t think it caused a problem at all.

    You should have seen the look of pleasure on Matt’s face when he tasted the sauce for the pasta. This one has definitely been added to our family recipe book.

    And one of these days, I’ll remember to take a picture of the dish just before it’s served.

     

    Chicken Satay Noodle Salad

     

    1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
    1/3 cup + 2 tbsp peanut butter, softened (I used organic crunchy peanut butter)
    2 tablespoons honey
    1/4 cup tamari (dark soy sauce)
    Juice of 2 limes
    1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (eyeball it)
    1 clove garlic, grated (I used a microplane and did it straight into the mixing bowl, so as not to lose any of the garlic juice)
    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    2 cups cooked chicken (I used chicken breast)
    1 cup packed fresh spinach, thinly sliced (I used baby spinach)
    1/2 cup shredded carrots
    4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
    1/4 cup chopped peanuts
    2 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley

    Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain, then rinse under cold water until the pasta is cold and set aside. Let the pasta continue to drain while it dits – you don’t want any water to dilute the sauce.

    Meanwhile, get a large bowl (and I mean very large), whisk together the peanut butter, honey and 1/4 cup warm water. Whisk in the tamari, lime juice, hot sauce and garlic. Pour in the oil in a steady stream, whisking to combine. Add the noodles and toss to coat.

    Add the rest of the ingredients to the noodles and toss until well mixed.

    You’ll note that the recipe doesn’t call for any salt or pepper. You really don’t need it. You get a lot of seasonings from the hot sauce, and the tamari adds just enough salt to the dish.

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  • 12Sep

    Savory Apple Crisp

    This is a delicious variation of that favorite dessert, apple crisp. It takes as long as a regular version to bake, so this can be made ahead and served room temperature, or put together in a crockpot. When looking at the ingredients, you’ll see there’s no salt. We’ve found that the amount of salt used in the curing of regular store-bought bacon provides enough salt for this recipe.

    This recipe was originally published in my cookbook …And Their Tummies Growled.

    Savory Apple Crisp

     

    This recipe makes 6 side-dish sized servings.

    6 cups baking apples, cored, peeled and sliced into ½ inch slices
    ½ tsp thyme
    ½ tsp granulated garlic
    ½ lb bacon, cut into pieces no larger than ¼ inch
    1 medium onion, diced into pieces no larger than ¼ inch
    1 stalk celery, sliced thin
    ¾ cup all purpose flour
    ½ tsp thyme
    ¼ tsp ground black pepper
    2 tbsp sugar
    1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, chilled

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

    Put the apples, thyme and garlic into a very large bowl, and stir to mix.

    Cook bacon in a frying pan on medium high until the bacon is starting to turn crispy. Drain off most of the bacon fat in the pan. Put the onions and celery in the frying pan, stir until everything is well mixed, and cook, stirring occasionally, until you can cut the onion with a wooden spoon.

    Pour the bacon mixture over the apples and mix well.

    In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, thyme, pepper and sugar. Cut the butter into pieces, add it to the flour mixture, and then use a pastry cutter, two knives, or your hands, to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like brown sugar, and no pieces of butter are larger than a small pea.

    Add the flour and butter mixture to the apples and stir until everything is mixed well. Transfer everything into a deep, eight cup baking dish and bake for 50 – 60 minutes, or until the apples are soft (stick a knife into the dish and you feel no resistance).

    Let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.

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  • 11Sep

    Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

    I love butternut squash soup. The color is wonderful, and the taste is fantastic. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in my family who likes it. However, it’s been a while since the kids have tried it. Perhaps their tastes have changed.

    This particular recipe is based on a Paula Deen recipe from foodnetwork.com. I made it yesterday, and for some reason it didn’t taste quite right. The depth of flavor that normally there wasn’t there this time. I thought about what I could do to fix it, and ginger popped into my head. I figure ginger goes well with pumpkin and carrots, so why not try it with this soup. I think it turned out great.

    Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

     

    2 lbs butternut squash, halved, peeled, seeded and cut into 1″ pieces
    1 1/2 c. diced onion
    2 carrots, peeled and diced
    5 1/2 cups chicken broth
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/2 c. heavy cream or half and half
    1/2 tsp dried ground ginger
    1 tbsp fresh ginger (frozen, grated with a microplane)

    In a medium saucepan, combine broth, squash, onions, carrots and salt. Simmer, uncovered, until squash is very tender, about 40 minutes. Puree soup.

    Whisk cream, ground ginger and fresh ginger into soup. Serve immediately.

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  • 08Sep

    Cheesy Sausage Hash Browns

    This is a favorite of my kids. It was my daughter’s idea to add the sausage and make it a complete meal. The original recipe is from Rachel Ray, and we changed things to make it our own.

     

    Cheesy Sausage Hash Browns

     

    1 lb bulk breakfast sausage (hot or mild, your choice – wouldn’t recommend maple)
    2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    2 tbsp butter
    1 large onion, chopped
    5 cups shredded frozen potatoes
    salt & pepper to taste
    1 cup sharp cheddar crumbles

    1. In a large non-stick frying pan, cook the sausage meat until all the pink is gone. As it cooks, break it into small pieces. Remove sausage from the pan and set aside, keeping it warm.
    2. Add olive oil and butter to the pan. When melted, add the onion and cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes, or until you can easily cut a piece of onion with a wooden spoon.
    3. Add shredded potato, season with salt and pepper and cook for 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown and crispy.
    4. Add cheese and cooked sausage, turning everything for a minute or two to let the cheese melt and get a bit crispy.
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  • 07Sep

    Hungarian Goulash #1

    I created this recipe based on my memories of my Hungarian grandmother’s goulash and recipes I found online and in the Joy of Cooking. My husband and son really liked it; my daughter wasn’t so keen (but she’s at the age where if it’s not what she wanted to eat, she doesn’t like it).

    Though it turned out well, there are things I’d like to change. It’s definitely on the Make It Again list, so when I do, I’ll make a note of the results of my experimentation here.

     

    Hungarian Goulash, Initial Draft

     

    6 slices hardwood smoked bacon, diced
    2 cups thinly sliced onion
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/4 cup sweet Hungarian paprika
    2 1/2 lbs chuck roast, cut into 1/2″ pieces
    1 1/2 tbsp caraway seeds
    7 juniper berries
    10 allspice berries
    1 cubanelle pepper, cut into quarters lengthwise, then sliced thin
    2 tbsp minced garlic
    4 cups beef broth

    1. Toast the caraway seeds, juniper berries and allspice berries for 1 minute oner medium heat in a dry frying pan. Remove them to a small bowl and set aside.
    2. Put the bacon into a cold dutch oven. Cook over medium heat until bacon is crispy. Remove bacon with slotted spoon and set aside.
    3. Put onions in pan, sprinkle with salt and cook over medium heat until soft and golden brown. Remove from the dutch oven with a slotted spoon and set aside
    4. Put the beef into a large bowl. Add paprika to the bowl and stir well, making sure each piece of beef is coated with the paprika. Brown the meat in the dutch oven in batches, making sure not to crowd them. Add vegetable oil to the pan as needed to help the meat brown. When cooking the last batch of meat, add the caraway seeds, juniper berries and allspice berries.
    5. Return beef, bacon and onions to the dutch oven. Add in cubanelle pepper and garlic and stir well. Add beef broth and stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer uncovered for 2 hours.

    I served this with garlic-buttered egg noodles, and this recipe should serve 6 people.

    Things To Try:

    • Increase caraway seeds to 2 tbsp, and don’t toast them.
    • Add 1 bay leaf.
    • Change the cooking order of things: bacon, then meat, then onions.
    • Use only 2 cups of beef broth.

    Possible Variations:

    • Try this as Goulash Soup. Keep the amount of broth at 4 cups, but add 2 cups of potatoes when adding the broth. Cooking the potatoes for a long time will turn them to mush and send the starch into the soup, thickening it a bit. Also add nice big chunks of carrots, and possibly parsnips and/or turnips.
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