Kitchen Chat: All dish soaps and sponges are NOT created equal!!!

So normally I use good old classic Dawn dish soap.  We don't have a dishwasher so everything is done by hand (bummer for me).  Sponges I use Ocello (I think?) they are blue and kinda curvy.  Anywho recently I decided to try the dawn soap that has the oil of olay right in it.  Bought a whole huge bottle of it thinking it would help my hands not be so dried out.  Ha.  Didn't really make a difference at all, just a reason for them to charge you more!  I also tried the Gain dish soap when it first came out, mostly cause I had a coupon and figured I would give it a shot.  While the smell was different from Dawn (in a good way) and it was cheaper (even without a coupon) it seemed more watery.  I had to use way more of the soap to get the same amount of dishes clean compared to with the dawn.  As for sponges there has been times when for whatever reason I had to get the super-cheap ones and there is most definitely a difference!!!  They don't scrub as well and they don't last as long.  As it is with the amount of dishes we do we go through a sponge maybe every week or so, which seems like a lot to me.  We also have a scrub brush on a stick, mostly for those damn sippy cups I can't seem to throw away (not that my kids can't drink out of a regular cup but they have a tendency to spill a lot and sippies save me a lot of cleanup).

Classic Recipe 4/52: Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza

Heck yes!  Who doesn't love pizza?  Better yet, who doesn't like pizza that you made yourself with a stuffed crust just like certain pizza chains?  I can't remember the last time we had hot pizza delivered to us.  I want to say it's been over 2 years.  Seriously.  I think I have gotten papa murphy's take n bake pizza maybe once in that same time period.  When we want pizza, we do a frozen pizza, or I make it homemade.  And depending on what toppings are going on there, it doesn't usually take any longer than if you order delivery or throw in a frozen 'za.  It will not, however, go on the pizzazz.  In case you were wondering.  :)

Ingredients: 8 pieces string cheese, 1 jar pizza sauce, 2 boxes jiffy pizza crust mix, shredded cheese, any other toppings you desire.  I usually go with pepperoni and black olives, sometimes sausage n mushroom, it depends what I have lurking around that needs eaten.

Mix the pizza crush mix according to the box directions.  it's a good idea to have a rolling pin and some flour for dusting ready.  The dough will have to rise for about 5 minutes, when it's done roll it out onto your pizza pan.  Get it as far to the edge as possible and even a little over the edge if you can.  Now you need your pieces of string cheese.  Roll the edge of the crust around the string cheese.  8 always fits perfect on my pizza an and when you take it out of the oven it makes an easy guideline for slicing the pizza.

Once you have the string cheese rolled into the crust pre-bake it for a few minutes-temp will be on the box I think it's 425.  Take it back out and add your toppings.  I never use the whole jar of sauce it makes it too saucy for my taste, so I put the rest in the fridge and use it later in spaghetti sauce or make mini pizzas on garlic bread..  Anyhoo Add all your toppings except the cheese, put it back in the oven and leave it in about 15-27 minutes.  take it out one more time and add the shredded cheese.  Back in the oven for a few more minutes till the cheese is nice and melty and delicious.  Then back out a final time for slicing and eating.

 Not a terribly expensive meal, we always have string cheese on hand, we get a bulk package of it every few weeks at sam's club, but you can get it in a package of 8 if you don't eat a lot of string cheese normally.  Crust mix and sauce are pretty cheap as well and if you aren't going super fancy with the other toppings you can keep it cheap.  Reheated this pizza is pretty good too, we normally have 3 or 4 slices leftover.  The crust is pretty thick and one slice is usually enough to fill a person up.

New Recipe 4/52: Pan-fried Pepper Ring Meatloaf

So I saw Sunny Anderson (my fave food network chick, by the way) make this recently and it immediately went on my list of things to try.  I'll write out the recipe as I made it but I first want to include a link to the original in case you want to do it that way.  I skipped the fresh/fried sage and my peppers were a little small so I did not get as many rings as she did.  But other than that I stuck to the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/pan-fried-meatloaf-in-tricolor-peppers-recipe/index.html

Ingredients: 3 bell peppers, preferably in 3 colors to make it prettier.  1/2 lb ground beef, 1/2 lb ground turkey, 2 slices white bread, cubed, 28 oz can crushed tomato with basil (I just added some basil to a regular can), 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 egg, 1 small onion, chopped fine, 1 tsp or so worcestershire sauce (something I am incapable of spelling or pronouncing correctly), salt n pepper.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Remove the core/seeds from the peppers, slice into rings about 1 inch high.  Mix together everything elseexcept the crushed tomato, only mix in about 1/2 cup of the tomatoes.  Press the meat mixture into the pepper rings.  Get a little oil hot in a skillet-make sure it's one that can also go in the oven-cook the rings w/meat in them about 5 minutes each side.  Add the rest of the tomatoes to the pan and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

 I thought this came out pretty good.  I like the idea of a stuffed pepper meatloaf, although this particular meatloaf blend was not to my normal taste, it was a little moist for what I normally like.  Next time I will probably use bread crumbs rather than fresh bread, to try and dry it out a little.  But overall it was a pretty good dish and I was even able to get my kids to take a few bites without too much fuss.  I took leftovers to work the next night and it was still good reheated, the peppers kept a good amount of crunch to them.  I will definitely be trying this one again.  My husband and I both like meatloaf and I like to try different variations on them so we don't get sick of the same kind all the time.  So be ready for a lot more meatloaf recipes over the next year!!!

Kitchen Chat: Cheat Dinners

So I want to talk about some of the cheat dinners that I make.  Stuff that I don't really cook it's more like I throw it in a pan or in the oven.  We are not big fans of the dinner in a bag that you throw in a pan.  We have tried a lot of them but they all kinda taste the same.  One thing we do like is a frozen stir fry.  The ones that Wan Chai Ferry make are pretty decent, and for now since the kids don't eat a whole lot it stretches for all 5 of us, if we make some eggrolls to go with it.  They have some other ones withe the frozen veggies at walmart and then you get the sauce separate in the asian food aisle.

Another dinner that's easy to make on the fly is burgers n fries, I cheat and get the pre-made patties.  I know, I know, I could make them and freeze them myself but I don't.  it doesn't take much to throw them in the pan and throw some fries in the oven.

When i am feeling really lazy I will throw in a frozen pizza, or we will have what was formerly known as the "pizzaz special"-a bunch of frozen stuff heated up like chicken nuggets, pizza rolls, mozzerella sticks, etc.  Not that we have that stuff all the time for dinner, but once in a while it's nice to take a break.  Once in a while we will let the kids pick what's for dinner and 9 times out of 10 they choose mac and cheese and hot dogs.  Which is also a pretty quick and easy meal to make.  The other thing they pick a lot is pancakes, whcih isn't even much of a cheat, if you think about it.  Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?  but the cheat there is that I use a pre-made mix.  Once in a while I will try pancakes from scratch but they are never as good as the mixes.

I try to only do a cheat meal once or twice a week.  Of course those are the meals my kids love the most, the stuff that is not as good for them and I barely think about to make.  it's the stuff that I work really hard at that they never wanna try.  *sigh*

Classic Recipe 3/52: Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Just like it sounds, it's a loaded baked potato in soup form.  It's a twist on another recipe I had tried for potato soup, and it has quickly become a family favorite.  Be warned: this is a soup to make on a weekend when you have plenty of time, and it is NOT figure friendly.  Very rich and creamy.

Ingredients: 1 lb bacon, 2-3 lbs potatoes, 2-3 carrots, 2-3 stalks celery, 1lb or so frozen broccoli, 1 onion, 8oz cream cheese, one stick butter, 8oz package velveeta shreds (find them in the shredded cheese area), 1 pint cream, 1 pkg oscar meyer bacon bits, sour cream and crunchy onions (for garnish, optional).

Get to work chopping your veggies.  You want them pretty small.  Don't worry about chopping the broccoli, it should be small enough in the package.  Put all the veggies in the pot and cover with water.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  let it simmer for a few hours, stirring occasionally.  Add more water as needed, don't worry about too much water b/c you will be draining off any excess liquid later.

About half an hour before you are ready to eat, chop the bacon into bite size pieces and fry it up.  Just before it is done, take the pot off the stove and drain off most of the excess liquid.  You want it to be pretty mushy, so if there are any big chunks of potatoes or broccoli left mash them up a bit.  Now you're ready to add everything else in.  The cream cheese will blend better if it's at room temp.  I also add the bacon grease along with the bacon chunks, it makes for a more bacon-y flavor, but that's your call.  Another thing you can do to add bacon flavor is put a raw piece of bacon in the pot with the veggies at the beginning, just fish it out when you drain off the liquid.  Save aside some of the bacon bits to sprinkle on top of each bowl.  if it seems too thick add a little more cream (milk will do the trick if you don't have more cream).  If it's too thin you can add some sour cream to thicken it up a little more.

This soup is super tasty with some crusty bread to dip it in, or if you have sourdough bread bowls (like they have at panera's) that would be awful tasty as well.  I have tried the bread bowls they have at hy vee but they were not up to my standards.

 mmmm bacony goodness

 pre-draining the liquid.  looks kinda gross

the end result.  it's more delicious than it looks.  trust me

New Recipe 3/52: Stuffed Mushrooms

Another recipe from allrecipes.com.  It was pretty simple to make, came out pretty tasty, and it is something I will most definitely be trying again cause I loooove mushrooms!

Ingredients:
12 fresh mushrooms, 1 T olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic, 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp each of ground pepper, cayenne pepper, and onion powder.

Preheat oven to 350.  spray a cooking sheet with pam.  Break the stems off the mushrooms and chop them up pretty fine.  Put this and the garlic in a frypan and saute, then set aside.  Let it cool off a bit then mix it in with the cream cheese and other ingredients.  Stuff into the mushroom caps and bake for about 20 minutes.  I served it with burgers and fries.

I used a pre-packaged thing of mushrooms, it was not quite 10 of them.  Next time I make this I plan on using more mushrooms but the same amount of filling as they were really overstuffed.  Other than that I thought it was perfect!!  It was super easy to make and prep/cooking time was only about 30 minutes total.  It made a nice side dish to spruce up an otherwise pretty basic meal.

Kitchen Chat: The pizzazz is NOT just for pizzas!!

Oh, dear pizzazz, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.....

When we got married one of the gifts we got was a Pizzazz pizza maker.  His parents got it for us, I believe.  It didn't take long for us to discover how supremely awesome they are.  not only do they cook a frozen pizza to near perfection, they cook ALMOST ANYTHING that you would bake on a baking sheet.  Without preheating the oven (heating up your whole kitchen in the process, not to mention that dreadful waiting for the oven to preheat).  Over the years since we got married we have made pizzas, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, taquitos, mozzerella sticks, frozen quesadillas, I can't even tell you everything we have made on there.  Garlic bread, cinnamon rolls, biscuits.  The list goes on and on.  I even used it to bake cheddar biscuits for thanksgiving one year cause the oven was full.  It doesn't have a heat setting on it, the only options are heat on top, heat on bottom, or both.  So you don't have to worry about the temp, just put your food on there and let it spin.  Make sure you start the timer.  I can't tell you how many times I forgot to set the timer and came back 10 minutes later to find my cold food still spinning and not cooking (it won't heat up without the timer on).

We recently laid to rest our 2nd pizzazz since we got married.  The first one we thought was dead, so we went out and replaced it (it was 5 years old).  Turns out we had blown the fuse for the outlet we were plugging it into.  LOL.  So we gave our old one to a buddy of ours and started a fresh pizzazz.  We treat the tray like a cast iron skillet or a baking stone: mostly it just gets a rinse/wipedown so it has a lot of flavor built up on it.

The 2nd one lasted about a year before I killed it.  I had some fries on there cooking to go with dinner and the hot dog buns I was going to use were not totally thawed from the freezer yet, so I put those on top of the fries to help them thaw and walked away.  Came back a few minutes later to find the buns on fire because they had caught on the heating element.  Whoopsies!!  It killed something in there cause now it won't heat up.  Sadness.  haven't replaced that one yet so for the last few weeks I have been pizzazz-less.  let me tell you it has been a rude awakening.  In a home with 3 small kids we go through a lot of tater tots, fries, chicken nuggets, etc.  Which means a lot of times I have had to preheat the oven, and (gasp) look at the instructions for what I am cooking to see how hot the oven should be and how long it should be in there.  Not cool.  Needless to say I can't wait to replace the zazz (as the kids call it) so I can get back to not using my oven.

Classic Recipe 2/52: Quesadillas

I used to have a quesadilla maker.  I won it at a work thing.  it was cool, but not very functional, in that all you could make with it was...quesadillas.  Not that I don't love them, but I want my kitchen appliances to be able to do a little more for me.  So I got rid of it the last time we moved.  As a result I have not made quesadillas in about a year.  So I decided to bust some out the other night and made them in a pan on the stove top.

Ingredients:
Flour tortillas, 1 can corn, 1 can refried beans, 1 can sliced black olives, salsa, and cheeeeeeeeeese

pretty simple to make.  Spray your pan with some pam so the tortilla doesn't stick.  Spread some refried beans on the bottom tortilla.  Then a little shredded cheese, some corn and black olives, salsa, more cheese, refried beans opn the top tortilla, slap 'em together and throw them in the pan.  1 can of beans and corn was enough for 3 quesadillas, the kids split one and my husband and I each had one.  They are pretty filling.  Previously I have had onion and pepper in them but I wasn't in the mood for chopping veggies so I skipped it.  It was pretty cheap to make, and in the summer you can swap a can of corn for some fresh off the cob corn (mmmmmmm my fave!!).  I have also mixed up cooked chicken with a nacho type soup and cheese and made that into quesadilla filling before, that comes out more like a taco bell quesadilla.

On the down side the tortillas got a little over-browned in the pan, I think next time I will try baking them and see if that works out a little better.  Always looking for ways to improve!

New Recipe 2/52: Baked Spaghetti

This is another recipe I got from the allrecipes website.  I have also seen Paula Deen make a version of it.

Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti, 1 jar spaghetti sauce plus one can tomato sauce, shredded italian blend cheese, 1 lb pork sausage, 1 clove garlic, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning, salt n pepper, 16 oz cottage cheese, 1 zucchini, 1 small onion, 1 can mushrooms, 2 eggs, 5 tbsp melted butter.

Slice the zucchini, chop onion as fine as you like, chop th garlic fine.  Toss them all in a pan with a little olive oil.  Add the meat, let it get brown.  Drain fat/grease.  At the same time, get water bioling for your pasta.  When your meat is cooked and drained, add the mushrooms, tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce, season with some salt/pepper, italian seasoning, etc, and heat up.  In a small bowl, mix the melted butter with (beaten) eggs and about 1/3 cup parmesan cheese.  Drain your pasta and toss with the egg mixture.  In a 9x13 pan, layer as follows: a little bit of sauce, half of spaghetti noodles, half of cottage cheese, half of sauce, shredded cheese.  Repeat layers.

Cover with tinfoil, bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  Remove tinfoil, bake for an additional 20 minutes till cheese is nice and melty.

I served this with garlic bread.  The taste was great.  I love italian food.  However this was not terribly different than your regular spaghetti with meat sauce.  The baking process made the pasta and sauce bind together more than it normally would, but when we reheated leftovers it pretty much fell apart.  not that it didn't still taste good, it just was a lot of extra work to end up with spaghetti with meat sauce.  Also, this made  A LOT of food.  The casserole dish was HEAVY.  I mean, you add it all up and we are looking at about 5 lbs of food.  When my kids are older and are eating me out of house and home that will be one thing, but right now they don't eat that much.  I gave a big dish of leftovers to my brother and we were still eating it for 2 more days!  this would be a really good dish to make if you were going to a potluck of some sort, or if you are having a bunch of people over for dinner.  Then it's like portable spaghetti!!

The cool thing about this dish though is just like spaghetti sauce you can make it your own.  Do peppers instead of zucchini, skip the onion, add more garlic, whatever you like.  Normally when I do spaghetti I doa jar of ready-made sauce and then add some plain tomato sauce and season it up with extra spices/seasonings.

Kitchen Chat: My Staples

Everyone has some go-to items that they always have on hand.  Stuff that they know they can always use to throw SOMETHING together in a pinch.  So I want to talk a little about what I keep on hand.  I would love to hear back from other people about what they keep in their own pantries, it would maybe give me some new ideas!!

Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix.  This stuff is cheap, doesn't take up a ton of cupboard space, and the crust it makes is decent.  I have tried the pizza crust that is already made, and it tastes decent, but takes up more space.  And you can't make it into a stuffed crust (I will devote a later blog to how to make a homemade stuffed crust).  and The pizza crust mix makes good dough for the braid.  I suppose I could probably figure out a way to make breadsticks with it too.  Hmmmm now there's an idea to toss around....

Cheese.  Shredded, different varieties.  I ALWAYS have cheese on hand.  I may eventually start buying blocks and shredding my own, but for now I just get the already shredded stuff.  I usually have an italian blend, a taco blend, and a monterrey/cheddar blend.  Plus parmesan, usually a few different kinds.

The Canned.  Kidney beans, black beans, refried beans, green beans.  Peas, corn, carrots.  It's just good to have a few of those on hand most of the time.  And then there's the tomato products.  Diced tomato, crushed tomato, tomato sauce.  I always have a few jars of spaghetti sauce on hand.  I don't keep tomato paste around though.  not sure why.  And Sloppy Joe sauce.  Gotta have some of that around.  :)

Onions and Peppers.  They go in everything.  In the summer I go to the farmers market and get tons and tons of fresh stuff, then I have a day or 2 where I chop it all and bag it in 1/2 cup baggies and freeze it.  This year it ran out quick due to a certain cat unplugging my freezer, but last year I didn't have to buy onion or pepper all winter long.

I know there is other stuff I am forgetting that I would die without, so I will probably add to this later.  But using just what I have listed above plus some ground beef (that's another one I always have in my freezer!!  I feel like I am out of food without my ground beef) I can think of half a dozen meals I could make.  :)  I am interested to hear what other people cannot live without in their pantry.

Classic Recipe 1/52: Taco Braid

So this dish has evolved quite a bit over the years.  Look for an upcoming post of the original recipe that inspired this, I will be sure and make it soon so I can post pics.  To give you an idea of what this dish is, think giant hot pocket filled with taco deliciousness.

Ingredients:
2 boxes jiffy pizza crust mix, 1 can refried beans, 1 lb taco meat, salsa, cheese, onion, pepper, black olives.  Sour cream for topping.

Feel free to change up the ingredients.  maybe you hate black olives, so skip them.  Maybe you like it kinda spicy, add some jalapeno.  Totally your call.

So you want to get your taco meat cooked up.  While that is going, get your pizza crust mix ready (follow the directions on the box-you add some water, cover in a bowl and let it rise).  After it rises and you knead it you want it spread flat on a rectangle baking sheet.  Use flour on your hands, board, and the dough when kneading and spreading to help keep it from sticking.

Okay, now it's time for some layers.  Start with your refried beans.  Spread them down the middle of the dough, leaving maybe an inch or two on each side bare.  Next your taco meat, onion, pepper, salsa, cheese on top.  Did I mention you want the cheese to be shredded?  Did you also notice I didn't specify what kind of cheese?  I normally will not.  So use whatever you want.  I keep a few different kinds of cheese on hand most of the time.  Anywho, at this point your braid should look something like this:

Next you need to fold up the sides.  For some reason I always end up with extra dough towards the ends so I will tear that off and use it to patch holes that inevitably show up towards the middle.  Sprinkle a little cheese over the top and throw it in the oven at 425 for about 20-25 minutes.  It should come out golden brown on top, like so:

The inner deliciousness will look like this:

So now the review part.  Obviously I find this to be delicious or I would not make it every few weeks or so.  :)  It's pretty easy to make and not terribly expensive.  The jiffy pizza crust mix is maybe 50 cents a box.  It's something I keep on hand ALL THE TIME (next blog this week will be about my pantry staples, btw).  Good for homemade pizzas and braids.  If you want a thinner, lighter crust, you can use 2 cans of crescent rolls, rolled out and pinch the edges together.  if you want to go really fancy, you can cup the edges into strips and twist them over the top, making it look like it is braided (this is where the name came from).  Leftover factor on this is not the greatest.  the pizza dough takes on a different texture after it's been reheated.  Not terrible but not as good as the first time around, IMO.

What is wrong with my kids?

I cook them this awesome food.  Good stuff, all the time.  They should be knocking each other over trying to get to it.  And THEY WON'T EAT IT!!  I'm not talking super fancy stuff, either.  I am talking kid-friendly food like spaghetti, chili, meatloaf, sloppy joes, cheeseburgers.  I have to practically beg my kids to eat their dinner.  Drives me freaking crazy.

I do want to point out, however, that I do not do the short order cook thing.  I cook one meal for dinner.  They don't want to eat it, they don't eat.  We don't always have a dessert option, but if there is one that night, they don't get dessert unless they try a few bites of everything.  And if they decide later they are hungry they only get offered the same thing we had earlier.  I just hope that it's a really really long phase and that one night at dinner they will look at me and be like, "Hey, mom, you are an awesome cook!  This is delicious!!  Thanks for forcing it  on us for the last 10 years!!"  is that so much to ask?

anyway I am pretty sure that even though my kids hate the food I cook for them, I am still a decent cook.  Adults usually like what I fix.  And other people's kids too.  I think mine are just special.   :)

New recipe 1/52: Chili Dog Casserole

Okay so here goes my first recipe blog.  :)  I had some leftover chili to get rid of and lo and behold I came across this recipe at allrecipes.com (I get a daily email from them with recipes so I am on there a lot!!)

So here was the ingredients: 1 package hot dogs (I think I used 7 or 8 out of 10), some leftover chili (about 3-4 cups), tortillas, and cheese.  It was pretty simple, you layer the chili in the bottom of a casserole dish, wrap the hot dogs in the tortillas, and top with the rest of the chili, then cheese, then bake at 425 for 30 minutes (covered).

First of all, yes my chili has corn in it.  I will discuss chili in a later blog post.  :)  Second of all, the original recipe called for 2 cans of chili, I used leftover instead.  It's pretty rare that we eat chili out of a can at my house.

So this was a pretty easy recipe to make.  it got some leftovers out of the fridge and the rest of the ingredients are things i have on hand most of the time anyway.  It didn't take a lot of time to prep and I like having something I can throw in the oven that cooks itself.  However it did seem a little lacking.  Next time I make this I am going to try putting something in the tortilla with the hot dog.  I'm thinking maybe some cream cheese, maybe a flavored cheese spread.  Other than that it was pretty great!!  We didn't finish it all the first night, so there was leftovers of my leftovers.  Which were also pretty tasty.  Some stuff does not do well the next day but this was not one of those dishes.