Zucchini relish June 30, 2010

Our zucchini plant is in full production mode.

I’ve been told this happens, from time to time.

So I decided to try out a recipe that I saw a friend do recently – but, of course, I couldn’t find my copy of the recipe. I had my heart set on making this relish, though, especially since we were hosting a family barbecue. I went online, found a recipe that looked about right, and then proceeded to change it to my heart’s content. I told my husband I just made a few small changes. Then I wrote down all the things I did differently on the side of the recipe I started with, and realized I had changed just about every instruction. Whoops! I don’t know when I got so brave with changing recipes that I’ve never even cooked before, but it turned out really yummy, so I guess it worked out okay in the end.

This is a sweet relish. I’m not a big relish fan, personally, but I really like this one. We’ve been finding excuses to eat it on all sorts of things.

2 1/2 to 3 cups grated zucchini – leave the peels on

1 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet green pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper (or you can do like I did, since I didn’t have sweet green peppers, I did 1 cup of red)

1 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp garlic salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 stick finely chopped celery

1 tsp ground mustard

1 cup cider vinegar or white vinegar

Combine zucchini, onion, and peppers. Sprinkle with salt, cover with cold water, and let stand for 2 hours. Drain; rinse, and drain thoroughly.

Combine the sugar, celery, mustard, and vinegar in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Add the drained vegetables; simmer for 10 minutes.

Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.

Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Makes about 4 half pints.

The best cornbread ever June 23, 2009

I found this recipe in a cookbook the other day, and I have to share it with you. It was the best cornbread I’ve ever made. It was sweet, and moist, and oh, so yummy. And easy to make too.

You’ll need:
2 boxes of cornbread mix (like the little blue Jiffy boxes)
1 box of yellow cake mix
All the eggs, oil, water, and milk called for on the back of the boxes – with the mixes I used, I think it came out to 5 eggs, 2/3 cup milk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and 1 1/3 cups water.

Preheat your over to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. (I’m pretty sure I used a 9 by 12 glass casserole dish, and it just barely fit when it fluffed up.)
Beat together the mixes, eggs, oil, water, and milk.
Pour into your greased dish.
Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes. (With the way my oven cooks breads, I had to bake it for about 45 minutes; at 25 minutes we lowered the temp to 300 degrees, so the top wouldn’t get too brown.)

It’s really good if you serve it with honey butter. My 18 month old eats it just plain, and she loves it.

The best turkey recipe ever November 27, 2008

is at http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000037moms_roast_turkey.php

This is awesome. We tried it this year, and the turkey was just as moist and flavorful as promised. Especially considering we bought the turkey that was super cheap on sale if you spent $25 on groceries.

The only thing that happened weird with ours was that it was done about an hour before it said it would be; luckily I decided to pop in the meat thermometer since the turkey smelled like it was done. While the turkey rested, we made the stuffing and green bean casserole. Everything worked out perfect.

Seriously, next year, go make turkey the way Elise says to! It’s the best turkey I’ve ever had.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stuffing casserole October 23, 2008

We made this up the other night, after my mom told me about a recipe using stuffing. I got a craving for stuffing, and decided to turn her recipe into a big casserole to satisfy my cravings.

2 chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

4 oz cream cheese, softened (can you tell we had a lot of cream cheese in the fridge lately?)

I’m not sure on the exact amount of stuffing, since I did homemade, but I think one package would do it. If you want to do homemade, I did a half batch, 4.5 cups (the recipe for the stuffing is below the directions for the casserole)

1 can of corn, drained

Boil the chicken in chicken bouillon flavored water until done. Preheat your oven to 350. Shred or dice the chicken into bite sized pieces. Mix the chicken, cream cheese, corn, and canned soup in a large mixing bowl. Then add in the stuffing and mix together. Spray the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass casserole dish with cooking spray, then spread the casserole into the pan. Cook for 20-25 minutes until heated through. Makes 6-8 servings.

Homemade stuffing: 3/8 cup butter or stick margarine

3/4 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

4.5 cups soft bread cubes (about 8 slices)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp ground sage

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan; cook celery and onion in the butter over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until tender. Remove from heat. Toss celery mix and remaining ingredients.

El cheapo style Mexican food October 20, 2008

This isn’t so much a recipe as a quick fix dinner idea, but I think it’s really yummy.

Frozen taquitos, as many as you want – usually 2-3 a person makes a good serving size

Soft taco size flour tortillas – half as many as you have taquitos

Diced tomato

Refried beans

Shredded cheese

(optional) green onion, onion, sour cream, salsa, guacamole

Cook your taquitos in the oven as directed on the package. Meanwhile, cut up your taco toppings, shred the cheese, and heat up the beans. Cut the torillas in half (the short way, if they aren’t even – you want as much width per tortilla half as you can get).

Spread a layer of beans on each tortilla half, top with cheese, and microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese a little. Top with tomatoes and whatever else you like on your tacos. Put one taquito in each tortilla half, so you can fold the tortilla up around it like a taco. Enjoy your gringo style double decker tacos!

Stuffed pizza rolls October 10, 2008

This was one we sort of made up on the fly the other night, but it turned out really yummy. The great thing is you can throw whatever you want inside these rolls, and personalize them for each person who will be eating. Just be sure to remember which ones have what in them! And I don’t know what’s going on lately, but even my 3 year old who hates eating ate a whole roll.

1 can crescent rolls

2 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup mozarella

1/2 cup spaghetti sauce

Pizza toppings of your choice (we used pineapple, sausage, mushrooms, olives, and green onions in ours)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Open up your crescent rolls, unroll them, and lay them out on a baking sheet to warm up a little while you prepare the stuffing.

Mix the cream cheese and the spaghetti sauce together in a small mixing bowl. Add in the mozarella and stir. If you want to put different toppings in for different people, divide the sauce mix evenly between as many bowls as you need – 2 to 3 rolls are usually a good serving size for one person, and each package of rolls has 8. Add whatever toppings you like to the sauce mix; just make sure the pieces are chopped fairly small, so you can close your rolls.

Wash and dry your hands really well before handling the crescent rolls. Gently stretch the dough out a little now that it has warmed up. Place a heaping tablespoon of your stuffing mix onto the wide end of each roll, making sure to leave a little room around the edges so the rolls can be closed. Then fold over the wide end toward the tip of the roll, and then fold up the tip to close the hole. If the edges aren’t staying closed, use a little water on your fingers to seal the edges. Bake the rolls for 11-13 minutes, until light golden brown on the top.

Baked Ziti October 6, 2008

This is one I’m pretty proud of, because I figured it out all by myself. I love good baked ziti at Italian restaurants, but I couldn’t ever find a recipe that looked like what I was eating. So after some experimentation, this is what I came up with. And even my toddler will eat it – once we convinced her to try it even though the noodles were not shaped like spaghetti noodles!

12 ounces penne pasta

8 oz ricotta cheese (sometimes I use a little more)

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1/8 teaspoon each: ground nutmeg, black pepper, and garlic powder

liberal dash of each: ground thyme, dried oregano, onion powder, and cajun seasoning (cajun is optional)

3/4 tsp seasoned salt

1 1/2 cups shredded mozarella cheese

1 large can of your favorite spaghetti sauce

Cook the pasta as directed. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the ricotta, spices, and parmesan in a medium sized bowl. Start with a thin layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of an 8×8″ glass baking dish. Next, put down a layer of half your cooked noodles. Spread half the ricotta mix on top, sprinkle liberally with half the mozarella, and top with a layer of tomato sauce. Make sure you get the sauce into the edges of the pan, so the noodles on the side don’t dry out. Make your second layer in the same order; pasta, ricotta, mozarella, and sauce. Layer plenty of sauce on the top, again to keep your noodles from drying out. Bake for about 40 minutes, until cheese is gooey in the middle.

Makes about 6-8 servings, depending on how much you eat!

This is really good with any kind of garlic bread or even just toast on the side, as well as green veggies to round out the meal.

The new chef in town

I love to cook, and I find I’ve gotten better at it with practice. Just like anything else, I suppose. Mike pokes fun at me when I start changing a recipe before we’ve made it even once, but there are certain things I know we do and don’t like, and things I like to substitute on occasion to suit our tastes. Anyhow, I thought I’d start posting a few of our favorite recipes here from time to time. I hope you enjoy them. Let me know what you think!