Pierogies!!

Here's an easy and delicious dinner!

1 lb. bulk sausage

1 or 2 boxes frozen pierogies

1-2 onions

1-2 bell peppers

Cook sausage and peppers in skillet. Add pierogies and cook until browned. This is a favorite of my house church-goers!!

Fajita Wraps

Hers's a recipe that I created. It is pretty healthy and completely delicious and got two thumbs up from the hubs.

In the slow cooker, combine:

1-2 chopped bell peppers

1-2 chopped onions

1 chopped yellow squash (I promise you won't taste it in the end - I got one free from a coworker)

1 can Ro-tel (or similar) diced tomatoes w/ green chiles

1 can drained diced tomatoes or some diced fresh ones

Some combo of fajita seasoning, Tabasco chipotle hot sauce (DE-licious), taco seasoning, etc.

Some kind of cubed boneless skinless meat (beef, pork, chicken, whatever)

Cook everything on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours

Before serving, add 1/2 block of cream cheese (low fat is good but don't use nonfat) and stir to melt. Serve on tortillas. YUMMY!

What's for dinner - Rabbit

So I bought a rabbit from the farmer's market yesterday.  No, not a live one, it was already ready to cook, just like you would buy a chicken from the store.  I love buying stuff at the farmer's market b/c it's all local and you can ask the farmers/growers what they've fed their animals, how they treat their soil, etc.  I also ran into an old friend and bought some of his delicious fresh parsley which can be used in place of cilantro if you have a husband like mine who doesn't like it.

Anyway, here's how I'm attempting to cook the rabbit:

2 onions, sliced
4 pounds roasting rabbit, skinned
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 bay leaves
1 whole clove
1 cup hot water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup cold water

Basically, you throw most of this into the slow cooker and cook it, then add the flour and water to make a "pan" gravy.  I might leave out the clove because I'm not sure if I have one...

Mmmmm....I hope!!

Caramel Dip

Wow, this stuff is good.  I made some pumpkin cookies and doubled the recipe but forgot to double the sugar!!  So instead of trying to make a frosting and icing each one (major pain in the butt), I just made this caramel dip for each person to put on their own cookie and wow, is it delicious.  This recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com.  This would also be amazing with apple slices.

20 individually wrapped caramels

1/4 cup water

1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese

1/2 cup brown sugar

Melt caramels with water in microwave.   Stir to make sure there are no chunks.  Whip cream cheese with brown sugar in separate bowl.  Stir cream cheese mixture with caramels, and voila, deliciousness.

What's for dinner - Mix all the crap in my fridge together and make it delicious

We just got back from an awesome trip to Pittsburgh to visit my family.  My grandpa turns 80 tomorrow and we had a party for him.

I am not very good at cleaning out the fridge before going out of town, so here's what I need to use up:

-Some chunks of cooked turkey

-A block of fat-free mozzarella cheese

-Some leftover pinto beans

-Milk

Sounds like a casserole in the making.  Reber is not a huge fan of casseroles but as long as it has ham and cheese, he will pretty much eat anything.  Here's the game plan:

Make a cheese sauce:

Mix equal parts butter and flour.  Add a couple cups of milk, stirring constantly.  Once mixture starts to thicken and bubble, add cheese.  This step takes a little patience but is really easy.

Mix together:

Turkey chunks

Some ham cubes

Beans (don't have much flavor until you season them so they will go fine...)

Any frozen veggie blend (bonus if it has broccoli because the cheese sauce gets all through it)

Cheese sauce

Top with:

Shredded cheese mixed with bread crumbs and whatever seasonings you like.

Bake at 350 degrees until heated.  See, homemade stuff is easy!

What's for dinner - Martini Chicken

Here's what I'm cooking for dinner tonight.  It is way more delicious than I thought when I first read the recipe.  It doesn't really taste like a martini, but you do have to like olives.  And thanks to an over-the-counter miracle pill called Prelief, I can eat it!

The original recipe comes from allrecipes.com but I never follow any recipe exactly.

MARTINI CHICKEN

A little olive oil

Some type of chicken or turkey.  I am cooking a big turkey breast in the crockpot and then using chunks of that for the recipe.

Black peper

2 Tbsp butter

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped, or dried chopped garlic is ok too.

1/4 to 1/2 cup gin

Spash dry vermouth

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 cup sliced green olives with pimentos

Just saute everything together until the sauce has reduced.

*Note:  You can substitute dry vermouth for any recipe that calls for white wine.  It is pretty inexpensive and the bottle looks classy on the counter.  I bought it for some dumb reason and it's pretty gross by itself but great for for cooking.

Pickles!!

Making your own pickles is easy and cheap. It hardly even counts as cooking it's so easy. I get cucumbers 3/$1 at Save and Prosper, the Russian market. This week they were huge so I paid 5o cents each. Look how big this thing is (it's next to a sheet of paper to show you the size)!

All you need is jars, and probably you can just use old mayo jars if you don't want to go buy the expensive canning kind. So here's what you do:

Mix together in a saucepan:

1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups white sugar

Up to 1 tablespoon each mustard seed and celery seed, depending on your taste

Boil that mixture for a few minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. While that cooks, slice up some cucumbers and fill your jars with them, like this:

When your vinegar mixture is done, just pour it into the jars over the cucumbers, screw on the lid and stick them in the fridge! I don't know how long they last because no matter how many I make, they are always gone pretty fast, but it seems like they should last a good long while. This batch was made with 2 smaller cucumbers and 1-1/2 bigger ones. If you buy the spices at Sharp Shopper for 89 cents, the grand total is less than 50 cents a jar for delicious, homemade pickles!!

Caramel Brownies

OK, Laura, I'm posting the brownie recipe already!! My stepmom taught me how to make these. Once you get the hang of it, they're really easy and everyone will want you to make them all the time.

1 can evaporated milk (the small can is enough)
1 box German Chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup margarine or butter, softened well or melted
1 pkg. caramels
1 pkg. chocolate chips

Melt caramels with 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Put aside. Combine cake mix with butter and 1/3 cup milk. Divide batter in half, and spread half of it into a greased 9x13" baking dish. Bake for 6 min. at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips on top, then drizzle melted caramel mixture on top of them. Cover with remaining batter (this can be tricky...I flatten it with my hands and lay it on top in sections. If it sticks to your hands really bad, get them wet and it won't stick as much). Bake for another 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool before cutting (sometimes I even put it in the fridge and let it get cold before I cut it so the caramel doesn't get everywhere).