New Dishes This Week

I am trying out a few new recipes this week. Here they are...click on the links to see the recipes:

 Cheese Potato and Smoked Sausage bake

Chicken in Basil Cream

One Pot Tortellini and sausage in a Tomato Cream Sauce

Roasted Lemon Potatoes

What's Cooking?

Since I've been so busy going back and forth to Canada, home cooked meals have suffered. But I am back to cooking meals for the family and I have a couple of great recipes to share.

The first one I like is a roast chicken that is really simple and incredibly tasty. You can use this recipe for a whole chicken or chicken pieces. It's delicious both ways. Friends have asked me before how to roast a whole chicken. It is really one of the simplest meals you can make and it's healthy and has leftovers!

Roast Chicken with Lemon and Parsley

I am always on the look out for easy and fast recipes that taste great, especially for soccer nights. Something I can prep beforehand and then finish when the kids get home. One of the recipes I go to many times is a korean flavored ground beef recipe. Its simple and delicious and once you get the hang of this dish, I can make it with my eyes closed.

Korean Beef

Just a tip: I buy fresh ginger, peel it and cut it into portion sizes and then freeze.
Let me know if you try these 2 recipes!

Delicious Steak Marinade

I tried this marinade from Allrecipes and it was FANTASTIC. All of us loved it. It made the steak very tender and so tasty. If you are grilling steak, this is the way to go. I halved the recipe, this recipe as it is would be good for a party or more than 3 steaks:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons dried basil (I used fresh)
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (optional)(I did not use this)
  
• 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (optional)(I used fresh)
  

Directions

1. Place the soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, basil, parsley, and pepper in a blender. Add hot pepper sauce and garlic, if desired. Blend on high speed for 30 seconds until thoroughly mixed.
2. Pour marinade over desired type of meat. Cover, and refrigerate for up to 8 hours. Cook meat as desired.

KFC coleslaw knockoff and simple ribs

I have a couple of recipes to share which I made last week.

Do you love KFC Coleslaw as much as I do? Well, I found a knockoff recipe for it and it was just like it. You can find it here.

I paired that up with some easy ribs. This is really just my own recipe that I learned years ago (don't even remember where?).

All you need is:

Pork ribs of your choice. You can use boneless or bone in for this recipe.
1 tbs salt
1/2 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tbs ground pepper
1 bottle of bbq sauce (reserve a small bowl for extra sauce after cooking)

I cut the rack of ribs into quarters.
Boil a large pot of water with salt, garlic and pepper.
Add ribs to the seasoned water and simmer for about 45 mins.
Transfer the ribs to a glass pan (or aluminum for quick clean up) and por bbq sauce over top.
Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 325 degrees for about 90 mins.

As I said, you can then quick grill them on the bbq for that extra flavor but they are also really good as is out of the oven.

Keeping Summer Alive

One of my favorite things about summer is the fresh produce available and grown in the garden. The tomatoes, the green onion, and especially the fresh basil that I use in so many dishes. I finally got around to preserving some of that. Fresh basil is one of those things I wish I had on hand all the time so I bought a bunch of organic basil specifically to freeze it.

It's so easy and has been wonderful to have! I just cleaned the basil, took the stalks off and put it in the food processor with olive oil. Chop it all up.



Some instructions call to put it in ice cube trays but we don't have one so I packed it in small snack baggies to freeze in individual portions.

Yes, I know this looks kind of suspicious but I SWEAR it's basil ;P


So far I've used it in pasta sauce, tomato salad and it tastes just as good as fresh!

Pamplemousse French Toast

I am kind of in love with grapefruits. I remember my Mum cutting them up for us with the wooden handled grapefruit knife and scooping the juicy pieces out for breakfast.

It's the height of grapefruit season and I have been eating one every day. I made a delicious and easy breakfast the other day. This would be a fun thing to surprise your sweetheart with on Valentine's Day!

• 1 pink or Red Rio grapefruit
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon maple syrup, divided
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 8 slices Challah or country-style bread (about 3/4-inch thick) I didn't have any on hand so I used regular 12 grain.

Cut a small slice off each end of the grapefruit and stand it upright on a cutting surface. With a knife, remove the peel from the grapefruit in strips, maintaining the curved shape. This is a great way to cut up/peel citrus of any kind.

Holding the grapefruit in one hand, cut out the segments of fruit between the membranes.


When you are done, squeeze the remaining juices from the skeleton of the grapefruit into the bowl, and put aside.

In a small sauté pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add the almonds, 1/4 cup of the maple syrup, and the reserved juice. Bring to a simmer and cook until the consistency of light syrup, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Toss in the grapefruit sections. Stir very gently to coat the sections and set aside.

Beat the eggs with the milk, the remaining 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Dip 3 or 4 slices of bread into the egg batter and cook until golden brown on both sides. Remove to a heated platter or keep warm in a low oven. Repeat.

To serve, place 2 slices on each plate and top with the grapefruit.