Kielbasa Skillet Dinner, Jalapeno Popper Dip, and Sloppy Joes

I'm a little behind on posting lately, so I'm going to throw three things at you today! The first recipe is a new favorite of mine and is called Cheesy Kielbasa Skillet Dinner. If you like kielbasa, then you will love this quick, easy and economical meal. I have made it twice in two weeks and have plans to make it again. I adapted this recipe from RecipeZaar, making a couple of changes along the way.

The recipe calls for four main ingredients, that's it. The first ingredient is one pound of kielbasa, sliced. The second ingredient is potatoes (recipe calls for 5, I use two large russets). The third and fourth ingredients are one minced onion and a cup of green pepper. My husband doesn't really care for green pepper, so I sub in some diced jalapeno peppers which really spices things up a bit.
The next step is to saute all four ingredients in a large skillet. I use olive oil, but you could use any kind of oil here. Here is where I made another change. It is really hard to saute all four ingredients at the same time and develop any kind of color. If you decide to saute everything at once, then you will basically be steaming the food instead of sauteing. End result is okay, but not the best it could be. I had better results sauteing the food in batches and then adding it all back into the pan.
After you get the desired color on your potatoes and kielbasa, add in 1-1/2 cups water (could probably use chicken stock), sprinkle in some seasonings (I used Italian seasoning to taste) and simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. Once the potatoes are cooked through, sprinkle on about 1-1/2 cups cheddar cheese (recipe calls for American) and place the lid back on to melt the cheese.
It may sound kind of strange and not look that great, but it is extremely comforting, delicious and crave inducing! I didn't have high expectations for this one, but it really blew me out of the water. It is one of my favorite meals (for the time being, of course). You can make this whole meal for around $5-6 dollars, which I also love.

The second recipe I am sharing today is Jalapeno Popper Dip, which has been extremely popular with the Superbowl this past weekend. (Congrats to the Saints! I'm so happy they won.) This dip is so good that it disappeared within one day! It is a creamy delicious dip made with cream cheese, mayo, diced green chiles, diced jalapeno peppers, parmesan cheese, shredded Mexican cheese and some panko breadcrumbs. You can find the recipe here at Noble Pig's site. Be prepared to wear elastic pants if you make this dip, because you will want to eat all of it on your own!
Creamy, spicy, sinfully delicious. Serve with tortilla chips, crackers, bread, veggies....it's all good!

And finally, the Sloppy Joe.

Chances are, if you grew up in the 80's and were invited to a birthday party, or any other social gathering, a Sloppy Joe was on the menu! Does anyone else remember the days of eating Sloppy Joes served out of a crockpot? It was a retro favorite and I can definitely see why now. Sloppy Joes are easy, economical and serve a crowd.

With a special fondness for the Sloppy Joe, I made them last night for the Superbowl. The recipe I chose had received some awesome ratings, a 5 star rating with 500 reviewers, so I went with it. Let me just say that it was not my favorite. I wanted to share this information with you in case you ever thought about trying it. You can find the recipe HERE.

The basis of the Sloppy Joe recipe was 1 pound of ground beef, 8 oz. tomato sauce, ketchup, bbq sauce, brown sugar, mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar. Something was just not right about that mixture. I tried adding some more mustard powder, I also tried some more red pepper flakes, a little more sugar. It just never came around to being very good. I wouldn't recommend it at all and it definitely wasn't the Sloppy Joe from my childhood.

Oh well, two out of three ain't bad!

Happy Cooking:D

Salisbury Steak and the Creamiest Macaroni and Cheese

Salisbury steak. If you haven't made it, then you should. It's comforting, easy, economical, SO RETRO, and it just might remind you of school lunch. What? You don't want to be reminded of school lunch? Well, I can't help but think of school lunch when I think of Salisbury Steak. I think they had it every week when I was in school, mostly on Thursdays. It was probably the only day I bought my lunch. Yes, I loved the Salisbury Steak and mashed potatoes served up by the lunch ladies. It was hot and comforting and a welcome break from all the peanut butter sandwiches I ate for lunch the rest of the week. However, this homemade Salisbury Steak blows the school cafeteria out of the water. It is tender and flavorful and pairs well with peas and macaroni and cheese. Hearty and retro, it reminds me of the 70's and 80's.

Salisbury Steak-adapted from Recipezaar
1 - 10oz. can Campbell French onion soup (I used about 20 oz. of beef broth)
1 - 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used a lean ground round and it worked great)
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs (I used panko)
1 egg
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/4 cup ketchup
1-3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, to taste
1/2 teaspoons mustard powder
1/4 cup water
*may need to make a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with water)
1-2 tablespoons olive, veg or canola oil to brown Salisbury steaks

In a large bowl, mix together 1/3 cup French onion soup, or 1/3 cup beef broth, with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and black pepper (be easy on the salt, the gravy tends to be salty). Shape into 6 oval patties. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties, in 1-2 tablespoons of oil. Remove patties and get ready to make the gravy in the same skillet (the patties will finish cooking later in the gravy).

Here is where I altered the instructions.

Once the patties are removed, you will begin making the gravy. I used ground round, so I didn't have much fat. It was only about 1 tablespoon, so I added the tablespoon of flour to the fat instead of trying to mix flour and broth/soup into a smooth mixture, which will never happen. I cooked the flour for a minute or two and then poured in the beef broth/or soup, whichever you chose to use. At this point, mix the ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard powder in a small bowl and pour it into the flour/broth mixture. Let it come to a simmer and thicken. My gravy didn't thicken too much, so I added a cornstarch slurry (one tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon of water). The cornstarch slurry did the trick perfectly and the gravy was thickened nicely. Once your gravy is where you want it, place the Salisbury steaks back in the pan, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. You want to cook the steaks all the way through and kinda of give them a quick braise so that they soften up a bit. If your steaks stick out of the gravy you can baste them periodically.

Notes/Results: Loved this Salisbury Steak. It is going to be a definite repeat in my kitchen based on the ease of the recipe and the flavor punch it delivers. At first I wasn't sure about the ketchup/tomato flavor added to the gravy, but it definitely added a sharpness and kicked the gravy up a bit. The original recipe calls for a base of french onion soup to make the gravy. I wanted to have a lot of gravy, so I doubled the liquid, instead of using 10 oz. of french onion, I used 20 oz. of beef broth. This is probably why I had to thicken my gravy with a cornstarch slurry later. Either way, the gravy was delicious and the steaks were tender. You could add mushrooms and onions along the way if you wish. This is a hearty, delicious, and comforting main dish recipe.

I recommend this very creamy macaroni and cheese as a side dish. Thanks to Natashya over at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies for sharing this recipe. It looked so good over at her site that I absolutely had to try it. This macaroni and cheese is a combination of one brick cream cheese, gruyere, and cheddar. With all that cheese, how can it not be delicious? My family adored this recipe. Thanks Natashya!!

Baked Potato Skins

It all started with nail polish, purple nail polish to be exact. I thought that I would paint my toes since I had some time alone. I must have had butterfingers because I dropped that purple nail polish and it broke. In fact, it broke all over my white tile floor in the bathroom!! I don't think I'll ever forget the bright purple against all that white tile! I went into a total panic and my husband ran upstairs. He was able to get out all the stains and I was so thankful. I have never had an accident with nail polish and I couldn't believe I had broke an entire bottle.

The next morning I woke up, went into the pantry and looked in horror at my wood laminate floor. When I had got the cleaner out for the nail polish spill, another cleaner had fell and leaked onto the wood laminate floor. There isn't too much you can do to fix that damage.

The next weekend, when leaving work, I backed my car up into a guard rail and pretty much took off the front bumper. Don't you hate that sick feeling you get in your stomach as you get out and walk around to survey the damage?

That evening, I came home and made Paula's basil grilled chicken. When I downloaded the pictures I noticed that they were all blurry and out of focus. I hadn't had time to download any of the pictures for the past eight or so recipes I had made. My husband spent the evening trying to fix the camera and now it is working better than ever. The downside is that I have several blurry pictures for you coming up. The upside is that my new pictures are better than ever.

In the meantime, I'm wondering, if I've become clumsy and accident-prone. Should I be allowed to paint my nails, drive my car and operate a camera? I'm not sure. I did however manage to bake these delicious baked potato skins. The recipe can be found here on Recipezaar.

It is a simple recipe that begins by baking the potatoes. Once baked, you remove most of the potato flesh and season with a great combination of oil, paprika, garlic and Parmesan. You bake the skins cut side up for 8 minutes and then turn over and bake another 8 minutes. Once the skins are crispy, you add the cheese and bacon filling and throw back in the oven until melted. Top with all your favorite toppings and enjoy! They were ooey, gooey delicious!! The seasoning added to the potato skins put them over the top!

P.S. Last night at work I dropped a batch of bath bombs and broke one. After watching me drop the bags and various other things for hours they felt bad for me. They let me take home the broken bath bomb, which happened to be one of my favorites. Maybe my luck is looking up!!

Chicken Fajitas and the BEST Mexican Rice

I have been craving chicken fajitas for months now. I'm on one of those kick where I could eat them everyday for days until I get tired of it. I found this recipe for fajitas on Recipezaar and couldn't wait to try it. I have been so impressed with all my recipes from Recipezaar. I wanted to only serve the fajitas for dinner.....................................................
but I knew my husband would need a side dish with his, so I threw together this recipe for Mexican rice and couldn't believe how absolutely delicious it was!! WOW!! Please make this rice if you are into Mexican food. It is totally the best ever and even better the next day. I promise that you will love it. It is a definite keeper!!

There is a secret to making the rice. You first start by rinsing the rice off in a strainer. This removes some of the starch and keeps the rice fluffy. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!! Then you saute the rice in a skillet before adding the liquids. The rice is then baked in a covered dish for about 30 minutes. It doesn't look like anything special, but it beats any other rice I have ever tasted. I replaced the tomatoes, onion and jalopeno with a 12 oz. jar of medium salsa and it worked out perfectly. We talked about this rice for days afterwards. I will be making this rice as a side dish for all our fajitas, tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.

Baby Back Ribs & Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!! I hope everyone enjoyed the long holiday weekend. Yesterday we celebrated with a barbecue feast. My supermarket had a sale on baby back ribs so I decided to buy some and give them a try. I have tried cooking ribs before and they have never turned out well so I was determined to give them a second try. We weren't sure what to expect, but they turned out fabulous! I found this recipe online. The ribs were a copycat recipe after the ribs served at Damon's. The sauce was a molasses-based sauce that had a hint of smoke. They were first baked in a covered dish at 350F for 50 minutes. When removed from the oven the ribs were covered in the sauce and baked uncovered for another 50 minutes, or until tender. When those ribs came out of the oven I could just tell they would be a hit! They looked just the way you want your ribs to look...sticky, gooey, and messy. My husband and I were so happy to know that we can cook ribs at home now. We are planning a trip back to the supermarket to buy more.

I served the ribs with a new recipe for coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and toasted garlic bread . For dessert we had Frozen Lemonade Pie. I plan on posting the recipe for the pie tomorrow. It is one of my favorite desserts and it is super easy and quick to make.

This weekend marks the beginning of summer everywhere. Down here in Kentucky we ushered in summer with the normal hot, humid and muggy weather. The massive heat seems to come in all at once. It's that kind of unbearable heat that makes you say "it must be 100 degrees out here". The kind of heat that drives you inside to find that it is really only 80 degrees, but the humidity is 50%. Every year at the beginning of summer I am surprised again by the extreme heat and humidity that is the Kentucky summer. I always tell myself that I'll get use to it, but I don't guess I ever will. I've had too many summers in northern Ohio where I was born and raised. Those Ohio summers up by the lake are perfect for me. Moderate weather in the 80's, cool breezes blowing in from the lake, and slightly cool nights....I really miss those days : )

Two Dishes: Bourbon Chicken and Funky Chicken and Sesame Noodles

It's no secret that I am a HUGE fan of the Recipezaar website. In fact, my new hobby is searching their website by ratings to find the best recipes on there. The Bourbon Chicken has received 1723 reviews (one of the most reviewed recipes on Recipezaar). This is rated as a five-star recipe. How can you go wrong? This recipe for Bourbon Chicken was so easy! I just cubed up my chicken and cooked until lightly browned being careful not to cook it through. Then you add all the other ingredients to the pan and throw the chicken back in. Bring everything to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce becomes thick and glazed. I served the Bourbon Chicken over brown rice with scallions. This recipe was so tasty and was seriously one of the best things I've ate in awhile. I also gave this recipe a five-star rating and will be making it once every week or until I get my fill of it!! It is pictured in the top two pictures.

The next day I made Funky Chicken and Sesame Noodles. The recipe can be found here. I chose this recipe mainly because my daughter loves "chinese noodles" and I was hoping this would be something she would like. She is rather picky about food and I love when I can add something else to her list of foods. My husband is a huge fan of Chinese restaurants and I figured this was a sure thing for him as well. This was rated almost five-star on Recipezaar and was also a popular recipe. This recipe says to marinate the chicken and the noodles, but I'm not sure this is a necessary step. I think there was enough flavor to just combine all ingredients and cook straight away. My husband and daughter LOVED this dish. I was excited that Olivia enjoyed the noodles and am happy to add something new to her diet. I learned that I might not be a huge fan of sesame oil. The noodles were combined with soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and scallions. Sesame seeds were to be sprinkled on top, but I did not have any so we skipped that ingredient. I did however really enjoy the chicken which was marinated in a combinations of soy sauce, terriyaki sauce, ginger, and brown sugar. The chicken was sauteed in sesame oil, but could easily be cooked in olive oil, canola or any other substitute. All in all this recipe is really good for the family. See the huge portion it made in my third picture!! I will make it again but I will add less sesame oil to the noodles and cook my chicken in canola oil.

Try them both and see which one you like best!!

Melt In Your Mouth Meatballs

I am a HUGE fan of Recipezaar. I stumbled upon in about one month ago when I was searching for a dessert using blackberries. I love the how user-friendly the website is. It is lightning fast to look up recipes. My daughter wanted to have buttered pasta for her birthday yesterday so Iwas looking for a sauce that I could cook in the crock pot. After all, I would be very happy with buttered pasta, but the men would not! Men have to have meat or they think they aren't have a real meal or something. Does this happen to all you other ladies out there?

Anyway, I typed in meatballs and searched by ratings. Kittencal's Famous Italian Melt-In-Your-Mouth Meatballs popped up on the screen. It was rated 5 star recipe by 472 people so how could I go wrong? I had to double the recipe so I decided to go with 2 pounds of ground beef and 1 pound of mild italian sausage. I kept all the other measurements the same. I believe the recipe calls for you to cook the meatballs in the sauce, but also says that you can bake them for about 25 minutes. I decided to bake them. I have cooked meatballs in sauce before and had the sauce become a little greasy. I didn't want that to happen at the birthday party, so I baked them just in case. The outcome was so fabulous! I used 80/20 ground beef and there was no grease at all. The only thing on the baking sheet was a little bit of melted parmesan. These meatballs were so super tasty and delicous when they first came out of the oven. They were almost better without any sauce on them at all. My husband was standing over the oven trying to steal all the meatballs. He kept saying "Are you sure you need all those for the party tomorrow."

I refrigerated them overnight and added them to the sauce the next morning and cooked them in the sauce in the crockpot until they were heated through. They were a big hit at the party yesterday. These meatballs were very flavorful. You can taste the garlic, parsley, oregano, and parmesan cheese. There is nothing bland about them at all. And, every single meatball held its shape. They were baked, regfrigerated, dumped in the crockpot, and stirred and stirred and poked by several people. There were no little broken up pieces at all. I was super impressed with this meatball recipe and will be trying it again. I'm especially thinking about turning this recipe into a meatloaf. We love meatloaf at our house. It's one of our favorites!!

Angel Food Cake with Lime Curd and Blackberries

My mom's birthday was this week and she LOVES blackberries! They were on sale for $1.99 at Whole Foods and I bought a couple packs and figured I would come up with a dessert for her birthday. I have recently found the Recipezaar website and it is my new obsession. Their website is great the best thing....well, in sometime. I typed in desserts and blackberries and found this recipe in no time at all. It was easy to put together, beautiful and everything you would want a spring dessert to be. It was light, fluffy, creamy, fruit, and tangy and we just devoured it. There was none left by the next day.

You simply buy a storemade angel food cake (of course you can make your own), lime curd, a big tub of cool whip and any kind of berry. You slice the cake in half and spread with lime curd, a layer of cool whip, and a layer of berries. You put the top on and frost it with the cool whip. Top with berries and reserved lime zest and you're all set. Takes 5-10 minutes to put together at the most. I wanted to make my own angel food cake, but do not have a bundt pan. I did however make my own lime curd and it tasted great. The lime curd tasted a lot like lemon curd and I couldn't detect a real lime flavor. For this reason, I would say that you could buy lemon curd at the market and use this all the same. The lime curd was good, but took quite sometime to make. This is a great, quick and impressive recipe. You can adapt it to suit your personal tastes. Any kind of curd or even jelly and your favorite summer berries. You just can't go wrong with it. I realize that it is not gourmet, but it looked like it and tasted like it.

Here is the link to the recipe:http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Blackberry-Lime-Filled-Angel-Food-Cake-164214

Try it if you need a tasty dessert in a hurry!!

Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese

I spent an hour or so this morning looking over recipes for chicken online. Within minutes of trying to deal with the food network website, I gave up on them. What is going on with their site? I decided to try Recipezaar and I loved it!! Why haven't I checked out this website before? They have a ton of recipes and the website is a dream. You can search by ingredient (ex. chicken), ratings, course, cuisine, diet, occasion. You can search by crockpot, casserole, I think you're getting the idea. My favorite is to search by ingredient and then search by ratings. I like to find the top rated recipes and pick from one of those.

Today, the second most popular chicken dish was this Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese. In fact 767 people have rated it a 4.5 out of 5. The best part was that the recipe uses frozen chicken breast! Yes, frozen ! No waiting to thaw. The only other ingredients that were needed was a 15oz jar of salsa, 15oz can of corn, 1 can of black beans and 8 oz. cream cheese. I was so happy that I had everything on hand. I was even happier that I didn't have to wait for my chicken to thaw.

To make the dish, you drain the corn and black beans. Then you add the frozen chicken breast, the corn, black beans, and jar of salsa. This cooks on high for 4-5 hours until the chicken is cooked through. Do not worry that the chicken will overcook. I was worried the chicken would get tough, but it doesn't. Once the chicken is cooked through (for me this was 4.5 hours), add the 8 oz. of cream cheese. I kinda cubed it up with my fingers and stirred it in. Once the cream cheese is added it cooks for another 30-40 minutes. The chicken breast will shred like a dream. It was tender and moist and absolutely delicious. Serve on top or on the side of your favorite carb.

I was completely happy with this dish. I thought it was perfect comfort food and think that everyone would enjoy this dish. This is a great pantry dish that can be thrown together in about 5 hours.

Variations and changes on this dish are endless. You could do many combinations. I was even thinking of using a can or cans of tomatoes with cilantro and chiles instead of jarred salsa. You could add peppers, onions, etc. The dish was a little on the bland side and could use some extra seasoning. I read online that one lady used some taco seasoning to spice up her dish. I'm sure you could add any seasoning you saw fit. I had a fresh jalopeno on hand that I added as a final touch, but now wish that I would've sliced it up and added it to the pot. This recipe is wide open to changes and variations!! Get creative with it! Great also for feeding a lot of people.

Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Chicken-W-Black-Beans-and-Cream-Cheeseyum-89204