What's for dinner?

italian chicken

steamed mixed veggies

asparagus

rice & gravy

cornbread muffins

What's for dinner?

"What's for dinner?" posts will hopefully give you ideas and/or inspiration. Maybe you'll hear mention of a dish you haven't served in a while or maybe something I make will bring another dish to mind. Whatever happens, I hope you enjoy my "What's for dinner?" posts.

meat loaf

mac & cheese

steamed garlic cauliflower

corn bread muffins

mixed berry cobbler

Dirty Diapers

1 lb ground sausage

8 oz cream cheese, cut up into small pieces

2 cans crescent rolls

Brown sausage and drain WELL. I usually press mine between several paper towels to get out as much grease as possible.  Wipe excess grease out of skillet and put sausage back in it.  Add cream cheese and turn skillet on medium-low, stirring occasionally, until cream cheese melts into sausage. The cream cheese is cup up in pieces just because it melts faster.

Put a heaping tablespoon of sausage/cream cheese mixture into each crescent roll.  Roll up.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

My notes:

Let's start with the obvious...the name.  My mother ran across this recipe sometime while I was in college.  She didn't have a name for these little boogers and I decided to name them according to their looks.  Thus...DIRTY DIAPERS.  I know it's pretty gross, but remember I was probably only 19 when I came up with this.  So, I'll plead stupidity of my youth.  BUT, if you can get past the name, please give these a try.  I promise you won't be disappointed.  We eat these with cheese dip and chips and call it a meal.  My husband actually dips his in the cheese dip.  I have also eaten them dipped in salsa.  YUM!  Or, I have made them plenty of times as appetizers - just split the crescents and make them 1/2 size.  Another note:  There are 8 crescent rolls per can.  This will give you 16 "diapers."  However, my mother manages to stretch the filling and use 3 cans of rolls.  We, on the other hand, like ours more meaty!

These do not reheat wonderfully.  However, if you just want to fix one can (8 rolls), the filling will keep up to a week in the fridge.  You can pop it out and fill up the crescents and have round 2.  These would also make great after school snacks.  Oh, and the other day when I made these, I made the filling around 2:00 and didn't fill the rolls to bake them until after 5:00.  Don't you just love make-ahead stuff!

Candy Bar Cake

CAKE                                                      ICING

1 cup sugar                                               1 cup sugar

1 cup flour                                                2 tablespoons cocoa

2 tablespoons cocoa                                 1 stick butter

3/4 teaspoon baking soda                         1/2 cup pet milk

pinch salt

1 egg

1 cup water

1/4 cup oil

1/3 cup buttermilk

CAKE: Sift dry ingredients together; add wet ingredients; pour into 9x13 greased dish; bak at 350F 17-20 minutes

ICING: mix dry ingredients; add wet ingredients; bring to small boil; careful not to scroch; pour warm icing over cake right out of oven; let sit until all icing absorbed into cake

MY NOTES:

In the cake I used an extra large egg instead of a large one.  I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa and she said her baking improved when she started using extra large eggs, so I followed suit.  Can't tell you if I have noticed a difference.

Buttermilk: I rarely, if ever, buy buttermilk.  Until recently, if a recipe called for buttermilk, I did the whole vinegar in milk trick.  BUT, my mother told me about powdered buttermilk.  It's great!  Found a can of it on the baking isle.  You store it in your fridge once it is opened.  GREAT IDEA!

I am not a chocolate lover, but this is a cake that I cry out in the night for.  It is amazingly light, in spite of the looks (and name) of it.  Not extrememly rich or heavy...just really, really, really (that's 3 reallys) good!  It's one that, if you wake up at 2am, you might as well get a piece with a glass of milk.  WHY NOT!  And, I have no idea where the name came from.  It has absolutely nothing to do with a candy bar and doesn't taste even remotely similar to any candy bar I've ever eaten.  Maybe we should rename this one.

Country French Chicken Skillet

2 T of butter
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water
1 package of KNORR vegetable soup mix
1/2 cup of sour cream

Melt butter in skillet and brown chicken on both sides on medium heat. Add water and soup mix and place on low for about 20 mins or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken and stir in sour cream to make sauce. Serve over egg noodles.

This was very easy and tasty. It also looked pretty and that's always a bonus.

Got this one from my dear friend Megan.  Will for sure make it again...and again...and again.

Mincemeat Bars

I know, I know...most people cringe at just the thought of mincemeat, but I (and several family members) love it. Made this over the weekend while I was visiting my family so we had several different tasters. Everyone enjoyed it and it was a nice change from the traditional mincemeat pie. So, if there are any mincemeat pie lovers in your family, you might try substituting bars for pie this year for the holidays. My mother found this recipe in one of those newspaper inserts. There are several other dessert recipes from the same insert that I plan on trying. And yes, we forgot to take pictures. So sorry.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 (27-ounce) jar mincemeat

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch-square baking pan.

Combine sugar, molasses, flour, oats and salt in a large bowl. Using 2 knives or a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Press half the oat mixture into prepared pan. Spoon mincemeat over top. Crumble remaining oat mixture evenly over mincemeat. Bake 25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

Mincemeat is a spicy preserve made of chopped fruits, nuts, beef suet, spices, and brandy or rum. Originally it was made with cooked lean meat that was finely chopped or minced. Most modern recipes do not include the meat. Check the ingredient list on the label. We used the "NoneSuch" brand and it did list beef as an ingredient.

Buttery Cinnamon Cake

Got this recipe in 2004 from the AllRecipes site.  I just printed it off and never made it.  Well, Kennedy and I tried our hand at it last night and we were impressed.  It was cinnamony and moist.  This one will probably make it into the family cookbook.

CAKE

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup shortening

1 1/3 cups white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

2/3 cup milk

CINNAMON SYRUP

1/2 cup white sugar

6 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and lightly flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.  I sprayed with cooking spray and didn't flour. Cake popped out effortlessly. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
  
  
  
• 
  
  In a large bowl, beat shortening, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for at least 1 minute after each egg.  Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk.  This is a LOT of time holding the mixer.  In the future I will get out my stand mixer for this one.  Pour batter into prepared pan.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.  I turned mine out onto the serving platter.  Poke holes around the top of the cake with a fork.  Pour the warm cinnamon syrup into the holes and onto the top and sides of the cake.
  
  
  
• 
  
  To make Cinnamon Syrup: In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Heat and stir until butter melts.
  
  
  

Not-so-Swedish Meatballs

5 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of water
1/3 cup dried minced onion
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper (I used 2 teaspoons)

3 lbs frozen meatballs (I used 4lbs because I couldn't find either a 3 lb bag or a 6 lb bag in my grocery store.  Worked just fine.)

1 large (16 oz) package wide egg noodles

Coat crockpot or large roasting pan with cooking spray. I forgot to do this and it wasn't the end of the world.

Stir together first 6 ingredients in crockpot or pan.  Mix in frozen meatballs, making sure the tops are covered with sauce.

Cook in crockpot on low for 6-7 hours or in tightly covered roasting pan @ 350F for 5-6 hours.

Half an hour before cooking time is up, prepare egg noodles.

Serve meatballs with lots of sauce over noodles.  We also had a green salad and garlic bread.

Pimiento Cheese Spoon Bread

cooking spray
1/2 cup, plus 2 teaspoons, cornmeal, divided
1 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper (I didn't measure; just used a pepper mill and guessed)
3 eggs, separated
3 ounces pimiento cheese (for testing purposes, I used Mrs. Weavers)

Preheat oven to 375F.  Coat a 6-cup souffle dish with cooking spray; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons cornmeal. I don't know if I used a "souffle dish" or not, but it worked.

Combine 1/2 cup cornmeal, milk, salt and black pepper in a medium saucepan; cook over medium heat until thick, about 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Be careful.  When it gets thick, it gets thick almost instantly.  Don't turn your back on it.  It could result in a big mess.

Gradually whisk egg yolks and pimiento cheese into cornmeal mixture.  Pour into a large bowl; cool completely.  I didn't let mine cool completely because of time.  I'm sure the end result would have been lighter and fluffier if I had.

Beat egg whites with a mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold into cornmeal mixture.  Spoon batter into prepared dish.  Bake 1 hour, or until puffy and browned.  Serve immediately.  Serves 4.  Mine was nice and puffy then collapsed after about 3 minutes out of the oven.  I think if I had let it cool before adding the egg whites, this may not have happened.  But it was still good!

This is a recipe I clipped from the Sunday paper.  I have had it for quite sometime, but finally tried it out last night.  It was "uh-wishus" according to my 3-yo son.  In fact, we all loved it.  It was somewhere between a souffle and cornbread.  And no, it doesn't taste like pimiento cheese.  Don't let that part scare you.  We decided it needed to go in the family cook book.  It is a very basic recipe and next time we plan to spice it up a bit with red pepper and/or jalapenos and/or green chilis.  A heavy hand of Salt & Spice wouldn't hurt it either.

Salt & Spice

I couldn't, in good conscience, have a blog about food and not do a post about Salt & Spice.  S&S is a McCormick brand seasoning that my mother has used for over 20 years.  She uses it on everything, and I do mean everything...except desserts.  It's a blend of salt, pepper, onion, garlic and celery seed.  Since she uses it, then yes, I use it.  Afterall, she was one of my teachers in the kitchen.  She and I use SO much of it and we are so dependent on it.  It is an amazing seasoning for potatoes, all veggies and every meat you can think of.  We put it in soups, casseroles, sauces and everything in between.

A year or so ago, we were alarmed when we could no longer find it on grocery store shelves, so we called the company and were told it was discontinued.  WHAT!!!  Now this is a crisis!  We asked if they made anything similar.  Nope.  WHAT!!!  However, the sweet lady we spoke with at McCormick offered us the recipe for Salt & Spice.  WHAT!!!  Are you kidding me!!!  Yes, now that they aren't making it, they are just handing out the recipe to anyone that wants it!  Turns out the recipe is also available on McCormick's website here.

When we make it, we quadruple it and store it in mason jars, simply refilling our little shakers as needed.  I will mention it a lot in recipes that I post in the future.  Now you know what it is and now you know my little "secret" in the kitchen.  I have been told that it is like crack.  I will agree with that...once you use it and learn to cook with it, you will become addicted and dependent on it to prepare a meal.