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Archive for the ‘Saturday Recipe Free For All’ Category

Labor Day…sigh…it always signals the beginning of the fall season for me. Here in Indianapolis the weather today was fall like. Beautiful…with a high only in the 7o’s. Perfect weather!

In thinking about a recipe to post for today the one that kept coming to mind is a tried and true favorite that I make often during the fall and winter months. Here’s the recipe:

Laurie’s Favorite Fall Weather Pot Roast

2 Tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 chuck roast (I usually get one that is 2-3 pounds but any size will work)
salt
pepper
3 cans (regular sized cans–not the big ones) beef broth
1 large package frozen egg noodles (usually in the freezer case near bread. I think the brand name around here is Reames)

Preheat oven to 350.

Add oil to bottom of Dutch oven. Over medium-high heat saute onions till tender. Push onions to one side. Season both sides of chuck roast with salt and pepper. Brown chuck roast on both sides in Dutch oven. When brown on both sides add 1 can beef broth. Cover. Remove from heat. Put Dutch oven in oven. Bake for 2 – 2 1/2 hours depending upon roast size and how tender you like your roast. I like mine to be firm but tender…not falling apart. When roast has reached desired level of tenderness remove from oven. Remove roast from pan. Cover and keep warm. Place Dutch oven over high heat. Add remaining beef broth. Bring to boil. Add frozen noodles a few at a time, stirring after each addition. Continue boiling noodles for about 20 minutes or until noodles reach desired tenderness. Drain and reserve excess juice from noodles. Serve juice with beef.

This is yummy. It’s my husband’s favorite roast beef recipe. Mine as well.

What about you? What are you craving now as the weather gets colder? Are there favorite recipes that you enjoy in the fall?

We’re enjoying marginally cooler temperatures here in Indianapolis. With night temperatures in the mid 50′s and 60′s the weather seems perfect to ease back into more fall fare. This casserole is a big favorite for fall and winter at my house.

Cabbage Roll Casserole – Or Cabbage Rolls Without The Work

3/4 package coleslaw mix (with the salads in the fruit and vegetable area at the supermarket–this is just chopped cabbage and carrots–no dressing)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 onion chopped
1/2 cup instant rice (like Minute Rice)
2 cans tomato sooup
1/2 can water
dash salt
dash pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Brown ground beef, onions, salt, and pepper together in large non-stick skillet treated with Pam or a similar non-stick product. Drain fat from pan. Add rice, tomato soup and water. Simmer over low heat stirring occasionally till heated through.

Meanwhile spray 13×9 baking dish with Pam or a similar product. Arrange 3/4 package of coleslaw mix in bottom of pan. Pour beef mixture over the top of coleslaw. Cover pan with aluminim foil. Bake for 1 hour at 350.

Delicious served with fresh lettuce salad and/or homemade bread or rolls.  

This is so easy to prepare that you can put it together in fifteen minutes and read for an hour while it is baking.

Just a quick introduction, my name is Richard Savage, I live in the UK.  I am an author and cover artist for BVS, I am the writer behind the story The Anniversary in the Crimson Z.  I also wrote The Key, Temporally Yours and  In the Driving Seat.  Laurie Sanders and I have just finished an illustrated kids book A Very special place to Poop which was a lot of fun.

 My current projects include my fifth story for BVS. It was to be called The Trainer, but we have been looking at the book and it seems to have a bit of a life of its own at present, so I hope it will suggest a title to me soon.  I hope it will be out at some point early next year.   I am also working on a non-fiction book, looking at the subject of beauty. There are about 40 contributors from all walks of life sharing their thoughts and experiences of what beauty means to them.  I am hoping the book Beauty in Every Form will be out some time later this year.

The Anniversary is a touching tale, a supernatural ménage à trois.  It is the story of a couple, Peter and Evelyn tragically separated yet bound by love, that even heaven and earth can’t separate.  James her second husband loves her enough to give her the space to see Peter if only once a year.

The idea for Temporally Yours came to me because I never have enough time.  None of us ever have too much time, do we?  The story is about a kinky couple that have found a way to live in the moment  and a way to make each second count.  And they do make EVERY SECOND COUNT.

 My third is a story In the Driving Seat is a domestic discipline story. Barbara thinks her husband doesn’t give her the attention she deserves, so she indulges her passion for shoes.  He thinks she spends too much on trivial things.  He loves her but is at his wit’s end.  Will a little domestic discipline restore harmony?

 I thought today I would share my recipe for Quick & Easy Spaghetti & Meatballs.

Here’s the recipe:

Author Richard Savage’s Quick & Easy Spaghetti & Meatballs

The key to the dish is the sauce.. 

1 can of diced tomatoes
crushed clove of garlic
finely chopped onion
1-2 Tablespoons tomato paste       
finely chopped basil
freshly ground black pepper

finely chop and sweat the onions in a dry pan for a minute or so.  Keep them moving so they don’t burn. You can use a drop of water, the idea is to soften them without using oil.  If you want to use oil use an extra virgin olive oil. Add the tomatoes and stir. Add garlic and basil.  Add tomato paste and black pepper. Stir well and let simmer.

Spaghetti fresh is great but dried is quick and easy. If you put it on now it will be ready when the rest of the dish is prepared.

Meatballs:

The quickest way is to mash up ground beef. Mix with a little fine chopped onion, a little garlic, and black pepper

Squeeze it tightly into balls. If you squeeze it real tight it wont need anything to bind it.  I cook in oven preheated to 400 for about 15 mins.  In the oven the fat drains out of the beef. 

 Put meat balls in the sauce and serve with cooked spaghetti. From start to finish this usually takes about 25 minutes.

Here’s a recipe that I haven’t tried yet. I am going to try it myself later today. It looks good though, so I thought I would share it. It is from one of my favorite cookbooks Cooking With 5 Ingredients by Barbara Jones. The whole book (and it’s a big thick book) is filled with recipes with 5 ingredients or less.  It’s great for when you want quick, easy, tasty without a lot of hassle…which fits me a good share of the time.

Please share your own recipes. While I am thinking of it…does anyone have a recipe for peanut butter cake? I had some of the best peanut butter cake I’ve ever had at a small diner (The Family Table in Osceola, Iowa) a few years ago. Since then I’ve been searching for a peanut butter cake recipe that’s as good as that one. The cake had a strong peanut butter flavor. The frosting was very sweet…probably made with powdered sugar? I’m interested if anyone has peanut butter cake recipes to share.

Here’s the recipe for today:

Onion Smothered Pork Chops
1 tablespoon oil
6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons margarine
1 can cream of onion soup

In skillet, brown pork chops in oil and simmer about 10 minutes. Place pork chops in greased shallow baking pan.

In the same skillet, add the margarine and saute the chopped onion. The pan juices will be brown from the pork chops so your onions will also be browned from those juices already in the skillet. Add the onion soup and 1/4 cup water. Stir well. Your sauce will have a pretty light brown color.

Pour onion-soup mixture over pork chops. Cover and bake at 325 for 40 minutes. Serve with Uncle Ben’s brown rice.

This seems to me like a great fall recipe…and though we aren’t to fall yet…it’s still hotter than blazes here in Indianapolis…I am feeling in a fall mood.

Good morning! Another week has flown by and here we are on Saturday again. Here it is time for the weekly recipe free for all.

Having just had my niece and nephew both of whom will be attending college this year and living independently for the first time (trying to make their grocery budgets stretch for the first time) made me think of a couple of favorite recipes which college students would find useful…and the rest of us would find tasty.

My husband and I are both big fans of Ramen Noodles…and they are still about the cheapest food you can find…so here are two recipes using Ramen Noodles that are easy enough for busy weeknights, easy enough for college students, and inexpensive enough for college students trying to stretch their budgets.

The first is from a nice cookbook I have called Cooking With 5 Ingredients by Barbara Jones

Here is her recipe:

Asian Beef And Noodles
1 1/4 pound ground beef
2 (3 ounce) packages Oriental flavor Ramen noodles (the kind in the square package (not the cup)
1 package frozen Oriental stir-fry mixture (16 oz.)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions

In large skillet, brown ground beef. Drain. Add 1/2 cup water, salt, and pepper and simmer 10 minutes. Transfer to a separate bowl.

In same skillet, combine 2 cups water, vegetables, noodlles (broken up), ginger and both seasoning packets from the Ramen noodles. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Cover. Simmer 3 minutes or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.

Return beef to skillet. Stir in green onion. Serve.

 

Here’s my own recipe which varies a bit each time I make it.

Laurie’s Ground Beef & Ramen Noodles
1 pound ground beef
1 Tablespoon oil
1 onion (cut into narrow strips)
1 8 oz. pkg sliced mushrooms (or one large can–drained)
1 medium zucchini (sliced)
1 small yellow squash (sliced)
2 packages Ramen Noodles

Cook Ramen noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, in separate skillet, in 1 T. oil, saute onion until just slightly limp. Add ground beef. Brown till just barely pink. Add zucchini and cook for about 2 minutes. Add yellow squash and mushrooms. Cook until ground beef is done and vegetables are crisp/tender. Drain noodles and add seasoning according to package directions. Dish into bowls. Top with ground beef/vegetable mixture. Serve and enjoy.

Here it is…time for another Recipe Free For All.

Here in Indianapolis it is hot, hot, hot. That leads me to ask…what are your favorite hot weather treats?

Anyone have a recipe for homemade ice cream? Hot weather always makes me think of homemade ice cream. When I was a child we used to visit my father’s parents in Oklahoma. There it was a tradition to make homemade ice cream when the weather was hot. I still think about making ice cream when the weather is hot.

I find myself cooking outside on the grill more during hot weather too. It’s hot out there, but at least the heat from cooking stays outside. Anyone have a favorite bbq recipe they want to share?

Here’s one of my faves:

BBQ Boneless Chicken Thighs

1 package boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1/4 cup white wine
1 bunch green onions sliced (onion part plus about 1 inch green part)
2 teaspoons chopped garlic

Mix all ingredients except for chicken thighs together in small bowl. Pour into large plastic bag. Add chicken thighs. Put bag containing marinade and chicken thighs in refrigerator several hours or overnight.

When ready to grill prepare fire in bbq grill. When fire is ready remove thighs from the marinade. Cook over hot coals or gas fire until thighs are cooked through. We like these with white rice or canned peaches.

I didn’t do a lot of cooking this week. My husband has been on vacation and we’ve gone out to eat quite a bit this week.

One thing I did make though was banana bread. I love banana bread, and since bananas almost always go bad before we get around to eating them banana bread is a great way to use them up. This recipe for banana bread was a new one to me. It’s a great recipe…very easy. The recipe I received didn’t include the nuts, but next time I make it I will add some pecans. (I’ve added them in the recipe below.)  I kind of missed the crunch of nuts in the bread with the original recipe.

Banana Bread
(Made 2 medium sized loaves)

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 bananas, well mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chopped pecans or chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream butter and sugar together in medium mixing bowl with electric mixer.

Add beaten eggs and mashed bananas.

Mix well.

Add flour, soda, and salt.

Mix well.

Add vanilla.

Mix well.

If desired add 3/4 cup chopped pecans or chopped walnuts. Mix well to incorporate nuts.

Pour into greased and floured loaf pan(s) of sufficient sizes to hold batter. I used 2 medium sized loaf pans. 1 large pan would also work. Several smaller pans would work as well.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes for large pans. Baking time will vary depending upon pan size. Smaller pan sizes require less baking time.

Keeps very well refrigerated.

Does anyone else have a recipe for a favorite quick bread? It’s the dead of summer but I’m thinking toward fall. Does anyone have pumpkin recipes they’d like to share? I would love to find a good recipe for pumpkin squares. I’m also looking for a peanut butter cake (and peanut butter frosting) recipe if anyone has one of those to share. 

What recipes are you looking for? Let us know…maybe one of us has the recipe you are looking for.

What have you fixed this week…or what will you fix over the July 4th weekend that your family either went ga-ga over or will go ga-go over? Here’s your chance to post your own recipe and to gather up the recipes posted by other people.

Last Sunday we made a smoked pork roast…and boy was it good. It’s not really necessary to have a smoker to smoke meat. What is necessary is that you have a bbq with at least two removable racks so that one can hold the meat and you can remove the other to enable feeding the fire. A bit of patience and a willingness to feed the fire every half hour or so to maintain a steady cooking temperature of about 300 is also necessary. If you put on too much charcoal and wood chips the fire will be too hot and burn the outside of your meat or cook it too fast…cheating it of the deep smoky flavor that you want. If you don’t put on enough charcoal and wood chips the meat will not cook…or will not cook as fast as you might like.

Here’s what we did:

We started with a large pork roast–the kind that they slice to make pork steak. You can use other kinds of pork roast, this just happens to be our favorite.

 I rubbed the outside with a combination of spices…salt…pepper…a bit of Lawry’s seasoning salt…some garlic powder…onion salt…and a couple different kinds of barbecue seasoning. I don’t think the particular mix of seasoning is all that important. I tend to use what I have on hand and it always seems to work out fine.

My husband built a small fire in one end of the charcoal grill using normal charcoal and filled a bread pan sized aluminum foil pan with water and placed it at the end opposite the fire while I created several smoking packets.

To create a smoking packet take a large piece of aluminum foil and lie it flat on the counter.  Place a couple of handfuls of smoking chips in the center of the aluminum foil. (Smoking chips are wood chips of different types that you will find in the grocery aisle next to the charcoal.) Mesquite, hickory, apple wood, and cherry all work well and add different flavors to the meat. Once you have the wood chips on the aluminum foil bring the edges of the aluminum foil together and fold the edges to create a packet. Using meat fork, poke holes in the top of the packet. Set these packets aside.

Wait until the charcoal has begun to turn an ashy color at the edges and visible flames have died down. Place the seasoned pork roast at the end of the bbq grill away from the fire and above the pan of water. Place one smoking packet at the edge of the charcoal fire. As the packet gets hot the wood inside will begin to burn and create a flavorful smoke that will infuse the meat.

Close the grill lid and leave the roast cooking for 30 minutes. At 30 minute intervals add more charcoal. Add additional smoking packets one at a time as they stop smoking. Do this only during the first hour or two of cooking. The meat absorbs most of the flavor during the early cooking period.

Continue adding fuel every 30 minutes until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160. The time involved will depend upon how much fuel you add to your fire each time, but for us it usually takes around 3 – 3 1/2 hours to smoke a pork roast.

Let me know if you try this…and how your pork roast turns out.

Anyone have any other good bbq recipes…or recipes for sides to go with the bbq? A good potato salad recipe perhaps?

It seems like it was just yesterday I was posting last week’s topic for the Saturday Recipe Free For All…but another week has passed and it’s time to do it again.

Step up and share your favorite recipes. What did you fix this week that you really enjoyed? Has anyone else tried the Macaroni Grill brand of boxed dinners (they are in the grocery aisle where Hamburger Helper is). They are really good and don’t taste like a boxed dinneer. We like the Creamy Basil and the Chicken Picata ones the best. They are really great for a quick and easy dinner, especially if you buy chicken tenderloins (then the slicing is done for you.)

Tonight I made:

Shortcut Chicken Cordon Bleu

You Need:

1 package of chicken tenders
salt and pepper or other seasoning for chicken tenders
about 3/4 pound of sliced Swiss cheese (like from the deli — big slices are better)
about 1 pound of sliced ham (like from the deli — again, big slices are better)

Season the tenderloins with salt and pepper or seasoning salt. Wrap 1 chicken tender in 1 slice Swiss cheese. Then wrap chicken tender in 2 slices ham. Put fold down in baking dish sprayed with Pam. Repeat same process with remaining tenders, cheese, and ham. Top wrapped chicken tenders with additional slices of Swiss cheese. Bake in 350 oven for about 45 minutes.

This is very quick and easy and is quite tasty. Enjoy!

Hi!

Sorry I’ve been quiet. I’ve been busy editing some new stories, one of which will be out very soon. The other will take a bit longer, but will be well worth the wait.

In any case, here is your Saturday Recipe Free For All Post. Post your recipes here.

Anyone have a recipe for a fruit salad that doesn’t include melon?