Pizza and Salad

 

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try more recipes.  All too often last year 6:00 arrived and we had no clue what was for dinner.  Cluster Truck, a trip down the street to Murphy’s at Flynns, grilled cheese…  Time to change.  I created a spreadsheet to track our progress.  Name of the recipe.  Where to find it.  (Not as easy as it sounds with 2500 cookbooks and thousands of saved recipes either in print or electronic version.)  Where have I posted it – blog, biz website?  How did we rate it?  The great news is since December 17, 2022 we’ve tried 18 new recipes.  Eighteen.  That’s kind of a lot.  Average rating of 3.8 on a scale of 1-5.  Actually I’m pretty certain we’ve never had a “1.”  I’ve thrown away some 2’s that I probably should’ve labelled a one.  But I didn’t.  Out of the 18 we had three 2’s.  Two were just incredibly blah.  And one was salty.  Kinda like licking a salt block salty.  That I threw away and it should’ve been a one.  We had three three’s and seven four’s and five five’s.  Not a bad distribution of scores! 

By the weekend I was down to three recipes on the to-try list. Time to hunt in the freezer and figure out what I want to use up over the next week.  Chicken thighs, ground pork, sweet Italian sausage, cod, shrimp and a container of rice from a run to Golden Dragon were all in the freezer.  Some smallish potatoes and some naan bread were hanging out in the kitchen.

Next up, hunting for recipes for all of the goodies.  I love eatyourbooks.com.  And, I’ve usually got a stash of recipes to try on my desktop.  And, then there are the cookbooks I’m in the midst of reading.  A plethora of choices!

Naan bread makes some of my all-time favorite pizzas.  Without the dough-making effort.  On to eatyourbooks.com where I kept seeing references to the Emily Cookbook. Pizza with sausage plus a salad of broccoli, orange and feta would be one evening. 

Cod Florentine with a roasted potato salad on the side would be another.  Then, bacon, egg and shrimp fried rice would use up a bunch of things.  A recipe for chicken and wild rice in a cream sauce would be great with a side of carrots.  And, last but not least lettuce wraps with the ground pork would be wonderful with a side salad of shaved zucchini and radishes.  Connie headed to the grocery for the few items we needed and we were ready to start cooking! 

I’ve been a big fan of broccoli salad ever since my friends Helen and Bob took me to a cute little diner out in the middle of nowhere.  Their broccoli salad was very finely diced.  No horsey sized pieces of broccoli.  Just a lovely mix that meant you got some of everything in every bite.  I feel the same way about vegetable soup where I like all the veggies cut to about the size of a pea or a kernel of corn.  Lots of goodness in every bite!  This broccoli salad came from Taste of the South.  I get the magazine on Readly and love it along with their sister publication that showcases New Orleans. 

We skipped the tomatoes and used Rao’s pizza sauce.  Just like their marinaras I rarely buy any other brand.  It’s just plain the best I’ve had.  We didn’t have cheddar cheese curds but I did have a lovely wedge of white cheddar that would be a good substitute.  Time to cook!

What did we think?  A solid five out of five for both of them.  I think I could’ve just sat down with the bowl of broccoli salad and polished that off for dinner.  It was amazing.  Despite a lot of substitutions the pizza also was a solid five.

Broccoli Orange Feta Salad

Serves 10

Ingredients:

½ c olive oil

¼ c sugar

3 T Dijon

2 T apple cider vinegar

2 T fresh orange juice

2 t kosher salt

½ t ground black pepper

8 c chopped broccoli (about 2 large heads)

2 large navel oranges, sectioned

1 c diced red onion

1 c crumbled feta cheese

½ c sunflower seeds

½ c golden raisins

 

Directions:

Make the dressing first with the first seven ingredients.  Toss together the other ingredients and the dressing.  Chill for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to blend. 

 

Adapted from Taste of the South

 

The Camp Randall Pizza 

Ingredients:

2 large naan breads

½ lb sweet Italian sausage, crumbled, browned and drained

½ c Rao’s pizza sauce (the recipe calls for crushed tomatoes)

¼ c grated pecorino Romano (we used Asiago)

10-12 cheddar cheese curds, cut in half (we used ¼” white cheddar cheese cubes)

12 thin slices green bell pepper (I used ½ of a bell pepper)

6 cremini mushrooms, very thinly sliced

 

Directions:

Spread ¼ c of pizza sauce on each naan bread.  

Top that with the sausage and Asiago or Romano.  Then sprinkle on the bell pepper, mushrooms and cheddar curds or cheese cubes.  

Bake at 500 until the toppings are bubbling, about 5-10 minutes. 

 adapted from The Emily Cookbook

 

 

 

Shrimp Pesto Quesadillas and Sausage Sandwiches on French Toast

This week has been clean up the kitchen for two.  First, we had brunch with kids and grandkids at one of our favorite places and brought home hash browns with corned beef and half a eggs florentine. Here's what we had at Uptown Cafe:

Then, I made grandson Bradley's favorite crepes for dinner and made homemade sausages to go along with them. 

For dinner one night I used the rest of the ground pork and made pork burgers using essentially the same mix I'd used for the sausage.  When I couldn't find my Hoosier Mama cookbook with my favorite sausage recipe, I made one up.  And, wound up liking it better.  I can't quote you the measurements but can tell you the ingredients:  ground pork, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, salt, ground black pepper, ground sage, garlic powder and dried onion.  Here's the mix ready to be mixed: 

They were really good on some kaiser rolls with mustard, tomato and lettuce.  Unfortunately, they were inhaled before I remembered a photo!

The leftover sausages got put onto an open faced sandwich.  First I made some french toast using rye bread, milk, eggs and a savory seasoning from Penzeys.  I topped that with some sliced tomatoes, then the sausages, then grated mozzarella cheese.  The whole shebang got topped with a poached egg and some everything bagel seasoning.  Here's what that looked like:

Along the way I bought several clamshells of strawberries on closeout at the stand up the street.  Some went into a strawberry/turkey/almond/cheese/spinach salad topped with a jam dressing (jam, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, whole grain mustard and olive oil) and some went into strawberry daquiris.  Those were thanks to Connie's efforts!

Finally, we were out of leftovers to use up.  Connie wanted pesto.  So, I pulled out my friend Monica's trusty recipe.  Still the best one I've ever had!  Would we do old faithful linguine with pesto?  Or something else?  Shrimp sounded good.  Off to this blog.  I found pesto risotto.  We've made that and loved it.  And, then there was the pesto BLT.  YUM.  Except my heart was set on shrimp.  Ok, on to eatyourbooks.com.  More pesto risotto.  And, all kinds of pasta with pesto and shrimp.  And, then, Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking to the rescue.  Shrimp pesto quesadillas.  He'd made pesto shrimp and had leftovers and turned it into quesadillas.  I was starting from scratch so used his recipe as inspiration and on I went!

The shrimp were cooked in a bit of olive oil, white wine and garlic.  Monica's pesto was made.   A triple batch!  And, I got the quesadilla ingredients ready to go.  Here's the recipe:

Shrimp Pesto Quesadillas
serves two

Ingredients:
two tortillas
14 - 21-25 size shrimp, uncooked
1 T olive oil
1 T white wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c pesto
1 T olive oil
1 c shredded Italian blend cheese (or mozzarella)

Directions:
Pour the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the thawed shrimp and saute until one side is pink.  Add in the white wine and the garlic.  Flip the shrimp and cook until the 2nd side is pink.  Remove the shrimp to a bowl and rinse out the pan.  Remove the tails and coarsely chop the shrimp.  Add the other tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.  Lay the first tortilla in and fold it in half so it follows the contour of the pan.  Fold the other one in half and add it to the pan.  Turn the heat on to medium.  Open one tortilla and sprinkle half the cheese in.  Then, so the same to the other.  Next, add the shrimp.  Then, coat the sides of the tortillas that'll fold down on the shrimp and cheese with the pesto.  Once the first side of the tortillas is nice and brown take them out of the pan very carefully and flip them then slide them back into the pan.  I use a plate for this.  Once the second side is brown, plate the quesadillas and drizzle them with balsamic glaze. 

Here's how it looked:

Mexican Sausage Soup

Back from a week and a half on the road.  Business trip to Atlanta and Florida.  Funny how those work best in winter.  Connie came back coughing and hacking.  He spent a good part of the day on the couch in the office.  My mission was to get him to eat some relatively healthy food for dinner - including what we call Jewish penicillin - chicken broth.  The problem is that he doesn't like soup.  Particularly brothy soups.  Lobster bisque?  Clam chowder?  Both are just fine with him.  Chicken noodle?  Um, no thanks.  So, I thought I'd make chicken and noodles.  Then, when I opened the freezer and saw the solid block of four chicken thighs I decided to come up with plan B.  There were three sausages in the freezer.  They'd thaw a LOT more quickly.  They went into a soup pot along with onion and green pepper.  Then, I headed toward the pantry to gather ingredients that'd work.  One of the recipes I'd read on eatyourbooks.com suggested using hash brown potatoes in a sausage soup.  That sounded good but rice sounded better.  Then, once everything was in the pot and simmering away, I made some sour cream with lime juice and cumin.  And, I grated some extra sharp cheddar.  A quick salad with bibb lettuce, sliced banana, mandarin orange segments and a jam dressing topped with toasted pecans and we were good to go.  This is a soup that'll freeze really well.  And, since Connie actually liked it, I'll be able to make it a few times a year!

Mexican Sausage Soup

3 sausages (mild or spicy Italian)
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1 T olive oil or vegetable oil
1 quart chicken bone broth
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can gold and white corn, drained
1 can stewed tomatoes, chopped (regular diced tomatoes or Rotel will work)
1 16 oz jar salsa
1/2 c Uncle Bens converted white rice
2 t cumin

Slice and brown the sausages, onion and green pepper in the olive oil.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 15 minutes - or until the rice is tender. You can top this with sour cream and/or grated cheese.

Here's the salad too:

Carrot and Cranberry Salad and Sausage Arriabiata Sauce

The best laid plans of mice and men...  We were going to go see Alton Brown's Eat Your Science.  We had an hour to either fix dinner and eat or go someplace and eat.  My mind went to a great pasta dish from Michael Symon's 5 in 5.  Sausage and kale pasta.  I was thinking I'd put some goat cheese in.  It'd be super quick and so much less expensive than eating out.  Got home and put the water for the pasta on.  Cut open the sausage and crumbled it into a skillet.  Fed Wee Mac the cat.  Took off my jacket.  Headed for the fridge to get the kale.  Ewww.  A slimy mess.  And, the power greens were at the office.  Ok, plan B.  Let's go for Arriabiata sauce from Trader Joe's.  Drain the sausage, add about 1/4 c of red wine to deglaze the pan and pour in the pasta sauce.  You know, that goat cheese still sounded good.  So, 4 oz of goat cheese went in and happily melted away.  Then, to round the flavors off I added about 1/4 c of cream and about a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.  Served with small shells and we had a five!  Oh, and we had no photos... 

So, let's talk about some food that we have photos of!  Or, as my mother would say, food of which we have photos...  LOL, isn't it funny how our language changes?

We went to Cape Cod for a few days.  Drove out the south route and stayed in Harrisburg, PA.  Had a decent dinner at a great restaurant and bar.  Actually, it was the deck that was killer.  It was huge, had a bunch of fire pits and a wonderful covered bar.  But, alas I can't even remember the name...  The next day we drove the rest of the way.  It was a bit unnerving to go through a tunnel in NYC behind the flashing lights of a bomb truck. 

 

But, all was safe in the tunnel.  We got to Cape and headed straight to Salty Lou's.  He's our favorite lobsterman. 

Turns out we literally got the first chicks of the season.  Chicks are the nickname for lobsters of a certain weight - like 1.5 lbs.  We headed to Auntie Barbara's house for a lobsterfest with the kids.  YUM!

 

 

The next day I went shopping.  Barbara had been planning on renting out the Cape house so she'd cleared it out. The rental had fallen through.  We needed all kind of things like washcloths, dish detergent...  A LONG list was in hand.  After the shopping we were to go up to Boston to see Auntie Kay.  It felt like everyone from Boston was heading south to Cape and everyone from Cape was heading north to Boston.  On top of that there was a grey, steady rain.  Miserable traveling.  About the time we should have been arriving our navigation system said we had an hour and 11 minutes go to.  UGH!  So we plodded along.  And, half an hour later it said we had an hour and 14 minutes to go.  We were going backwards!  Needless to say we bailed and went up to see Auntie Kay another day. 

A couple of days later we drove around Cape for about half a day looking at condos for Matt.  Just the outsides to see how well maintained they were.  At one point we headed toward the water.  And, saw a juvenile red-tailed hawk.  He wasn't particularly concerned about the humans taking photos.  He was just interested in finding lunch!

 

 

Now, the good news is that with all of that time in the car I got some old cooking magazines read.  There was one recipe that I saved out of the pile of recipes to try.  For a shredded carrot salad.  From Cuisine at Home.  We finally got to the grocery so I actually had all of the ingredients in hand.  It was good the first day but better the second.  The carrots softened a bit.  Which brought out their sweetness.  This is one we'll make again!

Carrot and Cranberry Salad

6 servings

Ingredients:
1 t minced lemon zest
3 T fresh lemon juice (I used 2)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T grated fresh ginger
1 T honey
salt and pepper to taste
1 bag shredded carrots (10 oz - about 3.5 cups)
1 c dried cranberries
3/4 c chopped walnuts, toasted
1/3 c each chopped fresh parsley and minced scallions

Directions:
Make the salad dressing by combining the lemon zest, lemon juice, ginger and honey then whisking in the olive oil.  Toss it with the carrots, cranberries, walnuts, parsley and scallions.  This is wonderful left over so you may want to make it the night before...

Chicken, Sausage and Leek Pot Pies and Roast Beef Cornichon Sandwiches

Some decisions are tougher than others.  At the office, I'm pretty good about making decisions.  I mean, I'm the boss.  The buck stops here.  So, I've got to be decisive.  But, in my personal life I'm not always as good.  For several years now I've been a part of the Secret Recipe Club.  Over time, it's changed a lot.  Now, it's time to go so I can focus on blogging about the recipes I want to try from friends blogs, cookbooks, magazines...  So, I'm officially going to quit doing the Secret Recipe Club.  Whew!  That felt good to get THAT decision made!

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming :-)  We've been adopted by a three-legged feral cat.  We've named him Smokey.  He's VERY feral.  Stays at best 6-10 feet away.  But, he's now gotten to the point that he relaxes in our herb garden and occasionally on our driveway.  Even with just three legs, the boy can hunt.  He's fast.  We've tried and tried and tried to capture him and have him neutered.  No go there.  Turns out our neighbor captured him and thought he'd turn him into a pet...  Um, no.  Feral cats do not make great pets.  So, Smokey is VERY wise about traps...

 

Not too long ago we headed to Seattle to a lovely wedding.  While there I bought a couple of cookbooks.  Shocking, I know.  One of them was Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners.  I've never really cooked his recipes.  Now, I'm just kind of plowing through the cookbook.  The first dish was his chicken, sausage and leek pot pie.  Then, I made a carrot crunch salad.  And, a roast beef and cornichon sandwich.  We didn't care too much for the carrot crunch salad.  Gave it a three on a scale of one to five. 

The pot pie is another story.  We've already made it twice.  And, it will become our go-to pot pie recipe.  I did use Wolfgang Puck's cheese pastry instead of the puff pastry called for.  And, the sandwich.  We had those two days in a row.  YUMMMMM! 

Chicken, Sausage, Leek Pot Pie

Ingredients:

for the filling:
chicken - the recipe calls for 2 lb, I used the breasts of a rotisserie chicken
sausage- the recipe calls for 9 oz , I used a pound
2 leeks , diced and rinsed (or, you can use a sweet onion...)
2 carrots, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
2 t thyme
3 T butter
2 T flour
1/2 c white wine
1/2 c chicken broth
1 c cream


for the crust:

Follow this link...

Directions:

Shred the chicken. 

Brown and drain the sausage. In a large skillet, melt the butter.  Saute the leeks, carrots and celery.  Add the thyme and the flour. 

Cook for a few minutes so the flour isn't raw.  Slowly stir in the white wine, then the chicken broth.  When the sauce is thick, add the cream.  Pour into a baking dish.  Top with the crust. 

Bake at 425 for about 45 minutes. 



Roast Beef and Cornichon Sandwiches

Ingredients:

baguette
1/2 pound very thinly sliced rare roast beef
grainy mustard
horseradish sauce
cornichon
salad greens

Directions:

Slice the baguette in half length-wise.  Spread one side with mustard and the other with horseradish sauce. 

Layer on roast beef, thinly sliced cornichons and salad greens. 

Put the sides together. 

Adapted from Jamie's Dinners

Savory Muffin Tin Bread Puddings and Eggplant with Feta and Honey

Connie likes tomatoes.  I LOVE tomatoes.  Therefore, at this time of year I'm just kind of getting tired of them.  He's ready to move on.  His least favorite foods, soup and fruit would be fine alternatives.  Just please turn down the level of the tomatoes.  Well, except for the BLT's.  Those have bacon you know.  That makes up for a LOT of food problems.  I suppose if I wrapped these beautiful Indiana peaches in bacon he'd be happier.  Or, maybe I could put a bit of bacon in the gazpacho?  Whatever.  It was time for a break from the tomatoes.  I'd seen a recipe for savory bread pudding with sausage in it.  I'd bought the sausage and sour dough bread.  All was good except for the fact that I couldn't find the recipe.  I went back through all the magazines in the car.  Nada.  Checked all the cookbooks I'd been reading in the car, family room and on my bedside table.  Nada.  Well, I didn't check ALL the cookbooks.  I omitted the cocktail one.  Then, I realized the cover said Cocktails and Appetizers.  Ah hah!  There it was. 

Connie'd cut out a recipe for eggplant, feta, honey and thyme.  That'd be perfect with this.  And, no tomatoes.  I read the recipe thru and just had to add some grated gruyere.  About 1/2 - 3/4 c of grated cheese.  Because the bread puddings cooked at 325 and the eggplant was supposed to roast at 400, the eggplant went on the grill.  It was probably more brown that it was supposed to be but still tasted fabulous.  The bread puddings?  Five out of five.  I'm not a huge fan of those bread stratas.  The kind the family serves every Christmas morning.  I find them gummy and tasteless and try and grab a corner so there's at least something I'm semi happy to eat.  These are cooked in muffin tins with nice crusty bread.  Read, chewy.  Yummy and chewy.  With sausage and cheese.  Yup, these were a five.  And, one of the best parts is that the leftovers are in the freezer.  They can be nuked one or two at a time and will be perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Savory Muffin Tin Bread Puddings

Ingredients

8 oz sweet Italian sausage
8 oz sliced button mushrooms
1 T canola oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 c milk
4 eggs
1 c grated gruyere cheese
1 t Italian seasoning
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 loaf sourdough bread, cut into 1" cubes

Directions 

Preheat your oven to 325.  Crumble the sausage.  Brown and drain the sausage, mushrooms and garlic.  Beat the eggs and mix in the milk.  In a large bowl combine the sausage mixture, egg mixture, grated cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Use 2 1/2" muffin cups.  Coat 12 with butter.  Ladle the bread pudding in. 

Bake for about 40 minutes.  The tops will be a bit puffy and brown when they're ready.  We froze the leftovers and have found that they reheat perfectly well in a toaster oven.

 

adapted from Cocktail Time by Sandra Lee


Eggplant with Honey, Feta and Thyme

I have no idea where I got this recipe...  It's so easy.  You can either peel the eggplant ahead of time or leave the peels on and nibble around them.  Either way, slice the eggplants into 1/4" - 3/8" rounds.  Drizzle them with olive oil.  Grill both sides until they're nice and brown.  Turn off the heat to the grill, sprinkle the eggplant rounds with crumbled feta cheese and close the grill lid.  Let the cheese get happy for a few minutes.  Serve drizzled with honey and fresh thyme.