Homemade Marinara https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/homemade-marinara/

Homemade Marinara https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/homemade-marinara/

I’m sorry to admit that I’ve had a bit of blogger’s block lately. OK, a major blogger’s block, but finally I’ve got a few new recipes I’m excited to share with you.

Michael and I both love Mexican inspired food. Somehow, pork is always in abundance in my freezer, and thus Porky Poblanos came to be.  Sort of a pork filled version of a chile rellenos,these are filled with seasoned ground pork and cheeses, including queso fresco.  While traditional rellenos are battered and fried, my Porky Poblanos are baked in a mild enchilada style sauce that’s made partly with V-8 vegetable juice, so they skip much of the fat and sneak in a bit of veggie nutrients. Nothing wrong with that!

My second new recipe is Cashew Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner. Now I know, sheet pan cooking is all the rage, but I haven’t really gotten into it. That is until now. This recipe lives up to all the hype. It’s fast, filling, full of fiber and, most importantly, full of flavor. I served it over hot brown rice to catch all the pan juices.

Strawberry season is almost over,but I think this new dessert recipe is a keeper.  Fresh Strawberry Poke Cake with Cream Cheese Icing  starts with a simple box cake mix but that’s just the beginning. The warm cake is poked all over with a fork or skewer to allow the strawberry topping to permeate the cake, thus the name “Poke Cake”. After the cake has cooled, a luscious layer of cream cheese and whipped cream is generously spread over the top. The hardest part of this recipe is waiting the minimum of an hour for the cake to set. This strawberry cake could also be made with frozen berries, but why would you while these little red jems are in season?

The last recipe I have to share with you is Broccoli Salad. This salad is a cool and crisp addition to any summer meal. Remember to shock the broccoli, then drain it well. Raw broccoli is just a bit too crunchy for most tastes, but briefly shocking it leaves just the right snap. Drain it well so you don’t dilute the sweet and sour creamy dressing. You can plan on this salad lasting a couple of days in the fridge. I enjoyed it for a light lunch the next day.

I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend.  Folks call it the beginning of summer, but before you know it we’ll be celebrating the Forth of July, and the next time you turn around summer will be over!

Be thankful for what life gives you.

I’m typing and printing as fast as I can! If you read my last post you’ll know that I nearly lost ten years’ worth of work when my hard drive suffered a catastrophic meltdown. Although all my recipes, (nearly 3,000 of them), were backed up on a memory stick the main organizational program, Living Cookbook, was lost and no longer available. I had no way of accessing those recipes. Luckily, with the help of a computer repair genius, I got them back. I had many recipes, but not all, in print. Well, I’m taking care of that! Soon all those recipes will be in print and filed in notebooks, as well as copied into a new organizational program. Live and Learn!

Anyway, here’s a new recipe for you, White Cheese Chicken Lasagna. This recipe, like most lasagnas, does take a bit of work but I think it’s worth the effort. One of my grocery stores recently started carrying fresh pasta sheets that substantially cut the assembly time. (YES!) I think I prefer those sheets over the traditional lasagna noodles for their texture as well.

I have close to another 500 recipes to rescue, and then I’ll be through.  Whew!  From now on, each new recipe will be printed and filed immediately.  Now, where to store all those darned  notebooks?

Be thankful for what life gives you.

And gosh, am I a happy camper. Now, “Back in Business” doesn’t mean I get paid for this blog, I don’t. What it does mean is that everything is working again. If you read my last post you would know that my whole system suffered a catastrophic blowup. Had it not been for a very savy computer wizard, all would have been lost. I’m still in a reconstructive phase, but everything is well under way…Yea!!!

To celebrate, here is a new recipe for Happy Shrimp. I hope it will make you happy, too.

Be happy for what life gives you.

2731 recipes to be exact, GONE!!! For 10 years I had happily been using the “Living Cookbook” program to archive my recipes. Yes, I had backups, on this blog and on paper (many of them), and all of them on a memory stick. When my hard drive literally died I lost all my programs, including Cookbook. Without the program I couldn’t access my backup files. It was then that we found out that Living Cookbook, along with their parent company, was no longer in existence. I couldn’t replace the program. I couldn’t access my files!

Enter Pedro, the miracle working computer guy. Somehow, somewhere, Pedro located a trial version of the “Living Cookbook” software. It doesn’t have my recipes, and it’s only good for 30 days, but it will help restore my archives which are now in “Master Cook” (long story).

Unfortunately, in order to restore the function of my hard drive, Pedro had to reformat it. That did get rid of the virus which had caused all the problems, but I also lost all my other programs. Among those was my photo software, so as of right now my camera is useless to this blog. I’m off to see if I can find the software I need for that. See you soon! And as always,

Be thankful for what life gives you.

Or the left!
After all, this IS the Sticky Menu Plan and we get to change our minds whenever we want. Try Getting Started if you need a jump up. Otherwise, Here We Go will take you to the latest posts and recipes. You can always find links to both in the top menu.

I did a LOT of menu switching last week.  In fact, what we actually ate bore no resemblance to the plan, partly because our family celebrated the holidays with a brunch on the 29th.  As usual, my menu was excessive and we had plenty of leftovers that had to be used. When does a Baked Ham ever get completely consumed at the original occasion? Along with many of my tried and true recipes I wanted to try something new, a Spinach and Fontina Strata. I think that recipe could use a little tweaking. The biggest issue is the cheese. Young Fontina is expensive and hard to find. I don’t think it exerted its presence in this recipe strongly enough to justify the cost, nor the effort it took to track it down. I think Gouda or even Monterey Jack would work at least as well. The Challa bread could have used a little time to stale up, but I do think it was the best choice of bread.

The Clover Leaf Garlic Rolls couldn’t have been easier to make. No one would guess that they started out as frozen dough. I do think they are easiest to prepare if you start forming the rolls when the dough has just thawed but not yet begun to rise.

No holiday brunch is complete without a sweet ending.  Our new favorite indulgence in the Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake. This is the third time I’ve made it without a single change to the recipe, and it has been predictably scrumptious each and every time. I highly recommend this entry from the internet, but I can’t remember who originally posted it to give them credit.

Speaking of sweets, what’s Christmas with out cookies and candies? Do you think Santa would just quit coming to our house if we didn’t leave him out a plate of goodies? We left him a couple of new ones this year. Delicate Mint Thins are made with fresh mint and dipped in dark chocolate. They are reminiscent of the traditional Girl Scout cookies, but on a grown up level. As delicate and delicious as they are, these slice and bake cookies are very easy to make.

Santa’s sweet tooth was probably satisfied by my favorite new candy, Butter Pecan Fudge . I think this is by far the easiest fudge I have ever made. It is absolutely foolproof! No candy thermometer is required, but it has the texture of old fashioned fudge that is cooked to “soft ball stage” and then beaten until your arm falls off. Nope! You just bring a creamy sugar mixture to a hard boil for five minutes before stirring in a few more ingredients, then quickly spread it into a buttered pan. Done! I think I’ll try to turn this method into an old fashioned chocolate version like my Father used to make as a special treat when we were children.

It’s a good thing Santa gets around in a sleigh rather than a motor vehicle. We have our own special beverage that we leave him each year. It’s eggnog, but we spike it with Wild Turkey Bourbon Whiskey. It’s as dangerous as it is delicious! Thanks, Betsy and Wendell for that Christmas Eve indulgence.

Be thankful for what life gives you.

We are! But before we move on I traditionally prepare the same recipe to use up every last smidgen of the bird… Turkey Poblano Chowder. Oh my gosh, that stuff is good! Just a little spicy and just a little creamy, this simple soup packs 37 grams of protein and 16 grams of fiber in each 520 calorie serving. That’s a fairly generous sized serving, too, almost 2 cups. I never do it, but you could “healthy it up” a bit by using milk in place of the heavy cream the recipe calls for.

Another traditional Thanksgiving recipe is my version of Cranberry-Orange Nut Muffins. I bake these up a day or two ahead of time to have ready on Thanksgiving morning. Add a smear of cream cheese for a satisfying mini-breakfast that won’t fill one up before the big meal. While cranberries are in season,  I pop a bag or two into the freezer to enjoy in all sorts of baked goods year round.

As I said, we’re “turkeyed out”, so a slightly spicy bowl of Shrimp and Sausage Creole was a welcomed change of pace. I guess I’ve gone pressure cooker crazy, because I cooked the shrimp and sausage in my 6 quart, and the brown rice in the 4 quart. Crazy as it sounds, that approach worked out well. Dinner was quick and easy with a predictable outcome. See Recipe Conversions for the Instant Pot for some tips.

This is hard squash season, a vegetable I don’t have much experience with, but I’m trying. Last week’s effort was Butternut and Kale Tortellini. Epic Failure! To start with, Michael likes spinach, but kale is a whole different story if you get my drift. The sauce was bland and boring, and to top it all off, the roasted squash sort of fell apart in the final dish. Three strikes and it’s out! Oh well, some times you win and sometimes……

Be Thankful for what life gives you.

Time to plan ahead, shop ahead, and cook ahead. The Holidays are almost here, so it’s time to get going in the kitchen.  So far, I’ve decided on my Thanksgiving menu, made a shopping list, and picked up a few items.

Turkeys were on sale for $.79/pound. I bought a small one and have already broken it down. I always cook one turkey in early November. No, I’m not crazy, and no, we don’t love turkey all that much! I cook the first turkey for the broth. It bothers me to make my Cornbread Dressing and Bread Stuffing with chicken broth. I’ll get those two sides made ahead and save the remaining broth for our Gravy and maybe some sort of turkey soup.  After I make the broth with them, the meat from the legs, thighs, and wings will go into the freezer for now, and we’ll have the breast Roasted  or maybe Smoked  for dinner tonight and sandwiches later.

My next task will be to make a batch of Iron Skillet Cornbread and White Wheat Biscuits for the dressing, then let them get stale for a few days before throwing that together.  Hard boiled eggs don’t freeze well, so I’ll stir those in right before the dressing goes into the oven. While the corn bread and biscuits are going stale I’ll let the bread for the stuffing get stale as well. I’ll chop all the veggies for both dishes at the same time. Two menu items will be in the freezer, ready to thaw out on the day before Turkey Day.

None of us really favor the dark meat, so I’m waiting for frozen turkey breasts to go on sale.  I prefer frozen because I know that turkey was probably frozen as soon as it was killed.  With a fresh turkey I don’t really know how long it’s been.  I’ll have to remember to move the turkey into the refrigerator in time for it to thaw, then the day before I’ll soak it in Brine. Using a probe thermometer will insure a perfectly cooked turkey breast.

I divide my shopping list into three portions:  Staples and dry goods that can be purchased any time go on the first list.  Fresher Items will be purchased closer to the day they will be cooked.  I try to avoid the grocery stores the week of Thanksgiving, so my last list, usually things I’ve added or forgotten, is limited to ten items.  Ten items because that’s usually how many items are allowed in the express lane, and yes, I do count.  One of my pet peeves is that person who jumps into the express lane with fifteen items.  You know who you are, and you are not the only person in the store who is in a hurry or has a small child or is just too special to wait!  Enough said.

I’m still playing with my electric pressure cookers.  Our Halloween dinner tradition has always been Chili, and the multi-cooker did an excellent job with that. White Chicken Chili turned out just as well. I also made up a pot of Cajun style red beans, but left out the andouille sausage for Meatless Monday. Someone in this house turned up his nose at that, but I won’t name any names. That same person surely hasn’t had a problem with my Pressure Cooker Cheesecake. Go figure!

Be thankful for what life gives you.

Fall is finally here. Finally. This afternoon it’s a beautiful, sunny, crisp 61 degrees. The daytime temperatures here in North Alabama never fell into the 70’s until October 11th, and that was only for a couple of days. It was still in the 80’s on the 15th. I think Mother Nature is somewhat confused this year. The trees are still gloriously green, and I’m not complaining. There’s still plenty of time for the trees to change into their fall foliage, and time to get into the “Fall Foods” of stews and braises. For now, we’re still grinnin’ and grillin’.

Tequila Lime Chicken frequently falls onto our grills. After a quick marinade this succulent chicken cooks up in no time and you can count on it to be reliably tender and juicy. While we’ve got the grill fired up we often throw on some zucchini as a side. I just brush it with olive oil and sprinkle with whatever seasoning appeals to me at the time, often just garlic salt and black pepper. Zucchini is a blank canvas.

It seems that we, like many of the rest of you, frequently rely on boneless chicken breasts for dinner. With endless preparation possibilities I rarely get bored. My latest entree was Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu . Wrapped in puff pastry and baked, this Cordon Bleu is much simpler to prepare than the traditional breaded and fried version, and it’s less messy as well.

The onset of fall brings an end to tomato season. I always hate to see those fresh garden tomatoes go. There’s nothing to compare. The last of this summer’s crop went into an Italian Tomato Pie. What better way to say goodbye for the season to my favorite summer produce.

The end of tomato season brings in apple time.  I can never resist buying half a bushel or more, but then when I get them home I have to figure out how I want to use them.  Worry not, I have countless apple recipes, but with my self-confessed low threshold of boredom I’m always looking for more.  This year’s newest is Washington Apple Cake. Fortunately, this moist bundt cake stays fresh longer than most. It’s hard for the two of us to polish of a whole cake, but we managed!

On a sad note, Michael and I feel certain compassion for the folks of the Florida Panhandle. We spent the first night of our honeymoon at Mexico Beach. Although we haven’t stayed there since, we drive through every year on the way to our St. George vacation. The last time was this past Labor Day week. Little did we know. It will never be the same again. But still…

Be thankful for what life gives you.