Category Archives: Cookin’ it up Sarah Style

Chicken Fried Rice

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  • 1/2 pound of pre-cooked chicken off the bone (we use meat we picked off after roasting or crock potted) (you can cook it now, just add it before the garlic in the steps below)
  • 2 carrots, chopped on a bias into 1/8″ oval disks
  • 2 celery chopped on a bias into 1/4″ moons, leave the leaves on it!
  • 2-3 eggs
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • garlic
  • vegetable oil
  • sesame oil
  1. Turn skillet up to high heat.  Add a dollop of veg oil to a large skillet.  Toss in diced or smashed garlic.  Saute for about 30 seconds, toss in the pre-cooked chicken.  Or add uncooked chicken first, and add garlic at the end.
  2. Once chicken is cooked, and before garlic browns, remove chicken and garlic to a waiting plate.
  3. add more veg oil, and a dollop of sesame oil to the skillet.
  4. Add rice to the oil, turning it constantly, scrape it from the bottom if it sticks.
  5. Once rice looks golden brown, add veggies and keep turning until they soften slightly.
  6. Push the rice, veg mix to the rim of the skillet, add a small amount of sesame oil to the middle well.
  7. crack eggs into the center and stir/flip until cooked.
  8. chop them with the spatula, and mix the rice and veg back in.
  9. pour a couple dollops of soy sauce around the pan, and add any spicy garlic sauce at this point.
  10. Re-add the chicken and garlic, and mix in with the veg and rice.
  11. Remove from heat and serve it up!

A Week of Chicken Dinners

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Our whole Cornish Cross chickens are delicious and big.  I am a huge advocate of leftovers especially in the last few weeks of my pregnancy and probably the first few weeks of new parenthood.  It’s nice to have already prepared meals that just need to be reheated.  But it’s even nicer to have a variety.  Most of these recipes can be found on the recipe page, just use the search box at the top of the page.

Chicken is so versatile, and for just two people a 6 lb bird goes a long way.  Here’s what we did with one bird over 2 weeks.

Meal One:  Defrosted using water bath method.  Cut off breast meat, not including tenders, and made Chicken Pad Thai, enough for dinner and lunch for two people.  Refrigerated the rest of the whole raw bird.

Meal Two:  Roasted Chicken, served with salad and mashed potatoes.  Tom split it up the back so it would cook faster, but it didn’t.

Meal Two point one:  After dinner, we picked the meat off the bone and added the bone with meat we couldn’t get off, and skin and 8 cups of water in the crock pot.  We set it to high and turned it down to low just before bed.  This made stock overnight for future meals.  In the morning, we strain the bones out and put the stock into glass Mason jars with lids and rings, and let it cool before refrigeration.  Stock will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Meal Three:  Chicken Fried Rice.  Using some of the leftover meat, Tom whipped this up.  Enough for dinner and lunch for two.

Meal Four:  Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Chicken.  Using one jar of the stock and some of the remaining chicken, Tom made enough for dinner, and a few lunches.

Meal Five:  Chicken Pizza.  We made spinach garlic pizzas and put chicken on about 1/4 of the 2 pizzas.  This leaves enough leftovers for a few extra meals beyond dinner.

Meal Six:  Chilaquiles, a thick stew of tomato sauce with Mexican spices and chicken served over tortilla chips.  Tom used the rest of the chicken plus 1 cup of stock.  It made enough for dinner plus lunch for two

Meal Seven:  Butternut Squash Soup.  Made with the rest of the chicken stock, Tom counts this as a chicken meal.  We serve it with sautéed greens and grilled cheese typically.

Lamb Burgers

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Tom recently cleaned one of our 2011 lambs (accidental death).  We got around 20 pounds of bone-in meat, such as legs, shoulder, ribs etc.  And another 2 lbs of ground meat which we seasoned.  We cut the meat into small cubes, seasoned it, and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  Then we put it through our meat grinder twice.  From there you can patty and freeze it, which we did with some, or fry it in a skillet.  I served it on top of plain english muffins (see my english muffin recipe and omit raisins), with tzatziki.  Tom says it tasted just like Gyro meat, or Shawarma.

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 pounds ground lamb
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
  • 1 teaspoon ground dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1-2 teaspoons sea salt

For tzatziki, I simply peel and seed one medium cucumber, dice and mix with 2 teaspoons of salt and a tablespoon of minced onion.  Let it sit for 5 minutes then squeeze all the *liquid from the cucumbers.  Combine the cucumbers with about 1 cup of yogurt and add a dash of cayenne pepper and cumin, or Tabasco brand hot sauce.

*reserve the liquid and use it to flavor foods.

English Muffins

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Raisin English MuffinsRaisin English Muffin with Butter

We all associate certain foods with memories.  Around winter time/the holidays, my favorite foods are white grapefruit, the family frosted sugar cookies, and raisin english muffins.  My mom for at least one winter of my life, I think year 11, purchased what felt like an endless supply of raisin english muffins and I decided that was my food of choice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I remember curling up on the sofa, it’s snowing, I’m enjoying a buttery muffin, and watching the Rankin/Bass production of Rudolph, probably chasing the muffin with a grapefruit.  Since going gluten free (Food For Life makes a GF raisin english muffin), I haven’t had much of a chance to eat those types of foods.  Refusing to pay nearly a dollar per muffin, I decided to make these at home.  I modified this recipe from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1935.

1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 scant Tablespoon of instant-rise yeast

Mix together in large mixing bowl or kitchen aid mixer bowl.

1/2 cup scalded milk
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

In a Pyrex 2 cup, scald the milk in the microwave.  Add the cup of water, salt and sugar, stir.  Combine with flour/yeast mixture, beat well.  Let rise to double in bulk, about 30-35 minutes.  Add:

3 Tablespoons of Canola (or other mild flavored) oil
1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of raisins (optional)

Let your kitchen aid knead the dough thoroughly, 5-10 minutes, till the raisins start falling out of the dough.  Let rise till double, another 30 minutes.

The key to a good rise is to boil a pot of water on the stove while the dough is kneading, transfer the covered dough, and the pot of water to your oven.

Sprinkle a work surface with cornmeal and roll out dough till 3/4 inch thick.  Cut out rounds with a cutter, or a clean can from your recycling bin.

Heat a large heavy bottom skillet over medium heat.  Butter well, and fry muffins in pan for 15 minutes, turning several times during cooking.  You want to bake them, but not severely brown the muffins.  If your muffins are getting too brown, turn them more frequently, turn down the heat, or transfer them to the oven at 375 degrees F. for the remaining cook time.  The slower you cook them the fewer the nooks and crannies, but they still taste just as good.  Makes 16.  I like to then toast mine on the top and smother in salted butter.  My mom likes hers with butter cinnamon and sugar.

Easy as Pie-Crust

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I have never been good at making pie crust.  I just don’t have the patience to cut in butter to flour for a really flaky crust.  And I just can’t use hydrogenated oil, no Crisco for me.  Nor do I wish to use lard, unless it were from my own pigs.

But in one of the last issues of Cook’s Country I came across a pie crust recipe that makes a delicious crust good for savory and sweet pies.

1/2 cup sour cream, chilled
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
12 T. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled

Combine sour cream and egg in bowl.  Process flour and salt in food processor until combined.  Add butter and pulse until only pea size pieces remain, 6-10 pulses.  Add half of sour cream mixture and pulse until combined, 6 pulses.  Add remaining sour cream mixture and pulse until dough begins to form, 6-10 pulses.
Transfer mixture to a lightly floured counter and knead briefly until dough comes together.  Divide dough in half and form each half into 4-inch disk.  Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Remove 1 dough disk from refrigerator and let sit for 10 minutes.  Working on lightly floured surface, roll into 12 inch round and transfer to 9 inch pie plate leaving 1/2 inch overhang all around.  Repeat with second dough disk and transfer to parchment lined rimmed baking sheet, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

At this point it’s ready to fill any way you like.  I end up baking most pies at 375 degrees F. for about 45 minutes.

Seasonal Quiche

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Quiche; Leek and Goat Cheese

I love eggs!  You may have heard my joke about the reason I started dating Tom was that he had chickens.  There is nothing better to an egg lover than never having to pay for good eggs again.  Quiche is a great way to make eggs.  It’s a good meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  My only regret is that for what you get, it uses relatively few eggs.  But like pizza in the summer, Quiche is a great way to use what you have on hand seasonally.

Start by making the crust, see “Easy as Pie-Crust” recipe.  For Quiche you will be using one crust, the recipe makes two.  Either save the other crust, make two Quiche or use the second crust to make something else (see future post Mixed Berry Pie).

Filling:
4 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
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3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk, if you have a small pie plate
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt

Add to this any combination of sauteed vegetables and  1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, see below for a few ideas.

Cheddar and caramelized onions
Leek and Goat Cheese
Spinach, garlic and Feta
Kale, Red onion and Swiss

Make sure the vegetables have cooled from cooking, and you have pulsed till nearly pureed in your food processor before adding the eggs and milk, and stirring in cheese.  Pour into pie shell and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes, till top is gold and bubbly.  Serves 6, if you have a side dish (like salad and fruit), otherwise, it serves 3.

Breakfast Casserole (naturally gluten free)

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I made this to take to a holiday brunch recently and it was a huge hit.  I thought with all the other food we’d be bringing back a lot of leftovers, but with only 10 people we managed to nearly eat it all.  It was that good.  I wanted to add peppers to this but was unsure of the crowd.

You could shred the potatoes yourself to avoid all the additives, but you will have to go through the trouble of washing, peeling, shredding (I use a food processor), and then squeezing all the excess liquid out of the potatoes (see my recipe for potato pancakes), and the shreds will turn brown, but this will not be apparent in the finished product.  I do buy block cheese and shred it in my processor to avoid additives, plus it melts better.

2 lb bag of frozen, shredded Hash Browns *GF get generic, Ore Ida has gluten
1 lb of MSG free pork sausage, we buy locally raised
1 large onion, diced
5 large eggs, we use our chicken eggs
1/2 cup of milk
12 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder

Spread hash browns out on a large cookie sheet and place in the oven on warm while you prep the rest.  In a large skillet over medium high heat brown the sausage and onion.  If there is fat, drain it.  If you use lean sausage you will need to add 2 Tbs. canola oil to brown, and use high heat.

Remove potatoes from oven and set temperature to 350 degrees F.  Transfer the thawed potatoes to a greased lasagne baking dish, combine sausage and onion with potatoes.  Add in 1/2 the shredded cheese.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, beat in the milk and spices and pour over potato mixture.  Layer the remaining cheese on top and bake, covered with foil, for 35 minutes.  Remove foil and crank up the heat to 375, bake for another 15 minutes (till cheese begins to bubble and brown slightly).  Remove from oven, let stand for 10 minutes, cut and serve.

Sauteed greens

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Swiss Chard

Lots of folks ask for a quick greens recipe at the market.  This is the one I use.  It is infinitely variable.  If you have garlic, use it.  If you like spice, add a pepper.  Have a mix of greens, use them all, don’t think you need to just have sauteed spinach or kale.

Since it is the season, I like to mix Kale, Spinach, Cabbage, Tatsoi, and Swiss Chard in the same batch.

If you look up sauteed greens on recipe sites, you get lots of things that I just never thought of as a saute.  Mainly, adding vegetable or chicken stock after lightly heating garlic in oil, then cooking the greens for a long time.  I don’t like to cook the greens to death.  They should be bright green, and firm, not dark green and mushy.

The Recipe

Put a drizzle of oil into a pan on medium high heat.  Sometimes olive oil, sometimes canola, sometimes sesame;  use whatever is handy, or smells best to you.  Drop in a few cloves of minced garlic for about 30 seconds, moving it around in the pan with a spatula.  Add in a half to a whole onion, diced.  If garlic isn’t handy, we just use the onion.  If you have one, and fell like it add a pepper or two small ones, hot or not, diced or cut into strips.  All told, we’ve spent about 2 minutes in the pan.  You’ll need to take care of the veggie prep before hand to keep up.

Then to the greens.

They are generally cut into strips about 1/4″ wide, then halved or quartered.  Whatever works.  You just want to be able to fork it into your mouth, so go for a size that fits.  Some of us have oddly smaller mouths than others.  Strangely tiny.  Teaspoon sized, even.

Toss the greens a handful at a time into the pan, so it doesn’t cool off too much.  Flip them often, to get all of it oil coated, and heated well.  If there are lots of greens, you may need to add a little more oil.  Add salt, but go a little light.  Finish salting on your plate.  Only spend a couple minutes in the pan with the greens. Then remove the pan from heat and serve.

Sometimes, I’ll add a touch of soy sauce and toss the greens after the heat has been removed.

 

Chicken and Stuffing take two: Crockpot style

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So, I braised some heritage chicken in our crock pot today.  Defrosted for 1 hour in a cool water bath, then cut the legs and thighs apart, 4 leg quarters total.  I put them in the crock pot with 5 cups of water, a teaspoon of white vinegar, rosemary, salt and pepper.  My goal was to slowly cook the chicken and make stock at the same time.  It was a success.

I braised 3 hours on high, 3 hours on low then I drained the broth, turned the crock pot off and put the lid back on.  I used the broth to make stuffing, and Butternut squash soup.  Unfortunately, there were no drippings to make gravy, this made Tom sad.  I could have made gravy with chicken fat and just broth, but it wouldn’t have been as flavorful.  Personally I like it better without gravy and the stuffing was definitely better with the half whole wheat bread I had made.  The chicken was a bit dry, but hey I boiled it essentially.  Some gravy would have solved that problem.

Stuffing (Dressing) with Chicken and Gravy

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Tom was so excited about this dinner he didn’t hesitate to ‘come and get it’ when he heard the serving dishes clanking.

The hard part about dressing and gravy is that you need chicken stock, which you cannot make until the chicken is roasted and the meat is off the bones. Unfortunately the chicken is never as good as it is hot out of the oven.

Day One I roasted chicken rubbed with salt, pepper, and rosemary on a bed of sweet potatoes and onions, like I do, then I reserved the juices separately, pulled the meat off the bones and began boiling stock (takes about 3-4 hours). You get 1 quart for a 3 lb chicken, luckily that is what I had because that is what I needed.

Day Two: The Dressing

1 loaf of RiverSong Farm Stuffing Bread, wt. 3/4 lb, cubed and dried  (You can dry it in the oven while you are preheating it to 350, and sauteing the onion and celery.  Just don’t forget and let it get too toasty.)

1/4 cup of butter
1 large onion, diced
2 cups of chopped celery
2 cups of chicken stock
2 eggs
leftover dark chicken meat (I had 2-3 cups)

Preheat oven to 350. I dumped the dried bread cubes into a small lasagna pan and stirred the chicken pieces into it. Meanwhile I sauteed over medium high heat the onion in the butter for 5 minutes before adding the celery and sauteing another 1-2 minutes. Then I turned off the heat and added the chicken stock just till it was liquid again (because real chicken stock has gelatin which makes it gel up in the fridge. I dumped the whole skillet over the cubes and tossed. Then I beat the 2 eggs in a separate bowl, poured over the cubes and tossed again. I did not need to add herbs because they are baked into the bread. Tent with foil and bake in the middle or top of the oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15. Serve.

During that last 15 minutes make the gravy.

1/4 cup chicken fat (reserved from roasting)
1/4 cup of flour
Pan drippings + enough stock to equal 2 cups
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet over medium high heat melt chicken fat and fry the flour for at least 1-2 minutes. You are making a roux. The longer you cook the flour in the fat, the more brown and flavorful it gets, but the less thickening power it will have. Using a flat wisk, slowly pour in the hot drippings and stock stirring to incorporate into flour mixture. Let the gravy boil for a couple of minutes, salt and pepper to taste.

I had enough sweet potatoes from the day before leftover to serve with the meal, and as a precursor Tom had sauteed mixed greens (swiss chard, cabbage leaves, kale) and I had a salad.

Serves 4-6

Crock Pot Chicken

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Cooking in a crock pot is super easy.  I love being able to start something in the morning when I’m full of energy, set it on low, and come home to dinner.

RiverSong Farm offers two types of birds, Cornish Cross (It’s a cross breed not Cornish game hen, we’ve grown some to a cleaned weight of 16 lbs) and Heritage birds, currently Rhode Island Red.

The Cornish Cross is a young, meaty bird typical of what you find in today’s groceries but ours are free range and grown without chemicals.  You can cook these birds any way you like: Grill, Roast, Fry, etc.

The Heritage bird is the kind of bird your grandparents would have eaten.  It is a slower growing and therefore an older bird at cleaning time, it’s less meaty and ours are extremely free-range (they run around a lot) making the meat more firm, but also more flavorful.  Heritage birds are best cooked slow by braising or in a crock pot.

How To Cook A Crock Pot Chicken:

Take your chicken and rinse it off.  If it is whole make sure there is nothing inside the cavity (neck or innards).  Place your chicken in the crock pot and season the way you like, for me that means salt, black pepper, and rosemary.

Cover and set the Crock pot on low for about 8 hours.  Remember every time you open the lid of the crock you need to add 15 minutes onto your cook time.  Ideally you won’t open the lid.

Check the temperature of your chicken in the thickest part of the meat, your thermometer should read 165 degrees and the juices should run clear.

If you want a side dish consider placing whole vegetables (potatoes, carrots, celery) under the chicken before you cover and cook.

Remove your chicken and serve.  Reserve the juices from the crock pot for gravy or leave them in there to start your stock.

To Make Stock:

Add the bones and skin (if any) and 1 1/2 cups of water for every pre-cooked pound of chicken from dinner.  Set the crock on low after dinner and in the morning you’ll have beautiful additive-free stock.  Strain the stock and pour into sterilized, heated glass jars.  Wipe the rim and adjust clean lids and rings.  The jars will seal themselves from the heat of the stock.  By leaving the fat in the stock, it will rise to the top of the jar and help prolong the life of the stock in your fridge.  Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks.

Bread Pudding

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So I can’t decide if I love french toast or bread pudding more. But bread pudding is definitely easier to make. The key is to find the bread I mention here in my post. I first had this bread at the Taylorsville Farmers’ Market in Taylorsville, KY. Anna Lee Stokley, better known as “The Bread Lady,” has been making sourdough bread for over 20 years. Her Cinnamon Sourdough Bread is so good you can eat a whole loaf before you even get home, it’s soft, chewy, sweet, and moist. You can make this bread at home and while the rise time will have you waiting 24 hours to bake it, the entire time actually working on the bread is less than an hour for 3-4 good sized loaves. While I am not publishing the recipe on here, you can probably find one on-line, or go buy a loaf from The Bread Lady, she sells out early. Failing that use any bread you like, but you’ll need to add 1/3 cup more sugar, and 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon, and it won’t be as good.

1/2 loaf (4-5 good 1 inch slices) of Cinnamon Sourdough Bread, 1 x 1 inch thick cubed. Let it dry a bit, if you are in a hurry you can toast it lightly in the oven while it’s preheating.

3 eggs
2 cups of milk
1/3 cup of white granulated sugar
dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

I like Raisins! But my Hubs does not, so I leave them out of a lot of things in the hope I can get him to eat it.

Preheat oven to 350. I completely neglected to grease my 8 x 8 x 2 glass baking dish, and nothing bad happened. Evenly spread the cubes in the dish. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and slowly combine the milk, add the sugar, salt, and Vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Here’s where my recipe becomes unorthodox, I don’t bake it in a water bath. Instead, tent the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. It won’t be crunchy on the top, but who cares. If you want to serve your bread pudding with a sweet topping, like maple syrup or Bourbon sauce, simply omit the sugar in the egg mixture. A friend of mine has made bread pudding in his enameled iron dutch oven and it works very well. Serves 4.

Lasagne Rolls

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I love this recipe because it is so simple, but not much easier than assembling lasagne the regular way. However, I found the rolls filled up the pan so much better, and was definitely easier to serve, but not necessarily eat. It’s hard to cut a roll with your fork. Usually I put way too much effort into Lasagne using a lot of ingredients. This came out delicious. Even my meat lover husband said “I wish we could have Lasagne every night.”

1 package whole wheat Lasagne noodles
1 16 oz. bag of shredded mozzarella
2 16 oz. containers of cottage cheese
1 32 oz.(quart) jar of tomato sauce
Spinach, sauteed in oil with onions

Cook noodles according to directions, drain and rinse in cool water. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 13x9x2″ lasagna glass baking dish. Lay out noodles and place some cooked spinach, cottage cheese, and mozzarella on each. Roll up and place in glass dish. Pour remaining sauce over all rolls. Sprinkle what fell out during the rolling process on top along with some extra mozzarella. Bake uncovered at 350 for 50 minutes. Let rest for 15 mintues. Makes 18 rolls, serves 6.

Chilies Relleno with Red Enchilada Sauce

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10 Anaheim peppers
Monterey Jack cheese
Sausage

For the Sauce:
1/2 large onion, diced
2 Tbs. oil
2 cups tomato sauce
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. paprika
salt to taste

Corn tortillas (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)

Broil the peppers till the skin turns black, keep turning peppers till all sides are blackened.  Place peppers in a brown paper bag and wait a few minutes.  Slip off skins and make a slice lengthwise in each pepper.  Remove the seeds and membrane, but keep the cap.  Fill with cheese and whatever things you like, in this case browned sausage.  Place in a baking dish in the oven till cheese melts.

On the stove, saute diced onion in oil till translucent, add spices and saute for 1 minute longer, add tomato sauce.

Place each stuffed pepper in a corn tortilla, top with sauce and sour cream.  I actually liked it better without the tortilla.

Challah French Toast

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Lots of RiverSong Farm customers tell me our Challah makes excellent French toast. I’ve never had the opportunity to try it until yesterday. Here is the recipe we used, serves four.

1 loaf of RiverSong Farm Challah, sliced on the bias (diagonally) into 10 slices
4 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
Cinnamon

Place the slices of bread on a cookie sheet in the oven and toast both sides till crispy but not brown.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs, add the remaining ingredients and beat. Pour the mixture into a small deep dish. Place the slices into the dish and let soak 15 seconds per side. Then transfer to a buttered medium hot skillet and cook till browned, then flip. As I explained to my kitchen accomplice, French toast like pancakes needs to cook on one side for a long time and the other side for a short time. Alter the heat as needed to prevent burning. As you remove pieces, add more butter and soaked pieces. Place the finished toast back on the cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven till all the pieces are finished.

Enjoy with RiverSong Farm maple syrup or powdered sugar and fresh fruit.

Mushrooms, raw and stuffed with Anchovy Cream Cheese

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This recipe is from my Mom’s Time Life Holiday Cookbook from 1969. I love this appetizer because it is served cold and requires no cooking and little preparation. But also because it’s addictive.

1-2 lbs white button mushrooms, washed and stems removed

1 8oz package of Cream cheese
2 Tbs. of Anchovy paste (either from a tube or buy a tin of ‘chovies and squash them yourself)
1 tsp. Freshly squeezed Lemon juice
1 tsp. grated onion (very important-it must be grated not minced)

Mix the last four ingredients till well blended and fill the mushroom caps with it. Plate and sprinkle with

2 Tbs. minced green onions, whites and greens

Caprese Kabobs

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This was the best summer cookout appetizer I’ve seen in a long time. So easy to make and even easier to eat.

1 package of wooden shish kabob skewers
Lots of cherry tomatoes
fresh Mozerella
fresh basil leaves
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic (or your choice) Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cut the Mozerella into tiny chunks. Wrap a basil leaf around a cherry tomato and skewer, follow with a mozerella chunk. Continue till skewer is complete. Repeat. Lay the completed skewers in a shallow baking dish and drizzle with the Oil and Vinegar, salt and pepper. Enjoy!

As a note, this recipe is folly unless you have (or your friends/family have) your own basil and cherry tomato plants. Can you believe what grocery stores charge for 1 oz. of fresh basil, or a quart of cherry tomatoes!

Sarah’s quick Pasta Al Burro

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1 lb of pasta, any variety, cooked according to package
4 (or more) Tbs. Butter
2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic, about 1 Tbs. chopped, more or less as you like it
1-2 Tbs. dried Basil
Parmesan cheese
Salt

After you dump the pasta in the colander, set the pot back on the heat, but turn the heat off if it’s not a gas stove. Use the residual heat to melt the butter and heat the oil, saute the garlic and then the basil. Dump the pasta back in and stir till saturated. Plate and grate as much Parmesan cheese as you like.

So incredibly easy and delicious. I invented this dish years ago one night after coming home from my neighborhood pub. My friends and I needed something to eat. It quickly became a late night staple. It makes a lot of food, fast, and vegetarian. But you could easily serve it with Shrimp.

Ranch Dressing, Naturally low calorie, low fat

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I like ranch dressing, especially to dip raw veggies in. But, so many salad dressings, even the so-called natural kind, have things in them I do not want to eat. And the better brands don’t have ranch or it just tastes like Mayonnaise. And who wants to eat straight Mayo? So I tinkered around with a couple of recipes to create a good tasting, no MSG or preservatives, non-Mayo tasting, lower calorie ranch dressing. And if you aren’t a cottage cheese fan, just try it. My sister is the foremost hater of cottage cheese and she would eat this.

1 cup Cottage cheese
1/3 cup Mayonnaise
3 T.-1/3 cup milk (less for dip, more for dressing)
1 rounded tsp. dried parsley
1 rounded tsp. dried dill
1-2 level tsp. garlic powder (you can substitute onion powder)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Makes at least 1-1/2 cups.

And if you like it fresh, use 1/3 the amount of fresh herbs to the dried equivalent.

BBQ Style Coleslaw

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1 medium sized head of green cabbage, sliced thinly into 2 inch strips
3 medium carrots, grated
2 medium leeks, halved and sliced finely, whites and greens
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Black Pepper to taste
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard

Combine ingredients and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. In South Carolina, coleslaw is used as a topping for a pulled pork BBQ sandwich. Coleslaw is believed to have originated with the Dutch.