MISC – Page 247 – Chasing MY Life WHEREVER it Leads ME

PORK CHOPS AND SCALLOPED POTATOES

This is a tried and true recipe good for winter or summer because of the crock pot. Recently we were asked out for my aunt’s birthday party. At the last minute I was asked to prepare it at home instead. What could I say but yes? It is June in Texas though and I am miserable as my uncle believes he is freezing if you lower the thermostat below 80 degrees so I reallllllllllllllllllly didn’t want to turn on the oven, but needed a “Sunday” dinner meal for company. That is what is so nice about this recipe – it looks like you slaved in the kitchen all day, but really I plugged it in and went to an air conditioned museum for a few hours. But, shhhhhhhh don’t tell on me. These are so yummy and they turn out super tender – you’ll be able to cut them with a fork.

Insert finished picture here!
I prepped them tonight to make tomorrow
for a birthday dinner so we’ll have to take a picture then.

4 extra thick pork chops
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper
3 large russet potatoes
1 can cream of asparagus soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
4 ounces Velveeta, cut into chunks

Melt butter in a large skillet.
Sprinkle salt and pepper generously on both sides of chops.
Brown chops on both sides.
While chops are browning, wash the potatoes and slice into 1/4 inch.
Whisk together the soup, sour cream and milk.
Spray crock pot with PURE.
Layer potatoes slices, soup sauce and cheese chunks 2 or 3 times.
Lay pork chops on top.
Cook on low 4 hours.

POTATO PANCAKES

3+ cups peeled, grated & squeezed* potatoes
1 large bunch green onions, minced or 1 small Vidalia onion, minced
1/2 cup self rising flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Sift together the flour, salt and pepper.
Whisk together the buttermilk, egg and butter until smooth.
Whisk in the flour mixture until well blended.
Fold in the potatoes and onions.
Drop onto hot griddle and make your pancakes.
Serve with applesauce and sour cream or with the Sauerbraten gravy.

*I use a flour cloth towel as my base. I grate the potatoes on top of it and then bring all the corners together like a knapsack wrapping the potatoes inside. I continue to tighten the turns until I squeezed all the moisture from the potatoes.

Attitude – by Charles Swindoll

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude to me is more important than the past,
than education,
than money,
than circumstances,
than failures,
than success,
than what other people think, or say, or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.
It will make or break an organization, a school, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday
regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past..
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have,
and that is our attitude….

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me
and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you …”

My dear friend Martha sent me this recently and it bears repeating……….again and again!

Pizza Pasta

Happy Saturday!! This is Tiffanee from One Crazy Cookie and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be guest posting her today. This is such an amazing blog!! Since it is a busy Satruday I am sharing with you one of my family’s all time favorites. The recipe makes 2 9×13 pans. So you make two and freeze one for later. It freezes very well.

Pizza Pasta

Makes 2 9×13 pans. If you don’t want to make 2 half the ingredients.

1 1/2 lb bow tie pasta

1 lb ground sausage

2-3 jars spaghetti sauce

1 package Canadian Bacon or 1/2 lb cooked and diced ham.

1/4 lb sliced pepperoni

6 Tbs. Parmesan cheese

1 lb grated mozzarella cheese

*optional: onions, mushrooms & olives

1. Cook Pasta until al-dente. Do not overcook. Drain and set aside.

2. Cook and drain sausage (add and cook onions with sausage if desired)

3. Pour a small amount of sauce to lightly coat the bottom of a 9 x13 pan.

Layer ingredients:

1st layer: cover bottom with a layer of pasta, cover with sauce, mozzarella, 1 Tbs. Parmesan and top with sausage (can add sliced olives)

2nd layer: cover 1st layer with pasta.

Then cover with spaghetti sauce, mozzarella, 1 Tbs. Parmesan and top with ham. (can add sliced mushrooms).

Cover 2nd layer with the remaining pasta.

Cover with sauce, mozzarella, 1 tablespoon Parmesan and cover the top with pepperoni.

Bake covered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Take cover off and bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cover and freeze 2nd one.

Unthaw frozen one for 24 hrs in fridge before baking.

*It took me three jars of spaghetti sauce this time.

Fire Day Friday: Red Beans and Rice

I was making some blackened pork chops last night (Gee…..where could I have gotten that inspiration, Dave?) and thought some red beans and rice would go perfectly with the chops. I used one of Emeril’s recipe as a guide and then made it with what I had on hand.

Red Beans and Rice
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse’s Red Beans and Rice

Serves: I dunno, probably a small nation like the size of Aruba, it makes a lot.

Ingredients
1 lb dried red beans, rinsed, picked, and soaked (I did the quick soak method instead of overnight soak – 2 minute boil, let soak for an hour)
4 – 8 oz Mexican chorizo (yeah, I had no andouille sausage)
1 ea yellow onion, chopped
1 ea green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 ea bay leaves
4 springs fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp garlic minced
3 cups of chicken stock
3 cups of water

Instructions
Got my “mess in place” ready while the fire was getting started in the grill.

Saute the sausage for 1-2 minutes until it starts to brown. I did this in a cast iron dutch oven that was preheated on a 350f grill. Then add the onions, peppers, and celery and continue sauteing 5-7 minutes until softened. (Note: If your chorizo doesn’t render a good bit of pork fat, you might have to add some bacon grease or other fat before adding the veggies.)

Then “put everybody else in the pool”. Bring to a boil for a few minutes, reduce heat and simmer (I cut the temp of the grill down to 300).

This is where I kind of screwed up. During the prep, I must have commented 3 times that this seemed like a lot of liquid and veggies compared to the quantity of beans. Even after cooking an hour, the liquid really hadn’t reduced much. It was about this time I realized that I had used only a 1/2 pound bag!! I remedied that by adding two cans of drained kidney beans and it all worked out okay.

The total cooking time was about two hours. I smashed some of the beans against the dutch oven with my wood spoon per Emeril’s advice. Served them with rice, hot sauce, and my blackened pork chop.

The whole family loved the beans with the chops, my boys both even got seconds.

Speaking of cajun and creole foods, last week at the food blogger get together at Larry’s, Katherine of Smoky Mountain Cafe (she’s from Cajun country) made REAL jambalaya that made my mouth jump a happy dance. The best jambalaya I’ve had.

What is your favorite cajun or creole based dish?

Spinach Salad with Teriyaki Bowties

A very quick apology… I suddenly got rushed this week. You will see the reason in a couple days on my own site, but short version is that I am going to have to repeat a recipe today that was on my own site recently. But, while it has only been a couple months since I posted this, I have made and served this 4 times. Whenever we have guests come to visit paradise, this is now on our “must make”menu plan.

Easy

Fast

VERY TASTY

Filled with Flavors

A terrific cold salad, substantial enough to be served as a full meal, and great for leftovers…

Adaptable, I have made this with shrimp in place of the chicken, and Caramelized Pineapple added.

A great item to take to a summer picnic.

It is just as good as it looks…

Enjoy, and I will see you in a week with something special… Promise

It’s another session of what to do with the second half of one of those rotisserie chickens you buy every week. And there are enough different tastes to satisfy everyone. Jackie had asked for a salad recently. So, when I saw Melanie’s post at THE SISTER’s CAFE, I knew I had another use for that rotisserie bird…

And here’s an oddity… no rum, no extra spices, I didn’t change a single ingredient. I followed Melanie’s recipe as she wrote it. If you go to her post (click HERE), Melanie listed a few additional ingredients as optional. But really, if you have a plate of spinach, do you really need to add parsley? Adding the oranges and water chestnuts was already inching the price up. So, unless you have them on hand, do as I did and leave out the craizins, parsley, … And here is what she wrote…

Spinach Salad With Teriyaki Bowties
submitted by Melanie sisterscafe.blogspot.com

16 oz. Bowtie pasta, cooked and cooled
1 – 2 bags of fresh baby Spinach
2 small cans Mandarin Oranges
1 Red Pepper, chopped
1 can Water Chestnuts
1 bunch Green Onions, chopped
1 cup Honey Roasted Peanuts or Cashews
1/4 cup Sesame Seeds, toasted
2 cups torn cooked Chicken

Dressing:
1 cup Vegetable Oil
2/3 cup White Wine Vinegar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
2/3 C. Teriyaki Sauce
5 Tbs. Sugar

Cook bowtie pasta according to directions, drain and cool while whisking the dressing together in a large bowl. Marinate cooked bowtie pasta in the dressing for 1 hour or longer in the fridge. Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl and pour the teriyaki sauce and pasta over the salad, toss together and serve. If it’s just a few of you, make individual salad servings; keeping the salad and bowtie sauce separate for the rest of the week (no one likes a soggy salad).

This sauce is terrific! Beyond terrific in fact. The whole thing blended so well. It was a perfect addition to my new series on what to do with those rotisserie chickens that are so cheap here in paradise.

Jackie loved it! Thanks Melanie… A GREAT recipe!

Well worth the effort!

Dave here from MY YEAR ON THE GRILL. Plan ahead, be a cook and you to can say…

… I CAN COOK THAT!

And so can you!…

Apple Fritters

I am looking forward to seeing you at Comfy Cook and at My Sweet and Savory.

Don’t forget

I made these fritters or pancakes during the holiday of Passover which is why I used potato starch. I would guess, you can sub in AP flour. Apples, especially cooked are delicious and some of my best desserts are made with apples. These fritters could have been blueberry, banana, peaches or whatever your favorite fruit is but apples felt right to me. These make a good breakfast, lunch, snack or even light dinner. They are easy to make and good to eat.

Apple Fritters – Passover Style

Ingredients:

4 apples, sliced, chopped or shredded

4 eggs

1/2 cup of sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup potato starch

oil to fry in

Method:

Place oil in large skillet (12 inch).

I tried slicing the apples first because I like the fritters to be chunky but they would not fry consistently so I changed over to putting them in the food processor with the eggs, beating the eggs and chopping the apples, at the same time.

Add sugar, potato starch and cinnamon to to egg mix.

Mix well.

Drop by tablespoons or if you have a cookie scoop (small) use that and drop batter into hot skillet.

Brown on both sides.

Remove onto paper towels to drain.

Eat or place into baking pan for later use.

Enjoy!

I do it – you can too!

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Look for my upcoming review of one of their awesome products!

Peach Cobbler – Save Room for Dessert

Hi everyone! Welcome to another week of unapologetic desserty goodness!

I have to say that I’ve been sick for a few weeks now and haven’t been exactly inspired to get to the kitchen. So it makes sense, then, that I picked an extremely easy (but still delicious!) dessert for this week.

And you will not even believe how easy this is, I promise you. It comes to you courtesy of Bakerella – she’s the best! So I knew that this would work out because, well, she knows her stuff. I’m not gonna lie, the first time I saw this recipe on her website my first thought was, “Oh, that b****”. Because seriously, how dare she make something like this so darn easy to create?? Darn her.

Your cast of characters:

One box of vanilla cake mix, 1 cup light brown sugar, a large can (I believe it was 29 ounces) of peaches in syrup, a stick of butter, and 1/2 cup of chopped pecans.

Bakerella calls for walnuts, but I think that pecans and peaches just…go together. I don’t know – maybe it’s just me! So if you don’t like pecans, walnuts will likely work just as well.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Empty the peaches into a 13×9 inch pan. No need to grease! Then eat a slice and ask yourself why you don’t buy more canned peaches because they’re delicious.

Cut the slices into smaller pieces so as to spread them more evenly throughout the cobbler.

Sprinkle the entire package of cake mix right on top – no mixing, no fussing. Just sprinkle it evenly!

Cut the stick of butter into 16 pieces and plop the pieces evenly on top of the cake mix.

Then sprinkle 1 cup of brown sugar on top of the butter. Oh, lordy. How good does that look??

Finally, break out 1/2 cup of chopped pecans and introduce them to everyone else.

Into your 350 degree oven this goes, for 40 minutes.

And perfection occurs. Perfection in the form of peach cobbler.

I wish I had some ice cream. I mean, who doesn’t have ice cream when they know this is going to happen? And I know that you might be raising your eyebrows at the idea of all of this working well together but trust me…it does. It works very well.

Granted, I can’t eat much of it because it’ll make me sick. Maybe some of y’all can come over and help me get rid of it? 🙂

Where the term smart ass came from

I couldn’t resist sharing this. My girlfriend sent it in an email and I’m still LMAO. Ironically I’ve known here since were 2 and 3 years old and when we were kids she had no ass. I always envied her. So to me this was even funnier.

With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren’t heavy, we are enormously Cultured, educated and happy.

Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, Good grief, look how smart I am!

Must be where ‘Smart Ass’ came from!

http://www.thekrazykitchen.blogspot.com/

Now for some really fun news. OUR KrAzY kitchen turns one year old in just 3 weeks on June 27th. We would love for you to join us as we throw ourselves a birthday bash. On Simply Delicious Sunday we will have a link for you to add your favorite recipe for birthday cake or whatever. The KrAzIeR the better. Be sure to join us and celebrate!

THE BAPTIST WHITE LIE CAKE ~ A little Sunday Morning Humor

Have you ever told a white lie? You are going to love this, especially all of the ladies who bake for church events.

Alice Grayson was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church Ladies’ Group in Tuscaloosa , but forgot to do it until the last minute.

She remembered it the morning of the bake sale and after rummaging through cabinets, found an angel food cake mix & quickly made it while drying her hair, dressing, and helping her son pack up for Scout camp.

When she took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured and she exclaimed, “Oh dear, there is not time to bake another cake!”

This cake was important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church, and in her new community of friends. So, being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. She found it in the bathroom – a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and then covered it with icing.

Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect. And, before she left the house to drop the cake by the church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter and gave her some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the moment it opened at 9:30 and to buy the cake and bring it home. When the daughter arrived at the sale, she found the attractive, perfect cake had already been sold. Amanda grabbed her cell phone & called her mom.

Alice was horrified-she was beside herself! Everyone would know! What would they think? She would be ostracized, talked about, ridiculed! All night, Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people pointing fingers at her and talking about her behind her back.

The next day, Alice promised herself she would try not to think about the cake and would attend the fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a fellow church member and try to have a good time. She did not really want to attend because the hostess was a snob who more than once had looked down her nose at the fact that Alice was a single parent and not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa, but having already RSVP’d , she couldn’t think of a believable excuse to stay home.

The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust old south and to Alice’s horror, the cake in question was presented for dessert! Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw the cake! She started out of her chair to tell the hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the Mayor’s wife said, “What a beautiful cake!”

Alice, still stunned, sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, “Thank you, I baked it myself..”

Alice smiled and thought to herself, “God is good.”

Category: MISC