April 05 2012

Final menu is still being set, but one side dish is going to be roasted turnips and rutabagas.

Roasted Root Vegetables

1. Preheat your oven to 400F.
2. Peal and cube the vegetables.
3. Toss the vegetables in enough vegetable oil or bacon grease if you have it for a light coat.  Roughly a tablespoon depending on how many veggies you have.
4. In one layer on a baking sheet, bake the vegetable for about 30 minutes, or until they are mostly done.
5. Remove from the oven and toss the vegetables in prepared pesto.  
6. Again, in a single layer, roast the vegetables for another 10-20 minutes to dry the pesto out a bit and get it to soak in.
7. Serve warm or cold.

March 29 2012

On the menu today...


Chicken Strips
Diced Onion
1/4 cup Water
2 Tbsp of this seasoning

Carrots - You have seen these done many times

Braised Cabbage
Half a head of both read and green cabbage (because that's what I had)
1 can of tomato sauce
3 Chipotles in Adobo with sauce
Celery Salt - to taste
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Caraway Seeds

Slice the cabbage pretty thin and saute in a skillet with the tomato, chipotles and spices until the cabbage is tender.  Perhaps 15 minutes.  Side Note - The purple cabbage turns everything purple so you can't see that there is tomato in there and it just looks like red sauerkraut.  If you don't like that, then just use green cabbage.

March 15 2012

We really need to work on our photography...this picture is terrible.  The good thing is that the food was pretty tasty.

Beef
The beef was Asian inspired.
http://community.qvc.com/forums/Recipe/topic/150256/crockpot-chinese-pepper-steak.aspx
We ended up having a younger person join us on this particular day so we went easy on the spice, but did have habanero oil on the side.  We also left out the corn starch.

Slaw

http://projects.eveningedge.com/recipes/crunchy-asian-slaw/ 

I left out the Sugar, Almonds and Ramen Noodles.  The coleslaw mix was replaced with Napa Cabbage and Red Cabbage.   


Broccoli
Fresh broccoli florets that were steamed in the microwave in a covered dish with two tablespoons of water for five minutes.  It really doesn't get any easier.

March 01 2012

Chicken
Unfortunately this was so long ago I don't recall what went into the chicken other than mushrooms.

Greens
The greens are a combination of Spinach and Broccoli Rabe.  They were blanched and then sauteed with onion salt and pepper.

Bread is from this recipe

http://www.serenejourney.com/2009/03/quite-possibly-the-best-homemade-crusty-bread-ever/  

I replaced 1 cup of flour with whole wheat flour and it turned out pretty well.

February 23 2012

Pork Chops, Carrots and Rice

Served on the deck because it was such a nice day.

Pork chops are quite simple...
2 Sprigs Rosemary
1 Large White Onion, sliced
4 Thick Cut Pork Chops
Salt and Pepper
Splash of water

Combine and cook on high for a few hours.

The carrots you have seen before
http://slowcookerthursday.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-08-2011.html

Rice was according to the package directions.

February 02 2012

Pork Roast with Root Vegetables and homemade bread

I chopped up a massive sweet potato and a large rutabaga tossed with a few spices and put those in the bottom of the crock pot.  On top went the pork roast and a layer of horseradish on top.  Cook on high for a few hours.

The veggies were quite soft by the end but the pork was just right.  Unfortunately you couldn't really taste the horseradish so next time I will just leave that out and make a sauce out of it.

January 26 2012

Chicken
Mashed Cauliflower
Sauteed Greens

January 19 2012

Venison "Mexican" Lasagna

I had inspiration for this (http://weelicious.com/2011/10/11/crock-pot-mexican-tortilla-lasagna/) but I ended up tossing a little bit of everything from my fridge in.

Cook together in a skillet the night before:
1 package Vension Smoked Sausage - Cubed
1 Zucchini - Cubed
Mushrooms - Sliced
Frozen Corn
Onion - Diced

Cool the mixture and stir in some sour cream and and egg before refrigerating for the evening.  In the morning layer salsa, meat mixture, cheese and tortillas.  Cooke on high until lunch.

Salads to start with a Chipotle Ranch Dressing