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Tortellini Salad
This is another dish I make frequently when I’m in a hurry. There are no specific ingredients, just a description. I buy fresh tortellini, any flavor or size package, from the deli section of the grocery. Prepare it according the directions on the package. While that water is boiling, fry up about a pound of Italian sausage, either bulk or links. If using links, slice them once they’re cooked . . . or before cooking. The goal here is to try for pieces of vegetables and meat which are of the same size as the tortellini. Don’t ask me why, it just seems to be more pleasing to the eye. Once the sausage is cooked, remove to a large serving bowl. In the same frying pan as you cooked the sausage, heat olive oil and stir-fry onion, pepper (bell, Anaheim, whatever kind seems good to you), garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, parsley, and/or cherry tomatoes (or chopped tomato flesh). Once the vegetables are sauteed appropriately, add them to the sausage in your big serving bowl. Once the tortellini is cooked, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Add tortellini to the bowl. Add a can of sliced black olives and a can of artichoke hearts (or cooked fresh or frozen). You don’t need to have all these ingredients all the time. Make a vinaigrette of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. When I made this dish the other night, unexpected visitors showed up and I couldn’t keep them out of the tortellini long enough to make the vinaigrette so I just splashed balsamic vinegar over the top and then drizzled olive oil over all, stirred it around and served it to rave reviews. It’s really not a fussy dish. Serve with garlic bread. You’ll be the toast of the neighborhood, or at least the toast of the house.
Cook 1# Italian sausage and place in large serving bowl.
Stir-fry in olive oil all, or some, of the following ingredients: zucchini, yellow squash, parsley, garlic, cherry (or chopped regular) tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, pepper (bell or Anaheim). Add a can of sliced black olives and artichoke hearts.
Add to the sausage in the serving bowl, along with cooked tortellini. Drizzle with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette. Stir. Serve. Tastes great with garlic bread.
I made quiche today because my time to cook has been so sporadic that I wanted to make something that could be thrown into the refrigerator when finished, yet would make a nice lunch or light dinner without any further preparation. Quiche is basically a custard pie. If you have an uncooked pie crust and eggs and cream (or evaporated milk for you Bush types), all the other ingredients can be whatever you want. The basic custard proportions are 1 egg to 1/2 cup cream. Today I made two 9″ quiches and used 6 eggs and 3 cups cream. I’ve made quiche using canned salmon, ham, cheese, or broccoli. There are a lot of different things you can put into it. I have another recipe for quiche which calls for smoked salmon and uses cream cheese. Some day I’ll make that and post pictures/recipe. It’s sublime. For now, you get this.
Quiche
Quiche
4 Tbps. butter
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced onions
2 handfuls asparagus, trimmed (tips kept longer than stems for even cooking)
1 garlic clove, minced
6 eggs, beaten
3 cups whipping cream
1/2 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper
2 9″ unbaked pie crust
1 cup cheese, shredded (any kind)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Saute mushrooms in butter until nicely browned, remove from skillet and set aside. Saute onions, asparagus, and garlic until onion is transparent and asparagus is cooked al dente. Set aside. Mix together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, pepper. Prepare pie crusts into pans and distribute mushrooms and asparagus mixture evenly across the crusts. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Pour the egg mixture over all. Place pies into oven and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes. A knife inserted into pie should come out clean.
Saute mushrooms in butter until nicely browned.
Saute onion, asparagus, and garlic. Distribute evenly across pie crust, along with sauteed mushrooms.
Sprinkle evenly with shredded cheese. I used a Monterrey Jack/Cheddar blend.
Mix together eggs, cream, sugar, salt & pepper. Pour over the other ingredients in the pie crust.
Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 300 degrees and bake 30 minutes more. Remove when knife inserted into center comes out clean. Can be served hot, warm, or cold.
Didn’t last long
This is a great dish when you’re feeding a crowd. It should be prepared the night before, but I’ve done it just a few hours ahead and it’s still delicious. I also have a similar recipe which uses green olives and no tomatoes. Some day I’ll make and post that one.
Mediterranean Chicken Mancini
Mediterranean Chicken Mancini
2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into serving size portions (apx. 8 pieces from each breast)
1 cup chopped red onion
4-6 plum tomatoes, chopped or 2 14oz. cans
1 cup pitted prunes
8 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. oregano
6 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. capers, drained
1 tsp. paprika
4 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Mix all ingredients together in a 13 x 9″ baking dish. Marinate overnight. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1-1/2 hours. Serves 6-8.
Mix everything together in a 9 x 13″ baking dish. I usually add the chicken last. And this day I didn’t have red onion, only yellow. Still tastes good.
Add the chicken pieces. Marinate overnight. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for an hour and a half.
Mediterranean Chicken Mancini served with Lemon Artichoke Orzo and Eggplant au Gratin.
This is a simple, yet hearty meal we affectionately call Brunch for Lunch. I used to make this after church on Sundays and sometimes before school on weekdays. It is easy to add more ingredients or change the ingredients to what you have on hand.
- Brunch for Lunch
Brunch for Lunch
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2# bag of frozen Southern style hash browns (cubed potatoes)
1# bulk breakfast sausage (or use bacon or ham or chopped links or whatever meat you want or no meat at all)
Optional: sliced onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, and/or chopped tomatoes.
6 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (or Parmesan or whatever kind of cheese you have)
You will need two skillets (1 very large apx 14″ and 1 medium apx 12″). In the biggest skillet, melt butter over high heat. Add frozen hash browns and let fry on high heat until browned. Meanwhile in smaller skillet, fry breakfast sausage until cooked through. Turn the hashbrowns when brown and add sausage to the top of the hashbrowns. Don’t turn again until bottom is browned. Meanwhile, saute the optional ingredients over medium heat in the smaller skillet until they are cooked. Add to the top of the sausage in the hashbrown skillet. Scramble the eggs in the smaller skillet until cooked through. By this time the hashbrowns should be browned and you should start turning them so they cook through and are browned a little. Stir in the meat and veges. Add the eggs and stir in. Once the potatoes are all cooked, sprinkle cheese over the top. Turn the skillet to low. Turn the medium skillet upside down on the large skillet to make the cheese melt faster on the top. Once the cheese is mostly melted, remove the medium skillet and serve. Serves 6-8.
- Melt butter in very large skillet.
- Fry bulk sausage in medium skillet.
- Fry frozen hash browns in large skillet.
- When the sausage is cooked . . .
- add it to the top of the hashbrown skillet.
- Make scrambled eggs in the medium skillet. It picks up bits of the sausage or veges previously cooked in it. (Just cook beaten eggs over low heat, nothing more. It’s simple.)
- Stir sausage into hashbrowns in skillet.
- Add eggs to the hashbrown skillet.
- Sprinkle cheese over top.
- Flip the smaller skillet upside down to act as a dome over the larger skillet so the cheese melts.
- Finished.
Final word: yes, the cretins here put ketchup on it. I use Tabasco.
This recipe is not posted on FoodNetwork.com, but it’s from Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives show which can be seen on the Food Network. You can watch the Youtube video if you search for “The Fly Trap in Michigan and Guy Fieri.”
All quantities are eyeballed . . .
Salmon Burgers
In a food processor put:
About 1.5# raw salmon, bones removed, cut into 1” cubes
2 Tbsp. black sesame seeds
¼ cup chopped green onion
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sambala (it’s a spicy Asian condiment—use your own judgement—easy to find, very common)
Form into patties and fry in a little olive oil until done.
Serve on toasted (and perhaps buttered) buns with Aioli Sauce (ingredients follow) and sliced cucumber, sprouts, tomato, cabbage, whatever.
Aioli Sauce: Mayo, lime juice, garlic powder, Dijon mustard. Mix together.
Put salmon chunks with into food processor.
Add green onions, soy sauce, black sesame seeds, sambala. Whir until well mixed.
Form into patties. If you occasionally wet your hands, the fish won’t stick to them as much.
Fry in a little olive oil.
Serve on a buttered, toasted bun with Aioli Sauce and favorite veges (cabbage, lettuce, tomato, cucumber). My favorite is English cucumber slices and tomato.
This recipe is based upon a stuffed manicotti recipe in Sunset Magazine’s December 1991 issue. I’ve made the stuffed manicotti many times, but it’s time consuming. I was looking for something more simple using the feta I love. This lasagna turned out surprisingly well. It’s a hit! Take note that I eyeballed every bit of this, I didn’t measure anything. Feel free to do the same. One thing that I tried to keep in mind was that I didn’t want runny lasagna, so I was careful about the amount of liquid used. Another thing to keep in mind is that the spinach cooks down so the dish is a little more compact than the thick slices of hearty lasagna I usually make.
Spinach Feta Lasagna, Eggplant au Gratin, and garlic bread.
Spinach Feta Lasagna
1/2 lb. dried lasagna noodles
24 oz. tomato pasta sauce
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion
1 bell pepper
3/4 cup (about 5 oz.) feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup (1/2 lb.) ricotta cheese
1/3 lb. chopped fresh spinach leaves
Ground pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Cook eleven lasagna noodles (about 1/2 lb.) according to the package directions for al dente. Do NOT overcook. Drain. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain. Set aside.
Meanwhile, heat 24 oz. tomato pasta sauce. Simmer for awhile so it’s somewhat thick. Use a spatter guard.
Meanwhile, saute onion and bell pepper together in olive oil until soft. Let cool.
In a large bowl, stir together feta, ricotta, spinach, pepper, and onion-bell pepper mixture. You may need to use your hands as it will be quite dry. Do not squeeze, just stir together.
In a greased 9 x 13″ pan, place 5 lasagna noodles across the bottom. Distribute all the cheese, spinach, onion mixture across the lasagna noodles. Place a layer of six noodles across the cheese mixture. You may press down a little now. Spoon pasta sauce evenly across the top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Yummy goodness!
Cook the lasagna noodles, saute the onions with bell pepper (I used yellow bell peppers), simmer the pasta sauce using a spatter guard, and chop the raw spinach leaves.
Mix feta, ricotta, and spinach.
Place a row of lasagna noodles across the bottom of a greased 13 x 9″ baking dish.
Distribute the feta, ricotta, spinach mixture across the lasagna. Place another layer of lasagna.
Spoon pasta sauce evenly across the top.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over all and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Spinach Feta Lasagna
Pan-Fried Flounder and Quinoa Cakes
Okay. I must first confess. Our neighbors moved to Texas and left us a box of frozen fish. It was supposed to be only salmon, but there was a lot of white fish in the box as well. We are pretty sure that most of the white fish is flounder. We have been eating it and it’s really good. I know at this moment my fishermen friends, of which there are a great many, are trying to contain their derision. “What! Paula, you don’t know?” Sigh. Okay. Lay it on.
Is this flounder? I think so.
A fisherman friend graduated from high school (back in the day) and went to Australia. She worked in a restaurant there for awhile. In Naknek, Alaska, where we both graduated high school, flounder is considered trash fish. That’s because the goal fish is salmon, anything else is a by-product. I remember her saying she couldn’t believe she served flounder to paying customers. “Here’s your flounder,” she’d say while holding it at arm’s length. This has been my flounder impression for forty years, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I liked it.
Pan-Fried Flounder (based on a recipe by Bobby Flay)
4 flounder filets
Salt and pepper
Flour
Butter
Olive Oil
Lemon juice
1 bottle capers
Salt and pepper the flounder filets. Dredge the fish in flour. Heat skillet with butter and olive oil (a couple tablespoons of each) on medium until butter is melted and stops foaming. Fry the flounder until a nice brown, turning only once. It cooks very quickly. [My fish never turns a nice brown because I try to do them all at once in too-small of a skillet.] Remove fish to plate. Add about a tablespoon of butter to the skillet and stir. Don’t worry about any bits left behind, no need to scrape them up, just stir the butter around a little. Add a splash of lemon juice and stir. You’re trying to heat it, not cook it. Add the whole bottle of capers, juice and all. Heat through and drizzle over the fish. Yessiree, this is really good! My husband says we should start putting capers on everything. I could probably go for that.
If you're cutting the filets down and removing bones, don't put a big hole in yours like I did mine. Salt and pepper the filets.
Dredge the filets through flour.
Pan fry
Turn over and fry the other side (about 3 minutes each side).
Drizzle thin caper sauce over fish.
Polenta is a good idea when you’re tired of the usual starchy dishes. It is basically corn meal mush allowed to firm up. It is then sliced and used as a base for sauce and/or cheese.
Polenta
4 cups water
1 cup polenta
Dash of salt
Bring water to a rolling boil and very slowly sprinkle polenta into the water while stirring all the while. Reduce the heat once it comes back to a boil. Continue stirring while the polenta simmers. As it thickens it begins to splatter. Once it’s fairly thick, it’s okay to leave it for a couple minutes at a time, so stir frequently instead of constantly. A spatter guard is a huge help. The process of simmering and stirring takes about 25 minutes. The polenta should be quite thick. Coat a 8×8″ square pan with olive oil and pour the polenta into it. Smooth out the top with a spatula as best you can. Once it’s cooled a little, place it into the refrigerator for an hour or longer.
Polenta is a much larger and rougher grind than corn meal. Here is one cup of polenta.
Stir constantly at first until the polenta absorbs the water evenly.
Once it starts to thicken you will want a spatter guard on it. You should stir frequently, instead of constantly.
Looks thick enough now. 25 minutes has elapsed.
Voila! Polenta.
I have to confess that I’ve never had polenta outside of what I’ve made myself in my own kitchen. I’m assuming I’ve done it right because it tastes good. I’ve seen prepared polenta in plastic tubes at the grocery. It looks like you would slice the tube into rounds and then assemble the dish that way. Someday I may try that.
Polenta Parmesan
Prepared polenta
Mozzarella
Favorite marinara-type sauce
Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
Cut the 8×8″ pan of polenta into 9 squares. Lift out each square, turn it so you see the short side, and slice in half. Now you have eighteen slices, roughly the same size. Lay nine of the squares out on a baking dish (a 9×13″ will work, but another size might work better-see below) which has been coated with olive oil. Top each polenta square with a piece mozzarella, then sauce. Then top the sauce with another slice of polenta, cheese, and sauce. Sprinkle the whole thing with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Cut polenta into squares and lift out of the pan.
Here are the slices.
My sauce has BIG chunks of Italian sausage in it, so my little polenta stacks look a bit topsy-turvy. TASTES great. Doesn't present very well, though. Sigh. See what you can do. My nine polentas wouldn't fit in the pan so I split one in half, it's on the right side of the picture.
Just before it goes into the oven.
Finished.
Serve! Goes well with Eggplant au Gratin.
Here is a rich dinner dish which goes well with twice-baked potatoes and salad.
Candied Meatballs
3/4 lb. ground beef
¼ cup cream
¼ cup rolled oats
¼ cup bread crumbs
1 egg
2 Tbsp. minced onion
½ tsp. salt
Dash garlic powder
Dash pepper
½ tsp. chili powder
Sauce:
1 cup catsup
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp. liquid smoke
¼ tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. mined onion
To make meatballs, combine ingredients and shape into 2″ meatballs. Place in a 8×8” baking dish. To make sauce, combine all ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved. Spoon over meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Serves about 3.
This recipe can easily be doubled and baked in a 9×13″ baking dish. It’s also good with ground moose or caribou instead of ground beef.
Mix the meatball ingredients together and form into balls. Stir the sauce ingredients together.
Spoon the sauce over the meatballs.
Voila! Done.
This is a recipe idea that developed over the course of the afternoon. It’s based upon a Moroccan Lemon Chicken recipe that I really like, but I wanted to use other ingredients I had on hand. Over the past couple years I have purchased multi-packs of lean pork roasts from Costco. Most people probably make pulled pork with them, but they’re easy to cube for stews as well. I also had the last of those zucchinis from the on-sale dinner the other day. Plus, I bought a bag of lemons which are not lasting as long as I had hoped. Since I’m still playing around with the mechanics of posting, I’ve placed the recipe first and the photo instructions second. It’s hard to know whether most people favor reading or a visual representation.
PORK & LENTIL STEW
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. ground cardamom
1.5 lbs. lean pork roast, cut into 1” cubes
1 quart chicken stock
2 lemons
1 cup lentils
3 small zucchinis, diced
Salt & pepper
In large pot, fry onions and garlic in 1 Tbsp. olive oil over medium low heat until softened. Stir in turmeric and fry for another 2 minutes. [The aroma at this point is sublime.] Add paprika, cumin, coriander, and cardamom and continue frying over low heat for 2 minutes more. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside.
Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in the pot and brown the pork pieces. The remnants of the turmeric should turn the pork a golden color. If not, add a pinch more of turmeric.
Return the onion mixture to the pot and pour in the chicken broth. Juice one of the lemons and add the juice. Cut the other lemon into quarters and add them. Stir in the lentils. Cover and let simmer for 35-60 minutes, depending upon how old your lentils are and how mushy you like them. Add zucchini and simmer until they’re cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
Chop onions and garlic. Saute in olive oil until soft.
Add spices and saute. Your kitchen will smell SO good!
Cut pork roast into 1" pieces.
Remove onion-garlic-spice mix from pan and set aside. Add olive oil to pan and saute pork pieces until browned.
Add chicken broth, lemon juice, lemon, and lentils. Simmer until lentils are cooked.
Add zucchini and simmer until zucchini is cooked.
This is what it looks like when finished.
And serve like stew, pictured here, or over rice.
Foods Passion 