Seafood Au Gratin

From Taste of Home October/November 2007 (All these Subscriber Only recipes! Sorry!)



Ingredients:
butter
flour
pepper
chicken broth
milk
parmesan cheese
sea scallops
haddock/cod (I used pollock)
mushrooms (left these out)
mozzarella cheese
cheddar cheese

Comments:
Don't be thrown off by its cat puke appearance. It was actually very tasty. Adam flagged this one in the new magazine so I tried it out. Not too difficult to make although if I do this one again I'd use bigger scallops and bake it at a higher temp. 350 just didn't seem to get it bubbly enough and the sauce didn't thicken.

Lemon Chicken

From Rival Crock Pot's Slow Cooker Favorites



Ingredients:
Cream of Chicken soup
water
lemon juice
mustard
garlic powder
carrots
boneless, skinless chx breasts
egg noodles

Comments:
Another easy crockpot recipe from a set of books I ordered online. Adam came home, wrinkled his nose, and said it smelled gross. So he didn't even eat it. But that's ok. More for me. It tasted just fine. He has this thing against noodles though. I don't know what's up with that...

Meaty Rigatoni Bake

From Cooking for 2 Fall 2007 (another subscriber only recipe so I can't link to it... sorry!)



Ingredients:
rigatoni (which I thought I had, but didn't, so I used mostacholi)
italian sausage (I used plain old ground beef)
spaghetti sauce
mushroom stems (yuck, totally left these out)
shredded italian cheese
pepperoni

Comments:
I make something similar to this using chicken from time to time. It's pretty simple - cook the pasta and meat, throw them in a baking dish with the sauce, and then bake to heat through and let the flavors combine. Adam's verdict - more meat, less pasta. He ended up pretty much just eating the top layer of cheese, pepperoni, and sauce. *sigh* Oh well. I thought it was good. :)

Barbecue Beef Cups

From Everyday with Rachael Ray November 2007 (it's a "Take 5 (or fewer)" recipe so there's no direct link)



Ingredients:
ground beef
barbecue sauce
brown sugar
refridgerator biscuits
cheddar cheese

Comments:
These are super simple and super yummy. Adam liked them so much he already requested a re-do at some point. They also would work really well in mini versions for a party. We're already considering them for a Christmastime open house menu item. I actually made half of them without the barbecue sauce for me and they tasted just fine that way too.

Slow-Cooked Chili

From Taste of Home



Ingredients:
ground beef
onion
garlic
dark & light kidney beans
stewed tomatoes
pasta sauce
green chiles (left out)
chili powder (ditto)
dried basil
salt & pepper

Comments:
I was in the fall mood, craving some chili. This is a different recipe from the one I made last time (I couldn't find the other one) but it's almost as good. I put it all together before going to work and when I came home it was bubbling away. Yay for crockpots!

Spicy Bean and Cheese Burritos

From Everyday with Rachael Ray October 2007



Ingredients:
EVOO
garlic
black beans
jalapeno chiles (left 'em out. I'm a wuss.)
Corona
canned corn
diced tomatoes
lime juice
tortillas
monteray jack cheese

Comments:
I don't think a Rachael Ray recipe exists that's in any way hard to make. Cook stuff, stir, put together, heat through. You can't mess it up. Unless you don't read the recipe and put the whole bottle of beer into the pot instead of just a 1/2 cup of it. Not that I did that, (noooo...) but I'm just saying... I think I salvaged it well and although I made this for dinner the night before we went outside to rake leaves (in hind-sight, perhaps not the best planning) it still made for a tasty dinner.

Flavorful Chicken

From Cooking for 2 Fall 2007 (it's a subscriber only recipe so I can't link to it... sorry!)



Ingredients:
butter
soy sauce
boneless, skinless chx
parmesan cheese
italian seasoning
garlic salt
paprika

Comments:
And the word of the day is "Paprika!" Aaaaah!

Wow, Pee Wee Herman flashback. I loved the chair...

Anywho... This was dinner before the game tonight. I figured since I already had the oven on for 45 minutes while it's 80 degrees and 86% humidity out I might as well double-task it. This is from a magazine with recipes that make two servings (very well named "Cooking for 2" then, don't you think?) so it makes no leftovers. Kind of shame since it was so tasty and takes a bit of time to make. I'll know to make a double batch next time.

It looks kind of chopped up because I had another "Martha should have just ordered Pizza Hut instead of attempting to cook" days. I dropped the chicken while trying to take it out of the oven. Luckily it missed me, but it fell on the potatoes (see entry below) and all over the bottom of the oven. Mmmm, burning chicken fat... Guess who's using the self-cleaning function tomorrow? Anyway, the recipe says to bake until it reaches 170 degrees. My thermometer only read 120 but it looked done to me. So I hacked it a bit while trying to determine if my thermometer was busted. I knew I should have gotten a new battery for my digital one rather than trying to use the old needley one. Grrr.

Sinfully Stuffed Potato Skins

From Everyday with Rachael Ray October 2007



Ingredients:
new potatoes
EVOO
cheddar cheese
sour cream
salt & pepper
paprika

Comments:
Another Packer game food item for tonight (Yay! They're winning right now!) It's a pretty basic twice-baked potato kind of recipe. I threw some bacon on top of ours since Adam requested it and, hey, everything tastes better with bacon, right? They look kind of pathetic because I was having trouble while scooping out the insides and they kept falling over when I was stuffing them. Oh well. They still tasted good.

Alaskan Smoked Salmon Dip

From The Alaska Seafood Company (third recipe from the top.)



Ingredients:
sour cream
cream cheese
grated onion
smoked salmon

Comments:
A throwback to our Honeymoon, this is similar to salmon dip enjoyed while on the Lighthouse, Eagles, and Totem Poles tour in Ketchikan. This is obviously not for me and Adam already declared it "not fishy enough." He dumped an extra 4oz fillet into the mix so we'll see how he finds it later tonight during the Packer game.

Broccoli Mac 'n' Cheddar

From Everyday with Rachael Ray October 2007



Ingredients:
Pasta (they say whole wheat, I say meh, it's all pasta)
broccoli florets
butter
flour
milk
white cheddar cheese
nutmeg

Comments:
I was originally going to make the whole pork/pasta meal the magazine has (click the link) but Adam stayed late at work on the day it was on the menu and I didn't feel like doing the whole thing just for me. We grilled the pork outside the next day instead. But the pasta by itself is a pretty good meal! It's a basic macaroni and cheese recipe and it was really fun tossing the broccoli in the pasta water at the end. I'm amused by the small things I guess...

Cheddar Studded Burgers and Scallion Mashed Potatoes

From Everyday with Rachael Ray ?? 2007



Ingredients:
I can't remember them all, definitely beef, cheese, potatoes and scallions though! :)

Comments:
I swear this was from a Rachael Ray magazine but I can't find it anywhere. Oh well. They were easy to make and nothing's better than gooey cheese inside your hamburger. Adam didn't dig the potatoes, but that's ok. Can't win 'em all.

Baked Shrimp & Feta

From Everyday with Rachael Ray October 2007



Ingredients:
shrimp
lemon
olive oil
onion
garlic
tomato puree
oregano
bay leaf
salt & pepper
feta

Comments:
This was totally for Adam since I don't like shrimp or feta. It's pretty easy and although I used diced tomatoes rather than a puree it still turned out fine. I almost burned it in the broiler but I caught it before it became flame-engulfed. Whew!

Pot Sticker Pork Pick-Ups

From Rachael Ray's Open House Cookbook



Ingredients:
ground pork
water chestnuts
scallions
soy sauce
ginger
garlic
red pepper flakes
orange zest
honey
white vinegar
cucumber
carrot
lettuce
tortillas

Comments:
Ok, so I kind of did a bad job of following this recipe. A lot of creative substitutions and omissions occured. Among them: I used ground turkey and I left out the water chestnuts and orange. It was a pretty simple recipe and although it tasted good, it was really nothing like a pot sticker. Maybe if I hadn't tampered so much with it...

Crispy Chicken Wings

Courtesy of Martha Stewart via Yahoo! Food



Ingredients:
olive oil
tortilla chips
eggs
paprika
salt & pepper
chicken wings

Comments:
When I reminded Adam that there was a bag of party wings still lurking in the freezer he handed me this recipe and suggested that I use them to make it. So, during the Packer game a few weekends ago I made these and the ever famous spinach artichoke dip and we whooped it up snack style. I didn't eat these since I'm of more the boneless chicken type but Adam seemed to like them. They don't re-heat well so make sure you eat them all in one sitting. Or share them. Whatever you want to do.