Roast Cauliflower

I know this is almost too simple to even need a recipe, but it is something I  had never thought to do, and I did, and I tried it, and it is delicious.
Clean all of the green from a head of cauliflower. Slice it and layer the slices in a large pan (like a lasagna pan). Sprinkle with salt and pepper, dot with butter. Sprinkle on some grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400* for about 1/2 hour-40 mins or till tender. That's it. SO good! I suppose you could experiment with other cheeses, too, but so far I've only made it this way.

Fried Cabbage

 Chop up a head of cabbage, drop a big sploop of bacon fat in a big pot, add the cabbage

 and stir till coated (did I forget to say "turn on the heat and melt the bacon fat?"), add a 

diced onion or 2, some diced peppers too, if you want. Stir-fry till wilted, add a can of

 diced tomatoes (I use rotel, diced tomatoes with green chilis, I like the extra heat) 2 

cans if you want and have a large cabbage. Slice up a smoked sausage (kielbasa type) and 

add it, cover and simmer for about 20 mins or till the veggies are tender. Oh, and 

somewhere along the line add S&P to taste. Easy peasy and SO good, and the only 

"unhealthy" part if the bacon fat, and of that there is only the sploop you started with. 

You could also start with ground turkey, brown it in the bacon fat, remove it for now and 

add it again when the rest is almost ready, so it will reheat.

Mac n' Cheese...MY way...

Heya. Now, I will admit I used to do it all from scratch, even the cheese sauce, and I will tell you how to make an awesome cheese sauce, but these days, what with MS and all, standing that long is very had. So I cut a bit here and added a bit there...I start with 2 boxes of your favorite mac n cheese. Boil the mac, and basically make it as the box directs. But then the fun starts..add any of the below: a couple of cans of drained tuna or some chopped ham (even spam will do if you like it), a can of rotel (or any tomato with chili, or even regular canned copped tomato if you don't want the heat), Remember to drain all cans or it will get watery...a can of corn.. or if you used tuna, a can of peas will compliment Or both. Mixed veggies will also work...then also mix in about 1/2 C or a bit more of shredded cheddar cheese. When you have everything you want in there, smooth over the top and layer thinly sliced tomatoes, top with more cheddar (or cheddar and mozz mixed) and some parm and bake at 375* for about 45 mins or till the cheese on top is melted and slightly browned. Now if you don't have tomato for the top, just omit it, no problem.
Now, to make cheese sauce from scratch...take some butter and flour (say 1/3 C Flour to 2 Tbs butter, as a rough guestimate, I never really measure these things lol), whisk till the flour is incorporated into the butter over med/low heat. Keep whisking. Whisk a little more. You want the flour to cook. Raise the heat to med/high. Or just med if you are new and want to make sure it doesn't burn. Then add a dash of milk, whisk till it incorporates. Repeat. Keep adding milk a little at a time and whisking till it incorporates into the sauce. Then when it is about the thickness you want it, add a bit more milk to thin it a wee bit...then add several hand-fulls of shredded cheddar cheese and keep whisking, it will melt in the heat and become part of the sauce. Add more if you want, till you are satisfied and it is the thickness you want. Pour over cooked pasta and there ya go...home made mac n' cheese...

Parmesan Chicken with Mango Coconut Rice

The recipe for the rice I have posted already, tonight with it I made some very simple, easy chicken, simply take your skinless, boneless chicken breasts, slather some mayo over the tops, sprinkle on some Parmesan and bake at 375* till the chicken is done, serve with the rice (about the same cooking time) and a nice salad with a tart dressing (italian or caesar would be perfect), a creamy one would be too much "creamy" as the cheese and mayo will make a "sauce". I did add a little olive oil to the chicken before cooking it.
Manga! Enjoy!

Spaghetti Surprise Casserole

What I did for dinner had NO right being as awesome as it was...cooked a package of spaghetti (1 lb), drained it and dumped it into a casserole dish. Added a jar of garlic/herb spaghetti sauce, opened and drained a can of salmon (yes, salmon) mushed it up and mixed it in, then a big handful of shredded sharp cheddar, mixed that all up, smoothed the top and topped with more cheddar, some mozz and some parm, and baked it till the cheese was melted on top.

Mom's MinceMeat

An old, old family favorite, never met a man who doesn't love this dish. And dang few women!
This is for 2-3 people, double as needed
First start off with 1 Lb of ground beef or turkey (I use turkey), sautee till the meat is browned. Add 1 can of cream of whatever-you-want soup (mushroom is good, celery is also good) and about 1 can of water, stir in to make a gravy. Now, add a generous handful of raisins. Yes, raisins. stir them in, cover and simmer for about 20 mins till the raisins have plumped. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.
Couldn't be simpler and is SO good...real comfort food...a salad on the side, and there ya go! Enjoy!

Roast chicken and coconut/mango rice

Hey, haven't really been making anything interesting lately, or that I haven't already posted. Tonight..roasted chicken thighs and a new creation, coconut/mango rice.
First get your chicken on, whatever cuts or whole, whatever you prefer. Then...
when it has about 1/2 hour to go, take 2 C white rice, and several Tbs of (I used coconut) oil, sautee together for a bit, then add 1 can of coconut milk and 1-1/2 C water, cover and simmer till done (don''t forget to salt), meanwhile, seed, skin and chop your (1) mango, and when the rice is about 1/2 way done, add and stir in. That's pretty much it. Except...enjoy!

Yorkshire Pudding

For my basic batter, (Pudding is made with a batter) I use 1 1/2 C flour ("regular" flour will do), 1-1/2 C whole milk (2% is fine) and 3 whole eggs. Toss in some salt, too, while you're at it. Whisk it till smooth. A few lumps are OK, but if you're using a wire wisk you should be able to get them out easily..
Ok, stick it in the fridge, then cook your (whatever, I've made it with Chicken as well as Beef).
When it is done, bring it out and pour off the drippings into an oven proof pan (another reason I use Cast Iron so much) and cover the meat with foil to keep it hot. Now raise the oven temp to 450. Put the pan with the drippings in till the pan is hot, then bring it out and pour the batter in (it might need another whisking first to homogenize)  Cook the Pudding till it rises, about 15 min, then lower the oven temp to 350 till it is brown. Meanwhile...make gravy!!!!
Now...as for portions...I figure about 1/2 C flour + 1/2 C milk + 1 egg per person. So, 3 people, 1-1/2 C flour, 1-1/2 C milk & 3 eggs...4 people...2 C flour, 2 C milk, 4 eggs...etc...
Gravy from "scratch"
Now, I *usually* use bacon drippings instead of the drippings to make the Pudding and save the drippings for the...gravy!
Melt some butter in a saucepan. Not too much, a spoonful or so. OR use the drippings. Add Flour, same amount, Whisk it until the flour integrates totally into the butter. If it's too liquidy, add more flour till it becomes a paste. Little by little, that's the secret. Then add something liquid, What, depends on what kind of gravy you want to make. Some suggestions are: water, beer, milk, broth (chicken, beef, veggie, s'all gooood). Add a little at a time and whisk it in, add a bit more, and keep adding and whisking until you not only have gravy, but the thickness you want! I like my gravy pretty thick BTW.
When the Pudding, the Meat and the Gravy are done...serve and enjoy!!! You can also cook your Pud in "individual" breadloaves or cupcake tins. Cooking time might vary, but the first 15 mins should still be at at least 450*
OK, Now I'm hungry...going to go put the beasty in...
Of course, if you don't have extra bacon grease (I save mine) you can use Crisco Butter flavor for the Pud and the drippings or your gravy...I've used the Crisco many times, I guess you could say that Crisco saved my bacon... (Ok I can hear the shudders from here...) (I do NOT Apologize for my Punz) I think punning is the HIGHEST form of Humor, it's themz who Can't pun that think it's the lowest!!!

Hugs and Good eat'in!

Baked Swai over Rice Florentine

Last night was just baked pork roast and rice with boiled carrots, not really worth blogging about. Since I have quite a bit of leftover rice, for tonight I am going to spread it in a casserole dish, cover it with spinach and a little parma mixed in. Then layer Swai (a mild white fish) over it, dot it with butter (always use unsalted butter, they only salt the lesser quality butter so you know that unsalted is the top quality butter) and bake it for about 45 mins to an hour or till the fish is done at 375*. Since you are using unsalted butter I would recommend either squirting on some lemon or sprinkling on some Himalayan salt prior to baking. A simple and filling dish.
Ok, I made it a bit differently. After layering the rice, I thinly sliced a vidalia (sweet) onion, and layered that over the rice, then the spinach on top of that (I used frozen chopped spinach, thawed) and the fish on top of that, dotted with butter, then baked as described. It got a Robbin Rating of 10 out of 10 (Robbin is my son BTW)

Garlic Shrimp with Rice

Greetings! Welcome to my new blog! Here, within these pages, I will endeavor to make you laugh and help you learn whatever I know about cooking, and hopefully you will also gather some ideas for your own family dinners. It is always hard to come up with something new, so I hope to offer you a new perspective on the contents of your fridge and pantry.
Now, when I cook rice I always cook extra as my son likes to have the leftovers for the next day's lunch. So I cook 2 C rice with 4 C water, some salt (I always use Himalayan pink. Never, if you can help it, use the stuff sold as "table salt" as it contains aluminum, and that is known to promote Altzheimer's) If you need a source for Himalayan pink salt, as well as other salts, message me and I will send it. Usually, though, you can google it or find it on Amazon or eBay.
Most of the time when I cook rice I also add a little butter to the cooking. This time I did not as I was going to cook the shrimp in butter and that would be enough for the meal.
I usually buy uncooked shrimp but there was a sale on the large precooked shrimp so I bought that. When the rice was almost done I added some butter to a saucepan, and a big spoonful of garlic (yes, from a jar) I use fresh when it is affordable, jarred when I don't have fresh. In this case..jarred. I let that melt and simmer, then added the bag (1 lb) of shrimp. Some water came from the shrimp as well as it had been frozen. I stirred it till hot throughout. When the shrimp was hot, I removed them from the pan and saw I had quite a bit of thin liquid in the pan, so I took about a spoonful of corn starch, added it to a little water, stirred it well till it was all mixed in, then added it to the simmering liquid. I them whisked it well till it thickened. I served the rice, topped that with the shrimp and poured the thickened liquid over it. I served it with chilled asparagus topped with a little mayo (I like that better then salad dressing for asparagus).
If I had used uncooked shrimp, I would have thawed them, peeled and de-veined them, and followed the same process, except for cooking the raw shrimp till pink throughout. I might not have had as much liquid so would probably have just served the garlicky shrimp over the rice. You could also add a little white wine and/or lemon to make a sauce (or to the sauce as I made it) The sauce was an extra step and a delicious one!
Well, this has been my first entry. I hope you have enjoyed it and keep looking for future entries. I will post often, I mean, after all I DO cook dinner every day!