Fresh Blueberry Pie

When I was growing up, my grandmother and I would spend hours picking fresh blueberries and making pies.  Here is her recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 stick melted butter

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 pint blueberries

8 ounces cool whip

Crust Directions:

Mix flour, sugar, and nuts.  Pour in the melted butter and mix by hand.  Pat into a pie pan and bake @ 350 for about 15 minutes.  Cool completely.

Filling Directions:

Mix sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice very well.  Add cool whip and gently fold in blueberries until mixed completely.  Add to cooled pie crust and chill in the refrigerator until time to serve.

Meatball Sliders

Ingredients:

12 Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
6 slices of provolone cheese
1 cup marinara sauce
1 T olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1/2 T salt
1/2 T pepper
1 T garlic powder
1/4 C parmesan cheese
1/2 T basil

4 T butter
1 T garlic powder
2 T parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.  Mix ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and basil.  Roll into 12-15 meatballs.

2.  Drizzle olive oil in a skillet and allow the pan to heat up.  Cook meatballs for about 5 minutes until they are thoroughly browned.  Drain fat.

3.  Add marinara sauce and cook until sauce thickens.

4.  Slice dinner rolls in half and place half a slice of cheese on each.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Add a meatball and a little sauce to each dinner roll.  Place sliders in a baking dish with sides.

6.  Melt butter and add garlic powder and parmesan cheese.  Brush butter mixture onto each slider.

7.  Bake for 5-10 minutes, until golden brown.


I found this recipe on Facebook, and we have had it several times since--very tasty :)

Sweet Potato Tater Tots

I've been watching a lot of cooking shows, and although most of the recipes they cook are far too "fancy" for my taste, I really liked this one!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
1 cup flour
2 cups vegetable oil
salt, pepper

Directions:

1.  Peel a large sweet potato while you bring a pot (with enough water to cover the potato) up to a boil.  When the water is boiling, add the sweet potato and boil it for 5 minutes.

2.  Remove the sweet potato from the boiling water and allow it to cool for a couple of minutes.  Chop it into large cubes.

3.  Pulse the sweet potato in a food processor until it you have very small (tater tot sized) chunks.

4.  Dump the sweet potato bits into a bowl and stir in a cup of flour.  Add salt/pepper to taste.  Once the flour has been incorporated (you can no longer see any white), start shaping the mixture into tater tots.  I just rolled them into balls, because who has time to worry about cylinders?

5.  In a large pot (dutch oven works well), pour in enough vegetable oil to just cover your tater tots.  Heat the oil on medium heat.  *If you have a thermometer, you want the temperature to be about 350 degrees.

6.  Fry the tater tots in batches of 5-7 until golden brown.  This should take about 5 minutes.  If they are cooking too fast, then adjust the heat, because the centers will not be cooked all the way.

7.  Add additional salt or pepper and enjoy!

BBQ Rib recipe coming soon :)

Chicken Lazone

I found this recipe on Pinterest and made it for the whole family a few Sunday's ago.  It was quite a hit, and it only takes about 20 minutes to make--start to finish.

Ingredients:

1 tsp salt
3 tsp chili powder
3 tsp onion powder
4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper (I used red pepper flakes, but the original recipe calls for cayenne pepper.)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 large chicken breasts
1/4 cup butter
2 cups heavy cream
1 box linguini pasta

Directions:

1.  Put your pasta in a pot to cook.  While it is boiling, continue with the following steps.

2. Slice your chicken breasts into strips or halves.  Place them in a foil-lined baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Turn your oven on to broil.

3.  Broil chicken strips for 4 minutes.  Take the pan out of the oven and flip them over.  Put them back in the oven to broil for another 4-5 minutes, or until done.

4.  In a skillet, melt your butter and add the heavy cream.  Combine salt, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper in a small bowl.  Then whisk the seasoning mixture into the butter and heavy cream.  Allow the sauce to simmer for 3-5 minutes.  When the chicken is cooked through, add the chicken to the sauce and allow to simmer an additional 1-3 minutes.

5.  Serve chicken and sauce over noodles.  Adding parmesan cheese helps to cut the spiciness down a bit--it's got a bit of a kick!

*I only used half a box of pasta, but was too lazy to do the measurements to halve the sauce, so it looks really soupy.

Pasta Carbonara

I have been watching a new cooking show--America's Test Kitchen.  I feel a bit nerdy watching it, but I love it.  They had this recipe demonstrated a few weeks ago and I tried it last night.  It was delicious, and even Jake loved it :)  I also loved that it is fairly simple, inexpensive, and uses normal ingredients that I often have on hand.

Ingredients:

bacon (I used the whole box even though the original recipe calls for only 8 slices--can't go wrong with lots of bacon)
3 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup water

1/2 lb pasta (I used linguini)
4 cups water
1 tsp salt

2 eggs, 1 egg yolk (so 3 eggs total)
1.5 cups cheese (I used an italian blend...mozzarella, parmesan, etc--all white cheeses)
1 tsp pepper

Directions:

1.  Chop the bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.  Pour 1/2 cup water into a large skillet and add the chopped bacon.  Cook on medium/high heat until the bacon is lightly brown.  (You don't want it too crispy.)  Add the minced garlic, stir, and remove from heat.

2.  Boil pasta in only 1 quart (4 cups) water and add salt.  When tender, drain the excess water, but reserve 3/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.  This starchy water will be used in the pasta sauce.

3.  Use a sieve to remove excess grease from the bacon, but reserve 1 tbsp for the pasta sauce.  The sieve (rather than a strainer) preserves the minced garlic.

4.  In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk.  Add in the cheese, pepper, and bacon grease.  Slowly whisk in the starchy pasta cooking water.

5.  Pour sauce over the pasta noodles and stir for 2-3 minutes until the pasta is well-coated.  Allow it to rest for 3-5 minutes until the sauce has thickened.  The pasta must still be very hot to help cook the egg in the sauce, so if it has cooled, you may want to turn the stove back on for a couple of minutes to get it hot enough.

I sprinkled a touch of parsley on top for color.  Very tasty :)

Chicken Pot Pie

I started this post at the beginning of this month and then forgot to finish it and publish it! I remembered because, again, I'm making chicken pot pie tonight and needed to find the recipe - and not digging through my spiral notebook to find my scribbled recipe.

I'm making chicken pot pie tonight and I took pictures ages ago to post it, but life got busy. Every time I make chicken pot pie, I look for it in my cookbook binders. Not there. Then, I try to look it up here. Not here either. Drat! That means it still hasn't made it out of my spiral notebook of recipe attempts. (Some copied down from online, some altered beyond memory, and some creations based on multiple recipes. And every once in a while, a creation of my own. That one is rare.)

Anyways...on to the recipe. You don't have time for my babbling. I don't have time for my babbling. I've got 5 kids who are supposed to be cleaning assigned rooms right now and no one is cleaning this one...so I'm going to guess the rest are being ignored too.

Warning: This recipe is not a throw it together kind if you want it from scratch, but I have some "cheater" options included, so don't skip it.

Chicken Pot Pie
This is FAMILY size (meaning it serves 7-8 of us) If you only have 4 eating, you'll want to cut this in half.

The abbreviated list:

• 1 1/2 lbs cooked chicken (with onion, salt, and pepper)
• 2 crusts - Pie dough
• 6 T Butter
• 6 T cornstarch 
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 3 cups water
• 1 lb frozen bag peas/carrots mix
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups milk

The list with commentary:

• Chicken  (I use 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast - I cook the entire 3 lb bag in the crockpot with salt, pepper, and onion. Then, I shred it all. Use half for this and set half aside for another casserole or two) - you can also use more or less - or leftover cooked chicken you froze and haven't used yet and it's collecting frostbite and needs to go NOW - or canned chicken - I'd go with 2 cans.
• Pie Dough - I have a recipe - there are a million more online - but half the time, I just buy the refrigerated package kind
• 6 T Butter
• 6 T cornstarch  (tonight it was flour b/c the cornstarch is empty)
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes (Instead of cubes + water, you can use chicken bouillon or broth instead - 2 average cans)
• 3 cups water
• 1 lb bag peas/carrots mix (you can use canned too, but they'll be more mushy than frozen)
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups milk (I use skim a lot b/c it's what I drink, but I prefer 2% or fatter for cooking)

Directions:
If you are starting with raw chicken, cook it in the oven, in the crock pot, or boil it stovetop until it's not pink. It's best to throw in onion to keep it from drying out too much. The crock pot on high (for the entire 3 lb bag frozen) took about 4-5 hours today. It could have gone longer before drying out, but no shorter.

Shred the chicken (I like to use the kitchenaid method b/c I want it done fast, but it is a little inconsistent - I get shreds and chunks mixed) - you can't beat 30-45 seconds though!

Melt the butter on low heat.

Whisk in cornstarch, salt, and pepper.

Add chicken bouillon cubes and water.

Whisk and stir over medium heat until thickened.   (See how the whisk leaves tracks? it's thickened)

[Tonight I didn't feel very homemade-ish, so I did this step in the microwave - just keep putting it in for 2-3 minutes at a time until it thickens. At the end, drop it to 1 minute increments and whisk after each time.]


Usually, I'll poke some holes in the bag of veggies and toss it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes just to give it a headstart on thawing/cooking. I like mine soft. But this isn't necessary and you could skip it.
[Another idea is to cook completely soft and puree and mix in with the rest - then your kids won't know they're there.]

Mix your chicken, white sauce (you just made), another cup (or so) of milk, and peas/carrots.

Pour into large casserole dish. It will completely FILL at 9x13, so I use my slightly bigger 12x15 (now that I have one) :) - or my pampered chef 9x13 because it's deeper.

If you halved this recipe, a 9x13 will be perfect. Another option, is to put it in smaller dishes for single serve size pot pies. That's what we did the night I took these pictures. And we made homemade pie crust. (I was really Homemaker-ish that night!)

Cover it with pie crusts.

 Note - these were NOT big enough to satisfy our appetites. :) But they were really cute. A corel bowl (white plain bowls from walmart) worked well too and was better for serving size.

(Oh, you can put pie crusts under it too, but my family is divided on their love of/hate for pie crust, so 1 on top only is a good compromise. And it makes me feel less guilty...I could eat half the pie crust....mmmm...but then my calories would be through the roof!) :)

Brush the pie crust with milk (or egg) to help it brown a little (or egg white to keep it light but shiny). Bake.
400 F takes about 40-50 minutes plus cool time.

This is a "Three Bears Meal" - you're going to want to bake it and take a walk or something! It retains its heat forever! If you bake it in the same dish you plan to serve & eat it out of, you'll need to let it cool even longer since the container will keep it warm as you eat - and you don't want to burn your hands on the bowl.

[Tonight I'm upping it to 450 to see if I can get it done in half an hour!]

Actually, I forgot about them and nearly burned it. Nevertheless, the kids ate almost ALL of it while my husband and I were meeting with someone in our home, and after 3 bites each (all that was left!) we got take out after the kids were in bed. sheesh.

Ravioli

As a child, I ate more than my fair share of canned ravioli.  I loved the stuff.  However, after attempting to consume a can of it a couple of months ago, I realized that either my taste has matured or they've changed their recipe.  Jake claims that he used to eat the stuff in college, and it was edible, so maybe they really did change the way they make it.  Anyways, when I found this recipe on Pinterest, I was excited to try it.

Thomas was not a fan (the only pasta we've been able to convince him to eat is the boxed mac n'cheese, so I didn't take it too personally).  However, Jake loved it and went back for seconds and thirds.  It was super easy to make--like ridiculously easy--like 10 minutes prep-time, and I was going slowly and taking pictures.

Ingredients:

1 bag of frozen ravioli
1 can marinara sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a casserole dish to prevent sticking.  Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce over the bottom of the casserole dish.

2.  In a single layer, place ravioli along the bottom of the dish.  Cover the noodles with half of your remaining sauce and half of your mozzarella cheese.

3.  Repeat step 2 with a second layer of ravioli.  Finish off the dish with the remaining sauce and cheese.

4.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Super easy and absolutely delicious with a generous amount of parmesan cheese sprinkled (heaped) on top.  I think I may even attempt to grate in some carrots or zucchini next time I make this dish...we'll see if I can hide the veggies from my picky-eater hubby :)

*I halved the amount of noodles used, because there were only 2 of us eating it.  I used the entire can of marinara sauce, because really, what are you going to do with a half a can of leftover marinara sauce?  And I probably used the entire 2 cups of cheese because I really love cheese.  Overall, I would say that half the recipe would comfortably serve 3-4 and the entire recipe would serve 6-8.