For the Love of DOG!

So, one of the blogs I follow just announced that their dog has an inoperable brain tumor. Just hearing that makes me burst into tears. I am not even kidding when I say I like dogs better than I like most people. I lost my Daisy doggy four years ago and I still miss her so very much. Even though I have my two little monsters keeping me busy these days, once a dog is in your heart they stay there forever. Nothing compares to the love of a dog. Their trust and loyalty can't be found anywhere else.

 My Daisy Doggie. Forever in my heart.

 Max (a.k.a. Thing 1, asshole)

 Sophie (a.k.a. Thing 2, Ms. Thang)

 Twin Terrors Trying to Look Sweet and Innocent

Love My Doggies

Taking it Easy

Yesterday was one of those days where I just didn't feel like messing around when it came to dinner. I had defrosted some ground chicken because I needed the space in my freezer but I had no clue what to do with it. So, while at work i pondered what to do with it.....and pondered, and pondered. I did a quick internet search and found my inspiration. I had broccoli from the CSA so I decided to make things easy on myself and go for a casserole. We have been eating pasta quite a bit lately so this time around I would use rice. During my lunch break I headed to the grocery store and there was also chicken breast on sale - cheap. So I grabbed some of that and a can of cheddar cheese soup and I had all I needed for a nice easy dinner - Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice Casserole was born! The end result was quite good but I thought it could have used a little more salt. I didn't add any because I usually find canned soups to be pretty salty. Next time I will add a little but not much.

Erika's Easy, Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice Casserole

1 pound ground chicken (can sub 1 chicken beast diced)
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 bunch Broccoli, trimmed and cut into pieces
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 soup can half and half
3 Cups water
1 1/2 cups rice (I used Carolina white)
1 Cup Shredded cheddar Cheese
1 Sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed

Preheat over to 350F
In a medium sized saucepan, bring water to a boil. When boiling, add rice, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer.
In a large frying pan saute ground chicken, chicken breast and garlic until meat is cooked through.
Add broccoli and continue to saute until beginning to soften.
Add soup and half and half, stir to combine

Once soup and half and half is incorporated and heated through, add rice and any remaining water in the sauce pan - just dump it in. It should be 80% cooked and that is ok. It will finish cooking in the oven. Stir to combine.
Salt to taste
Pour chicken, broccoli, and rice mixture into a casserole dish. Top with crushed crackers and cheddar cheese
Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

TV Ideas

So, last week I was flipping through the channels trying to find some garbage worth watching on television. On the Food Network was a show called The Greatest Thing I Ever Made that features their various personalities offering up recipes for their best dishes. This time around it was Marcela Valladolid. I have no idea what her culinary credits are but I knew she generally makes Mexican or Mexican inspired dishes. I like Mexican so I figured I would watch. What she made was a sweet corn and poblano lasagna. Now it being the peak of sweet corn season, I was really interested. I watched, and then I made the recipe at home. It was pretty darn good. Fattening as hell but good. I upped the garlic and corn content because I like those things....a lot. I could not find Oaxaca Cheese so I had to settle for plain old Mozzarella but I don't think that mattered all that much. I accidentally mistook a hot pepper from my CSA for a poblano (it looked similar and when I pick up my share I throw everything into 1 bag - oops). I did notice the mistake before I assembled the lasagna and tried to pick them all out but 1 or 2 pieces made it and gave the dish a nice kick that my husband did not care for. Oh well, I thought it was good. I would definitely make this again as a way to use up the summer bounty but not too often because it is certainly not low calorie.

You can find the recipe and photos HERE.

Summer Spoils

I don't know what to call this concoction, other than delicious. It sort of blurs the line between a lasagna and a gratin. Regardless, I ate WAY too much of it. But, seeing as it was vegetarian and used far less cheese than I normally use (I was running low), I regret nothing. It started with the abundance of summer vegetables in my CSA share. I wanted to use as much as I could because the stuff generally doesn't last long being that it is free of pesticides and preservatives. So, I started with a TON of tomatoes that were starting to get squishy,  1 small eggplant, 1 zucchini, 1 green pepper and 1 onion. I cut away all the icky parts on the tomatoes and cored and diced them to make a quick sauce. I didn't have any garlic left (the horrors!) but I did have some garlic scapes left in the back of my veggie drawer that were still hanging on so I cut them up and threw them in with the tomatoes along with a handful of fresh basil and let that all cook away (lid on). While the tomatoes were cooking I sliced my eggplant into planks, the zucchini into coins, the onion into rings and the pepper into somewhat flat planks. I cooked each of these in my grill pan until they were soft and pliable. You could certainly cook them on a grill but I didn't feel like sweating my ass off outside. The humidity has been off the charts lately and it is gross out there. The goal is to remove as much liquid from the vegetables as possible so you don't end up with a soupy mess of a casserole. Once that was done, my tomatoes were ready to process so I added a can of tomato paste to them and hit them with the immersion blender. BAM - sauce done. Next came the assembly. I coated the bottom of a casserole dish with sauce then I added a layer of eggplant followed by a layer of zucchini. Next came a layer of ricotta cheese - maybe 3/4 cup, followed by a layer of onion and pepper. Next came another layer of sauce topped with the last of the eggplant and zucchini. This was topped with more sauce and about a Cup of shredded mozzarella cheeses and a handful of Parmesan cheese. I baked this at 350F for about 40 minutes. Now, you should let this stand for a bit before eating it but I was hungry and dove right it. It was delicious.

Grilled Summer Vegetable Bake
2 Cups tomato sauce - jarred or homemade
1 small eggplant - cut lengthwise into planks
1 medium zucchini - cut into coins
1 medium onion - slice into rings (do not separate rings, leave in disks)
1 green pepper - cut into planks
3/4 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Preheat over to 350F

Grill vegetables on both sides until soft and pliable. Set aside.

In a casserole dish layer vegetable, cheeses and sauce as follows:
Sauce
Eggplant
Zucchini
Ricotta cheese
Onion
Pepper
Sauce
(Repeat with what ever veggies are left - I had enough eggplant and zucchini for 1 layer using them together)
Sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving (or not if you're hungry).

Summer YUMs

I am so tired right now I could cry. The hubs and I are leaving for vacation tomorrow and I have been frantically trying to prepare for the trip while working and doing a million other things. It doesn't help that hubs scared the shit out of me last night when he left for work and it took me 3 hours to get back to sleep. UGH! Last night I was up late trying to cook up all the CSA produce that I had in the fridge that would not be coming with us on vacation. I was inspired by a stuffed pepper recipe I saw on the blog Proud Italian Cook (click here to see her beautiful recipe photos). I had a bunch of cubanelle and hungarian wax peppers that fit the bill perfectly. Plus I had tons of tomatoes from the CSA and my own garden that needed to be used along with a bulb of fennel. So I made a nice marinara with tomatoes and fennel to go with this take on stuffed peppers:

Stuffed Italian Peppers

1 bunch broccoli rabe
5 cloves garlic sliced
2 Tbs oil
6 cubanelle peppers
1 pound Italian sausage
1Cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 Cup parmesan cheese

Preheat over to 400F

In a large pan saute broccoli rabe with oil and garlic until soft. Chop and set aside.

Cut tops off of peppers and slit down one side. Remove core, membranes and seeds.

In a bowl mix sausage, cheeses and broccoli rabe  until combined.

Stuff mixture into peppers and place in a baking pan

Bake for 40 minutes

Serve with warm marinara.

FAIL!

Sometimes even the best laid plans end up a disaster. Most people wouldn't share a culinary fail as epic as mine on their blog, but then I am not most people. You have to take the good with the bad and you just can't hit it out of the park every time. Honesty and humility are qualities that I personally embrace.  Hubs and I went on vacation last week with a bunch of friends. We do this every year and rent a beach house in Rhode Island. Normally we have a big pig roast but this year we decided to scale it back and just have a regular old cookout. However, to keep the spirit of the pig alive, I bought a 4 pack of baby back ribs and made a batch of pulled pork. The ribs were pre-cooked and vacuum sealed. I didn't have high hopes for them but the price was right so I figured what the hell. Well, due to the abundance of foodstuffs at the beach house, they never got eaten. So, I brought them back home and finally got around to cooking them this week. I halved the racks, doused them with BBQ sauce, threw them in the crock pot, and went to work. As straight up ribs they were much better than I thought they would be. A little salty for my taste but otherwise just fine with some mashed cauliflower and sauteed fresh zucchini. However, 4 racks of ribs for two people is beyond excessive and I have leftovers up the wazoo! So, yesterday I formulated a plan to use some of the leftover rib meat. I even cam up with a cool name and everything, "BBQ Swineapple Pie". In concept, the idea seemed solid. I lined a pie plate with masa dough (because BBQ pork and corn go well together), then I sauteed some of the leftover rib meat with onions and a little more BBQ sauce. I mixed in some fresh pineapple (because pineapple and pork go well together) and poured it into the masa crust. Then I topped it with a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses (because BBQ and Hawaiian pizza is yummy) and baked it for 40 minutes. When I pulled it from the oven it looked really good but when I ate it, it was not nearly as tasty as I was hoping it would be. It wasn't horrible but I really didn't enjoy it all that much. I don't know if maybe the masa could have been better seasoned. I admit I was in a rush and just threw the crust together without much thought. Maybe it needed more BBQ sauce - it was a tad dry. I thought the pineapple would release more liquid when cooked. Regardless, I was glad my husband grabbed dinner on the road and didn't want any because if I didn't really care for it, he most assuredly would hate it. Yep, kitchen fail. Oh well. Live and learn and try again later.

One Pan Wonders

Hubs: What's for dinner?
Me: I don't know. Something with sausage.
Hubs: Like what?
Me:  I'll make it up as I go.

Later that Evening

Hubs: You sure you know what you're doing?
Me: Don't worry about it.
Hubs: It smells good.
Me: Blank stare

Even later that evening

Hubs: This is delicious.
Me: Told you not to worry.

This conversation or various iterations of it happen at my house on a weekly basis. You would think after 6 years of marriage and nary a kitchen failure to be had, my husband would be a little less concerned about what I am doing in the kitchen, lol! I suppose when he sees me whip out an bunch of Swiss chard he wonders how the hell I'm going to sneak that into his dinner without him noticing. It's amazing how much his veggie consumption has expanded without his knowledge. It makes me laugh every time! So, yesterday I was really dragging ass....all day! I don't know why but I was and I was in no mood to prepare a complicated dinner. I had defrosted some Italian sausage and that was really all I had as far as a plan. Being tired, I also was not looking to do a boat load of dishes after dinner either. So, after a quick browse through the fridge and the cupboards I came up with this little beauty of a meal. All prepared in a single large skillet. It really was pretty darn good and used up all sorts of odds and ends that were begging to be finally used up. Oh look, pictures too!

Sausage, Vegetable, and Pasta Skillet

1-2 pounds sweet Italian sausage, bulk or with casing removed
3 large cloves garlic, sliced
1 bunch Swiss chard, washed, trimmed and chopped
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 zucchini, peeled and sliced into half rounds
3 oz asiago cheese, chopped rough
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
2 oz mozzarella, diced
1-2 cups water
1/2 box rotini pasta

Brown sausage with garlic until cooked. If your sausage was fatty uou may opt to drain some of the fat. I did not. It is not mandatory.
Add chard to pan and continue cooking until soft.
Add bell pepper and tomatoes (with liquid). Continue to saute
Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
Reduce heat to low and cover. Allow to simmer, stirring frequently, until pasta is cooked. Add more water if needed.

Let sit a few minutes before eating. Good Stuff!