Greek Tortellini Salad...

GREEK TORTELLINI SALAD from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients for Salad:

1 (20 ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 large cucumber, chopped
1 cup kalamata olives, pit removed and chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Ingredients for the Dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Cavender's All-Purpose Greek Seasoning
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the tortellini according to the package directions. Drain the tortellini and rinse with cold water.

2. Place the tortellini in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, olives, red onion, and feta cheese.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, Greek seasoning, salt, and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir until salad is well coated. Serve immediately or place in the refrigerator.

Note-this salad will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

This recipe is directly from Two Peas and Their Pod.  I deviated from the original recipe just a tiny bit.  I doubled the recipe, because I wanted leftovers for home and for Carey to take to work.  I added cooked chicken breast, because I had some ready in the fridge and because the guys like some meat in their pasta salads.  I also increased the minced garlic in the dressing...I was out of extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, so I had to use light olive oil and apple cider vinegar, so I thought the extra garlic might up the flavor a little.

Chicken and Dumplings

This is my favorite recipe for Chicken and Dumplings from my

Betty Crocker cookbook (red and white gingham cover)

STEWING THE CHICKEN

In a large pot, stew either one whole chicken or separate pieces of chicken with one onion, several carrots, several ribs of celery, a bay leaf or two, salt, pepper, and enough water to cover all.  Cook until done.

After stewing the chicken, remove it from the bone.  Strain and save broth.  Discard the vegetables, and return broth to the pot.  Add meat back to broth, and bring back to a low boil.

FOR DUMPLINGS:

2 c all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons snipped parsley (opt)

2 beaten egg

½  cup milk

4 Tablespoons cooking oil

Combine flour, baking  powder, and salt; stir in parsley.  Combine egg, milk, and oil.  Add to flour mixture, stirring with a fork only till combined.  Drop dough by the tablespoon directly onto chicken in bubbly broth.  Return to boiling.  Cover tightly.  Reduce heat, do not lift cover.  Simmer 12 to 15 minutes.   If  broth needs thickening, mix 2 heaping Tablespoons of flour into 1 cup of milk; stir carefully into pot so as not to break dumplings, and simmer for a few minutes with lid off.  Serve.

My notes: This can easily be doubled or tripled if you have a big enough pot!

These are 'drop' dumplings, not the rolled variety.  I'm not a fan of the rolled variety, too heavy for my liking.  I took the photo below of a dumpling I cut in half to show you how it is cooked and fluffy all the way through.

I have never had this dumpling recipe fail...dumplings turn out light and fluffy every time.

Shrimp Gumbo...

I'm really, really trying to cook things on the weekend that can either make two meals, freezing one for another meal later, or at least that will make a couple of lunches to take to work.

Tonight I made Shrimp Gumbo.  It's not a traditional gumbo made from roux, but it is really fabulous.  It even gets compliments from lovers of authentic Cajun gumbo.  It's become our Christmas Eve dinner tradition, but we didn't have it this year, and I've been craving it.

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon, cut into about 1 inch lengths

1/2 cup ham, diced (optional)

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon pepper

3 cups hot water

2 15oz cans of diced tomatoes

6 to 8 drops hot sauce

2 cups sliced fresh okra

2 pounds shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup corn meal

salt and pepper

In a large pot, fry the bacon (and ham if using).  Before bacon gets crispy, add onions, celery, and green peppers.  Stir.  Saute till vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  

Add water, tomatoes, seasonings, hot sauce and a dash of Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire.  Stir.  Cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

Mix cornmeal with a little salt and pepper, and dredge the okra.  (OR just buy a bag of breaded okra ready to fry like I do.)  Heat oil in a frying pan, and fry the breaded okra until brown.  Set aside on a plate lined with paper towels.

Now, ideally I would use fresh shrimp, but tonight I was trying to use up what I had on hand, and I had frozen cooked salad shrimp.  Pour the flour over shrimp, and stir to coat.  

After the vegetables have been cooking for their 15 to 20 minutes, add the fried okra to the pot.  And by hand, add the shrimp, leaving any extra flour (not sticking to the shrimp) in the bowl.

Cook for an additional 15 minutes.  (During which time you can cook some rice.)  At the end of the cooking time, the gumbo should be adequately thickened from the cornmeal and flour (from the okra and shrimp), but if it needs further thickening, use a little more flour.

Serve over rice.

YUM!

Niki's Easy Barbecue Ribs

This recipe is from Niki at Rural Writings.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Pork Ribs, well trimmed of fat, and cut into 3-4 rib sections
2 Tbsp. Butter or oil
1 medium Onion chopped
3/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup Vinegar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2/3 cup water
Franks Red Hot Sauce to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Parboil the ribs by placing them in a roasting pan and add enough water to mostly cover the ribs. Cover the roasting pan and cook for two hours. This is the most important step in assuring great ribs, makes them tender and juicy. At the end of the 2 hours drain off the liquid and fat.

Now, melt the butter in a frying pan and saute onions until tender. Add remaining ingredients, season to taste and simmer for 15 minutes. Add to the ribs and bake one more hour, uncovered.

If BBQing instead of finishing in oven, after parboiling and draining the ribs put ribs on a medium-low grill, brushing the bbq sauce on and cooking for a further 1/2 hour or so, turning and brushing often.

And I usually at least double this recipe!

My notes:  I did all the cooking of the ribs outside on the grill.  I placed ribs in a foil-lined roasting pan, added water, and covered tightly with foil.  I placed the roasting pan on the grill at a low heat.  After about 2 hours, I removed the pan from grill.  When I took off the foil, the liquid had cooked away, but if there had been any left, I would have discarded it.  I decided that I didn't want to finish the ribs directly on the grill, since the sauce would necessitate extra grill cleaning, so I kept the ribs in the roasting pan, and poured the sauce over.  I covered tightly with foil again, and then put the pan back on the grill.  I used metal tongs to prop open the grill lid a little to try to keep the temp low so the sugar in the sauce wouldn't burn.

While the ribs with sauce were back on the grill, I put some ears of corn on there too.  I left the ears in the husks, and put them straight on the grill rack.  After about 15 minutes, I turned the ears and cooked for another 15 minutes or so.

Sushi Salad

Original recipe is from Two Peas And Their Pod.  My altered recipe follows.

Ingredients:
1 cup short grain brown rice, cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup, plus 3 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
2 1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup grated carrot
1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 cup shelled edamame
2 sheets nori--sheets of dried seaweed--cut into strips 
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced

Dressing Ingredients
2 teaspoons wasabi powder
1 Tablespoon hot water
2 Tablespoons cold water
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:
In a small saucepan bring 1/4 cup vinegar to a boil with sugar and salt, stirring until sugar is dissoved and remove from heat.  Let cool and pour over cooked rice in a large bowl.  Stir in sesame seeds, remaining 3 Tablespoons vinegar, oils, green onions, carrot, cucumber, edamame, and nori strips.  Top salad with avocado slices.

In a small bowl, stir wasabi powder into hot water and stir in cold water, soy sauce, and ginger.  Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.



My notes: I didn't put in the nori, but I might next time.  And I don't like pickled ginger and didn't want to buy a ginger root, so I didn't put in the pickled ginger or the fresh ginger root juice that the original recipe called for, but I did put in a little powdered ginger in the dressing.

I love sushi.  This is an economical substitute, and the leftovers will travel well for lunch the next day.  I definitely need to add some protein to this so that it's more filling.

Turkey Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen sliced carrots

1 cup frozen broccoli florets

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen petite peas

2 medium sized potatoes, diced fairly small

1 1/2 cups leftover turkey

1 1/2 cups leftover turkey gravy

1 can cream of mushroom soup

my favorite pie crust (this pie crust is assembled, mixed by hand, and patted out all in one dish).  To double for a casserole dish, use *3 cups flour, 1 scant cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water, and a pinch of salt.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place diced potatoes in a large sauce pan and cover with water (make sure water level is about 2" over top of potatoes as you will be adding other vegetables later).  Bring to a boil;  reduce heat and simmer until almost tender.

Place all frozen vegetables into the saucepan with potatoes.  Bring back to a boil, reduce heat to simmer just until barely tender (5 minutes or less; they will continue cooking while baking).  Drain.

In a smaller saucepan, place the turkey, gravy, and the soup over medium heat, stirring to combine.  When warm, fold gently into the drained vegetables in the larger pan.  Turn off heat, and let sit while preparing crust.

Place crust ingredients ( *3 cups flour, 1 scant cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt) in a casserole dish, and mix together by hand just till dough forms. 

Set aside about one third of the dough, leaving 2/3 in casserole dish.  

Press out the 2/3 of dough to cover the bottom and sides of the casserole bringing top edges a little above the sides of dish.  

Place the reserved 1/3 of dough between layers of wax paper or plastic wrap and roll out to roughly the size of the top of casserole.  

Pour the filling mixture into the crust in the casserole dish.  Remove top layer of plastic or wax paper from the rolled crust, and invert the rolled crust over top of the casserole; remove other layer of plastic/wax paper from the top of crust, and pinch the crust top and bottom together.  Cut slits in the top.

Place in a 350 degree oven for one hour or until crust is golden.

*measurements at asterisks are already doubled to fit casserole

Note:  If I'm making from stewed chicken and I don't have gravy, I whisk 2 Tablespoons of flour into 2/3 cups of milk.  Add that to the canned soup in the saucepan, and add about 2/3 cup of chicken broth.  Whisk till smooth, and let heat and thicken a little.  Place boned and diced chicken to soup/gravy and stir.  Simmer till warmed through.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Liver and Onions...

Ingredients:
4 slices maple-smoked bacon
2 large onions, sliced in rings
1 pound of beef liver
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp course ground pepper

Directions:
Season the flour with salt and pepper.  Lightly dredge the liver in flour and set aside.

Heat a non-stick skillet.  Fry bacon at medium high temperature till lightly crisped and grease is rendered.  Remove from pan, cut each slice into three or four pieces, and set aside. 

Keeping the skillet's temperature at medium high, place the floured liver pieces in the hot bacon grease, careful not to crowd the pan.  Cook only till outside is brown, not till completely cooked through...this goes very quickly.  Remove from pan and set aside. 

Add  all of the onions to the skillet. Add one to two tablespoons of water and stir a couple of times till onions just start to turn translucent and start picking up the brown bits from bottom of pan.  Lay the liver in a single layer over the onions, and place the bacon pieces on top of all.  Reduce heat to medium to medium low, cover the pan, and let steam till the onions are tender and the meat is cooked through , about ten minutes.

My notes:  My mother used to prepare liver and onions pretty often, so I know how it's done...I just don't really like it, so I don't do it often.  Let me restate that.  I don't like to look at or handle the raw liver...it's actually not too bad once it's cooked.  Mom never included bacon in her preparation that I remember, but it definitely was a great addition.