Italian Sausage and Peppers

Today's lunch was delicious! Try this meal. Its affordable, easy, and yummy! Sam should write his own cookbook.

Ingredients:
1 onion sliced in slivers
1 green bell pepper
3 tomatoes diced small
1 can stewed tomatoes
6 Italian sausage links either mild or hot
4 cloves of garlic chopped fine
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 Tbsp oregano
1/2 Tbsp basil
salt and pepper to taste

~ affordable
~ Ready in 30 minutes or less
~ sausage is the only unhealthy part
~ older children should like this
~ very little clean up
~ goes well with spagetti squash

Using a large saute pan, pour the 2 Tbsp of olive oil in the pan and set the temperature to medium. Place the sausage in the pan and cook on each side for 2 1/2 minutes. - For a total of 10 minutes. While the sausage cooks, chop the onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, and garlic. Take the sausage out of the pan and let the sausage rest. Place 2 Tbsp of butter in the same pan. Then place the onion, bell pepper, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper in the pan and place a lid on the pan and let it steam for 5 minutes. Next, add the garlic and place the lid on the pan again and this time let it steam for 3 minutes. Add diced fresh tomatoes and the can of stewed tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes. While cooking, slice the sausage and add the sausage back to the pan. Taste to determine if more salt or pepper is needed. Let the ingredients simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Sam and I enjoyed this dish with spagetti squash. :)

Crab Boil

The idea of cooking crab scared me and so did the price of crab legs. It wasn't until Sam cooked crab one day that I realized how easy it was.- Ridicuouly easy! Then, after eating the crab I remembered how long it takes to eat crab and how rich the flavor can be. Your family and friends won't eat as much as you might think. Therefore, you will not have to purchase many crab legs. And, if you are a smart shopper, you will only buy them when they are on sale. (They freeze well when raw. So, buy some on sale and wait for that perfect crab boil day to cook them!)


~ not for young children
~ serves 4 people
~ cannot make ahead; little preparation; ready in 20 minutes
~ good left overs (Yes, you can microwave the crab legs the next day!)
~ high in salt content

Ingredients:

2 lbs crab legs (We like Dungeness crab legs. -not too big, not too small, affordable when on sale, sweet and meaty)
1 lb red potatoes
8 corn on the cob halves
1 link smoked sausage cut in to 1 inch pieces
1 lb medium shrimp - optional (leave them shelled)
1 large sweet onion (yellow or white) cut in half and then sliced in to 1/2 inch pieces
Creole seasoning
Old Bay seasoning.

Fill a 4 quarter pot half full with water. Salt the water. Cover and bring the water to a boil. Using a steam basket placed over the pot, put the potatoes in the basket and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of creole seasoning and let them steam covered for 10-15 minutes or until slightly soft. You do not want the potatoes cooked to the point of falling apart yet. Then add corn on the cob, onion slices, sausage, and sprinkle an additional 1 tablespoon of Creole seasoning. Cook covered for 5 minutes. Add shrimp if desired. Cook covered until pink (about 5 minutes). Add the crab legs and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning. Cook covered for 7 minutes. Adding Old Bay gives a depth of sweetness to the crab legs and blends suprisingly well with the Creole seasoning. (I know. Sam just threw in a very chef like sentence. He cooks like a chef and speaks like one, too.) Remove the steam basket from the pot and dump contents into a large serving bowl (or cover your table with wax paper and dump the crab boil right on the table.) Serve with a warm crusty loaf of French bread.

The Pioneer Woman

Oh, I hope that you have heard of The Pioneer Woman . If you don't have her cookbook or have not been on her website please do not tell me. Quick! Go on her website or go buy her book and read it! Thanks to my sister-in-law Kerri, my mother-in-law, and my good friend Carrie Moore, they all introduced me to The Pioneer Woman aka Ree Drummond. Ree has outstanding meals and her humor is great. But, watch how much the recipe makes. She has four hungry children and her hard working cowboy husband. She cooks for an army! I like to cut her recipes in half.



Tomato Soup

Ree calls this Sherried Tomato Soup. But, I don't put Sherry in it so it is just Tomato Soup. Oh, and by the way, for all of you who are like me and won't cook with alcohol, did you know that recipes that call for white wine can be replaced with chicken broth? Usually, if it calls for a red wine, sherry, or whatever you don't have to replace with anything. The alcohol or liquid cooks away anyways.

I had to copy the picture of the soup from her site because I forgot to take pictures when I made the soup myself.

~ 15 minute prep and cooking - I'm not lying either!(And, I don't know what you could prepare ahead of time. Unless chopping the onions.)
~ Not so good for you but sure tastes great :)
~ Very affordable
~ serves 10? and makes for great leftovers (This is her only recipe that I don't cut the ingredients in half.)
~ young children will like unless they have sensitive stomachs (Heavy cream is just heavy and the amount of tomatoes produces a lot of acidity.)

Ingredients

1 medium white or yellow onion (You can buy them already chopped in the frozen vegetable section.)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
Two 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
One 46oz bottle or can of tomato juice
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar (This helps cut back on the acidity.)
3 chicken bouillon cubes
freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley (This just adds color. I have done without this.)
1/4 cup chopped basil -Oh my! We are using our herbs from our garden again!

~Dice the onions Melt the butter in a large pot or dutch oven. Throw in onions and cook until translucent. Dump in the diced tomatoees and stir to combine. Add tomato juice. Add 3 to 6 tablespoons of sugar. (Start with 3, taste, and add more if needed. Or, you can do like me and just go ahead and add all 6 :)

~Next, add 3 chicken bouillon cubes. Add freshly ground pepper to taste. Stir to combine, then heat almost to a boil and then turn off the heat. - This will help to combine the flavors. Add in the 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. Ree says "Are you man or a mouse?" Another words, can you handle the cream?

~Add chopped fresh leaf parsley. (optional) Add chopped fresh basil. (NOT optional!!! This really makes the soup.) Stir. Add more gound pepper. Stir. "Next, take a whiff of this heavenly delight. Then faint The flavor will knock your socks off" as quoted by Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman

Yum!

Salmon and Fennel with Roasted-Lemon Vinaigrette

Turn on some classical music and bring out your best dishes because you will feel fancy with this meal. I have never cooked with fennel.
Don't be afraid of it. It actually is very good!

This recipe is from Real Simple Best Recipes.

~30 minutes prep and cooking
~Very healthy meal
~Serves 4
~Moderate price for ingredients (depends on the price of the salmon filets)
~Can chop ingredients ahead of time
~Easy to prepare
~Beautiful presentation
~Serve with soup (It would go really well with a tomato soup. I will give you my favorite tomato soup recipe next.)
~Might not appeal to a young child

Ingredients:
2 bulbs fennel, thinly sliced (Cut the fennel just as you would slice celery. Infact, if you look closely at the picture of the meal you can see the fennel and it looks like very large celery slices. It will taste good when cooked. When raw, it is very strong.)
2 lemons, halved crosswise
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper (And, yes, the Kosher salt is better than table salt.)
4 6oz pieces skinless salmon fillets (Ask the butcher to cut off the skin. You don't want to do this yourself.)
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (See, we are already using our home grown herbs!)
12oz mixed greens

~Heat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large roasting pan, toss the fennel, lemons, garlic, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each Kosher salt and pepper. Roast until the fennel begins to soften, 6 to 8 minutes.

~Season the salmon with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and nestle in the fennel. Roast until the salmon is opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes.

~Squeeze the garlic out of the skins into a small bowl and mash to a paste. Squeeze the lemon pulp and juice in to the bowl. (Easier said than done. Watch out! The lemons will be very hot!) Stir in the honey, rosemary, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Divide the greens among plates, top with the salmon and fennel, and drizzle with the dressing.

Enjoy!

How does your garden grow?

Oh, you don't have green thumbs? Well, neither do I. But, I promise you that a rosemary plant is quite hardy. It takes a lot to kill a rosemary plant. Mine even survived the snow week in February that we had in Dallas. ( I forgot to cover it or bring it inside.) Now, with other herbs I have not always had as much luck. This weekend I decided to buy a basil and an oregano plant. My rosemary is in a pot and my basil and oregano will also have to live out their plant lives in pots. I have a lovely large patio but no yard because we are in an apartment. Therefore, my friends, no excuses. Yard or no yard, you too can have an herb garden.

Here is a great website that explains how to grow rosemary, oregano, and basil.
http://gardening.about.com/od/plantprofil2/p/Oregano.htm
http://gardening.about.com/od/herbsspecificplants1/p/Basil.htm
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/Rosemary.htm

In about.com's gardening information I found a few interesting tips. "You’ll want to prevent your basil from blooming for as long as possible, by harvesting or pinching off the top sets of leaves as soon as the plant reaches about 6" in height. If the plant sets flowers, it is on its way to going to seed and will not be bushing out with leaves. Once a basil plant goes to seed, the existing leaves lessen in flavor."

It said that the oregano is a Mediterranean plant as well as the rosemary. So, both don't mind being slightly dry. It also went on to tell that "more rosemary plants suffer from too much attention than from too little." No wonder my rosemary plant has done so well. I ignore it and it thrives!

Fresh herbs can take your cooking to another level. If you are buying fresh herbs, you are spending to much money. Grow your own.
Happy Gardening!

Getting Started

I once heard someone say that they don't like to cook because they don't have good knives. Of course! Who likes to paint with a bad paint brush? How about riding that bike with the gears that won't shift well or with the chain that is always a problem? What about wearing those shoes in your closet that always rub a blister? It kind of takes the joy out of the moment or day and even takes away from the ability to complete your home repairs, hobbies, or even just daily life.

So, why have inadequate cooking tools? You eat three meals a day. You can easily spend hours in your kitchen a week. Insufficient cookware and tools take away your ability to complete a large part of your daily life. Why torture yourself? Because good cooking tools and appliances are expensive, you say! Yes. I agree. (I personally bought some myself before I got them as wedding gifts.) But, with a good set of pots and pans, a good set of sharp knives, and the best appliances on the market, you will not have to replace them. (Unless, like my mom, she got tired of some of her 70's and 80's style appliances and over the past few years has bought some new appliances and tool to have the black and chrome look. Good decision!) And besides, your family is probably always wanting to know what it is that you want for your birthday and Christmas.



In Barefoot Contessa's (Ina Garten)Back to Basics cookbook she says it well. "Use good-quality cookware such as All-Clad, Le Creuset, and Cuisinart." (I would have to add my Kitchen Aid mixer to that list.)"Not only do they cook foods more evenly, they're also much easier to clean up!" I have to agree with her. If you have good cookware then you can attest to what Ina Garten is saying. If not, the day you lay your hands on such a pot or pan or appliance or even knife, you will be a true believer! Ina goes on to say, "Keep your knives sharp. I use Wusthof knives..." Amen Ina, Amen.

Glorious, glorious All-Clad and Wusthof. :)

So, where have I been?

So, where have I been? Good question. If you were to ask me that question, at first I would say that I have found that it takes longer than I expected to get my name changed, bank account merged, etc... and all the other newly married paper work. But, then as I sit here, my right ear is randomly popping when I swallow, and I am reminded of the other major events that have taken place in the last three and a half months.

Let's see. The week after my wedding I had a ear infection (November). Thank goodness that we hadn't planned to take our honeymoon that week. Imagine riding in a plane with an ear infection. Then, the worst sinus infection that I have ever had lasted for two months until I gave up on zpacks and went to an Ear, Nose, and Throat Dr. (This was in January.) Meanwhile, I had a stomach virus in December and missed school. I guess I gave Sam my stomach virus, because during the Christmas holiday he was not feeling so well. In February, I had the flu and taught school two days in a row with a 102 temperature -just because I have missed enough days. And then, three weeks ago, I woke one Monday morning with an ear infection again and in a matter of a few hours, my eardrum ruptured. ENOUGH SICKNESS!!!!

Thankfully, I have had enough days between all the sickness to enjoy being a newlywed. Sam and I have had a lot of fun even though I have been sick so much and he has had to study every evening during the week and most of the weekend for all of his Arlington Fire Department training. (Right now he is reading some of his study material out loud. He does this when he is trying to stay awake or focus.)

Okay, I know. I know. You are thinking "So, what about food? This blog is supposed to be about the food you are cooking!" Just wait. I am getting there. First, I have to show you what else has consumed quite a bit of my time. :)