Archive for February, 2010
Recipe of the Week – Calzone
(From the Easy Recipes I Can Cook Collection at www.emealsforyou.com)
Calzone
I like the crust on pizza so it is a natural transition to calzone. These are, excuse me Tony at Aponte’s Pizza, folded pizzas. Just like pizza they are very good with any ingredients you wish to put inside. On this recipe I call for cheese and roasted red peppers. I used the ones in a jar from the grocery, but you can put cooked sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions whatever you would put on top of a pizza tucked inside. Use pizza sauce or any good store-bought tomato sauce that you like.
Served golden brown and steamy, right from the oven, they will give you an alternative to the pizza you usually serve. Your family will love them and you will appreciate the ease of preparation and clean up.
Calzone
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Easy Recipes I Can Cook |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 1 | recipe | pizza dough |
| 2 | cup | cheese, low-fat mozzarella |
| 4 | oz | peppers, red roasted |
| 4 | Tb | cheese, Romano, grated |
| 1.5 | cup | tomato sauce |
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut dough into four pieces, form into rounds. Roll dough into four small pizza sized disks. Divide cheese and red peppers evenly and place on half of each disk. Fold pizza dough over to form a half moon. Seal edges of dough together, cut an X into top and place in very hot oven until brown. Plate and spoon tomato sauce on top.
Recipe of the Week – Aunt Joanie’s Blueberry Muffins
(From the Breads Collection at www.emealsforyou.com)
Aunt Joanie's Blueberry Muffins
Still snowing in Cincy, for those of you keeping score this is the snowiest (is that a word?) February in history; and we are only at the 16th of the month. Over the weekend my phone beeped, my neighbor and friend was calling to see if he could stop by with some homemade blueberry muffins. Now this is a guy who prides himself a grill master but claims no skills at all in the kitchen. Long story short, he shows up with a basket full of steaming hot blueberry muffins.
Just looking at the muffins you could immediately tell they were not the standard mix the ingredients from a box muffins. Moist, full of berries, these breakfast treats will warm your bellies and your spirits on a cold, snowy morning. They wouldn’t be bad mid-summer either. Mark suggests using wild blueberries, he is from Vermont, and coarse sugar on top, but they are really great no matter where you got your berries. Mark claims they are his aunt Joanie’s recipe; wonder if he is holding back on any other of his aunt’s recipes?
Aunt Joanie’s Blueberry Muffins
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Breads |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 2 | large | egg |
| 1 | cup | sugar, white |
| 1 | cup | milk, whole |
| 3 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 3 | cup | flour |
| 4 | tsp | baking powder |
| 1 | cup | blueberries |
| 1 | spritz | PAM |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, white, optional |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs and sugar together until thickened. Melt butter and add to milk and then to the egg mixture. Reserve 2 Tb of the flour, mix remaining flour and baking powder together. Fold into batter, Mix reserved flour with the berries and fold into the batter. Spray muffin tins with PAM and spoon batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle tops with sugar ( preferably course). Bake for 25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins.
Recipe of the Week – Bean Soup
(From the Soup Collection at www.emealsforyou.com)
Bean Soup
So the snow continues here in the Ohio Valley; must be that beaver and shadow thing. I don’t know if I can take it for 5 more weeks. I am back on the soup kick. Nothing beats a hot bowl of soup on a cold and snowy day for warming your body as well as your soul.
This recipe comes by way of my father who would save any ham bones he had and then make a pot of this filling and wonderful soup. As there are just the two of us, I substituted a ham steak for the ham bones he used. This is probably the heartiest soup I make. I usually have a couple of containers frozen for days just like this. Just get a pot started and let the magic happen. Use any beans you have in the pantry; well almost any bean. No baked beans please.
Bean Soup
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Soups |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | large | onions, diced |
| 1 | lb | ham, steaks |
| 2 | large | potatoes |
| 2 | large | carrots, diced |
| 2 | 15 oz can | tomatoes, diced |
| 1 | 15 oz can | beans, white, great northern |
| 1 | 15 oz can | beans, black |
| 1 | Tb | caraway seeds |
| 2 | Tb | vinegar, cider |
| 20 | oz | water |
| 2 | 15 oz can | chicken broth |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 3 | Tb | flour |
| 2 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Cut potatoes and carrots into small cubes. Heat oil in pan, add onions and ham, sauté until lightly brown, and add potatoes, broth, tomatoes, beans, water, vinegar and caraway seeds. Boil for about 10 minutes; simmer for 30 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Lightly toast flour in a non-stick pan, add oil and continue cooking, stirring for an additional 3 minutes to form a roux. Add some of the soup to the roux and mix, add mixture to soup and stir to mix.
Super Bowl Food – Vickie’s Shredded Beef
(From the Easy Recipes I Can Cook Collection at www.emealsforyou.com)
It’s Super Bowl time again and you are thinking about what you will serve for munching during the game. Tired of the usual, chili and wings, chips and dips? Here is a very easy recipe, easy to make and easy on the budget. Make this beef a day or two in advance and then sit back and relax and watch the game.
We have included the shopping list for this to make your life easier. All our recipes at www.emealsforyou.com have shopping lists and are completely scalable for the number of people you are serving.
Vickie’s Shredded Beef
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Easy Recipes I Can Cook |
| Meal: | Old Movie Night (Theme Meal Plans) |
| 3 | lb | beef, cubes |
| 1 | large | onions, chopped |
| 1 | Tb | garlic powder |
| 1 | 10.5 oz can | beef consommé |
| 1 | Tb | mustard, yellow |
| 3 | Tb | vinegar, cider |
| 0.5 | cup | ketchup |
| 2 | Tb | water |
| 2 | Tb | flour |
Brown beef in olive oil, add onion, sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic, ketchup, mustard, vinegar and consommé and simmer for 40 minutes.
Remove meat from pan, let cool, shred by hand.
Add flour to water and mix, add to pan to thicken gravy. Add shredded beef into gravy.
Serve on rolls.
This Shopping List is for the following Meal Plan(s):
- super bowl
| Delete | Qty | Ingredients |
| 10.5 oz can beef consommé |
| Delete | Qty | Ingredients |
| Tb flour | ||
| Tb garlic powder | ||
| cup ketchup | ||
| Tb mustard, yellow | ||
| Tb vinegar, cider |
| Delete | Qty | Ingredients |
| lb beef, cubes |
| Delete | Qty | Ingredients |
| large onions, chopped |
Recipe of the Week – Roasted Asparagus (again)
(From the Vegetables Collection at www.emealsforyou.com)
Flame-roasted asparagus
For those of you who have been readers of this post for a while this may sound like deja vu; but I am a really big fan of asparagus, especially peeled asparagus. I feel vindicated, as most people think I am insane when I suggest peeling the asparagus. That is until they try it. My wife was watching a program on PBS on Saturday about Thomas Jefferson and his garden. A chef was presenting the ways Jefferson had his food prepared and said he always had his asparagus peeled and then roasted; sometimes serving it as an appetizer on toast with butter.
Asparagus is one of those veggies that even kids seem to like. For some reason they don’t “fight” eating it like most vegetables. Besides finding a veggie that the kids eat, think about the positive side of peeling, no more looking through all the asparagus in the grocery for the really thin ones. Just walk up and grab the big stuff, trust me on this, you will be amazed at the taste and how tender it is once you have peeled it. Roasting, either on the grill, in the oven or even in a pan will enhance the taste.
I have one more suggestion when preparing asparagus. Instead of breaking it to take off the white part, try cutting it just where the green begins. Peel it, the green part and then cut about (3) 1/2 inch pieces off the bottom. Put these in a baggie and freeze them. Sometime in the future when you can’t figure out what to have for a Saturday lunch, pull out the pieces of asparagus, add them to 2 cans of chicken broth, some fresh cracked black pepper and some cream, half and half or even a 1/3 cup of instant potatoes for a great quick soap.
For the first 10 readers who sign up for www.emealsforyou.com using the Sponsoring Identifier PEELER-37 not only will you get $5 off the membership price but I will send you an asparagus peeler for free.
asparagus peeler
Flame Roasted Asparagus
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Vegetables |
| Meal: | Backyard Soiree (Picnic Meal Plans) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1.5 | lb | asparagus |
| 0.5 | tsp | salt and pepper to taste |
| 1 | oz | cheese, Romano |
Cut bottom 1 -1 1/2 inch off of stem. Peel, yes I said peel the asparagus. Place in bowl, add oil and salt and pepper. Toss, retain bowl.
On a very hot grill, place asparagus crosswise to grill. Grill for 3 minutes. Remove and place back in bowl, toss with oil remaining in bowl. With a vegetable peeler shave the Romano cheese over the top and serve.
Can be made in grill pan on stove top, cook for 4 minutes.
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