Spicy Mayo

 

I like spicy hot. Master doesn't so much. When he goes out of town. I make comfort food and french fries or tator tots with a dipping sauce is always a good comfort food to me.  So I recently made a fish sandwich and didn't want tarter or chili sauce on it and made this to not only dip fries into, but add to my fish sandwich.  It was completely yummy! I now use it as a condiment on many sandwiches and hamburgers too. It is really easy to make.
 

Ingredients: 

3 Tablespoons mayo 

1 Tablespoon Sriracha, Tabasco or any chili hot sauce

Directions: 

* In bowl, combine ingredients and mix until smooth. 

* Use as dip for fries or chips or spread on your favorite sandwich

French Bread Pizza

I like quick meals for when we are especially busy. This year has been non-stop going. Really I think we have been home about 5 weeks total out since the end of the February. It helps me not feel so guilty when I actually sit and think about it like that, because otherwise I start beating myself up about how I haven't been cooking anything new or really in depth.

One of my favorite quick meals is French Bread Pizza, because it is really versatile and so easy! I will give you the basic recipe and then give you lots of topping ideas as wells as tips to make it even more easy and quick at the end.

Recipe:
1 loaf of French Bread (about 18 to 20 inches long)
Sauce
Cheese
Desired Seasonings
Desired Topping

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425. 
2. Slice French Bread in half - length-wise. 
3. Spread with sauce. 
4. Top with  desired seasonings, cheese, and desired toppings. 
5. Bake for 10 minutes. 
6. Let cool for a few minutes and then slice into big pieces (4 per half)  or smaller skinny slices for a party food. 

Topping Ideas:
Sauce:  Our favorite sauce isn't really sauce, but just a small can of tomato paste.  A small can willl cover both halves of the French Bread.  Other sauce ideas that I have used before: small can of tomato sauce, store bought pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce, homemade spaghetti sauce, crushed tomatoes with the liquid drained, a white sauce such as Alfredo or BBQ

Desired Seasonings: If you aren't using a pizza or spaghetti sauce, you might need some seasonings these are my favorite that I add on top of the sauce: A seasoning mix such as Penzeys (which is what I use) or Italian seasoning mix, oregeno, basil, or garlic powder or salt, onion powder or salt, red pepper flakes

Cheese:  Mozzarella, colby/jack mix, Asiago, Parmesan, Romano, feta, provolone

Toppings:
Meat: Pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, ham, ground beef, chorizo, chicken, prosciutto, shrimp
Vegetables:  Mushrooms, onions, red peppers, tomatoes, artichokes, green peppers, green onions, jalapenos or green chilies, spinach, cherry tomatoes, olives, banana peppers, sweet corn
Other: Pineapple chunks, black beans, fresh basil, garlic,capers

Pizza Ideas:
Our Favorite:  Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, Black Olive, Red peppers and Onions with Colby/Jack Cheese and Provolone

2nd Favorite: Chicken, fresh basil, sliced tomatoes and with really any cheese and red or white sauce

Southwest:  Chicken and/or Chirizo, black beans, spinach, corn, jaapenos or green chilies and topped with colby/jack cheese

Sweet and Sour:  Pineapple and ham

BBQ:  BBQ Sauce,  chicken, onions, bacon, and colby/jack cheese.


Tips: 
* Buy French Bread loaves and on day old bread racks at the grocery store.
* Put loaves in freezer and pull out just an hour or 2 before going to make pizza or make up pizzas with toppings and then wrap for freezer. Store in freezer until ready to put in oven and increase cook time by adding 5 or 10 more minutes.  I sometimes take  it out 15 to 30 mins before cooking and that seems to make cook time be closer to the orginial 10 minutes in the basic recipe. 
* It is really good party food - just slice into thin slices to feed a larger group.
* I like serving with a salad as a side, but good just making them and eating straight out of the oven without a side. 

Egg in the Hole

This is an easy, versatile breakfast that has many names. I grew up with my Grandma and Mom calling them Toad in the Hole, but my best friend in grade school had a different name for them - Eggs in a Nest. They are simply an egg in a hole. 

The normal way is to do this in a frying pan, but then that means cooking them almost one at a time. If you are doing several, I find baking them much easier. Plus it allows me to walk away and do other things while they are cooking.

We like even having these for a quick dinner when things have been so busy during the day.  

sprinkled with cheese and ham

Ingredients
serves 6 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for sheet
6 slices sandwich bread
6 large eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional toppings: grated cheese, finely chopped green onion, crumbled bacon, ham, chopped parsley, sliced avocado, hot sauce, and chopped tomatoes 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter (or use coat with cooking spray) a rimmed baking sheet. 

Butter bread on both sides. With a cookie cutter or drinking glass, cut a 2 1/2-inch round from center of each bread slice. Place slices and rounds on sheet and bake until golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from oven and flip bread.

Carefully crack 1 egg into center of each slice. Season with salt and pepper. Bake until egg whites are set, but yolks are still slightly runny or cooked hard, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through (sprinkle with cheese, bacon, ham, onion, if using, during last minute of baking). Serve with desired toppings.

NOTES:
During the holidays - I used heart, star, snowflake shaped cookie cutters.  With Valentine's approaching, I will be doing these for breakfast with crumbled bacon and cheese on top and using a heart cookie cutter on the bread. 

Andes Mint Brownies

I was going to do a great post this week about making homemade Egg Nog, but I've been under the weather and haven't really felt up to it.  I promise, however, I shall post it NEXT SUNDAY and how appropriate since it will be right before Christmas?  And we will all need a drink to celebrate surviving the Mayan Apocalypse!

This week, I needed to come up with something FAST for a holiday party at work.  Something EASY.  So I  made...

Andes Mint Brownies

Ingredients:

One box of ANY Brownie Mix.

Whatever ingredients you need to make those (usually 1-2 eggs, vegetable oil, water)

2-4 boxes of Andes Mints (my boxes had 28 mints each)

Following the directions on the box, make the brownies!  I used Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate Brownies for mine, but whatever is to your taste, as long as they are not frosted brownies.  While they are cooking, unwrap your Andes Mints and try not to eat all of them!  For my recipe, I used a 9x9 pan and I used a box and half (42 mints).

After the brownies are done baking, and while they are still hot, lay the mints across the surface of the brownies.  As you are laying them across, the heat from the brownies will make them melt.  When you have the desired amount of mints melting on your brownies, take a small spatula ans spread the melted mints across the top of the brownies.  Again, for a 9x9 pan, I used 42, use more if you want a thicker layer.   If you are using a 9x13 pan you will probably want at least 3 boxes.

And that is all!  Cool and serve!

(Sorry I don't have a picture of the brownies but well, by the time I thought of it... they were 3/4 gone!)  They were a big hit in my office!

Easy Fabulous Chicken Potato Puff

Hi y'all. I know I haven't posted in FOREVER, but being in school and working an internship and being a full-time domestic slave has kept me very busy the last few months! I sometimes feel like I do not have enough hours in the day.

And I know y'all feel like that too, which is why I am posting this very simple, very quick recipe.

Have you ever had last minute company for dinner or needed to pull of something fabulous with no time?

This recipe I found in an old recipe box. I love that it is very 1950s housewife but translates so well into today.



Chicken Potato Puff

Mashed Potato Mix (enough for 4 servings)
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar
1 cup finely chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded carrots (I usually omit these because Sir hates cooked carrot)
2 tsp snipped Chives
pinch of dried Rosemary
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare potatoes according to directions. Stir in cheese, chicken, carrots, herbs and egg yolk.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; gently fold into potato mixture. Pour into greased 2 quart casserole; place in a pan of hot water 1 inch deep. Cook, uncovered until brown and puffed, about 50-60 minutes.

Feel free to be creative with it! I've made the same dish with Swiss and Canadian Bacon with Green Onion instead of Chives. It turned out great. I think the biggest asset any one of us can have is our creativity, our ability to make things work!

Seasoned Corn on the Cob

Corn on the Cob - freshly cooked
Butter
Seasonings
Ziplock Bag



Place several pats of butter and seasonings in a ziplock bag. I put almost a pat of butter per ear of corn. And it is just to taste on the seasonings but I probably start with a tablespoon of my main seasoning. After husks are removed and corn is cooked, place hot corn into ziplock with butter and seasonings. Let the hot corn sit there for a moment to get the butter melting and then start move it around in the ziplock to incorporate the seasoning over the corn.

I used Northwood Seasonings by Penzeys which has coarse flake salt, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle. But I have also used Italian seasonings and just garlic. You really can just add so many different seasonings to spice up your corn on the cob.

Sloppy Joe

I am going to admit it...I have a guilty pleasure and his name is Sloppy Joe. I think it is because they bring me back to my childhood. I was craving them and caved into ultimate childhood feats of sloppy joes and tater tots. Very high class food. :)

1 Tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1/2 cup chopped mixed bell peppers - use whatever is your favorite. I used a combo of green and red
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 lb ground beef or ground turkey if you want to make it a bit leaner
1/2 cup ketchup
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes (I like the petite cut tomatoes)
two good shakes of Worcestershire sauce
black pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the bell pepper and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Remove from heat. Remove vegetables from the pan to a medium sized bowl, set aside.

2. Using the same pan - heat the pan on high. Crumble the ground beef into the pan. brown and drain off fat.

3. Return the cooked ground beef and vegetables to the pan. Add the ketchup, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce to the pan. Stir to mix well. If it is very thick add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water. You want enough water in it so that it is saucy and can simmer with bubbling from the heat. If it is too thick it will just burn to the bottom and sit like a lump. Lower the heat to medium low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve on hamburger buns. Serves 4.

This serves 4 using either bigger kaiser type rolls or using a very generous helping on regular hamburger buns. Or can serve 6 using smaller helping on a regular bun.

Easy Spanish Rice

This is something I do when I am very short of time and need a side dish for tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, burritos or some other Mexican meal.

(pictures are really bad because of course I decided to take pictures at the last moment when I was short on time)



Ingredients - salsa, cheese and cooked instant rice

And it just depends on how many you need to serve on how much. We have 2 people so I just cook 1 cup of instant rice in the microwave. Follow directions on box.



























Mix in salsa just to coat it well. Usually 1/2 cup to 3/4 of cup for 1 cup of rice.



























Add some cheese on top. The rice is usually still warm so will melt the cheese but if not just microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. And serve.


Variation:
* Many times I also add a heaping tablespoon of taco seasoning to rice before I cook it to give it just a little more flavor.

Fast, cheap and easy.

No, not me!

Well. Okay. I AM all of those things but for the purposes of THIS post-- not me.

I'm talking about food. I'm talking about hot, filling comfort food. I'm talking about reaching a man through his belly.

And, I'm talking about a lazy slave who found a delicious shortcut and I aim to pass it on to you. :)

Maybe, on a cold and blustery Monday morning you look outside and see something like this:




Maybe you just want to sit on the couch, yank the pillow over your head and pretend you live in Hawaii.

Maybe you don't WANT to have to go butcher the cow, shell the beans, knead the dough, churn the butter and puree the tomatoes.

Maybe you're thinking PB&J for dinner sounds wonderful and then your Man calls and he's working outside and he's tired and cold and hungry and he says "What hot meal are you making for me tonight, slave?" and you have this rush of guilt and figure perhaps it's time to take the pillow off your head.

But you're no more motivated to butcher cows and shell beans.

So what do you do??

You cheat, that's what. You cheat and you enjoy the fuck out of it because, as the title said, it's fast, it's cheap and *bonus!*, it's easy.

It's magic.

Chili magic, that is.



First, slave over that can opener opening all of them cans. It's turrible hard work I tell you.

Dump the can contents into a pan. Preferably you'd empty them into your slow cooker so it has several hours to blend the flavors together, unless you're like me and really took the whole couch/pillow/Hawaii fantasy to late afternoon. Oops.



So, dump the magic and the 'maters together so they've got some time to blend and cook together. In the meantime, dice up your onion if you like them and toss that in with your ground beef.



If you like that raw onion taste, you could dump the onions in with your canned stuff, but I loathe raw onions so I cook them down.

Then drain it and dump that into your canned mess of magical goodness.



Stir it in and let it simmer for a bit. You really need to let the burger chunks soak up some chili-tomatoey sauce, let the tomato chunks soften, let the onions blend in- just let it simmer.

Add spices if you want. Master and I aren't spicey kind of folks (except in the bedroom! Ha!) so I don't add much more than salt and pepper, maybe a dash of chili powder.



If it were already in your slow cooker and you hadn't spent the day having sex on the beach with Anakoni and his well-placed lei... *ahem*

Nevermind.

Next, (after you've washed your hands because Anakoni made you do filthy, filthy things to yourself), gather up some toppings. Sour cream, shredded cheese, Fritos(!), oyster crackers- whatever floats your little chili boat- and ladle it all up.

Then, slice up that $0.99 loaf of french bread that you got on the bakery clearance rack and slather it with butter.

Serve that hard-working man.



Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT call him Anakoni. Impressed as he may be with your chili magic, he won't like it. Trust me.

All in all, for a couch potato, blustery fall day- fast, cheap and easy works out well. And, nobody has to know! Toss out those magic cans and everyone thinks you're a chili goddess! I have no freakin' clue how to make chili from scratch but Master takes this to work and, by God, they worship my mad kitchen skillz.

Cheating. It's what's for dinner. ;)

ps. Total cost for me (chili only, not including toppings) was well under $15.00, for enough chili to feed 5, plus Master's lunch the next day, plus enough leftovers to toss in the freezer for chili-topped baked potatoes one day next week. Also, I saved half the ground beef and onions that I'd cooked up and used that in a ground beef stew I made the next night.

pps. I understand the Chili Magic is being (has been?) discontinued. I'm still finding it on my grocery shelves, but not for long, I gather. I consider this one of life's greatest tragedies.

Easy Balsamic Chicken

4 pieces boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, enough to coat chicken
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper to season

Coat chicken in balsamic vinegar, then olive oil. Let stand for 10 minutes. Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts to the pan. Cook chicken 12 minutes, or until juices run clear, turning occasionally. The balsamic vinegar will produce a deep brown, sweet finish on the chicken as it cooks. Remove chicken from skillet when cooked through. Serve.

These are also great on the grill.

Cook Now Eat Later for a Quick Fix: Pasta

When you are boiling water for pasta why not make another batch and freeze it. If you are wanting a quick meal with pasta sometimes just waiting for the water to boil can take longer then everyone at the dinner table is willing to wait. If you have some in the freeze you can take some out in the morning and thaw in the refrigerator or defrost in your microwave and then reheat in microwave also.

Cook your noodles according to the instructions on the box. Drain and allow to air dry so that the excess water evaporates. Then pop into serving-sized containers or plastic freezer bags and place in freezer. I like doing some in family-sized portions and some in single serving sizes for lunches.

Chocolate Cupcakes

These are really easy and good! If you don't have eggs in the house, they are the cupcakes for you.

Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat Oven to 350

Whisk all your dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix all your wet ingredients in a bigger bowl. Add the dry ingredients. Line cupcake tins with paper liners - spray lightly with cooking spray. And then fill liners 3/4 full and bake for 14 to 18 minutes.

Quick Buttercream Frosting
I used Williams-Sonoma's recipe but cut in half and omitting the salt.

3 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter (I used salted)
2 tblsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt butter and then mix together all ingredients until fluffy and creamy but with so it keeps its peaks. If too stiff add a little more milk.