Spaghetti Sauce

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Spaghetti Sauce

Rich and meaty spaghetti sauce is surprisingly easy to make, and ready in just over an hour. Serve over any variety of hot cooked pasta (my favorite is angel hair pasta). This wonderful sauce is my go to recipe. Super easy and so worth making homemade instead of that glass jar stuff.

1 pound ground beef

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1  28 oz. can Cento San Marzano peeled tomatoes (Product of Italy)

1 cup tomato sauce

3 1/2 oz. tomato paste

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon marjoram

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon celery salt

1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms or (1 small can)

Over medium heat brown ground beef, and drain  Add olive oil and the onions and garlic and saute until tender.  Add the can of whole tomatoes and chop into pieces.  Then, add tomato sauce and tomato paste and mix to combine.  Add all spices and adjust to taste. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer, with lid on, for 1 hour – stirring occasionally.

Makes 6 servings.

Grilled Asparagus

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Asparagus, Grilled asparagus, zucchini

My favorite way to eat asparagus is to grill it! Grilling gives your food a huge punch of flavor so you really don’t need to add tons of spices and other ingredients to make it taste yummy. Putting them on a skewer makes it a lot easier to handle.

All you need to do is drizzle the asparagus in olive oil, juice of ½ lemon, or to taste, Kosher Salt,  Freshly grated black pepper. Bam! You’re done.

Ready for the grill! Grill 3-4 minutes on each side of the skewers.

I like to do zucchini the same way!

Banana Bread

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Banana Bread

Super simple recipe for homemade Banana Bread that uses basic pantry ingredients and is so moist it melts in your mouth! Super moist, perfectly sweetened, and easy banana bread. I like to add a chopped cup of pecans, or walnuts.

2 cup all-purpose flour, 

1 teaspoon baking soda, 

¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt

¹⁄₂ cup butter,

³⁄₄ cup brown sugar

2 egg, beaten

2 ¹⁄₃ cup overripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture just enough to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Firecracker Chicken

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Chicken, Firecracker Chicken

A wonderful combination of sweet and spicy flavors that tastes a million times better than take-out! This recipe has a perfect balance of sweet and spicy with a hint of the buffalo sauce. It’s called Firecracker Chicken, but my husband renamed it…[ DYNAMITE Chicken] it’s that good! He’s not a chicken fan, but loved this, and it’s my daughter’s new favorite. It’s always a good feeling to please your loved ones.

It’s so easy to make, and the taste is amazing. I saw the recipe on Pinterest many times, and finally made it. I’m glad I did, because this will be on the menu often.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

For the sauce

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup Franks Hot Sauce, or more, to taste
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more, to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with non-stick spray.
• To make the sauce, whisk together sugar, buffalo sauce, vinegar, salt, red pepper flakes and 1 tablespoon water in a large bowl; set aside.
• In a large bowl, season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in cornstarch and gently toss to combine. Working one at a time, dip the chicken into the eggs.
• Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Add chicken and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
• Add chicken to prepared baking dish. Top with buffalo sauce mixture. Place into oven and bake until the sauce has thickened, about 45 minutes, turning over every 15 minutes to evenly coat the chicken.
• Serve immediately.

Don’t forget the fortune cookies 😉

 

How to Cook Perfect Rice

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Perfect Rice, Rice

A method to cook prefect rice. It took me a long time, and a lot of tries, to cook rice without ending up with a sticky, mushy mess. Thanks to Anetta at The Wanderlust Kitchen for sharing her technique (she has a secret weapon). For rice to be so simple, it’s hard to get it perfect. This method produces tender, fluffy rice like the kind they serve in Thai restaurants.

Step-by-step here

It’s an absolute MUST to rinse your rice properly before you put it over heat. Again, for instructions see Anetta’s original post.

Serves 5 cups

Ingredients

• 1½ c. long-grain white rice, jasmine rice, or basmati rice (no brown rice)
• 2 c. water

Instructions

1. Measure out 1 ½ cup of rice and pour it into a saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid. Move over to the sink and run some room-temperature water over the top of the rice until it covers the rice by about an inch. Use your fingers to swirl the rice and water around the pan. Drain the water off of the rice using a fine mesh sieve or through your hand if you don’t have one. Repeat the process of adding water, swirling, and draining three more times.
2. Once you’ve finished, measure 2 cups of water and add it to the pot. Stir the rice as you add in the water, but do NOT stir it again once you’ve turned the heat on – ever.
3. Set the pot over medium-heat and patiently wait as it comes to a boil. Let it boil until the water level drops below the level of the rice (the rice will be peeking through the top). Turn the heat down to the lowest setting possible, place the kitchen towel over the top of the pot, and cover the rice with the pot’s lid. Bring the edges of the towel up and twist around the handle of the lid so they aren’t dangling down near the heat element.
4. Set a timer for 15 minutes and walk away. Once that timer goes off, turn the heat off entirely and let the rice sit for 10 more minutes before taking off the lid. After 10 minutes, remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve hot.

 

Classic Potato Salad

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Potato Salad

This recipe is a creamy, delicious potato salad. A favorite side dish at our house!

Ingredients

10 medium potatoes, cooked and diced

1 1/2 cups Hellaman’s mayonnaise

1 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 celery ribs, sliced (optional)

1/2 cup onions, minced

5 hard-boiled eggs

Paprika

Chopped sweet pickles

Directions

1. Boil peeled diced potatoes in salted water until done. Cool to room temperature.

2. Place diced potatoes in large bowl.

3. Mix mayonnaise, cider vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper in
another bowl (mix well).

4. Add to cold potatoes. (I don’t use all the mixture, just the amount to coat potatoes good)

5. Add celery, sweet pickles, and onions and mix well.

6. Stir in chopped eggs.

7. Sprinkle a little paprika on top.

Lo Mein

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Lo Mein

If you love Lo Mein in the restaurant, than you’re going to love this recipe. It’s so close to restaurant style, you can’t tell the difference.

3-4 servings

lo mein noodles – 1 pound

shredded carrots

bok choy

broccoli

onions

7 teaspoon Kikkoman soy sauce

6 teaspoon sugar

6 teaspoon cooking wine

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

5 teaspoon LKK oyster sauce

pinch or two of white pepper

1-2 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced green onion

In restaurants they also add 4 teaspoons MSG, but I leave that out.

Watch this video from The Art of Cooking for step-by-step tutorial on how to prepare this recipe.

 

 

Famous Japanese Restaurant-Style Salad Dressing

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Japanese Salad Dressing, Salad Dressing

This salad dressing is the closest I’ve had to the Japanese restaurant. It has lots of great taste sensations  – garlic, ginger, minced celery, ketchup, soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar and oil. You can easily tweak this recipe to your liking. My husband couldn’t stop eating it, and even said he could drink it from the bottle. I will be making this again soon!

1/2 cup chopped minced onion

1/2 cup peanut oil

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root

2 tablespoons minced celery

2 tablespoons ketchup (I substituted with cocktail sauce)

4 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons white sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a blender (I used my Nutri Bullet), combine the minced onion, peanut oil, rice vinegar, water, ginger, celery, ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper . Blend on high speed for about 30 seconds or until all of the ingredients are well-pureed.

Happy 50th birthday, Buffalo-style chicken wings

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Buffalo Hot Wings

Buffalo-style chicken wings turn the big 5-0! Happy 50th Birthday!!!

 

It’s been 50 years since the Buffalo food scene was turned on its head. The chicken wing debuted a half century ago.

Let’s celebrate with a BIG batch of Buffalo Hot Chicken Wings!!!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 10 chicken wings
• oil for deep-frying
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup FRANK’S hot sauce
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash garlic powder

Directions

In a small bowl mix together the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt. Place chicken wings in a large nonporous glass dish or bowl and sprinkle flour mixture over them until they are evenly coated. Cover dish or bowl and refrigerate for 60 to 90 minutes (do not skip this step).

Heat oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). The oil should be just enough to cover wings entirely, an inch or so deep. Combine the butter, hot sauce, pepper and garlic powder in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir together and heat until butter is melted and mixture is well blended. Remove from heat and reserve for serving.

Fry coated wings in hot oil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until parts of wings begin to turn brown. Remove from heat, place wings in serving bowl, add hot sauce mixture and stir together. Serve.

Lemonade

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Lemonade

Couldn’t wait any longer! … Today may be cool and foggy, but just couldn’t wait for some homemade lemonade. Sit down, relax, and pour a cool glass of lemonade. This is the best lemonade ever!

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5 lemons)
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 cups water

Mix together, and serve cold. I usually double this for summer.

Blackberry Cobbler

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Blackberry Cobbler, Cobbler

Throw together this cobbler in minutes using fresh berries. A warm cobbler is perfect for this cold evening. This is the only recipe you need for your fruit cobbler. Madison, my thirteen year old daughter, made this cobbler. It’s so easy she didn’t need a recipe. 🙂

• 1 stick Butter
• 1-1/4 cup Sugar (divided)
• 1 cup Self-Rising Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 cups Blackberries (frozen Or Fresh)

Melt butter in a microwavable dish.  Pour 1 cup of sugar and flour into a mixing bowl, whisking in milk.  Mix well.  Then, pour in melted butter and whisk it all well together.  Butter a baking dish.

Now rinse and pat dry the blackberries.  Pour the batter into the buttered baking dish.  Sprinkle blackberries over the top of the batter; distributing evenly.  Sprinkle ¼ cup sugar over the top.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until golden and bubbly.  If you desire, sprinkle an additional teaspoon of sugar over the cobbler 10 minutes before it’s done.