Hearty Sausage Fall Soup...

Hello Dear friends! Oh goodness it has been quite some time since I have posted a new recipe. Oh the hecticness of life! Last weekend I opted to make a crock pot type soup. I looked in the cupboards and freezer and came up with this recipe which was delicious. Hearty Sausage Fall Soup Layer the crock pot with the following items: 1 lb Sausage (I used hot but sweet would work too) 2 cans kidney beans (NOT drained) 4 sweet potatoes diced 4 carrots cut into bite sized pieces 2 celery stalks cut into bite sized pieces with the leaves 2 tsp chopped garlic 1 tsp dry Italian seasoning mix 24 oz chicken broth Cover and cook on high 3 hours or low 5 hours. Salt and Pepper to taste I used sausage which was in link form, so I chopped the sausage after it cooked into bite sized pieces. If you use grown sausage just crumble it before adding other ingredients. The sweet potatoes practically dissolved in the soup, to make it a thicker consistency with just stirring. Enjoy!

Braised Short Ribs....

Here is impromptu at it's finest. In a Crock Pot add: 3lbs Beef Short Ribs (Frozen) 3 onions thickly sliced 4 over ripe nectarines which have been sliced 1 head of garlic (just peeled not crushed) 1 TB salt 1/TB pepper 1 12 oz beer 1/2 cup BB Q sauce Cook on low for 7 hours. Remove the meat from the sauce along with some onions Puree the remaining sauce Remove the meat from the bones and trim any fat Serve with the onions from the pot, rice and some of the gravy.

Green Olive Dip.....

I love green olives. I have loved them since I was a kid. Each year in my stocking I would recieve a jar of green olives, which would usually be eaten by the end of the day. (My husband has also been so sweet to continue this tradition for me!) In thinking of a dip to take along on our annual Labor Day Camping Trip I decided to try to make a Green Olive Dip. I've seen packets where you can make a Green Olive Cheese ball, but I thought this would be delicious on the freshly harvested cucumbers from the garden... I was not wrong! Green Olive Dip 8oz shoftened cream cheese 3 oz green olives with the juice 1 avacodo 2 tsp granulated garlic 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 tps salt 1 tsp pepper Throw everything in the blender and blend! If you like to have some chunks in the dip, chop 2 oz green olives and add at the end. Serve with cucumbers, crackers, on a salami sandwich... YUM!

Smoked Salmon Cucumber Salad.....

I am one of the people who dislikes breakfast.  My whole family would eat breakfast meals anytime of the day, but I'd rather go right to dinner.  I was so happy when I first tried a bagel with lox. It was like a dream come true! Since I had no bagels and cream cheese, I had to come up with another way of enjoying a favorite this am.

Smoked Salmon Cucumber Salad

2 small cucumbers chopped

2 TBS capers

1/2 tsp pepper

2 TBS chopped scallions

4 oz Smoked Salmon chopped

1 TBS olive oil

Combine all ingredients and use bagel crisps as your spoon!

This would be ideal for a brunch. It has no dairy so it would not spoil on a buffet.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers....

My daughter wanted to have stuffed peppers, after seeing some gorgeous yellow peppers in the store. Needless to say I purchased the peppers and planned on making them the following day.  Since it was "Meatless Monday", I opted to create a new recipe which involved those peppers. She was not impressed that I strayed from the orginal recipe.

I did not realize that she did not like the way Quinoa felt in her mouth, no matter how delicious the final meal came out to be.  She did eat the dish, but complained all the way through thinking she was eating fish eggs. Can you guess what will be on the menu next week at my house... regular old stuffed peppers with meat and rice.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
1TB olive oil
4 Peppers - tops off and seeded - Chop the remaining top portions to add to the recipe later.
8 oz fresh mushrooms chopped
1 med carrot diced
10 oz Quinoa
1/4 c chopped scallions
1/2 c ricotta cheese
1/4 c Parmesan cheese

Saute the chopped pepper, mushrooms and carrots for 5 min over medium heat in a sauce pan.
Prepare the Quinoa in the same sauce pan as directed on the package (usually about 12 min)
Add the scallions, ricotta and Parmesan cheese.
Spoon into the scooped out peppers and bake uncovered for 20 min at 350 (longer if you like softer peppers)
Enjoy!

(I forgot to take a phot of the finished product! OOPS!)

ice cream....

A few years ago I purchased an ice cream maker from the 70's at a garage sale. I think we have used it like 3 times prior. This summer my daughters and I have a list of 100 things we want to do, and on it was making ice cream.  So we created a recipe with what we had in the house and went about making this frozen treat.

Needless to say I did not have enough ice or even rock salt as per the original instructions to my ice cream maker.  I did however have a bunch of frozen ice pops. So we attempted to use them to make the ice cream maker work.  I has to say they got so cold, when placed in the contraption with some water, that they formed new ice! I was thinking it was going to work! Talk about Impromptu!

I was wrong. I do not think it was the lack of coldness, but the fact the internal scraper thingy of the ice cream machine was not moving, which caused the ice cream not to form.  So, after listening to the insane noise the ice cream maker made for over 3 hours, with no ice cream forming, we opted to go to plan B.

We placed the mixture in a large Tupperware container and put it in the deep freezer. We stirred it each 30 - 45 minutes and had an awesome breakfast of homemade ice cream this morning for breakfast!

Ice Cream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
5 eggs
3 cups milk
1 TB vanilla

Whisk the 1st 4 ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook over medium low heat until thicken (about 10 min) stirring constantly.  Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the remaining ingredients. Once combined and cooled, add to your ice cream maker and follow the manufacuturers
instructions.  (Of course you can always do it the way we ended up doing it as well if needed.)

Next time I think we are going to try to create a Chocolate version or Strawberry with all the berry's we picked earlier this month.... so stay tuned!

Orzo Pasta Salad....

Summer is the time for impromptu gatherings and the need to quickly create a tasty dish to bring along. In searching my cupboard for just one of these occasions, I created the following dish. I did taste it when I made it and thought it was yummy, but due to some issues with my daughter, had to leave the gathering before I could fully enjoy the side dish. Needless to say, I was only returned an empty dish, since everyone else enjoyed it so much!


Orzo Pasta Salad
1 box orzo 
1 head broccoli cut into small pieces
2 cups chopped carrots
2 TBS minced fresh oregano
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 TBS mined fresh chives
3 TBS Olive oil
1/3 cup diced aged Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste.


Cook the orzo according to the package. Add the cut broccoli, carrots and oregano to the bottom of the pasta strainer and strain the cooked pasta directly over.  Cool the cobmination with running water and drain.
Mix the garlic, chives and olive oil. Toss with the pasta and the diced Parmesan cheese.
Serve.

My girlfriend attempted to recreate this recipe, and she opted to add in diced peppers and removed the oregano. It was delicious too.