Italian Meat Loaf & Mexican Meatball Soup for One or Two People

These recipes make for 2 dinners for two with maybe some leftover lunch or 2 dinners for one with 2 lunches (I love leftovers for one lunch, just not any more than that) or you can freeze half of each of them and thaw them out when you don’t want to cook. You can make one recipe one night and the other the next without worrying about anything going bad on you. I like using the Ro-Tel canned tomatoes with chilies and onions because I get 3 flavors out of one can. This way you use a pound of ground beef since it usually comes packaged in a pound and a can of tomatoes and chilies and get several meals without having more ingredients than you can use. 

Italian Meatloaf

1/2 pound ground beef

1 egg

1 ½ slices fresh bread crumbs

½ can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chilies

Small can chopped black olives

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Turn the mixture into a loaf pan. Bake about 30 to 45 minutes until the top is a rich brown color and no red juice runs out when pricked in the center

Mexican Meatball Soup

1/2 pound ground beef

1 egg

½ slice fresh bread crumbs

1/3 cup corn meal

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chilies

1 can beef broth

1 teaspoon chili powder

Crispy tortilla bits

Mix ground beef with egg, bread, corn meal, salt, pepper and cumin and form into small meatballs. In a saucepan add the half can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chilies, beef broth and chili powder and bring to a simmer. Add the meatballs and cook for about 30 minutes. I like to serve this soup with some crisp tortillas or tortilla chips crunched on top. 

Scallops with Mushrooms, Parmesan & Garlic

I developed this recipe for a bachelor friend of mine who loves Coquille St. Jacques but he wanted something simple to prepare that he couldn’t ruin so I came up with this version of the dish. It has all of the classic flavors and is very simple to prepare. I like the hot Spanish paprika but you can use regular paprika if you don’t like the hot.

2 tablespoons butter

½ pound mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons green onions, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves minced garlic

1 pound bay scallops

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon hot paprika

½ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons flour

2 ounces brandy

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup half-and-half

1 cup Gruyere or Parmesan cheese, grated

 Melt butter in a skillet and add mushrooms and cook until them until the mushrooms have released their liquid and it has evaporated, about 5 minutes, and then add the green onions and after a minute pour the mushrooms and onions onto a plate, there should be virtually no liquid remaining. Add the olive oil to the pan and season the scallops with salt, pepper and paprika and when the oil is hot add the scallops along with the garlic  and cook for a few minutes on each side. Place them on the same plate as the mushrooms. Add the brandy and lemon juice and reduce for a couple minutes and then sprinkle the flour over the liquid and whisk it into the oil and juices so that the sauce thickens but incorporates the flour with no lumps. Add half and half and cheese and simmer while stirring constantly, remove from heat when sauce thickens. Add the mushrooms and scallops back to the pan.  Pour over fresh cooked pasta right now. If you want the more traditional dish you can sprinkle a half of a cup of bread crumbs over the top and put under the broiler for about five minutes, until the bread crumbs become brown and crispy.

Servings: 4

The Esoteric Cookbook is Just For Me!

I have spent three months writing a cookbook for myself, my family and friends and it has been fun “having” to make all of my recipes to make sure I have them written down right so other people can make them. I have the habit, as most good cooks do, of making it up as I go along or changing things up because I grew up developing my palette in the art of being able to taste recipes as I read them. So frequently I read a recipe and I know before I cook it that it needs to be changed but most of the people who ask for my recipes want them written down exactly as they should be made because if they could do what I do they wouldn’t have asked for the recipe. So it was important that the recipes be written exactly like they needed to be cooked to taste like the dish the person cooking is expecting. So I “had” to write the recipe and print it out and make like I didn’t know how to cook it and then I “had” to serve the finished dish to friends and myself to make sure it tasted like it was supposed to taste. I did have to amend several of the recipes I had written because of how much I had adlibbed changes in them over the 40 years I have been cooking. The main reason I wanted to do this cookbook is that I have so many cookbooks, loose recipes cut out of newspapers and magazines as well as a large card file with hand written and typed recipes (back in the days when we didn’t have personal computers) that I needed to consolidate the clutter and get rid of the thousands of recipes that I am never going to cook. I went through every cookbook, and there was about 40 of them, and went to the dog eared and bookmarked recipe of two that I at least sort followed at one time so I could pare my cookbook collection down to just a few sentimental favorites like the Doubleday Cookbook my mother gave me when I moved into my first place away from home. It is still to this day the only all around cookbook that I like, every recipe in it that I have tried is good and pretty much every standard recipe no matter what the cuisine is in it. I don’t recall any of the recipes that I have tried from it ever not tasting or working like it was supposed to. Another one of my favorite ones is not exactly a cookbook, though it has a lot of recipes in it, and it is called “The Von Welanetz Guide to Ethnic Ingredients” and my mother gave it to me as well. She gave to me for Christmas in 1988 according to the inscription she wrote in it. I loved cooking with all the spices in the world and had started exploring the cuisines of other countries and I asked for a book that would give me information on what people in other countries cook and eat and what spices they use and that exactly what this book tells you. I liked it because since I already didn’t really follow recipes it was perfect because to cook a cuisine you just need to know what kinds of ingredients and spices are available that is how to create the authenticity of the country whose food you are trying to find out about. I went through the hundreds of loose recipes and threw out all but the ones I had already tried because if I haven’t used them after having them for over 10 years chances are I never will and I really am trying to get rid of most of the things I have been collecting so long that are just taking up space and getting dusty. I wanted my cookbook to have my most favorite recipes, in their altered states if they came from a printed one, in one cookbook to last me into my senile years (joke I hope) when I can no longer remember what I am doing.  A lot of recipes that I have altered are a conglomeration of several recipes I used to look up in several of my cookbooks and that I would make one  recipe that contained the elements I like from the other ones and I also frequently add ingredients that I think should have been included in the recipe. My carrot cake started out that way, I found a recipe in an old “New York Times” cookbook for something called carrot bread that had wonderful ingredients but it wasn’t a cake so I took a simple carrot cake recipe and loaded it up with every single ingredient I had ever had in a carrot cake. Then I started making doubled amounts of the cream cheese frosting and I added some orange extract one time and lemon another time and then I got so many rave reviews over those that I started putting some of each of them in the frosting every time and I can’t tell you how times I got asked for the recipe. My fried chicken started out like my mother taught me, salt and pepper, shaken with flour and fried on one side with the lid on it, flipped over and fried on the other side with the lid off so the skin gets crispy. Take it out and set it on paper towels while you make the gravy. It was good but I liked the spices they used to use on Kentucky Fried but it was way too greasy so I started making my own secret spice recipe, actually it wasn’t a secret I just opened the cupboard and added a bit of every spice I thought would go together with chicken and eventually came up with a combination of 13 that everyone really liked and asked me what they were. I also like to keep some bacon grease around to use with oil to fry the chicken it, you really can tell in the flavor as well as it seems to get crispier I think and if it isn’t crispier it sure tastes great! I decided to call my cookbook the Esoteric Cookbook since it is made of the recipes that mean the most to my taste buds or if I was stuck on a deserted island I could be happy if these were all the foods I would ever get to eat. I included 350 recipes and that should be enough to last me the rest of my life along with all of the things I never use a recipe for. I have posted 66 of them here, I only got feedback that I screwed one of them up – I didn’t copy the instructions for some cookies I posted early and someone wanted to cook them but all there was listed were the ingredients. It actually turned out it was a problem with the software I bought to help me organize the recipes and it had not saved the instructions for several recipes but fortunately because of my posting the cookie recipe I got to fix the program before I got too many recipes typed in that weren’t getting saved so I didn’t have to reenter very many of them. I have really had fun going through the recipes but I had to make sure and eat before I did because reading all those recipes and imagining how they tasted sure did make me hungry! I wonder if you can gain weight eating food in your mind? I sure hope not.

3 hour fried chicken with Tyler Florence on GMA, really, why?

I was watching Good Morning America and saw the strangest method for making fried chicken that I have ever seen. I am not going to try it so I can’t say if it is any good or not but since I have had almost all of my friends rave about my fried chicken and call me for the recipe I see no reason to try a recipe that takes 4 times longer than mine and is way messier. The secret to me to perfect fried chicken is a very spicy and crispy skin, it can be done quite simply which is sort of the key to the perfection of it. I use about 13 spices on the chicken before I dust it with only flour and I put it in hot oil and cook on one side without turning it with the lid on it for 20 minutes and then take the lid off and leave it off so that when I turn the chicken over it will get crispy while the second side cooks. It is quick, easy and foolproof. No messy dredging it in buttermilk, which adds more calories and isn’t needed if you use the right spices and make sure the oil is hot when you put the chicken in it. The recipe the guy on GMA cooked called for you to precook the chicken for 2 and a half hours before you dip it in a buttermilk batter and then fry it. Yes you only fry it for 6 minutes but why? You get the same amount of calories in 6 minutes as you do in 40 and you had to heat your whole house up for 2 hours while you unnecessarily baked the chicken to cook it before frying it. Isn’t it kind of silly to make twice cooked cooked chicken? Besides that why would I want to spend 3 hours cooking fried chicken when from start to finish mine only takes an hour and everyone I know thinks it is perfect? I don’t get it I guess. If you ever try this recipe please let me know if it is better than my method which is a lot of people’s method!

Chili & Cheese Souffle

1/2 pound jack cheese, grated

1 pound pepper jack cheese, grated

1 pound cheddar cheese, grated

2 cans green chilies, diced

1 tablespoon minced chipotle chilies

¼ cup diced onions

4 eggs, separated

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 can chopped black olives

Preheat oven to 325. In a buttered 2 quart casserole dish spread cheeses, chilies and onions. In a bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. In another bowl mix together egg yolks, milk, flour, salt, pepper and olives. Fold in egg whites and pour this mixture on top of the cheeses and chilies. Gently mix this together with a fork and bake for about an hour, or until soufflé is set and a knife inserted comes out clean. Serve with salsa and sour cream on the side.

Curried Seafood Soup

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon peanut oil

¾ cup minced onions

3 cloves minced garlic

1/3 cup shredded carrots

¼ cup diced Anaheim chilies

1/3 cup diced red bell peppers

4 tablespoons flour

6 cups chicken broth

¾ pound bay scallops

¾ pound small shrimp, peeled

¾ pound mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons curry powder

¼ cup lemon juice

½ cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon red chili oil

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

2 tablespoons minced green onions

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

In a soup kettle heat sesame and peanut oil and sauté onions, garlic, carrots, chilies and peppers for about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and when oil has absorbed the flour add the chicken stock and heat up over medium high heat until stock starts to simmer. Add scallops, shrimp and mushrooms to stock and reduce heat to medium and all the spices and the lemon juice and coconut milk. Continue cooking the soup on medium heat for another 10 minutes. When ready to serve the soup drop the chili oil on top and sprinkle the cilantro, green onions and sesame seeds on top.

Lamb Ragout with Hungarian Noodles

1 pound boneless lamb

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup onions, diced

½ cup carrots, diced

½ cup celery, diced

2 cups stock

½ cup red wine

¼ cup tomato purée

½ teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons minced parsley

In a skillet, melt the butter over a medium high heat add onions, carrots, celery and garlic and sauté about 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside and add the boneless lamb cut into bite size pieces seasoned with the salt, paprika and pepper. Cook the lamb for about 10 minutes until it starts to brown and then pour the vegetables back in the pan. Don’t let this get too browned. Sir in the flour and mix it well and then add the stock and stir until the sauce thickens. Lower the heat and add red wine, tomato purée and thyme. Simmer for about 45 minutes or until the lamb is tender and the stew has become rich and thick, stir frequently to make sure the sauce doesn't burn. Serve with the freshly made noodles and top with sour cream mixed with ½ cup of the lamb gravy and parsley on top.

Hungarian Noodles

2 eggs

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

4 quarts water

2 teaspoons salt

Using an electric mixer and blend the eggs, oil, water, milk, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the baking powder together. Mix well and set aside while you bring 4 quarts of water with 2 teaspoons salt to a boil. Using a spaetzle maker (readily available at any cooking store or online - amazon has one for $10 that is what I use) squeeze the dough into the boiling water. You can use a flat cheese grater if you don’t want to buy a spaetzle maker and slowly pour the dough over it and scrape it through the holes into the boiling water. When the dumplings float to the surface they are done.

Fresh Tomato Sauce with Prosciutto

4 slices bacon

1/4 pound Italian Sausage

1/4 pound ground pork

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves minced garlic

1 cup onion chopped

1/4 cup carrots, diced

1/4 cup celery, diced

8 large tomatoes peeled, seeded and diced

1 cup broth

1/2 cup red wine

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon basil

1/4 teaspoon rosemary

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced, diced in 1/2-inch pieces

1 package fresh pasta

Cook bacon in a frying pan until it becomes slightly crispy and set the bacon aside. Add the Sausage and cook it until most of the grease is rendered and remove and set aside. Cook the ground pork in the pork grease until nicely browned and remove. Discard the fat from the pan, do not wash the pan. Add olive oil to the pan and heat over medium heat and add the garlic, onions, carrots and celery and cook about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes and then add the broth, wine, salt, oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, vinegar, and sugar. Simmer this until the sauce is reduced by a third to half, depending on how juicy the tomatoes are. Add the sausage and ground pork when the sauce is the proper consistency, cook about 10 more minutes and add the prosciutto and simmer on low heat while you prepare the fresh pasta. Taste the sauce and add more salt, vinegar or sugar if needed. Serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese and crumble the bacon over the top of the sauce just before serving.

Servings: 6

Spicy Shrimp with Feta and Herbed Rice

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 red Anaheim chili peppers, diced

1/3 cup green pepper, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1/3 cup Greek olives, halved with stones removed

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup vegetable broth

2 tablespoons ouzo or other unsweetened anise-flavored liqueur

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined

1 cup rice

1 cup water

½ cup broth

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

4-ounces feta cheese

Heat cup of water, ½ cup of broth with rice and salt and cook for about 40 minutes over medium low heat. Stir in fresh parsley and dill when rice is done.  

While rice is cooking, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and add onions, garlic and chili peppers and green peppers and cook, stirring often, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, olives, salt, paprika, oregano and pepper and cook for about 5 more minutes.  Add wine, broth, ouzo and cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often until liquid reduces by about a third. Reduce heat to medium and add shrimp to skillet. Cook shrimp for a few minutes on one side and then turn them over and then crumble the feta over the shrimp and simmer until shrimp are cooked through and feta is warm, or about 4 minutes longer. Remove the skillet from heat and serve with herbed rice. 

Chicken Kiev Meatballs with Broccoli Pasta

Kiev Butter

1/2 cup butter

1 clove finely minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon Tabasco

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons finely minced parsley

Soften butter in a microwave on defrost until very soft and mix all the rest of the ingredients. Allow butter to set back up and the flavors to blend before using, about 2 hours. Cut the butter into 12 pieces when it is set up.

Meatballs

1 pound ground chicken

¼ cup milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 slice fresh bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup minced onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together and make into 12 portions. Place each portion on a piece of waxed paper and flatten it out into a circular shape, large enough to fully wrap up one of the pieces of butter. Place the butter in the middle of the circle and wrap the ground meat around it and pinch it together. Place them in a glass baking dish. Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Bake until meatballs are just cooked through, about 20 minutes. It’s alright if they leak a little.

Pasta with Broccoli

8 ounce package of fresh pasta

½ pound broccoli florets

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper

Cook the pasta while the meatballs are baking. Sauté the broccoli in the olive oil until almost tender and cover with lid and let it sit while the pasta is cooking. When the pasta is ready mix it with the broccoli and olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Kiev Meatballs with Broccoli Pasta

½ cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Place the broccoli and pasta on a platter and remove the meatballs from the baking dish and place them on top. Sprinkle Parmesan or Romano over the top along with some fresh parsley.

Fresh Fish Loaf on Spinach with Hollandaise & Roasted Red Potatoes

Serve this with roasted red potatoes cooked in the oven with the fish loaf.  Start the sauce about 10 minutes before the fish and potatoes are done.

4 (8-ounce) salmon, tuna, tilapia or any other fish, filets

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup minced green bell pepper

1/4 cup minced celery

1/4 cup grated carrots

3 eggs

3 slices soft bread crumbs

1/4 cup minced green onions

1 tablespoon minced parsley

1 tablespoon minced dill

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon red pepper sauce of your choice

1 package fresh spinach leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

8 small red potatoes

2 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce

1 cup melted butter

1. Melt butter in a skillet and add green peppers, celery, and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes and remove from pan and place in a mixing bowl. Add fish filets to the butter and cook them on both sides for about 5 to 10 minutes until just done. Add the fish to the mixing bowl also and add the remaining ingredients up to the spinach leaves. Mix together and place in a loaf pan and bake for 30 to 45 minutes at 350.

2. After placing the fish loaf in the oven take the red potatoes and slice them in half. Brush the open side with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper and then place open side down on a baking sheet and brush the other side with another tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and teaspoon of paprika and place in the oven to bake with the fish loaf.

3. About 20 minutes after starting to bake the fish loaf place tablespoon of olive oil in skillet and add garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes and then add the spinach leaves and stir to coat with the olive oil and garlic for about 5 minutes and then cover the pan and turn off the heat. Allow the spinach to sit for about 10 minutes while preparing the hollandaise sauce.

4. Blender Hollandaise: Blend 4 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon hot sauce in a blender at high speed for about a minute, then uncover and continue to blend at high speed and slowly add 1 cup of hot melted butter a few drops at a time. When the mixture starts to thicken add the butter in a slow stream. Continue blending until sauce is smooth.

5. To serve: Place the spinach on a platter and carefully place fish loaf on top and place the roasted potatoes all around the outside of the spinach on the platter and drizzle the Hollandaise sauce over the fish and spinach.

Servings: 8

Dill Salmon Patties with Herb Mayonnaise

2 cans (16 oz) salmon
1 cup  soft bread crumbs
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup  minced green onions
1/4 cup minced green bell pepper
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 tablespoon minced dill
2 eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco, regular, jalapeno or smoky chipotle
1/2 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup cracker crumbs
1/4 cup  butter
1/4 cup  oil

1. Mix all ingredients together except for cracker crumbs, butter and oil, and form into about 10 to 12 patties. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter and oil and dredge half of the salmon patties in cracker crumbs and sauté them on both sides until lightly browned, remove and repeat with the second batch. Serve with herbed mayonnaise.

2. Herb Mayonnaise: Place ¼ cup green onions, ¼ cup parsley and ¼ cup dill in the blender. Add 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar and ½ tablespoon lemon juice and blend until the herbs are very fine. Add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon paprika and an egg yolk. Blend until well mixed and then while blender is running add ½ cup olive oil and blend until mixture is thick and creamy.

Servings: 8

Lamb Shanks in Yogurt Gravy

There is no bad way to have a lamb shank, the Basque restaurants I have had them at pretty much use only salt and pepper and roast them in their own juices until they are tender and the natural flavor of the lamb is marvelous. My favorite way to cook them though is to brown them and cook them in with a lot of spices in a slow cooker and then serve them on a bed of rice with the savory juices on top that are thickened and mixed with yogurt.

4 lamb shanks (about 1 1/4 pounds each)

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon salt

1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup dry red wine

2 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup plain yogurt

4 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ cup water

In a skillet (if you are using a slow cooker) or in a Dutch oven or a soup kettle, heat up the olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic, remove them and sprinkle the lamb shanks with salt and pepper and brown them in the olive oil.
A: If you are using a slow cooker place the lamb shanks, onions and garlic in it. Add the chicken stock to the skillet and scrape up the pan drippings and pour into the slow cooker and add all the rest of the ingredients except for the yogurt, cornstarch and water and cook for an hour, or until the meat is falling off the bone.
When lamb is done remove it from the cooker and using a gravy separator remove most of the fat. Then mix the cornstarch with the water and stir this into the juices in the cooker and heat this up until the sauce thickens and stir in the yogurt. Pour over the lamb shanks on a bed of rice, polenta or couscous.
B: If you are using a Dutch oven or soup pot just add the onions and garlic back to the pot after you remove them to brown the lamb shanks and then add the chicken stock along with the rest of the ingredients except for the yogurt, corn starch and water and simmer over medium low heat for an hour to an hour and a half. When lamb is done remove it from the pot and using a gravy separator remove most of the fat. Then mix the cornstarch with the water and stir this into the juices in the cooker and heat this up until the sauce thickens and stir in the yogurt. Pour over the lamb shanks on a bed of rice, polenta or couscous. 

Savory Stuffed Turkey Roll

I have made several variations of this recipe to serve as a party appetizer such as using ground pork seasoned with Cajun spices instead of ground turkey and stuffing them with Andouille and Tasso and pepper jack cheese. I have also been known to serve one of the 3 loaves this recipe makes hot out of the oven as a fancy meatloaf dinner and save the other 2 for a party. When they are chilled they slice up to make a very nice looking presentation with the green chilies, yellow cheese and black olive stuffing.

2 slices fresh bread crumbs

2 eggs

1/2 cup taco sauce

2 tablespoons minced onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

2 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

2 cloves minced garlic

1 pound pork sausage

1 pound ground turkey

2 cans whole green chilies (4 ounces each)

1 can sliced black olives, drained

1. Whisk eggs together in a large bowl, add the bread, taco sauce, onion, salt, oregano, chili powder, cumin, 1 cup of the cheese, garlic, sausage and turkey and mix together well. Divide the meat mixture into thirds and place them on 3 pieces of foil.

 2. Shape each meat log into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Split the chilies and discard the seeds. Arrange 1/3 of the chilies in the center of each of the three meat rectangles. Sprinkle each with 1/3 of the cheese and olives. Roll the meat mixture around the chili, cheese and olive stuffing to form an oblong and pinch all of the ends of the meat together to enclose the filling.

 3. Place all 3 of the meat stuffed rolls on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, or until meat is thoroughly cooked.

 4. Remove from oven and cool before serving. Can be frozen for up to 2 weeks and thawed the night before serving.

 5. Slice the stuffed rolls and serve with cocktail size loaves of bread or sliced baguettes of your favorite bread.

Mushroom Steaks with Green Peppercorn Butter

This dish is good with venison or veal as well as beef.

8 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons green peppercorns

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic minced

8 ounces mushrooms sliced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

6 steaks, 6 – 8 ounces each

1/2 cup red wine

Soften 6 tablespoons of the butter and mash in the green peppercorns. Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan and add the olive oil and garlic. Next add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and sauté over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Remove mushrooms. Season the meat with salt and pepper and cook steaks about 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked the desired amount. Remove the steaks and place on a platter. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and pour over the steaks. Then spread the mushrooms over the meat and top each steak with equal portions of the green peppercorn butter.

Servings: 6

Basque Pepper Steak

I was served something like this at a  French Basque restaurant in San Francisco and it was so good I had to recreate it since I live 900 miles from San Francisco.

4 beef filet mignon steaks - (4 oz ea)
2 tablespoons coarse ground pepper
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon brandy
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon minced sun dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes


1. Cover both sides of the meat with pepper and salt, dividing the amount evenly for both sides of all 4 steaks and lightly pound the spices into the meat. Heat olive oil and butter in a pan and quickly sauté the garlic and remove from pan. Add meat and cook on both sides about 5 to 10 minutes until medium rare. Transfer to a hot platter and add wine and brandy to deglaze pan and then add back garlic and stir in cream, sun dried tomatoes and season with paprika and red pepper. Heat through and when the sauce is the proper consistency pour over steaks and serve.

Servings: 4

Joe’s Special Burger

This recipe was inspired by a dish that my favorite, and unfortunately out of business, Italian restaurant used to make. My roommate didn't like the original dish of Italian spiced scrambled eggs and beef so in order to get the same flavors in a meal he would eat I turned it into a burger, he didn't like cooked spinach but he liked raw spinach so I made it work. There are several layers of flavor in this recipe: on the top and bottom is a good crusty French bread cut into slices which has homemade garlic mayonnaise on it, a high quality ground beef hamburger and a mushroom and Parmesan cheese omelet layer with onion slices and fresh spinach leaves. This has all of the ingredients from the original Italian ground beef scramble recipe (that I really like still) in a form that even a picky eater can’t resist, and because of the way this burger is layered if someone doesn't like a layer they can leave it off.

1 pound  ground beef
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 pound  mushrooms sliced
1/2 cup  Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
3 eggs , lightly beaten
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cloves  garlic
1 onion sliced
1 bunch Fresh spinach leaves
1 loaf French bread

1. Make Garlic Mayonnaise. Cut a thick crusty loaf of French bread into burger sized slices. Cut up whatever kind of onion you like into slices. Melt ½ tablespoon butter and cook mushrooms, remove and drain liquid from pan. Mix the mushrooms into the 3 eggs and add the white from the 4th egg along with 1 teaspoon salt, the nutmeg, ½ teaspoon pepper, the oregano and the parmesan. Add the rest of the butter to the pan and pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until it is set and remove it and cut it into 4 pieces. Form the beef into patties and cook them your favorite way. Assemble the burgers and enjoy.

2. Garlic Mayonnaise: Peel and chop garlic and place in a blender with the egg yolk, vinegar and ½ teaspoon salt. Blend together and with the blender running very slowly pour in the oil. Process this for a few minutes or until thick and creamy.

Servings: 4

ALBACORE IN OLIVE OIL WITH CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

My father had a fishing boat at the coast ever since I was in grade school so we ate a lot of seafood and home canned tuna and salmon. You cannot buy canned tuna from a grocery store that comes anywhere close in flavor to home canned tuna, and last year I worked what we pay to can our own since my father is now 80 and doesn’t have a boat any more I buy it at the coast from a fisherman or from the local fisherman’s market and after buying the tuna and the olive oil that we like to can it in it still comes out to almost the same cost as the canned albacore at the store costs and is 10 times better, in fact I can’t hardly eat store canned tuna any more. It isn’t that difficult to can, and canning is not my bag, but it is so good that I guarantee you won’t want to eat store tuna any more either once you try it. If you do I recommend the method of baking the tuna in the oven before canning it in olive oil as it keeps a lot more of the flavor than I you pack in the jars raw even if you do can it in olive oil. The tuna in olive oil is an instant snack right out of the jar. I was first introduced to this when I went to Spain a very long time ago. They would just open up a can of tuna and crumble up the meat and mix it into the olive oil, spread it on fresh crusty little slices of French bread and dip it in a little more olive oil for a quick lunch with a glass of wine and a bowl of green olives. Yumm! This recipe makes 4 appetizer portions or 2 or 3 lunches.

TUNA TAPAS

16 ounces canned albacore tuna in olive oil, or a 16 ounce filet baked in the oven

4 slices of leafy green lettuce

Jar of Spanish Green Olives

Jar of roasted red (or Spanish pimento) peppers

Baguette type loaf of French bread

Olive oil

If you can’t find any high quality canned tuna just buy fresh albacore sprinkle it with salt and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees until it is done, and that will depend on the thickness of the fish, approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the tuna from the oven and let it cool down. Then gently break it into about 2 ounce pieces and place them in a bowl and cover them with olive oil for several hours or overnight. When you are ready to serve this place the pieces of tuna on the lettuce leaf on individual serving dishes, place some Spanish green olives on the side as well as a couple of pieces of roasted red pepper and drizzle the olive oil over them and serve each of your guests one of these plates along with the sliced French bread, serve the rest of the olives and peppers in a bowl on the table and serve extra olive oil for guests to add as they like. I like to crumble the tuna up so it soaks up maximum oil and dice up the pepper to sprinkle on top. The tuna straight on top of the bread and eaten like an open faced sandwich is A ok also!

Blue Cheese Onion & Walnut Quiche in a Parmesan Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 cup butter cut into small pieces

5 tablespoons cold water

1/4 cup red onion, minced

1/4 cup green onions w/tops, sliced

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

2 ounces white cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup walnuts finely chopped

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Sift flour with garlic powder and stir in oregano and cheese. Add butter and cut it into the flour mixture with pastry cutter until it looks like small grains of rice. Make a hole in the middle of the flour butter mixture and pour 4 of the tablespoons of water into it and gradually stir and knead until dough holds together, adding an extra tablespoon of water if needed. Roll out two-thirds of the dough on a piece of waxed paper to form a circle large enough to cover the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into decorative shapes. Set aside.

2. After the crust is made chop up the onions and place them in the finished crust along with the two kinds of cheese and nuts. Whisk the eggs and add the cream and spices and pour this mixture into the crust. Place the cutout crust pieces on top of the filling in a decorative pattern. Bake this in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the filling is golden brown and puffy.

Clam & Shrimp Stew

 This is a very quick and simple recipe but it contains all of the flavors that should be in good chowder with the added goodness of shrimp!

10 1/2 ounces canned clams

1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and cleaned

1/2 cups diced carrot

2 cups diced raw potatoes

1/2 cup diced celery

4 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

1 cup cream

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Place the carrots, potatoes and celery in the chicken broth and simmer gently until all the vegetables are tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook a few minutes and then add the canned clams. Melt the butter in another pan and blend in the flour and then add the cream, salt and pepper and when the mixture is thickened add it to the vegetables and seafood and stir until well blended and serve. Garnish with minced parsley and sprinkle with paprika.

Servings: 8

Love On The Money

Love On The Money

I am writing a new book, the first I wrote I self-published on Amazon and it was mostly fiction and was called "The Will Of My Grandfather" and I finished and published it in April of this year.  If anyone is interested reading it and giving me a review of it let me know and I will send it to you. This is the description of the book: This is a story of family, relationships, friendship, love, fortune, misfortune and some lucky events. In other words it is a story about life and the living of it. A 35 year old man is in a position in his life where he needs to make a lot of changes and he has the good fortune to inherit a beautiful ranch from a grandfather, who he hasn't had any contact with since he was a teenager almost 20 years ago, in a small rural town. Along with the inheritance of the ranch comes the responsibility of helping out a 17 year old boy with Down syndrome, the boy has lived with his grandfather for his whole life but the grandson didn’t know the boy even existed, and taking on the responsibility of caring for the boy is a requirement of the will if he wants to inherit the property. There are some twists in the plot as the two main characters get to know each other and interact with the townspeople, who have a vested interest in the outcome of the relationship between the young man living at the ranch and the man who comes to care for him, literally and figuratively. The story is about the building of the relationship of these two main characters and also some startling discoveries unfold to the man about his family that he finds out that he didn't know a lot about them. There is also a contentious relationship between the two young men and the people of the town the ranch is located in.
My new book is going to be called "Love On The Money" and it is a true story and only the names have been changed to protect the guilty! Really! I might get sued by the guilty if I don't change their names.
A woman escapes a marriage and a conman attains a new girlfriend. It all ends with a white collar heist that involves the mafia, a couple going on the run, a house rigged to blow up and WITSEC. This woman needs to escape from a failed marriage and a conman needs a new girlfriend. This relationship ended in a big white collar heist with the mafia being involved, the woman and the man going on the run, house being rigged to blow up and the Federal Witness Protection Program. She is my sister and I have the articles from the newspaper that disappeared about the same time her youngest son was born that was fathered by the criminal along with him. Somewhat amazing to me is the local basketball star partner of his, whose sister was married to the mafia connection, is still doing business under the original name of the company.
 

Bacon & Horseradish Potatoes

1 pound red potatoes cut into chunks

6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoons horseradish

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons minced green onion

2 tablespoons  minced parsley

Cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes until done. While potatoes are cooking fry the bacon and mince the green onions and parsley. Drain the potatoes and mix them with the butter, horseradish, salt, pepper, sour cream and green onions. Top the potatoes with the parsley and crumbled bacon, reheat in oven or microwave before serving if needed.

Servings: 4

Things I Have Learned From Having My Blog!

I find it really interesting how so many people from so many countries around the world have so many similar interests. Like the recipes I post, they get viewed and liked by more people outside of the US than within it and I find that really cool. It means I share my love of the kinds of food I like with a really nice variety of people in the world and I think that is a “good thing” as Martha Stewart would say. I also post a lot about my beloved and weird animals, because they are normal and weird just like all the people I know and I get a great deal of interest about my pet postings as well as the food posts. It is nice to see that this is a world that is now in touch with each other due to the internet and that is pretty fantastic! Nice to meet you all!

THEY SAY IT IS NOT ALRIGHT TO HAVE A FAVORITE CHILD BUT IS IT ALRIGHT TO HAVE A FAVORITE PET?

I have several cats and two dogs but by far my favorite animal is my male wolf dog, he is a very large sweet beast and he is drop dead gorgeous! He is by far the most attentive to my moods and needs as when I am depressed he will always come up to me and be very sweet and affectionate. He is the most intuitive animal I have on how I am feeling as well as being the one who cares the most about how I am feeling. Some of the others know what my moods are but they don’t care, it is all about what they want and never mind what I want. Not all of them but of them are only into what they want, like feed me canned food or let me out! One of my cats is very close to his favorite feline friend and he seems to let her eat before he does, which I find an endearing trait even if it is not meant for me it is unselfish which is a nice quality to see “anyone” exhibit, animal or ??? Hunter is not a suck up or needy animal he just really likes being close to me, even if it is just laying next to me, I don’t necessarily have to pet him although he really loves for me to gently rub the insides of his ears – I always figured it was because it was something that he couldn’t possibly do for himself. I have two old cats, a male and a female that I have had since they were kittens and they are now 13 years old, that are exceptionally fond of each other and groom each other’s heads and ears a lot – those are two places it is very hard for a cat to do for themselves. I find it very sweet that they do this for each other and it always starts out sweet but one of them usually wants the other one to quit before the other one is willing to do that and they end their “sweet” grooming session fighting with each other. They do it so often that the two dogs are totally disinterested in the opportunity to screw with them while they are growling at each other when they used to find it a fascinating time to “screw” with the cats. They remind me of little kids. The two dogs also do “childish” things as well. The female is a chow hound, she will pretty much eat anything if it is human food, especially if I don’t want her to have it. The male pretty much is a carnivore, meat only or he is not interested. The female has all sorts of tricks that she does to try and get the male to leave any goodies to her. She will look at the door and start to bark like someone is there and then when he “bites” and goes to the door she swiftly eats anything that he left in his bowl and when he walks back and sees it is empty he just walks off, he is actually just fine with plain dog food. Yesterday I came them a small amount of leftover Chinese vegetables and rice and I put the females goodies in her bowls and I gave the male his on a plate. After he checked out his plate and started to eat his goodies the female had already scarfed hers down and as he started to eat she ran towards the bedroom like something exciting had just happened in there and as soon as the male ran towards the bedroom she stopped and ran to his plate and finished it. What a weasel she is! It is kind of funny. The male wolf dog is my favorite animal in the whole house, he is like having a quiet person around, he does weigh 130 pounds so I guess his physical presence is kind of similar to a human being..

Chicken & Artichoke Casserole

When I was working I was especially fond of recipes like this one. Come home from work and after first changing into sweats and a tee shirt open package of boneless and skinless chicken (white or dark or both) and place in a casserole dish with the rest of the quickly prepared ingredients you can sit and relax on the couch while this one dish meal cooks in less than a half an hour. Much better than any frozen food and just as quick as ordering a pizza!

8 pieces chicken, boneless and skinless

4 red potatoes, cut into chunks

1/2 cup chopped onions

1 1/2 cups green beans

1 jar artichoke hearts, chopped up with liquid

1 cup white wine

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon pepper

Place all ingredients in a casserole dish, cover and bake for about 15 minutes, remove foil and continue baking about 10 minutes longer or until chicken is tender and slightly browned.

Quick Chicken Mole

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup minced onion

2 cloves minced garlic

4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup blanched almonds

1/2 cup chicken broth

8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Heat oil in a frying pan and add onions and garlic and cook five minutes. Add chicken and brown on both sides for about 10 minutes and add almonds and cook for a few more minutes. Add broth, tomato sauce and spices and cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until chicken is tender. Or pour sauce and chicken into a baking dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Servings: 4

"A Whole Lotta Garlic" Chicken Casserole

I tried a recipe called 101 Clove Garlic Chicken I got from the internet a while ago and it had an award of being a recipe using the most garlic. I tried it once with the original amount of garlic cloves the way the recipe called for them to be cooked, unpeeled and let the diner suck out the sweet baked garlic but I have never been a fan of having to get my fingers greasy while dining unless tacos or fried chicken are being served so after making the recipe the way it was written (something I very seldom do as I can taste recipes in my head as I am reading them and I usually make some changes before cooking them) but this recipe was so simple I figured I would give the original recipe a try. It is tasty the way it is written but it is a little bit of work (and not that cheap) to prepare 101 cloves of garlic to place around the chicken breasts for cooking so I changed it the next time I cooked it. My preference is to peel the garlic cloves so I don't have to pick the juice soaked cloves up with my fingers to eat them and 101 cloves of garlic is unnecessary to achieve a very garlicky dish. I also like to serve a dish like this with some kind of starch to soak up the garlic chicken juice so I added rice to absorb the wonderful flavors of chicken and garlic and so I could eat this as a one dish meal I added carrots and broccoli to the mix. The original dish called for champagne but it doesn't have as much flavor a good chardonnay so I changed the wine as well. You can add or subtract garlic cloves, the amounts and kinds of vegetables as more is the merrier, the kind of liquid as you could also use beer or wine instead of the original champagne in the recipe and you could use couscous or any other starch you would like soaked in garlicky chicken broth and accompanied by colorful vegetable pieces. And yes Garlicky should be a word!

10 whole chicken breasts, halved, boned and skinned

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon pepper

30 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered

1 cup rice

1 cup onions, diced

1 1/2 cup carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

2 1/2 cups broccoli, trimmed and cut into pieces

2 cups white wine

Place chicken in a large casserole dish, I like to cut 5 of the half breast pieces into quarters so that someone can have a second helping of a quarter breast if they can’t eat another half of a breast. Sprinkle with salt, paprika and pepper and add the rice, onions, carrots, broccoli and garlic spread all around the chicken pieces. Pour wine over everything and cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. When the rice is tender the chicken will be done. Will serve about 15 people.

Lamb with Creamy Dill & Caper Sauce

This is the best ground lamb recipe I have ever had. I found it in a newspaper article about 25 or 30 years ago and I haven’t seen anything like it since then. It has been asked for it by my the friends I have cooked it for many times for the same reason, it is really freaking good! I only added a little more spices and a little more ground lamb from the original recipe, it had a Russian name that I believe stood for something along the lines of a meatloaf with sour cream sauce, which is a pretty good description! It is very pretty with the red paprika and the green dill.

1 pound ground lamb

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup finely minced onions

1 clove finely minced garlic

1/4 cup fine bread crumbs, dry

1 egg slightly beaten

1 tablespoon finely minced parsley

2 tablespoons finely chopped dill

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon thyme

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons capers

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups cooked noodles

1. Place lamb in a mixing bowl and set aside. Heat oil in a frying pan and add half of the onion and all of the garlic and cook until the onion is wilted. Add the onion and garlic to the lamb and then add the bread crumbs, egg, parsley, 1 tablespoon dill, salt and pepper. Shape the meat mixture into 8 small patties.

2. Heat butter in a large skillet and add the lamb patties and cook about 5 minutes on each side until done. Transfer the patties to a platter and keep heated while the sauce is finishing.

3. Add the remaining onion to the skillet the lamb was cooked in and stir until wilted. Add wine, broth, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika and all of the thyme. When the sauce starts to simmer add salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat and add the sour cream. Return the sauce to the heat and add the capers.

4. Pour the sauce over the lamb patties and sprinkle with the remaining dill and paprika.

Serve over the noodles.

Servings: 4