Tag Archives: adventures in making the recipe up

Crockpot “Baked” Potatoes

Posted on by
2

When I went up to Asheville for the Becoming Conference a couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to hear Jen Schmidt‘s talk on Ten Minute Dinners. I’ve been reading her blog for several years now, so most of the concepts were not new to me. But as she talked about feeding a group of thirty in a mountain cabin by setting up “assemble your own” bars for various foods, I found myself brainstorming, and I wrote in my notebook, “Baked potatoes in the crockpot?”

I got home and Googled it, and of course I was not the first to wonder if you could do this. Various sources told me to wrap the potatoes tightly in foil before placing them in the crockpot. Others told me to oil and salt the outsides of the potatoes and puncture them before cooking. Still others said to do nothing, not even poke them, that they would cook just fine.

My original plan was to do a few in foil and a few “naked” as an experiment, but, uh, we ran out of foil the night before I made these. So naked potatoes in the crockpot it was!

I rubbed the skins with some olive oil and kosher salt for flavor and popped those suckers in for the day:

I left them on low while I was at work and came home to cooked potatoes! A few caveats: the skins don’t get crispy, and the flesh is a little yellower than a normal baked potato. But don’t let those turn you off! They tasted great (and this is coming from the girl who doesn’t even like potatoes that much).

I had picked up a can of turkey chili at the grocery store, so our topping options were chili and cheese or broccoli, cheese, and yogurt (in place of sour cream).

Along with some cut up fruit, this was a warm and satisfying meal! This would be great for a crowd, because I think you could pile the potatoes into the crockpot with no dire effects. The potatoes produce a bit of moisture, so it’s almost like they’re steamed rather than baked. And you could go crazy with the toppings! Another one we had in our fridge that was tempting to me was some shredded chicken with cheese and barbecue sauce.

What would you put on your crockpot baked potatoes? Have you used your crockpot for anything new lately?

I’m linking up to the Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods at BeautyandBedlam.com!

tasty tuesday larger logo Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods: Encourage One Another

Olympic Ring Salad

Posted on by
4

On Sunday, Andy and I were invited over to a new friend’s place to watch the Olympics. She asked if I would bring a salad or some type of fruit/veggie side. I’ve spent so much time on Pinterest lately that of course I had to try and do something Olympics themed! I wanted it to be pretty quick and easy and not a dessert, so my options were somewhat limited. I went to the grocery store with only the colors of the rings written down and decided to just see what foods in those colors struck my fancy.

Here’s what I ended up with:

An Olympic rings salad!

The snap peas came in the salad kit I bought, and the red and yellow rings are bell peppers that I simply cored and then cut into rings. The black ring is made up of olives on toothpicks–that one was the most difficult, between getting them to stay on the toothpicks and then getting the straight toothpicks to somehow form a circle! The blue ring was a stretch. I thought blueberries would have been weird in a savory salad, so I used blue cheese. I know, I know, it’s more white than blue, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

I jostled it as I was getting it out of the fridge to take to your get-together, but luckily I had snapped this picture earlier! And I think it still got the point across. Simple, healthful, tasty, and fun.

Have you been watching the Olympics obsessively like I have? What food would you bring to an Olympics-themed event?

I’m linked up to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam’s
Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods!
Beauty and Bedlam

Baked Macaroni with Chicken and Mushrooms

Posted on by
1

I finally had another of my Adventures in Making the Recipe Up! Now that I use Pinterest so regularly, I’ve hardly had the need to be creative in the kitchen. But last week I found myself with a cast of ingredients on hand that were just screaming to be combined into something. Using this recipe from All Recipes as an inspiration, I created Baked Macaroni with Chicken and Mushrooms! While I doubt I’ll ever create this exact recipe again, it was a tasty, easy use of some ingredients that may have gone to waste otherwise.

It all started with this container of shredded chicken leftover from my attempt at Slowcooker Greek Chicken Pita Folds. They weren’t nearly as flavorful or fun as I had hoped, and they made a LOT of chicken!

I also had some remnants of a few types of tomato sauce,

and half a box of elbow macaroni.

I chopped up an onion, a clove of garlic, and some mushrooms

which I sauteed for a little bit while the macaroni cooked. Once they were softened, I added in the chicken and the tomato sauce, letting it all simmer together for a few minutes. Then I folded in the drained macaroni and some shredded cheddar cheese.

I transferred the whole shebang into a greased casserole dish and topped it with more cheese and bread crumbs. After 15 minutes in the oven at 350, voila!

This would be great with just about anything you have on hand–any short noodle, any meat or vegetable, any cheese. The original recipe called for diced fresh tomatoes, or I’m sure you could use a can if you had that around. Basically, it’s a blank slate! Shredded chicken is one of my favorite things to build a meal creation around, and this concoction did not disappoint.

Have you played around in the kitchen lately? How do you get creative with leftovers?

I’m linked up to the Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods!
tasty tuesday Easy Ribs Recipe (Contest & Giveaway) 

Steamed Cabbage

Posted on by
4

I know many of you may be wondering how I can categorize this post as Tasty Tuesday when it is about something as stereotypically reviled as steamed cabbage. It seems like the stuff of a Dickens novel. Trust me–A. thought the same thing the first time I asked him whether or not he liked cabbage. But stick with me! Cabbage is often on sale for SUPER cheap (i.e. the cabbage pictured in this post was purchased for a meager $0.50/lb at Kroger), and it can be a delicious, quick side dish.

First, cut your cabbage into little bits. I don’t know a great way to do this. This picture shows half a cabbage, which is all I use to feed A. and me. There is a pretty substantial core in the cabbage that you want to do your best to get out. Again, I am not great at this. Sometimes I just cut it all up and pick out the particularly sturdy bits as I transfer to the pan. I think the accepted method for de-coring is to make a diagonal cut on either side of the core after you’ve cut the cabbage in half. This removes a sort of triangular prism shaped piece that encompasses most of the core.

Once your cabbage is chopped (sliced? shredded? insert appropriate descriptor here), transfer it to a large skillet that has a lid. I add about a half cup of liquid for this amount of cabbage: 1/4 cup water and an additional 1/4 cup consisting of some combination of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Once it’s in the pan and all tossed to coat, you can add more of any ingredient to taste. This particular batch turned out a bit weak for my tastes, but it’s not rocket science. Just play around with combinations until you like it; I think mine is different every time!

Place the lid on the pan and turn burner to high. As the liquid comes to a boil, steam will build up inside the pan, and that’s what you want! Let it steam for about 6-8 minutes or until desired level of floppiness is reached. I try to be REALLY careful to catch it before it turns to mush because A. doesn’t like soft vegetables (he would eat them all raw if given the choice). I’ve played around with turning the heat down or even off while it steams, but I really think leaving it on high works the best. As I said earlier this particular batch wasn’t my best, because in addition to not being flavorful enough, it was a mite undercooked. But again, it’s not rocket science!

The cooked cabbage won’t look a whole lot different from the uncooked cabbage, so don’t be alarmed.

Give it another toss to make sure all the sauce is evenly distributed and then plate it up! Quick and easy.

Are there any foods you’re surprised to enjoy? What’s your favorite easy side dish?

I’m linked up on the Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods!
TastyTuesday200pix The Beginning of Ten Minute Dinners (Tasty Tuesday)

 

Adventures in Making the Recipe Up: Fettuccine Al-fakeo

Posted on by
3

Last week we had some leftover pork tenderloin and I decided to experiment with it. I made something like this once when A. was out of town, but I just tossed it with olive oil and cheese rather than trying to go all out and make a cream sauce. As you can see from the title, I call this “fettucine al-fakeo.” Get it? Like fettucine alfredo? Yeah. That could maybe use some work. But the recipe itself was mmm mmm good! So, without further ado:

I started with some mushrooms, which I sauteed in hot olive oil. Usually it’s good to do mushrooms first because they release a lot of water as they cook. I also sprinkled these with some miscellaneous herbs, including a bit of crushed red pepper flakes.

Next I added in the chopped up pork tenderloin. This was already cooked, but I wanted it to get a little crispy (sort of like pancetta? if you feel like stretching your imagination) and pick up some of the yummy flavors. Plus, it had a bread crumb coating which came off and mixed with the mushrooms, so it was win-win for both ingredients to spend a little time in the skillet. You could use any sort of leftover meat for this, or non-leftover meat, or more vegetables. HAVE FUN. GO CRAZY.

This is an utterly superfluous picture of the pot in which I boiled the fettuccine. However, this is an important step! Whatever pasta you’re using, make sure it gets cooked. You’ll need it very soon.

I set aside the mushrooms and pork and added some butter into the pan. I didn’t wash it; I just left all the delicious brown bits in there to become a part of the sauce.

Then I added some milk. I unhelpfully can’t tell you how much I added–I just eyeballed the consistency of the sauce. And I kept the milk handy, because the longer the sauce cooked, and especially when I added the pasta, it needed some thinning down.

With the help of a few tablespoons of flour and some vigorous stirring, the sauce starting looking something like this. Mmm, delicious brown bits.

I threw the cooked pasta into the pan with the sauce. (This is Ronzoni Garden Delight, which purportedly has a full serving of vegetables in every portion. Can’t hurt, right?) I added back in the mushrooms and pork I had set aside, tossed it all together, and grated some all-important parmesan cheese on top. These are the steps during which I splashed in a few more dollops of milk.

The final product looked a little something like this:

Yes, those are frozen peas that I cooked in the microwave. And some sort of Chilean wine that we got at Your Dekalb Farmers Market for $3.99. And yes, we were eating in front of the TV. Jeopardy provides for some great competitive bonding time. Don’t hate on any of the above statements.

All in all I’d say this “recipe” was a winner that I would try again. It wasn’t necessarily the consistency of alfredo sauce at all, but it was flavorful and yummy and made use of some things we had around the kitchen. There’s so much room to play with this and customize it…what spins might you want to put on this basic concept?

Linked up at Beauty and Bedlam in the Tasty Tuesday Parade of foods

TastyTuesday200pix Fathers Day Food Ideas