That Old Basagna!

That old basagna!

When  my son, Micah, was about 3 or 4, he came upstairs one Sabbath to check out what was for Sabbath lunch. When he saw his mother extract a pan of lasagna from the oven, he stood there in the kitchen, put his hands on his hips and said, "Are we going to have that old basagna again?"

I really like lasagna and it's an easy Sabbath dinner or dish to take to potluck. Sheila made wonderful lasagna, but Micah, for some reason, didn't fancy it. Not sure why, but it didn't take long before Micah's opinion of "that old basagna" changed and it became one of his favorite Sabbath dishes.

I've done "basagna" before. This version is an easy one and quite good. Just a few changes in the ingredients. Here goes:

Ingredients

• Lasagna noodles
• Jar of spaghetti sauce (to avoid it being a little soupy, use a thicker style pasta sauce).
  
• Large carton of cottage cheese
• Can of sliced black olives
• Package of Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.

   

   It looks like this going into the oven!

2. Cook 9 lasagna noodles according to directions.
3. In a skillet cook Griller Crumbles in olive oil with onions and bell peppers.
4. Place 3 cooked noodles in the bottom of the casserole dish.
5. Spoon cottage cheese in an even layer over the noodles.
6. Spread Crumbles, onion, and peppers over cottage cheese.
7. Spread layer of spaghetti sauce next then a light layer of mozzarella.
8. Next add 3 more noodles and repeat the layers above.
9. Add 3 more noodles on top with the rest of the sauce and a nice thick layer of mozzarella.
10. Cook at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes until the sauce begins to bubble and the cheese is melted with brown spots on top as shown in the photo above. 

Serving Suggestions:

The first picture I posted was only a partial lasagna because we were so hungry that we ate half of it before I remembered to take a picture. Next time I shot the picture right out of the oven and replaced the half eaten one. This is really good with the Grillers Crumbles in it. Serve it with a nice big salad, some garlic bread and iced tea (decaf of course) and you have a really nice Italian meal. It's easy to prepare and keep overnight and reheat for potluck next day. Lasagna is really easy to make and always a hit at potlucks. It's flexible. You can get creative with ingredients if you want. You can use spinach instead of the Crumbles, or make it with several different kinds of cheeses instead. You can hardly go wrong with it. Make it any old time. it's wonderful stuff!

Tom

Mammaw's Cream Corn

You'll notice I prepared this in a Wok. It's not because you
need a Wok to make it. It's just that I've worn all the non-stick
surfaces off the other skillets and I was using the cast iron
skillet for other things at the time. I prefer the cast iron skillet.

This is a nice vegetable dish for potluck. It's easy to make, tasty and easy to multiply. All you have to do is to multiply the ingredients. I'm a creamed corn fan. I wasn't when all I'd ever eaten was the canned stuff.

This is Sheila's recipe. She got it from her Mammaw. Mammaw was a tiny little elderly woman when I first met her. She wore her hair in a three foot long Indian style braid which she kept coiled on top of her head like a little tidy bird nest. She was a lovely woman and welcomed me to the family with open arms. She had a way with food. Like me, she tended to use every dish and pot in the kitchen when cooking, unlike Sheila who can make a 5 course meal and put it on the table without leaving any sign she'd ever been cooking. Like Mammaw, when I get done making a bowl of soup from a can it looks like the aftermath of firefight conducted by a division of US Marines.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Can of whole kernel corn and a can of creamed corn or 8-10 ears of corn
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2-3 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk

Directions:

1. In skillet melt margarine
2. Add cream cheese
3. Sprinkle flour into the margarine until it begins thickening
4. Slowly add evaporated milk and salt. Allow to thicken and cream cheese to melt.
5. Pour in can of whole corn and a can of creamed corn. If you want it just like Mammaw's, use corn on the cob. You should scrape the whole corn kernels right off the cob with a good paring knife. Then you don't have to add any canned corn at all. 
6. Allow to thicken. 

Serving suggestions:

If you make it up on Friday for a Sabbath potluck, simply put it in Tupperware® and heat it up in a skillet or microwave just before lunch. The whole kernel corn gives creamed corn some body. It's an easy side dish to go with the usual assortment of lasagna, enchilada casseroles, salads and main dishes.  Enjoy.

© 2017 by Tom King

Kitchen-Aid Mixers - The Potluck Chef's Best Friend

The Mighty Kitchen-Aid Mixer!

If you do potluck cooking, you are frequently called upon to prepare food in mass quantities. You can do this, of course, with quite ordinary kitchen have a lot of time on Friday's to get something ready for the church potluck next day, then I'm here to tell you....

Industrial strength kitchen tools are essential!

The one I'm going to talk about today is the inimitable Kitchen-Aid mixer. Let me warn you they are NOT cheap. We inherited ours from a friend when she passed away or I would never have known the joys of having the mighty Kitchen-Aid in our stable of kitchen tools.

This powerful and versatile stand mixer allows you to prepare stuff in a hurry or to multi-task, something we all have had to do when getting ready to feed hungry visiting academy choir. Here are some things specific to potluck preparation the size and power of the Kitchen-Aid allows you to do.

1. Bread-making - You can go off and leave the dough hook kneading your while you peel potatoes and prepare the baking pan for your rolls or bread loaves.
2. Potatoes - Great for whipping up enormous batches of mashed potatoes or potato salad.
3. Cakes -  Homemade cakes and cobblers are easy to whip up with a stand mixer. Just toss all the ingredients into the mixing bowl and run with the batter attachment. You can do other stuff while the ingredients are mixed up.
4. Vege-Meat/Food Grinder - The Kitchen Aid has a power hub and a bunch of attachments including a meat grinder. If you've  made up some gluten "wheat meat" or just want to make burgers out of something else like choplets or vegetable steaks. Just run it through and you've got burger.
5. Cookies and biscuits - For heavier mixtures like cookie or biscuit dough, the batter attachment is a whole bunch easier for blending in shortening with flour and eggs and stuff of different consistencies. Makes a big bunch of biscuits or five or six dozen cookies.
6. Whipped cream and meringue - For stuff that needs to be whipped up or beaten for a lengthy period like pudding, a mixer like this is great. With the whipping attachment, you can go off and leave it whipping while you work on something else. Works great.
7. Pasta - There's a pasta-making attachment that lets you make all sorts of homemade pasta like
   
   spaghetti, egg noodles and lasagna noodles
8. Ice Cream Maker - You can even make homemade ice cream with the ice cream attachment. Saves all that hand cranking or using the more awkward electric version of the hand-cranker. Great for small group parties or you can make it up and freeze enough for a potluck.
9. Grain Mill - The grain mill attachment allows you to make flour from a variety of whole grains - oats, rice, soy, flax, almond, corn, and even dried coconut. Multi-grain bread is a lot of fun to experiment with and you can get all sorts of grains and nuts in the bulk foods section of many grocery stores.
10. Food Processor - There is even a food processor attachment for chopping up vegetables and stuff.  Saves you some room on your counter and the attachment hardware is one tough magilla, unlike so many stand-along food processors.  

 

If you've got work to do, this invaluable tool helps you cook faster and better. The Kitchen-Aid is the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner of kitchen tools. Man, you gotta get yourself one of these!

© 2017 by Tom King

Stuffed Peppers

Roasted a couple of ears of corn along with the peppers.

I was planning on doing something else this week, but on Friday I happened upon someone with a crate of very nice green Bell peppers they were giving away, so I accepted ten of them with a vague notion of chopping and freezing them or, perhaps, stuffing them. I found a plethora of recipes online, so I cobbled together my own vegetarian version and it came out rather well. It was a bit tomato-ish for Sheila, but her digestive system is a wreck, so pay no attention to her negativity.

The recipe requires the following:

Ingredients:  (Multiply as needed)

• Four (or multiples thereof) Bell Peppers (any color is okay)
• Salt (to taste - I just went with the salt I used to cook the rice)
• 5 Tbsp olive oil (it's virginity level is up to you)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 bag Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles or a can of vegeburger (LL, Worthington, etc.) 
• 1 1/2 cup of cooked rice (I made half brown/half white rice)
• 1 can chopped tomatoes, (drain liquid from the can)
• 1 tbsp oregano (chopped, powdered or dried - go lighter on the powdered)
• 1/2 cup Mozarella Cheese (optional)
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce
• Dash of Tabasco sauce (super optional)

Directions:

1. Cook the rice according to directions. Adding a dash of olive oil and red wine vinegar keeps it from being sticky. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Remove the tops and cut out the seedy bits of the Bell peppers. Steam them till they soften. You can put them in a steamer for 8-10 minutes or do as I did and bake them for 10 - 17 minutes to soften them.
3. Saute' the onions in a large skillet or electric skillet. Once they start to soften, add the Recipe Crumbles or vegeburger and brown lightly. 
4. Add the rice and chopped tomatoes to the mixture and stir in. Add the mozarella and let it melt into the rice/vegeburger mixture.
5. There are two ways to do the ketchup and Worcestershire Sauce. One is to mix it up in a bowl with a little bit of water (less than a quarter cup) and mix about half into the stuffing. The other is to wait and ladle it over the peppers after they are stuffed. I put half into the stuffing and saved the rest to put on top of the stuffed peppers.
6. Stuff the peppers with the vegeburger/rice mixture. Put a spoonful of the ketchup/Worcester/optional Tabasco mixture on top of the peppers. 
7. Place in casserole dish and bake 40-50 minutes till they look like the picture above.
   Serving Suggestions:
   
   Serve with another vegetable or salad and maybe some rolls. The peppers look a little wrinkly, but they taste good. You can play with the spices a little bit. Me, I'd have added a little Tabasco, but then I like the pepper flavor and a little heat with some dishes.
   
   If you have a late summer harvest of green peppers, you can make up multiple batches of the stuffing mix, core the peppers and make as many as you'd like to. It's kind of ambitious, but it's a nice single dish for a potluck. 
   
   
   © 2017 by Tom King
   
   
   
    

Hot Fudge Sauce

If you're throwing a homemade ice cream making party or a banana split party, this great hot fudge sauce recipe is perfect to top your ice cream treats with. My wife got the recipe from a lady in Louisiana name Opal Martin.  Great for sundaes, banana splits and almost anything you’d like to put warm hot chocolate fudge on.  It only takes about 5 minutes to make.  This recipe is why I keep a supply of cocoa in the pantry at all times (this and the chocolate skillet cake recipe). I like more of a milk chocolate fudge myself and sometimes add a few tablespoons of evaporated milk when I make it.  Either way is terrific. Saved me many a trip to the grocery store when the missus gets a craving for a hot fudge sundae.  I keep the leftover sauce in the fridge in some little fruit jars I keep for leftover fudge sauce, sweet and sour sauce, homemade tartar sauce or homemade pimento cheese.You can reheat the sauce for a few seconds in the microwave. It's just lovely stuff.

Ingredients:

•   1 cup sugar
•   1/3 cup cocoa
•   3 tbsp flour
•   1/3 tsp vanilla
•      ¼ tsp salt
•     1 cup boiling water
•     1 tbsp margarine

Directions: 

1.     Mix dry ingredients together in a saucepan

2.     Add boiling water while stirring

3.     Cook for 3-4 minutes stirring constantly.

4.     Store in covered jar in the refrigerator

Makes 1½  cups.

 Stores nicely in a mandarin orange fruit jar - just sayin'


(c) 2013 by Tom King

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Corn Casserole

This recipe is a variant of an original recipe by Paula Deen. You may not know it, but Paula was raised and trained in the art of cookery by her Adventist grandmother. You can tell Paula studied under an Adventist cook, given her liberal use of cream of mushroom soup in her casseroles. This variant of her classic broccoli casserole adds a couple of vegetables I needed to use up so I could get the rest of the groceries from our monthly shopping trip into the fridge. Came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

• 10 oz. chopped broccoli and cauliflower cooked and drained
• 1 tsp McKay's Chicken Seasoning
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• Small package frozen corn cooked and drained
• 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 2 cups crushed crackers
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 13 by 9 inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray
3. Combine broccoli, cauliflower and corn and mayo in a large mixing bowl.
4. Add cheese, soup and beaten eggs. Mix well with large metal spoon.
5. Place the mixture in the baking dish and top with crushed crackers.
6. Pour melted butter over the top of the crackers
7. Baked for 35 minutes or until set and browned.

Serving Directions:

Let the casserole brown good on top if you are serving it now.  Otherwise lightly brown if you are making it the day before to be reheated for potluck. This will allow it to brown fully just before serving.

Chocolate Skillet Cake

You'll notice a piece is missing. It's hard to get a picture
of a whole chocolate skillet cake. You go get the camera
and by the time you get back it looks like this.

Today's recipe is not low fat, sugar free or vegan. It goes a long way because it's kind of rich. You need an iron skillet to cook it properly. I make it pretty regularly, but it never lasts very long. It's a nice moist, crumbly single layer cake. Just leave it in the skillet and server it from there. This one you'll want to take to a potluck sometime for the dessert table. Just cut it in pretty small pieces. Like I said, it's kind of rich.

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• dash salt
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 3-4 tablespoons milk (as needed for consistency)
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt together and set aside.
2. In a 10-inch cast iron skillet, bring the butter, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, and water to a boil. Remove it from the heat and whisk in the dry ingredients well. Mix in the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. Bake in the skillet cake at 350 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
3. While the cake starts to cool, make the frosting. In a medium saucepan, bring the butter, cocoa, and milk to a boil. Remove them from heat and add the sugar, nuts, and vanilla to the hot frosting mix. Stir to combine. Pour over the warm cake, spread with a spatula, and serve with vanilla bean ice cream, caramel sauce or whipped cream.

Serving suggestions:

• Ice cream
• Caramel sauce (this one is delicious!)
• Whipped cream

Note: 

If you let the frosting boil a bit longer,
when it cools it's like a stiff Hershey bar top.

If you bring the frosting to a rolling boil it will give you a frosting the consistency of a chocolate candy bar as shown to the right. Man, that's just the literal frosting on the cake. Like I said I'm not a big cake fan nor much overwhelmed by chocolate, but this stuff is like catnip for people around our house. I made it yesterday. There are only two of us. I'm a diabetic and can't eat this and there's almost 2/3 of it gone today. I'm taking extra Glipizide. And before you say it, I know. I was weak!

It's as good as it looks. It's kind of a cross between chocolate cake and a frosted brownie.

Tom