Recipe: Parmesan Penne Sausage Skillet

4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp chopped garlic
 1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced red onions

1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 cup penne pasta
2 Italian sausages (or 3 sausages if you wish)
1 roma tomato
1/2 pkg (30g-35g) chopped basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp sea salt

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese



In a skillet, add the olive oil, chopped garlic, sliced mushrooms, and red onions, and sautee.

While sauteeing, slice the sausages, and the roma tomato.

Then, add the stewed tomatoes, penne pasta, sliced sausages, roma tomato, basil, oregano and sea salt.

Use the empty can from the stewed tomatoes to add one can of water.

Stir. Cover. Simmer on medium heat for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the Parmesan cheese and serve

Recipe: Crockpot Creamed Corn

2 lb frozen corn
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups milk
2 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 stick butter
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp paprika

Cut the cream cheese into cubes, sliced the butter.

Place all of the ingredients into the crock pot. Stir. Stir occasionally while cooking.

Recipe: Summer Picnic Macaroni Salad

There's no doubt that this pleasing salad packs a delicious, creamy punch with its generous proportion of mayonnaise and sour cream; the creaminess is complemented by crunchy vegetables that make this salad very fresh.

Honestly, although this recipe is easy enough to make, it requires substantial time to cut up all of the ingredients. I usually expect to spend at least an hour in the kitchen.

Tip: Making this salad tends to dirty a lot of dishes, so empty out the dishwasher before you begin so you can put the empty bowls in immediately after use.

Ingredients:

3 cups large elbow macaroni

1/2 pound medium cheddar cheese, cubed into 1/2" cubes
1/2 pound colby jack cheese, cubed into 1/2" cubes

2/3 cup chopped red onion
1 cup carrots, cubed into 1/4" cubes
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup green onions
1 floret broccoli

8oz package diced ham, yields about 1 1/2 cups
1 2.25 oz can diced olives

1 tub sour cream
equal portion mayonnaise

1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Cook the noodles. It should take about ten minutes for them to cook to al dente.  Strain, run cold water over the noodles to stop the cooking, and refrigerate. I like to apply a little bit of olive oil or pan spray to keep the noodles from sticking together..

Cut all of the veggies and the cheese. The broccoli should be cut down to bite-sized morsels, too.

In a separate bowl, mix together all of the veggies, ham, cheese, and olives. Then,  combine this with the cooled noodles.

In another bowl, stir together the mayonnaise and the sour cream. Then, stir in the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

You are now ready to stir the mayo/sour cream mixture into the noodles.  I find that I get a better coating of all of the noodles by splitting the noodlss into two bowls, and then applying half of the wet mix to each.

Recipe: Parmesano Meatballs

Home-made meatballs are so much more satisfying than buying a bag of frozen meatballs in the grocery store. With this recipe, you can make enough meatballs for five meals, and stick 'em in the freezer. You'll be glad you did when you come home from work and pop 'em in the microwave. Combine these with a batch of my Hearty Italian Spaghetti Sauce recipe, and you'll have a delicious meal within minutes after arriving home from work.

Meatballs are just meatballs, but these meatballs are filled with Parmesan cheese, too! Everything is better with cheese, right? The cheese oozes out of the meatballs when you bake them, and again when you reheat them after freezing them! They're not low in calories, but boy are they ever tasty!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground Italian sausage
4 medium eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs *
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp chopped garlic

* I usually use Italian style bread crumbs, but regular bread crumbs are fine

Before you get started, turn on the oven and set it at 325°F. This will allow the oven to heat up while you're mixing the ingredients and making the meatballs. It'll probably be ready right about the time you'll need it.

Place the ground beef and the Italian sausage into a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, knead the meat to mix it together. (I use disposable plastic gloves that I bought at a restaurant supply store, so I don't end up with meat sticking to my hands.). Work the meat so that you get an even mix of the two meats throughout the mixture.

Crack the eggs and add them to the meat mixture along with all of the remaining ingredients (the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt, oregano, and garlic). Knead the mixture again to ensure that all of these ingredients are thoroughly spread throughout. You wouldn't want all of the garlic to be in only one or two meatballs!

Once the mixture is mixed to your satisfaction, it's time to make the meatballs...

Tear off some of the meat mixture and begin rolling it between your palms. (Again, I use disposable plastic gloves.) The objective is to end up with a meatball which is about the size of a golf ball. If you grabbed too much meat mixture, throw some back into the bowl; if you didn't grab enough, get some more! As you make more of these, you'll get better at grabbing the correct amount of meat on the first try. If you have a good kitchen scale, you can weigh out 50g (which is about 1 3/4 ounces), but I usually don't weight them. 

Place each of the completed golf ball-sized meatballs on to a baking tray. You can use a flat cookie sheet, but it's better to have a tray with edges because some grease will cook out of the meatballs and you don't want that grease to drip all over your oven. 

You should have about 24-28 meatballs when you've finished.

Place the tray into your pre-heated oven and cook for about 25-27 minutes.  Watch them carefully as the end of time approaches - you don't want to end up with dry meatballs!

After cooking is completed, allow them to cool and then divide them into meal-sized portions for freezing.  I use quart-sized freezer bags and place five meatballs in each bag. You can freeze whatever quantity you'll need for a single meal.  Whatever odd number of meatballs remains after dividing into fives does not get frozen: it's a chef's sample for immediate consumption for purposes of quality control!

Recipe: Hearty Italian Sausage Spaghetti Sauce

This recipe will make a whole pot of sauce. I like to divvy it up into smaller packages to freeze them so I can come home after draining day at work and have a delicious spaghetti dinner in only about fifteen minutes. I have a separate recipe for decadent Italian Parmesano meatballs that ooze Parmesan cheese, and I freeze those in individual meal size packages, too.

You can make this recipe with less than thirty minutes of actual kitchen activity and then a couple hours of simmering. I usually make it while watching a game -- in other words, it's time I would have completely wasted sitting on the couch. Now I spend a little time watching the game from the kitchen, and then I sit on the couch and watch the game while the sauce simmers, with the knowledge that I'm being productive! By the way, it makes the house spell delicious, too.

When you come home too tired to do anything, you'll be happy that you have a great meal in your freezer.

Yields: 16 cups

2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 28 oz cans tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 can chopped olives (optional)

1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/3 yellow onion  sliced
1/2 lb (8 oz) fresh mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground Italian sausage

1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
chopped fresh basil

2 cups water


To get started, cut up the fresh veggies: cut up the onion and chop up the basil.

The size of onions varies widely, but you should be looking for about a 1/2 cup of onions after cutting.

For the basil, I usually buy the 0.66 oz package (18g) at the supermarket, and I use half of it for this recipe, which will yield about 1/4 cup of chopped basil when packed pretty well.

Start the sauce;
In a stewpot or crock pot, pour in:

• diced tomotoes
• tomato sauce
• tomato paste
• olives
• chopped fresh basil
• oregano
• red pepper flakes

Turn on low heat. Stir. Continue simmering

Saute other veggies:

In a medium frying pan, add olive oil and warm on medium heat.  Add in:

• mushrooms
• sliced onions
• garlic

Cook for 5-7 minutes, until the mushrooms and onions are soft. Add to sauce.

Cook sausage:

Using the same frying pan that you used for saute (fewer dishes to wash, right?), cook the sausage until brown. Break it up into crumbles as you cook it. It will take about five minutes for the sausage to brown and there won't be much grease to pour off. Add the meat to your pot of sauce.

Stir well.

Now, add the water and let it simmer for a couple hours.  Just stir it occasionally...maybe every half hour or so.

Recipe: Texas Tumbleweeds Sweet Chili

Mary Poppins sang about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down, This recipe doubles down on that strategy and includes two spoonfuls of sugar, which makes this chili a delight as it goes down!

You'll need a saucepan to brown the hamburger, and a slow cooker (like a Crock-Pot) to simmer your chili. If you don't have a slow cooker, you may use a big pan, and, if you're using a pan for the simmering, it's perfectly acceptable to use the same pan to brown the hamburger! (Fewer dishes to wash) I like to use my Crock Pot because it's easier to regulate the low heat for simmering, and I can just put the whole pan right into the refrigerator.


2 lbs hamburger
Garlic salt
Pepper
4 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz cans)
1 can tomato sauce (28oz)
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can red beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can corn (15 oz)
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup water

Substitutions:
Many grocery stores sell ground beef labelled as chili meat. The only real difference that I see is that they use a cap on the grinder with larger holes in it..and then charge more for it.
You can mix and match on the varieties of beans: don't like black beans? Omit them and use two cans of kidney beans instead of one. It's up to you! Basically, any combination of four cans of beans will do the trick.

If you want a wee bit of a kick, you can chop up a little cilantro and add it to the simmering chili. Don't be afraid to experiment.

1. Brown the hamburger.

Put the hamburger into a saucepan and cook on medium-high heat. Season the meat with garlic salt and pepper. As the burger begins to cook, add the chopped garlic and the chopped onions. Crumble the meat as it cooks. When the meat is browned, this step is complete, even if it looks like the onions need more cooking -- they'll finish when the chili stews.

2. Add the canned ingredients

While the meat is browning, open up all those cans! Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, the corn, and all of those beans. Pour each into the slow-cooker. (If you're cooking the meat in the same pan that you'll be using to simmer the chili, obviously, you'll have to wait for the meat to finish before you can add these canned ingredients.)

3. Add the remaining ingredients

Stir in the chili powder, cumin, and sugar, add the water, and stir the while mixture. Add the meat/garlic/onion mixture and stir again.

4. Simmer on low for four hours.

5. Enjoy your meal!

Garnish with more chopped onions, shredded cheese, and/or sour cream.