Spinach Stuffed Manicotti

Ingredients:
1 tsp dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1 tsp dried sage leaves, crushed
1 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1 tsp chopped fresh garlic
1.5 tsp olive oil
1.5 c. canned or fresh chopped tomatoes
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach; thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
4 oz ricotta cheese
1 slice whole wheat bread, in crumbs
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
8 uncooked manicotti shells; cooked, rinsed and drained
yellow pepper rings (optional)
sage sprig (optional)

Directions:

  Cook and stir rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, and garlic in oil in a small saucepan over medium heat about 1 minute; do not let herbs turn brown.  Add in tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Combine spinach, cheese and bread crumbs in a medium bowl.  Fold in egg whites.  Stuff manicotti with spinach mixture (hold noodle gently with hand and use a teaspoon to stuff shells).  Place half of tomato mixture in a 13 x 9 inch pan.  Arrange manicotti in pan and cover with remaining tomato mixture.  Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes or until bubbly.  Garnish with pepper rings and sage sprig.

Makes 4 servings.

Fresh Salsa for Dummies!

I'm going to call this Salsa for Dummies, because it is that easy to make! I have made salsa for years, and I have always enjoyed using the produce from my garden to do it with!  I usually only have to buy onions, because I just haven't ever had good luck really growing onions.  I have a new problem now, but I still have to buy onions, LOL!

You will need :

3 or 4 large ripe, tomatoes
Dehydrated onions
dried cilantro
vinegar
minced garlic
1 or 2 fresh hot peppers

A few details here; you can use any kind of tomatoes you like.  I find that yellow tomatoes have a lower acidity than red tomatoes, and some varieties have a more "tomato-ey" flavor than other varieties.  Pick tomatoes that look best to you!  Also, I am using dehydrated onions because 1)they are cheap 2) fresh onions make Raven's stomach bleed 3) they don't spoil!  One could use fresh cilantro in salsa, I just keep the dried kind on hand because I don't use it a lot.   Lastly, use any kind of peppers you like.  Cayenne's are much hotter than jalapenos, and habaneros are MUCH hotter than either of the first two.  For a very mild salsa, I would use anaheims.  This time, I have used fresh cayenne peppers because  a good friend of mine grew some this year and brought me some last weekend.  You have to look closely to see the bits of pepper in the pictures of my salsa on this page.

For salsa that you are going to eat, and not store, there is no reason to peel the tomatoes.  Yes, I said peel tomatoes.  Don't sweat it, we can talk peeling tomatoes later.  For now, just dice your tomatoes up into a size that is good to scoop up onto a tortilla chip.  Go ahead and slide those off of your cutting board into a medium sized mixing bowl, making sure to get all the tomato juice too. Next, stir in about 2 Tablespoons of dried chopped onions, and 1 Tablespoon cilantro and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic.  Go ahead and stir it up and make sure that the proportion of onion and cilantro look good to you.  Next, pour in 1 Tablespoon vinegar.

You can use any kind of vinegar you have on hand, white vinegar or apple cider-it really doesn't matter.  Stir that in to the mix and cut up your peppers.  I like to chop my peppers very fine.  There are bits of pepper, but they are small.  You can leave them a little bigger if you enjoy them that way, but I find that you get more flavor through out the salsa if you cut them smaller.  I leave the seeds in for all the salsa I make.  If you make a batch and it's too spicy, just leave the seeds out next time and take the first batch to work!

The last part of making salsa is taste testing.  Grab a chip and get a little to taste.  If it needs more of that "oomph" that is salsa, give it another splash of vinegar.  Add a little more cilantro if you like a heavier cilantro flavor.  Remember to go small when adding in extra seasoning.  You can always add a bit more, but you can never take any back out.  If you do get too much of something in it, just add more tomatoes and go slowly to bring the rest of the ingredients in.

Happy dipping!

Cheesy Mexican Chicken

I found this recipe on one of the various sites I browse for recipes and cooking info.  I wish I could remember which one so I could give them credit, but I don't remember.  It is, however, very yummy! Add to that the fact that it's easy to make -semi home made :)

Ingredients:

2 cups  penne pasta, uncooked

1 lb.  boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1-1/4 cups Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1 cup  frozen corn, thawed

1 large green pepper, cut into strips

1 cup  Mexican Style Finely Shredded Cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta as directed on package, omitting salt. Meanwhile, heat large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 2 min. Stir in salsa, corn and peppers. Bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 10 min. or until chicken is done, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta. Add to chicken mixture; mix lightly. Top with cheese. Remove from heat; cover. Let stand 1 min. or until cheese is melted.

Roast Pork Shoulder

I am a big fan of cooking up things ahead of time, and also of not wasting anything.  Obviously, I enjoy cooking, since you have all found your way to the blog where I write about noms and things.  Today I am going to share some knowledge about pork.


So, you are in the grocery and you see this big hunk of meat and the label says "Whole Picnic Roast" or "Boston Butt" and you wonder what in the world that is, and further more, the meat is full of fat and doesn't look very good.  I can see that a lot of people would not even try it out because it doesn't often look like a good, quality side of meat, but you can have some fantastic meals with a picnic roast or boston butt.  Promise.

The thing is that a picnic roast or a botson butt is from the shoulder of the pig and therefore has  a lot of connective tissue, which is very tough and not very tasty if you just cook it until the meat is up to temperature.  The key with these kinds of cuts of meat is to cook it for a long period of time on a low setting so that the connective tissue has time to break down.  When this happens, the meat sort of bastes itself in it's own fat and juices and makes it all really tender and flavorful.

My favorite way to accomplish this is in a crock pot.  A big one.  Anyone who has ever had a dinner at my house knows that I have a huge crock pot.  I think it's one of the largest that they make, coming it at 6 Quarts.  I actually own a Hamilton Beach 6 Qt programmable crock pot with a probe, but crock pots are an entirely new subject.   The point is that you can set the temperature of a crock pot and just leave it, not to mention that it uses a lot less energy that the oven or a stove-top eye.  You're only cooking for two people? So am I, just use your freezer!

To get started, pick a picnic roast or boston butt from the pork section of the grocery store and take it home.  Kind of eye it to make sure that it is going to fit in your crock pot.  You can do a little squishing, but not a lot, so you want the size to be close.  When you get it home, I put mine in a cleaned out side of the sink and unwrap it.  You want to put it in the sink because there is going to be some juice come out and it will make a nasty mess on your counter top.  I sit my crock pot next to the sink for convenience and get out some spices.  I like to use minced garlic (imagine that), dehydrated onions and bay leaves.  Sometimes I will put a little cayenne or hot pepper mix in it, but not usually.  You want to get a nice flavor that you can make several things from.

Stand your shoulder up on one end and take a steak knife and cut a big slit in the end of the roast that you can get at least your fingers in to.  All four of them, yes, it's a big slit.  You want all of the meat to be nicely flavored, not just the outside parts.  Into this slit, I put a healthy tablespoon or two of minced garlic, some dehydrated onions, a few bay leaves and some black pepper.  Close your slit up by pressing it together and do the other end the same way.  You may hit the bone with your knife, just work around it the best you can.  When you have the inside of the meat seasoned, put the whole thing in the crock pot.  Add just enough water to come to the top of the roast, but it doesn't need to be submerged.  If you get too much water in it, you can't turn it over later.  Add some more of the garlic, onions, pepper, and some salt to the water and put the lid on it.

Set the temperature of the crock pot to low, put the lid on it and leave it alone for at least 6 hours.  After about 6 hours, you can take the lid off and gently turn the roast over.  Until that time NO PEEKING.  Don't stir it, or baste it, or do anything to it.  Taking the lid off lets out some of the magic that is crock pot cooking.  After about another 2 hours, it's time to eat.  My favorite thing to do the first night is to cut up some potatoes and make home fries with them, and use that delicious broth the meat has cooked in to make gravy and pour over all of it.  Add your favorite green vegetable and you have a complete dinner.

After dinner, pull the rest of the meat out of the broth and put it in the refrigerator.  You can save the rest of the broth for another night's gravy, soup base, stock to cook dried beans in (you now have a bone to season them with as well), or anything else you can think of.  After the meat is cooled, I portion mine out into enough meat for a few family meals and some individual meals and put it in FoodSaver bags for the freezer.  The meat makes great pulled BBQ, is delicious on sandwiches plain or in casseroles.  The possibilities are really pretty endless.


Hope you guys enjoyed this and are all ready to make some delicious pork roast to keep you warm this fall!  For convenience' sake, I have linked the crock pot and the food saver models that I own!

Rosemary Dijon Pork Chops

So, I am far from the perfect recipe maker.  A lot of my recipes come from other places or I just add what sounds good and smells nice.  One of the big places I get recipes from is Kraft.com.  This is a recipe adapted from them that is very tasty and makes for a nice change from the same old grilled pork chop dinner!

  Ingredients:

1 lb. potatoes (about 3 small), cut into 1-inch chunks

1/4 cup  Light Italian Dressing

4 bone-in pork chops (1-1/2 lb.), 1/2 inch thick

4 tsp.  GREY POUPON Dijon Mustard

1/2 cup SHAKE 'N BAKE Original Pork Seasoned Coating Mix

1/4 tsp.  dried rosemary leaves, crushed

Heat oven to 375°F.  Toss potatoes with salad dressing and microwave for about four minutes. Roll the pork chops in the mustard and allow to rest for a few moments. Mix coating mix and rosemary in shallow dish. Add chops; turn over to evenly coat both sides of each chop. Place in center of foil-lined 15x10x1-inch pan; surround with potatoes.
 
Bake 30 min. or until chops are done (160°F) and potatoes are tender.

If you get thin or boneless pork chops, reduce cooking time to 20 minutes.  Be sure to let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before serving before you plate it.