go-to

My mom gave me Dinner: A Love Story for Christmas and I've loved reading her stories and recipes on family dinners.

While perusing one Sunday for my weekly menu, I stumbled upon our new go-to recipe for a quick delicious dinner: Baked Sausage with Apples, Potatoes and Onions.  I had all the ingredients already (frozen chicken/apple sausage from costco!), so I thought I'd give it a try since my guy is a meat and potato guy.
Her recipe is below, but I made the following changes... 2 chicken/apple sausages, large chunks of half an onion (T doesn't like onions), chopped up yukon gold potatoes and dried thyme.  Usually an amount of everything for 2 people.  We top with spicy brown mustard and it is marvy.

Baked Sausage with Apples, Potatoes, and Onions

Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large baking dish, toss 2 cups small whole unpeeled potatoes (or 3 to 4 medium potatoes chopped), 1 medium onion (chopped artlessly in chunks), and leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh thyme with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, then toss in 2 to 3 apples (unpeeled, preferably baking apples such as Cortland, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Northern Spy) that have been cut into large chunks, and 4 uncooked sweet Italian sausages (about 1 pound). Turn heat down to 400°F and bake another 30 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar into vegetables. Serve with dollops of grainy or Dijon mustard.

apple crisp for 2

Last week I was doing baked potatoes for T and I, and some kind of apple dessert came to mind and all of a sudden I was craving hot apple crisp.

I just simply googled "2 serving apple crisp" and just clicked on the first result.  I found the best, easiest, quickest recipe for single serving apple crisp for 2 people.  Prefect.

Recipe here, but I made a few additions/changes so here's what I did:

1 large granny smith apple
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oats
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of fresh nutmeg
3 T butter

1. Slice up apples and slice off peeling.  Separate slices evenly between 2 creme brulee dishes (we got ours at Lit if you live in Memphis).  Squeeze a little lemon juice over apples to prevent browning.  I put mine in fridge while I mixed up topping and finished dinner prep.

2. Put flour, sugar, oats, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg in a bowl.  Cube up butter and blend into dry mixture.  I found it easy to just do this with my hands to help soften the butter.

3. Cover each dish of apples with the topping mixture.

4.  Set the two dishes on a baking sheet in case overflow occurs.

5. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.  Top with ice cream, cool whip, whipped cream... whatever you prefer!

T had a nice sized dollop of whipped cream

T said this might be his favorite dessert in the whole world.  It was so yummy and an easy dessert for the 2 of us!

fall soups

I love soup.  We even served it at our fall wedding (3 yrs ago!), and that reminds me, I need to try and get that butternut squash soup recipe from our caterer.  It was delicious when we tried it, and everyone said it was sooo yummy (I didn't have any the day of).

This fall I've tried a few new soup recipes that T and I have loved.  The first one was crock pot Jambalaya.  I had some shrimp and chicken in the freezer that I wanted to use, so I just googled "crock pot jambalaya" and found this winner. See recipe ---> here.

Of course tweaking needs to take place when cooking for T, so this is what I did:

Crock Pot Jambalaya

Chicken
Turkey Sausage
Diced tomatoes
Onion
Chicken Broth
All the spices listed in the recipe
Frozen Shrimp

Threw all these in the crock pot and cooked on high for 3 hours.  I threw in the shrimp after 3 hours and cooked for 30 more minutes.  Served it with some wild rice and it was delicious!

The next one was my favorite I think, and I saw it on pinterest.  Well I went back today to find the recipe and I can't exactly find the one I used online, so good thing I wrote it in my recipe book.

Lasagna Soup

2 T olive oil
1 lb turkey sausage
(1 green bell pepper) left this out because we don't like green peppers
1 onion, chopped
32 oz chicken broth
3 cloves garlic
15 oz can tomato sauce
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 t salt
1/4 t crushed red pepper
4 oz broken whole wheat lasagna (about 4 noodles)
1/2 c chopped basil
3 T parmesan cheese
1/2 c grated mozzarella cheese

Heat oil over medium-high heat in dutch oven.  Add sausage, onion, garlic and cook until sausage is browned and crumbled.

Add broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt & crushed red pepper.  Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat & simmer for 20 minutes.

Add noodles and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cook until noodles are tender, about 15 minutes.  (Whole wheat noodles cook longer, so if using non-whole wheat, then about 10-12 mins.)

Remove from heat and stir in mozzarella, basil and parmesan.

Serve with your favorite bread!

 [photo courtesy T man]

T absolutely LOVED this recipe and talked about it for the next few days.  We froze the leftovers, so I'll get to bring that out when we get some chilly temps again!

We had our church class over on Sunday and again, I wanted some soup to go along with the fire we had out on the patio.  I pulled out our church cook book and made a taco soup recipe that everyone raved about, so I wanted to share this one, too.

Taco Soup

1 1/2 lb ground beef (I used ground turkey)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans black or chili hot beans (I used one can of black)
11 oz corn
1 can rotel
1 pkg. dry taco seasoning
1 pkg. dry ranch dressing mix
8 oz tomato sauce
1 can hominy, drained

Brown beef (turkey) until done.  Drain well.  Add beans, corn, ro-tel, dry seasonings, tomato sauce, and hominy to meat mixture.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Serve over corn chips and top with grated cheese, sour cream and cilantro!

Gibson thinks soups are delicious too

don't we have the cutest dog you've ever seen?  I hope he looks like a puppy forever....

lemon orzo soup

A couple weeks ago, Audrey invited me to attend a soup swap her sister was hosting.  I didn't want to make a taco soup or chili or anything that someone else might make.  One time, Leslie made this Lemon Orzo soup that was delicious, so I went with that idea.

Got the recipe from my good friend Jesse, and she had a couple different recipes for it.  One from Rachael Ray, and one that she had figured out that tasted like Cafe Eclectic's Lemon Greek Soup [mmm].

I kind of meshed together the two different recipes--I wanted to use orzo, and she used rice, I wanted to use the whole egg instead of just yolks... etc.  So here is what I ended up doing (of course tripled for soup swap).... and it was a delicious!

Lemon Orzo Soup
2 (32 oz) containers of chicken broth
1 cup orzo pasta
Juice of 1 lemon
1 large egg

1. Boil broth.
2. [In the meantime] beat eggs together with lemon juice in a bowl.
3. Add orzo to boiling broth and cook to directions on box (8-9 minutes).
4. Temper the egg-- pour 1-2 c of hot broth into bowl and whisk in the egg.
5. Pour back into pot and stir.
6. Add some fresh ground pepper.

nothing like comfort food

Yesterday I was craving chicken and dumplings, but didn't have too much time to spend on making it homemade (plus I probably wouldn't ever want to try that).  So I googled "slow cooker chicken and dumplings" and bingo, I found an easy recipe that I had all the ingredients for, and also got some great reviews.

I cut it in half for just the 2 of us, and took advice from the first review about adding some spices.  It was delicious and a hit with Dudley, too (no veggies = winner in his book).

Crock-pot Chicken & Dumplings (for 2)

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, thawed (I put mine in frozen and it worked just fine)
1 T butter
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken, but the mushroom-y flavor was nice)
1 onion, chopped or diced
Chicken broth
Cumin
Poultry seasoning
Seasoned salt
Pepper
1 package refrigerated biscuit dough (I used the small can with 5 biscuits and it was perfect)

1.  Put the chicken, butter, soup and onion in a crock-pot.  Fill with just enough chicken broth to cover.
2.  Add some dashes of the spices and stir it up.
3.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours.  Check to see if chicken is cooked and shred it up.  If not all the way cooked, cover for another hour or so.  Cut up the biscuit dough into bite-size pieces and place them on top of the chicken mixture.  Kind of push them just barely underneath the surface.  Cook for another hour or until it's golden brown on top and the biscuits are done.
4.  Serve with your favorite veggie and salad!

Here is what mine looked like after I added the biscuits!

 

Enjoy! Recipe found here.

holiday baking

Last week we had our big cookie exchange. There were 23 people. There were a lot of cookies to taste. They were ALL wonderful. Leslie also wrote about it here.

I found my cookie recipe on Joy the Baker, and they were delicious (if I do say so myself). She actually wrote about them on Saturday. Red Velvet Black and White Cookies. I renamed them Black and White and Red all over. Dudley said, "these are the best cookies I've ever had." Thanks, Joy. He devoured the leftovers I brought home from the exchange. He also requested that we take some to his granny's this weekend. Hopefully I'll be up for making them again. Glazing over 100 cookies = tiring and time consuming.

Here are some photos documenting this process...

The staple ingredient...








The little boxes...






Here is proof of how many cookies I ate... :)





Hi Laura!



I also made Darby's cinnamon honey butter and it IS delicious. I'll be taking a jar to each of Dudley's aunts and his granny this weekend. Thanks to Darby, all the 4 oz jar supply in Memphis has been depleted. I managed to find mine at Superlo.

I'll leave you with a few of our holiday decorations around Fiesta.



O, Christmas tree, O Christmas tree. How lovely are your branches.



From Laura...




(I spy Gibson. Do you?)

Merry Christmas! Now I need to get some shopping done.

it's fall, y'all

Ok, I know... lame title, but I just had to.

It is October 1. A beautiful fall day in Memphis. I have been waiting for this season since, say, last Thanksgiving. I love fall. It's my favorite season. Pumpkins, scarves, cider, pies, leaves, soup, chili, boots, socks, blankets, hoodies, sweaters, layers, gloves, and the list goes on. Something else that is added to my list now that I'm a Carter is deer hunting.

This weekend is the opening weekend of bow [hunting] season, and Dudley is just jittering he's so excited. Tonight he [we] will be getting his attire and supplies ready for his first hunt of 2009. He cannot wait to be in his stand on Saturday morning.

[This post is not going to be about hunting.. don't worry]

One thing on the list above, soup. I love soups. I could eat some every day. Last week, I made that awesome tortilla soup, but this week I went for something more autumnal and made this great potato soup Jesse brought into my life. Let me tell you. It's awesome. Double Potato Soup is the name and we love it.

Double Potato Soup
1 Tbsp olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 cloves garlic, pressed

2 cans chicken broth (or one big box)

1 tsp thyme

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (leslie's opinion was tainted because J accidentally put in a whole tsp)

salt & pepper to taste

2 cups half & half

In a soup pot, heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add onions and cook till translucent. Add sweet potatoes, potatoes, and garlic and cook another two minutes. Add the chicken broth, thyme, cayenne pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered until the the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 min.

Use a potato masher and squish the lumps in the soup as best you can. This soup is better not processed in a blender as it is heartier this way; however if you prefer it smoother, go ahead and blend away.

Heat soup to simmer, and salt and pepper to taste, add half and half and warm till hot, but don't boil or it will break.

Enjoy soup with some yummy Panera wheat bread and small salad. [only for me, not for tdud. no salad for that boy]

overrated is right

It is true. The rebels are over-rated, but all Ole Miss fans knew that already, let's be honest.

Something that wasn't over-rated was the homemade pizza we made last night while [not]enjoying a Thursday night SEC football game. At my kitchen shower my sweet friends threw me in Oxford last September, I was given recipes in an awesome recipe box. Margie put in a recipe for homemade BBQ chicken pizza, so I used her crust part because again tdud would rather just have a pepperoni pizza than anything fancy.

So I followed her crust steps to get here....



But it took longer [than she said in instructions] for it to form a dough ball. It eventually made something close to a ball. Such great memories of making the dough for rolls at Lenoir Hall dining class sprung into mind to pass the time of waiting for the dough ball to form.

I rolled it out on this pizza pan because our stone was dirty from tdud's cinnamon toast.



I tried to give the Rebels a little spirit through the pepperoni placement on this pizza pie, but that didn't so much work out for us in the end...



It was a very tasty pizza, maybe next time tdud will let me be more adventurous with the topping choices. [very unlikely]



I promise not to be a flaky blogger, but I will post pictures of some house updates soon. Waiting for a few more things before the reveal!

he gave this one a 10

This week I finally organized my weekly dinners by planning the menu for each night this week. We went to the grocery Sunday to get all the necessary ingredients that we didn't already have in the pantry/fridge.

Monday nights I go to BSF (as stated in previous post), so I haven't ever made anything for hubs on those nights. I tried to come up with something that I could make and then leave before it's ready. Quiche. He loves it, so that was the ticket. Leslie and I went on our run, and then I came back and started on the quiche while she made the smoothies for us to take to BSF. The quiche was delish, and he enjoyed it while watching Monday night football.

Last night I tried a new recipe. I want to start cooking more fish items so it doesn't seem like we are always either having a variety of chicken or a variety of something ground turkey. I found a recipe for Tilapia that looked simple and tasty, so I went for it. HE LOVED IT! Said he could eat it every week.

So here it is. Broiled Tilapia Parmesean.

ready in 15 minutes max
(this is for 8 servings, I adjusted it for only 2 fillets)

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons mayonnaise (we don't have mayo in our house, so I just used a little sour cream)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
2 pounds tilapia fillets

Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil.

In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside.

Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.



I made couscous and green beans (the only green veggie tdud eats), and our plates were licked clean!