Cooking with KP: April 2016

Taco Stuffed French Bread

I found several recipes for this online and made some changes to make it my version. It is wonderful. If you need to bring a dish to a potluck, if you
are giving a party, or you just want something different to eat, please try this and let me know what you think.

1 pound of ground beef

1 package of taco seasoning
1 can of Rotel (I used mild, but you use what you prefer)
½ onion, diced
½ bell pepper, diced
8 ounces cream cheese, cut into several small pieces for easier melting
1 cup Fiesta/Mexican blend shredded cheese
½ cup mozzarella shredded cheese
1 small can sliced black olives, drained
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
Sea salt
Parsley flakes
1 baguette French bread about 20 inches long

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut French bread in half. Dig out the center of each half to make a well that you will fill with meat mixture. Make sure you don’t dig too deeply and go through the outer crust. (Keep the bread for crumbs or bread pudding.) Place the bread halves on a sheet of aluminum foil on a long baking sheet.

In a skillet, brown ground beef with onions and bell pepper until no pink remains. Drain any fat from ground beef and return to skillet. Add taco seasoning and Rotel. Bring to a quick boil and then simmer 3-5 minutes. Remove meat from heat. Mix meat, cheeses and cilantro in a large bowl. Spoon mixture into bottom bread well. Top with sliced olives. If you really like spicy, you might want to add some jalapeño slices too. Put top half of bread on top and press to hold. Mix minced garlic and parsley flakes into melted butter and spread on tops of bread. Sprinkle with sea salt. Wrap tightly in foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Keep in foil until ready to slice and serve.

KP's Amazing Glaze for Meat

This glaze is great on ribs, pork chops and chicken. It is very easy to make and adds so much flavor to the meat. It can easily be doubled. The amount using the recipe below is for 4 bone-in 1/2 inch chops, 4 breasts, 6 thighs, or one rack of ribs.

1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce (I prefer the meatier taste of Worcestershire sauce)
3 Tablespoons apricot preserves
1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all ingredients until well blended. If using on pork chops or chicken, rinse meat and pat dry. Season with seasoned salt and pepper. Put in glass baking dish. Spoon half the mixture on top of meat and bake until meat is almost done. Then turn meat over and spoon the rest of the mixture on top and continue baking until meat is done. For example, for 1/2 inch thick pork chops at 350 degrees, I bake 30 minutes on each side. For chicken breasts and thighs, I bake 25 minutes each side at 350 degrees. For ribs, I put the rib rack on aluminum foil, bone side up and cover with glaze and tightly seal foil and bake for 50 minutes, unwrap, turn, glaze the other side and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil at top and bake 15-20 more minutes.

Quick, Easy But Delicious Pecan Pie Bars

This recipe isn't mine; it has been around forever. It started with crescent roll crust, but now I use the dough sheets you can purchase right next to the crescent rolls. These are quick, easy, but oh, so delicious. You will be sure to get rave reviews if you bring them to a potluck! Your family will enjoy them as well. You can also add some cinnamon and nutmeg for a cinnamon pecan pie bar. Just add a 1/2 tsp. of each.

1 can (8 oz) can of Pillsbury dough sheet or 1 can of crescent roll

2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted

¾ -1 cup chopped pecans

½ cup corn syrup

½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a 9x13-inch pan with foil, leaving enough for a 2-inch overhang on all sides.
Unroll dough and firmly press on bottom and up sides ½ inch.
If using crescent rolls separate dough into 2 long rectangles and place in 13x9-inch pan; press over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides to form crust. Firmly press dough perforations to seal.
Bake 8 minutes.
Combine all filling ingredients except pecans in bowl and mix well until smooth and sugar isn’t grainy.
Stir in pecans.
Spread evenly over hot, partially baked crust.
Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until filling is set and golden brown.
Cool about 1 hour; cut into bars.

Springtime Salsa

I was looking for something different in a salsa and I found three or four recipes online. From these, this recipe was born. It is very good, light and enjoyable. If you want some kick to yours, add a diced jalapeno pepper.

2 cups of corn kernels—fresh or frozen (thawed)
½ ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced
½ red onion, diced
2 mini sweet red bell peppers, finely diced...
2 mini sweet orange bell peppers, finely diced
2 mini sweet yellow bell peppers, finely diced
4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
¼ cup fresh lime/lemon juice (1 to 2 limes/lemons)
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper or cayenne
You can grill the corn and pineapple before making the salsa. It is very good grilled, but excellent either way.
In large bowl, gently toss together pineapple, corn, onions, bell pepper, tomatoes, and cilantro. Whisk lime juice, olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper together in a separate bowl. Drizzle juice mixture over pineapple mixture and toss gently. Let stand for 15 to 30 minutes. Prior to serving, adjust seasoning with lime juice, salt, pepper,

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Cheaper Cuts of Beef Don't Have To Be Tough

Most people avoid the cheaper cuts of beef because they tend to be tough. With 8 children and three adults in our home, my mother had to find ways to tenderize the cheaper cuts of beef. One way to cook "down", as my mother used to say, a tough cut of beef steak is to season both sides of the steak with garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper. Lightly brown the steak in a large skillet and on top add a diced green bell pepper, medium onion, a bay leaf, parsley flakes, a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce, and a can of diced tomatoes. Cover with lid. Let the steak simmer for 30-50 minutes. Remove lid and thicken juices by cooking 5-10 more minutes. You can also do the same with a cheap beef roast in a crock pot. Add all the ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. The flavor is simple, amazing and great with mashed potatoes.

Fall Vegetables for a Healthy You

As the fall approaches, we will all start to stay indoors more hours. This will lessen our vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, and K, which are enhanced by sunlight. Below are a few vegetables you might want to increase in your diet as the fall and later winter days approach. Besides, they are very tasty. In fact, in the next few weeks, I will be posting recipes that incorporate many of these delicious veggies.

Sweet potatoes and yams are very rich in carotenoids, vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, iron and fiber and are delicious when baked and eaten plain (without butter) or used in soups, casseroles or stir-fries.

Bell peppers are great sources of potassium, manganese, fiber and vitamins A, B, C and K. These sweet peppers are flavorful additions to salads and healthy stir-fries. You can choose from a rainbow of colors, including: green peppers,yellow peppers, orange peppers,and red peppers.

Summer and winter squash are rich in carotenoids, vitamins A and C, potassium, magnesium and fiber and can be served alone or added to many dishes.

Just a few tips for you...

Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato- based sauces. No more stains!

Use lifesavers candy to hold candles in place on your next birthday cake! Kids love them.

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugarcone to prevent ice cream drips!

Zap garlic cloves in the microwave for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off!

If your celery begins to wilt in the fridge, fill a large cup half full of water and place celery in the cup. Put back in the fridge for two hours--it will be crisp. (Learned this from my mother).

Cooking Myth Busted

A Potato Can Save a Salty Soup or Stew. True or False? False. "This is an attractive idea, but it doesn't work because potatoes are not particularly absorbent," says Wolke, who conducted his own soup-and-potato experiment for his Cooking Myth Busters book. "There is no reason they would attract salt." If you remove the raw potato from the soup, the potato will taste salty, but so would a sponge — it has simply soaked up some of the salty liquid. Still, there is hope for salty stews: Adding a bit of vinegar or sugar can "cancel out" the saltiness by giving your taste buds competing flavors.

Super Moist Turkey

If you are looking for a way to get a moist turkey, you might try one of these family hints:

1--bake the turkey upside down--breast down for the first half of the cooking time. It will help the darker meat cook more thoroughly and the fatty juices of the darker meat will drip down to the breast and add moistness. Use a deep roasting pan for this.

2--bake the turkey with the breast up, but rub it with butter, garlic powder and pepper only. Do not salt the skin. Instead, mix salt in a cup of warm water and pour that cup of salted warm-not hot-water inside the cavity of the turkey. The salt water will steam up into the turkey, making it very moist.

3. bake the turkey with the breast up and slice two lemons and one orange in halves. Place the halves inside the seasoned turkey and the juices will steam into the meat, adding moisture and flavor.

Hint of the Week

Here is something I learned from my wonderful Mother, the greatest cook I have ever known. When you have just a small serving of cooked vegetables leftover from dinner, don't throw them away. Keep a large plastic container in the freezer and put the vegetables in the container. Mix them--carrots, corn, green beans, broccoli, etc. When the container is full make a pot of soup or stew. Also, if a recipe calls for 1/2 a chopped onion, chop the whole onion and add the half to the freezer container. My mother made the best vegetable soups from this idea.

Hint for the Week

With Fourth of July quickly approaching, you might be thinking of making Deviled Eggs. If you want perfectly boiled eggs, place eggs in a large pot and completely cover with cold water. Do not layer eggs on top of one another. Bring water to a rapid boil for 2 minutes, reduce to simmer and let eggs simmer 8 minutes, return to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and empty hot water and fill pot with cold water. Let sit for 5 minutes. To peel easily, slightly crush shell in your fist and roll on counter with a firm grip. Of course, you don't want to push through the egg, but by making the shell crack in many small pieces, it is easier to peel. My father saw this on a cooking show years ago and taught me this. It truly works.