Cooking with KP: October 2018

Marinated Green Beans

One of my favorite dishes is marinated green beans. You can actual marinate any canned or steamed vegetables or a mixture of them using this simple marinade. The recipe below is for the green beans. Substitute the veggies of your choice.

2 14.5 ounce cans of green beans, drained
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup vinegar (you may use white, apple cider, red wine, or balsamic--all are wonderful)
1 tsp. pepper

In a bowl that has a tight lid, add sugar, oil, vinegar and pepper. Whisk for 2-3 minutes to makes sugar is dissolved. Add green beans, onions, and bell pepper. Put lid on bowl and shake to fully coat the vegetables with marinade. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Shake bowl a few times before serving. Leftovers are good for up to 4 days in the fridge! Enjoy!

Banana Cake/Bread with Pecan Toffee Topping

I created this one day when we had overripe bananas. It smells heavenly cooking and tastes divine. Great with coffee.

Topping:
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup dark brown sugar

Cake/Bread
4 medium very ripe banana (they need to be soft and the skins turning black)
2 1/4 cups self-rising flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk (buttermilk makes it so moist)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

You will need a bundt pan for this. Spray bundt pan with cooking spray or butter all sides.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mash/whip bananas with hand mixer. Add all other ingredients, except nuts, and mix well. Once batter is well mixed, fold in chopped nuts, if using.

In a small sauce pan or skillet over medium heat, melt butter until bubbly. Stir in brown sugar and let boil for about 3 minutes, stirring continuously. Add pecans and keep stirring for 2 more minutes.
Immediately, pour this mixture into the bottom of bundt pan. Top with cake/bread batter.
Bake for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Let pan cool for about 10 minutes--no longer. Place plate on top of cake and flip over. If any of the pecan toffee remains in pan, simply spoon out and put on top of the cake.

Spicy Stuffed Taco Shells

I have a different recipe for taco stuffed shells on this blog. It is not as spicy, but we really like this version, too.

1 box of jumbo pasta shells (you will be able to fill around 24 with this recipe)
2 lbs extra lean ground beef
1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 packets of taco seasonings (I use McCormick, low sodium)
1 1/2 cup of water
1 24 ounce jar of salsa (we used medium, but you can use mild or spicy)
2 cups taco blend shredded cheese
1 10 ounce can of red enchilada sauce (you decide the heat)
1 10 ounce can of Rotel tomato sauce, undrained
1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
sour cream
sliced black olives
sliced green onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large skillet, add ground meat, onion, and bell pepper. Brown over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until meat is nearly cooked through. Add the two packets of taco seasoning and water. Bring to a boil and then let simmer
While meat mixture is simmering, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add shells. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain. Make sure all water is out of the shells.
Add the 2 cups of cheese to the meat mixture and mix well. Let simmer until cheese is fully melted.
Pour salsa in the bottom of 9x 13 baking dish. Fill each shell with some of the meat mixture. Place on top of the salsa. Make sure the opening of the shell is to the top. Also, allow shells to touch one another.
In a mixing bowl, mix Rotel, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, sugar and garlic power. Pour over the top of the shells. Place foil on top of the baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and top with sharp cheddar cheese. Bake 10-15 more minutes so that cheese is fully melted and lightly browned.
Serve with a little sour cream, black olives, and green onions on top.

Cook All Day Vegetable Beef Soup

My mother and oldest sister could make the most delicious soups. I especially loved their beef and vegetable soups. Mother would often add a little barley to hers, and I enjoyed that, but my husband doesn't care for it. Here is my attempt at my mother's vegetable beef soup.

2 pounds small chop stew meat
2 boxes (32 ounces) low sodium beef broth
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 toe/bud garlic, diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
3 Tablespoons parsley flakes
1 bag (24 ounces) frozen mixed vegetables--(I use a blend of corn, peas, carrots, and green beans)
1 large baking potato, peeled and cubed
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons garlic powder
1 Tablespoon seasoned salt
1/2 Tablespoon pepper
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes hot sauce (optional)
3/4 cup pasta (optional)

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil. Add onions, fresh garlic, celery, bell pepper and parsley flakes. Saute for 3-5 minutes until onions start to soften. Add meat and cook and until meat is browned on all sides, but not cooked through. Add beef broth, bay leaves, diced tomatoes, diced potato, garlic powder, seasoned salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to low/simmer. Add frozen vegetables. Simmer for 3-5 hours. Taste soup and add more garlic powder, pepper, seasoned salt if needed. If you are going to add pasta, one hour before serving, bring soup to a boil, stir in pasta, boil 4 minutes, reduce to simmer and put the lid on and do not remove. Pasta will finishing cooking from the heat of the broth. Add hot sauce 30 minutes prior to serving.

Note: My daughter uses 1 1/2 boxes of beef broth and 2 cups of V-8 tomato juice--it adds a lot of flavor.

Homemade Applesauce in the Crockpot

I cannot claim this recipe as my own. I found it online on several sites. It is super easy to make delightful. It makes your entire home smell wonderful while it is cooking.

6-8 large apples, any type (but I like to mix red, golden and green)
the juice of one large lemon
1/4-1/2 cup of sugar, depending on how sweet you like your applesauce
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Rinse, peel, core and chop apples. Put apples in crockpot and add all other ingredients. Mix well. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. ENJOY warm or room temperature. Put leftovers in container with a tight lid. You can store this in the refrigerator for one week or freeze for up to 3 months.
NOTE: If you don't like applesauce with chucks, once it has cooled some, you can blend it or use a potato masher to eliminate the chunks. We love them!

Quick and Easy Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

Everyone around here has a jambalaya recipe. Some recipes call for all day cooking. As a busy young mother, I needed something quick and easy, but tasty. Here is what I came up with. We enjoy it!

1 pound Smoky Hollow beef link sausage cut into 1/2-inch round slices
1 pound chicken tenderloins or boneless skinless chicken thighs (they give the most flavor), cut into 1/2-inch slices
2 tablespoon olive oil
3 celery ribs chopped
1 large onion chopped
1 small bell pepper chopped
2 Tablespoons parsley flakes
2 bud/toes garlic, minced
3-4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/2 cups uncooked long grain rice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 large bay leaf
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon Cajun seasoning (Tony’s)

Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery. Sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and continue to sauté chicken is nearly done (5-8 minutes). Add sausage and sauté 3 more minutes. Add broth, tomatoes, thyme, seasoned salt, pepper,garlic powder and Cajun seasonings. Bring to a boil, drop in bay leaf and rice. Stir three or four quick times to mix blend everything. Reduce heat to simmer. Put lid on pot and let cook 20-25 minutes.

You can also add 1 cup of diced ham or peeled raw shrimp/crayfish to the meats.

Kay's Amazing Marinade for Chicken or Pork

I originally made this to use on chicken tenders, but it is also great boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs, as well as on pork chops. I really like it on boneless chops. You can grill or bake the meat. Both are wonderful. This marinade is great for around 12 tenders,

¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup canola oil
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Whisk together all ingredients in a small glass bowl. Place meat in plastic bag and pour in marinade. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours to overnight.
Remove from refrigerator a few minutes prior to cooking. Discard leftover marinade.

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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.