Cooking with KP: January 2025

Easy Mexican Cassrole

If you are looking for a super easy and super delicious dinner, here it is. This is great for family dinner, game nights, etc.

1 can of crescent dough or crescent rolls

1 pound of ground beef

1 package of taco seasoning

1 can refried beans

2 cups of shredded cheese (Fiesta or Mexican is best)

Select your toppings:

shredded lettuce

diced tomatoes

sliced green onions

sliced black olives

salsa

sour cream

guacamole or slice avocado

sliced jalapenos

extra cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 11x7 casserole dish with cooking spray. Put crescent dough in the bottom of the dish, making sure to make an edge on the sides. If you are using rolls instead of dough, make sure to press the seams together. Place in oven to bake for 8 minutes. While crust is baking, brown your ground beef and follow directions on taco seasoning package. Spoon out half of the can of refried beans into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1-3 minutes to soften them so that they are easer to spread.

After 8 minutes, remove dough from oven, gently spread a layer of beans on top of of dough, then top with ground beef and cheese. Return to oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese has melted and it bubbly and the edges of the crust is golden. Top with lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, black olives, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, slice jalapenos, and/or more cheese. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Crockpot Pork and Gravy

Here is an easy supper. The prep time is less than 10 minutes and the cook time is 6-3 hours depending on the heat level use. The chops turn out tender and the gravy is amazing.

4-6 pork chops, bone-in or boneless (Bone-in chops will take longer to cook than boneless)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 packet of dry brown or pork gravy

2 medium bell peppers, sliced

1 large yellow onion, sliced

seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper to your taste

Sprinkle seasoned salt, garlic powder and pepper on both sides of chops. Place in sprayed crockpot. Top with onions and peppers. In a small mixing bowl, blend dry gravy packet with undiluted soup. (If you want extra gravy use 2 packets of gravy and 2 cans of soup.) Put lid on crockpot and cook for 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low. If you chops are thick or long, you may need to cook longer. Serve over rice, mashed potatoes or noodles. Also good on top of biscuits.

Easy Hash Brown Egg Casserole

This is an easy breakfast or breakfast-for-dinner meal. It is super easy to prepare and bake. It is adaptable and delicious.

8 precooked frozen hash brown patties

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

1 pound of cooked loose breakfast sausage OR 1 pound of bacon fired and crumbled, OR 1 1/2 cups of diced ham

3 green onions/scallions, diced

9 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry ground mustard

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Grease a 9x13 casserole dish with butter.

Lay hash brown patties in dish.

Bake for 20 minutes. They will not be ready to eat but will good with the rest of the casserole.

While hash brown are cooking, prepare your sausage or bacon or chop your ham.

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, salt, ground mustard, garlic powder, and pepper. Whisk well. Stir in 2 of the diced green ones (reserve the other of topping when casserole is finished baking.

When hashbrowns are ready. Remove from the oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees.

Top hashbrown patties with cheeses, then top with your meat. Pour the egg mixture on top.

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let rest for 8-10 minutes, cut into squares and top with remaining green onions. Serve with biscuits and enjoy!

NOTE: You can substitute pepper jack cheese and/or toss in some diced jalapenos or green chilies to make it south western.

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.