Cream of Crab soup

I made cream of crab soup for dinner tonight. I cheated when I made it. I didn't make it from scratch. I used Tastefully Simple's Perfectly Potato Cheddar Soup Mix. I added about a pound of crab meat and lots of Old Bay seasoning. It was so good there is very little left over! I served it with their Perfect Parmesan Biscuits. Then for dessert we had Pumpkin Patch bread with cream cheese icing. 

So over all we had a Tastefully Simple dinner and it only took me a half hour to cook dinner. The hardest part of making dinner was going through the crab meat for shells.

Spam & Pickles????

so I'm up late watching Triple D on Food Network and one of the places Guy went made Spam bites. Now I have never had spam that I am aware of. But they looked soooo good, don't ask me why they did but they did. Cream cheese with spam and pickles inside... I tried to find the recipe on FoodNetwork.com but they don't have it. I googled for it and there was none to be found. I am just going to have to try and make it myself from memory how the guy at The Blue Door Pub made them. I know mine won't be the same but I am going to try. I probably won't attempt them till next week though as this week is pretty hectic for me and I need to locate my hubby's deep fryer.

Though from watching Triple D tonight, I have seen some food concoctions I want to try to make myself.

Meatloaf

Meatloaf is one of my favorite comfort foods. Just a basic meatloaf with gravy is so good on a cool fall day. Pair it with mashed potatoes and some corn... just screams comfort food.

Now my meatloaf is very basic just a few ingredients:


Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1 egg lightly beaten
1 piece of bread - broken into pieces for bread crumbs
1 tablespoon of Onion Onion from Tastefully Simple (1 small onion can be used instead)
a dash of salt & peppera dash or two of Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
put it all in a bowl and mix it by hand gently then put it in a glass baking pan, shaping it into a loaf and then bake at 350 in a pan for 1hr 15min

its just so good and simple.... now that's my simple recipe for meatloaf... there are other ones I have tried and like but this one to me is my comfort food recipe


another good recipe is the Mexican meatloaf from Tastefully Simple:

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 Tbsp. Fiesta Party Dip Mix™
1/2 cup Corn, Black Bean Salsa

Directions
Combine the ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg and Fiesta Party Dip Mix™. Place in a greased 4 x 8 loaf pan. Top with the Corn, Black Bean Salsa. Bake at 375° for 50-60 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing. Makes 4 servings.

Crock Pots

I love crock pot cooking! You put your ingredients in turn it on and forget about it for 4 to 10hrs! What ever you put in there comes out so tender and falls apart. You don't have to use the best cut of meat to have it come out tasting so good either! Plus your house smells good all day too, unless you are cooking pork chops with sauerkraut - I don't think that's a smell I want to smell all day though LOL.

Rainy days cold days are one of my favorite days to cook in the crock pot too. And that's just the type of day we are having here today so far... So in the crock pot today is a roast with onions, baby carrots, Yukon Gold potatoes, parsnips and celery seeds with a package of McCormick's slow cooker pot roast seasoning....

Malibu

As most of my friends know I love fruity type drinks and I love rum. Island Melon flavor rum with coke is just awesome. I think it's my new favorite flavor of rum. Its very smooth tasting. I need to find other things to mix it in with, I'm thinking a tropical punch mix would be good to with it.

One of my favorite mixed drinks is the Italian Surfer, I use to get all the time at a club I use to go to back east.

Here is one recipe I have found for it:

   3 ounces Coconut Rum
   1 ounces Amaretto
   4 ounces Pineapple Juice 

And here is another I have found but yet to try but will be soon:

1/2 shot amaretto 
1/2 shot parrot bay
1/2 shot southern comfort 
splash of orange juice
pineapple juice 
splash grenadine 
In a hurricane glass fill to top with ice. Put shots in order into glass. Put splash of orange juice, then fill the rest of glass with pineapple juice. Splash grenadine on top.

Cheese steak subs

Being from the east coast, I love a good cheese steak sub. Unfortunately where we are currently station in New Mexico that's hard to find. I've yet to find a place that serves them! So one week when I was in the library I got one of Rachael Ray's cookbooks out and found a recipe for Philly Cheese Steaks. I altered her recipe a little, but this is her recipe. 



Onions:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 large yellow onions, sliced very thin
• Coarse salt and pepper or steak seasoning blend

Meat:

• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 1/2 pounds lean beef tenderloin or sirloin, ask the butcher to slice the meat very thin
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 8 slices provolone cheese, from the deli counter
• 4 soft Italian sandwich hoagie rolls (6-8 inches long), split lengthwise

Preparation

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon EVOO, one turn of the pan. Add onions and season with salt and pepper or steak seasoning blend. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until onions are soft and caramel in color.

Heat a heavy griddle pan over medium-high to high heat. Wipe griddle with a drizzle of EVOO using a paper towel. Sear and cook thinly sliced steaks until brown but not crisp, about 2 minutes on each side. Cook steaks in single layers in two batches and tenderize by cutting into meat with the side of your spatula while they cook. When the steaks are browned, and just before you remove them from heat, sprinkle them with garlic salt and pepper.

When all of the steaks are cooked, line each of your split rolls with two slices of provolone cheese. Pile one quarter of your meat and onions onto the griddle and mix together with your spatula. Pile the meat and onions into rolls on top of the cheese. The heat from the meat and onions will melt the cheese. Repeat for remaining servings and serve.


I used Steak-ums instead and chopped it up before I put it in my pan. I also cooked it with black pepper and the garlic salt. They may not taste just like the ones I use to get back east but they are close enough for me.

Pepperoni Chicken Pasta

Zio's Italian Kitchen Chicken Pepperoni

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4-6 ounces good quality sliced pepperoni
1 jar Bertolli Marinara (if you double this recipe, use 3) (or whatever your favorite is)
1 pound penne pasta
1 large sweet onion, julienned or large chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, julienned or large chopped
1 green bell pepper, julienned or large chopped
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced thick
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 small can black olives, drained and sliced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Olive oil
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
Grated Romano or Parmesan cheese (optional)

Put 4 quarts water on to boil in a 6-quart pot. When water is boiling, add pasta.
In hot skillet, add 2 teaspoons olive oil, then sauté onions, peppers, mushrooms and pepperoni until vegetables start to sweat. Add garlic, olives and chicken, stirring often (I cooked my chicken with the garlic and red pepper flakes separate from the veggies, then added the veggies back when the chicken was done) . When chicken is white and onions are translucent, remove from heat (be careful not to overcook vegetables or everything will be too soft)

Drain pasta when done.

In large bowl add pasta, meat mixture, topped with grated mozzarella, covered with marinara and tossed lightly. Top with grated Romano or Parmesan to taste. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

Returning to Blogging

It's been a long while since I've blogged. I've decided to take it up again, but this time I will be blogging about my personal culinary experiences as I test new recipes and creations in the kitchen. Not all of the recipes I post will be my own creation and I will give credit where it is due. There will also be times when I use Tastefully Simple products in my recipes/creations as I am a Tastefully Simple consultant. And I will try to post pictures of my creations.