Recipes from Home-Hamburger Goulash

            Next up this week, is a Phelps County recipe for Hamburger Goulash.  Now, my mom used to make goulash quite a bit and has a very good recipe for it.  So, to be fair, I must admit that to some degree I expected this goulash recipe to taste exactly like my mother’s version.  For obvious reasons, this was not the case!  One thing that I think really makes this recipe different is the barbeque sauce. 

            During dinner, Chris reported that he thought this was one of the most flavorful goulash recipes he had ever tasted.  He absolutely loved it!  While I enjoyed it too, my own expectations prevented me from feeling as strongly about it as Chris did.  I did have it for lunch the next day, and seemed to enjoy it a lot more the second time around. 

            What I would like to do next is make my mom’s version, and see what Chris thinks of that.  This would be a good opportunity for me to compare them more objectively.  I think it seems like I didn’t like this recipe, which is not the case.  If you are looking for a flavorful take on this classic dish, give this recipe a try.  If your mother made this dish and you really enjoyed that version…ask your mother for her recipe!

Slainte!

Recipe:

-1 lb. Hamburger

-1 medium onion, chopped

-1/2 cup green pepper, chopped

-1 tsp. salt

-dash pepper

-2 Tablespoons brown sugar

-2 Tablespoons BBQ sauce

-1 Cup Ketchup

-1 large can diced tomatoes (28 oz)

-1 ½  cups macaroni, cooked

Preparation:

Brown meat, add onion, green pepper, salt, pepper, and brown sugar.  Simmer 10-15 minutes.  Fold in tomatoes, ketchup, BBQ sauce and macaroni.  Simmer ½ hour, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy!

Recipes from Home-Dorito Casserole

            Recipe two of this so-called “Holdrege week” I could hardly wait to make, and it was all I could do to keep Chris from eating the ingredients before I made it!  What is this recipe, you ask?  Well, my friends, it’s called Dorito Casserole!  Does this sound too good to be true, or what?!  To make the story even better, the preparation is very simple and turns out very well.  I was a bit disappointed in the finished product, but think this has more to do with how much I had built this one up in my mind than any real problem with the dish.

            At my house, simplicity is key, and this one certainly fits the bill.  I was running late getting home this night, and asked Chris to just get the meal started for me, and it was seriously all but finished when I walked through the door!  Now if I could just trick him into making all of our meals…

            So, if you are a lover of chips (as I unfortunately am) give this one a try.  I think that it would be one kids would really enjoy as well, and they could help with the preparation by crunching up the chips!  Just make sure to keep those chips hidden (or buy two bags) to avoid falling victim to the appetite of a hungry husband!

Slainte!

Recipe:

-1 lb. ground beef

-1 (10 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

-1 (12 oz.) can enchilada sauce

-1 (16 oz.) bag nacho doritos

-3 cups grated cheddar cheese

-salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Brown ground beef, drain.  Add soup and enchilada sauce, salt and pepper; set aside.  Crush Doritos and in an 8X12 casserole dish layer chips, meat mixture and cheese, repeat layers, ending with cheese.  Bake at 300 degrees until cheese is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Recipes from Home-Reuben Casserole

            A year or so ago, my sister-in-law, Abbie, gave me a cookbook called Favorite Recipes from Phelps Memorial Health Center.  Phelps Memorial Health Center is the name of the hospital in Holdrege, so what this little treasure is, is a compilation of employees best recipes.  So, if you think about it, it is a book filled with everyone’s best.  I mean, if I was asked to submit a recipe for a cookbook, I would certainly bring my “A game.”

            So, I was flipping through it, and decided to have “Holdrege Week” at our house and give 3 different recipes a go.  The first one I selected, Reuben Casserole, I will admit was more for Chris than me.   I myself have never eaten a reuben, but figure since I am now Irish by proxy I better learn to enjoy a little corned beef.  Chris reportedly loves the stuff!

            The recipe was very simple to put together, and the end product was very nice.  While talking it over at dinner, Chris and I both decided that less sauerkraut would have been “more” in this instance.  I would also note that if you are like me and do all of your grocery shopping on Sunday, this needs to be your Monday night dinner if you don’t want your kitchen wreaking of corned beef!  If you enjoy a good reuben, try this out!

Slainte!

Recipe:

-6 slices rye bread, cubed

-1 (16oz) can sauerkraut, drained and rinsed

-1 lb. deli sliced corned beef, cut into strips

-1/4 Cup Thousand Island Dressing

-2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spread bread cubes in bottom on 9 x 13 inch baking dish.  Spread sauerkraut evenly over the bread cubes.  Layer beef strips over sauerkraut.  Pour dressing over all.  Spray aluminum foil with cooking spray and use to cover baking dish.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes.  Remove cover, sprinkle with cheese, and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.  (Bread cubes may be placed on top, rather than the bottom, if preferred).

Enjoy!

Skillet Rib-Eye Steaks & Broiled Peppers with Melted Cheese

            Hi Everyone!  If you hadn’t deduced this by now, my schedule recently has not been conducive to preparing meals and blogging about them.  While I must be honest and admit that not a single meal has been prepared by me over this last week, I do have a backlog of recipes to share with you!  Hopefully, if the coming week goes as planned, I will find myself back on track.  To think that I idealized this time of year and thought that home cooked meals and goodies would be flying out of my kitchen while holiday tunes played in the background.  Maybe this week that will happen…  Hey, a girl can dream!

            The first thing that I would like to share with you is two recipes taken from Martha Stewart’s Dinner at Home cookbook, for Skillet Rib-eye Steaks and Broiled Peppers with Melted Cheese.  This meal was easy and delicious! Chris was in love with the steaks and I think I ate my serving of the peppers and half of his.  Since having them, I cannot get them out of my mind!  They were SO good! 

            Recipes in this cookbook, are organized by season which is really nice, as Martha takes into consideration which ingredients will be more readily available, as well as what kinds of preparation will be more feasible for the given season.  Thus, pan frying the steaks as opposed to grilling, etc.  Remember, Martha knows best!  Try this one soon and let me know how it turns out!

Slainte!

Skillet Rib-Eye Steaks

Recipe:

-2 bone-in-rib-eye steaks (about one lb. each)

-coarsely ground salt and pepper

-1/3 cup loosely packed small rosemary sprigs, leaves picked from stems and coarsely chopped

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-2 garlic cloves

Preparation:

-season steaks with salt and pepper

-sprinkle half of the rosemary on top side of the steaks.  Let sit at room temp for 20 minutes

-heat skilled over medium heat, then add oil and garlic

-add steaks, rosemary side up.  Cook about 5 minutes, then turn.

-cook the other side, then transfer to a cutting board

-add reserved rosemary to skillet, until it begins to sizzle.  Stir and coat with the oil, spoon oil/rosemary mixture over the steaks.  Slice and serve!

Broiled Peppers with Melted Cheese

Recipe:

-4 fresh peppers, halved lengthwise

-Asiago cheese; I used a cheaper version like Monterey jack or something

Preparation:

-heat broiler; place pepper halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet.  Broil about 6 minutes

-remove from heat and add cheese, continue broiling (2-3 minutes) until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Time to Bust Out the Crock Pot!

            Now, I am going to start a contest to see if anyone can come up with an easier recipe than the one I am about to share with you.  I recently participated in an email forward, in which different recipes were shared.  A couple of really great ones came my way and this one for Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing was one of them!

            I literally dumped these ingredients into my never been used crock pot on my way out of the door and came home that evening to a delicious-smelling home and tasty meal!  The only thing that I would have changed, would be to have made it home a bit earlier as it may have spent a bit too much time cooking.  The stuffing and green beans were a fabulous precursor to Thanksgiving festivities.  Try this one for yourselves when you are in the midst of a busy week!

Slainte!

Recipe:

4 boneless chicken breasts (can use frozen breasts, or thawed, just rinse w/water)

1 can cream of chicken soup (or any cream soup)

1 box stove top stuffing

1 can green beans

Preparation:

Place chicken breasts in bottom of a crockpot.  Pour ¼ cup of water over chicken.  Mix soup and stuffing.  Put on top of Chicken breasts. Put green beans on top of stuffing.  Cook on low.  Put into crock pot in morning, ready to eat at 5:00.  OR put on high at noon and done by 5:00.

Enjoy!

Give Thanks!

            2010 has been a year that has brought so many different changes, challenges, and celebrations.  Since last Thanksgiving, we have watched Chris’s father, Bill, recover and be rehabilitated from a stroke, Chris and I got engaged, bought a home, made numerous changes and improvements to that home, planned our wedding, celebrated the birth of baby Kale, cheered on our friend Nicki as she followed her dream of opening her own cheerleading gym, got married, became GodTeen parents to an amazing group of high school freshman, witnessed the strength in Brent, Abbie & Kale as they have together endured two open-heart surgeries and numerous ups and downs in the past four months, witnessed many of our dear friends marry the person of their dreams and welcome beautiful children into the world, set out on a cooking adventure, watched our nephew Carson play soccer and raise funds to one day “kick” diabetes, and just this past weekend we welcomed our newest nephew Jackson to the world.

            While the year has not been light on struggles, I was struck this year with just how much I have to be grateful for.  I am a firm believer that God only gives a person what they can handle, and feel endless gratitude that God has surrounded me with a multitude of amazing individuals that help to cushion the impact of difficult times.  It is these same people that are also responsible for filling my life with abundant joy. 

            This year, unfortunately, our family was scattered in many different places and because of Chris’s job, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving at our home.  My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews were all planning to come before the kiddos were hit with a nasty case of the stomach flu.  This resulted in a party of four for our inaugural Thanksgiving celebration at our home.

            Now, because all of these plans were very last minute, I enlisted some help from the good people at HyVee to take care of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole.  For dessert, I enlisted the pie masters at Village Inn to supply a pumpkin, pecan, and strawberry rhubarb pie for the celebration.  I personally contributed my mother’s famous broccoli rice casserole, cranberry sauce, and a veggie tray.  All of my contributions were very easy and tasty, if I must say so myself.

            The evening before Thanksgiving, I took some food to the hospital for Brent and Abbie (Runza Casserole of course) and made my friend Katie’s yummy pumpkin bread for a little dessert.  This is a gluten free recipe, and I followed Katie’s instructions to use GF flour and I was very pleased with the end product!

            I would recommend trying any of these as we move into the holiday season, as they are very low-stress recipes that result in very nice end products.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and were filled with gratitude for the countless blessings we have been given.

Slainte!

Broccoli Rice Casserole:

Recipe:

-1/2 c. butter

-1 pkg. broccoli (10 oz.)

-1 can cream of mushroom soup

-1/2 c. Cheez Whiz

-1/2 c. milk

-1 1/2 c. instant rice

Preparation:

Melt butter, then add broccoli.  Cook until done.  Add soup,

Cheez Whiz and milk.  Blend, remove from heat.  Cook rice

and add.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. 

Pumpkin Bread:

Recipe:

1 ¾ cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

Preparation:

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon.  Beat shortening until creamy in mixing bowl.  Add sugar gradually and continue beating until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat well.  Add flour mixture alternately with pumpkin, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth.  Turn into well greased bread pa (8 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 inches) and bake in a moderate oven (350° F) about one hour or until bread is done.  Makes one loaf. 

Cranberry Sauce:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/cranberry-sauce-10000001031609/index.html

Enjoy!

I was SO excited to use our fine china for the first time!

Tator Tot Casserole!

I apologize for this post-meal pic!  It is just that good that you dive right in!

            This next recipe I am about to share with you is so simple and tasty, that I should probably keep it to myself to make people think that I am a much better cook than I really am.  While I did wrestle with this for some time, I realized that my sister already shared this one on her blog so the secret is out!  So, I will share with you my thoughts on why you should try this one for yourself.

            First, as Brooke already reported, kids love this!  Our mom made this one for us when we were kiddos, and I think it was one of the first recipes that I asked my mom for after I had started cooking for myself in college.  Wait, that’s a lie because I barely made myself a home-cooked meal until I was in grad school…just ask my college roommates.  In fact, my former roommate Kelli recently made some joke/comment about the amount of frozen chicken nuggets I ate…sick!

            Second, adults love it!  Last Wednesday, Chris and I invited our friend Thomas over to hang out and be the special guest at our GodTeens meeting.  Because we always try to quickly devour a meal before the kids in our group come over, I invited Thomas to join us for dinner as well.  Now, I considered making something that would really impress our special guest, but I had been craving this casserole so much that I had to subject him to it, and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it!  As he was leaving, he commented that it was so good and seemed super easy.  Isn’t this the type of recipe that all women want in their repertoire?

Slainte!

Check out Brooke’s blog for the recipe and preparation, as well as her take on the tots!

http://brookethefamilycook.blogspot.com/2010/11/tater-tot-casserole.html

Enjoy!