Bourbon Mustard

A few years ago, I was looking for something I could send out as Christmas gifts that would be nice but not too pricey. One of the things I found was this recipe from Emeril's portion of the Food Network website. It was so delicious I have kept some in my fridge ever since! Easy too:
The Ingredients

**I have tripled the original recipe because then it uses the entire jar of mustard, the whole little bottle of bourbon and fills my container to the top. Serendipity!!
12 oz container (or 1 1/2 cups) Dijon mustard
3/4 cup honey
1 tiny bottle (or 3 Tbsp) of Bourbon

Empty the mustard bottle into a mixing bowl. To help you get the last of the mustard out, pour the bourbon in the bottle and shake it up.

If you look closely you can see the bourbony mustard at the bottom.

Add the honey.

Whisk it all up. And pour it into a container.

Label your container and enjoy on everything! I'm having some on my pita for lunch.

Hamburger Noodle Bake

This recipe is out of my Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2011 cookbook. It was listed in the chapter "cooking for One or Two" but I doubled the recipe and it worked out very well for us. The original recipe only called for 1/2 pound of meat so doubling wasn't very hard!
The Ingredients:

4 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 pound ground beef, turkey, venison or whatever else you like to use
4 Tbsp finely chopped onion
2 cans (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp thinly sliced green onion (I skipped this)
2 Tbsp chopped green pepper
2 Tbsp sour cream
4 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

WHEW! That sounds like a lot and might make you think this is going to be hard or take a long time but it isn't and it doesn't!! First step, cook the noodles according to package directions. While they cook, brown the meat and onion in a large skillet until meat is no longer pink; drain. Remove from heat; stir in the tomato sauce, sugar, salt, garlic salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, cream cheese, green onion, green pepper and sour cream. When the noodles are done, drain them and place half the cooked noodles in the bottom of a 2 quart baking dish (well greased please).

Spoon half the meat mixture over the noodle base.

Add the cheese mixture next. Use it all.

Follow with the remaining noodles. Spoon the rest of the meat sauce on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until heated through.

Enjoy! This was very good. Kind of like lasagna but not as hard to make and it had a great flavor. We will make this again and again for sure.

4 Cheese Lasagna

I have never tried to make lasagna before even though it is one of my all time favorite things to eat. When I was a kid my mom would by the Stouffer's frozen lasagna and it was like heaven for me. On nights when the rest of the family was having pot pies, I would get the single serve size just for me. Heaven.
I have tried a few that were named "easy" or "quick" or "skillet" but there wasn't enough cheese or the noodles were dry and hard or some other problem. When I got my issue of "Kraft Food & Family" this month and saw the lasagna recipe I thought I would give it a whirl. I am very happy I did!
The Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
1 onion, chopped
1 (8 oz) pkg Neufchatel cheese, softened
1 cup cottage cheese
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 egg, beaten
1 (24 oz) jar spaghetti sauce
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
12 lasagna noodles, cooked

Perhaps the most important ingredient for almost any meal though is:

Moving on! Brown the meat and onion in a large skillet.

While that cooks, mix together the Neufchatel, cottage cheese, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 1/4 cup Parmesan and the egg until well blended.

When the meat is browned, drain any fat and stir in the sauce, tomatoes and oregano. Confession time: I was out of oregano so I used basil. Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat.

Spoon 1 cup of the meat sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

Lay 3 noodles on top of sauce.

Spread 1 cup of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles.

Spread 1 cup of the meat sauce on top of the cheese layer.

Repeat layers twice more and end with a layer of noodles topped with the last of the sauce, remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Spray the underside of a large piece of foil with cooking spray and place it on top of the lasagna.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, then remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. I used my counter-top oven which I had set up on my washing machine in the laundry room. It was a very hot day and the thought of my oven on for over an hour was not a happy one. This way, my house stayed as cool as possible.

Let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving. We dug in before I snapped a picture but you can get the idea here.

It was cheesy and delicious!

More wine?

Menu 8/28 - 9/3--2011

Well, here we go again with me apologizing for how long it has been since I posted anything. Now that school has started up I will be busier but meal are more important so I should be able to post more often. We will see! Here is what we are eating this week in Chaosville:
Sunday: Raley Goulash
Monday: French Dip Roast
Tuesday: Happy 14th Anniversary to us! I am making a new Lasagna recipe that you will see here in the future if we like it.
Wednesday: Poached Tilapia and pasta
Thursday: Happy 4th Birthday to Pattie Lynn! I am making her favorite meal, "french fries and ketchup and water and chicken nuggets" It's what she always orders when we go out so we are making it at home.
Friday: We may or may not have a houseful in town so I need to know how many we are serving before I decide. We may end up going out or ordering in.
Saturday: Triple Threat Birthday Bash!! We are having Triple Tacos: regular, Tilapia and Chicken Ranch varieties

GrapeNuts Peanut Butter Bars

I found this recipe in a cookbook of my sister-in-law's and made it several times last school year. They are a great little treat for after school or in a lunchbox. I kind of forgot about them for a while and recently came across the recipe again and decided to make them today. Since I hadn't blogged them yet, here they are!
The Ingredients:

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

4 cups Grape Nuts (or a reasonable facsimile!)

Mix together the peanut butter, corn syrup and sugar in a microwavable bowl.

Microwave for 2 minutes or just before boiling and smooth. Stir after each minute.





Add cereal and mix well.

Press cereal mixture firmly into bottom of a 13 x 9 dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Cool completely. I like to sprinkle some chocolate chips on the top too. They will melt and then I spread them all over the top before cutting into squares.

Cut into pieces. They don't need to be big. This is a rich little treat and good work for your jaws. A little goes a long way!

YUM!!



Burrito Bake

I bet you thought I was never coming back, huh? It HAS been a long time since I posted anything new here. I haven't been trying out new recipes every week like I thought I would be this summer. I have been sticking to the known. Last night I was making an old recipe of ours and I realized I had never blogged it! So here it is.
The Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef or turkey

1/2 diced onion

1 pkg taco seasoning

3/4 cup water

12 tortillas

1 can refried beans

1 cup shredded colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat and onion in a skillet.



Drain any fat and add taco seasoning and water.

Heat to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in beans.

In a pie pan sprayed with cooking spray, place 4 tortillas overlapping edges to cover the bottom completely.

Top with half the meat mixture.

And half the cheese.



Repeat layers once and finish with the last 4 tortillas on the top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes to heat through.

Cut into wedges and serve.

You can top this with anything you would put on a taco or burrito. It's really tasty!

Menu 6/12 - 6/18--2011

Wow,  it has been a long time since I did a menu post! Here is what I hope to make this week and we will see how that turns out.
Sunday– Roast Au Jus


Monday–Chicken Fried Rice

Tuesday–Double Decker Tacos

Wednesday–Pork and Noodle Skillet

Thursday– Chicken Spaghetti

Friday–Beef Stroganoff

Saturday–Might have to be a leftover night!!