Hot German Potato Salad

This recipe is based on this: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-German-Potato-Salad-III/Detail.aspx

I have altered it so that there is more sauce and bacon, as it is too dry otherwise. This makes a lot of food, enough to feed 4 people at least as a main course. David really likes this because it has so many of his favorite flavors.

Ingredients

9 potatoes, peeled

1/2 lb bacon

2 small onions or 1 large

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon celery seed

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 1/2 cup water

2/3 cup distilled white vinegar

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 30 minutes. Drain, cool and slice thin.

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside, reserving drippings (only save a small amount, pour the rest into a used aluminum can or glass jar to cool.

Saute onions in bacon drippings until they are golden-brown.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, celery seed, and pepper. Add to the sauteed onions and cook and stir until bubbly, then remove from heat. Stir in water and vinegar, then return to the stove and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for one minute. Carefully stir bacon and sliced potatoes into the vinegar/water mixture, stirring gently until potatoes are heated through.

Porcini Mushroom Risotto

Porcini Mushroom Risotto
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Porcini-Mushroom-Risotto-108603

I left out the fennel seeds and used one onion in place of the shallots (as I usually do). And I used only a half cup of grated parmesan cheese (real, not Kraft). I like risotto in general, and it's a great way to use porcini mushrooms. This recipe also uses the pressure cooker, though it needed to cook a bit more after taking the lid off the pressure cooker. There was still some liquid to be incorporated and stirring needed to make it creamy. Make sure to use arborio rice for the creamy risotto effect.

Cardamom Honey Chicken

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cardamom_honey_chicken/

This was good, not too sweet. I cooked it longer than the 20 minutes recommended by the recipe since that did not seem like long enough to me. I used 4 chicken breast quarters and cooked for about 50 minutes. It might have been too long. I'm not good at gauging these things.

Zucchini with Beef and Garbanzo beans

http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2006/11/zucchini-with-beef-and-garbanzo-beans.html

David loved this. I thought it was sort of bland, but I liked the method of cooking garbanzo beans from scratch. They were really good by themselves, I ate a bunch before putting the rest in the soupy mixture.

Originally I thought this was supposed to be soup, but then I happened to see that it should be served on top of rice or bulgar pilaf. So I did rice.

Turkey Divan

I made Turkey Divan from the Fanny Farmer cookbook--a very old one! Clearly, I have been using up leftover frozen thanksgiving turkey lately. This would have been great with some bread.

This is the recipe.

Layer in a small casserole dish:

4 stalks cooked broccoli (not sure what this means. I used 2 broccoli heads and steamed them for 15 min)

Leftover turkey (1-2 cups)

2-3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

sauce (see below)

More Parmesan.

Bake at 350 for 12 min until "delicately brown". Whatever that means.

-------------------------

Sauce:

1 cup cream sauce (see below)

stir 2 egg yolks into cream sauce

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Cream sauce:

Melt in double boiler or small heavy pan:

2 T butter

2 T flour

Blend well.

Slowly stir in 1 cup milk. (use whisk). Bring slowly to a boil, then boil 2 minutes. Stir constantly

Salt and pepper to taste.

French Toast

This is how I make french toast (this will make 6-8 pieces)

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and dip bread slice into mixture. Then cook on griddle or in pan. It's yum! I like it a lot more than DH though...

Corn and Wild Rice Soup

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Corn-and-Wild-Rice-Soup-with-Smoked-Sausage-833

This soup was good, but a bit sweet. I halved the recipe, and it still made a lot. I tried to cook the wild rice in the pressure cooker (for 20 min), but it didn't work so well. The rice cooked, but the liquid was not absorbed. Also, I left out the half and half. The sausage used for this was a safeway brand u-shaped smoked sausage, but it actually had corn syrup added so it made the soup sweeter than it should have been. The corn was plenty sweet as it was. Next time I'll use real Kielbasa.

Turkey Pot Pie

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Turkey-Pot-Pie-I/Detail.aspx

This recipe was really good, and fit well into a 9 inch deep dish pie pan. I did a double crust, but it was too rich. Next time I'll do a single crust for the top. This recipe is plenty for 4 adults.

Update:
I made 1.5 times the recipe and it fit perfectly in 2 standard 9 inch pie pans (not deep). This would feed 6 adults.

Tortellini Soup

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cheese-Tortellini-Soup-with-Cannellini-Kielbasa-and-Kale-106143

DH and I liked this. I used a 12 oz package of dry trader joes cheese tortellini and halved the rest of the recipe. It turned out more like tortellini stew. The kielbasa I'd purchased was a generic safeway brand, and it was a touch sweet. I think next time I'll buy real kielbasa (the U shaped sausage) and use less tortellini. It was still good though.

Cheesecake

This was my first attempt at making cheesecake. At first I was going to do it in the crock pot, but I didn't have enough time so converted it to the oven. It is loosely based on this recipe: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-cheesecake-recipe.html

This fits in a standard 8 inch spring form pan. It is a short cake though, about 1 inch tall.

Crust:

10 graham crackers crushed to crumbs (I used a food processor, but a rolling pin and a ziplock bag would work too)

4 T butter, melted

Filling:

16 oz cream cheese (I used neufchatel as it's 1/3 the calories and tastes the same)

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 T flour

Heat oven to 350 F.

Mix crumbs and butter until mixture is wet and butter is evenly distributed. It will still be sort of dry looking, but darker. Press into the bottom of spring form pan. Mix ingredients of filling slowly. I had to let the mixer work on it for several minutes so that it had a smooth consistency like frosting. You need a hand mixer or kitchen aid mixer. I used a hand mixer and put it on the highest setting. Pour filling into spring form pan.

Put a cookie sheet on the lower rack in the oven and fill it with several cup of water. The cheesecake is supposed to be in a water bath, but since I used a spring form pan I didn't want to risk water leaking into the cheesecake. Thus, I opted for a steam bath. On the middle rack I put the spring form pan. I baked it for 40 minutes, but that was too long. I should have checked it at 20 minutes, and then every 5 minutes from then on. It should be done when the sides are set but center is still soft. The cheesecake did not crack, but I'm not sure if that is due to the shortness of the cheesecake or the steam.

DH loved it! I, however, could only handle it in small amounts. It is sooooo rich. It would be great with a fruit topping.

Garlic Fries

http://www.purplefoodie.com/2009/04/garlicky-baked-fries.html

This is a great recipe for garlic fries. They are so delicious and are baked, not fried, so the fat content is lower. I made it once before, and DH loved it! This time, I wasn't able to distribute the coating quite as regularly as I wanted so it was only a 4 this time. But it has so much potential. It is VERY garlicky. If you have big cloves, use only half what it calls for.

An 8 oz potato is no doubt an extremely large one. I have a small scale (SUPER useful!) and so I weighed out some of my small potatoes to get it to about 24 oz. I think it was 5. They just barely fit on a large cookie sheet (12x17).

Note: To get the coating evenly distributed and not stuck in clumps on the side of the bowl, transfer the hot potatoes to a clean dry bowl before adding the coating. That way, there are fewer sticky surfaces for the coating to adhere to.

Beef Stroganoff

This recipe is loosely based on this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Beef-Stroganoff-3317

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves
2-3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoons butter (optional--depending on how lean the beef is)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour or gluten-free all purpose flour
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can beef broth
1/2 to 1 cup sour cream (great both ways!)


Directions
Heat large skillet. Add meat and brown. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic to skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes until onion is tender. Blend in flour. Add ketchup and broth. Simmer until thickened.

Add sour cream after heat is turned off. Serve over hot noodles or rice

Chicken Masala

This chicken was really delicious. I used leg/thigh quarters. One quarter per person is plenty, but I used 3 so there would be extra. I made mashed potatoes and broccoli to go with the meal. I put the chicken in a zip-lock bag with the marinade in the morning so it would be ready to go straight into the oven at night.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Easy-Chicken-Masala-357252

Shepherd's Pie

This recipe is based on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shepherds-Pie-VI/Detail.aspx, but follows the alterations made by "Erin0220" in the comments.

DH and I both really like this. It is a good meal to take to a neighbor too, since it's a one dish meal.

• 4 large potatoes, peeled (or not peeled) and cut into fourths (i.e. one potato becomes 4 large chunks)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• milk
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (or less, or completely omit)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 carrots, chopped (or 3 carrots plus some green beans)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef (works well with 1/2 lb too, even without lamb)
• 1/2 pound ground lamb (optional, but awesome)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ketchup (or 2?)
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 packet brown gravy mix
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash. Mix in butter, 1/4 cup shredded cheese, and some milk. The amount of milk depends on the consistency you want. I like it creamy so it can be spread easily. As it cools, you'll need to add more milk to maintain the creamy consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
2. Steam carrots and green beans, or saute until cooked. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and cook until clear. Add ground beef/lamb and cook until well browned. Pour off excess fat, then stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, water, and gravy mix. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Spread the ground beef in an even layer on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Next, spread a layer of carrots/green beans. Top with the mashed potato mixture and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mushroom and Leek Soup

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mushroom-and-Leek-Soup-with-Parsley-Dumplings-357310

I halved this recipe, first of all. I followed the directions closely, but when it came time to begin making the dumplings I decided not to since it was already dinner time and I didn't want to eat late.

After trying the soup, I realized that the dumplings are really important. The soup had a nice flavor, but it needed something else in it to make it satisfying. The dumplings would have fulfilled that role. Or perhaps barley or rice would work well too. But as is, the soup on its own is way too light.

Neither of us are excited about leftovers...perhaps I will freeze it or turn it into risotto or something.

Eggplant Caponata

https://web.archive.org/web/20120209221400/http://norecipes.com:80/blog/2009/02/07/eggplant-caponata

I adore this recipe. It is simple with few ingredients, but so full of flavor. It is not meant to eaten plain--you eat it on top of sliced sourdough bread (or regular french bread is fine). Don't wait too long to use your eggplant--it should be pale green and not brown inside. Whenever I leave an eggplant in the fridge for a week it has usually turned light brown and splotchy (inside) by then. I'm not sure if brown eggplant = nasty eggplant, but it probably isn't as good as it could be. The leftovers are awesome.

Note: I tried this with green bell pepper instead of red and it was definitely inferior.

Also, the last time I made this I didn't let the eggplant sit very long and it turned out very bitter. I'm not sure if that was a fluke or not. It was imported mexican eggplant.