Rib Tips

This is one DE-licious and easy dinner.

1. Buy a package of meat at the store. The label will say rib-tips. They're pork.(sorry if that sounds dumb, but I need dummy directions, esp. when it comes to meat.)
2. Pull our your broiler pan (mine came with the oven)
3. Lay out your meat and season it with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Season both sides.
4. Pop it in the oven, low broiler setting for about 8-10 min.
5. Turn it over and cook the other side for 8-10 more min.Easy right? (It's done when the meat kind of curls away from the bone.)
6. Now pull out your heavy-duty kitchen shears. This is the fun part. Chop up your little rib strips into bite-size pieces.
7. Throw them in an oven-safe dish and cover them with your favorite BBQ sauce.
8. Cover them up and throw them under the broiler for 20 or so minutes.

Enjoy!

So easy and so tasty. Shaw boys can't get enough of these puppies.

Beef and Broccoli

What a sad food blog that never gets updated... Even though I don't have time to post a lot of the recipes I try, I use this site often to find a recipe for something I've made in the past or to search the links of food blogs I love to check out for new ideas. It's a way to help me organize recipes as well so they don't sit forever in a folder in my kitchen. I don't think anyone even reads this blog so I'm talking to myself, but there's an explanation just in case!

I love Chinese food and have a few standard dishes I usually make like ham fried rice or sweet and sour pork. My husband loves beef and broccoli so I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen which is a huge community of recipe sharing and a good place to try if you need ideas! I made a couple changes because I didn't have oyster sauce and I don't like mushrooms. It was easy and delicious and worthy of adding here since I'll make it again.

Beef and Broccoli

• 1 pound Top Round Steak (I used Sirloin)
  
• 1 tsp Cornstarch
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce, divided
• ⅛ tsp Pepper
• ¾ cup Chicken Broth, divided
• ¼ cup Oyster Sauce (optional)
  
• 2 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp Oil, divided
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• ½ tsp Fresh Ginger Root, grated (I used dried)
  
• 1-½ cup Fresh Mushrooms, sliced (no thank you)
  
• 1 slice Onion, sliced
• 3 cups Broccoli Florets

Cut beef lengthwise with the grain into 2″ strips. Slice beef strips across the grain into thin slices. Toss beef with 1 teaspoon cornstarch, sugar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and pepper, cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Combine 1/2 cup chicken broth, oyster sauce, remaining soy sauce and cornstarch, set aside. Heat wok, add 1 tablespoon oil and rotate to coat inside. Add beef, garlic and ginger and stir fry until beef is brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from wok. Add 1 tablespoon oil to wok, add mushrooms, onions and broccoli, stir fry 3-4 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup chicken broth and beef and heat to boiling. Stir in cornstarch mixture, cook and stir until thickened, about 1 minute. Serve with steamed rice.

Asian Chicken Salad

I saw this salad on a cooking show the other day and thought it looked really good. I never order salads like this in a restaurant, but thought it would be good to try and easy to make since I did a more scaled back version than the original.

Asian Chicken Salad

1 large carrot, peeled
3 cups shredded napa cabbage
3 cups shredded romaine lettuce
2 cups thinly sliced store-bought rotisserie chicken (about 2 small chicken breasts)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1/2 cup chow mein noodles, for garnish

You can totally make the dressing yourself or I used Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing.

For the salad: Using a vegetable peeler, shave the carrot and add to a large salad bowl. Stir in the cabbage, lettuce, chicken and sesame seeds. Pour the dressing and toss well, adding the chow mein noodles right before you serve. It was a nice change to the regular salads we usually have for summer dinners.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I love blueberry muffins--even the ones made from a mix in a box. Fresh blueberries make all the difference though and these were plenty easy to make.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp lemon zest
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
*Optional struesel topping & lemon glaze

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir until well blended. Make a well in center of mixture. Place egg, butter and milk in center and stir just until blended. Carefully stir in lemon zest and blueberries. Fill 6 jumbo muffin cups or 12 regular muffin cups. Sprinkle with struesel topping if you like. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle with lemon glaze.

The original recipe added both the struesel topping and glaze, but I opted to do just the glaze (1/2 c powdered sugar mixed with 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice).

Salsa

This year we grew five tomato plants (one Roma) in our garden and we've never had better success. In the past we've had problems with the deer, then big disgusting caterpillars, and now we're finally able to pick several tomatoes a week. JP has made salsa a few times now using a recipe from his aunt and he finally has it perfected.


Salsa

Tomatoes, diced--about 2 cups
2 bunches green onions (using just the onion, not the green stems)
1 can diced green chilies
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
cilantro, to taste
salt, to taste
1 jalapeno, diced (optional, if you like heat, add more)

The first time JP made this, he put everything in the food processor and mixed it all at once, but now he has a scientific process of adding the tomatoes in batches to get just the right consistency. It's easy to adjust the heat by adding more (or less) jalapeno and it will get a little more kick after storing in the refrigerator. I'm not looking forward to going back to the store-bought stuff after our tomatoes run out.

Cordon Bleu Wraps

I can't remember where I found this recipe in the many food sites I've come across, but I printed it out and made it the other week and it was a big hit. These would be perfect for an appetizer or a meal which is what we did.

Cordon Bleu Wraps

1 Rotisserie chicken from the deli
1 pkg. refrigerated biscuits (8 count)
2 Tbsp. honey Dijon mustard
Italian seasoning
4 slices Swiss cheese, cut into 4 smaller pieces
4 slices of deli ham, cut into 4 smaller pieces
16 fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and steamed (being the vegetable lover I am, I left these out but it was because they didn't look good at the grocery store...I'll include them next time...probably)

Remove all the white meat from the chicken and break off in medium size chunks. You will need about 16 pieces or so depending on the size. Remove biscuits from packaging; cut each one in half. Place on floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, flatten each piece into thin rectangles. Divide mustard evenly among 16 pieces of biscuit dough and spread on each piece. Sprinkle Italian seasoning to taste on top of each layer of mustard. Top each with one piece of ham, cheese, chunk of chicken and one steamed asparagus spear. Wrap dough around the filling and press edges together where dough overlaps. Place on a baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees or until dough is golden brown and cheese is melted. Serve hot and prepare to eat a lot of them, they're addicting!

Cool 'n Easy Strawberry Pie

Found this repice at Kraft Foods. I love easy desserts, especially when they involve fruit so this one's a keeper.

Cool 'n Easy Strawberry Pie

2 cups fresh strawberries

2/3 cup boiling water

1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
ice cubes

1/2 cup cold water

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP, thawed

1 ready-to-use graham cracker crumb crust (6 oz.)

SLICE strawberries; set side. Add boiling water to gelatin mix; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice to cold water to make 1 cup. Add to gelatin; stir until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice.

WHISK in COOL WHIP. Stir in chopped berries. Refrigerate 20 to 30 min. or until mixture is very thick and will mound. Spoon into crust.

REFRIGERATE 6 hours or until firm.

The recipe calls for half the strawberries to go in the pie and the rest to go on top. We thought the more in the pie the better so that's all I did differently.

French Toast Cups

I've been avoiding going to the grocery store this week so I'm fixing meals with things we have on hand. JP made french bread earlier in the week so I decided we'd do breakfast for dinner one night and have french toast. Instead of the regular kind we always make, we tried something a little different based on this recipe. Very easy to make, good with or without the apples, and easy to adjust the recipe based on how much you want to make. And I didn't do the glaze from the original recipe, we just used syrup.

French Toast Cups

(Makes 6)

4 slices bread, cut into cubes

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of ground nutmeg

For the apples:

1 large apple of your choice, cut into cubes

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a medium skillet, saute apples with butter and cinnamon for about 5 minutes, or until soft. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg until well combined. Add bread cubes and mix together until all the bread is saturated. Add the apples and mix until well distributed.

3. Using a regular size muffin tin, scoop bread evenly into 6 of the muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until set and lightly golden brown.

Happy Easter

"Originally Peeps were piped by hand, each one taking nearly a day to make. Eventually the process was mechanized. Now, 2 million Peeps are hatched each day." (via Peeps 101)

Sausage Potato Soup

All winter I wanted to try making a new soup recipe and I finally got around to it now that it's spring. I tried this recipe I found, minus the secret ingredients because I'm boring like that...maybe next time. There will be a next time too because it was a keeper--we enjoyed it.

Sausage Potato Soup

6 medium potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
1 lb. bulk pork sausage (I used chicken)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup light cream
1/4 cup butter
6 cups chicken stock
freshly ground black pepper
*secret ingredients:
1 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Bring chicken stock to a boil in a large pan. Add potatoes and onions. Cook until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, brown sausage in a separate pan. Add the cooked sausage to the potatoes and stock. Add the cream and butter. Stir until butter is melted. Add the vanilla and balsamic vinegar right before serving.

*Update: last time I made this I added some frozen spinach (about 1/3 of the box) and it is soo good. Similar to the potato soup from The Olive Garden. Makes it a little more healthy, right? And I didn't have any cream so I used a can of Cream of Chicken soup and it worked fine.

Coconut Cake

If you don't like coconut, don't be afraid of trying this cake. You could easily use fruit like strawberries or pineapple to decorate with and change up the flavor...or just leave it plain. This cake is pretty fancy as it's frosted with a pudding/Cool Whip mixture! Actually, I thought it was pretty good and easy to make so can't beat that.

Coconut Cake

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
7 oz. bag of baker's coconut
1 cup cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed

Prepare cake as directed on package; stir in 2/3 cup of the coconut. Pour evenly into 2 (9-inch) round cake pans. Bake as directed on package. Cool 10 min. Remove cake layers from pans to wire racks; cool completely.

Pour milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix and sugar. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended; mixture will be thick. Gently stir in whipped topping. Refrigerate 15 min.

Place 1 of the cake layers on serving plate; spread top with 1 cup of the pudding mixture. Sprinkle with coconut and cover with second cake layer. Spread top and sides with remaining pudding mixture then press coconut into the frosting. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Store leftover cake in the refrigerator.

Mini Cheesecakes

I realize this site is long overdue for an update! I've been trying new recipes and keep thinking in the back of my mind I need to share them here...it just hasn't happened lately. I have a goal to do at least one new post a week so we'll see how that goes now that I've put it in writing. I have been finding fun new sites and updating the links to the right so check those out when you're looking for ideas.

My mom has always made mini cheesecakes as a dessert for baby showers or other get-togethers and I found a recipe online that I tried over the holidays. These are very easy and would be fun to try different toppings on whether you use canned pie filling, jam, fresh fruit or anything creative you come up with.

Mini Cheesecakes

2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 vanilla wafers
1 can pie filling (I used blueberry) or whatever else you want to top with

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup (12 total) of muffin pan. Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Place a vanilla wafer FLAT side down, in each muffin cup. Spoon cream cheese mixture over wafers filling each to about 1/4 inch from top of paper. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow tarts to cool completely before filling. When you remove the tarts from the oven, they will be puffed up, but as they cool, the center will sink, creating the perfect well to fill with a couple of spoonfuls of your favorite filling. Chill thoroughly before serving.