Hobby Stash

February 10th, 2009

Carrot-Raisin Salad

Delicious and easy to make!

Ingredients:

3/4 pound carrots, scraped and shredded
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon lemon juice

Preparation:

Combine carrot, raisins, and walnuts in a bowl.

Combine mayonnaise and remaining 3 ingredients, stirring well; add to carrot mixture. Toss gently. Cover and chill.

Posted in Salads & Dressings
By Linda

February 6th, 2009

Mexican Chicken and Rice

One of the problems with having a recipe database, is that an old time favorite occasionally get lost in the shuffle.  I made this one again last week and served it with Mexican Bread Pudding. It’s wonderfully cheesy (well yeah look at the amount of cheese…). But I did it slightly different from the original recipe. I no longer use whole chickens…no time, I’m lazy, you pick the reason. I used boneless chicken breasts (thighs would be great as well).  It is important to cook rice for about half the normal time you would use. Otherwise it will be overcooked in the finished casserole.

Ingredients:

1 3-lb chicken
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup Uncle Ben’s rice
2 cups water
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 (2 oz) jar pimientos
1 (4 oz) can green chillies
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese, grated
8 oz Cheddar cheese, grated

Cooking Instructions:

Stew chicken with bouillon cubes; remove bones and chop into bite-size pieces. Cook rice in water just until tender.

Saute onions in margarine; then add garlic, cumin, chili powder, pimientos, and green chilies. Set aside.

In saucepan, heat chicken soup, broth, and sour cream; then add Monterrey Jack cheese. Stir until cheese melts and add onion mixture.

Spray 3-quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Put rice in bottom of dish, add chopped chicken and top with soup mixture.

Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes until heated through. Add grated Cheddar chees and return to oven for 5 minutes until cheese melts.

Posted in Casseroles, Poultry
By Linda

February 2nd, 2009

Mexican Bread Pudding

This is absolutely delicious!  This can be served as a dessert or as a side dish to a breakfast quiche. It’s almost like eating a cinnamon and raisin roll.

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
5 cups 1/2-inch cubes toasted French bread
1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds or walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 tart apple, chopped
1 cup shredded or diced Monterrey Jack or Cheddar cheese (4 oz)

Cooking Instructions:

Heat brown sugar, water, margarine, cinnamon, and orange peel to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes.

Layer half the bread cubes, nuts, raisins, apple and cheese in ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole; repeat. Pour hot syrup over top.

Bake uncovered in 350° oven until syrup is absorbed, 30-40 minutes.

Posted in Bread
By Linda

January 28th, 2009

Mexican Bread Pudding

This is absolutely delicious! I used walnuts and added extra walnuts and raisins to the recipe. This can be served as a dessert or as a side dish to a breakfast quiche. It’s almost like eating a cinnamon and raisin roll…

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
5 cups 1/2-inch cubes toasted French bread
1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds or walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 tart apple, chopped
1 cup shredded or diced Monterrey Jack or Cheddar cheese (4 oz)

Cooking Instructions:

Heat brown sugar, water, margarine, cinnamon, and orange peel to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes.

Layer half the bread cubes, nuts, raisins, apple and cheese in ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole; repeat. Pour hot syrup over top. Bake uncovered in 350° oven until syrup is absorbed, 30-40 minutes.

Posted in Bread
By Linda

January 22nd, 2009

Chicken Breasts with Peanut Sauce

Now that I know the jar of peanut butter I’ve had for months is safe, I’ve decided this is what we’re having for dinner tonight. I haven’t made it in awhile. Based on my old note, I’ll spice it up a bit. I do remember it being extremely easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 medium skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Cooking Instructions:

In 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Add chicken breasts and cook 7 to 10 minutes until juices run clear when pierced with tip of knife, turning once. Transfer chicken to warm platter.

Stir peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and 2/3 cup water into drippings in skillet; stir until smooth and heated through. Pour sauce over chicken on platter.

Additional Comments:

I just had to try this recipe because it was so different. I used red wine vinegar (didn’t have the white). If you like spicy Chinese dishes, I would suggest doubling the red pepper–we couldn’t taste it in the sauce. Very very easy recipe to make!

Posted in Poultry
By Linda

January 19th, 2009

Linda’s Chili

I woke up this morning and decided that today would be a good day to make a big batch of chili. The reality is my chili recipe is just a guideline. Each batch is different, depending on what I have in stock.  So I use this recipe more or less as a proportion guideline. Today I will be substituting 1 lb. of Jimmy Dean’s hot sausage for 1 lb. of the ground beef. I don’t have any green peppers on hand so I’ll probably substitute a can of green chiles. I’m sitll undecided on whether or not to include some El Pato tomato sauce to spice it up…I’ll add a comment tomorrow with the conglomeration I finally chose…

Ingredients:

3 lb lean ground beef, cooked and crumbled
2 [16 oz] cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 [15 oz] cans tomato sauce
8 oz tomato juice
1 [18 oz] can B&M beans, original flavor
2-3 small green peppers, chopped
1 pkg fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 [15 oz] can Green Giant niblets corn
2 sweet onions, chopped
4 tsp. chili pepper
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp. pepper

Cooking Instructions:

In large crockpot or dutch oven, mix all ingredients. If cooked on stove, stir occasionally and cook for 1 1/2 hours. In crockpot, cook on low 4-6 hours.

Additional Comments:

Makes a very large batch which I freeze. I’ve used it as a topping for cheese enchiladas, as a dip, for taco salad, and of course as chili itself.

Posted in Soups & Stews
By Linda

January 16th, 2009

Robyn’s Corn Casserole

Way easy and way good!

Ingredients:

1 can whole corn
1 can creamed corn
1 stick butter or margarine, melted
1 cup sour cream
1 (8 oz) box corn muffin mix

Preparation:

Grease 2 quart casserole dish. Pour ingredients into casserole dish and stir to mix. Bake uncovered at 350° for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

How simple is that!?

Posted in Vegetables
By Linda

January 14th, 2009

Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

This recipe is an adaptation of my mom’s recipe, which she made for decades. She used to use a packaged mix for blue cheese dressing (very hard to find anymore) and her own homemade yogurt (the best!). This extremely easy to make dressing beats the bottled varieties by a mile!

Ingredients:

4 oz crumbled blue cheese (1 cup)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup plain yogurt
1 package Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
Seasoning salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Mix ingredients.

Serving Suggestions:

I’ve tried making this with lite mayonnaise and have been unsuccessful (turns to soup after a day or so). If you want to give it a shot, I recommend cutting back on the vegetable oil.

Posted in Salads & Dressings
By Linda

January 11th, 2009

Vidalia Onion Casserole

This incredibly easy and oh so delicious recipe was passed on to me years ago by my dear friend and Georgia native, Karyn Drage. You can, of course, use another sweet onion, such as Texas 1013s, Wallas Wallas, Mayan Sweets, etc. But in my opinion….there’s nothing like Vidalias.

Ingredients:

5 large Vidalia onions
2 sticks of margarine
1 stack of Ritz crackers, crushed
Kraft grated Parmesan cheese
milk, as required

Cooking Instructions:

Peel onions, slice into thin rings and saute in margarine for 15-20 minutes or until clear.

Place half of the onions into casserole. Top with half the crushed crackers and sprinkle generously with Parmesan. Repeat layers ending with cheese. Sprinkle remaining margarine from pan over top. Bake uncovered at 325° for 30 minutes. Add milk if dry after baking (not uncommon in high altitudes).

Posted in Vegetables
By Linda

January 7th, 2009

Linda’s Lasagna

Okay, I’ll admit it, I cheat! I used to make my spaghetti sauce from scratch and use it in a variety of Italian dishes. I tried Prego instead one day and discovered it worked just as well when I’m running low on my spaghetti sauce supply.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 lb pork sausage
1-4 lb 2 oz jar Prego
2 lbs Ricotta, drained
2 large eggs
3/4 cup Kraft grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 lbs lasagna noodles
2 tbsp olive oil
16 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 lb mozzarella, thinly sliced

Cooking Instructions:

Reserve 2 cups of Prego sauce and set aside. Brown together beef and pork. Drain. Mix remaining Prego sauce with meat. Set aside.

Mix together ricotta cheese, eggs, and kraft parmesan. Set aside.

Cook lasagna noodles with olive oil in boiling water for 8 minutes (al dente). Drain and immediate spray with cold water until noodles have cooled and stopped cooking.

Arrange in layers (see below). Cover loosely with foil and bake 65 minutes at 375°.

Remove from oven and let stand 30 minutes to 3 hours before cutting. To rewarm cover and cook at 325° for 15-45 minutes depending on how long it has been standing.

Layers:

–3/4 cup meat sauce
–Noodles lengthwise to cover bottom and overhang short ends of dish 2 inches
–2 cups meat sauce
–1/2 cup fresh parmesan
–Noodles crosswise to cover bottom and overhang long ends of dish 2 inches
–Ricotta mixture
–Noodles lengthwise to cover
–Mozzarella
–1 cup meat sauce
–1 cup fresh parmesan
–Noodles lengthwise to cover
–2 cups meat sauce
–1/2 cup fresh parmesan
–Turn over ends of lasagna; cover with remaining meat sauce, reserved Prego sauce, and remaining fresh parmesan

Additional Comments:

I adapted the layer process from a recipe I saw on the Today show. I really like overlapping the noodles. Care must be taken, however, to cover the overlaps with sauce so they do not dry out. Also, I make a variety of substitutions to this recipe depending on my mood and what I have on hand. Cottage cheese works for the Ricotta. Italian sausage (I like the sweet) works for pork sausage as does turkey sausage. And you can certainly use your own special sauce.

Posted in Casseroles
By Linda