We sometimes get requests from our loyal readers for certain recipes and one we recently received was for chicken tortilla soup. This worked out perfectly because I happen to be a huge fan of tortilla soup and I have never made it before. So, I happily took on this challenge and made it on a very cold Sunday afternoon.
I braised a chuck roast with some veggies. The pot was deglazed with bourbon which added to the sauce. It was tender and flavorful on a fall day!
Posted in Beef, Uncategorized
Tagged Beef, beef broth, bourbon, bourbon deglazed, braised, braised recipe, Carrot, chuck roast, dutch oven, garlic, onion
I felt a bit like I was in a cooking rut and wanted to switch it up somehow. We hadn’t had pork in a while and I found an inspiration for spinach and feta stuffed pork chops rubbed with fresh sage.
Filet and some good friends
We had an absolute feast with some friends featuring grilled filet mignon with sauteed mushrooms and onions, spicy red pepper mac n cheese, rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes, and creamed spinach. The Strip District struck again! I had wanted to get a log of filet for quite some time because the price goes down as you buy a bigger cut, so we called on some friends to help us out.
Posted in Beef, Uncategorized
Tagged American, Beef, creamed spinach, dinner ideas, filet mignon, garlic, grilled, homemade, mac n cheese, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, Meat, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, rosemary, sauteed, spicy, spicy mac n cheese, spinach
So, we did not end up making it to the next round of project food blog (sad I know) but we were inspired by the next challenge anyway. The challenge was to make an ethnic dish that you never have before. Hence, kung pao shrimp.
Posted in Seafood
Tagged bok choy, Chinese black vinegar, Chinese food, garlic, Ginger, kung pao sauce recipe, Kung Pao Shrimp recipe, low carb, red chilis, rice wine, shrimp, water chestnuts
I got some green beans at the farmer’s market and planned to saute them with some olive oil, butter and garlic when I remembered I also had some slivered almonds in the pantry.
Green beans almondine is a classic dish and I decided to give it a try but didn’t want to leave out the garlic. We’re big garlic lovers so I figured it would go over well… and it did! This side dish was created on the fly and was so good that I’ll definitely be making it again!
We served it along with some broiled scrod (which is good and great). I didn’t take any pictures of the process but it was very simple.
I sauteed/steamed the green beans in some olive oil and a little butter. I toasted the almond slices and then added them to the green beans along with some garlic, butter and salt and pepper. That’s about all it took to create this tasty side dish!
– Eileen
Recipe for Garlicky Green Beans Almondine (Green Beans with Almonds)
I love lasagna but I have found that making it in a traditional rectangular lasagna pan limits the amount of layers and fillings I can add. So I decided to try something different this time around and made my lasagna in a dutch oven. For those who do not have a dutch oven you could also use the ceramic pot of your crock pot as the vessel for this classic dish.
I started off by making my fillings for the lasagna. First I sauteed some onions and mushrooms and set those aside.
Another filler I typically add is sausage. For this dish I used hot Italian Sausage.
I just cook it up and try to break it down into small bite size pieces. Once it’s cooked through I drain it and set it aside as well.
The next filler is one of the most important- the ricotta cheese. To the ricotta I add an egg, freshly minced garlic, and my dried spices- typically salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper.
Once all the fillers are set it’s time to assemble everything. I cooked the pasta as the directions on the box specified (I used Dreamfields low carb pasta) and gathered tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella as well.
Then it’s really up to you how you want to layer everything. I always start of with a layer of sauce and then noodles.
Here you get a sense of the depth of this pot.
I trimmed my pasta so it would fit in here. Obviously with the round dish it’s a bit more challenging, but it worked out just fine.
I sort of freestyle the rest of the layers- ricotta, sauce, pasta. Sausage, sauce, pasta. Mushrooms and onions, sauce, pasta… you get the idea. Go until you reach the top or you run out of ingredients! I topped it all with some shredded mozzarella.
The next step is to bake it. What I also loved about using the dutch oven was that I could cover it using the lid. In the past when I used the lasagna pan I would cover it with tin foil and since I would fill the pan to the top the cheese would always melt and stick to the tin foil. When I would take the foil off, half of the cheese would come off too. By using the lid here I was able to avoid that mess.
I baked it for about 35-40 minutes at 375 degrees and took the lid off for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Once the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted it’s done. Its tough to do this, but if you can let it rest for a good 15 minutes before you cut it. Easier said than done though! 
It came out great. You can see all the layers below.
It takes a while to prep this dish but as you can probably guess you will have leftovers for days. Leftover Italian dishes always taste better than the first night too! I hope you like this one.
– Eileen
Spicy Thai basil beef is always one of our favorite dishes to get when we go out for Thai food and this was the first time that I have tried to make it. It turned out to be pretty easy and was really good, and since it was made at home, the portion was much bigger and cheaper than you would ever get out at a restaurant.
These are the veggies that were used and that is Thai basil. I sauteed them in their own pan to begin with in sesame oil. I started these up, minus the basil and had them going while I got started on the beef.
For the beef, I used flank steak which is not the usual type of cut that you would use for a dish like this. Usually, a cheaper cut like top round would be used, but the flank was amazing! We were so glad that I used flank because it was so much more flavorful and more importantly, it was so much more tender. Sometimes the beef can be the weak spot in this dish, but with the flank it was the highlight.
Cut into thin bite sized strips
I got another pan with sesame oil heated up and lightly coated the beef in cornstarch and pan fried it for a few minutes. This was the first time that I had ever used cornstarch and the consistency of the cornstarch itself freaked me out a little bit! It was like finely powdered styrofoam the way it would grind against whatever it touched.
Once the beef was just about fully cooked, I added it to the vegetables and added the Thai basil also.
It was close to done at this point. Fish sauce and beef broth were added and allowed to simmer and thicken for a few minutes. It was served over brown rice that was cooked in a half and half mixture of water and beef broth.
It was excellent and I even got a “one of the best things you have made in a while” quote! I can’t emphasize how easy it was to make what would seem like a more complex dish.
Recipe for Spicy Thai Basil Beef
Greg
Posted in Beef
Tagged Beef, beef broth, cornstarch, fish sauce, garlic, Green onion, jalapeno, peppers, restaurant favorite, spicy thai beef, Thai, Thai Basil
We were heading to a family Labor Day cookout and decided on this cold sesame noodle salad. I guess it’s not the most American dish for Labor Day, but it worked out just fine.
Cook the noodles and run them under cool water. Then toss with sesame oil and set aside until the sauce is ready. The sauce was a blended combination of many ingredients that was then tossed with the cool noodles.
The base seasonings headed for the blender
Can be a little fluffy at first but will settle
These did not go into the blender, but were tossed with the noodles and sauce.
Noodles with chopped vegetables waiting for the sauce
Sauce is here!
Once the sauce is prepared, veggies are chopped, and noodles are cooked and cooled, combine all ingredients and chill before serving.
The colder the better
Directions for Cold Sesame Noodle Salad
Greg
Posted in Salads, Uncategorized
Tagged Asian, cold, easy, garlic, Ginger, good leftovers, Green onion, Noodles, quick, Rice wine vinegar, Serrano peppers, Sesame, sesame oil, sesame seeds
A friend was coming over and I wanted to make a little afternoon snack. It wasn’t too hot out so I didn’t mind baking something. I started by pan sauteing some cubed chicken breast with some salt and pepper and putting it in the crocks.
I started on the sauce by sauteing the aromatics in oil.
Browned garlic is the key for this one
I sauteed the aromatics a little longer than usual to really brown the garlic and get a deep almost smoky garlic taste.
Once the garlic was browned enough, I added some fresh basil for the last few minutes of sauteeing.
Then add the rest of the sauce ingredients which is basically an alfredo. The cheese was grated imported Romano which we got in the Strip District for $6.99 a pound. What the Strip provides is amazing and limitless!
Then pour the sauce over the chicken until covered.
Add a bit of mozzarella and throw into the oven at 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until browned.
Top with some fresh basil and chopped tomatoes.
Recipe for Garlic White Romano Sauce
Greg
Posted in Chicken, Uncategorized
Tagged alfredo sauce, basil, chicken, garlic, homemade, Italian, low carb, romano, tomato, white sauce
Starving Kitten 