Chili

So tonight I am catching up this poor neglected blog. I have just been so busy! I still haven't had much time to really experiment in the kitchen, so I have been sticking to our tried and true favorites. Like this chili. I make it basically the same way that my Mom does, but neither of us really has a recipe. We just throw whatever tomato products we have in our pantries into the pot. Surprisingly, it always tastes about the same. My Dad will not eat chili unless it has a macaroni in it, I guess that I over compensate for this or something, because I always put too many noodles in my chili and wind up with something more reminiscent of goulash or Hamburger Helper instead of a nice soup. This time I tried to be more aware of what I was doing, the chili did come closer to what I was going for.

Chili/Goulash

Ingredients

2 lbs. of hamburger

1 medium onion, diced

1 package chili seasoning mix (I used McCormick)

1 large can of diced tomatoes, undrained (28 oz.)

2 cans of tomato soup

1 can of tomato paste (6 oz.)

1 can chili hot beans, undrained

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 cup macaroni noodles (elbows, shells)

Brown the hamburger and onion in a large soup pot, drain. Put the hamburger back in the pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for at least 15 minutes (I think it is better the longer it simmers). In a small pot, cook the pasta according to the package directions until a little less than al dente. Add it to the mixture in the pot. If you want to avoid your noodles getting too large, you may want to wait to add them until a few minutes before serving.

Baked Ziti

I forgot to take a picture of this one, but as you can see it was a big hit. This dish is so popular with the hubs that I am absolutely sick of it and have refused to make it again (at least for a few months). However, you should make it because it is quite good. I first discovered this dish while watching an interview between Rachael Ray and Raven Simone. Surprisingly, it is Raven's recipe not Rachael's. However, I have altered it a bit and made it so many times that it is basically my own. This dish is not hard to make at all. It is kind of messy and you have to time everything out well. I have the timing perfected, but if my method is too confusing just do one thing at a time and you will be fine. This is a great recipe to serve for guests, because it feeds so many! I have put the full version on here. It makes a lot! You could reduce it very easily, but I usually just make a full batch and freeze it or give it to someone else.

Baked Ziti

Ingredients

2 jars Spaghetti Sauce with roasted garlic (I use Prego Roasted Garlic & Herb)

1 small onion, chopped

1 1 lb. block of mozzarella cheese (not fresh mozzarella) or 1/2 lb. block and 1/2 lb. shredded

1 box of rigatoni (can also use penne or ziti if desired)

pinch of oregano

pinch of parsley

Salt and pepper to taste (I often don't add it)

butter- optional

First, you will need to chop the onion. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown the hamburger and onion in a large skillet or saucepot, drain. While this is browning, bring the pasta water to a boil. Once it is boiling cook the pasta as instructed on the package until al dente (or even a little less), drain. Simmer the hamburger/onion mixture with the two jars of sauce for a few minutes (don't rinse out the jars, just set them to the side). Add the parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper). While the pasta is cooking and sauce is simmering, chop 1/2 lb. of cheese into 1/2 inch cubes. Slice the other half into thin slices (unless you are using shredded). Get out your pans. In my experience, this amount of food needs one large 11x14 casserole dish adn one 8x8 dish or two 9x13 dishes. I like to grease the bottom of the pan with butter, but it is not necessary. Put a ladle full of sauce into the bottom of the pan begin layering by adding the pasta and then the cubed cheese. Continue layering, I always try to end with a layer of sauce. No remember those dirty sauce jars? Fill each of them about 1/4 full of water. Shake them up and pour the tomato water over the ziti (mostly on the edges). Cover the dish with sliced or shredded cheese. Sprinkle with oregano and parsley. Basically, you just need to bake this until the cheese is browned and bubbly. You can do it by simply baking for 30 minutes or so or by covering with foil for 30 minutes and then baking for 15-30 minutes more. It turns out the same either way.

Chicken Enchiladas

This one was so good that it gets two pictures! I have wanted to make chicken enchiladas for a long time. I don't know why though, because they are not one of my favorite Mexican foods. I hate the red sauce and usually don't order them or order them with just cheese. However, this one was called "Angela's Awesome Chicken Enchiladas". With a title like that they have to be good right? Right! The red sauce kind of soaked in to them so I could only taste it on the edges. Matthew was quite impressed he actually told me that I had to put this on my blog. He then preceded to tell me that this was a recipe we could serve to people. I am not sure what he meant by this. Is my other food not good enough to serve to people? He does not think sometimes. Anyway back to the enchiladas, they were good, but they were a pain to make. So make sure you leave yourself a couple hours to get them done. I think next time I will cook the chicken and some of the spices in the crock-pot so they will be easy to shred. Hopefully, this will make things go faster. Also, this was NOT a healthy recipe. We did use reduced fat cheese and fat free sour cream. That makes me feel a bit better about it. I also left off the olives, because neither of us like them.

Angela's Awesome Enchiladas

Okay, I am not even going to bother retyping this recipe. It is long. Just follow the link.

Source: All Recipes

Rachael Ray Hot Dogs

Last Christmas Matt bought me some orange Rachael Ray pots. I had to break them in with a Rachael Ray recipe, obviously. We saw her making these hot dogs with Michigan sauce on her show and the rest was history. We made these for the first time in January and Matt has been requesting them ever since. Personally, I prefer a sweet sauce on my coneys so these were not one of my favorites, but he loved it enough for both of us.

Stuffed Hot dogs: Michigan Dogs with Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 pound ground beef

Salt & Pepper

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 1/2 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup cheddar cheese

8 large good quality hot dogs, split down the middle

8 bakery hoagie, sub or dog rolls, split

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pot over medium-high heat. Add the meat and brown for 5-6 minutes. Drain. Season with salt and pepper, chili powder, and paprika. Add the tomato paste and cook for an additional minute, then add the beef stock. Simmer until the beef stock has boiled out (it took about 20 minutes). In a second small pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, season with salt and pepper and cook to thicken (about 2 minutes). Melt the cheese into the milk sauce. Split the hot dogs through the middle, down to the casings. Cook on the George Foreman (or grill) until browned on both sides. Place the hot dogs on the rolls and cover with the Michigan sauce and cheese sauce.

First Dinner Party

Tonight was our first dinner party. I think it was a success! There were six of us, five of whom were boys so this dinner party consisted of "man food". Matt requested strombolis. We also served a salad, chips and white pizza (they ate it so quickly that I did not have time to take a picture!). For dessert we had S'more cake (post coming soon). We made both meat and veggie strombolis.

Strombolis

Ingredients

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. sausage

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons green pepper

3 oz. tomato paste

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon oregano

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

4 oz. sliced/shredded mozzarella cheese (I usually use more)

Pepperoni- optional

Loaf of French bread

Brown meat and drain. Add onion, pepper, tomato paste, water, salt and oregano. Simmer 1o minutes. Add Parmesan cheese and mix well. Slice bread lengthwise, scoop out some of bottom loaf. Sprinkle some cheese on the bottom loaf of bread, add meat mixture. If desired add pepperoni at this time. Cover it with cheese. Put on top 1/2 of loaf. Wrap in foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 or until cheese is melted.

*You can make a vegetarian version by substituting 1 can of mushrooms (drained) for the meat. You may also want to increase the onions and green peppers.

Source: First Presbyterian Cookbook, courtesy Sarah Lee