Hash Brown Cakes

I love to watch Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, on the Food Network. I'm also on the hunt for new breakfast recipes. So when the pioneer woman showed how to make hash brown cakes, my ears perked up. I bet they looked positively Vulcanish.

Luckily I recorded the show to watch again because I left out a crucial step (or two) the first time I made these neat little egg nests.

So pay attention better than I did if you want the yummy version, intead of my first bland version.

There's nothing more blah than a bland potato.

So what did I forget? I forgot to cook and season the hash browns before topping them with the egg. I also cooked them a little too long. My granddaughter was bouncing her yolk around like a ball.

So please, cook and season your hash browns so no more innocent potatoes die in vain.

HASH BROWN CAKES

 

 

INGREDIENTS

Hash Browns (either make your own from scratch or buy frozen)
Fresh Eggs, enough for at least 2 per person
Salt
Pepper
Non-stick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Spray non-stick cooking spray into a muffin tin. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

Tuck your hash browns into each muffin indentation in the muffin tin. Make the hash browns look like a nest, with a well in the middle. Generously season with salt and pepper.

Cook the hash browns for 15 minutes.

Remove the hash browns from the oven.

Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees.

While the oven is heating again, crack one egg into each nest. Season each egg with salt and pepper.

When the oven is ready, cook the hash brown cakes for about 3-5 minutes. Don't cook too long unless you want to make your own bouncy balls.

When cooked properly, these are delicious.

Thank you Pioneer Woman!






 

Ranch Salmon Fillets

At work today my lunch group talked about the wonderful salmon M enjoyed last night. He paid $17 for a large fillet he bought at Costco's that made 5 meals for he and his partner. He didn't merely mention it, he enthused at least half the hour about how wonderfully delicious it was.

I looked at my daughter who also works with us, and her expression was dreamy. Obviously, visions of sashimi danced in her little brunette head. If she could, she'd eat sashimi every day.

I hankered for a taste of salmon, too, after that. Who wouldn't?

After work, my daughter and I made a bee line for BJ's. I don't have a Costco membership and BJ's is around the corner and they have good prices on salmon, too.

I also bought some ranch dressing then brought the little darling home as soon as I spent too much.

When I got home, I was nice and let my daughters take a chunk to make their beloved sashimi.

Then I made my Grandma's macaroni and cheese to accompany this delicious salmon recipe.

To be honest, I had my doubts that ranch dressing would taste good on fish, but I am so glad I tried this. It was awesome and it's definitely a new favorite. It was a hit with my entire picky family.

I hope you'll like it, too.

Ranch Salmon Fillets

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

Salmon (or any fish of your choosing), enough for your family

 

2 eggs, beaten

 

2-3 cups Flour

 

1 Tblp Salt

 

1 Tblsp Black Pepper

 

2 Tblsp Seasoned Salt

 

2-3 cups Bread Crumbs

 

2-3 cups Ranch Dressing

 

2 large ziplock bags (I used 1 gallon freezer size)

 

Non-stick cooking spray

 

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

 

Lightly coat a large glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

 

Cut fish into one portion pieces.

 

Beat eggs in a medium to large mixing bowl. Two eggs was enough for 10 servings.

 

Prepare two ziplock bags, one with flour, pepper, and salts, the other with bread crumbs. Pour a good amount of Ranch dressing into a second bowl.

 

Dip the fish into the beaten egg. Coat thoroughly. I worked on 3-4 pieces at a time.

 

 

 



Next put the egg-coated fish into the flour bag. Securely close the bag. Shake well until the fish is thoroughly coated in flour.

 

 

 

 

Now dip the flour-coated fish into the Ranch dressing. I used my fingers to make the dressing stick. I put the dressing on thick. This is messy so I washed my hands inbetween each step.

 

 

 



 

Then drop the ranch-coated fish into the baggie with the bread crumbs. Make sure the bag is securely closed. Shake well until thoroughly coated.

 

Place the fish into a large glass baking dish.



 





 

 

 

Bake the fish for about 30 minutes, until thoroughly cooked.

 

Serve warm.



CAJUN CHICKEN

Happy Easter!

(So that I could enjoy Easter with my family, I wrote this post in advance.)

What a lazy Sunday afternoon. My umpiring hubby is at softball games all day and night, and my youngest daughter has no softball games tonight. So there's no rush to make dinner before games.

I made a big lunch so maybe I'll make a quick, easy dinner.

Even my pets are taking it easy as we watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding and I blog. Here's Bobby whom I caught in the BJ's box I brought home yesterday from our weekly shopping. He's a cat so of course he can't resist a box. My little buddy likes this box better than the catnip toy we bought for him.

He was relaxing until I took the first picture. Maybe the flash woke him up.

 

 

That flash made him look demonic but he's really a sweetie.

 

Now you can see his eyes better, without the demonic glow. I should have given him a box for Christmas. He loves it so.

 

Back to lunch, in addition to Bobby's wonderful box, I bought a lot of fresh chicken at BJ's yesterday. I slept in really late so I didn't have time to look up a recipe. So I made up my own. The kids all gave it a thumbs up.

 

CAJUN CHICKEN

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

Fresh chicken enough for your family

 

lemon juice

 

Cajun Spice



 



Black Pepper


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Farenheit.

Meanwhile, place chicken in a glass baking casserole dish. Liberally sprinkle first lemon juice, then black pepper, then Cajun spice over the chicken.

Bake 15 minute.

Turn over and liberally sprinkle the other side of the chicken with lemon juice, black pepper, and Cajun spice.

Bake another 15 minutes.

Serve warm.

Yum!

Beef Enchilada Casserole

My refrigerator door fell off last night. I bent over to get an onion out of the vegetable bin and the next thing I knew, there was a hard, heavy weight sliding right down me.

I caught the door before it slammed to the floor. Fortunately, it wasn't that heavy. I was more surprised than anything.

My daughters rushed to my aid as I yelled, "Dave! The refrigerator door fell off." Then I screwed up my face and hunkered down to hear the inevitable swearing.

You see, recently, we bought a new house and my husband blames me when anything isn't perfect. So far the floor is creaky. The dishwasher leaked and we had to replace it. The toilet seat in our bathroom came off. The shower in our bathroom is too low so he has to bend to get in and out. The toilet in the kids' bathroom was leaky. God, I hope nothing else goes wrong in the next year or he'll never stop moaning.

Luckily, he got out his handy tool kit, laid on the floor, and screwed the door back on. Meanwhile, I stepped around him to finish dinner.

So far (knock on wood), the fridge door is staying on.

When I got home tonight I had no clue what I was going to make for dinner. We already had spaghetti this week and we're out of fish. It would take at least a couple hours to make shrimp fried rice and I was too tired to do that after an eight-hour work day. I thought about making tacos but didn't have an appetite for them.

Then I remembered my husband had liked the look of a burrito recipe I found. As I dug the ingredients out of my pantry I changed my mind and decided to make an enchilada casserole which sounded faster and easier than rolling burritos.

I haven't made an enchilada casserole in awhile and I was missing the green chilies I usually add, and I had bought sour cream, so I made some changes. It obviously worked out well as my older daughter pronounced the enchilada's better than my lasagna.

I hope you'll like it, too.

 

Beef Enchilada Casserole

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

 

1-2 pounds ground, Hamburger

 

1 large can Red Enchilada Sauce

 

1 can Refried Beans

 

1 package Lipton's Spanish Rice, cooked

 

4 large Tortilla Shells

 

1 pound Cheddar Cheese

 

1 pound Sour Cream

 

1 chicken boullion cube

 

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

 

Prepare the rice. Cook the hamburger with the enchilada sauce and boullion. Set aside.

 

Divide the cheese into two halves.

 

Layer a thin covering of enchilada/hamburger sauce on the bottom of a large casserole dish. Cover with two tortillas.

 

Next layer the refried beans, hamburger, more enchilada/hamburger sauce, rice, and one half of the cheese. It should be nice and thick now.

 

Place the remaining tortilla shells over the cheese.

 

Smother the tortilla shells with sour cream. Make sure the tortillas are thoroughly covered. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar cheese over the sour cream.

 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until the cheese is meltd and golden.

 



 

Quiche Lorraine

Have I mentioned that I'm a Disabled Vet (Air Force)? Or that I'm a softball widow almost every weekend and sometimes, it feels like months on end during rec season?

I'm a lot of things but these are two main ingredients in the recipe that makes up moi.

I've been a disabled vet since I was 21 when I lost the hearing in my left ear due to a military hospital error. A tumor was left to grow until not only it, but most of the bones in my ear had to be surgically removed. No conductivity remained. Nada. Zippo. I no longer felt like a viable human being, not being able to participate in normal conversation without saying the dreaded "What?" fifty million times a conversation, bending my head and turning my body so my "good ear" was toward the speaker, trying to lip read, suffering humiliation almost every conversation because I still misheard important words, often entire phrases. Often my mishearing islaughable. Sometimes, I'm sure, disturbing or even undignifying.

Once again I am petitioning the VA to increase my disability to more than 10% and also to give me hearing aids as my other ear is going bad. As if things weren't hard enough to hear with only one ear. Now the "good ear" is on the fritz.

My hubby who is also a Disabled Vet for other reasons, is an avid softball officianado. He's always off at the kids games, or softball board meetings, or umpiring. Many weekends, he is away all weekend doing his thing. If I want to see him, I have to hunt him down at one of the many softball parks he frequents. Although it's jacket and mitten weather in Fort Lauderdale the day I'm writing this (in advance), he's umpiring for our daughter's league.

Voila! I often get called upon to whip up a quick dinner for him late at night when he tromps in late, despite the fact I have to get up early the next morning for the day job.

Since I work full-time weekdays, everybody's on their own for weekday breakfast in my house. On weekends, however, I cook for my entire brood.

Today, I made a Quiche Lorraine that my family enjoyed. It was a little different than the normal scrambled eggs and bacon or the scrambled egg burritos I usually make on weekends. It was a hit and something I'll do again.

QUICHE LORRAINE

INGREDIENTS:

1 pie crust, pre-made or homemade
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup milk
2 cups cheese, grated (I used a blend of cheddar and Monterray Jack cheese)
6 slices bacon, cooked, diced
3 eggs
1 tbsp. All-season salt

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Poke pie crust several times with fork tines. Bake pie crust while you cook bacon and assemble the quiche.

Cook bacon. Then dice. Set aside.

Scramble eggs, pour in whipping cream, milk, salt, cheese, and bacon. Mix well.

Remove partially baked pie crust from oven. Pour egg mixture into it.

Return the quiche to the oven. Bake another 1/2 - 1 hour until egg-cheese mixture is firm.

Serve warm.

* If you prefer, exchange bacon for crab or add spinach or green onions.


 

Creamy Chicken & Rice

I watched The Bachelor last night and it struck me that there should be a cooking challenge. Wouldn't the bachelor like to know if his future wife can cook or not? That would be much more practical than scaling buildings like Batman and Robin.

Don't get me wrong. I love to watch The Bachelor, but some things seem ridiculous.

What do you think?

Tonight, my daughter wanted chicken and rice for dinner so I searched for a recipe using ingredients I have on hand.

I found several chicken and rice recipes but none that titillated my fancy, so I made up my own. I really like it so I will make it again.

I hope you like it, too.

CREAMY CHICKEN & RICE

INGREDIENTS:

5 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces, uncooked
8 cups cooked rice
Lemon juice
1 clove garlic, diced
3 Tblsp Soy sauce
1 small can Cream of Chicken soup
2 Tblsp olive oil


DIRECTIONS:

Cook rice and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Heat olive oil in non-stick skillet. Add chicken. Liberally cover chicken with lemon juice.

Add garlic and soy sauce. Stir fry until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

In a 9 x 13 glass casserole dish, combine rice, chicken mixture, and soup. Mix well.

Cover with foil. Bake about 15 minutes until soup is cooked.

Serves 8-12.




 

Chicken Paprika & Dumplings

Have I mentioned that I have a VERY picky eater in my family? She won't eat onions or any veggies. The only thing green she likes is money.

 

She LOVES meat and fish, especially chicken and sushi. She prefers things plain, such as plain white rice. God forbid I give her Rice-a-Roni or any creamed rice.

 

Unfortunately, I like things spicy and I don't like having to make two or more main dishes for one meal. So when I came upon a recipe for chicken and dumplings, I thought ah ha! We'll both like this.

 

I changed the recipe to fit our particular likes, for instance, I left out the onions which I would have liked but she would reject.

 

For example, last night I made a dish with vegetables for me and just meat and shrimp for her. Although it had the same base sauce, she wouldn't let me use the same spoon to stir her dish that I used to stir mine.

 

That's not the only change I made so I'll share my version as it turned out to be quite tasty.

 

Tasty yes, but also very laughable. Can you believe I've never eaten a dumpling? You will when you see my dumplings below. I'll work on these and be back after they're perfected.

 

I also want to share that I discovered The Pioneer Woman's TV show and blog this weekend. How awesome! The blog's visual alone took my breath before I read a word or tasted one of her tasty recipes. We had the patty melts this afternoon, and they were a hit! LOVED THEM! Thank you Pioneer Woman for a delicious, filling treat. Not one of my picky eaters complained, threw away their food, or made a face, In fact, they raved and asked me to make this sandwich again. I definitely will.

 

Until I recently moved, I was into scrapbooking and writing. Now I'm back into cooking and Food Network and Pinterest Recipes have become my new best friend. Tonight I'm looking forward into watching The Worst Cooks in America. What fun. :)

 

 

 

CHICKEN PAPRIKA & DUMPLINGS

 

INGREDIENTS - CHICKEN:

 



1 chicken, cut into small, bite size pieces

4 Tblsp shortening

Paprika

Salt

Black Pepper

2 cups sour cream

1 cup chicken broth

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS - DUMPLINGS:

 

3 eggs

3 cups flour

1/2 cup water

1 Tblsp salt

 

 

 

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

 

Boil water in a large sauce pan for the dumplings.

 

Assemble the dumpling mix. If necessary, add a bit more water. Make the dumplings very small and drop nto the boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes. Set cooked dumplings aside.

 

 

Melt shortening in a large non-stick skillet. Sprinkle chicken with a generous amount of paprika and pepper and dust with light sprinkling of salt. Cook chicken in the pan.

 

After the chicken is almost done, add the sour cream, chicken broth, and dumplings. Mix well. Stir occasionally.

 

Serve warm.

 

 

Hamburger Sliders

My good friend Linda is dying. I just returned from hospice where a large group of her family and close friends are gathered. We saw her but she slept the entire time because she's on heavy painkillers to make her last minutes bearable. Thank God she can be comfortable. I pray she is.

Linda longed to write a cookbook but never did to my knowledge. It was going to feature her many specially blended Italian-Spanish recipes. Before she got too ill to cook, I used to encourage her to follow her dream. Unfortunately, she didn't get around to it.

I'm so very sorry her dream didn't come to fruition.

I'm heart-sick that soon we'll say our final goodbyes. Today felt like it. I gave her a kiss and told her I love her.

When I got home from hospice and did my mundane chores - folded the laundry, put away the dishes, put new sheets on my bed - I realized Linda hasn't been able to enjoy these little things for years. When my cats and dogs barraged me for attention during my chores I realized she nor her pets will ever have that pleasure again.

One thing my friend was able to enjoy during her long illness was to watch her favorite cooking shows on TV. A couple weeks ago when I was last able to talk to her in person, I interrupted her watching one of those shows.

In a bit I have to make another dinner, then take my daughter to her softball practice. I won't complain that life is boring, that I want more zing and pizzazz. I'll remind myself to enjoy the little things that make up life that my friend won't be able to enjoy anymore.

Two of the things I enjoy doing are writing and cooking, so without further ado, here is today's recipe.

The other day I tried to make White Castle type sliders and wound up with a different, yet awesomely delicious hamburger slider.

I love onions but my picky children won't touch them, so I made two versions - one with and one without onions.

I will definitely make this recipe again and again. And except for White Castles, I've never been a hamburger fan.

HAMBURGER SLIDERS

Makes about 16 burgers



INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 lb ground beef
3/4 tsp All-Season Salt
3/4 tsp Garlic Salt
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 pound onion, finely diced
1-2 tsp olive oil
16 pack Hawaiian Sweet Rolls


DIRECTIONS:

Mix well ground beef with the salts and pepper.

Divide into 14-16 balls. On a flat surface, flatten balls into small, thin squares.

Make 4 small holes in each patty.

Freeze the patties for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in medium-heat non-stick skillet. Brown diced onions until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

When onions are soft and translucent and patties are ready, place the patties hole-side down onto onions in the skillet. Cook until brown. Flip patties. Cook thoroughly.

When done, place patties on Hawaiian sweet roll. Scoop extra onions onto bun.

Serve with sweet potato fries or french fries or other side.

* If you have onion-haters like I do, skip the onions. You will not need to make holes in the patties nor freeze them. Just cook the square patties. Add cheese if desired. I think these are so tasty, cheese is not needed. This says something, coming from a huge cheese lover.