Three Cheese Fritata

I made this a while ago and am finally posting it. It was delicious and easy.

half of a red and green pepper, diced
about 1 cup diced kielbasa (I used turkey kielbasa to cut back on the fat.)
6 eggs
1/2 c bread crumbs
Mrs. Dash
a couple shakes of dried basil
a couple shakes of onion powder
1/4 c half and half
feta cheese
salt and pepper to you liking
cheddar and Parmesan cheeses

In a non-stick skillet saute the kielbasa and peppers in a little olive oil until the peppers have softened a bit. Keep heat on med/low. Turn on broiler. In a bowl, whisk the the rest of the ingredients, except the cheddar and Parmesan cheeses. Pour egg mixture into the hot skillet. Stir vigorously a few times to make sure everything is distributed. Don't stir anymore. As soon as the eggs have firmed up on the edges, sprinkle on a little of the cheeses, and place under the broiler for a few minutes. Keep a close eye on it. It is done when you shakes the skillet and it appears to be firm. After a minute or two of cooling, loosen the fritata from the skillet, and slide onto a cutting board, or serving platter. Slice into wedges, and eat while it's still warm.

Mexican Pizza

I'm a HUGE fan. I'm telling you. When is Mexican food NOT good? I have so many recipes I want to post from many meals ago, but this was last night, and I couldn't wait to post it.

So, I made the good old salsa, crock-pot shredded pork the same way that many of us have made it. I guess it might be more well know to be made with chicken. It's much like the bbq chicken below, but instead I made it with a pork loin and salsa verde. I made a lot so I had a lot to play around with for other meals. We had it as soft Tacos the first night. I was feeling Pizza since I usually do it when we make bbq pork/chicken. But since the pork had the lovely Mexican flavors from the salsa, I thought maybe a cornmeal crust would help with the all around Mexican flavor. Lo and behold, someone has thought of this before, as I found when googling around for a cornmeal pizza crust. Here's what I did.You'll need:
One recipe Cornmeal Pizza Dough(we only used half and froze the other half, and I went ahead and used some wheat flour , like the recipe said, but I think you'd be able to get the cornmeal flavor better with all while flour.)
Shredded salsa pork (pork loin and salsa verde in a crock pot for about 7 hours)
more salsa verde
tomatoes
red onions
cheese
black beans
corn (this and the beans were acutally left over from our tacos. I had cooked them with an onion and a sprinkling of the same spices as below.)
cilantro
lettuce
cumin
chili powder
garlic power
s&p
cilantro-lime dressing (Made famous by Cafe Rio. The recipe can be found many places, though I used the one found here. I used like 3 times the amount of lime juice the said, and next time I'll use half sour cream, half mayo, instead of all mayo like the recipe says. Still so good.)

Roll your dough on a pizza stone that has been sprayed and sprinkled with more cornmeal. Spread a little salsa on as a base. Add as much pork as you'd like. Follow with the corn/beans, red onions, tomatoes, more salsa if you'd like, the cheese and the spices. Bake in a 475 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is baked, and the ingredients are warmed through. Cut into slices and serve with lettuce, cilantro (or any garnishes/flavor additions) and a good drizzle of the dressing. Oh, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed each bite. And, you probably need to eat this pizza with a fork.
The best part is, we STILL have tons of pork left. I'm thinking Navajo tacos. Tonight.

BBQ chicken

Here's an easy one for those busy weeknights. We've probably all made this easy crock-pot barbecue chicken. But I found these few more ingredients took it just past normal, to quite tasty.You'll need:
Chicken breasts-fresh or frozen (I used 3 so we would have plenty of leftovers. You'll want leftovers of this.)
barbecue sauce
liquid smoke
Worcestershire sauce
chili sauce
red onion-chopped roughly in large peices
garlic cloves-minced

Here's the fun part of crock-pot cooking. Just dump it all in. I didn't put any measurements because it all depends on how much chicken you use and how much you like each thing. I probably just put a whole bottle of bbq sauce couple shakes of each other sauce, 1/2 an onion, and a couple cloves of garlic. Liquid smoke really adds to the robust flavor.

Let is cook on high for 4-6 hours. Shred the chicken and it's ready to devour. We ate this as sandwiches, on a pizza, over rice, and there are probably a lot more ways than that to enjoy this. I've also made it with a pork loin for pulled pork sandwiches. Doesn't it just smell like summer now?

Turkey Fajita Burgers

This burger came about because I wanted to have burgers one weekend, but didn't have the traditional fixings-lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. But I did have some peppers, cilantro and salsa, so I thought, why not. The result was pretty rewarding. Two of the things I crave mixed into one.For the burgers: (This recipe makes 6-8 burgers depending on how big you like them. We grilled up two and froze the rest for later.)

20 oz. package of ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped finely
1/2 c bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 salsa
a handful of cilantro, chopped
a squeeze of lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t chili powder
1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all of that together with your hands and form into patties of your desired size. Place on a hot grill or skillet until they are completely cooked through (no medium burgers with poultry, folks). I use a meat thermometer and when it reads 165, I know they are good and cooked.

Toast your buns if you'd like. For the toppings, just use whatever you'd put on a fajita. I sauteed some red and green peppers with some onion, a little salt and pepper, and a little cumin and chili powder. Then I spread some salsa, and sour cream (with taco seasoning mixed in for fun) onto the bun with some cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice. We had ours with some sweet potato fries (I know, not really with the Mexican theme, but I had to use them up) and there you have it. We have decided to make this often. It helps to satisfy my obsession of Mexican food with out eating nachos every time I crave it. We went out to get an avocado just for this meal that night, but were disappointed to find that none of them were even close to ripe. The next time we ate them we did have a ripe one, and it was great, of course. You could also sprinkle on a little cheese, though we didn't this time.

This burger could easily be made vegetarian by replacing the turkey meat with mashed up black beans and rice in the burger recipe. Not that I'm vegetarian or anything, but that sounds good to me, just because it would complete the fajita flavors. Try it out.

Banana Split Cake

I made this for my brother-in-law, Jake's birthday and it really hit the spot. I was acutally pleasantly surprised. I mean, I thought it would taste pretty good, but I acutally like it better than I thought. Here's how to do it.First you have to bake one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes in an oven safe bowl. It's the recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa. I first saw it made on Martha Stewart many years ago, and it's been a family favorite ever since. (Straight from the website.)

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.


"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

I just added the frosting for your future benefit, because it's awesome. But I didn't use it in the cake.

So, like I said, I baked it in an oven-safe Pyrex mixing bowl that was greased and floured for about and hour. As soon as it cooled, invert it and let it fall out of the bowl. Slice it horizontally into 4 layers. Use the same bowl it was baked in, washed and lined with plastic wrap letting the excess plastic hang over the sides, and place the top layer of the cake back in the bowl, just like it fits. Then you will need some Neapolitan ice cream. Open the box completely and carefully cut the layers apart. (I could've just bought entire boxes of each of the flavors, but we would've have tons left over we were forced to eat. Not good. And this was easy enough.) Take one of the flavors and spread it on top of the layer of the cake you place in the bowl. Place another cake layer and press it on the ice cream. Add another flavor of ice cream and repeat with another layer of cake, and another ice cream flavor, finishing with the final layer of cake. Fold the excess plastic wraps over the top of the cake, and wrap again. Place in the freezer for at least 3 hours before eating. I like to make it the night before. When it's time to eat it, get together all the toppings for banana splits that you like. Unwrap the cake and invert it onto a serving plate. You have to warm the sides of the bowl to help it fall out. I used a blow dryer for a few seconds (because I didn't have my blow torch handy), and pulled a little on the excess plastic wrap, and it popped right out. Cover the entire dome with whipped cream, and just have fun putting on the toppings however you want. The cake will be so moist and the flavor will have developed really well. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Steak and Eggs

Whoa. I didn't know I'd like this so much. I hear of people ordering it at local diners, or whatever, and it always seemed like the two just didn't go together for me. I was wrong. I bought some steaks for fun (not a very regular occurrence), and decided to make an easy and different meal with them than the regular old meat and potatoes. With breakfast food being one of my favorites, this really does it for me. (Adjust amounts to the number of people you are cooking for. This is for two.)

Cook 2 slices of bacon in a skillet. Remove bacon from pan and drain most of the drippings. With the skillet still hot with reserved dripping, cook 2-3 cubed potatoes, about 1/2 c sliced onion, and cook until the potatoes are tender and golden brown. Salt and pepper both sides of a 10-12 0z. steak. Place in another hot skillet until done to your liking, turning when necessary. (I would've liked ours a little more rare, but I got carried away with something. I think I went about 1 minute over time. It was still juicy and tender.) Remove from heat and let the steak rest, covered with foil until everything else is ready. Fry a couple eggs to desired stage (nice and soft for me) and now you are ready to assemble. Slice the steak in strips against the grain, and place on a plate. Pile on the potatoes/onions, egg, them crumble the bacon over the whole thing. When the steak rests, a lot of yummy juice will accumulate. Pour that all over the tower. I had some pesto sauce in the fridge, and I added a little of that on top for the nice herbs flavors. I hope, actually, I know you'll enjoy it as much as I did. KC said the leftovers for lunch the next day were something for his co-workers to be jealous of.

Mango Salsa

I'm a HUGE fan of chips and salsa. I eat way more than I'm supposed to. I guess this salsa is a pretty good for you since it's purely fruits and vegetables so maybe I shouldn't feel so guilty that I ate a good portion of it. But then there are all the chips I ate it with. Oh well, it was worth it.

This is a pretty basic recipe and I'm sure there are an millions other like it out there. In case you wanted my version, here it is:

3 ripe mangoes
2 avocadoes
1/2 c red onion
1 small red pepper
handful cilantro roughly chopped
juice or 2-3 limes
salt and pepper
garlic

Dice everything to the size of your liking. I used my food chopper for everything except the avocados, cilantro, and garlic and it worked like a charm. Toss everything together and refrigerate until ready to use. It's good to give it at least 30 minutes to get all the flavors to blend. A couple of my mangoes weren't as ripe as I would've liked, but still good. These are the red white and blue chips we ate it with on the 4th of July. Those Garden Salsa Sun Chips on the right are awesome. Check them out sometime.