Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie is a dish that is traditionally made with leftovers, which begs the question: Who the heck ever has LEFTOVER mashed potatoes? Certainly not me. Anyway, this is how I make shepherd's pie, and I think it's pretty darn tastey:

Ingredients (for the potato part)

3 or 4 largish baking potatoes (peeled and chopped)
3 to 4 T butter or margarine
3 to 4 T cottage cheese
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Ingredients (for the meat part)

About a handful of each of your favourite veggies (diced) (I used carrots, onions, celery, and red pepper)
Oil for frying
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1/2 lb ground beef
Liberal application of your favourite barbecue sauce.

Optional topping: shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Bring water to boil and cook potatoes until tender
3. While the potatoes are cooking, fry up all the veggies in the order of hardest veggies first. So, carrots first, red pepper last. Add the garlic.
4. When the carrots are tender but firm, add the ground beef to the veggies. Apply liberal amounts of barbecue sauce to flavour the beef. Cook until beef is no longer pink. (Once the pink is gone you can taste it to make sure you added enough barbecue sauce).
5. Drain the potatoes and mash them with the butter and cottage cheese and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. All the above ingredients should be just enough to fit into a 2 L casserole dish. Put the beef and veggie mixture on the bottom, then spread the mashed potatoes on top.
7. Add some shredded cheese to the top if you like.
8. Cook in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Krabby Quiche

I had all kinds of immitation krab meat left over from making sushi, so I had no choice but to make quiche.

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup mayo

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 pound krab (with a k)

1 1/2 pounds shredded cheese (the original recipe called for swiss, but I used a chedder, mozzarella blend because the store didn't have pre-shredded swiss, whatever you like will be tastey)

a shakety shake of garlic powder (to keep vampires away)

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust.

1. preheat oven to 350 F

2. in a medium bowl mix together eggs, milk, mayo and cornstarch. Mix in the krab and cheese and shakety on the garlic powder.

3. Pour all that into the pie crust.

4. Bake for 40 minutes, or until top is nicly golden and it isn't gooey in the middle. (the original recipe said 30-40 min, but my oven is a hot one and it still needed 40. You might even need 45. Egads!

5. Slice up and enjoy.

Sushi

This is one of those things I just had to learn how to prepare and, now that I know, I don't really have to do it again. It's economical for parties and such, but I definitely ran out of steam before I ran out of ingredients. BTW: I didn't use raw fish for the same reason you will never see a recipe for steak tartar on this blog, because I don't know what I'm doing enough to prepare raw meat.

What you need:

seaweed (the kind they sell in the sushi section of the grocery store)

sushi rice (regular rice won't due, it doesn't stick together. Sushi rice can be found in the sushi section aswell, but it comes in such giant bags that unless you become a sushi chef, you will never use. Just memorize its funky Japanese name and buy a small bag in the rice isle. Crafty, eh?)

rice vinegar (VERY IMPORTANT this is what makes it taste like sushi)

sugar

salt

cucumber, red pepper, avacado and krab (everyone loves krab with a k). All of this should be thinly sliced lengthwise (your cucumber should be spears, not circles).

1. Cook some rice. It'll be all clumpy and stick-together-y. That's the idea.

2. Add vinegar, sugar and salt to the rice until it tastes like sushi. For every 3 tablespoons of vinegar, add about 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tsp of salt. Mix it well.

3. Lay a sheet of seaweed on a dry surface. I actually got one of those little bambo mats special for making sushi, but I can't imagine that's actually necessary.

4. Spread a thin layer of rice over the whole seaweed sheet (you should be able to see the sea weed underneath). Leave like a half-an-inch at the far end so the seaweed will stick to itself when you roll it.

5. Put some avacado, cucumber, krab, and red pepper (or some combination thereof) closest to you on top of the rice. You just want a thin strip of ingredients. Don't over stuff it (I'm talking to you now, Mom).

6. Wet the far edge of the seaweed a bit so it will stick to itself when you roll it.

7. Carefully roll the sushi into a log.

8. THIS IS THE HARD PART. Get a sharp knife and carefully slice the sushi into bite-sized circles. Do not squeeze it, and do not use a knife so dull that all it does is squish the sushi. Regardless of how careful you are, the end piece will become a casualty (eat it anyway, it still tastes good)

9. Repeat all the steps until you are bored of making sushi/run out of rice.

Slow-cooker meatloaf

I've started making 99% of my meals in the slow cooker. It's so easy! Buy a slow cooker and throw stuff in it in the morning, and by evening you've got dinner!

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 slices of day-old bread, torn into cubes (I've used brand new bread, and nothing bizarre happened)
1/4 cup diced onion (I try to cut it small enough to keep Adam from saying "There's too much onion")
2 tablespoons finely chopped red or green pepper (Again, my goal is to cut it so small that Adam doesn't say "I'm not really big on peppers")
1 pound ground beef (make sure it's defrosted)
Salt and pepper
A whole bunch of ketchup
Some potatoes and/or carrots or whatever.

1. Beat the egg with the milk. Stir in the bread and the onion and the peppers.
2. Mix in the meat, and make sure it's really mixed okay? Season it with salt and pepper while you're at it.
3. Mold your meat mixture into a loaf shape (think giant meat turd) and put it in your slow cooker.
4. Spread ketchup all over it. Don't be shy.
5. Put a bunch of carrots and/or potatoes and/or whatever all around the meatloaf, as your "side dish".
6. Put your cooker on high for an hour, then low for the rest of the day (or until no pink is showing).
7. Eat your meatloaf with carrots and whatever for dinner.

Lobster Cakes

A while ago, and for no particular reason, my cousin gave me a whole pile of frozen lobster meat for free. While I was delighted by the gesture, I'm still having trouble figuring out what to do with it. Here is one of my attempts:

Approx 1 pound lobster meat (if you don't have large quantities of lobster in your freezer, you can substitute crab)
1 1/2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (I used seasoned breadcrumbs because that's what I had)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
2 radishes, chopped super finely
1 stalk of celery, chopped super finely.
salt and pepper to taste.
A bunch of garlic salt
1 egg.
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1. Preheat oven broiler
2. Mix together lobster, bread crumbs, parsley, radishes, celery, salt, pepper and garlic salt.
3. Beat together egg and mayonnaise.
4. Add the egg mixture to the lobster mixture (or vice versa) and mix well.
5. Make them into patties and put them on a greased baking sheet.
6. Broil for like 6 minutes, depending on the hotness of your oven and the size of your cakes. Just watch them and, when they start to look crispy, rescue them.

Note: I made 4 cakes that were like the size of hamburger patties, but you could make smaller bite sized cakes for parties, theoretically.

Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Other stuff:
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup oatmeal
peanut butter


1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2.Sift dry stuff together (that's flour, and baking soda). Cream the butter, sugars and vanilla together in a different bowl. Add the egg and beat it up. Add the flour mixture. Now add the chocolate chips (if you want chocolate chip cookies) or the oatmeal (if you want oatmeal cookies). You could add peanut butter if you want peanut butter cookies. The possibilities are endless!
3. Pam your cookie sheet and put some heaping tsps of batter on it.
4. Bake for like 8 minutes.

banana bread

If you're like me, your fruit is kept stupidly in a bowl right next to the window and the sun makes the bananas go all gungy really fast. On that note, I found this recipe for banana bread that turned out yummy:


INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe
bananas (so, like 3 bananas)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray Pam on your loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. (I nuked the bananas a tad to facilitate masing) Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake for like an hour then remove from pan.
4. Eat

Tabouli

This is the salad thingie that I made when my veggie friends came over. I just think it's the yummiest.

3/4 cup boiling water*
1/2 cup bulgur**
1/2 cup minced parsley***
1/4 cup minced mint leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, seeded and diced *****
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste******
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pinch allspice

*Just use a kettle, don't get out a pot or anything.
**It's a grain. Comes in a bag like rice. Trust me. Just check the healthy food isle of your grocery store
***I probably ended up putting in a tonne more parsley than this and it wasn't as "minced" as all gettup. What can I say? I love parsley.
****The original recipe said one tomato, but the roma tomatoes looked redder and yummier and they're about half the size of a regular tomato, right?
*****I cheated and used a seedless cucumber. And it was an English one too, so I didn't even have to peel it. Laziness wins again.
******This time I didn't cheat. I actually squeezed a lemon.

So here's what you do: Pour the boiling water over the bulgar, cover, and let stand about 20 minutes until the water has disappeared (because the bulgar has sucked it all up). Add the chopped vegetables (including the mint, parsley, onion, cucumber, tomato, did I miss something?) and toss to mix. Combine oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and allspice. Put that oil and stuff in with the veggies and bulgar and mix well. Put it in the fridge to chill out.

Mama Filipowicz's Famous Pickle Soup

When I married into a Polish family, I learned that all Polish people make pickle soup. It's just a thing. I haven't tried to make this recipe yet, my mother-in-law gave it to me. Since I'm Polish now, I have to make it one day. When she makes it, it's tastey.

1 can liquid broth
2 litres water
1 carrot cubed
5 potato cubed
1 teaspoon veggie soup mix
3 large pickles
1/2 cup pickle brine (to taste)
1/2 cup milk

1. Boil everything (except the milk).
2. Add the milk.
3. Boil some more.
4. Done.

Spaetzle

These yummy german noodle thingies are a must for anyone who wants to impersonate a german grandmother.

3 cups flour
4 eggs
A whole bunch of butter and salt

1. Put the flour in a bowl and salt it to death.
2. Beat the eggs.
3. Add a cup of water to the eggs.
4. Add the eggs and water to the flour and beat with a wooden spoon (yes, it must be wooden. I don't know why. Just go with it)
5.Add more salt for good measure.
6. When the dough looks kinda sticky and stretchy it's ready. (You might need to add more water, but not necessarily).
7. Boil a pot of water.
8. Using a spaetzle maker (go buy one, it looks like a giant garlic press and makes the dough into noodles) squish the dough into the boiling water.
9. Boil it for almost no time at all, until it floats to the top.
10. Strain the noodles.
11. Fry them up in a whole lot of butter and salt until they're a bit crispy.

Remember: Don't skimp on the butter. Ask yourself WWOD (What Would Omi Do)?

Pierogi Lasagna

This is a most delicious meal. It must be nutricious too. Look it has all the food groups: veggies (onions), dairy (cheese, and cottage cheese), protein (bacon), and carbs (potato, pasta). Anyhoo, here it is, a cullinary masterpiece.

Lasagna noodles (you need 6 noodles for the recipe, but I suggest just making the whole pack. Your lucky if you get 6 that aren't broken.)

Onions (two of those big honking cooking onions)

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese

Like 2 cups grated cheddar

Some mashed potatoes (I used 7 of those little red ones. About 6 cups. You can use instant mashed potatoes, but mashing potatoes really isn't that hard. Lazy people.)

1 pack of bacon.


1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Make the mashed potatoes (use your medium sized pot, because only a big pot will fit lasagna noodles)

3. Make the lasagna noodles according to package directions (so just boil them in a big pot)

4. Cut up the onions in little bits and sauté them in a little oil.

5. Fry the bacon. Not too crispy, because it's going in the oven later.

6. Save half a cup of onions and half a cup of grated cheese for the top of the lasagna.

7. Mix the cottage cheese, cheese, and onions with the mashed potatoes.

8. Get a 9 x 13" glass dish and spray it with Pam

9. Lay 2 lasagna noodle in the bottom of it.

10. Spread half of the potato mixture on the lasagna noodles.

11. Lay 1/3 of the bacon on top.

12. Put 2 more lasagna noodles down.

13. Spread the other half of the potato stuff on.

14. Lay another 3rd of the bacon on top.

15. Put 2 more lasagna noodles down (see how hard it is to find ones that aren't broken?)

16. Top with the remaining cheese, onions, and bacon.

17. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 F.

Party Punch

I heard rumours that you can add alcohol to this but I've won't be testing that theory for at least 9 months.

2 liters Sprite
2 liters no-name mango fruit punch
2 liters rasberry sorbet
2 bananas, sliced
2 cans of pineapple
Some strawberries, sliced

Nothing too hard. Just mix everything together in a big bowl. I recommend putting the sorbet in before adding the fruit so that you can mash it up a bit without squashing bananas (I realized this after). You can also let the sorbert float in the bowl acting as ice (but then people might like "What's that weird chunk all about?"). This recipes makes a lot so you may want to half it if you don't have so many people.

Spinachy noodle recipe that I just made up

This recipe is so yummy and spinachy. I am the best spinach cook ever!

1 package frozen chopped spinach
Half an onion, chopped into itty bits
1 cup milk
1 cup broth
1 tomato, chopped into itty bits
Like, a tablespoon of margarine or so (I used a super heart smart kind so it's totally low fat).
Maybe a tablespoon of flour
Some chicken chopped up (optional)
A little oil (to sautee the onions)
Garlic, maybe 2 cloves, minced
Enough pasta for two.
Whatever spices you like.

1. Sautee the onions with the garlic and fry up the chicken in the same pan.
2. Add the milk and broth and when it looks like it's boiling a bit, toss in the noodles. Keep boiling.
3. When the noodles are sort of cooked, put in the flour and margarine to thicken the sauce a bit.
4. When everything looks done almost, put in the spinach and tomatoes and cook it until it's all done.

Disclaimer: I like spinach, you may not.

potato noodley thingies and sauce

I got this out of a magazine. The noodles end up tasting sort of like spetchle. Of course I have no idea if that's how they're supposed to taste because the recipe was so goobery in its measurements that I decided against subscribing. It was tastey though so here's how to make it my way. (make sure you have some time on your hands)

Potato Noodley Thingies

Approx. 3 potatoes
1 to 1 1/2 cups of flour
1 egg
salt
oil

1.Boil the potatoes until they are soft.
2. Mash the potatoes. You need them seriously mashed so use a blender if you need to.
3. Add the egg, and sort of beat it while it's in there a little bit.
4. Add the flour and mix it until it's a lump of dough
5. kneed the dough a bit.
6. Make into noodley shapes. Whatever shapes you like.
7. Put them in a pot of boiling water.
8. Once they float to the top, take them out with one of those holey spoons and put them in ice (I don't know if the ice does anything but I'm afraid to try it with out).
9. Put them in a countainer and add some oil.
10. Put them in the fridge for later (whenever you decide to make the sauce).

Sauce

1 can stewed tomatoes
6 tablespoons (or whatever) olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced (or 3 if you like garlic as much as I do)
Some cubes of cheese (I tried both mozzeralla and cheddar and both are yummilishious)
Pepper
More veggies (onions, celery) optional

1. heat the olive oil and cook the optional veggies
2. Put the thinly sliced garlic in until it's kindof brown (like 30 seconds)
3. Add the can of tomatoes
4. When the tomatoes look warm take the pan off the heat
5. Take the noodles out of the fridge and put them in
6. Put everything back on the heat and toss until bubbly
7. Add the cheese and pepper
8. Eat it right away.

Potato Pancakes: Easiest meal ever!

2 potatoes

one smallish onion

1 egg

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

1. wash and peel the potatoes.
2. Put everything in the blender and mix it up.
3. Spoon the mixture into a pan with hot oil and flatten into a pancake shape.
4. Brown lightly on both sides.
5. Eat them. I like mine with sour cream but they are also good with ketchup or plain.

Totally the opposite of healthy BURGERS

1/2 cup (or whatever) shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1 small onion chopped
1 egg
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper (or whatever)
1 pound ground beef (that's a package)
6 slices bacon
6 hamburger buns
the stuff you like to put on burgers

1. The recipe said to do this on a grill but I don't have a grill so I used a frying pan. Preheat it to high heat.
2. in a large bowl mix the cheeses the onion, the egg, the ketchup, the W sauce, and the salt and pepper.
3. Crumble in the ground beef (if you know what crumble means you get a gold star, otherwise just sort of put it in).
4. Mix it together by hand
5. Form 6 patties. Wrap a slice of bacon around each one (yum!)
6. Put the patties on the "grill" and cook 5 minutes per side. I didn't really time it, just cooked them until they were done. One tricky thing is that the burgers are pink on the outside because of the bacon. You may have to mutilate one of the patties to decide if they're done or not. Oh, and if your using a frying pan, don't forget to cover it.
7. Serve them on hamburger buns and put stuff you like on it.

Sexy Adam's Delicious Waffles

My sweet husband made me waffles. For dinner! Here's his recipe (adapted from allrecipes.com)

2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup veggie oil (or butter or margarine, actually that's better, all melty)
2 tablespoons white sugar (or 3 or 4 or 5)
3 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1 tsp vanilla (Adam says adding vanilla is like "pouring yumminess in")

1. Preheat waffle iron.

2. Beat eggs in large bowl until fluffy.

3. Beat in flour, milk, oil, sugar, and the rest (here on Gilligan's Island), until smooth.

4. Spray waffle iron with Pam.

5. Put some batter on the waffle iron.

6. Cook until it beeps/is golden brown.

7. Eat 'em while they're hot.

Chicken Stips with Honey Mustard Sauce

Here's a yummy recipe I got out of the paper.

Dah Chicken:

Vegetable oil
4 chicken breasts cut into strips
1/4 cup mayo
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 1/4 cups (or a bunch of) breadcrumbs.

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. oil up a baking sheet
3. put the mayo and the mustard and the chicken in a bowl together.
4. toss it up to coat
5. Put the bread crumbs on a plate
6. Dippety dip the chicken in the breadcrumbs
7. Put the chicken onto the pan.
8. Cook for 10 minutes.
9. Turn over.
10. Cook for another 10 minutes. (While it's cooking, make dah sauce)

Dah Sauce

1/2 cup honey
2 tbsp Dijon mustard.

1. Mix that stuff together and dip the chicken in it.


According to the paper this recipe has 570 calories, 16 g fat, 45 g protein, 63 g carbs, and 2 g fibre. That doesn't sound super healthy, but it was tastey.

Bruschetta

Nothing says party like bruschetta!

8 plum tomatoes diced (yes 8)
like three or four tablespoons dried basil
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan (then add a little more for flavour)
2 cloved garlic (in dah garlic press)
1 tablespoon and a bit balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon and a bit olive oil
1/4 teaspoon (or whatever) salt
1/4 teaspoon (or whatever) pepper
1 loaf of yummy french bread (or bread from any european country), toasted and sliced

1. Put like everything in a bowl except the bread and mix it all together. Taste it and keep adding the stuff until it tastes delicious.
2. Put it on the toasted yummy bread.
3. Eat it with friends. (No! DO NOT eat your friends)

Cookie Pizza

A big cookie with a whole bunch of stuff on it!

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup regular sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
chocolate pizza sauce (see below)
some nuts and candies and things
some coconut

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Mix butter, sugars, vanilla and egg in a big bowl. Stir in flour and baking soda.
3. Pat dough onto a pizza pan. Out pizza pan is super huge so the cookie looked kinda small, but it spread while cooking a bit.
4. Cook it for 15 minutes (now's a good time to make the sauce (see below))
5. spread the sauce all over the cookie
6. Put all the coconut and nuts and yummy candies on it. Press a little.
7. Cut into wedges.

Chocolate pizza sauce:

1 bag of chocolate chips
2 tablespoons margarine
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup powdered sugar

1. Heat the chocolate chips, butter and milk on the stove at LOW heat. Stir sometimes.
2. When the chocolate is all melted, remove from heat.
3. stir in the powdered sugar.
4. Whisk until smooth and then use it for the pizza (see above)