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Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

Pork Roast

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Main Dish, Recipes, tagged , , on May 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The other day I didn’t feel like cooking dinner (not an unusual state of circumstances at our house), so I popped a pork roast with potoates in the oven and a little more than an hour later, a delicious dinner was ready that took nearly no effort on my part. Exactly my kind of meal!

Ingredients for Pork Roast. I would normally include carrots, but I was out that day and didn't want to run to the store.

Pork and potatoes in my clay baker, ready to cook.

Hot, juicy, tender and ready to eat.

Pork Roast

2-3 pound Pork Roast

6 Potatoes

All-Purpose Seasoning

Salt

Depending on how many you are feeding, you may want a bigger or smaller roast. This recipe would serve 4.

As for the type of Pork Roast you purchase, you can use a variety of different cuts. I had a boneless rib-eye roast for this recipe.

I used my wonderful clay baker to make my roast because it steams the meat and makes it so juicy and tender. I posted a while back about clay bakers.  If you don’t have one, you can also cook a roast in a regular roasting pan or even in a baking pan loosely tented with foil.

I would normally add carrots to the potatoes (use reds and leave on the skin if you so desire. I desired.). You can also throw in celery, onions, garlic, whatever tickles your fancy.

Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees or until a meat thermometer reaches the appropriate temp.

Remove from oven, let rest with the lid on for 5-10 minutes then slice and enjoy!

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Banana Cheesecake

Posted in Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Holiday Recipes, Holidays, tagged , , , on May 6, 2011| 3 Comments »


My most wonderful mother-in-law will be arriving later today for the weekend. We are pretty excited about her coming for Mother’s Day!

I wanted to make something extra special for her so I contacted my sister-in-law to find out her favorite desserts. One of them just happens to be The Cheesecake Factory’s Banana Cheesecake.

After a little bit of searching online I found the recipe and dived right in to create this treat for her.

I will warn you that it takes a bit of patience to make, but the result is most definitely worth it!

Ingredients for Banana Cheesecake.

Smash cookies until finely crushed (or pulse in food processor). At least this way, I could put Captain Cavedweller to work!

Press obliterated cookies into the bottom of a springform pan.

Mash up enough bananas to make 1 cup. I used three, and then made Captain Cavedweller mash them for me.

Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth and creamy.

Add your eggs one at a time.

Pour batter into crust.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes then reduce temp to 200 for 75-90 minutes. Mine was closer to 90 when I took it out of the oven and could probably have gone another 5-10 minutes to be done the way I would have really liked. I recommend not deciding to make this at say 7 p.m. at night because you'll be standing in your PJs staring at the stove waiting for this to be done!

You can garnish the cheesecake with slices of fresh banana, a dollop of whipped cream, whatever floats your boat. My boat was floating on caramel sauce, Heath bits and chocolate swirlies.

Enjoy!

Banana Cheesecake

1 package vanilla sandwich cookies

1/4 cup butter, melted

24 ounces cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp. cornstarch

3 eggs

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. banana flavoring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place cookies in a resealable bag and smash the dickens out of them with a cast iron skillet or a meat tenderizer. If you have a food processor, just pulse until they are finely crushed. Mine were finely crushed by Captain Cavedweller.  Crushed by the fine Captain Cavedweller. Finally crushed finely. Oh, you know what I mean.

Add melted butter and mix well. Press into the bottom of a 10″ springform pan and refrigerate.

Beat cream cheese on medium speed with electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar and cornstarch, beating until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas, cream and vanilla and banana flavoring. If you don’t have banana flavoring, just add another spoon of vanilla. Place springform pan on cookie sheet. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking 75-90 minutes until center is just set. Loosen edge of springform pan but do not remove. Let cool completely then take off pan rim. Refrigerate cheesecake for at least six hours before serving.

Happy Entertaining and Happy Mother’s Day!

She Who Can’t Wait for my MIL to Arrive!

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Beef Stir Fry

Posted in Easy Recipes, Fast Recipes, Main Dish, Recipes, tagged , , on April 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If you are looking for a filling, fast and tasty meal, whip up a skillet full of beef stir fry. It comes together quickly and could even be called a healthy meal (which most of my blog posts aren’t. Sorry I grew up on a farm where butter was liberally applied and included in everything. What can I say?)

Give this a whirl and see if it doesn’t make for a fast and easy meal.

Ingredients for Beef Stir Fry - you can use whatever veggies you like, this just happened to be what I had available when I decided to make this for dinner.

I use stew meat and slice it thinly for stir-fry. Because the meat is still a little frozen, it is super easy to slice.

Wash and slice up vegetables. We used celery, zuchinni and yellow squash. You could also use broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, onion, corn, etc.

Brown your meat in a hot skillet. I got out my Big Bertha cast iron skillet so it could hold all the ingredients easily.

Add veggies once the meat is browned.

Add beef broth and simmer until veggies are tender. Thanks Captain Cavedweller for pouring in the broth so I could take photos!

Steaming hot and ready to eat. Serve over rice and you've got a complete meal, ready in minutes!

Beef Stir Fry

1-2 pounds of stew meat, thinly sliced

4 stalks of celery, thinly sliced

1 zucchini, thinly sliced

1 yellow squash, thinly sliced

1 can water sliced chestnust

parsley flakes

onion flakes

beef broth

salt

all-purpose seasoning

Brown meat in a skillet on medium-high heat.  When browned, add in veggies and enough beef broth to cover the mixture. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer until veggies are tender. Serve over rice. We like to sprinkle chow mein noodles on top. You can use any combination of vegetables. Onions and peppers and I are not on speaking terms, so we make do with onion flakes.

Enjoy!

She Who Likes Easy to Throw Together Meals

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Egg Chicks

Posted in Easter, Entertaining at Home, Holidays, Kid's Food, tagged , , , on April 22, 2011| 3 Comments »

Easter Egg Chick - Simple and So Cute!

I came across this recipe the other day and said “I can make that!” Not only was it super cute and simple, it fit into my very limited time schedule. Hooray.

So if I can make these, you can too. Or have your kids jump in and join in the fun!

Ingredients

Cut a zig zag pattern about a third of the way down. Blame the fuzzy photo on Captain Cavedweller, please.

Separate the top from the bottom.

Carefully remove the yolk. If you aren't careful, you'll end up with a mangled egg that looks like a fox has been in the henhouse. And you really don't want that. Nope. Not at all.

Mix up your filling.

Fill the bottom of the egg.

Ready for the top and the finishing touches.

Cute Little Egg Chick

Egg Chicks

12 hard-cooked eggs

1/2 cup mayonnaise (do not use salad dressing, repeat – do not use salad dressing)

1/4 cup Ranch dressing

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 stuffed olives

Peel eggs then cut a thin slice from the bottom of each one so it will stand upright. Cut a zigzag pattern about a third of the way down from the top of each egg. Carefully remove yolks. If you do not carefully remove yolks, your egg will appear mangled like mine. Please, don’t be like me.

Mash yolks in a bowl and add mayo, Ranch dressing and salt. Spoon into bottoms of egg, replace tops.

Cut olives into thin slices for eyes and use pimento pieces for beaks. Gently press into filling. Chill until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Happy Easter Entertaining!

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