Heirloom Tomato Salad

This is so easy I think my pics will tell you the recipe 🙂

Fresh heirloom tomatoes chopped.

Add Salt and Pepper, drizzle of balsamic vinegar and EVOO

Add Fresh Basil

Cheese of choice, traditional Mozzarella or I used Feta here 🙂

ENJOY!!

 

Huevos Rancheros

What to do with all the Pico de Gallo? Get your tortillas and eggs and have a healthy breakfast 🙂

Its that simple! Bon Appetite

Scalloped Potatoes

Don’t you love the aromatherapy of scalloped potatoes bubbling away in your oven. Me too!

Ingredients:

• 5-6 russet potatoes sliced thinly
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 2 tsp of fresh thyme chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of half and half
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 2 tbsp of flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used parmesan) plus more for sprinkling on top to broil

Directions:

I used a mandolin to slice potatoes perfectly thin 🙂

Watch your fingers! I know from experience I had a trip to the ER when I was a young lady.I sliced the tip of my finger off.  Ok no more gross talk. Next!

Yum fresh herbs and garlic.

Ok turn your burner on medium high and melt your butter and add your flour. Cook off the raw flour for a minute whisk constantly and add your half and half with the herb mixture.

Once you let that simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat off. Oh ya looks like I added my salt and pepper to taste here.

Pour your concoction over your potatoes and toss to coat.

Take your grated cheese and add to the mix and toss.

Sprinkle a bit more grated cheese on top and cover potatoes with tinfoil.

Cook in 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes. I take off the tinfoil and allow to cook for another 10 minutes to brown the cheese on top. Enjoy!

By the way I am a super messy cook. I will let you peek in to my kitchen and see my disaster lol.  My sous chef comes in a few weeks to help me out. AKA Dad.  My parents live in northern Canada so I don’t get to see them that often but when I do we have great quality time and I love to cook for them. My mess drives my dad crazy so he is always behind me doing the clean up. 🙂

Ok I am so eager when the food is cooked I forgot the money shot of the casserole before we digged in. I made these scalloped potatoes along with my meatloaf and honey glazed carrots. I have this pic.

 

Scalloped Potatoes

• Servings: 6
• Time: 1 1/2 hrs
• Difficulty: medium
• Print

 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 russet potatoes sliced thinly
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 2 tsp of fresh thyme chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of half and half
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 2 tbsp of flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used parmesan) plus more for sprinkling on top to broil

Directions:

Cut the potatoes in thin slices. (A mandolin works great if you have one)

Chop up your fresh herbs and garlic.

Ok turn your burner on medium high and melt your butter and add your flour. Cook off the raw flour for a minute whisk constantly and add your half and half with the herb mixture.

Once you let that simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat off. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour your concoction over your potatoes and toss to coat. Take your grated cheese and add to the mix and toss. Pour into a buttered 9×9 casserole dish and sprinkle a bit more grated cheese on top and cover potatoes with tinfoil.

Cook in 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes. I take off the tinfoil and allow to cook for another 10 minutes to brown the cheese on top. Enjoy!

French Onion Soup

I love, love, love onions. I read about deglazing your pan more than once when caramelizing onions to maximize flavor and I am confident you will be in love with this recipe! It’s all about the technique here, not any secret ingredient to make it taste this good. I hope you follow me on this journey of great comfort food!

Tip: Do not use sweet onions for this recipe. They will be to sweet after the caramelization process.

Ingredients:

• 6 large cooking onions
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 2 tsp of kosher salt
• water for deglazing the pot
• 1/4 cup of sherry
• 1/4 cup of vermouth
• 4 cups of water
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 2 cups of beef broth
• spring of fresh thyme
• 2 bay leafs
• salt and pepper to taste
• toasted sliced baguettes
• Mozza or Gruyère cheese

Directions:

First off I put my butter in a dutch oven and melt it on the stove top then turn the heat off.  Cut all your onions in even size slices, and put in your dutch oven. Sprinkle with the kosher salt. The onions  should almost reach the top of a standard size dutch oven. Give it a bit of a toss to coat the onions and sides of your dutch oven with the butter, and distribute the salt.

Now put the lid on this and place in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 hour to start softening them and cook them.

There is reason why we do this:

1. In the oven this will cook evenly as there is heat from all sides of the pot and no caramalization will take place. Which is a good thing at this point because we don’t have to worry about burning the onions before they start to cook.
2.  It decreases the amount of time you are stuck stirring them on the stove top and making sure they don’t burn. Remember black is bad, brown is good.

Ok so after an hour has passed there will be a lot of liquid and they will have become somewhat translucent, and softened.

Now turn on your stove top to medium high. The first 20 minutes or so will require little stirring as there is a lot of liquid to be reduced before any caramelization takes place. Once the liquid evaporates you need to plant your feet in front of that burner and start keeping a closer eye on these babies.

Stir often!! Remember black=bad, brown=good. When your onions start to lose their structure and deepen in color and no liquid is left you need to start scraping the BROWN fond off the sides of your pot and the bottom.

Now we are ready to deglaze our pot with the first 1/4 cup of water. Stir that in and keep stirring and scraping the brown bits back into the onions.

Once that water has reduced your onions should take on a deeper color:

Lets do this again shall we:

Wow check out that color and the smell!

Now if you think the color needs to deepen a bit more by all means deglaze the pot with water a third time. Repeating the whole process described above.

Our final deglaze will be with the sherry and vermouth. I like using vermouth along with the traditional sherry because vermouth is a fortified wine made with various herbs and spices.

Once the alcohol has been reduced I then add the water, chicken and beef broths and my spring of fresh thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.

Turn your burner down to simmer and cook this for an additional 30 minutes to blend flavors.

Now comes the best part! Take your oven proof soup bowls and add a toasted baguette slice or two or three 😉

Ladle some soup in there, darn I missed the million dollar shot! Add Gruyère or Mozza  cheese to the top and place in the oven under broiler till cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy!

 

French Onion Soup

• Servings: 8
• Time: 3hrs
• Difficulty: medium
• Print

 

Ingredients:

• 6 large cooking onions
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 2 tsp of kosher salt
• water for deglazing the pot
• 1/4 cup of sherry
• 1/4 cup of vermouth
• 4 cups of water
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 2 cups of beef broth
• spring of fresh thyme
• 2 bay leafs
• salt and pepper to taste
• toasted sliced baguettes
• Mozza or Gruyère cheese

Directions:

First off I put my butter in a dutch oven and melt it on the stove top then turn the heat off.  Cut all your onions in even size slices, and put in your dutch oven. Sprinkle with the kosher salt. The onions  should almost reach the top of a standard size dutch oven. Give it a bit of a toss to coat the onions and sides of your dutch oven with the butter, and distribute the salt.

Now put the lid on this and place in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 hour to start softening them and cook them.

After an hour return the dutch oven to the stove top remove the lid and turn the burner on med-high.  The first 20 minutes or so will require little stirring as there is a lot of liquid to be reduced before any caramelization takes place. Once the liquid evaporates you need to plant your feet in front of that burner and start keeping a closer eye on these babies.

When your onions start to lose their structure and deepen in color and no liquid is left you need to start scraping the BROWN fond off the sides of your pot and the bottom.

Now we are ready to deglaze our pot with the first 1/4 cup of water. Stir that in and keep stirring and scraping the brown bits back into the onions.

Once that water has reduced your onions should take on a deeper color. Deglaze a second time with another 1/4 cup of water.

Our final deglaze will be with the sherry and vermouth. I like using vermouth along with the traditional sherry because vermouth is a fortified wine made with various herbs and spices.

Once the alcohol has been reduced I then add the water, chicken and beef broths and my spring of fresh thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.

Turn your burner down to simmer and cook this for an additional 30 minutes to blend flavors.

Now comes the best part! Take your oven proof soup bowls and add a toasted baguette slice or two or three 😉

Ladle some soup in there, add Gruyère or Mozza  cheese to the top and place in the oven under broiler till cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy!

Mexican Lasagne

I got this recipe from my Aunt Brenda in Alberta, Canada. Her son Logan loves to cook and they make this dish a lot. I never usually have seconds of pasta but when I went up there for a visit last year and they made this….I had seconds!

Ingredients:

• 1 box of lasagna noodles
• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 1/2 cup of finely diced onions
• 1 clove of garlic chopped fine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (29 ounces)
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce of your choice
• 1/4 cup of taco seasoning
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
• 1 large container of cottage cheese
• 2 bags of shredded mexican cheese blend

Directions:

In a large dutch oven on medium high heat brown the ground beef, onions and garlic together, break apart with fork and add your salt and pepper to taste. Once that is browned add your can of crushed tomatoes, 1 jar of spaghetti sauce, and all the seasonings. Turn down to low, stir well and let flavors blend x 30 minutes. Meanwhile boil some salted water and cook your lasagna noodles to a firm el dente (little more on firm side).

Add the cottage cheese to the meat sauce and stir well. Turn off stove and now it is time to layer our lasagna 🙂

I start off by rubbing a bit of sauce on bottom of my lasagna pan so the noodles don’t stick to the bottom. Then lay down your first layer of noodles.

Next comes the sauce mixture and then top that off with the shredded mexican cheese blend. Repeat this process till your pan is filled and end on the shredded mexican cheese blend.

Top your pan with tin foil and place in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. I then take off the tin foil and cook for 5-7 more minutes to brown cheese on top.

Enjoy! My daughter does not like red sauce at all and I thought she would never try this but I told her it was “cheesy taco lasagna” and she ate it lol

Mexican Lasagne

• Servings: 8
• Time: 2hrs
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 box of lasagna noodles
• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 1/2 cup of finely diced onions
• 1 clove of garlic chopped fine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (29 ounces)
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce of your choice
• 1/4 cup of taco seasoning
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
• 1 large container of cottage cheese
• 2 bags of shredded mexican cheese blend

Directions:

In a large dutch oven on medium high heat brown the ground beef, onions and garlic together, break apart with fork and add your salt and pepper to taste. Once that is browned add your can of crushed tomatoes, 1 jar of spaghetti sauce, and all the seasonings. Turn down to low, stir well and let flavors blend x 30 minutes. Meanwhile boil some salted water and cook your lasagna noodles to a firm el dente (little more on firm side).

Assemble your lasagne in a pan with the noodles, sauce and cheese, repeating this layering method.  Top it off with the shredded mexican cheese blend.

Top your pan with tin foil and place in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. I then take off the tin foil and cook for 5-7 more minutes to brown cheese on top.

Enjoy!