Cheater Ravioli

Ingredients:

1 big frozen bag of mushroom stuffed ravioli

1 Jar Prego Spaghetti Sauce with Sausage and Peppers

1 Pkg. Ham Steak, cubed

1 Pkg. Fresh Mushrooms (optional)

1/2 Pkg. Frozen, Drained Spinach (optional)

Parmesan  Cheese, Shaved into big pieces like when you peel carrots.

Directions:

Cook Ravioli and drain.

To pot add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir to mix.

Top Dinner Plate with slivered parmesean cheese (big pieces).

Some crusty french bread, a store bought Ceasar Salad, and you are all set.

McSoup! Ten Nugget Trick to a Full House

I’m a fan of cheater recipes ONLY if they deliver a gourmet taste, save lots of time, and only dirty up one pan.  Make this soup out of Chicken Nuggets from McDonald’s!  It cooks up in 10-15 minutes, feeds six hungry people, and doesn’t disappoint.

Mmmm… something smells good!

“If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t winnin’.”   

Oh wait…that’s what I think when I try to steal the deal in Euchre. 

The first rule of cheater cooking is to get all your crap ready to go.  In this case, you’ll want to have your onion diced, your carrots sliced and blanched and your McNuggets cut down to size.

To a dutch oven melt and simmer until softened:

1/2 stick butter

1 small diced onion

Add in this order:

1/4 cup flour, stir to make roux and then add:

3/4 cup of white wine (a flavor booster)

3 cups of chicken broth

Bring to boil and add:

Two handfuls of Dumplings or Reames Frozen Noodles, let them boil and soften, then add:

1/2 cup of fresh chopped parsley (or 1 TBL dried)

10 McDonald’s McNuggets, cut in thirds.  Tyson Frozen Chicken Nuggets work too!

1 cup sliced carrots (I dump mine in a measure cup filled with water and nuke for 3 minutes, then drain)

1 cup of heavy cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

When I made this McSoup, I used some frozen dumplings that I had.  If you don’t have carrots, use peas.  If you don’t have chicken, use shrimp.  This is a very flexible soup base.  — I will post my dumpling recipe below.

The ONLY noodle that has a chance to trump my dumplings is Reames frozen noodles.

I can’t make fresh any better.

Use Reames Frozen Egg Noodles to really cheat your way through this recipe!

Dumplings are about the easiest (and cheapest) way to stretch any dish.  These little devils put the home in home cooking.  Here’s how I roll:

2-1/2  Cups King Arthur all purpose flour

1 large egg

3/4 cup milk

2 Tbl. softened butter (not margarine!)

Seasonings to taste…can add some salt or chopped parsley if you like.

Mix ‘em up in a bowl and pinch them into little balls. They don’t have to be pretty.  Roll ‘em in flour and keep flour on your hands so the dough doesn’t stick.  Don’t make a mess:  put some flour on a paper plate and roll them and stack them on it.  Remember, these dumplings grow bigger when they are cooked!  Use what you need, ziploc the rest, and freeze them.  To eat, just boil them in water, sauce, or soup bases.

The kids will eat their peas and carrots if you toss in some dumplings boiled in water or chicken broth.  Just drain, add nuked (frozen, never canned) veggies and butter…makes a side dish they will gobble right up.

So put on your game face and win some points with McSoup!

Kelly’s Clam Chowder

This is not a recipe for sissies.  It is a lot of work but the payoff is huge.

Boil, drain and set aside

• 1 lb. of baby yukon gold potatoes (unpeeled) and halved or quartered to bite size

To a dutch oven (5 qt. casserole pan)  add

• 6 slices of bacon, diced
  

and cook until transparent.  Add

• 1 large diced onion
• 3 large diced stalks of celery
• 2 diced garlic cloves
• dash of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. marjoram
• 3 tsp. FRESH chopped basil
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 2 bay leaves

and cook until tender.  All these seasonings make this dish aromatic and mouth watering.

Add

• 3 tsp. butter
• 1/2 cup flour

and cook for another 3-4 minutes over LOW heat until it thickens and forms a roux.

Add

• 4 cups of heavy cream
• 4 bottles of clam juice (sold near tuna in supermarket)

Heat until just boiling and Add

• potatoes that were set aside
• 2 bags of FROZEN clams with their juice

Bring to a boil slowly, stirring, and Add

• 1/4 cup chopped FRESH parsley
• 1 tsp. chopped FRESH dill

At this point I like to throw in 6-8 live clams and leave the shells in the soup pot for added flavor and to add interest when serving the chowder up.

Oyster crackers on the side and you’ve got about four quarts of soup that feed 12-14 people as a starter to a meal or 6 people as a main course.

My family truly loves this dish.   Please, please, please use fresh herbs and the frozen (not canned) clams.  It makes all the difference!

Gwamma Sandwich

Mistake Number 1:

Accepting a ride from the dynamic duo

Mistake Number 2:

Liking it

Mistake Number 3:

Morphing into the Three Musketeers

Shame on these two for offering sweet, little Gwamma a ride in Babe the Blue Ox, capitalizing on her trust and innocence.  A few fishtails and power slides later, she understood the consequences of her choices and cursed God for free will.  That’s when ‘ol Diablo kicked in– along with the turbo.  A switch was flipped and she liked it.  Gwamma has gone over to the dark side and reverse is not in her vernacular.

Now the woman who gave birth to me, nurtured me, and tucked me under my blankies every night wants to go mud slinging and doughnut spinning.  Hell, she wants to drive.

Next they will put a red nose on her, hitch her to a sleigh, and shove a carrot up her butt.

This Country Needs a Big Friggin’ Enema

10.  Idol Worship & Hollywood – It is not normal to wear a size 0, get everything you want, and sleep around.

9.  Political Correctness – Call ‘em Like You See ‘em.

8.  Abortion and Hooking Up – Bottom Line…teach kids to keep their pants zipped.

7.  Isolation – Social Media, TV, Blogging, Gaming has replaced family conversation, projects, and opportunities.   Everything in Moderation–including moderation!

6.  Education Systems that Indoctrinate Our Children into Thinking EVERYTHING is okay and parents are the ones who are behind the times and don’t understand.  NO, WE DO UNDERSTAND and we don’t like it…hence, HOMESCHOOLING.

5.  Designer Crap – In the 60′s if something had holes in it, we gave it away.

4.  Honey Boo-Boo, Kim Kardashian, Joy Behar  (It’s a 3-way tie)

3.  Bicycle Helmets and Growing up Without Playing Outside

2.  Apathy – The General Public’s Acceptance of Media Information as Gospel

1.  Godlessness in our Society.  The farther away we go from our roots, the more bad things happen.

Add them all up and much of this country can see its reflection in a mirror.   The Waltons are on the brink of extinction.

We need to DISCIPLINE ourselves. 

Start thinking about the consequences of our choices.  We have all the power within us to bring American life back to a simpler, more loving time.

Start with stopping yourself. 

Start with thinking, “Is this the best thing I can be doing right now?”  “Am I alone?”  If you catch yourself alone most of the day, hidden in a Farmville world or watching a roster of YOUR shows, that is a problem and a waste of LIFE.”  “How is what I am doing helping my family?”

Stop accepting all the crap that is visually thrown our way by TV and in print.

Start thinking for yourself and working to make yourself a better person.  Engage in the positives:  read the classics, talk about ideals or ideas and enjoy an artful conversation.  Surround yourself with people whom you respect and whose goodness and smarts you aspire to.  Visit a museum, help a neighbor with yard work, open a door, shock someone with a random act of kindness, and smile at each person you pass.  In the end, the gift is yours.

Hold children accountable to be respectful and productive.

Respect starts in the home.  Parents need to know the difference between discipline and punishment.  Discipline is corrective and employs a moral; punishment hurts (feelings or physically).  When we correct little ones with respect, we build a foundation.   Let them skin their knees and play outside until the streetlights come on.  We may not live on the prairie, but there are jobs within each home that children should be expected to complete.  In this way, they develop a sense of duty, teamwork, and success.  They belong.  Let them have adventures sweetened with a good amount of joy and  a salty bit of disappointment.  Most things that are good have both sugar and salt.  

Keep your middle finger to yourself.

You didn’t see the California wave prior to 1970.  Back then folks would virtually flip someone off  with elevated English –which was much more amusing and creative than an extended digit coupled with a skunk eye.  You could burn someone with your wit and get your point across while maintaining superiority over the situation and keeping your dignity.    Oh how I miss sarcasm and the turn of a good phrase.

Dare to dream.

Start building your own “Ville” where 2013 is filled with family discussion and visiting grandparents to learn about your history.  Trump somebody’s Ace.  Go camping or take handheld walks with someone you love, slow down–meditate and pray, listen to classical music, play a practical joke, build a potato gun, reminisce,  plant a family garden, play board games, bake from scratch, rub a dog’s belly, paint something, sit face to face and really engage each other, tell jokes and LAUGH!

Take this thoughtful way of life, these disciplined measures, out into the world.  Speak up, show up, and help others.  Always do good.

The restoration of our country as a whole begins one decision at a time.

Cherry Bombs

 Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world,

had cookies at three o’clock in the afternoon and then

lay down on our blankets for a nap.

STEP 1:  To mixing bowl add dry ingredients:

2-1/2 Cups      Flour

3/4 Cup            Hershey’s Cocoa

1 Tsp.                Baking Soda

1 Cup                Sugar

1 Cup                Packed Brown Sugar

Mix dry ingredients, then add and mix until smooth:

1 Cup              Softened Butter

2 Tsp.             Vanilla

2                       Eggs

Step 2:  Roll into 1″ balls and press your thumb into center of each ball to make a little spot to hold a red cherry.  Drain a jar of Cherries, reserving 2 Tbl of liquid.  Drop a cherry into each chocolate cookie.

Step 3:  Microwave the reserved cherry juice, 1/2 bag of milk chocolate chips, and 1 Tsp. butter or oil until soft enough to drizzle chocolate mixture, with a spoon, over the top of the cherry-cookie.

Bake 350 for approximately 15 minutes, more or less.  You want the dough to just “set” so you have a soft, chewy cookie.

• I divide the batch up and make some with cherries and chocolate sauce and some with M & M’s.
• The cookie dough is a great base for just about any candy treats you want….kisses, heath chips, white chocolate drizzle.
• You can get two or three “looks” out of one base batch.

appy H

Holidays!