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Category: American

Chocolate Covered Bacon

Published by jarandhel on December 23, 2017

 

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Chocolate Covered Bacon

A delicious treat that combines the crunchy, salty qualities of bacon with the sweetness of chocolate.

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

  • 12 half-slices of bacon
  • 2 bars of quality milk chocolate Ritter alpine milk chocolate worked very well.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

  2. Melt 2 bars of Ritter alpine milk chocolate in a fondue pot, breaking apart bars into the individual squares to melt faster. Stir occasionally.

  3. Line baking pan with tin foil.

  4. Lay out 12 half-slices of bacon on foil.

  5. Bake for ~ 15-20 minutes, until bacon is crispy.

  6. Pour off grease, lay bacon out between two layers of paper towel to absorb residual grease.

  7. When chocolate is melted, dip each piece of bacon in the chocolate, coating both sides as thoroughly as possible.

  8. Lay out on a sheet of wax paper.

  9. When finished, use a spoon to pour remaining chocolate over uncovered portions of the bacon.

  10. Place in freezer for ~10 to 15 minutes to cool.

Fried Cabbage

Published by jarandhel on January 28, 2017
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Fried Cabbage

Spicy and sweet fried cabbage.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cabbage chopped into thin strips about the length of a match.
  • 1 teaspoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon kikkoman manjo aji-mirin sweet cooking rice seasoning
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • garlic
  • red pepper flakes

Instructions

  1. 1. Melt some butter (amount is approximate.)
  2. 2. Gently saute spices, amounts to taste, in the butter.
  3. 3. Add the cabbage and stir until coated on all sides.
  4. 4. Add the sweet cooking rice seasoning.
  5. 5. Gently "fry" (saute) until slightly browned.

Recipe Notes

Optionally, finely chop some bacon and fry with some finely chopped onions until the onions are browned and the bacon is crispy, then proceed with the rest of the directions. If you do this, reduce the amount of butter used accordingly.

Easy Shredded-Beef Chili

Published by jarandhel on January 18, 2017

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Easy Shredded-Beef Chili

A quick and tasty chili using shredded beef.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Total Time 5 hours 15 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 1 sweet onion chopped.
  • 2 large cans Manwich Sloppy Joe mix
  • 2.5-3 lb rump roast
  • 2 cans dark red kidney beans
  • 1 packet McCormick chili seasoning mix hot
  • 1 fresh lime
  • 2 tablespoons peanut oil

Instructions

  1. Saute onions in a pan with peanut oil along with contents of seasoning packet until translucent. Transfer to slow cooker.
  2. Rinse beans and add to slow cooker.
  3. Brown roast on all sides in the same pan, using a little more peanut oil if necessary. Place in slow cooker on top of beans.
  4. Add sloppy joe sauce to slow cooker.
  5. Cook on high for four hours.
  6. Remove roast from slow cooker. Using two forks, shred roast, and return the shredded meat to the slow cooker. Mix well.
  7. Squeeze the juice of one fresh lime into the chili. Stir, and let sit on "warm" for a half hour to an hour.

Recipe Notes

Serve hot over bread or tortillas (I find the flavor of an onion roll goes very well with this recipe) and topped with cheese (I recommend sharp cheddar).

Slow Roasted Goose (or Duck)

Published by jarandhel on March 22, 2015
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Slow Roasted Duck (or Goose)

Ingredients

  • 2 mallard ducks weighing 1.5kg 3 and a half pounds or 1 big duck.
  • Increase 1/2 for a goose.
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 225 g/9oz fresh ginger
  • 2 long sticks baby rhubarb or 1 tub/bag craisins - soak 1 day.
  • 2 handfuls fresh sage roughly chopped
  • 1 bulb garlic cloves removed and chopped in half.
  • 2 red onions finely sliced
  • 2 wine glasses marsala or vin santo
  • 228 ml or half a pint vegetable chicken, or duck stock
  • olive oil
  • orange juice and cloves, marinate duck/geese 1-2 days

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F
  2. Season your ducks generously inside and out.
  3. Coarsely grate half your ginger and rhubarb (or craisins) Mix this in
  4. a bowl with half your sage and all the garlic and onion and stuff
  5. inside the cavity of your ducks.
  6. Place them on a tray and roast in the oven for 1 hour. Then turn the
  7. temperature down to 300F and cook for another hour and a half until
  8. crisp and tender.
  9. During this cooking time, you will need to drain the fat maybe three
  10. times into a bowl. It will separate into clear fat which you can
  11. keep for roasting. The ducks are ready when the skin is crisp and
  12. the leg bones can be easily loosened. Once cooked, allow the ducks
  13. to rest on a warmed plate while you make the sauce.
  14. Drain off any remaining fat from the roasting tray. Pull out all the
  15. stuffing and juices from the inside of the ducks into the roasting
  16. tray. Heat the roasting tray on a low heat, add your marsala, and
  17. loosen all the sticky goodness from the bottom of the tray. This may
  18. flame so mind your eyebrows.
  19. Add your stock and reduce to a good taste and consistency. Pass
  20. through a course sieve.
  21. With a knife, you can easily remove the breasts from the ducks and
  22. using your hands, remove the thighs. Divide on to the plates.
  23. To finish off, finely slice the remaining ginger and fry off in a
  24. little hot oil in a non-stick frying pan. As it begins to color, add
  25. the rest of your rhubarb--finely sliced--and finish with the rest of
  26. the sage until crisp. Sprinkle this over the duck and drizzle with
  27. your tasty sauce.

Recipe Notes

Note: Duck also doable in rotisserie, approx 1 hour cooking.

Beef Macaroni Specialty

Published by jarandhel on March 22, 2015
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Beef Macaroni Specialty

This recipe was a specialty of my father's.
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 large onions
  • 1 can italian style stewed tomatos
  • 2 boxes Kraft Mac & Cheese

Instructions

  1. Brown the ground beef.
  2. Do not slice the onions like they were going in a sandwich, and do not chop them. Instead, quarter them, going from top to bottom rather than around the middle, then continue cutting top to bottom until you have them the size you want.
  3. Add onions and stewed tomatoes. Simmer until onions are fully cooked, stirring frequently so meat does not burn.
  4. Meanwhile, boil water and cook macaroni.
  5. Drain the macaroni and add to meat mixture, which you should have transferred to a large serving dish when it finished cooking.
  6. Stir in the cheese packets from the macaroni, and then add as much additional grated yellow cheese as you want.
  7. You can also add seasonings to taste. My mother sometimes adds some extra garlic, but generally find that the seasoning of the Italian style stewed tomatoes, plus the cheese, gives it enough flavor.

Slow Cooked Chicken Stew

Published by jarandhel on March 22, 2015
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Slow Cooked Chicken Stew

Prep Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 9 hours 15 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 4 frozen chicken breasts. Thaw slightly 2 minutes in the microwave on high should do it & chop up into small cubes.
  • 3/4 pounds of dried lima beans. Rinse beans then bring to a rapid boil in six cups of warm water, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans.
  • 1 bag frozen veggies soup mix
  • 3 heaping tablespoons of instant white gravy mix.
  • A few dashes each of garlic powder goya all-purpose adobo seasoning, and salt (I know, but it helps tenderize the meat.)
  • A pinch literally of dried dill.
  • 4 cups of water.

Instructions

  1. Add all of the above to a 3/3.5 quart crock pot.
  2. Cook on "low" for 7.5 hours or so (I started mine late last night and left it going until it was nearly time to go to work, maybe closer to 8 or 9 hours.)
  3. Resist the temptation to take off the lid to sample any till it's done.
  4. Resist I said!

Garlic, Onion, and Goat Cheese Smashed Potatoes

Published by jarandhel on March 22, 2015
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Garlic, Onion, and Goat Cheese Smashed Potatoes

A delicious variant on basic mashed potatoes.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 2
Author Jarandhel Dreamsinger

Ingredients

  • 4 small baking potatoes chopped with skin on.
  • 1 red onion chopped.
  • 5 or 6 cloves fresh garlic peeled and smashed open.
  • Splash of milk.
  • 1 or 2 tablespoons butter.
  • Crumbled goat cheese to taste.

Instructions

  1. Boil potatoes, onions, and garlic in a pot of salted water until potatoes are soft. Drain. Mash with butter, milk, and crumbled goat cheese.

Chicken Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Published by jarandhel on March 22, 2015
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Chicken Broccoli Cheese Casserole

A delicious chicken, broccoli, cheese casserole complemented with other mixed vegetables.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 8
Author Jarandhel Dreamsinger

Ingredients

  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 2 cups rice
  • 1 can of peas
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 whole onion chopped
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 red bell pepper chopped.
  • 1 can cream of broccoli condensed soup
  • 1 can broccoli cheese condensed soup
  • 1 handful of mozzarella cheese.

Instructions

  1. Simmer the chicken in boiling water for 15 minutes, then cube.
  2. Cook the rice in the water from the chicken.
  3. Mix cubed chicken and rice together in a deep iron skillet with vegetables, condensed soup, and cheese.
  4. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes in a deep iron skillet.

Recipe Notes

Serving size - 1 bowlful. And no, you will not be hungry when done.

Chicken, Vegetable, and Rice Medley

Published by jarandhel on March 21, 2015
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Chicken, Vegetable, and Rice Medley

A nice chicken, vegetable, and rice medley.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 2
Author Jarandhel Dreamsinger

Ingredients

  • 1 cup uncooked rice
  • 1/2 white onion minced
  • 1 shredded carrot
  • 1/8 very large cucumber - cut into slices then quartered.
  • 1/4 zucchini - same
  • due to the size difference in the cucumber and the zucchini these should be roughly the same amount of each
  • 2 scallions chopped
  • 1/4 to mato chopped
  • 1 small can white and yellow sweet corn drained.
  • 3 boneless chicken breasts cubed
  • 1 can Campbell's sun-riped yellow tomato soup condensed.

Instructions

  1. Soak the rice. Toss the water.
  2. Rinse the rice again and toss the water.
  3. Start a tea kettle boiling.
  4. Add about 2 dollops of virgin olive oil to a pan and fry the uncooked rice until there is a noticeable color change, stirring frequently with a spatula to keep it from burning.
  5. Add 2 cups boiling water from the tea kettle.
  6. Stir in 1 tablespoon chicken style consomme instant soup and seasoning mix. Return to boiling. Stir in vegetables, chicken, and tomato soup. Add a little extra water if needed.
  7. Simmer for 10-12 minutes.
  8. Let sit for at least 10 minutes so that the rice may absorb the remaining liquid.

Recipe Notes

You can top with a little rice and add some sea salt to bring out the full flavor of this dish.

Salmon Cakes

Published by jarandhel on March 21, 2015
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Salmon Cakes

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

  • 2 foil packets of chicken of the sea pink salmon
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 1-2 tablespoons Country Crock margarine
  • 2-3 heaping tablespoons Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs.

Instructions

  1. Dice up the onion.
  2. Put a few large dollops of margarine in a skillet, and saute the onion.
  3. After a few minutes (don't let the onions go translucent, they don't need to be THAT sauteed) add the salmon and let it fry for a minute or two too.
  4. Stir in the breadcrumbs.
  5. Let it all fry for a little while, stirring frequently, until the breadcrumbs have just browned a little. You can form it into a patty if you like though it'll just barely stick together with these quantities.