Quick note

First, a thank you again to Jodi for more great new recipes, and also for the Gnocchi that is so tried and true. We had it again last night and it was amazing.

Second, I found something I love on my summer salad. My lunches have been pretty much the same every day—a couple of cups of spinach topped with chopped deli ham, diced cantaloupe and cottage cheese. I love it with the salty and the sweet and the crisp; just heaven. It's also filling with a nice combination of vegetable, fruit, dairy, and protein-rich meat. Well, yesterday I added something that put it over the top into AMAZING! 1-2 Tbsp strawberry jam. That's it. I kind of mix it on the plate with the cottage cheese to help it disperse evenly, and it's pure heaven. I just used my easy chunky strawberry freezer jam and it's perfect. May your summer salads be delightful!

An Hors D'œuvre For Your Tasting Pleasure

This is a great hors d'œuvree recipe that is also really easy. I made it for everyone (Justin, Michelle & Bryce & kids, Mom & Dad & Marquie) on Sunday and everyone seemed to really like it (I don't like it because I don't like mushrooms). Michelle and Mom are talking about trying to make it into a casserole with one of Michelle's gigantic zucchinis, so I guess they'll have to let you know how that turns out.

Stuffed Zucchini

• 3 small zucchini, with ends removed, cut in half, lengthwise
• 3/4 cup stove top stuffing mix
• 1/3 cup mushrooms, drained, chopped
• 1 Tbs. melted butter
• 3/8 tsp. salt
• dash pepper
• 6 Tbs. Shredded cheddar cheese

Add zucchini to boiling water and boil 5 minutes. Remove zucchini from the water and cool under running cold water. Using a melon ball tool, remove the center portion of the zucchini to be used later in the stuffing. (Leave at least 1/4" of flesh on the peeling.)

Combine croutons, mushrooms, margarine, seasonings. Chop the reserved center of the zucchini and add to crouton mixture, stir to mix. Fill the outside part of the zucchini with the mushroom mixture. Top with cheese; then broil until lightly-browned. Cut into bite-sized pieces if desired.

Basic Waldorf Salad

Cooking class again...You might have had this salad before, Michelle just loved it when I made it for her (and Justin when I made it for him).

Basic Waldorf Salad

Makes 6 servings

• 2 cups diced apple (about 2 apples - leave the peel on)
• 1/2 cup 1-inch julienne celery sticks (about 1 celery rib)
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1/2 pint (1 cup) whipping cream, whipped

Combine apple, celery, marshmallow, nuts, and raisins. Set a handful of these ingredients aside to garnish the top when finished mixing. Blend together mayonnaise, sugar, lemon juice, and dash salt. Fold whipped cream and mayonnaise mixture into apple mixture. Top with ingredients held aside to use as garnish. Chill and serve.

Bread Sticks

Here is another recipe from my cooking class. I made it for Michelle and her family a couple of times and she just loves it. They're great!

Quick Bread Sticks

(Serves 10)

• 1 tablespoon yeast dissolved in 1 ¼ cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3-3 ½ cups flour
• ¼ cup butter or margarine, melted
• garlic salt and parmesan cheese, optional

Add sugar, salt and 2 ½ cups flour to yeast mixture. Mix to form dough. Add up to 1 cup more flour if needed. Mix about 3 minutes. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Put half of melted butter or margarine in jelly roll pan. Using rolling pin or hands, flatten dough into buttered jelly roll pan. Spread remaining butter or margarine over top of dough. Using pizza cutter, cut dough into strips. Sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Let rest another 10 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cut with pizza cutter again.

Easy meals

We've been busy lately. VERY busy. I've been busting trying to get all the house projects done in a timely (and affordable!) manner and Liz has been unpacking, cleaning, organizing, fighting the internet fight. I think we might post on our family blog about that.

Anyway, I digress. The other night I made a quick yummy that the boys flipped for. Liz and I had plain old chicken over lightly sweetened cabbage, but the boys enjoyed this:

• 6 oz. dry pasta (we used Ziti), cooked
• 2 chicken breasts, diced and cooked
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• corn flakes

Nope, it's nothing special, but it's quick, easy and makes the boys happy. We combined everything but the corn flakes, added a splash of Alfredo sauce to make Joshua happier, then topped it with crushed corn flakes. Bake for 20 or 30 at 425˚. They loved it. My snitches were good too.

Easy Fudge

This is such a simple recipe!  It's also one I got from my cooking class.  As you can see, it's easily adapted to a small, individual serving, and it would be really fun to let kids make their own.

Zip-Lock Bag Fudge

(makes 1 1/2 cups, amounts in parentheses make a single serving in a sandwich bag)

• 2 oz cream cheese (1 T)
• 3 cups powdered sugar (3/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup margarine (1 T)
• 1/4 cup cocoa (1 T)

Put all ingredients in a 1 gallon zip lock bag.  Push the air out of the bag and seal well.  Squish mixture with hands to mix well.  It will be dry at first, but will soon become fudge.  Serve in whatever shape you would like.  Balls of fudge can be rolled in chopped nuts or coconut.

Tuna Melts!

This is one of the recipes that I got from my cooking class during Winter semester.  We've made it several times, and it proves to be a very simple and delicious recipe.  Great for kids!

Tuna Melt Sandwiches

•1 (6 oz) can tuna, drained

•1/4 cup mayonnaise [we use miracle whip]

•1 hard cooked egg, diced*

•2 oz cheddar cheese, in 1/4" cubes [we've used significantly more than this on some occasions, just as good! also, we use shredded and it works fine]

•1/4 cup sweet pickle relish [we use dill]

•12 slices of bread [or as many as it takes you to use the filling up]

Combine filling ingredients.  Mix well. Spread between two slices of bread, buttering outsides of bread.  Cook in a sandwich maker or electric skillet, turning, until both sides are golden brown and cheese is melted [we just use a frying pan with a lid].

*You can prepare the boiled egg however you usually do, or use the way from my cooking class:  place room temperature egg in a pan with cold water.  Bring water to boil, remove from heat, cover tightly, and allow to remain in water for 20 minutes.

Brunch Casserole

I made a slight change to the existing brunch casserole recipe and we loved it.  Instead of throwing away the crusts of the bread, tear them up into small pieces (about an inch or less in length) and put them on top of the casserole before pouring the milk and egg mixture.  The crumbs get sufficiently moist to be baked and brown nicely.  It made it look beautiful and added a delightful crunch.

Pizza pinwheels

Made these for our pizza movie night and everyone loved them.

1 recipe pizza dough
toppings as desired, finely chopped (we did pepperoni and sausage)
cheese

Make dough as directed. Cut dough in two. Roll out on counter cinnamon roll style. Spread cheese and toppings. No sauce goes on these. Roll into a log and pinch. Slice to desired thickness, no more than 2". Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Dip in favorite sauce. We did a marinara with mozzarella cheese and an alfredo.

Chipotle Burritos

Thursday night, we had the missionaries over to dinner. We served them burritos. I wanted the flavor of that wonderful Chipotle Beef in the burrito, so instead of adding taco seasoning to the ground beef and onions, I added 1/2 t. cumin, 1 t. chopped garlic, about a 1/4 can of chopped chipotle peppers and some fresh cilantro. I let it simmer, covered, for, oh, about 45 minutes. I uncovered it and let it continue simmering for about 15 minutes more. The flavor was divine. Incredible with rice, beans, cheese, sour cream and guacomole on those giant tortillas! I served it with chips and salsa and watermelon chunks for dessert.