DINNER!!!

[laundromat]

Spicy chicken breasts--

I get boneless,skinless chicken breasts at Costco and place them in a casarole with stewed tomatoes,diced red onions and Old Bay seafood seasoning.I put the lid on and bake it @ 400F for an hour and 25 minutes.Then,I remove the lid and sprinkle grated Parmesean cheese over it and let it melt uncovered for 5 minutes.I made some steamed broculli and some boiled potatoes.The breasts are so big so,I cut them into bite size pieces and evenly spread them in the casarole.Sometimes,instead of cheese,I sprinkle ground crutons over the top and bake it for 10 minutes and use cream of mushroom soup instead of stewed tomato.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Oh God is that like relearning DOS?

Thanks boiz.

 

[danemodsandy]

Toggles:

I see that the instructions for HTML have already been posted in this thread, so I'll confine my efforts to what I call:

FABULOUS FAKE SPAGHETTI SAUCE

1 large onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tb. olive or vegetable oil
1 pound mild breakfast sausage
2 small cans of mushroom stems and pieces
2 jars spaghetti sauce, such as Ragu Chunky Gardenstyle
1 bay leaf
Brown sugar, to taste

First: Heat the olive oil in a heavy four-quart saucepot over medium heat. Add the onions, peppers and garlic and cook until soft, but not brown. Drain off any excess oil remaining (there probably won't be any).

Second: In a skillet, saute the sausage until thoroughly cooked and well-browned, breaking it up as it cooks, just like you would with ground beef. There will be a lot of grease. Once the sausage is cooked, pour it into a heatproof colander that has been set over a bowl or pan. Press hard on the sausage with the back of a wooden spoon, to press all excess grease from it. Discard the grease. The more meticulous you are in this step, the better the final result.

Third: Put the cooked, drained sausage into the saucepot with the onions, peppers and garlic. Add the mushrooms and the spaghetti sauce, stir. Add the bay leaf, and bring up to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Fourth: Taste the sauce, and add a bit of brown sugar to round off any acidic taste. You can start with 2 teaspoons or so, and you can add more if you like a bit of evident sweetness, as I do. Simmer, covered, 15 minutes more.

Fifth: The sauce can be served immediately, but it improves if cooled and refrigerated overnight. If you refrigerate it, you'll have an opportunity to scrape off any fat that has accumulated on top of the sauce, but if you have drained the sausage correctly, there will be very little of it, almost none in fact. The sauce reheats and freezes very well.

This sauce is very rich in taste, very thick and extremely chunky with peppers, meat and mushrooms. It also is a cost-effective sauce, not one that will break the bank. If you'll keep your mouth shut about its origins, people will think you worked much harder than you actually did! ;-)

 

[danemodsandy]

Notes and Variations:

- You can substitute ground beef for the sausage, if you don't like sausage or keep kosher or whatnot. Fair warning: It ain't the same; the flavour of sausage really makes a difference here.

- You can use Italian sausage, but not everyone is okay with all that anise. Just know your audience.

- A couple of peeled, diced carrots can be added to the onions, peppers and garlic. If you do this, watch it with the brown sugar; the carrots will add some sweetness on their own. You may not need any sugar.

- I portion this out into smallish freezer containers, since I'm single these days. I get five or six generous portions.

 

[danemodsandy]

Oops!

I meant fennel in my reference to Italian sausage - sorry!

 

[toggleswitch2]

Thanks!

The way the rest a youz (HA!) consume garlic, I consume Greece...er grease!

I probalby coun't funciton in the kithcen without olive oil or some poor substitute for it!

Gotta try this!

 

[gadgetgary]

A cold snowy day in New England

Not the beat conditions for grilling a London Broil outdoors.

Much better for making a hearty old fashioned Beef Stew, with carrots, celery, potatoes, and onions.

 

[gadgetgary]

And for the topping

Dumplings

 

[gadgetgary]

Puffy

and ready for that rich brown gravy

 

[perc-o-prince]

Not the beat conditions for grilling a London Broil outdoors

There's never a bad time for grilling! Done it in the sun, the dark, the rain, the snow, the wind... This is why I go through, oh, maybe 6-8 tanks of propane a year!

Looks GREAT Gary! I LOVE chicken and dumplings on a cold wintery day (haven't done it w/ a beef-based stew)! I have a couple of leg quarters thawing for tomorrow's dinner. I was going to toss them in well-seasoned breadcrumbs and bake tham, but maybe dumplings are called for! Let's see how tomorrow pans out!

Chuck

 

[rapunzel]

Love dumplings, epecially sweet yeast dumplings drowning in

...or hot custard, or saturated with melted butter and sprinkeld with lots of sugar and cinnamon.

Right now it's too hot and humid for that kind of fare. Thus, I am currently munching on a plain old celery stick.

 

[toggleswitch2]

The purhcase of a SS steaming pot, I thought was a bit much.

A friend of mine who is obsessed with foreign...er international ..cultures treated me to a fabulous dinner.

You see he went to a local "H-Mart" that which is a Chinese/Japanese/Korean market.

Dinner consisted of marinated Korean-style beef strips that he pan-fried and "stuffed" dumplings ("pot-stikers") that he steamed, some of which got fried.

I think he said the greens were mustard greens, simply boiled.

YUM!

 

[polkanut]

Supper tonight is going to be Hungarian Goulash, made with ground venison, served on a bed of rice, instead of noodles.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Sandy, your recipe looks great!

When one REALLY has to cheat, one can buy frozen meatballs. Throw them in a few jars of sauce, add some wine and as you suggest veggies, and let it all stew away in the slow cooker.

I've had Italian-Americans RAVE over my fake stuff. They don't EXPECT me to cheat. That and sauteeing some garlic and stinking up the house and my guests BELEEVE it's all home-made. LOL

Lately I've been putting spare-ribs in my tomato sauce as the meat, whether the suace was made from scratch or with a little help from the food processing industry of America. Apprently, bones provide a very easily digestible and absorbable form of calcium the body needs, once the acid of the tomatoes gets to it!

 

[danemodsandy]

Toggles:

Believe me, no one cheats like a recovering foodie. There was a time when I would have begun with pecks of tomatoes.

As they say in the Georgia countryside, them days is gone.