Quesadillas de Camarones

Ingredients
• Flour Tortillas
• 12 whole Large Shrimp, Peeled And Deveined
• 8 ounces, fluid Mexican Red Sauce
• 1 whole Large Onion
• 1 whole Red Bell Pepper
• 1 whole Green Bell Pepper
• 2 cups Cheese, Grated (Monterey Jack Is Best - I USED QUESO)
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Salt To Taste

Preparation Instructions

1. Pour red sauce over shrimp. Set aside.
2. Chop vegetables into large pieces. Heat skillet over high heat and add olive oil. Cook vegetables over high heat until they start to get brown/black. Remove from skillet and set aside.
3. Return skillet to high heat, dump in the shrimp with the sauce. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until shrimp is opaque. Add in a little water if the sauce gets dry. Remove from skillet and chop into bite-size pieces.
4. In a separate skillet, heat butter. Place a tortilla in the skillet, then layer on ingredients: cheese, vegetables, and shrimp. Top with a little more cheese and a second tortilla. Cook on both sides, adding butter before flipping to the other side so the tortilla isn’t overly dry.
5. Remove from skillet and slice into wedges. Serve with rice, beans, salsa, sour cream, guacamole—whatever you’d like!

I will give credit for this scrumptious recipe as soon as I can remember where I found it online! :p

Easy Baked Oatmeal

I came across this recipe on the Sonlight forums.  At the moment, I can't remember who originally posted it but when I have time I'll come back and give credit where credit's due.  I love this oatmeal because it's easy to fix, doesn't have to sit overnight, and has a texture that my oatmeal haters can tolerate.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar (I use 3/4 cup and it's still good)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried cranberries (or to taste)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350F
In a glass, microwave safe mixing bowl melt butter
Add all ingredients, except oatmeal and cranberries, and mix together
Stir in oatmeal and cranberries
Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish
Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes

One of these days I'm going to top this with some crushed pecans.  I think that would make it a nearly perfect breakfast.

Peanut Butter Brownies

From Cooking with the Horse & Buggy People II

• 3/4 cup shortening


• 3/4 cup peanut butter


• 2 1/4 cups sugar


• 5 eggs


• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla


• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 3/4 tsp salt


• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips


• 3/4 cup chopped peanuts

Put in a 10x15 pan at 350F for 30 minutes.

Christmas Dinner ~ A First for the Decade

What?  A first?  Yes, this is the first year I have cooked Christmas Dinner all by myself.  I picked the menu, assembled the recipes, bought the ingredients, and managed the workforce.  The end result?  Three buffet dishes for breakfast at the relatives and dinner for my brood and some friends.

BREAKFAST

Cheddar-Sausage Breakfast Quiche
Sweet Ricotta Breakfast Quiche
Baked Brie with Apples & Cranberries

 

DINNER

Baked Ham
Au Gratin Potatoes
Paula Deen's Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Beans
Cranberry Orange Salad
Deviled Eggs
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Cooking is the area I am best at expressing my creativity.  It was a wonderful gift for me to be able to pour so much of myself into this simple meal.  Why, then, is the the first Christmas Dinner I've cooked this decade?  Simple.  My mother is usually in my kitchen for the holidays and I learned a long time ago to just let her do it her way.  If I want to change my mother's cooking habits all I have to do is tell her how I do it and guaranteed she will do the opposite.  In the interest of family peace, I live with the same, old bland and boring holiday food every year.  (Well, except for the homemade noodles.  My mother makes exceptional noodles!)  This year she and my sisters stayed in Missouri and we stayed in Kentucky.  Really a win-win if you ask me!

Sausage-Cheddar Breakfast Quiche

Ingredients

1 lb bulk breakfast sausage
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 eggs
1 cup milk or half-and-half
1 tsp ground mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 - 8" pie crust

Directions:

• Brown sausage in a skillet and remove with a slotted spoon - you can also let the sausage drain on a paper towel to remove even more fat


• Place crust in pie plate


• Arrange sausage on bottom of crust


• Sprinkle cheese on top of sausage


• Whisk together eggs, milk, ground mustard, and salt & pepper


• Pour egg mixture slowly over cheese and sausage


• Bake uncovered at 350F for 35-40 minutes ~ eggs shouldn't be jiggly when it's finished

This recipe was modified from Paula Deen's Sausage Quiche from the website grandparents.com. I like to add mustard to my sausage quiche and I also wanted more eggs and less milk.

Yummy!

Simple Au Gratin Potatoes

I'm not going to give specific ingredient amounts for this recipe, because it's very easily adapted to however many people you want to serve.

Basic Ingredients:

Potatoes
Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
Paprika

Directions:

• Choose an oven-safe casserole dish that will accommodate the number of people you'll be serving


• Thinly slice potatoes in a single layer in the bottom of the dish


• Sprinkle lightly with flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg - remember, the seasoning will be in each layer, so don't be too heavy-handed


• Sprinkle a layer of shredded cheddar cheese


• Repeat layers until casserole is filled

• For every 1 1/2 quarts of casserole, make a mixture of 1/4 cup melted butter in 1 1/4 cups milk and pour it over the layers


• Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika

Bake covered at 325F for 1 1/2 hours, or until a nice golden-brown crust forms on top and potatoes are tender.

The more you make, the longer it will take to cook. For Christmas Dinner I made enough casserole to fill a 3 quart dish and I baked it for 2 hours at 350F. I had other dishes in the oven, so 350 was my only choice. :p

This recipe is adapted from Marcia Adam' Old-Fashioned Escalloped Potatoes in Cooking from Quilt Country: Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens.

Homemade Bratwurst

Bratwurst made with venison.  Or would it be called bratwurst-seasoned venison since brats are typically made with pork?

Oh, yea!

"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."

~ Fernand Point

mjjj"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."

The Fruit of Love's Labor

FOR DINNER

FOR ME

TWO TO GIVE AWAY and ONE TO FREEZE

Chloe's Famous Virus-Killing Soup

Aren't these vegetables gorgeous?



The gorgeous picture along with the fact that this is the THIRD batch of this soup I've made in the last two weeks inspired me to blog the recipe.  Even when we don't have The Flu, this soup is still wonderfully delish!  Credit for the recipe goes to my e-maginary friend Chloe, a fellow Sonlighter who shared this recipe with us over two years ago.

Chloe's Famous Virus Killing Soup

• One chicken


• Appx 15-30 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed


• 1 Tbs salt


• 3-4 Thyme sprigs


• Cayenne pepper (to taste. I use about a tsp)


• Fresh Rosemary sprigs


• Fresh ground pepper

Place chicken and other ingredients in a soup pot (I use my pressure cooker) and cover with water or chicken broth (I really like those boxes of organic chicken broth). Cook on stove top until chicken starts to fall apart. Remove from heat. Strain out chicken and stuff and set aside until cool enough to chop. Reserve broth for next step.

• 1 large onion (coarsely chopped or sliced)


• 1 fennel bulb (sliced thin)


• 1 leek (sliced thin)


• 4-6 stalks of celery (coarse chopped)


• large red pepper (coarse chopped)


• 1/2 lb. carrots (coarse chopped)

• 2 tbs olive oil


• 1/2 C good White Wine


• salt and pepper

Place oil in bottom of large pot and heat. Add onion, fennel, celery, pepper and leek and saute until onion just transparent. Add wine and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Cover the vegetables with chicken broth from chicken–add more broth from can or box if you don’t have enough broth from chicken and simmer veggies until just tender.

• Frozen green beans


• Frozen peas


• zucchini


• flat leaf parsely (chopped)


• 1-2 cans chopped tomatoes with juice


• salt and pepper to taste

Add these above ingredients and simmer until everything is tender. Add chopped chicken, salt and pepper to taste.

No virus can withstand this soup.

You can also add cabbage with the end ingredients if you like (We love cabbage!), or any other veggies your family likes.   Go ahead and throw in whatever's in your vegie bin!     The next day add egg noodles and turn it into chicken noodle soup.