Italian Sausage and Spinach Pie

Perfect for a breakfast, brunch or dinner!  This was breakfast at the Straight Arrow Ranch with wonderful friends and chef Laurie!!!

Italian Sausage and Spinach Pie

1 lb. bulk Italian sausage

1 medium onion, chopped

6 eggs, beaten

1 (10-oz.) pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

pastry for a two-crust pie (10-inches)

1 T. water

In a skillet, brown sausage and onion until sausage is done and onions is tender. Drain. Separate one egg and set aside the yolk. In a mixing bowl, beat the remaining egg white and whole eggs. Stir in sausage and onion, spinach, mozzarella, ricotta, garlic powder and pepper. Line a 10-inch pie pan with bottom pastry. Add filling. Top with upper crust; seal and flute edges. Cut slits in top crust. Combine water with reserved egg yolk; brush over top crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Blue Cheese and Bacon Broiled Tomatoes

Blue Cheese and Bacon Broiled Tomatoes

(Picture and shared recipe by Sophia C.)

Slice about 2-3 medium sized Heirloom or other tomatoes about 1/2-3/4” thick and place on a baking sheet with parchment.  Then in a small mixing bowl, add:

1 sleeve of Ritz crackers

About half to 1 cup of Blue cheese or Feta Cheese crumbles

6 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon

2 or 3 chopped creek onions (the entire thing from the green end down to the last 1/2 where the roots are)

1/2 stick of butter, melted

About 1/4 cup of mayonnaise (enough to make the crackers stick together)

Lots of salt and pepper

Mix all of this together, adding enough mayo to make it all stick together.  I used my pampered chef medium scoop and scooped the mixture onto the top at slices and then flattened the cracker mix a bit so that it covered the entire tomato.  Bake them at 350’ for about 5-10 minutes.  The tops will start to brown.  

Super Moist Chocolate Mayo Cake

Nothing is better than a yummy moist chocolate cake!  Here's a great recipe I recently found, a newspaper clipping my sweet MIL cut out years ago- that showed up out of nowhere!  Thanks, sweet mom!  I miss you! You were the best mother-in-law a girl could have.  Her birthday was last week and I guess she just wanted a sweet sniff of heavenly birthday cake! (This was the mother-in-law that I thought didn't have a clue on how to make the "correct" Thanksgiving dinner- the cranberries were in the salad, not as a side dish.  She served twice-baked potatoes instead of mashed.  Oh my heck, she served 5 different desserts- like blueberry fluff and lemon something or other instead of the traditional pumpkin.  Later I found out that each of those desserts were her children's favorites....and that people can have different traditions than I do...and guess what?  It's not just okay, it's wonderful!)


I remember making mayo cakes many years ago but actually have forgotten about them.  I knew I liked them back in the day but here is now and I have been "craving" chocolate cake- the good kind.

I like that you make it with a chocolate cake mix and then add all sorts of good stuff.  I loved that they came out of the pan no sweat.

I used little cake pans because I was using just 1/2 of the recipe (since there are only 3 of us and I didn't want a big giant cake hopping up and down on my counter shouting, "Eat me!  Eat me!"

Look how cute it frosted up!

You can actually see in the picture that it is going to be moist.

Yep, it tasted that good!  I thought I would make a simple chocolate buttercream frosting instead of my usual white cream cheese frosting.  It was good but honestly, I had also forgotten that I like chocolate frosting on white or yellow cake and white frosting on chocolate cake.  Can you tell, it's been awhile since I've had chocolate cake?  So next time, the icing will be as perfect as the cake!

After I had my yummy slice of cake, I just couldn't stop thinking about it.  Why wasn't the chocolate on chocolate working for me?  Then I got it- it needed some tang!

I had just purchased some more of my favorite French jam- Bonne Maman.  Don't worry, you don't have to go to Paris to get it, you can get it in most grocery stores here.

I carefully took the layers apart and added a layer of jam on the top.  Finally!  Perfection! Oh so good!

Super Moist Chocolate Mayo Cake

1 box (18 0z.) chocolate cake mix
1 cup Hellmann's or Best Foods Real Mayonnaise
1 cup water
3 eggs
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (opt)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and lightly flour two 9-in round cake pans.  Set aside. 
Beat cake mix, mayo, water, eggs and cinnamon 30 seconds in large bowl, with electric mixer on low speed.  Beat on medium speed, scaping side occasionally, 2 minutes.  Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes on wire rack; remove from pans and cool completely.  Sprinkle, if desired, with confectioner's sugar or fill and frost.

(if using a 13 x 9 inch baking pan, bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Sausage Rice Casserole

For Sunday dinner today, without pre-planning or shopping yesterday, I remembered all the years making this particular casserole.  It was a meal in my food storage rotation because I could easily store all the items, dehydrated. 

From a prior journal entry- 2009-   I am trying to get a couple of the meals totally freeze-dried so I don't even have to rotate them. For instance, although delicious fresh, for the Sausage Rice casserole, I store freeze-dried sausage, rice, freeze-dried celery and onions. I also store Lipton’s Dry Noodle Soup which is in the recipe. Other than rotating the dry soup, I don’t have to rotate a thing. We are so lucky we live in a day and age where freeze-dried food is available and delicious.

But today, for dinner, I didn't have to use any freeze dried.  T and T's family dropped by with 3 cousins and although they were going to their "other grandma's house" for dinner, I gave them a little "appetizer" bowl of casserole and they all loved it!  (I didn't do nuts since Boston is highly allergic.)

 

Sausage Rice Casserole

 1/4-1/2 cup diced celery or 8 oz. can drained diced water chestnuts

1/2-1 cup onion, finely diced

1 lb. pork sausage (mild or spicy)

1 envelope Lipton chicken Noodle Soup mix

1 cup rice

2 1/2 cups hot water

slivered almonds, optional

Brown the sausage with celery and onion.  Add soup mix and rice and hot water.  Simmer covered until rice is tender (about 25-30 minutes) or bake in an oven for 1 hour.  May be topped with slivered almonds.

Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad with Chili Lime dressing

Oh my goodness.  My new favorite salad!  Made this when I went with girlfriends to Swan Valley.  I doubled the dressing and used half for a marinade for chicken tenders (for more protein).  I marinated  them all night and cooked them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until done.  I chopped them up when cool to put in the salad. (for a cooking segment, I added cleaned but raw shrimp to the marinade and just put them in the sauce pan after I grilled the corn.  Don't overcook or the shrimp get chewy.)

Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad with Chili Lime Dressing

Salad

• 1-2 romaine hearts, torn
• 2 c. corn kernels (grilled, roasted, or browned in a frying pan)
• 2 avocados, chopped
• 1/2-1 cup blue cheese, crumbled
• chili lime vinaigrette, to taste

Chili Lime Vinaigrette

• 1 c. olive oil (I like lite)
• 4  Tbsp. golden balsamic vinegar
• 8  Tbsp. lime juice (fresh is best)
• 4 Tbsp. honey (I added a titch more)
• 4 tsp. chili garlic sauce (find it in the Asian section)
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin

Again, I doubled this sauce to make a marinade.  All the girlie friends loved it!

Easy Peesy Artisan Rolls

My friend, Chef Valene, always makes Artisan bread but I never have.  I got the bug and found this recipe (Chris Scheuer- Pinterest)

I might never make real rolls again.  These are crisp on the outside, tender and chewy in the middle.  And they take about 2 minutes to stir up the night before, and then sit in a covered bowl overnight.  Wow!

I used:
5 1/2 cups of bread flour plus more for shaping
3 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
3 cups room temp. water

In a medium-large bowl, whisk the flour, salt and yeast.  Make a well in the enter and add the water.  I did this in my Bosch so I just threw everything together.  Took about 40 seconds to incorporate it all together.  Otherwise, mix with a sturdy rubber spatula until you have a wet, sticky dough.  Mine wasn't so sticky but it turned out well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise at room temperature overnight or for up to 12 hours. 

The following morning (or after 8-12 hours), the dough will have rise but it may still look shaggy and it's surface will be covered with bubbles.  Again, mine wasn't covered with bubbles (I may have shorted the water) but it was still lovely.)

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 425.  Why does my oven only go to 400?  It still worked.....

Dust your counter with 1/4 cup of flour and dump the dough out and turn it several times to coat with flour.  Cut the dough into 16 pieces (or whatever number you would like-don't let any recipe boss you around...)  Pull each dough into a roll shape, pulling edges under and pinching together to make a smooth top.  Place on prepared pan.  If you have pinched side up, you have a craggy, rustic textured roll.  I didn't (because I didn't want to be bossed....)  It works both ways.

Let the rolls rise for 20 minutes. 

Bake 15 minutes.  Rotate pan.  Bake 5 minutes more or until nicely golden. 

If making in advance, cook about 4 minutes less.  Cool completely, then freeze on a baking sheet.  Once frozen, transfer rolls to a large ziplock bag and store in freezer.  To serve, allow rolls to thaw, then heat for 8-10 minutes at 350.

Grilled Marmalade Chicken

Karlan made this for our June Bucket- actually her husband Mark grilled the chicken.  Karlan pounds her chicken breasts to be even for grilling but I just bought the ones already sliced.  Tender and wonderful flavoring!!!!

Grilled Marmalade Chicken

2 cups marmalade (peach, apricot or orange)
2 T. olive oil
2 T. Dijon mustard 2 tsp. salt
1 tsp pepper
2 T. dried diced onion flakes
2 T. juice of an orange