Category Archives: Main courses

Cooking, Main courses

Pulled Pork

Pulled pork for sandwiches made in a Crock Pot.

Gather the following ingredients:

Pork shoulder or tenderloin
Rub – Find one you like or combine chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, and red pepper
Apple Cider Vinegar
BBQ sauce

Crock Pot

Buns

Optional topping:
Coleslaw

Cover the pork with the rub liberally. Place the pork into the crock pot, fat side down.

Pour 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar onto the bottom of the Crock Pot.
– Dot not pour over the meat.

Cook for 6-7 hours on low.

Pulled Pork with BBQ sauce, just stir.
Pulled Pork with BBQ sauce, just stir.

When the pork is able to be pulled apart with two forks remove it from the Crock Pot. Dump out the vinegar. Replace the pork and shred the meat.

Cover with your favorite BBQ sauce, stir, and cook for another hour.
– Sweet BBQ sauces can burn, and become bitter, if cooked too long in the Crock Pot which is why you wait until the end to add it.

Place the pulled pork between 2 buns and eat.

Add coleslaw on top of the pulled pork if desired.

Cooking, Main courses

Spaghetti Casserole

Spaghetti Casserole – almost like mom’s

Whenever I made mom’s spaghetti casserole it just did not get the praise that hers does, so I made a few modifications.

Gather the following ingredients:

New York Strip – 3/4 lb. or more
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
Spaghetti
Marinara Sauce
Can of Artichoke Hearts
Shredded Mozzarella 2 cups

Large frying pan
Large pot
Large glass pan

Slice the New York Strip into 1/2 inch cubes. Heat the Olive Oil in the frying pan. Sear the outside of the steak to seal in the flavor, maybe 5 minutes on medium heat.

– The meat should not be cooked through. It will finish cooking in the oven.

Fill the large pot with water and heat on medium high until it boils. Take a large handful of spaghetti and break it over the sink. Add to the pot and cook as directed.
– I bite one of the noodles to check to see if it is done. It should be the same color all the way through and not taste pasty.

Drain the spaghetti and add the cooked noodles to the bottom of the glass pan.
Pour 1/3 of the marinara sauce over the noodles and stir. You just want to color the noodles slightly.

Marinara sauce over steak, artichoke hearts and spaghetti.
Marinara sauce over steak, artichoke hearts and spaghetti.

Drain the artichoke hearts and pour them over the noodles evenly.

Spread the cubes of steak over the top of the noodles evenly.

Cover all with the rest of the marinara sauce. Spread the sauce as evenly as possible.

Sprinkle the mozzarella over the top.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook for 30 minutes. The cheese should melt and turn slightly golden.

I like to sprinkle garlic salt over the top before eating if I do not have garlic bread or French bread to eat with it. This dish is very good the next day.

Cooking, Main courses

Hash Browns, Eggs, Bacon

Three items for a full breakfast: Hash browns, scrambled eggs, and bacon.

Gather the following ingredients:

Bacon

Fresh hash browns (not frozen)
Eggs

Milk

Toppings:
Ketchup
Cayenne pepper
Cheddar cheese

1-2 frying pans, medium or large depending on how much you make

Fry the bacon over a medium heat for about 10 minutes or until cooked. Remove the bacon from the pan and place in a bowl for later. I used a medium pan to cook half the bacon as I needed the other half for a Basque Chicken Stew recipe.

Bacon in a frying pan
Bacon in a frying pan

Use that huge spoon that comes with your silverware and seems to have no purpose to spoon out most of the bacon grease into a container for later. Leave a few tablespoons worth in the pan.

I only cook half of the hash browns so the medium sized pan works well. Add the potatoes and cook them for 6 minutes on a slightly over medium heat. Spoon some of the bacon grease over the top near the 2 minutes to go mark. Do not stir the hash browns or check them during the first 6 minutes. Turn them and cook an additional 5 minutes. Start the eggs after you flip the hash browns and set the timer.

Crack eggs into a bowl. Crack the egg on the table or edge of the bowl and carefully pull apart the shell. Make sure none of the shell gets into the bowl. Add fresh ground pepper.

Peppered eggs waiting to be scrambled.
Peppered eggs waiting to be scrambled.

Add a dash of milk and mix with a fork.

Spoon about 2 tbsp. bacon grease into a second pan. Heat the pan over a medium-low heat and then add the eggs.

Stir the eggs occasionally to make sure they do not burn. This will also break them up.

Place the bacon, eggs, and hash browns on a plate and serve.

I like ketchup on my hash browns. I also like a little cayenne pepper on my eggs. You can also add cheddar cheese by removing the pan from the heat, sprinkling the cheese over the top, and covering the pan with a lid so it can melt on its own.

*If you do not have bacon you can use butter instead of bacon grease. The hash browns will be crisper with the butter. Melt 1/4 stick in the pan for the hash browns, place another 1/4 stick on the top of the cooking hash browns so it melt onto the second side. Use 1 tab of butter for the eggs.

Cooking, Main courses

Basque Chicken Stew

Basque Chicken Stew is one of my favorite stews. It is very light.

Gather the following ingredients:

1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 lb. tomatoes
1 lb. Yukon potatoes

1/2 lb. of bacon
3-6 chicken breasts

3 tbsp. garlic
2-3 fresh parsley sprigs
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 celery stalk cut into 3 or 4 pieces

salt
fresh ground pepper
cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth (you can use stock)

Large frying pan
Large stew pot with lid
Cooking string

Chicken Basque Ingredients

Cut the red pepper and green pepper into 1/2 inch slices and then cut them in half. Deseed the tomato and chop it up. Peel the potatoes and cut them into halves or quarters.
– I chop the tomatoes into large pieces.

Cut the bacon into 1/2 inch wide pieces. Separate the chunks and place them into a large frying pan.

Cut the chicken breasts into 1/2 or 1/3 pieces.

Heat the bacon on a medium high heat for 10 minutes. Transfer the cooked bacon with a slotted spoon into a large stew pot. Add the 3 tbsp. of garlic to the stew pot. Add all of the vegetables to the stew pot.
– Keep the bacon grease in the frying pan.

Add the chicken pieces to the frying pan. Cook on a medium heat for 5-6 minutes per side to brown the outside. Transfer the browned chicken into the pot.
– Do not drop the chicken into the bacon. If it splashes it will burn you.
– I use tongs to turn the pieces at 5 minutes and transfer them into the pot. It will cook in the pot.

While the chicken is cooking tie the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf onto the celery.

– I also like to measure out the wine, chicken broth, and flour.

Once the chicken is removed spoon out all of the grease in the frying pan until you have about 1 tbsp. of fat left in the pan, a light coating. Add the flour and cook on a medium heat blending the flour and bacon fat. Stir constantly for 1 minute. Add the wine and the chicken broth and continue to stir for another 2-3 minutes. It should thicken. Drizzle the mixture over the chicken.

Sauce

Add salt, fresh pepper, and cayenne pepper for taste to the pot. Put the tied celery stocks on top.

Chicken and Vegetables with herbs

Cover the stew pot and turn on the heat to simmer (2). Cook for 25 minutes.

Remove the tied celery and keep to the side. Stir the pot. Replace the tied celery and cook for another 25 minutes.

Discard the tied celery and serve.

Cooking, Main courses

Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and gravy can taste good at breakfast or at dinner. I prefer them later in the day myself.

Gather the following ingredients:

Grands Biscuits, frozen or in the tube. Buttermilk is the best if you can stomach them, personally I can’t
Meat department sausage, preferably
McCormick Sausage Flavor Country Gravy mix

Medium sized pot
Frying pan
Pizza pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees or whatever the package states.

Brown the sausage and try to get it into the smallest chucks possible. Cook it until the pink is gone and then cook it another four minutes. This is pork, you want to make sure it is really done.

Sausage

Start to heat up two cups of water and add the gravy mix. Wisk the mixture and when it boils cook it for another minute.

Gravy

Transfer as much of the sausage as you want into the gravy mix.

When you pull out the biscuits they should be a golden brown. Get them off unstuck from the pan as soon as you can or you will lose the bottoms.

Spoon the sausage and gravy mixture over the biscuit and serve.

Cooking, Main courses

Turkey Pot Pie

Turkey Pot Pie – an all in one main course

A great use of that extra Thanksgiving turkey.

Gather the following ingredients:

Frozen turkey from Thanksgiving (I am pretty sure that is the only way to get turkey)
2 packets of turkey gravy
Stove Top Stuffing
Extra Sweet Nibblets (Corn)
Any other vegetable of your choice
1/2 stick of butter
Pie Crust

Medium pot with lid
Medium pot
Pie pan

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the turkey leftovers from the freezer and allow them to thaw for about a day in the fridge.

Cook the Stove Top Stuffing according to the packet. Cook it on the stove rather than the microwave. It takes almost as long and actually taste better.

Set the stuffing aside while you prepare the gravy.

Prepare the 2 packets of turkey gravy on the stove according to the packet.

When it is bubbly gravy turn off the heat.

Add the turkey. Mix well.

Add in some of the corn (drain), not too much. Maybe half a can. Add any other vegetables that you want. I like to add a chopped up boiled potato. Use the mashed potato recipe and stop at 30 minutes no matter how done, a little underdone is preferable. Add some of the stuffing. Not a lot, just around a 5th of what you made.

Gravy, vegetables, and turkey mix.

Place one of the pie crusts in the pie pan and poor the mixture into the pie. If you add too much to the pie it will overflow. Take some out if it is heaping over the top.

Cover the pie with the second crust. Fold the crust under to hide the edges. Pinch the side all the way around to seal it and make the cool pie crust edges.

Place foil over the edges. Do two opposing sides and then the last two sides. Remove the foil carefully. You will need to put it back on once you cook it 15 minutes and you do not want to be forming the foil while the pan hot.

Foil for crust

Use a knife or fork to poke holes in the pie crust. If you don’t it will crack on its own and boil over.

Cook the pie 15 minutes. Pull it out and place the foil back over the crust. This is to protect the edge of the crust from burning. Carefully return the pie to the oven and cook another 30 minutes. Pull the pie out. Let it cool down 5-10 minutes and serve.

Cooking, Main courses

Meatloaf

Meatloaf – Hold the Onions – Always Good This is one of the best and easiest meatloaf recipes you will ever make.

Gather the following ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
9 twists fresh ground pepper
2 pinches fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp.
dried thyme
1/6 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/8 cup chicken broth
1 tsp. tomato paste
2 1/2 lbs. ground beef 93%
3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1 1/2 large egg
ketchup

medium sauce pan
very large bowl
deep metal baking dish (not your favorite one)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a sauce pan mix the olive oil, kosher salt, ground pepper, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken broth. Heat on medium and stir for a few minutes.
– It is easiest to tear apart the fresh thyme, but you can pull off the leaves and try to chop them.
– Use a 1/3 cup and fill it as close to half as you can for the Worcestershire sauce. – Use a 1/4 cup one time and then filled half way for the chicken broth.
– The tomato paste sticks to the measuring spoon, but you just need a small scoop of it so pull some out with a spoon and stir it in the sauce until it comes off.

In a very large bowl add the eggs, beef, bread crumbs, and the sauce pan mix over the top. Knead the mixture together with your hands. Make sure your hands are clean and rinsed. I always find the meat is too cold for my hands, but if it is fresh and sits out while you make the mixture it isn’t as cold. Try to make sure the bread crumbs get mixed through and use the egg and mixture to help it all stick together.
– Crack the first egg into your hand and pull it apart tossing half of it away. I do this next to the trash for easy disposal. Then add the second egg. You can crack the egg into a separate bowl first to make sure it is ok to use.

Meatloaf mix

Transfer the meat mixture from the bowl to the deep baking dish and form it into the shape of a loaf. Try to make it as uniform as possible with the same height and same width all the way across.

Bake the meatloaf for 1 1/2 hours. The internal temperature of the meatloaf should be 160 degrees when it is done. Start soaking the pan as soon as you can.

Serve with ketchup. Honestly as long as you buy good beef this will be the best meatloaf you have ever had and as a bonus no onions.

Cooking, Main courses

Pepper Quesadillas

Despite the name these quesadillas are not hot.

Gather the following ingredients:
Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Yellow bell pepper
1/2 Onion
olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin (optional)
1/2 can diced green chilies
4 oz. cream cheese
1 cup grated or shredded sharp cheddar cheese
6-inch flour tortillas
1/2 stick of butter

Large frying pan
Plates
Bowel

Set out the cream cheese and the butter.

Chop up the 3 peppers: red, green, and yellow. Dice the onion. Use about half of the peppers and onion.  Place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the large frying pan. Turn to a medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of cumin (optional). Sauté the peppers and onion until they are no longer crunchy. If I can cut the pepper with my stirring spatula I consider them done. Move the peppers aside.

Place the cream cheese into a large bowel and using a fork smooth the cheese out. If it is not pliable you can microwave it 15 seconds or so. Add the sharp cheddar to the cream cheese and mix the two together.

Add the peppers and onions into the cheese mixture. Add the green chilies (you can use diced jalapenos instead if you want a little kick.) Mix all of this together.

Melt the half a stick of butter if it is not soft and spreadable yet.

Place a tortilla onto a plate. Spread some of the pepper and cheese mixture on half of the tortilla. I like to add a sprinkling of the leftover cheese on top of the mixture. Fold over the tortilla and set this aside. Create as many of these as you like, between 7-8.

Heat the pan to a medium heat again. Butter one side of a quesadilla and place the buttered side onto the frying pan. Repeat with a second tortilla. Butter the sides that are facing up. Cook each side about one minute and twenty to thirty seconds.

Repeat for all of the quesadillas until they are all cooked. Serve hot with salsa and sour cream if you like.

Cooking, Main courses

Curried Beef Stew

Ingredients:

2 pounds of beef stew meat
6 medium white potatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
Black pepper

Crock Pot

Peel the potatoes and cut them into bite sized pieces.

Chop up the 3 peppers:  yellow, red, and green.

Put everything into the Crock Pot and cook on low at least 8 hours.

*Curries vary greatly.  It is a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and ground red or black pepper.  Try different brands until you find one you like.

Video Link:  Coming soon…