Frozen Pizza Ditza

Every now and then things get a little hectic. That's evident, as I haven't even had a chance to blog.  Sometimes I take a little holiday from cooking and commit such sins as feeding my family frozen pizza.  My brain takes a holiday too sometimes, which is also evident if you look below. 

Copycat that!

Some Things Old, Some Things New, Mostly Borrowed, None Blue

Wednesday brought us a dish that our whole family loves, Chicken and Cheese Tostadas - a recipe shared by the best Kate in the world.  The picture doesn't do it justice at all.  I'm not a photographer, I'm just a copycat cook.

Kate's Chicken and Cheese Tostadas

6 flour tortillas

cooking spray

1 packet Taco seasoning mix

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips

1/2 cup water

2 cups chopped tomatoes (omitted in this house, too offensive)

1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

6 tbsp sour cream

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

A prayer and a pinch o' love

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place tortillas in single layer on large baking sheet.  Spray tortillas with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with 1 tsp seasoning mix.  Bake 7-8 minutes until crisp brown.  (I slice them with a pizza cutter because they take up less space that way).

Meanwhile, mix chicken, seasoning mix, and water in large skillet. Bring to a boil on med-high heat. Reduce heat to med-low; simmer 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Add 1 1/2 cups tomatoes.  Cook until heated.  Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 cup cheese.

Spoon chicken mix evenly over tortillas.  Top with remaining cheese, remaining tomatoes, sour cream, and cilantro.  

 

There's dessert too!

Cinnamon Crisps

6 flour tortillas

cooking spray

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

A prayer and a pinch o' love 

Blend sugar and cinnamon together. Spray tortillas with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with sugar mix .  Bake 7-8 minutes until crisp brown.

We needed a little evening snack, so here it is.  The one and only recipe I've ever invented all by my own self.

Hurry Curry Popcorn

1 bag microwave popcorn

3 tbsp butter or margarine

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp onion salt

A prayer and a pinch o' love

Prepare popcorn as directed.  Melt butter.  Combine with spices and pour over popcorn.  Toss to coat and enjoy!

That wraps up the things OLD.  Old because I've made them before.  Old favorites.

Tonight brought us to something new.  A new recipe to copycat, from my favorite Crockpot cookbook.

Lemon Pork Chops - Rather Altered.

1 tbsp vegetable oil

4 boneless pork chops

3 cans, 8 ounces each tomato sauce (I only used one can. It seemed like a lot.)

1 large onion, quartered and sliced (onion salt used as substitute here)

1 large green bell pepper, cut into strips (omitted)

1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning (had none, omitted)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (AHA! I had that!)

1 large lemon, quartered (1/4 cup lemon juice used instead)

A prayer and a pinch o' love

Heat oil in large skillet over med-low heat until hot. Brown pork chops on both sides.  Drain excess fat and discard. Transfer to Crockpot.  Combine tomato sauce, onion, bell pepper, lemon pepper seasoning and Worcestershire sauce.  Add to Crockpot.  Squeeze juice from lemon quarters over mixture; drop squeezed peels into Crockpot.  Cover; cook on low 6-8 hours until pork is tender.  (I cut the chops into strips to reduce cooking time).  Remove lemon before serving. 

If I had to rate it on a scale of Hated It to Wanna Eat It Every Day, it would be some place in the middle.  Pretty good, but not my new favorite food.   Like Lorry's French Onion Soup.  That's my new favorite food.

I served it with Katie's Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese from Buns in the Oven.  There was so much sauce, I should have served it with rice.  But ah well, here is our favorite mac and cheese recipe:

Katie's Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

16 ounces macaroni noodles

5 tbsp butter

5 tbsp flour

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used mostly mozza tonight)

A prayer and a pinch o' love

Cook macaroni according to package directions.  Meanwhile, melt the butter and stir in flour.  Gradually add milk.  When the mixture starts to thicken, stir in the cheese.  Stir constantly until all the cheese is melted.  Mix cheese sauce with cooked macaroni.

Feed it to someone and they will love you forever.

Death By Chocolate.

I put the Chocolate Truffles to the test and gave one to one of The Critics.   She died...

of sheer happiness.  Tastebud overload.  Mission accomplished.

Truffle Kerfuffle!

This recipe has been haunting me since I ripped it out of a Compliments magazine around Christmas time.  So the time came to try it out.  I made the basic recipe and the chai tea version. 

The recipe says to let the truffle mixture refrigerate for 2 hours before rolling into balls.  I guess they mean it, this is what happens when you try too soon. 

Looks like a poo massacre.  And the truffles don't look much better, but they taste good!  I really like the chai flavor! Just gotta perfect the technique.

The second batch had more time to cool. These truffles held their shape much better and were easier to work with.  Also tasted heavenly...

Compliments Chocolate Truffles

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tbsp sugar

pinch salt

10 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, it's all I had)

1 cup cocoa or icing sugar for coating (I only needed about 1/2 cup).

A prayer and a pinch o' love

Combine whipping cream, sugar, and salt in saucepan over low heat. When bubbles form around the edges, turn off heat. Don't boil.  Let steep for 5 minutes.

Stir in chocolate chips and stir until melted and smooth.  Transfer to a clean bowl, cover and refrigerate until firm, approximately 2 hours. Seriously.

Sift cocoa onto a plate. Using cool hands, gloves, or melon baller - shape chocolate mixture into balls.  Roll in cocoa to coat.  Transfer to parchment paper-lined baking tray and refrigerate until firm.  Store in airtight container up to 2 weeks, freeze up to 2 months. 

Variations:

Chai Tea Truffles - Add 2 chai tea bags and 1/2 tsp ground ginger to whipping cream.  Heat and steep as with chocolate truffles. Remove tea bags and add chocolate chips, proceed as indicated above.

Honey Thyme Truffles - Replace sugar with 1 tbsp liquid honey and add 3-5 fresh stems of thyme to the cream. Heat and steep as with chocolate truffles. Remove stems and add chocolate chips, proceed as indicated above.

Red Hot Truffles - Mix 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper into cream. Proceed as indicated above.

And because you're dying to know what we had for supper, it's just another hit from Buns in the Oven!  If only there was a way to share the aroma over the internet, that's 90% of what makes it wonderful.

Audrey's Garlic Chicken

1 tbsp butter

2-3 tsp crushed garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (or crushed croutons) 

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2-3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

A prayer and a pinch o' love

In shallow casserole dish, melt butter in the oven.  Warm the garlic and the olive oil in a bowl over very low heat or steam so flavors blend (do not use the microwave).  In a separate dish, combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  Dip the chicken into the oil and garlic mixture, then into the bread and cheese mix.  Place in the casserole dish and flip the chicken so both sides have some.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, flipping the chicken halfway through.

Pinwheel Sandwiches

I don't usually get very creative with lunch.  But today I thought I'd try something that caught my eye in a little book of tea party ideas that came with a toy tea set.  Couldn't find the actual book though, so I had to go from memory.

Attempt #1.

2 slices of bread, rolled with a rolling pin + peanut butter & jam = the rolled up, sliced abomination you see before you.

It would sure be easier to say the 3 year old made these ones.  But it's me. I did it.

Attempt #2.  This time I removed the crusts and rolled the bread as thin as it would go. I put PB & J between the two slices and on the top slice, so the roll would stick together better. Improvement noted.

Attempt #3.  Found a sharper knife for slicing. More improvement noted.

Attempt #4. Nutella, MMMMM!

Attempt #5. This time kept the PB & J on separate slices.  Love the colors, much prettier.

Having the actual recipe on hand probably would have saved me all the trial and error, but ah well. All in the name of culinary science.  

Pinwheel Sandwiches

2 slices of bread

sandwich spread of choice (peanut butter, jam, Nutella, or if you must...Cheese Whiz *gag*)

Remove crusts.

 

Roll slices as thin as you can with rolling pin.

Spread filling on both slices and stack.

 

Roll up sandwich tightly and slice with a sharp knife. Enjoy!

 

Recipe Recycling

Leftover spaghetti on Tuesday goes with...

Ann's Spaghetti Sauce on Wednesday.

Leftover sauce on Wednesday goes with...

Easy Cheesy Lasagna on Thursday.

I like short cuts.

Easy Cheesy Lasagna

Ann's Spaghetti Sauce

2 cups cottage cheese

1 egg, beaten

2 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

salt & pepper

9 lasagna noodles, cooked

Parmesan cheese
A prayer and a pinch o' love

Prepare Ann's Spaghetti Sauce according to directions.

Mix together cottage cheese, egg, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, salt & pepper.

Layer as follows:

small amount sauce on bottom of lasagna pan

3 noodles

1/2 meat sauce

1/2 cup shredded cheese

3 noodles

cottage cheese mixture

3 noodles

remaining sauce

sprinkle with Parmesan cheese

top with remaining cheese

Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

YUMBA WUMBA!

The Chocolate Cookery Project

I think one of the reasons I like cooking is because it's easy to think while you cook.  Muse, ponder, pray.  And here's what I was just thinking while waiting for water to boil.  One of The Girls asked if this blog was about trying to be the new Julie from the Julie/Julia Project.  Nah.  Nobody is going to read this but family and friends, if I'm lucky.  But I've always thought it would be fun to cook my way through an entire cookbook.  That's an idea it would be fun to copycat.  And there's this book: The Chocolate Cookery by Mable Hoffman.  Mable Hoffman was like the Crock Pot queen in her day, famous for mastering the art of slow cooking and her book Crockery Cookery.   But I've done enough crockpotting to get very excited about that.  A whole cookbook just for chocolate? That's something to get excited about.  It's one of Grandma H's

cast-off cookbooks, an authentic relic of the 70's.  I've had it at least 8 years and have flipped through the pages a number of times thinking it would be fun to try this or that.  But I don't think I've actually tried a single recipe yet.   And cookery is a great word. 

The water hadn't boiled yet, so I wondered - what ever happened to Mable Hoffman?  Off to Google while I wait, I discover that she died only a few days ago at the age of 88.  What are the chances that I'd be thinking of cooking my way through her chocolate book just a few days after she died?  It must be a sign.

The Husband gave up chocolate for Lent and it would be really cruel to start this project now.  But I'll put this idea out in cyberland so I don't forget.  After Lent, the Chocolate Cookery Project will begin. Rest in peace Mable.

Tried and True

Last night's Copycat recipe is a tried and true favorite in our house.  A perfect way to use up the leftover spaghetti from last night.  Yeah, I planned it.  See where this goes later...

Ann's Spaghetti Sauce - submitted to the Buns in the Oven cookbook.

1 lb ground beef (Alberta grown is best)

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce

1 tsp onion powder (I prefer onion salt)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp garlic powder (I prefer a freshly crushed clove of garlic)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 tbsp brown sugar
A prayer and a pinch o' love

Brown and drain ground beef.  Add remaining ingredients.  Simmer for at least 30 minutes, or until flavors are well blended. 

It's not my all time favorite spaghetti sauce, but that one is taboo in our house because it contains essential mushrooms. This one is a close second though.

What happens when you send The Husband to pick up garlic?  This happens:

It's Elephant Garlic.  It's the law of guys: bigger is better. Now if we're talking about a chocolate bar or a glass of red wine, that's true.  But not so for garlic.  These suckers have to be chopped before they can be crushed in the garlic press. We all know what having to touch the garlic means: garlic fingers for 3 days.

The Children are copycat cooks too:

French Fry Sandwich on a bed of lettuce

Grape-Mushroom-Chicken-Chip-French Fry Stir Fry

The Copycat Strikes! Lorry's French Onion Soup

Last month I tasted the most wonderful French Onion Soup I've ever had. The cook generously gave me her recipe and I tried it for the first time today. I thought a soup so delicious would be rather complicated or include specialty ingredients I've never heard of.  Nope, simple enough for a simpleton like me.  

Lorry's French Onion Soup

6 cups sliced onions

1/4 cup margarine or butter

3 cans condensed beef broth (do not dilute)

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp salt

dash pepper

Parmesan cheese

croutons
A prayer and a pinch o' love

Saute onions in butter/margarine for 20 minutes or until soft. Combine with remaining ingredients and simmer a few minutes so flavors blend. Serve with Parmesan cheese and croutons.

MMMMMM, you should have been here to smell this!
As you can see, I improvised a little.  Shredded mozzarella cheese instead of Parmesan, because I just love the gooey loveliness of melted cheese.

The Girls offer their analysis...

Thumbs up from 3 of The Girls.
Thumbs up from The Sister.
Thumbs up from The Cousin.
Thumbs up from The Copycat.

No Thumbs from The Husband, The Children, and 1 of The Girls.  Refused to participate in testing, due to the onions.

For those in the household requiring a more substantial meal, I cooked according to my regular meal plan with 2 tried and true Copycat recipes:

Chicken Parmigiana - copied so long ago I can't remember the source.

3 whole chicken breasts

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup butter

1 10 ounce can pizza sauce

6 slices mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese
A prayer and a pinch o' love

Cut chicken breasts in half. Beat egg, add salt and pepper.  Drip chicken in egg mixture, then coat with bread crumbs.  Saute chicken in butter, both sides.  Arrange in casserole dish, pour pizza sauce over.  Bake at 350 for approximately 30-40 minutes until fully cooked. Add cheeses for the last 10 minutes of cooking. 

Slow Cooker Option: Prepare as above. After chicken is sauteed, arrange in slow cooker.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, adding cheese during final 30 minutes. Serve with spaghetti.

As a side note, I rarely keep store-bought bread crumbs in the house anymore. Crushed seasoned croutons accomplish the job nicely, with much more flavor. Simple. Yummy.

Homemade Caesar Dressing. Copy source: someplace on the web.

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp milk or half 'n' half
A prayer and a pinch o' love

Mix until well blended.

AMAZING.  Even better than my favorite commercial Caesar dressing (Renee's).  Just a word of caution though: I tried to reduce the calories by substituting 1/2 of the mayo for plain yogurt.  I didn't think it would affect the flavor that much, but it did. Blech.  An insult to Caesar salad everywhere. Keep it real.

Another Blog About Food is Born

I love to experiment with food and I love to feed my family and friends. But I do not possess the gift of being able to toss ingredients together to invent something brand new and delicious. No, I am a copycat cook: a copycat of the culinary genius of others. Not a thief; but a scavenger of recipes. My taste buds are my guide and when they fail me, the food critics I live with are very obliging with their comments. Follow me into my kitchen to witness the adventures of copycat cooking.