Pretty good actually--Chili Dog Wraps

Chili Dog Wraps
Home Cooking 200 Recipe Annual Copyright 2005

10 corn tortillas (5- or 6- inches in diameter)
10 hot dogs
1 can (15 to 16 ounces) chili
2 cups salsa
1 cup shredded Cheddar or Monterey jack Cheese (4 ounces)


Heat oven to 350 F. Grease rectangular baking dish, 13x9x2 inches.
Soften tortillas as directed on package.
Place 1 hot dog and 2 tablespoons chili on each tortilla.
Roll up tortillas; place seam side down in baking dish.
Spoon salsa over tortillas.
Cover and bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle with Cheese.
Bake uncovered about 5 minutes longer or until Cheese is melted.
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I pushed this recipe towards the end of the week because even though I chose it, I was having second thoughts. When I'm being smart, I remember to look up a recipe online before copying it out of the cookbook so I can cut and paste instead and when I did a search on this recipe, it came up quite a bit so that gave me some confidence.

I don't know what I was afraid of because I love chili dogs and I love salsa and I love corn tortillas and I love cheese. This was great. Yes, it's a bit heavy but I used lite hot dogs and 2% cheddar and we just had a salad with it so really, it wasn't that heavy.

Blast From The Past: A&W Coney Island Chili Dog Sauce from March 2006. That's my favorite chili recipe (for hot dogs) but I used Bush's chili for this.

Question of the Day: Any special plans for Valentine's Day?

Kinda sorta --Hungarian Cabbage and Noodles

Hungarian Cabbage and Noodles
All You Can Eat! All Occasion Entertaining Copyright 2006

1 large cabbage
1 medium-sized yellow onion
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
12 ounces egg noodles
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1. Core the cabbage and thinly slice until you have about 8 cups. Peel the onion and chop into ¼-inch pieces.
2. Sprinkle the cabbage with salt. Let stand 30 minutes, then squeeze dry. Lay on paper towels to soak up excess moisture.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the sugar and heat until the sugar browns. Add the onions and cook until they start to wilt. Stir in the cabbage. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the cabbage is tender, about 20 minutes. Season with the pepper. Transfer the cabbage and juices to a large bowl and keep warm.
4. Cooke the noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain. Quickly toss the noodles with the cabbage mixture and the poppy seeds. Serve immediately.
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I had recipes planned this week but I didn't have a schedule. I decided to make this last night and then read 'let stand 30 minutes' and well, I didn't have 30 minutes and it was too late to turn back. At that point I basically abandoned the recipe and freestyled cabbage and noodles the way I usually do. I don't usually soak my cabbage. I added a touch of brown sugar and butter. Salt and lots of pepper of course. I never add poppy seeds. I don't know why I don't make cabbage and noodles more often since it's so simple and we love it.

I'm getting a new camera! I'm actually happy with my current camera but it acts up a bit sometimes. It's about 5 years old with an obsolete card so I think it's time. My photos aren't the best but I almost never have daylight and I really don't like to play around with my food too much before I eat it.

Blast From The Past: Chicken-and-Rice Bake from March 2007. This is a recipe I've been thinking a lot about making again.

Question of the Day: What kind of camera do you have? I had an Olympus and I'm getting another Olympus.

This was okay--Sunday Gravy

Sunday Gravy
The Sopranos Family Cookbook Copyright 2002

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound meaty pork neck bones or spareribs
1 pound veal stew meat
OR
2 veal shoulder chops
1 pound Italian-style plain or fennel pork sausages
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 (28- to 35-ounce) cans Italian peeled tomatoes I used crushed tomatoes with basil
2 cups water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces I omitted this

***For the Meatballs*** I skipped the meatballs
1 pound ground beef or a combination of beef and pork
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs, preferably homemade
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon very finely minced garlic
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

***To Serve***
1 pound shells or rigatoni, cooked and still hot
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Pat the pork dry and put the pieces in the pot. Cook, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes, or until nicely browned on all sides. Transfer the pork to a plate. Brown the veal in the same way and add it to the plate. Place the sausages in the pot and brown on all sides. Set the sausages aside with the pork. Drain off most of the fat from the pot. Add the garlic and cook for about two minutes or until golden. Remove and discard the garlic. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

With a food mill, puree the tomatoes, with their juice, into the pot. Or, for a chunkier sauce, just chop up the tomatoes and add them. Add the water and salt and pepper to taste. Add the pork, veal, and sausages and basil and bring the sauce to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours. (I cooked this longer than 2 hours since the meat wasn't tender at 2 hours.) If the sauce becomes too thick, add a little more water. Meanwhile, make the meatballs: Combine all the ingredients except the oil in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly. Rinse your hands with cool water and lightly shape the mixture into 2-inch balls. (Note: If you are making meatballs for lasagna or baked ziti, shape the meat into tiny balls the size of a small grape)

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet. Add the meatballs and brown them well on all sides. (They will finish cooking later.) Transfer the meatballs to a plate. After two hours, add the meatballs and cook for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick and the meat is very tender. To serve, remove the meats from the sauce and set aside. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve the meats as a second course, or reserve them for another day.
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This was good, not great but I'm not blaming the recipe. With something like a red sauce, even a few changes means that you really haven't made the recipe since the nuances really count. I skipped the veal (too expensive), used crushed tomatoes with basil instead of peeled tomatoes and fresh basil (I don't have a food mill, the organic tomatoes came with basil and fresh basil is expensive). I was going to make the meatballs but I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer and the spareribs and sausage provided us with enough meat.

So do I go grocery shopping a day early to save $10 or just forget about it? My menu isn't planned so I'll need to go shopping again over the weekend and I always spend more when I don't get everything I need at once. Ever since they changed their weekly schedule so that ads and promotions run Thu-Wed, I'm completely thrown off. I also have another promotion that needs to be cashed in by next Wed (5% off total). I think I'll save more if I plan better and go tomorrow but it kills me that I forgot to use that coupon last week.

Blast From The Past: Rigatoni Con Salsiccia (Rigatoni with Sausage) from this past December. Same basic idea as above but I think it was better.

Question of the Day: How often do you visit the grocery store? For me the answer is too often - I always hope the neigbors don't notice me coming home with yet more groceries even though I don't know why they'd care. I don't think I've ever seen any of our neighbors bringing in groceries.

Like hockey pucks--Raised Doughnuts and Doughnut Holes

Raised Doughnuts and Doughnut Holes
The All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook Copyright 1999

1 recipe chilled Classic Brioche Dough
2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying

Topping:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional

1. Lightly dust work surface with flour. Roll dough into 16-inch circle, approximately ¼ inch thick.
2. Using a 3-inch-round doughnut cutter, cut out as many doughnuts as possible. If you do not have a doughnut cutter, use a 3-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out the doughnuts, and a 1-inch-round cutter to cut out the holes. Place doughnuts and holes on a baking sheet. Gather the scraps, reroll and cut.
3. Heat 2 inches oil to 360 degrees F in a heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Fry 3 doughnuts and a few holes at a time, 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. To get doughnuts to really puff up while frying, dunk them under the oil a couple of times with a slotted spoon.
4. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on a wire rack resting on a baking pan. Let oil recover to 360 degrees F before frying the next batch.
5. Roll warm doughnuts and holes in sugar. Of desired, mix ground cinnamon with sugar.

Classic Brioche Dough (made in the bread machine)

1/3 cup milk
3 extra-large eggs
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast

All ingredients must be at room temperature. Liquid ingredients should be about 80 degrees.

Cut butter into tablespoonsful. Add ingredients in the order specified in your bread machine owner's manual, adding just 4 tablespoons of butter to start. Do not use delay bake function.

Select manual/dough.

Add the remaining butter during the first kneading, 2 tablespoons at a time after the dough comes together in a ball.

At the end of the program, punch down dough. Let dough rest 5 minutes.

Butter a 3-quart bowl. Place dough in bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Refrigerate 12 to 24 hours.
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Happy Fat Tuesday! Around here doughnuts are the big thing and all the bakeries and many churches are busy making fashnachts (doughnuts). Since I don't have a connection to any of the great church fashnachts and the supermarket ones are just so-so, this is the second year I'm trying to make my own. Last year's were just okay, this year's were worse! I don't know what went wrong but these are like little hockey pucks. The dough was so stiff (which makes sense with all that butter and the chilling).

There was plenty of room for error. I bought this cookbook online before I started using my bread machine and the recipes are too big for my 1-pound loaf pans. I had to break this recipe in half. Otherwise, I followed it pretty closely but I ended up with very dense doughnuts. My husband ate these warm and loved them. He asked me to make more but what does he know? Oh, and those darn holes. Absolutely impossible to flip over and even denser.

Oh well. Maybe next year. I have an old Amish cookbook with many doughnut recipes but the instructions are too vague. I'll have to experiment.

Blast From The Past: Salisbury Steak Deluxe from June 2007. I was thinking about making this again this week but never got around to looking up the recipe. Good thing I guess because last night my husband knocked the horseradish off the fridge shelf and it ended up all over the floor.

Question of the Day: Have you had any recipe failures lately?

More bread--Cheese and Pepperoni Bread

Cheese and Pepperoni Bread
Easy Bread Machine Recipes Copyright 1997

2 ¼ C all-purpose flour
7/8 C water
1 T olive oil
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
½ C diced pepperoni I used turkey pepperoni
¼ C grated cheddar cheese I used 2% cheddar
2 T grated Parmesan cheese
1 ½ tsp yeast

Prepare according to your bread machine's instruction manual.
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I really wanted more Pizza Bread but if I keep making the same thing, what would I blog about? So I tried a similar recipe. The top of the bread collapsed and I thought it was going to be disappointing but I liked it just as much as the Pizza Bread (a lot!). I wondered about that entire teaspoon of pepper but I think that's what made it stand out. I was pleased.

Someone asked for my taco seasoning recipe and this is the one I use (found many places on the internet):

Taco Seasoning

1/4 cup dried, minced onion
1/4 cup chili powder
3 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried, minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin powder
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

Combine all ingredients. Store in an airtight container, in a cool dry place, for up to 1 year.
To use: brown 1 pound ground beef in a skillet and drain. Add 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning and 1/3 to 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and cook and stir for 2 minutes.

I use low or no sodium boullion and usually leave out the salt or reduce it.

I realized over the weekend that I didn't use a $10 off coupon I had for the grocery store last week. It expires Wednesday and I shop on Thursdays. Should I shop a day early this week? That will throw off my workout schedule but $10 is a lot of money these days.

Blast From The Past: Potato Doughnuts from last year. I was surprised - I thought I made these two years ago. For some reason I thought I missed doing anything special for Fat Tuesday last year. I'm going to attempt a different doughnut recipe this year. Wish me luck!

Question of the Day: Do you have anything special planned for tomorrow? Doughnuts or pancakes? I'm not doing pancakes this year. I didn't remember it was Fat Tuesday until after my menu was planned.