Ma What's For Dinner?

What do you do when you have a bunch of stuff clogging up your fridge and freezer drawers?  Toss them in a pot, stir ‘em up and cover them with some straight from the freezer pastry dough!  My Ma used to make stew, I make a creamy version then cover it and bake it till it bubbly good and the hubs and kids are in hog heaven.  Give this one a try.

1 thawed sheet of pastry dough

3 large chicken breasts

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 T butter

4 cups chicken stock

2 yellow onions, chopped

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup medium-diced carrots

1 10 oz package frozen peas

1 10 oz package frozen corn

1 zucchini, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

S&P

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and rub them with 1 T olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Cut the chicken into large dice.  Turn up the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and remaining oil and saute the onions over medium low heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Toss in carrots, zucchini, and celery and  cook for two more minutes.  Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add S&P and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, peas and corn. Mix well.  Pour into a 13×9 baking dish.  Cover with pastry dough.  Cut a few slits into the dough to allow steam to escape.  I like to sprinkle the top with a bit of fleur de sel (or any other course salt) but you can use whatever you like.  Bake at 375 for 1 hour.  Serve with a side salad.  I dare you not to lick the plate!

Continue Reading

In college I used to LOVE Pizzeria Uno’s mashed potato pizza. This is an ode to the days of old….

Serves:  Up to 8  Prep time:  20 minutes  Cook time:  25 minutes

1 store bought pizza crust

1 bag frozen Ore-Ida potatoes

1/2 cup milk

2 T butter

2 T parmesan cheese

S&P

1 pound bacon, chopped

1 onion, diced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

chopped parsley, for garnish

chopped scallions, for garnish

sour cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Unroll your pizza dough and stretch it out over a large baking pan, or you can roll it out into a ball and make a round pizza if you like.  Poke a couple of holes into the dough with a fork and bake the uncovered dough for 10 minutes.  While your dough cooks place your potatoes in the microwave and cook on high for 10 minutes.  Pour potatoes into a bowl and add milk, butter, parmesan cheese, and season with S&P.  Mash well and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and brown your bacon until just crispy.  Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.  In the bacon drippings saute onion, mushrooms and garlic until soft, about 7 minutes.

Remove crust from oven and spread out your potato mixture to cover leaving a one inch border for your crust.  Top potatoes with mushrooms onion and garlic mixture.  Then sprinkle on cheese to cover well.  Top with bacon.

Return pizza to oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Slice it up and top with sour cream and parsley or chopped scallions.  Serve as an appetizer or with a salad for a main meal.

Continue Reading

Melissa D’Arabian’s Pot Roast Carbonnade

Serves: 6  Prep Time:  20 minutes Cook Time:  2 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound slab bacon, cut into large lardons
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut into large cubes
• 5 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
• Generous tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 12 ounces beer (dark or light, depending on your preference)
• 6 prunes
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 cup beef stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat, add the bacon and cook until it renders its fat and almost becomes crispy. Remove it with a slotted spoon to a plate. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and cook over low heat until they are deep in color and caramelized, about 30 minutes.

Remove the onions to a plate, leaving as much fat in the pot as possible. Add the vegetable oil and mix it with the bacon fat. Raise the heat to high. Season the beef liberally with salt and pepper and sear, in batches, until nicely browned on both sides.

Once the meat is browned, add the first batch of meat back to the pan along with the onions, carrots and bacon. Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Cook for 1 minute before deglazing the pan with the beer. Add the remaining ingredients and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cover the pot and put it in the oven to braise until the beef is tender, about 2 hours. Remove the pot from the oven and transfer the pot roast to a serving dish.

Continue Reading

Hawaiian Pizza

Serves 6 Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes

1 store bought pizza crust
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup diced ham
1 can cubed pineapple

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove pizza crust from wrapper and place on a baking sheet. Cover with pizza sauce leaving a one inch border around the sides. Sprinkle with cheese then top with diced ham and pineapple. Cook at 425 for 8-10 minutes. Slice with pizza cutter and enjoy with salad!

Continue Reading

Big shout out to my girl, Shell over at Things I Can\’t Say !  She blogged about how much her kids liked this dish and it sounded so amazing I had to make it immediately.  Let’s just say we were ALL licking the plates clean.

Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Serves: 4  Prep Time:  5 minutes  Cook time:  20 minutes

1 pound penne

2 t salt

1 ½ t pepper

1 T  garlic powder

1 T Cajun seasoning

1 pound chicken, diced

2 T oil

3 T hot sauce, Frank’s or Tobasco, divided

1 cup mayo

1/2 cup ranch dressing

¾ cup milk

1 cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped scallions

shredded mozzerella

chopped blue cheese

Put on a pot of water to boil and when it does toss in some salt to season it and add in your pasta and cook until al dente.

Season chicken with the spices. You can pour it all into a ziploc bag to shake it all up. Heat oil over med-high heat and cook chicken until it’s cooked, about 5 minutes or so.  Next add 2 T hot sauce and cook for an additional minute or so.  This part always makes me cough, but I use A LOT of hot sauce, I like mine extra spicy!

Combine mayo, ranch, and milk and mix. It will be lumpy, then stir in additional T of hot sauce.  It depends on how hot you want it.  Add this to the skillet with the chicken. Cook a few minutes, until heated.

Pour over pasta and stir to combine.  Top with fresh celery, scallions, mozzarella and crumbled blue cheese.  Sooo good!  Thanks, Shell!  This one is going into permanent rotation!!! 

Continue Reading