French Onion Pasta Bake

Dec 16 2017

Friday nigh for supper Our son would not be
home for supper so I fixed a dish for the daughter
in law & grandson. She is mostly vegetarian but
will eat poultry. I found a new recipe to try,
French Onion Pasta Bake.

It had chicken tenders in it and I tried some new
Penne pasta you only had to cook for 10 seconds
in a microwave. I got the dish all together and in a
375 degree oven for 15 minutes. I put it on my
warm hold burner while I baked some 3 cheese
garlic knots. The French onions were caramelized
and gave it a little sweet taste.

It tasted pretty good.

Click here for printable recipe

My supper

Cabbage and Rice Dressing

Mar 17 2017

For last night’s supper I turned to Mary from Deep South Dish blog. I turn to Mary a lot for southern comfort foods for ideas or use her recipe. She is from South Mississippi; her cooking is southern style, Cajun and Creole with her Mississippi touch. She just posted this recipe lately and knew I had to try it.

I probably would call this a casserole but she calls it dressing. I followed her recipe pretty close; I used Cajun seasoning; chicken broth for the liquid and my bread crumbs were some herb dressing mix that was pretty fine. I added it at first when it went in the oven but took the lid off for another 10 minutes and they did crisp up.

I had baked a take home and bake roasted garlic bread to serve with it. I went through a period where I was baking my own bread but after they came out with the take home and bake that come out so good I use it to save time.

The wife and I both thought this was pretty darn good! Give it a try sometime. Thanks for the recipe Mary!

Click Here for Mary's recipe

 The bread

Ingredients

Browning the ground chuck

Bacon and veggies in

Cabbage and seasoning in

Rice and soup mixed in

Ready for the oven

Ready to serve

My supper

Chicken Divan & Skillet Cornbread

Oct 13 2016

This dish was our kid’s favorite; I haven’t fixed it in a long time. Our daughter was coming home to stay the weekend so I fixed it for her.

My wife went to the doctor Tuesday for a rash on her forehead. She has shingles and got started on her meds. By today it had spread some and her eyelid was swollen so back to the doctor. She called me at 4:30 and was on her way to see an eye doctor to make sure it wasn’t in her eye. The daughter called and said she would be late so I delayed cooking. I am glad it was an easy dish to delay.

It turned out good; the shingles are not in her eye. We ate about 7:15 and the daughter warmed hers up when she got here a half hour later. It tasted great and the skillet cornbread was good with it.

I was glad I had a couple slices of bacon to use and will be a part of my recipe now.  Bacon does seem to make everything a little better!

Yesterday was our daughter in laws birthday and today is the grandsons. We are all going out to eat tonight to celebrate!

Click Here for printable recipe

My cornbread

Came out of the skillet nice

Chicken done on my Traeger

Sliced

Broccoli and sauce added

Cheese, chicken and more sauce added

More cheese, sauce added to broil

Ready to serve

My supper

Tomato & Zucchini Casserole W/Pork Cutlets

Sept 12 2016

The other night the neighbor brought over a big bucket of tomatoes and wanted me to take some or all. I took about a dozen; I was about tired of tomatoes out from my garden.  I thought I would make a casserole with them and had a glut of shredded cheese that needed used.

I went to the grocery this am to get some yellow squash and would have a tomato yellow squash casserole. The few yellow squash they had looked terrible so I got zucchini instead. I went to my butchers and got a couple of pork cutlets to have with the casserole.

I just kinda winged it on the casserole. I sprayed my dish with some olive oil, a layer of sliced zucchini, a layer of sliced tomatoes, a couple slices of onions chopped, some oregano, tarragon thyme, and a few handfuls of two different kinds of shredded cheddar.  I repeated the layer and just added oregano salt and pepper. I poured a little half and half over; maybe ¼ cup. It went into a 350 deg. oven and thought about 45 minutes.

Checking the casserole after ½ hour I added some parmesan cheese and turned my convection fan on.

I had seasoned the pork cutlets with some Penzey’s pork chop seasoning and dredged in some corn flour shaking the excess off. I heated my Lodge CS skillet on med. high and sprayed with some olive oil. I fried the cutlets about 5 minutes per side. I had heated up some garlic knots to have. The casserole was in for 50 minutes when I took it out. It was bubbly and the cheese was starting to brown some.

That was a kinda light but filling supper. Tasted great and the wife and I both thought the casserole had good flavor.

The garlic knots

Making the first layer

Cutlets ready to fry

Cutlets done

Casserole ready to serve

My supper

Beef and Cheese Casserole

Dec 10 2014

A casserole is an easy meal to fix and makes for comforting food on a cool winter day. Just have a salad or some veggies and some bread and butter and it’s an easy meal to fix. I had some shredded cheese that needed used so I bought a pound of ground chuck at my butchers; all I needed was a recipe. I found this one for Beef and cheddar at Food Network by the Food Network Kitchen.  It also used some wide egg noodles I had on hand and sounded good to me.

I had a loaf of good take home and bake bread so I baked that before starting the casserole. I like to bake my own bread but when I can get a loaf already made and just bake it for about 10 minutes and it’s as good as I can do from scratch it’s just too easy!

I got my noodles boiling and cooked them about 4:45 and by 6:10 I had this on the table. While the casserole was baking my wife made up a mixed Romaine salad for us. Our son had to work so we had the grandson for supper and the DIL ate when she got here from work.

The shredded cheese I had was two different Mexican mixes and a little cheddar. After eating it I think about any kind of cheese would work with this. Since I was using ground chuck 80-20 mix I removed some of the grease but left some for flavor. I am beginning to love the Penzey’s 4S salt but I use it sparingly since it is heavy in salt. I sprinkled some on top and the red from the smoked paprika in it gave it a nice color. I had blue cheese dressing and French fried onions on my salad.

We all liked this and think it is among the best casseroles I have made. I think what really adds a great flavor to this dish is the sour cream and parmesan cheese added to the noodles.

Click here for link to recipe

All but the sour cream and ground beef

 Cooking the noodles

Noodles, sour cream and parmesan added

Beef browned and peppers and onions added

Tomato paste and diced tomatoes added

plus Italian seasoning

Beef mix over the noodles

Shredded cheese and 4S salt added

Some good crusty bread

Casserole done

My supper

Smoked Chicken Creamy Lasagna

Oct 14 2014

I had smoked a chicken Sunday for my supper and pulled most of the rest to use for tonight’s dish. I am still hampered by a bad leg and cannot stand at the stove long so I am limited to what I can cook. I found out yesterday from a MRI that I have a ruptured disc and a piece of it is against my sciatic nerve causing the pain. The meds I am taking are not giving me much relief. The Dr. called today and said they had me an appointment to see a neurosurgeon Nov. 17^th I said I didn’t know if I could take the pain that long. I called the neurosurgeon today to see if I could get in any sooner. Hope to hear something tomorrow.

If you already have shredded chicken on hand this is about the easiest lasagna I ever made. Instead of tomato sauce this uses cream of chicken soup, onions, green peppers and milk or cream for the sauce. For my lasagna noodles I used ready to bake so didn’t have to boil any. The recipe was from Betty Crocker; it called for 2 cups shredded mozzarella and one cup shredded cheddar cheese. I used what I had on hand; 2 cups of 4 blend Mexican and 1 cup mozzarella. I was generous in my measuring.

I forgot to add some parmesan to the layers so I added some parmesan, Romano and Asiago to the top the last 20 minutes of cooking. I can see this would make good Tex-Mex by just adding some mild or hot green chilies, chili powder and cumin for Italian use Italian cheeses, oregano, basil and thyme. You could use some ground beef too instead of the chicken.

Following the recipe it comes out pretty mild but very tasty. I baked mine at 350 deg. for the 50 minutes and it was bubbly and getting brown on top. I let it rest 10 minutes before serving. We had a small green salad and some toasted garlic bread. I had some Vidalia onion salad dressing, fresh ground pepper and some dried garlic flakes on my salad. This is a keeper recipe for something quick and easy. It should serve six easily.

Link to Recipe

The chicken

My ingredients

Ready to bake

Resting

My salad

My supper

Smoked Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Apr 09 2014

Last night I was watching the cooking channel and saw Trisha Yearwood make a chicken tortilla casserole. That girl can sing and cook! That would be my supper for tonight.

This am I went and got some chicken and what I needed for the casserole. I got a whole cut up chicken and got it in brine for about 2 hours then rinsed and dried and in the fridge an hour to dry some. I smoked it on my Traeger at 225 deg. grill level a half hour then went to about 340 deg. to finish. It took just under an hour to finish.

After it had cooled I pulled the meat from the breasts and thigh back pieces. That looked like plenty of meat for the casserole. I made up the chicken gravy and then it went in the mix with the green peppers, onions, garlic, sour cream and chicken broth and I just used 2 cups of the broth.

I made up the 3 layers of corn tortillas, chicken, cheese and sauce in a large casserole dish. You might note in her recipe it called for ½ cup shredded cheddar for each layer; that must have been a type error since it calls for 3 cups in the recipe ingredients. I used one cup for each layer. I baked it for about 40 minutes at 350 deg.

I followed Trisha’s recipe for cheater beans to serve too. I would have liked to use the bacon and bacon grease but our veggie daughter was stopping after work to eat so I just used olive oil. I sautéed some chopped onions and garlic, a can of pinto beans, about a half can of diced fire roasted tomatoes with some of the juice and a half 4 oz. can chopped green chilies.  I meant to add some cumin but forgot.

I served it all with some jarred salsa and tortilla strips on the side. We all liked it; the daughter in law ate two helpings of the casserole and some beans. This is a dish I will be making again!

Link to Chicken Recipe

Chicken on the smoker

Shredded chicken

Two layers in

Ready to serve

Beans are ready

My supper