Italian Grinder Bean Salad

 Ok I was apprehensive about this one. I’ve never really had beans at room temp or cold, so I wasn’t sure what that texture was gonna be like.  I opted for the better quality brands for beans. Figured the texture would be more consistent.  Overall, this was great. I’ll be making it again. 

Ingredients:

Salad:

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup turkey breast, sliced/cubed

1 cup salami, sliced/cubed

3 mini sweet peppers, finely diced

1/2 red onion, finely diced

1/2 cup sliced pepperoncini

1 cup mozzarella pearls or slices cut up

Dressing:

1/4 cup Greek yogurt (plain)

1/4 cup mayo

1 Tbsp extra virgin Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 heaping Tbsp Dijon

2 Tbsp of the pepperoncini brine (slightly more if you like the kick)

1ish clove of garlic (seriously measure with your heart)

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Coarse kosher salt to taste. 

1. Mix all the salad fixings together in a big bowl. Mix all dressing ingredients together in a separate bowl. Then mix it all together in the bigger bowl. While this was still good right after making it, chill it for a couple hours for best taste. Store up to 2 to 3 days. It’s seriously that easy. 

Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad

 Ok so this chicken salad has lots of crunch and pairs really well with crackers or pretzel crisps. Adjust things as you see fit. It’s pretty forgiving. 

Ingredients

3 Cups of cooked chicken breast, diced. Rotisserie chicken works well for this. 

1/4 c purple onion, finely diced 

3/4 c celery, diced

1/2 c carrots, diced 

1 Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apple, diced

1/2 c dill pickle, diced

1/2 c Greek yogurt

1/2c mayo

1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard

1 heaping teaspoon garlic, mined (honestly, measure with your heart)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional ingredients:

For spiciness, add some thinly sliced jalapeños

For sweetness, add roughly a teaspoon of honey to the dressing. 

Combine the chicken, onion, celery, carrots, apple and dill pickle in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the yogurt, mayo, mustard, garlic and S&P to make a dressing. Top the chicken salad with dressing, toss until well mixed. This was good immediately, but letting it sit overnight let all the flavors fall in love with each other. 

Jarcuterie

 I tried the viral “Fall Jarcuterie” recipe and while I thought it was pretty good, I made a few tweaks to better suit the palettes in my circle of people I make/share food for/with. It’s super forgiving as in measurements don’t need to be exact in the least. Measure with your heart. If you like one thing more, add more, if you don’t, use less or omit all together. 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon whole-grain or stone ground mustard

1 to 3 garlic cloves, grated (Jarlic doesn’t work so well for this IMO)

1 to 2 apples, honey crisp does well for this, large dice

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, white or yellow, cubed

1 cup salami or mini beef sticks, cut up into bite size pieces (sliced or cubed)

3 to 6 oz cornichons, depending on preference

1/2 shallot, minced or finely diced

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Put oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, and garlic in a cruet or container with a tight fitting lid and shake it into oblivion. I normally shake it all up and put it in the fridge while I chop and grate stuff. 

In a large bowl, add apples, cheese, salami/beef sticks, cornichons, shallots, and cranberries. Top with the dressing you just made and mix it all up. You’re done! That’s it! While this is good right away, it’s REALLY good the next day once all the flavors have had time to hang out. 

I generally store this in the soup take out containers (you can find them on Amazon) because you can give it a good shake before eating. It’s good for about 3 to 5 days depending on your texture preferences lol. If you’re making this for a party/BBQ/get together, make it the night before. 

Italian Penicillin Soup

Ingredients 

1/2 lb baby carrots, you can sub for 3 roughly chopped  and peeled regular carrots

1 yellow onion, quartered

5-25 cloves garlic, icky ends trimmed. Add as much as you want honestly

3 ribs celery, chopped into 2-3in pieces

8 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 ¼ cup orzo, pastina, ditalini, or other small pasta **see note below if you’re going to store/freeze the soup

Salt/pepper to taste

Freshly grated Parmesan, when serving

• Cook veggies: Throw the broth, baby carrots, onion, garlic, and celery in a large pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil then lower to medium heat, cover, and boil for about 30 mins (when veggies are soft). Make sure to check on it every now and then and stir the pot.
• Puree veggies: Use a slotted spoon to pull on the veggies out of the broth. I personally let them cool a little bit before adding them to my Ninja Blender with a couple of ladles of broth. Blend everything into oblivion. You should end up with an orange-ish/yellow-ish soup. Now pour it all back into your pot.  **Another option is to use an immersion blender straight in the pot. My immersion blender and I don’t quite get along, so blender it is lol
  
• Cook the orzo:  If eating the soup right away, go ahead and add in the orzo to a simmering pot. Cook until al dente, around 10ish minutes. Taste the soup, add salt/pepper at this time to taste. 
• Chow down:  Once the orzo is done to your liking, serve up a bowl and add some freshly grated Parmesan to the top. 

***If storing for later:  Skip the orzo step and let soup cool some before storing. When you decide to indulge in this yummy meal, cook your orzo/pasta when reheating. If the soup is a little too thick for your liking, add a little extra broth. It’s pretty hard to mess this up. It’s very forgiving. 

Tips:

-Homemade Carcass Soup (AKA Chicken broth) adds some awesomeness to this soup.

-I use baby carrots mainly because I’m lazy, but I also prefer the taste and texture over regular carrots. They also tend to be a little asweeter.

• You can use sweet onions in this, but it can be a bit much with the sweetness of the carrots.  I highly suggest using just regular yellow onions for this if you don’t want it to be overly sweet. 
• Want some meat? This is a great recipe to use up on leftover rotisserie chicken. 

White Chicken Lasagna Soup

 Y’all this was so good, even my picky 4 year old ate it. I mean she ate around the spinach and sun dried tomatoes, but I’ll still take it as a win lol. 

White Chicken Lasagna Soup

• ▢ 2 tablespoons butter
• ▢ 1  onion, finely chopped
• ▢ 3 cloves fresh minced garlic 
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or make your own mix from basil, parsley, oregano, and thyme)
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste, scant 1/4tsp 
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• ▢ 3 cups chicken broth, low sodium
• ▢ 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts 
• ▢ ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped small
• ▢ 2 cups pasta- I used bow ties and it worked really well
• ▢ 1 cup heavy cream
• ▢ 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• ▢ Parmesan or shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)

Pull out the Dutch oven and do your thing where you sauté the onions in the butter. Once translucent, add in your garlic, other seasonings, and sun-dried tomatoes. Let those flavors mix for about about a minute or two. Then add in your chicken broth and bring to slow boil over medium heat. Cover and cook until internal temp is 165 degrees F. Meanwhile, in a separate pot, cook pasta according to box directions to al dente. 

Once the chicken is done, take it out and chop to bite size pieces. 

Here comes the magical part, add in the heavy cream into the Dutch oven. Once incorporated, add chicken back in along with pasta and spinach. Cook until spinach is just wilted. Now serve it with some parmesan or mozzarella and enjoy the “Oh, man, this is delicious!” compliments that will follow. 

Tomato Gravy

 Tomato Gravy is one of those southern recipes that was handed down from generation to generation in my family.  I don’t make it often, but somehow I still remember it. It’s weird how that works lol. I’ve come to learn that there are a lot of people that have never heard it or have never had it.  Do yourself a flavor, make it. It’s super quick, simple, and SO yummy.  

Tomato Gravy-

3 TBSP of bacon grease (butter or oil also work, but the bacon grease gives it a bit more flavor)

3 TBSP of flour

1 to 1.5 c of stock (chicken, beef, or vegetable all work, just whatever you have on hand)

1- 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained (I prefer the petite diced, but regular is fine, too)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional- in place of salt/pepper, you can also use Everglades Heat or Tony Chachere’s for a little kick. 

In a large skillet, over medium heat, combine the bacon grease and flour to make a roux. Once well mixed,  add in the can of tomatoes. Cook for a minute or so while stirring constantly, it helps get rid of the floury taste.  Slowly add in stock until gravy is just at the desired consistency. Season gravy to taste and serve over fresh hot biscuits, grits, rice, or even mashed potatoes. Enjoy, y’all!

Life Hack- Tomato Gravy is essentially the base for Swiss steak. Fry up some well season stew beef and make a slightly thinner gravy. Toss the beef in the gravy and simmer until the gravy is at your desired consistency and the beef is tender.  Serve over rice or mashed potatoes. 

French Onion Grilled Cheese and Soup- measure with your heart for this one

 My version of French Onion Grilled Cheese and Soup

 

3lbs of onions, halved and sliced *I used sweet onions*

½-1 stick of butter

Salt and pepper to taste

3/4 c + 3ish cups of beef broth *I use reduced sodium Better Than Bullion, so adjust the saltiness as needed*

Italian seasoning to taste

1-2 bay leaves

Flour (amount depends on how thick you want the soup)

 

Sandwiches-

Onion mixture

Cheese (provolone, gouda, Havarti, etc)

Sourdough or other crusty bread

Margarine/butter

 

1.       Melt butter in big pot/dutch oven. Add in onion slices and salt/pepper.  Cook over medium heat until caramelized…about 30mins

2.       Add in 3/4 c of beef broth and a little bit of Italian seasoning. Cook on medium high to reduce liquid.

3.       Remove 1/3ish of the onion mixture. Set aside.

4.       To the pot/dutch oven, add in 3ish cups of beef broth, a little more Italian seasoning, and a couple bay leaves. Bring to a low boil/simmer.

5.       Make a slurry of beef broth and flour. Honestly I just pulled some broth out of the pot and added maybe 2 heaping tablespoons of flour. Whisked it together so it wasn’t lumpy. Dumped it all in the pot and mixed together.  If you want it thicker, add more slurry. If it’s too thick, add more beef broth.

6.       While that’s cooking, make some grilled cheese sandwiches. Use at least two pieces of cheese so that you can put some of the onion mixture in between. It’ll sorta make a little pocket of flavored deliciousness lol

When I made it this way, I made 4 grilled cheeses and two bowls of soup. However, I still had some onion mixture left over to make a couple more sandwiches, or I could have added it back into the soup and added more broth to make a bigger pot of soup.  We like ours pretty chunky with onions, so certainly you can make this with much more broth to have more to share.

Corn Casserole- Hancock Style

 I’m surprised with as many times as I have made this and shared the recipe, that I haven’t added it to this blog yet.  It’s a recipe I learned from my Mom and is SO easy to make. I think we have made for just about every cookout/family event. It’s rare that there are any leftovers.

Ingredients

10oz bag of yellow rice (Mahatma or Vigo make the best in my opinion, but any brand should work)

1 (10oz) can of Cream of Celery Soup

2 (15oz) cans of whole kernel corn, drained (I normally use regular whole kernel, summer crisp, or white corn. My mom used to make it with Mexi-corn. Any variety will work just make sure it is NOT creamed corn)

1lb- 1.5lbs of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (use the thick cut shredded or grate the cheese yourself, it will make a huge difference.)

1 stick of butter, salted or unsalted…doesn’t make a big difference. 

Instructions

-Get a casserole dish and throw the stick of butter in it. Set aside. 

-Cook the yellow rice according to the package. Once it’s done, throw it over the butter in the casserole dish. 

-Find something to do for a few minutes to entertain yourself as the butter melts under the heat of the rice. 

-Once the butter is melted, mix in the cream of celery and drained corn. 

-When that’s pretty well mix, add in half of your cheese. Mix it all up again. 

-Now even out the mixture in the dish and top with remaining cheese.  

-Bake, uncovered, at 350* for 25-30mins. Enjoy the yumminess you just made. You’re welcome. You will be required to make this for every event you go to from now on. Haha.

Basic Brisket Rub for smoking

 1/4c kosher salt coarse ground

1T ground black pepper

1T smoked paprika

2t oregano

1t cumin

1T garlic powder

1T onion powder

-Dijon for a binder

Rub brisket down with Dijon and sprinkle rub generously on the brisket. Make sure to coat all sides. Let sit overnight before smoking it. 

Beef Kabob Marinade

 1/2c Olive oil

1/3c Soy Sauce

1/4c fresh squeezed lemon

1/4c A-1 Sauce

1T garlic powder

1T onion powder

1T Italian Seasoning

1t ground pepper

Mix all together. This should make enough marinade for 5lbs of beef kabob meat.. Marinade at least overnight. Enjoy!

Smoked Elk Burgers

                                     

I made this for a 10lb mixture of meat. Obviously, divide measurements as needed for correct portion sizes. 

5lb ground elk

5lbs ground chuck

6 eggs

1/4c breadcrumbs

1/4c ground black pepper

6T garlic powder

6T onion powder

1/4c smoked paprika

6T celery salt 

Mix it all together and make into patties. Throw them on the smoker at 225* for 2 to 2.5hrs. Hubby uses a Pit Boss electric (pellet) smoker. We made these with cherry wood pellets and it was amazing!

Prime Rib Roast Rub

 2T Kosher Salt

1/2T ground thyme

1/2T fresh ground pepper

1T Onion Powder

1T Garlic Powder

Dijon

Mix all together dry ingredients together. Rub Dijon all over the roast to act as a binder. Coat the roast with the spice mixture. Let set over night. It's SO good!

Easy Beef Tacos

 I made this using an Instant Pot, but I'm sure it could be adapted for a slow cooker. Just sear the the meat and saute the onion mixture, then throw it all in the slow cooker on low. 

Easy Beef Tacos (6pts per serving but can very depending how much meat you use)

Ingredients

1.5lbs stew beef
1T butter
1 small onion
minced garlic (measure with your heart)
4oz can of green chilis
1T ground cumin
2T garlic powder
2t smoked paprika
2t chili powder
1t sea salt
1t onion powder
1/2t black pepper
1/2t cayenne pepper
3/4c to 1c reduced sodium beef stock (I use Better Than Bullion Organic Reduced Sodium.)
1 can low fat, refried black beans
1 can whole kernel corn
low carb flour tortilla wraps 

Optional (not included in the point count)
Shredded cheddar cheese ( 5pts per 1/4c of regular, 1pt per 1/4c of fat free)
Lime Juice (0pts per 1t)
Herdez Taqueria Street Sauce- Roja (0pts per 1T)
Sour Cream-  (1pt per 2T Fat Free, 2pts per 2T Reduced-fat, 3pts per 2T full fat)

-Turn Instant Pot to sauté. Sear the beef, remove from pot, and set aside.

- Add butter, onions, and garlic to pot and cook until aromatic and/or slightly sweating.  

-Add beef stock to deglaze pot. 

-Now about half to 3/4 the amount of seasoning you made and chilis. Mix well.

-Add beef back to pot and mix to cover beef in "sauce". 

-Cook the beef using the pressure option for 10 mins. Let pressure naturally release for an additional 10 mins, then "quick" release. 

-While all that is cooking, get two small pots. Cook the corn on in one. In the other, combine the refried beans and some of the seasoning mixture (to taste). I also added a little lime juice to mine

When it's all done, make yourself some yummy tacos and call it a day!

Pickled Onions

I actually made pickled onions out of boredom one day cause I wanted a different topping for tacos. I really did not realize how easy it truly was to make. I started with a recipe for one onion's worth of deliciousness, but little did I realize how much my husband would actually like these. The following recipe is for a LARGE batch, but can be easily be broken down for smaller portions.

Pickled Onions
3 large red onions, sliced thinly (a mandolin slicer comes in VERY handy for this)
2 cups apple cider vinegar
4 cups of water
2 T coarse sea salt
4 T sugar

Bring vinegar, water, salt, and sugar to a boil. Cook until salt and sugar have dissolved.  Add in onions and boil for just a minute or two. Remove from heat and cover pot. Let sit for about 15-20 mins, then enjoy.  Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container, in the fridge, for about a week. However, they never last that long in my family.

S'ghetti Sauce

I've gotten to a point in my life where I really just can't tolerate premade/jarred/canned sauces. They are just too sweet, or salty, for my liking. So I just make my own. The measurements of spices is VERY vague because I cook by sight when I'm working with spices. My measurement really is just for ratio purposes. Always start with a little bit, let it warm through, then, if need be, add more. Everyone seems to love both versions of my sauce. Both freeze really well, so I normally end up making a triple batch so it's less work I have to do later. Two birds. One stone. lol

 Basic S'ghetti Sauce
2 large cans of tomato sauce
1 large can of diced tomatoes
~1Tbsp of white cooking wine
minced garlic- i like a lot, but i know some people just like a hint
~1Tbsp Onion Power, Oregano, Parsley, Thyme, and Basil
a dash or two of cayenne pepper - trust me, it's amazing!
Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)

Optional-
salt & white pepper to taste
~ 2tsp of Rosemary
sauteed onions
sauteed shallots
sauteed mushrooms

Mix everything but the baking soda together. Let it warm through.  Taste the sauce, if it's too acidic (which it tends to be when adding canned diced tomatoes), add about 1/4tsp of sodium bicarbonate.  It will bubble up and be a little foamy for a while. It will cook down, I promise! After it looks like regular sauce again, taste it again. If it's still too acidic, repeat the sodium bicarbonate. If you add too much, the sauce will seem sweet.

Deluxe S'ghetti Sauce 
Same as above but err on the side of the sauce being under seasoned at first. Add in 1/2lb- 1lb of browned ground beef, mild Italian Sausage, and diced pepperoni stick. Simmer these in your sauce for about 20mins or so. Taste it and adjust seasonings accordingly.