Meat Loaf

Needed a use for some extra hamburger I had in my freezer and decided to try my hand at some meat loaf. I thought it turned out pretty well!

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MEAT LOAF


Ingredients for loaf:

• 1 1/2 pound hamburger
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon dried minced onions
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce 
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/3 cup finely ground Stacy's Sea Salt pita chips (or other form of dried bread crumbs, crackers, crouton, etc)

Ingredients for sauce:

• 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1 1/3 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon barbecue sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Method

1. Line a casserole dish with aluminum foil (this is an important step for your sanity!)
2. Use a food processor to finely grind up your bread crumbs
3. Combine hamburger, egg, onions, milk, and the various other ingredients into a large bowl and stir together thoroughly using your hands
4. Place meat in casserole dish in a "loaf" shape--this is just an oblong shape roughly a foot long, 4 inche wide, and 4 inches deep
5. Mix together ingredients for sauce and pour on top of the loaf, spreading it around and allowing it to drip down the sides
6. Sprinkle just a little more brown sugar on the top
7. Place in 350 degree oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove from oven, allow to "set" for 5-10 minutes, cut up like a loaf of bread and serve

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Beans & Weenies

Henry and I have just gotten married on May 19th (Yay!), but I'm having to cook a lot at home since we are on a tight budget with me being in school, etc. Needless to say, before getting married, I would say my forte in cooking was in the dessert/baking department, so it's pretty intimidating to have to make an acceptable-to-eat-for-dinner meal that will not leave us starving. Thus, I've been expanding my horizons to bigger and better things (that are still easy, fast, and stuff that I already have in my house). The first being...

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BEANS & WEENIES


Ingredients:

• 2 regular-sized cans of baked beans (any kind you like)
• 6-7 hot dogs
• 2/3 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 table spoons dried parsley flakes

Method:

1. Cut the hot dogs up into 1/2 inch pieces
2. Dump the 2 cans of baked beans in a pot, followed by the pieces of hot dogs
3. Add the other ingredients to the pot and stir together
4. Place covered on medium-high heat for 15-25 minutes, stirring occasionally
5. Turn heat to low or medium-low to allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes

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The Best Traditional Chex Mix

qI love Chex mix (aka: Trash, Scrabble, Trail Mix, or anything else you want to call it). It is a perfect fall treat for the whole family, and its salty sinfulness is a great pre-game to the State Fair, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's calorie-fiestas. I pretty much use the recipe on the box, but increase the butter twofold and add some secrets of my own--

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Ingredients:

1 1/2 stick of butter (or more)

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 tablespoon honey (or more)

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 1/2 cups rice Chex cereal

2 1/2 cups corn Chex cereal

2 3/4 cups wheat cereal

1 cup mixed nuts (or peanuts, or cashews)

1 1/4 cup stick pretzels

1 1/2 cup Cheese-it's

How to:

Find two deep, rectangular pans to cook your mix--you will be halving the mix among these two pans. Preheat oven to 250.

Place pretzels, Cheese-it's, and nuts in each pan (remember, 1/2 of the above measurements in each pan). In a large bowl, mix together the Chex. In a microwaveable bowl, completely melt the butter. As soon as you remove it from microwave, pour honey in the butter (you can use more than listed, but just don't use too much because your mix will be sticky!). Then add salt, garlic and onion powders, and Worcestershire to butter and mix. Pour this mixture in the pan with the nuts, crackers, and pretzels. Then, pour the halves of the Chex into the pans. Gently turn over mix so that it is adequately mixed and so each piece is coated.

Place in oven for 15 minutes. Remove and stir. If, after the first 15 minutes, you feel that the mix is not coated enough, add 1/2 stick butter with a little more honey, Worscht, powders, and salt. Cook for another 45 minutes, removing every 15 minutes to stir.

Spread mix on paper towels until cooled. Then, enjoy.

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Cheese Bread

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cheese. In another large bowl, beat together egg, milk and oil. Stir the flour/cheese mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until just moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Creamy Chicken and Noodles

This is an easy an quick recipe that's perfect for those times that you don't really have time to plan an elaborate meal. Just use frozen pre-cooked chicken (which I recommend always having in your freezer) and serve with some nice steamed or boiled veggies.

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Ingredients

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken and Mushroom Soup
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken or turkey
• 3 cups medium egg noodles, cooked and drained
• Chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Heat the soup, milk, black pepper, cheese, chicken and noodles in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat until the mixture is hot and bubbling, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with the parsley before serving.

Grape Pie

I bought some sour grapes recently--so sour that I have trouble eating them enjoyably--so I decided to find a recipe to use them. Of course, leave it to the southerner to make a healthy food into a really unhealthy food, right? So, here you go, the grape pie:

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CRUST:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup Crisco shortening

1 egg

5 tbsp water (plus more to get right consistency)

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Thoroughly mix the flour, salt, and shortening in a large bowl. You can do this with a spatula. In a separate bowl, mix egg, vinegar, and water. Pour wet mixture into dry mixtur

e. Use hands to knead into a dough. The dough should be rather dry--I added a little bit more water to make it more cohesive.

Take approximately 1/2 of the dough and roll it out. Place your 9" pie pan over the dough that you have rolled out and approximate 1 to 1 1/2 more inches to add to the diameter. With a knife, cut the dough in a circle with an 11 inch diameter. Remove excess dough. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe: you can a) use a large spatula to loosen the dough from the cutting board and quickly convert it to the pie pan, or b) put your pie pan on top of the dough

, and quickly flip the whole thing over to let gravity pull the dough into the pie pan. If there are cracks in the dough, simply press them together.

For the top of the pie, make another 9" wide circle and use the spatula method. Or, do what I did, and give up completely--roll the dough out and use a small cookie cutter to make little circles and use them to cover the top of the filling in an artistic way.

FILLING:

3 cups green grapes

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1/3 cup flour mixed with water to make a loose paste

Chop up the majority of the grapes into relatively large chunks (that should look somewhat

mushy), leaving the a few of the smallest grapes whole. Place grapes in a sauce pan with water, sugar, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. When boiling, add the flour paste and stir. Let boil for approximately 5-7 minutes, while stirring constantly. Turn heat on low and examine mixture--it should be more thick and syrupy, and if there are any clumps of flour, remove them or try to break them up. Remove from heat and add butter and cinnamon; stir. Put back on low heat for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

Pour filling into pie crust that you prepared earlier. Add dough to top of filling. Sprinkle granulated sugar over top of pie, and add a few tiny pats of butter in various p

laces over pie. Cover the dish with foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove foil after 25 minutes, and let cook for another 20-25 minutes.

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I have never made a pie crust from scratch before, and it was literally the hardest cooking-related thing I have ever done to try to get that dough into the pan. My kitchen was a mess. But the pie is delicious, and I think it turned out beautifully despite the crust disasters!

Layered chili dip

This is the easiest and yummies dip that is quick to make for impromptu parties or gatherings. Just buy your favorite corn chips and serve it up in less than 10 minutes! For being so easy, it's addictive, so beware!

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Ingredients:

1 block of cream cheese

1 can of beef chili or bean chili (I like meat, so I get the meat)

1 bag finely shredded cheddar cheese

Method:

Spread the entire block of cream cheese at the bottom of a square baking dish. Then, empty the can of chili and spread it over the cream cheese. Empty and spread the bag of cheese over the top. Put dish in 300 degree oven for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serve warm.

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