Cooking With Rexanne

Easy Chili

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Easy Chili

Ingredients:

1 LB lean ground round
1 chopped onion
1 large (16 OZ) can tomato sauce
1 tomato sauce can of water (LOL)
1 medium can (8 OZ?) kidney beans
2 TBS chili powder
2 tsp. crushed red pepper1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 Bay Leaves

Preparation:

– Brown ground round in a large pot – drain most but not all of the fat – Put back into pan.
– Add chopped onion and mix with the ground round
– Add tomato sauce and one can of water
– Add Kidney beans
– Add seasonings
– Mix and let simmer on low for at least an hour (2 or 3 is best)

This makes enough for about 8 people – I typically double or even triple the recipe for a crowd.

I serve fresh French bread and butter with chili. You could serve with soda crackers, dinner rolls or whatever strikes you as a good accompaniment.

Baked Yams

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Baked Yams

Ingredients:

4 to 6 large yams

half a stick of salted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

half a bag of miniature marshmallows

Preparation:

Partially boil yams in large pot (do not remove skin)

When yams are cooked through but not mushy remove from the stove, dump the hot water and cover yams with cold water and enough ice to cool them off (as much as you can fit in the pot is good).

When cool enough to handle, remove the skins (they should peel off easily) and slice yams into 1/2 inch thick pieces and layer them in a casserole dish. Between layers and again on top of the last layer, add dots of butter and sprinkle brown sugar. After the last layer has been dotted with butter and sprinkled with brown sugar, drizzle the maple syrup over all and top with marshmallows.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes or until marshmallows are golden brown.

Serves 6.

Bell Pepper Snacks

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Bell Pepper Snacks

For parents concerned about getting more nutritious veggies into their kid’s diet, this is a “snack” and a side dish that I use as much as possible:

Raw red, yellow and orange bell peppers are delicious and can be cut into slices (strips not rounds) for kids to munch on. They taste great, most kids love them and they’re loaded with vitamins and other healthy nutrients. (I avoid the green ones because they don’t taste as sweet and what is it in those green ones that is so hard to digest?!)

These are also great as a side veggie with any protein and bread (or potato, pasta, noodles …) to round out a quick, easy and tasty meal the kids will eat.

– For a perfect kid-friendly meal, try chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes and sliced red, yellow and orange bell peppers. Easy, quick, delicious and healthy.

Try bell pepper slices for your kids if you haven’t already … they might like them and they’re a great nutritional snack and side dish.

Chocolate Pudding & Ice Cream

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Chocolate Pudding & Ice Cream

Oh yum … this is one of our favorite desserts.

Make a batch (1 box) of chocolate pudding (not instant … the kind you have to stir and cook).

Pour hot pudding into individual bowls (should make 4 to 6 decent size bowls)

Let stand or refrigerate for about half an hour until cooled off but still slightly warm.

Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and serve.

Optional: I suppose adding whipped topping, chopped nuts, sliced bananas and/or a cherry on top wouldn’t hurt … if you try a topping on this, please let us know how it works.

This tastes even better than it sounds.

Easy Cherry Cheesecake

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Easy Cherry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 pre-packaged graham cracker pie crust

1 – 8 ounce and one 1/3 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1- 8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 cup powdered sugar

1 16 ounce can cherry pie filling

Preparation:

In large mixing bowl, combine softened cream cheese, whipped topping and powdered sugar. Mix well with hand mixer on medium speed. S****e mixture with spatula into graham cracker pie crust and top with cherry pie filling. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Completely sinful but soooo good!

Serves 8

Pasta with Broccoli

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Pasta with Broccoli

This is a great recipe to get your kids to eat and actually like broccoli.

Ingredients:

– 1 pound of De Cecco penne rigate or fusilli
– 1 head broccoli or 2 bunches of baby broccoli (broccolini)
– ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
– 3 large -garlic cloves, crushed
Salt & pepper to taste
– Handful of raw sunflower seeds.

Preparation:

Bring pot of salted water to a boil – dump the pasta in with a few drops (or more) of any cooking oil.

At the same time, boil broccoli in lightly salted water until soft.

In large bowl, add olive oil, crushed garlic, salt & pepper.

Remove broccoli from heat. Drain most of the water, keep about ½ cup. Pour broccoli and remaining water into the olive oil mixture and smash it up some.

Drain pasta, but not too much. You should have water dripping from the colander. Toss it into the broccoli and olive oil mixture before the water drains completely. Throw the sunflower seeds in. Stir it all up to coat the pasta well.
Serves 4

Apple Sausage Stuffing

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Apple Sausage Stuffing

This is an awesome stuffing for turkey, chicken or whatever you want to stuff. LOL – It’s also good all by itself.

It does take some time and effort but it’s way worth it. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

-1 lb Italian Sausage
-1 cup diced bacon
-1 large onion chopped
-1 cup celery chopped
-½ lb mushrooms sliced
-2 crisp apples cored & diced
-1 cup chopped fresh parsley
-1 tsp thyme
-1 lb. firm white (French) bread (cut into 1 inch cubes)
-2 cups chicken broth (1 14 oz. Can)

Preparation:

-Chop sausage into 1 inch pieces – brown (or brown & chop later)-Cook Bacon in another pan
-Remove sausage – sauté onions in same pan (with sausage grease). Add remaining ingredients plus sausage & bacon through to the herbs to pan after onions are cooked. Heat through (about 5 minutes).
-In large bowl, pour all you’ve cooked over diced bread
– add chicken broth, salt & pepper. Spoon into a buttered casserole dish or into cleaned bird.

-If cooking outside the bird, bake for an hour at 350 degrees.

Spaghetti Alla Cecca

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Spaghetti Alla Cecca (pronounced Keka)
Rexanne’s all time favorite …

Ingredients:

1 pound Di Cecco spaghetti
6 large diced plum tomatoes (ripe but firm)
4 cloves fresh garlic (crushed)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Serves 4

Instructions:

Wash tomatoes. On cutting board, slice each tomato in half, lengthwise. Slice lengthwise again. Remove all seeds and membrane from inside tomatoes. Lay each quarter tomato inside down on cutting board. With a very sharp knife, slice tomatoes lengthwise and then across to create finely diced little squares of tomato. The smaller you chop them, the better this pasta will taste, trust me … (although you don’t want them mashed by chopping too fine). Toss diced tomatoes in a medium size bowl.

Add olive oil, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Mix thoroughly. You may refrigerate if pasta is not yet ready.

In large pot, bring salted water to a full boil. Add spaghetti (and a drop or two of any cooking oil). Cook until al dente. Drain spaghetti, reserving about 3/4 cup of cooking water. Pour spaghetti and water in large serving bowl or platter. Add tomato mixture and mix well. Top with chopped basil.

Serves 4

When serving this pasta, dig from the bottom of the bowl as the tomatoes tend to amass on the bottom of the serving platter. I have a serving spoon handy to top off the first portions served with the “goodies” from the bottom of the bowl.

This dish is good served with Bruschetta; crusty Italian or French Bread, brushed with a mixture of half melted butter, half olive oil and crushed garlic (subtle, about 1 large clove for half a loaf). Lay coated bread on baking sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven or until slightly golden. The tomatoes from the pasta can be scooped onto a piece of bread … delicious!

* Since this sauce is not cooked, it’s great to serve on hot day.
** This recipe, minus the spaghetti, is what I use to make Bruschetta (Italian garlic bread).

Zipper Baggie Omelets

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This is the coolest food prep trick I’ve seen in years and it works just great!

Have guests write their names on quart-size Ziploc freezer bags with a permanent marker.

– Crack 2 eggs (only 2, large or extra-large) into each bag, shake to mix.

– Set out a variety of ingredients such as shredded cheeses, chopped ham, chopped onion, chopped green pepper, chopped tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc.

– Everybody adds they’re own ingredients to their baggie of eggs, shake to mix again.

– Squeeze air out of bags before zipping.

– Place bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes (I’ve tried playing with the time – don’t bother … nothing else works). 6 to 8 bags should fit in a large pot. Use another pot for more, don’t crowd.

Unzip each baggie and slide omelet onto each person’s plate.

– Be prepared for amazement. The omelet will be perfectly shaped and perfectly cooked. This recipe does not work well for a runny omelet. I add plenty of shredded cheese to make my omelet appear more runny.

Chicken Cutlets

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This is an easy way to make chicken cutlets, Italian style. Kids love them and they are a good finger food, too! You can call them “Chicken Fingers” if your kids will respond better to the fast food word.

These are also great as cold snacks when there are some left over.

Ingredients:

1 pound (approximately 12) skinless, boneless chicken tenders*
2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano (or Parmesan) cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup any vegetable (or olive) oil

salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Wash chicken tenders and dip in beaten egg.

In large, sturdy plastic bag, add bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper. Shake to mix well

Add egg-coated chicken tenders to bread crumb mixture in bag. Shake well to coat completely.

Heat oil in large skillet on medium high heat. When oil is hot, add chicken tenders. Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Remove from skillet onto paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Blot tops with another wad of paper towels.

Serves 4

Enjoy!

*I always have a bag of flash frozen chicken tenders (the little piece of rib meat that is always tender and the perfect size for cutlets without having to cut into pieces) in my freezer. Whenever a recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I use these and adjust the cooking time for the thinner tenders. This recipe cooking time is for tenders. If using thicker breast meat, you might have to cook them another minute per side to cook through. You will also want to cut the larger chicken breasts into 3 or 4 pieces. Do not overcook either the tenders or the breasts or they’ll be tough.

Pesto Sauce

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Pesto Sauce:

Ingredients:

– 3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves (stems removed)
– 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
– 2 large garlic cloves (crushed)
– 1/2 cup grated Parmigianno (or Parmesan) cheese
– 2 tbsp. sour cream (optional)

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients (except sour scream) in a blender – Blend on chop setting until completely mixed to form a “paste.” You will need to push the ingredients down toward the blades several times (not while the blender is in motion) to keep the mixture moving. I use a small spatula.

If you prefer a creamy version of pesto, add the sour cream after blending all ingredients and blend again for a few seconds to completely mix the sour cream into the pesto. Do not use any other form of cream as it will curdle the ingredients in the blender.

Cook 1 pound of Di Cecco spaghetti in salted water. Drain, reserving about 1/4 cup of the water.

Pour pesto sauce over hot, cooked spaghetti. Use a little of the reserved hot water to slosh around in the blender to loosen the remains of pesto and pour over the spaghetti. Toss well.

Serve immediately.

Makes 4 adult portions.

Pesto can also be used as a dipping sauce for bread or veggies.

Spaghetti ala Carbonara

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Spaghetti ala Carbonara

Ingredients:

1 pound Spaghetti – Di Cecco is the best but any spaghetti works (cooked in boiling salted water until ‘al dente’)
2 TBSP melted butter
2 eggs (beaten)
2 TBSP heavy cream (optional)
1 cup grated imported Parmigiano cheese (can use Parmesan but imported Parmigianno is better)
1 cup chopped pancetta, cooked until crisp (if you must, substitute with 8 slices of crumbled crispy bacon)
Approx 1/2 tsp course ground pepper

Instructions:

Cook pancetta (or bacon) until crisp.

In a big bowl, combine melted butter, beaten eggs, cream and pepper, mix it all together with a wire whisk. Dump hot spaghetti (Leave a few tablespoons of pasta water) into all this and toss to coat. Add the cooked pancetta (or bacon) and Parmigiano and toss s’more. Serve at once.

Makes 4 adult portions.