Potatoes Au Gratin (Mix)

This recipe probably only applies to me, because I got lucky and a friend who works at a potato packing plant scored a box of food service size au gratin potato mixes. I have had to figure out myself how to use them because they have no instructions. Finally figured it out last night. Dani, take some of these packets home, these are good when you have to feed a crowd. Would be good with pork chops, pulled pork, or fish.

5 cups dried scalloped potatoes from Winco bulk food

8 cups boiling water

1 cube margarine, melted

1 package au gratin sauce mix

Mix all together well in large, deep casserole dish or a foil disposable pan. Cook at least an hour at 350-400, depending on whatever else you are roasting or baking. Just bake the potatoes side by side with bread, meat, or whatever.

Will thicken upon standing, stir occasionally to release some of the moisture. This makes a lot. Enough for at least three meals, or a pot luck, or enough for us and to take some to the folks.

Southwest Pork Chops

Mix 4-5 tablespoons southwest seasoning mix (previous recipe) with three tablespoons olive oil, two teaspoons vinegar, about three to four tablespoons water in a ziploc bag. Place one to two pounds pork chops in the marinade and seal the bag. Marinate at least an hour, the longer the better.

Grill on the barbeque or fry.

To fry, heat cooking oil in a stainless steel pan (nonstick is ok too but you won't get the nice browning). Heat until pan is very hot and oil is slightly shimmering. Place chops in, they should sizzle. Cook 4-5 minutes on each side, checking to make sure they are browning and not burning, adjust heat down if necessary. There will be a lot of marinade sticking to the bottom of the pan, this is ok. Meat is done when the thickest part of the chop is not pink at all. Remove chops and keep warm by wrapping with foil. Use 3/4 cup of chicken stock to deglaze the pan and make a sauce to serve with the chops. With pan still hot and heat on, pour chicken stock into the pan all at once and scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Continue scraping and stirring until a reduction is made that is a thin sauce consistency. Place chops back in the pan with the sauce and mix them around in it.

Serve with a potato side dish, vegetable, or salad!

Southwest Marinade Seasoning

Trent's favorite marinade is McCormick Southwest Seasoning packets. Whenever we could find them, we would buy a whole box because sometimes they were there at the store and sometimes not. But now, we can't find it at all. So, I made one using Emeril's recipe on the Food Network site, but I added onion powder Used it on pork chops last night. Delicious!

Make seasoning mix and use 4-5 tablespoons of the seasoning, mixed with a few tablespoons of olive oil, two teaspoons of vinegar, and a little water for two to three pounds of meat. We like it on pork, beef, and chicken.

Southwest Seasoning for Marinade:

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Breaded Salmon

I'm just saying this worked for me tonight. Fish is elusive. I will not take responsibility. I seldom make it and more seldomly eat it. Just sayin'. But my co-workers give me frozen steelhead fillets so I got home from work, looked to see what there was in the freezer, and what the heCK, I made them. They were good.

4 small or two big steelhead fillets, thawed

2 eggs

1 cup breadcrumbs (seasoned)

2 Tbsp ranch dressing mix

2 tsp dill weed

Mix crumbs, ranch mix, and dill weed on a paper plate. Beat eggs well in another plate or bowl. Wash fillets and pat dry. Dredge in egg, crumbs (don't go crazy, just a thin layer), then egg again, then crumbs again (now you should get a pretty nice coating). Set aside for at least 15 mins for crumbs to set.

Heat fat in a skillet. You should use oil or margarine, as butter may scorch. Get it pretty hot over med/hi heat, so that when a few crumbs of the breading is tossed in, it sizzles. Add breaded fillets. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side....then, if you're married to Trent or any of his kids, make damn sure those fish are COOKED by flipping to brown well but not burn. Food Network 'done' does not cut it for these people...they want that fish-i-ness GONE johnson.

This is great served with au gratin potatoes and broccoli or cauliflower. I served with a little tartar sauce and lemon juice, (of which Trent did not partake) But Trent loved the fish! So did I! Mmmm.

Chicken Wings

I love homemade hot wings! This is the best I've done...

The actual recipe is in a book called Top Secret Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. Of course any commentary is my own. I am a big fan of his clones. Don't confuse Frank's cayenne pepper sauce with Frank's wing sauce. The wing sauce is ready to use on wings. Frank's cayenne pepper sauce is the base for this hot wing sauce...I prefer this, even though it takes a little time.

Buffalo Wild Wings Medium Spice Wings

This coats 20 wings well. Make the sauce first:

1 cup Franks's cayenne pepper sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp black pepper

1 egg yolk

2 tsp cold water

2 tsp cornstarch

Combine the first 7 ingredients (everything but the egg yolk, water, and cornstarch) in a saucepan. Heat to boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes. Marvel in the smell of your house! mmmm.

While the sauce cools, vigorously whisk egg yolk and the 2 tsp water in a medium bowl for a full two minutes. It will be pale yellow and frothy. Then add the cornstarch and whisk to combine well.

Drizzle the hot sauce mixture into the egg yolk mixture in a slow thin steady stream while rapidly whisking. This creates an emulsion that prevents the oil from separating. Cover and chill until sauce is needed.

Wings:

Fry. That's it. Really. Heat a couple inches of oil in a frying pan or an electric fryer until very hot. Carefully drop in thawed, rinsed and patted-dry wings sections...I can do 15 at a time in my huge frypan. Fry at least 10 minutes, I do mine 12 minutes but no longer. Drain on racks or paper towels and then toss in the delicious sauce.

Spread a tarp over all exposed areas, wear clothing that is practically disposable, and be sure no one is present that has not already formed a first impression of you. Get plenty of blue cheese dressing, celery sticks, and napkins handy... and suck those wings off the bone like a screen door in a hurricane. ooooh yeah.

Old Fashioned Egg Salad

The white bread I made started a chain reaction. Trent remembered his mom made egg salad all the time to feed a crowd for cheap, and he loved it. So, I found a recipe, tweaked it a bit, and it is really good.

We only have this once in a while because even if you use fat-free or light mayo, the salad is mostly egg so it's pretty heavy on the cholesterol.

A note about boiling eggs: Use your oldest eggs. As eggs age, they become better candidates for boiling because fresh eggs are harder to peel. I boil eggs using a shut-off method. Place eggs in pan. Cover with hot water at least an inch over the tops of the eggs. Turn burner on high. Bring to full rolling boil. Leave the pan where it is on the burner but shut the burner off. Leave there for 13 minutes. Place pan in sink and run cold water over the eggs until the water is cool enough for you to easily drain. Then cover the eggs completely with cold water. To peel, crack eggs on all sides and gently roll to loosen shells. Dip in and out of the water while peeling to make it easier.

Egg Salad

12 boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

3/4 - 1 cup cup mayonnaise, depending on the creaminess you like (light is ok)

1/4 cup fresh onion very very finely chopped (or substitute 1/2 tsp onion powder, I prefer fresh)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 -3 Tbsp regular mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper or to taste (I add a bit more)

Mix, chill and serve. I make the "sauce" (everything but the eggs) first and let it sit while I prepare the eggs, that gives the flavors time to blend.

You could add optional diced dill or sweet pickles, or very finely chopped celery, which I add to my portions but Trent does not like that.

Enjoy! Next assignment...chicken salad. Stay tuned.

Soft White Bread

Oh! I hear it in the background...the music...Survivor singing "The search is overrrr." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have found it. After years of baking brick bread, poof bread, weird bread, and some downright wrong bread, I found the best bread recipe ever. I made this after work last night and we had some for dinner. Trent said it's so good that I should CSI the recipe, cost it out, and decide if we should start making it for everyday use instead of buying wonder bread.

This was born out of necessity, grocery shopping money is all spent this week and we are adhering to a strict budget, as many are right now. Trent's kids coming for the weekend, so basically, I need bread. I know my kitchen is stocked well enough to solve the problem. I googled something like "Best soft white bread recipe" and found this. Tip: buy yeast in bulk at winco and keep it in the freezer to keep it fresher.

The best part of this recipe...if you have a bread machine, you do almost nothing. If you have a kitchenaid mixer instead, you do a little more than nothing, but still very little work in comparison to most bread recipes.

The directions called out in the recipe (and what I did) were for the bread machine on the dough setting, keep in mind my dough setting takes about one hour because it proofs (raises) the dough the first time in a two-raise loaf, then the 40 minutes of additional raise time in the loaf pan, then bake.

If you use a kitchenaid, one of the comments on this recipe said to mix the ingredients with the paddle attachment (the regular one) then switch to the dough hook and work the dough for 7 minutes with that, then go on to the raising process (raise once in the bowl in a warm place for about an hour, shape into a loaf pan, raise again in warm place about 40 minutes until it's loaf-sized, bake.)

Raising: I always raise any dough I make in my oven, turn the oven on for about two minutes to 350, shut it off, put your hand in there to make sure it's not too hot but nice and toasty warm and raise the dough in there.

Last thing! (I know, I know, get to the recipe already!) A note about yeast...packet yeast contains 2 and 1/4 tsp yeast, so you would not use a whole packet, you have to measure it. Ok! Here's the recipe, geez.

Soft White Bread (makes one loaf)

Add ingredients to your machine in the order called for by your machine (nearly all I have seen are liquid first, then dry over that, then yeast on top, that's how mine is.)

1 cup milk, warmed in microwave for one minute
1 tsp salt
3 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened
1 tablespoon honey
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp sugar (necessary for browning)
1-1/2 tsp yeast (a teaspoon and a half)

Select dough cycle on bread machine. Oil a loaf pan. When cycle is done (which is mixing and raising the dough once), lift dough out with slightly floured hands, DON'T knead it...just shape into a loaf shape. Place dough in oiled loaf pan and flip it over so oil is on all sides of the dough. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and raise in a warm place for about 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Bake 30 minutes until golden brown.