Apple Cranberry Brie Panini

I had a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich at a food truck last year.  It was one of those “gourmet” sandwiches, and although it was delicious it was way out of my price range and not something I can afford on a regular basis.  On top of that, the food truck is no longer around, so even if I want one I can’t have it.

I decided to make my own… with some modifications.

First, I decided that I wanted to make it less difficult to cook, so I elected to make a panini instead (my panini maker was a wonderful Christmas gift I received one year – I have this one).  They’re easy to make – you butter the outside of the bread, make your sandwich like normal, then throw it in the panini press until everything is hot and melty.

I used italian bread, the kind you cut yourself nice and thick.  It holds up better than regular bread.  I also needed butter (or margarine), cranberry sauce, brie and an apple.

Cut the bread into thickish slices and butter the outside.  Lay down a layer of cranberry sauce.

Slice the apple (I think green apple would work best) super thin and put down a layer.

Slice your brie and put that on top of the apples.  Too thick and it’ll take a while to melt, but you don’t want to go too skimpy on the cheese either.

Put your bread on top and throw it in the panini press until the cheese is melted and everything is hot.  If you don’t have one, you can always just fry it up like a regular grilled cheese.  These things are really addictive.  Consider yourself warned.

Cheeseburger Bites

From the slow cooker!  Well, kind of.

As I may have mentioned, I’m working my way through my massive piles of recipes to see what’s worth keeping and what’s not.  It’s a little overwhelming, but hey, it’s great for blog content.  Not so much for my waistline though.  This recipe comes to us from one of those little tiny books you see in the checkout line of the grocery store.  It’s called Slow Cooker Recipes, from January of 2002 (oh yeah, these are old) and they do have a website listed of http://www.classiccookbooks.com.  The site is still there at the time of writing this, but I have no idea if the book is still available.

This recipe is great for picky people, and most of the items should already be in your kitchen.  I did need to make a few modifications based on what was in my kitchen so I’ll give you that version.  First, cook up a pound of ground beef (although I bought the “big package” at the grocery store and just used the whole thing), drain it and set aside.

Chop up an onion into small pieces.  How much you want to use is based on taste, but you don’t want huge pieces.  Fry the onion and add it to the hamburger.  Mix in 2-3 tablespoons of ketchup and a tablespoon of mustard.

Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray and put the mixture in.  Take 2 cups of cheddar cheese and cut it into 1 inch cubes.  Spread these over the top of the beef, but don’t stir it in.

Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.  Stir up, put some of the mixture onto a small bun and top with whatever you’d like.  I used tomato, pickles and some lettuce and it was quite good.  One suggestion I do have is to not use a super soft bun for this like I did.  The recipe actually calls for mini buns and I think that would be ideal.  It wouldn’t give the liquid enough time to make the bun soggy.

Yes, I said liquid.  You wouldn’t expect it, but the grease from the cheese actually makes this into a sloppy joe style mixture, although not quite that runny.  It may not look fantastic, but it certainly does the job with minimal work.  Also, with a little prep you can go out and come back to a hot supper.  You could even do the cooking the night before and just throw it in the slow cooker day-of.

If you try this, let me know how it works for you.  I don’t think it’s something I’ll make often, but it will be one of those things I keep in my recipes as something different to throw together.

Ribfest

I happened to be in Fredericton, NB today.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me, but do you know what I did have?  Ribs.  The city was holding a “ribfest” and it was fantastic.  Prices weren’t cheap, but admission was free.  They had stuff for the kids (bouncy stuff, those big plastic balls in water, etc), a beer tent, stands with drinks and pizza, and a bunch of stands selling ribs.

It’s like a heart attack in a Styrofoam container, but oh so good.

If you’re in the area and interested (and you should be), they’ll be there tomorrow and Sunday as well.  Check out the website HERE and make plans!

Fettuccine Alfredo

I’m not a fan of cream sauces.  Never have been.  But I love cheese, and now that I know what goes into Fettuccine Alfredo I’ve decided I like it.  That’s unfortunate, because it really is a heart attack on a plate.  No photos, but here’s what I did:

Pour your water in a pot and start heating it (to boil the pasta).

Take a big saucepan (I’ve got a great big one that’s really deep with a lid – that works great for this) and put the burner on low.  Break up a stick of unsalted butter into the pan (about 8 TBSP) and heat until it’s melted.

In the meantime, once your water is boiling you can add about 400 grams of dry fettuccine noodles (regular old dry packaged stuff, NOT fresh) into that pot.

Once your butter is melted, put about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of garlic salt into it (whatever you like, you can even leave it out) and mix it until it dissolves.  Turn off the burner and leave the butter there.

Cook your pasta until it’s just about as cooked as you like it.  The dish will turn out better if the pasta isn’t overcooked.  Once that’s done, take some tongs and grab the noodles from the pot and put them directly into the saucepan.  It’s very important not to drain them.

Turn the heat on the saucepan to medium and immediately mix the noodles with the butter to coat them.  As soon as they’re wet, throw in about 2/3 cups of finely shredded fresh parmesan cheese and stir until the cheese melts.  If it seems a little dry toss in a bit (like a tablespoon or two) of the pasta water.  Once all the cheese is incorporated then throw in another 2/3 cup (or in my case 3/4 cup) and repeat the process.

If done correctly (and I didn’t find it too hard) you’ll wind up with the type of sauce you’d expect to see in a restaurant.  Immediately put this in bowls and enjoy with a little black pepper on top.  Alfredo is a rather delicate sauce and I’ve heard it doesn’t keep well, so you may want to cut all the amounts in half to avoid leftovers.  You could always serve a little garlic bread or something with it to stretch it.  It’s a pretty rich meal so that might make it a bit better.

Weeknight Lasagna – Ha!

I’m more of a baker than a chef.  Even then, I’m a try-really-hard-not-to-screw-it-up-baker.  Cooking is something I try to avoid, but I know it’s better for me than eating take-out 6 nights a week, so I try.  It’s usually a boxed something-or-other.  Since I’ve noticed the pounds creeping on (more like jumping on like kids to a trampoline) I thought I’d better try a little harder.

To those people that tell me you can have an awesome restaurant-style meal at home quickly (like lasagna): Shove off.

Those people really need to reconsider what “quickly” means.  To me, it means I’m eating less than 30 minutes after walking through the door.  I lead a busy life, okay?

Sorry, no photos tonight – I needed 3 hands, plus my husband was kind of in the way.

First I took an entire head of garlic (that’s the whole bulb with all the little cloves in it), peeled and diced it up into tiny pieces.  I threw that in a pan with a bit of butter (just enough that it wouldn’t stick to the pan), a chopped up onion and a chopped green pepper.  Well, one and a half green peppers, because I wanted to use up the 1/2 pepper.  I cooked that down until it was all soft, then dumped it into a bowl and set it aside.

Next I cooked up an entire package of hamburger.  The big kind you get from the grocery store.  Here, that sized package of medium burger runs around $10 or a little more.  I drained off the fat and threw the veggies back in.  I also poured in 2 cans of spaghetti sauce, some spices and a can of Campbell’s tomato basil soup (love that stuff when cooking!).

I had some no-cook lasagna noodles on hand, so I layered the sauce with those and some Cracker Barrel marble cheese that I’d made my husband shred.  Two BIG blocks of it, to be exact.  Then covered it and threw it in the oven according to the package directions.

I’ve been home 2hrs and 45 minutes, and supper has at least 1/2 hour of cooking time left.  At this point I’m starving!  This meal will turn out fine because I’ve cooked it before (assuming I don’t burn it with the new oven).

Obviously, you can’t make a meal like this in 1/2 hour, like I’ve been told. (ha-ha)  If I’m going to put the work into a meal I like to have something that tastes super good.  Otherwise, what’s the point in putting all the work into it?  You may see me experimenting with some new meal ideas soon, since I really don’t know what makes a decent weeknight meal.  I do know one thing – supper is starting to smell really good…

Pumpkin Recipe Ideas

It’s pumpkin season, that’s for sure.  It seems like everywhere you look companies are putting pumpkin in things (pumpkin latte is the first thing that comes to mind) whether you want it or not.  I’m one of those “not” people.  I’ve never seen the appeal of pumpkin, and I only have one recipe I can stand using.  If you love pumpkin, I understand,  This post is for you – some ideas of what you can do with all that pumpkin.

To start, here’s how to make pumpkin puree

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Spice Cake (or cupcakes)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Pumpkin Milkshakes

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pudding

Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Pumpkin Smoothie

Pumpkin Softies

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Waffles

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

And that’s just for starters!

***I haven’t actually tested any of the above recipes – these are just for ideas!

Kraft Dinner

I wanted something quick and easy for dinner, but really didn’t have anything for groceries.  Cue the Kraft Dinner.

Make your Kraft Dinner like normal, but fry up a package of hamburger and throw it in.  Quick and easy meal.  I know, not the healthiest option, but once in a while it won’t hurt you.  It goes a lot farther than just the pasta, so you should have leftovers for the next day if you’re not feeding a crowd.