Saturday, December 27, 2008

Meat Loaf with Broccoli Salad




Ingredients:

Meat Loaf
1 Pound Ground Beef
1 Carrot, Chopped
1/2 Cup Green Onions, Chopped
2 Onions, Chopped
1/2 Red Pepper, Finely Chopped
2 Tablespoons Steak Sauce
1 Honey Mustard

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375-385 degrees
1. In a skillet, saute chopped carrot, onions and red pepper for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix ground beef, sauteed vegetables, steak sauce and honey mustard. Use wooden spoons (or your clean hands) to form a loaf.
3. Place in non-stick meatloaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Broccoli Salad
1 Broccoli (use the florets only)
1/2 Cup Raisins
1/2 Cup Cooked Bacon (I used bacon bits)
1/2 Red Pepper, Finely Chopped

Salad Dressing
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Ranch Dressing
1 Tablespoon Honey
2 Tablespoons Vinegar

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix broccoli florets, raisins, crumbled bacon, chopped onion, and red pepper. In a separate bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, ranch, vinegar and honey. Pour dressing to salad and mix well. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.

Gnocchi (ñoquis) with Chicken Flavor Sauce


In Argentina, there is a tradition of eating gnocchi the 29th of every month. The tradition was brought to the country by Italian Immigrants. If you are curious about this tradition, I will share this link so that you can learn at your leisure: http://argentinastravel.com/2314/the-secret-to-the-perfect-noquis/ and in Spanish: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%91oqui

This was our Christmas Eve meal this year! My biggest effort was actually in making the chicken flavor pasta sauce since I didn't make the gnocchi from scratch (shame on me). I learned from Mom and Grandma that the longer you cook the pasta sauce, the better it would always taste. In Grandma's old days, the pasta sauce was made with fresh tomatoes, basil, pepper, etc. Nowadays, I purchase the Prego pasta sauce and let it cook on its own with additional condiments. One trick I learned is to add a tablespoon of sugar to reduce the acid taste of the tomato sauce. I hope you like this!

Preparation Time: 2-1/2 Hours

Ingredients:

Pasta:
1 Pack of Archer Farms Gnocchi (we used potato, cheese and spinach gnocchi)
1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Sauce:
2 Small Chicken Breasts cut in 1/2'' cubes
2 Cans Pasta Sauce
2 Tablespoons Basil
2 Tablespoons Oregano
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Bay Leaf
Salt and Pepper to Taste


Directions:

1. Cook chicken cubes in a frying pan, drain any excess of fat and set aside.
2. In slow cooker, add pasta sauce, condiments, bay leaf and cooked chicken. Set slow cooker to high and cook for 2 hours stirring occasionally.
3. Once chicken flavor sauce is cooked, prepare Archer Farms Gnocchi according to package instructions.
4. Serve Gnocchi with chicken flavor sauce and meat.
5. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Enchilada Beef Casserole



Well as you can see my casserole is slightly darker than it should! I got distracted in the computer and forgot to turn the oven off after the 40' cooking time! In any event, I must say that this turned out to be one of my favorites Mexican food recipes! It's effortless and done in less than an hour. I found a variation of my recipe at http://southernfood.about.com/, but they have used mushroom and chicken condensed soups instead of nacho cheese. Feel free to add your touch of creativity, too, by substituting other ingredients per your taste.

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can (about 10 ounces) red enchilada sauce
1 can (10 1/2 ounce) condensed nacho cheese soup
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chile peppers
1 cup milk
1 package (about 7 ounces) crumbled tortilla chips
8 ounces grated Mexican cheese blend
1 can (4 ounce) chopped ripe olives

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°
1. Brown ground beef with onion, drain off excess fat and set aside. In a large bowl, mix enchilada sauce, nacho cheese soup, chopped chile peppers and ground beef.
2. In a greased 9x13x2-inch baking pan, create a layer with half the coarsely crumbled tortilla chips. Then add half of the ground beef mixture. Repeat layer with remaining crumbled tortilla chips and remaining beef mixture.
3. Sprinkle Mexican cheese and chopped black olives over top. Bake at 375° for 35 to 40 minutes. Wait 10 minutes before serving.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Eclairs ("Mom's Bombas Rellenas")



These are my mom's Eclairs, or "Bombas Rellenas." They are an Argentine classic at every festivity and I just started making them to keep some traditional foods from the family alive.

Serving: 20-24 Eclairs

Ingredients: Dough

1 Cup water
1 Stick Butter
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
4 Eggs
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Note: Eliminate baking powder is using self-rising flour.


Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.
1. Add water and butter to sauce pan and bring to boil. Add flour and remove from heat.
2. Add/beat one egg at a time with wooden spoon. The dough should be sticky. If it looks to thin, add another tablespoon of flour.
3. Using a tablespoon, grab dough and make round shapes onto a greased baking sheet. Make sure to leave some space in between them as they will likely double in size.
4. Bake at 425 until they look golden brown (Approx. 10' depending on oven). Then lower the temperature to 375 and bake for an additional 5-7' to make sure they cook thoroughly inside. Remove from oven and set aside.
5. Once the eclairs have cooled down, remove them from baking sheet and slice down the sides making a pocket for custard filling.
Note: Vanilla and chocolate pudding work well as fillings. Dip in chocolate and sprinkle powder sugar on top for a more appealing look.

Ingredients: Custard for Filling:

2 Egg Yolks
5 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Flour
2 Cups Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. Beat the egg yolks slightly with the sugar and add milk.
Place on a slow fire and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add flour, while boiling. Immediately remove from heat and continue stirring until custard begins to thicken.
2. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours

Creamy Mushroom Chicken Baked


This is another easy recipe from Cooks.com. Preparation time is less than 15' and it will be ready after baking for an hour. The sherry adds such a rich flavor to the chicken and the cream of mushroom/sour cream mixture leaves the meat super tender. This time I cooked it without the sauteed mushrooms since I ran out of them (Ups!), but you can simply add them to the soup mixture before placing chicken breasts in the oven. It was YUMMY...

Servings: 2-3

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breasts
1 Can of cream of mushroom soup
2 Cups of sauteed mushrooms (I made it without mushrooms)
1/2 Cup of sour cream
1/2 Cup of sherry
1/2 Cup of butter
3-4 Tablespoons of bread crumbs
1 Pack of chicken flavor rice (Lipton Knorr)

Directions:

Preheat Oven at 375

1. In a medium bowl, mix soup, sour cream and sherry.
2. Place chicken breasts on a 8' X 8' baking dish and cover with mixed soup/sour cream/sherry.
3. On a separate microwavable bowl, melt butter and then mix in bread crumbs.
4. Sprinkle butter/bread crumbs over chicken and bake for 1 hour at 375.
5. Cook chicken flavor rice as directed by pack instructions and serve with Creamy Mushroom Chicken Baked.