State Fair Frittata

2 years ago DH and walked around the 2009 State Fair by ourselves.  This hadn't happened in about 15 years.  Our teens were off with their friends.  We happened upon a cooking demo that smelled so good before it even began.  We decided to stay and see what they were cooking.  I took notes all along knowing I'd like to try this recipe at home.  They were demonstrating for Del Monte canned foods particularly their canned potatoes.  I've always thought canned potatoes would be terrible.

They said not to worry the recipe would be on their website soon.  I checked their website for 6 months.  As far as I could tell it never arrived.  I was so glad I wrote down the recipe.  Every now and then I can't find it though.  Like tonight I had a mini panic.  I finally found it in my email.  Where the printed copy in my recipe file went I don't know.  I might be in there as I'm not really sure how to file this recipe.... under eggs, pork (for the bacon), potatoes, breakfast, or dinner?

We eat it for dinner.  It's a very easy recipe, but a bit fussy to make.  I discovered that canned potatoes are very good, which was what Del Monte was trying to prove.

State Fair Frittata

1 pound of bacon, diced and cooked until crisp
½ onion, diced
1T bacon fat
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 T cilantro, coarsely chopped
a pinch of oregano
a pinch of marjoram
Salt & Pepper to Taste
2 T bacon fat
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
2 cans of Del Monte sliced potatoes drained and dried of all water
a pinch of oregano
a pinch of marjoram
Salt & Pepper to Taste
9 eggs
½ cup cream
pinch of salt
Nonstick Cooking Spray
¾ Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
¾ Cup Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Optional - 3 sliced avocados
Green onions, sliced

Preheat Oven to 500 degrees.

Heat 12 inch nonstick skillet over med. high heat.  Add bacon.  Cook until crisp and drain.  Set aside and reserve fat.

Meanwhile, in smaller skillet prepare sauce by sauteing onion in tablespoon of bacon fat.  Once translucent add tomato sauce, cilantro, pinch of oregano, pinch of marjoram and salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer on low.

In 12 inch skillet add 2 tablespoons of bacon fat.  Sauté red pepper and green pepper.  After they have sautéed for a few minutes add dried potatoes.  Continue to sauté adding pinch of oregano, pinch of marjoram and salt and pepper to taste.

Beat eggs and cream together, add pinch of salt and whisk again. Set aside and spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.  Sprinkle pan with sautéed pepper/potato mixture.  Sprinkle cooked bacon over top.  Pour egg mixture over top.  Top with cheese and place in oven for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted, bubbly and slightly brown. Cut into rectangles, top with tomato sauce, avocados, green onions and serve.

Barbecued Pork Buns... in your spare time

OK I jest about making these in your spare time.  I won't lie these take some time to make.  What I do is get the whole family to help.  They are made up and ready to bake in no time.  Totally worth the effort they are SO good.

I usually make these for Chinese New Year.  When we were writing up this month's menu plan though my daughter asked if we could make them to go with Hot and Sour soup.  I thought why not.

As my son and daughter were preparing the filling I was getting a little bit of guff.  First comment was from my son, "Black mushrooms! I don't like black mushrooms in my Bao (pronounced wow with a 'b' the word bao simply means 'bun' in Chinese)."  My daughter's comment, "Chopping why all this chopping?!"  My son, "Hoisin sauce?  Why Hoisin sauce it tastes nasty."  My comment, "This is the recipe we eat every year and you guys love it.  Keep chopping and stop the kibitzing."

(2 ounces of dough, 1 T of filling)

We like the baked bao better than the steamed bao.  My only problem is probably half of mine usually burst open during the baking.  Not badly, but enough I'd like it to stop.  No one has ever said, "My bun is broken I'm not going to eat it."  I was watching a cooking show with Ming Tsai.  I've always enjoyed him.  He was making bao and said to not only pinch the bottom of the bun, but twist it.  My son sealed the first batch of bao I sealed the 2nd.  I not only pinched and twisted, but I put a smidgen of water to help seal them too.  End result more of my son's buns stayed sealed than mine.  He kind on pinched and folded his quickly.  I put a lot of effort into making mine seal.  Geeze!  So, I'd say from now on I'm not going to spend as much time sealing it's a waste of time.

(my son's folded seal was better than my pinch and twisted)

I got this recipe at a community center class back in 1989.  It was a class on how to make Chinese Appetizers.  It was a great class.  I got several great recipes.  This being one of them.

(pinch and twisted baked bao and this is as much as they leak if they are going to)

Barbecued Pork Buns

3/4 cup Bar B Q pork (chopped)
2 T green onions (chopped)
3 dried black mushrooms (Soak in warm water for 30 mins.)
2 T Hoisin Sauce
3/4 T Soy Sauce
1/2 med. onion (chopped)
2 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 T cornstarch
1 T water
1/2 tsp Oyster Sauce
1 T peanut oil

Squeeze excess water out of black mushrooms and mince.  Combine pork, green onions, mushrooms, Hoisin Sauce, soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar and oyster sauce in bowl and mix well.  Set aside.

Heat wok or skillet; add oil and stir fry onions for about 4 minutes until soft.  Add chicken broth, water cornstarch and remaining sugar (1 1/2 tsp).  Cook until thickened.  Remove from heat and  add pork mixture; mix well.

Cool meat mixture.  Using Bridgeford bread dough, cut and flatten dough to make 2 1/2 inch diameter shells.  Place 1 T filling into shells and seal by gathering.

Place on small wax paper squares on baking sheet gathered side down.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 -13 minutes.  Can steam 20 to 25 minutes.

(We made about 32 and after 2 days there were none to freeze)

Lynne's notes:  I buy the BBQed pork premade from local grocery store with a Chinese food section.  Dried Black Mushrooms are easy to find in most grocery stores in the Asian food section.  Same with Hoisin Sauce and Oyster Sauce.  I seldom have peanut oil in my house and vegetable always works fine.  Bridgeford bread is frozen bread at the grocery store.  I usually whip up a batch of white bread in my bread maker.  This time I grabbed a bag of pizza dough at the grocery store.  It worked well.  About 2 ounces of dough per bao.  I usually make a double batch of bao.  While you're doing all this chopping may as well.  If they are not all eaten they freeze well and heat up in the microwave well.  I bake mine now on a Silpat and skip the wax paper.

Uncle Bradie's Sauce

OK I don't call him Uncle Bradie as I didn't really get acquainted with my Uncle until I was a young adult.  Being an Air Force Brat we just never lived close enough.  Also when I was a kid he was a teenager.  He's only 9 years older than me.  Not much interested in a pesky niece.  He was too busy trying to become a rock star.  The younger nieces and nephews called him Uncle Bradie and I just thought it was funny and cute.  So, when I became aware of his sauce I called it Uncle Bradie's Sauce.

I got acquainted with this sauce when I first met my husband.  He was stationed at a base not far from San Francisco.  On my 2nd date with DH we went to an Aerosmith concert at the Cow Palace.  I drove to San Francisco and stayed the night at my Aunt and Uncle's house.  It was my Aunt who suggested I defrost some of Brad's Spaghetti sauce and have DH over for dinner before the concert.  We both thought the sauce was very good.  Next time I came to San Francisco I asked Uncle Brad for the recipe and he said he didn't have one.  So, I watched him make it and wrote the recipe down myself.  We've been having this sauce ever since.  That's been 25 years.

Uncle Bradie's Spaghetti Sauce

1 pound hamburger
1 pound ground pork
1 pound Italian sausage (taken out of casings)
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1/2 head of garlic, chopped
1 onion med. to large, chopped
6 cans of tomato sauce (8 oz cans or 48 oz)
2 cans of tomato paste (6 oz cans or 12 oz)
1 tsp of white pepper
3 bay leaves (Turkish)
1/2 bottle of Italian seasoning
2 tsp oregano
4 cups of Burgundy wine
1 T sugar

Brown all meats separately and drain the fat off.  Put in large pot.  Add remaining ingredients.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

First thing I do before starting the sauce is make some Italian seasoning.  This recipe uses a lot.  I usually have all the herbs needed already.  I put 2 tablespoons of each Basil, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary and Thyme in a bowl and stir.  You can buy this premade if you don't have the ingredients already at home.

Then I begin browning the meats.  Here I'm browning the ground beef using my handy dandy mix n chop from Pampered Chef.  Makes short work of browning a lot of meat.

I'm browning the sausage IN the casing here for the first time in 20 years.  Uncle Brad had slices of sausage in his.  I thought I'd make it more like his.  I ended up not liking the large chunks of sausage in the sauce.  Reminded me why I do it differently.  So, let this be a lesson to you all take the Italian sausage from it's casing and brown it like you would the ground beef and pork.  The sausage mixes with the flavors of the sauce much better that way.

To save time while I brown all the meats I add the other ingredients to the big pot and start heating it up.  As the meats are browned I put them into the pot.

Here is the ground pork on it's way to being browned and ready for the pot.

Everything is together and simmering.  I usually make a double batch.  This sauce freezes beautifully.  This sauce also makes great lasagna.

Bacon Cheddar Waffles... Oh my!

I bought a new waffle iron with my birthday money. I wanted a Belgium waffle. I have a very tiny crevice waffle iron that is convenient, but I missed having bigger holes to catch syrup. I'm not totally convinced that I like this All-Clad waffle iron and that I'll keep it. Doesn't stop me from testing it. The first batch of waffles was the Buttermilk waffle recipe that came with the waffle iron. It was tasty. Yes, the holes are bigger, but the iron squishes the batter so compactly that waffle walls are kind of thin. Thought I'd try a couple more recipes before I know for sure whether or not I want to keep it.


Tonight my son and I made Bacon Cheddar waffles for dinner. I searched the Internet for a savory recipe. This recipe is a keeper! See the steam from the waffles cooking. I am so full right now. I should have stopped eating at 2 squares not 3. We did not put syrup on them. Just ate them plain with a big side salad.


When the green light comes on the waffles are done.

Bacon Cheddar Waffles

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
6 bacon, strips cooked and crumbled
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

In a medium bowl, beat 1 egg.

Add: milk, sour cream, melted butter.

Stir in Bisquick baking mix, mix well.

Fold in: cooked and crumbled bacon strips and cheddar cheese.

Spoon batter onto a hot waffle iron.

Close waffle iron and cook until golden brown. (Will be done when steaming stops -- 4-5 minutes).

Serve drizzled with: maple syrup OR fruit-flavored syrup.

"Homemade" Contradiction

The contradiction is a recipe for a certain food has the food already prepared as one of it's ingredients. This contradiction came up again today. Over the years I've encountered the contradiction several times and it just puzzles me and makes me laugh at the same time. I love to cook no secret there. Making something "homemade" or "from scratch" has never scared me in fact I relish it. I love knowing where the ingredients have come from and having control over what goes into a recipe. Over the years it has served me well as I make a great many fabulous foods that get raves. I love to spoil my friends and family with good food. I love to share my good recipes and I love to ask for and receive good recipes.

A few years ago I was at a friends house and she had the best baked beans I had ever eaten. Knowing she loved to cook as much as me I asked if she made them. We all know there are some pretty good canned versions of baked beans, but to make my own would be great. A resounding yes came back. I asked if I could have the recipe. She said, "Of course." This is what she gave me...

Baked Beans

4 (16-ounce) cans baked beans
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup molasses
1 cup BBQ sauce
2 tablespoon yellow or brown mustard
5 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 (6-ounce) can french-fried onions, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In large bowl, mix together beans, pineapple, molasses, BBQ sauce, mustard, bacon, and a third of the onions. Add some salt and pepper, to taste. Pour beans in 9 by 13-inch casserole dish and sprinkle remaining crushed onions and bacon on top. Cook in oven for 1 hour or until beans brown and bubble. Serve warm. Serves: 12 servings

First open 4 cans of baked beans?! Where does the homemade come from? I've never made this recipe. We so seldom eat baked beans that if I'm going to open a can we're going to eat it as is.

The next homemade contradiction came a few years later when at a friends house for BBQ Ribs I found the sauce to be the best I'd ever eaten. Again a friend that loves to cook I was hoping she had made the sauce.... and she did. She said she'd love to share the recipe for it, but that she didn't have it written down. So, I picked her brain.

Kim's BBQ Sauce

1 bottle of BBQ sauce, (any flavor will do)
1/4 cup Sweet pickle relish
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
Add lemon if you want, add molasses if you want. Simmer all day.

Again with the bottle of BBQ sauce. Usually if I open a bottle of BBQ sauce it's going straight on the meat, but I actually have made this several times. Not exactly as above. It's something I taste as the day goes on and add a little of this and a little of that until it tastes good. The one thing that's odd, but I think is the most important is the pickle relish.

Today's "Homemade" contradiction really made me laugh only because of where the recipe came from. My daughter had pneumonia right now and she asked for homemade chicken soup for dinner. Not something I've made before. I knew I'd need a good chicken stock with which to start. So, I went straight to the Martha Stewart Website and got the below recipe.

Homemade Chicken Stock
This recipe makes more than you'll need for many recipes, but the stock can be frozen for up to four months. The gelatin from the chicken bones is released during the long cooking time yielding a rich, flavorful stock.
Ingredients
Makes 5 quarts.
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
6 sprigs fresh dill, or 2 teaspoons dried dill
6 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 dried bay leaves
2 leeks, washed, white and pale-green parts only, cut into thirds
2 carrots, scrubbed, cut into thirds
2 stalks celery, cut into thirds
1 four-pound chicken, cut into 6 pieces
1 1/2 pounds chicken wings
1 1/2 pounds chicken backs
12 cups (two 48-ounce cans) canned low-sodium chicken broth
Directions
Place peppercorns, dill, parsley, bay leaves, leeks, carrots, celery, chicken, wings, and backs into a large stockpot. Add stock and 6 cups cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a very gentle simmer, and cook for 45 minutes. Liquid should just bubble up to the surface. A skin will form on the surface of the liquid; skim this off with a slotted spoon, and discard. Repeat as needed. After 45 minutes, remove chicken from the pot, and set aside until it is cool enough to handle.
Remove the meat from the bones, set the meat aside, and return the bones to the pot. Shred the chicken, and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use. Continue to simmer the stock, on the lowest heat possible, for 3 hours, skimming as needed. The chicken bones will begin to disintegrate. Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a very large bowl. Discard the solids. Place the bowl in an ice bath, and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to airtight containers. Stock may be refrigerated for three days or frozen for four months. Refrigerate for at least eight hours, or overnight. If storing, leave fat layer intact to the seal the stock. Before using, remove the layer of fat that has collected on the surface.

I'm reading the recipe. It's sounding very good. I have all the ingredients except leeks I'll substitute yellow onions. I prefer thyme to dill and I have fresh thyme in the garden. I get to the end of the recipe for "Homemade" Chicken Stock and it says "add 12 cups (two 48-ounce cans) canned low-sodium chicken broth." If I'm going to open canned chicken broth I may as well not bother with the rest of the recipe right?! It says to make chicken broth start with chicken broth. That just really confuses me. Why go to the extra trouble.

Well, when you're a mom and your child with pneumonia asks you to make her Chicken Noodle Soup from scratch you go ahead and follow the recipe. I'll report back as to how it was in the end.

How we liked it... I've made equally great chicken stock from using plain water to start. Add the other ingredients and you can't go wrong. I'd save your money and not add 12 cups of chicken broth and use 12 cups of water. The soup turned out great. Everyone including my "soup is not a meal" teenage son liked it. He did think it needed more chicken; where as, I thought it had too much chicken in it. My daughter had requested spaghetti noodles instead of the thicker egg noodles. I knew it wouldn't be bad with the change, but thought I wouldn't like it. I had broken the vermicelli up in 1 inch lengths and cooked them in the soup right along with the carrots. The vermicelli was fine and I liked it. Kind of reminded me of the little noodles in Lipton's Chicken Noodle soup that I loved as a child.

Raley's Something Extra

This is a little magazine my local grocery store puts out. My friends and family just love this magazine. It's really well done. One feels they should have to pay for it. It always has a delicious photo on the front. So, clear and crisp you feel like you could just take a bite out of it. The rest of the magazine is filled with more beautiful pictures, comments, tips and recipes. I feel a bit greedy when the new one comes out, because I grab 5. One for me, one for my mom, and 3 I mail to my California friend and her in-laws, who have relocated to Portland, Oregon.

Raley's is a big chain store, so it's not as little as it sounds. It is a very quaint store though. They do put the time into making the store have a down home feel. It's clean, the staff is friendly, when I'm looking for odd ingredients they have them and they have this great magazine. Another thing they do that I just love is when they reorganize the store they have extra staff in the aisles there just to help you find things and get reacquainted with the store. Reorganizing a grocery is one of my pet peeves. It will actually make me not shop there any more if I have to start hunting for the things I need. I walked into Raley's a few years ago and they had done a remodel and reorganized the whole store. I just didn't have time to play "scavenger hunt" with my grocery list. The look of bewilderment rising to anger on my face was seen immediately by a Raley's employee and they walked right over and offered me their assistance. They took me all over the store to find the things I needed. It was GREAT!

The issue I'm talking about today is Fall 2008. There was a recipe in it that looked good and easy. 2 nights ago I made it. It's called Pulled Pork.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make and how delicious it was. Leftovers still had a great flavor, but not as juicy as the night before. That didn't stop anyone from finishing them off. All the ingredients in the recipe were things I had on hand except the 4 pound boneless pork shoulder roast, which I promptly put on the grocery list.

There is one ingredient I left out on purpose liquid smoke. Ever since I was a child liquid smoke has not agreed with me. Nothing worse than a liquid smoke stomachache. This recipe was still great. Did I take any pictures...NO! Busy day with kids, soccer, homework, guitar lessons and I still got this on the store and cooking AND we ate at a reasonable time. So, I'm using Raley's picture. That's exactly how we ate it. Pulled pork sandwich with a green salad. Trying to use up as many of the tomatoes from garden. Who knows how many more we'll get to enjoy as the growing season comes to an end.



Pulled Pork

INGREDIENTS
1(4-lb.) boneless pork shoulder roast
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. oil
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2-1/2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper
Sandwich rolls

DIRECTIONS
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Cut pork into cubes, discarding any large pieces of fat. Cook pork, onion and garlic in oil over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients except rolls and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil; cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Remove cover and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Shred pork using 2 forks. Spoon onto warm rolls to serve.
Makes 6 servings.

Lynne's Note: To make shredding the pork easier I used a gadget I bought from my friendly Pampered Chef lady a few years ago. It's called the Mix 'N Chop. It worked great. The pork was so tender it shredded right up with my Mix 'N Chop. This gadget is so handy for chopping and crumbling food right in your non stick pan without scratching it.

Nutrition Per Serving: 760 calories, 58 g protein, 33 g total fat (12 g sat.), 55 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 175 mg cholesterol, 1000 mg sodium, 17 points
© 2008 Raley's Family of Fine Stores