Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

No I haven't been watching marathons reruns of Rawhide, but I am wanting to share my cabbage roll recipe.  Well, not mine really but one from All Recipes web site.  We recently had a belated Father's day celebration for my Father in Law and we planned (and had) a cookout - in the middle of a TORRENTIAL downpour - you know hamburgers, hot dogs baked beans etc.  But my sister in law requested these cabbage rolls.  We had them over once before and they liked them so well that she asked for them for the party.. Well, they are so easy and a make and forget type meal that I had no problem accommodating her request.    30 minutes prep time, put 'em in the crock pot and don't take the lid off for 8 hours or so...  You check 'em in 8 hours and they are ready to eat...  I doubled the recipe for this group as they like take home packages :) .

Boiling the leaves makes them pliable

 

The stuffing Lots of black pepper but really good.

 

Roll 'em up

 

Nice little packages

Layer them in the Crock pot - some people layer extra cabbage leaves on bottom

 

Pour the sauce over the top put the lid on and leave 'em for 8 hours

Recipe makes 6 servings
        

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

For the Rolls                 

 

12 leaves cabbage

                     

1 cup cooked white rice

                                    

1 egg, beaten

                       

1/4 cup milk

                       

1/4 cup minced onion

                       

1 pound extra-lean ground beef

                       

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

                       

1 1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper

 

For the Sauce                                                   

                       

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

               

1 tablespoon brown sugar

                                    

1 tablespoon lemon juice

                        

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage leaves 2 minutes; drain.

 

In large bowl, combine 1 cup cooked rice, egg, milk, onion, ground beef, salt, and pepper. Place about 1/4 cup of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, and roll up, tucking in ends. Place rolls in slow cooker.

In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls.
(If you like a lot of sauce, double the sauce recipe for the number of cabbage rolls. For me, I doubled the cabbage rolls but tripled the sauce recipe and it was perfect)
Cover, and cook on Low 8 to 9 hours.
Gotta tell you easy and very good....
Now I have to go check on Ikey... He is sleeping in the chair....

Lasagna Pinwheels

Hi everyone...

Looks pretty tasty to me

Had a rainy day here and thought that pasta with meat sauce would be a nice thing to cook since grilling was a "washout".  I had made a variant of these before but thought I would try something a little different - but I can't take all the credit... Sandy said instead of stuffing shells try making lasagna pinwheels.    So I thought what the heck, why not.

It really is simple - any red sauce (or gravy as my Italian friends call it) would work - but we had made and frozen in pint containers some of our home made sauce.. So I thawed one of those in the fridge and then started the process.
I decided to use a 9 X 9 inch pan and sprayed it with a non stick spray.  
Boiled 8 lasagna noodles in salted water for about 10 minutes.  Removed and rinsed and cooled so I could handle them.  Now for the cheese stuffing. 

2 eggs
1 small (15 oz.) container of Ricotta cheese
1/2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/8 tsp of thyme, basil, oregano, and dried parsley
1/8 tsp of fresh ground pepper
1/4 C Chopped onion
(recipe called for 1/2 cup thawed Spinach chopped drained very well - I didn't have any so I didn't use it but
1tsp of Chicken Bullion (trust me no salt needed in this recipe)
1/2 cup Shredded Mozzarella  (I uses a blended mix of cheeses and it worked beautifully)
Add'l  Shredded cheese and grated Parm for the top as well.
2 - 2 1/2 Cups of your favorite red sauce - we used 2 cups but think a little more would have been bettter

Mix all stuffing ingredients up in a mixer - I have been informed that while mixing it by hand will work, using an electric mixer will make the stuffing much smoother and silkier - mine always used to be grainy so even though it dirties a few more dishes  - it's worth it.

Pre heat oven to 350*
Ladle small amount of sauce on the bottom of the pan
Lay Lasagna Noodles on flat surface (like your cutting board)
Using an off-set spatula smooth about 1/4' thick layer of stuffing on the Noodle - stopping about 1" from the end of the noodle.
Start at the other end and carefully roll up the noodle so that it resembles a pinwheel.  You will see why you don't "butter the noodle" all the way to the end when you roll up your first one - trust me.
Take pinwheel and carefully place seam side down in the pan.  Repeat... If you are like me you will have two rows of 3 with room for 2 rolls perpendicular to the other 6 between the rows of 3 for a total of 8.
Take the remaining sauce and ladle over the top of the noodles, sprinkle with remaining Shredded Moz and Parm cheese and place in oven for approx. 40 minutes until bubbly.  The last 5 minutes you may want to broil to get a crusty top on the cheese...    Notice the lasagna type layers.... Now I would think some sautéed mushrooms, large diced green peppers might be a variation since each one is "self contained it might be a perfect way to customize your lasagna for a family of picky eaters.

everything stayed together nicely

Notice the layers

Still smokin'

As you know it is BBQ season and I put my money where my mouth (blog) is as it pertains to brining,  so we had a 8 - 9 lb. Turkey Breast  in the freezer.   So we thawed it in the fridge for about 5 days and then Brined it and smoked it this weekend...  I used a variant of a Bourbon brine below  and have to say that the brown sugar made a nice mahogany skin. 
Bourbon Turkey Brine

Tender and Juicy..  We called the family  - Like how are two of us (sorry Ike doesn't get any of this) going to eat this much :)???  and the caravan ensued...   It had a nice smoke ring will make some tasty sandwiches

Catching up with more cooking things

As you know I haven't been posting regularly but I didn't stop cooking -  but I am going to post some various pictures and events we had over the past few months..

October 2013 - Our old neighbors Jeff and Tammie left the neighborhood to move back to downtown Chicago and we went down to visit and participate in a Pizza tour of Chicago.  We walked all over downtown and sampled all of the well known pizza places and learned a little about the history of Deep Dish (Chicago Style) pizza...  Pizzeria Uno, Geno's, Giordano's  and a little place called Pizza Ora.   Really that was our favorite...  Lot of fun and good times

Here we are on the walking Pizza Tour

 

You all know what it is like to use up leftovers from Thanksgiving so I made a "Shepard's Pie" of sorts with the leftover turkey, gravy, corn, and mashed potatoes.  I used a small little cast iron single serve vessel, layered the leftovers and baked it in the oven until the potatoes were brown and crusty.  With a little cranberry sauce on the side it was like your Thanksgiving plate all in one dish... It was Tasty

Sheppard's Pie Steve Style

 



 For Christmas Sandy got me a Calzone maker  so I made some cooked some Italian Sausage, sautéed some mushrooms and green and red peppers and made a stuffed calzone...  Be creative - you can Stuff it with whatever you like but a little marinara for dipping and you have a quick and filling midweek dinner.  I used readymade pizza crust and it turned out pretty nice for the first time use...

Calzone

 

 Sandy and one of the neighbors got together an "ornament exchange" brunch  prior to Christmas for all of the Ladies in the neighborhood and I volunteered to cook... The menu consisted of Eggs Benedict, French Toast casserole, Mimosa's and Bloody Maries. I made a home made Hollandaise Sauce for the Eggs Benedict in a blender recipe and it was very good.  It stayed very stable as I took a page out of Alton Brown's book and charged a thermos with boiling water, drained it and then put in the sauce... It stayed very hot and I was able to add it right before serving...  here is the link to the recipe;
Blender Hollandaise

Roast Beef bites

We also had some non breakfast items - and deserts but if you remember my little roast beef appetizers on mini pancakes were a hit and provided some very needed savory "yang" to all the sweet "ying" of the pastries and other treats... 








One other thing I made was little caviar topped fingerling potatoes.  Very easy and very delicious.  Recipe goes like this:
Clean fingerling potatoes, and boil in HEAVILY salted water.  (I used about double the salt I normally boil potatoes in... when soft (about 15 -20 minutes remove from heat and drain)   Let cool so you can handle them.  (this can all be done the day before).  I sliced them into about 1inch lengths and used a corer to dig out a little indentation about a third of the depth of the potato.  I purchased some crème fraiche (I like it better that traditional sour crème in this recipe) and piped in a small amount of that into the indentation and then using chopsticks placed the caviar on top of the crème fresh.  It does have the WOW factor. :) 

Fingerling potatoes with crème fraiche and caviar