7 Days of Super Food!

It is that time of year and while I could care less about the teams playing, I still love having friends over and sharing great food and fun while watching football and maybe even more importantly for me this year great new commercials. So in honor of the Super Bowl I am doing my first annual super food countdown to game day. Each day for the next seven day enjoy a great recipe that will be sure to score a touchdown with guests at your game day party. Today's recipe is a a spicy red pepper hummus. This is super easy to make and the level of heat can easily be adjusted to suit your taste buds.

Spicy Red Pepper Hummus

 3 cups of canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons of Tahini
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry
2 tablespoons of red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
a dash of paprika

Place all ingredients but olive oil in food processor, turn on and add olive oil until mixture is smooth. Serve with pita chips, slices of cucumber, cheery tomatoes, and baby carrots.

Breakfast Muffins

One of my favorite things to cook up for breakfast is a breakfast muffin. This is a great brunch food and the possibilities are endless for what you can put in. All you need is a package of  Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and your favorite breakfast items. In my house this is scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take a muffin pan and spray some Pam into the tin. Unroll your dough and place a square in each muffin base so that the largest part of the dough is in the bottom of the tin. Top with some bacon, eggs, and cheese then fold the rest of the dough over the ingredients so that all the filling is covered with dough. Place in the oven for about 18 to 20 minutes and serve. I tend to serve these with my version of these Homefries. Hope that you find your family's favorite breakfast muffin.

Rena's Spring Frittata

So this is much more of a spring recipe, but with the winter weather wearing on me, I am really in the mood for some food that brings the warmer weather and fresh flavors of spring to mind. This recipe is from my "sister" Rena who has made this for me a few times and after begging for the recipe this has become a favorite in our house. This frittata is great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a quick snack. Give it a try and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Rena's Spring Frittata:




6 eggs, scrabbled

1 cup fontina cheese - shredded

1 lb small potatoes sliced thinly

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 bunch of chopped asparagus

1 1 1/2 cups chopped ham



in fry pan cook potatoes and onion on medium/low for 45-60 minutes or till tender, turn up heat to brown for 5-10 minutes - remove potatoes from pan and set aside. Saute asparagus and ham for 5 minutes, add the potatoes mixtures to the pan. In a bowl beat eggs and fold in the cheese - now pour over the potato /asparagus mixture in fry pan and let set for 7-10 minutes, then finish it in the oven at 350 for 5-10 min.

Go Bears!

Yea! Da Bears are in the playoffs and let me tell you that means that it is party time at my house. Guests are coming over and what better way to root for my team then by serving a traditional (well as close as I can get it) Chicago Dog? Now if it was the Super Bowl I would be dropping the cash and having Vienna Beef and having them "cater" for me with the real thing. But for those of you who can't get the real thing or have never tried the Windy City Classic Dog, here is a great way to get the flavors.

Chicago Dog's
A traditional dog is

Poppy Seed Buns
Celery Salt
Plochman's Yellow Mustard
Sport Peppers
Bright Green Relish
Skinless Hot Dogs
Dill Pickle Slice
Diced Onions
Tomato Slices

Most of these items are hard to find outside of the Chicago Land Area however with a few modifications you can enjoy the flavors of the dog still. By substituting dill relish for the bright green, and jalapeno slices for the sport peppers you get almost the same hot dog. Next time your favorite Chicago sports team is playing give the Chicago Dog a try.

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

We recently hit a place in Hampton called Six, while I thought that it had great food, I was not impressed with their Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese. I thought that theirs had no flavor and was really plain. I was determined to make my own and make it taste like something other than just pasta with a bland cheese sauce. Here is what I came up with....

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

1 pound of butternut squash
3 tablespoons of fresh thyme
2 shallots, diced
1/8 cup of olive oil
1 cup of chicken broth
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
2 1/2 cups of good cheddar cheese (I used Black Diamond)
3 sage leaves, diced
1 box of elbow macaroni

Roast squash at 400 degrees for 30 minutes with olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, and shallots. Remove squash from oven and let cool, but keep the oven on. When squash has cooled put squash into a food processor, add chicken broth and cheese and puree. Cook pasta according to directions on package and drain. In a casserole dish mix cheesy squash and pasta. In a small skillet take a little bit of olive oil or butter and add sage cook until the sage is crispy and fried. Top mac and cheese with bread crumbs and sage oil or butter. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake the mac and cheese for 30 minutes. Serve with ham or chicken and enjoy.

Pasta Fagioli or Spaghetti O's

So my friend Christy makes up this great looking pasta fagioli to feed her large family all the time. I had watched her make it a few times and without a recipe to guide me I wound up creating something totally different. My pasta fagioli came out looking like "grown up or really good spaghetti o's" according to John (my six year old). While mine tasted good, it definitely was not pasta fagioli. So here is my recipe and Christy's, decide if you want some really good spaghetti o's or if you want to try the real thing. Hope you enjoy....

Christy's Pasta Fagioli -

11 cups beef stock

2lb ground beef
3 tsp oregano
1 ½ cups chopped onions
2 ½ tsp pepper
1 ¾ cup shredded carrots
5 tsp parsley
1 cup chopped celery
1 ½ tsp tobacco
3 - 15oz.cans stewed tomatoes
6 cups spaghetti sauce
1 – 15oz can red kidney beans
1 – 15oz can white beans
1 tbsp Italian seasons
1 ½ cups fagioli pasta

Brown ground beef, and onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes. Simmer about 10 min.
Put all other ingredients in, except pasta. Simmer until veggies are tender.
Add Pasta cook until done. Enjoy!

Kirsten's Really Good Spaghetti O's

1 pound of ground beef
28 oz of canned diced tomatoes
1/2 onion diced
24 oz of marinara sauce
32 oz of beef broth
4 tablespoons of Italian seasonings
1 box of ditalini
1 can of great northern beans

Brown meat and onion together in a large pot, season with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper, cook until browned. Add rest of ingredients and cook on low until pasta is done. Serve and enjoy.

Captain Crunch Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken this is probably due to the Sunday dinners that we would have while I was growing up in the Midwest, but something about good fried chicken just makes me happy. I have spent years playing around with different breading options and one that always seems to catch every one's attention is my Captain Crunch Fried Chicken. I use Peanut Butter Captain Crunch, but I am sure that the regular would work just fine. I thought that this would be a fun meal for my son to help make, and he seemed to enjoy helping out with this meal. So without further ado, here is the recipe for Captain Crunch Fried Chicken:

3 cups of Captain Crunch cereal

boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins

2 eggs, cracked and mixed

oil

Place cereal in a plastic bag that will be large enough to hold the mashed crunch, and the chicken pieces. Pour around 2 inches of oil into a cast iron skillet and heat on medium low. While oil is heating, use a rolling pin or kitchen mallet crunch the cereal into crumbs leaving some larger pieces. Dredge chicken in egg mix and left out letting as much extra drip off as possible. Place chicken into bag and shake until all pieces are well coated. Place chicken in heated oil and cook until crust is golden brown, and chicken is cooked through.The timing depends on the size of your chicken piece. Remove chicken from pan and place one a plate lined with a paper towel to drain. Serve with mashed potatoes, corn, and a house style salad and enjoy a fun meal that the kids will love too.

4th of July Breakfast

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope everyone has plans to enjoy the holiday and eat some great food. This morning I treated the family to a red, white, and blue breakfast. Well I should amend that to a white and blue breakfast but I think that the juice from the blueberries can qualify as red. I made some lemon biscuits with a blueberry sauce. I think everyone enjoyed them as my husband had thirds, my son took seconds, and the baby even ate one. Here is the quick and easy recipe.

For Biscuits:

5 cups of instant pancake mix (see note)

1 1/2 cups of water

1/4 cup of milk

zest from two lemons

For Sauce:

2 cups of clean blueberries

1/2 cup of sugar

juice from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix all ingredients in a medium size bowl. Using a non stick cooking spray, spray cookie sheets, using a tablespoon, spoon dough onto sheet making sure to leave some room between biscuits. Bake in the oven for 8 to 11 minutes. While biscuits are baking, in a medium saucepan cook blueberries, sugar and lemon until the blueberries release their juices, about 7 minutes. Take sauce off of the heat and place in a bowl to serve. When biscuits are done transfer to a large plate and serve with sauce and butter. Enjoy...

Note: Make an instant pancake mix or use something like Bisquick.

For instant pancake mix use Alton Brown's recipe that can be found on the Food Network website.

And now for a little preview of what is coming later...