As soon as I saw this pop up in my google reader I added the condensed milk to our grocery list… it has been sitting in our cupboard since. Mostly because I didn’t want to make it without recipe(s) in mind as I didn’t want to eat it all.

We have a family reunion/pot luck this weekend and I decided it was the PERFECT time to make it. This can’t be easier and does taste great right out of the can. Stay tune next week for recipes to use up the 2 cans.

Dulce de Leche (From: Beantown Baker, Originally from A Year of Slowcooking)

• 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
• water

Remove labels from cans and place in crockpot. Fill crockpot to the top with water.

Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours. Let the cans cool in the crockpot for a few hours.

Remove cans from crockpot and allow to cool to the touch before opening the cans.

My Dad came over for dinner a few weeks ago and I could NOT decide until the last minute what I wanted to make. I finally decided on some BBQ ribs. Great we ran to the store, while at the store Adam asked if we need BBQ sauce, nope I knew we had a whole thing in the cupboard it had been there forever… We got home and went to pull out said BBQ sauce… I had donated the day before to the food shelf. I was dead set on BBQ ribs so off to google a recipe. This was one of the first and I decided why not. We all loved this BBQ sauce, and I will be making it again because it was so good, not just because I don’t have any

Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce (From:About)

• 1 cup Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Sorry for the lack of updates, our little bean arrived on November 15th and we have been a little busy, as you can tell by the messy table below. This post is written and done by Adam…

Well the other day Carrie asked me to make some home made Spaghetti Sauce.  Fortunately we were in the grocery store at the time so we picked up the needed ingredients there.  This really turned out a lot better then I thought it could and Carrie was really happy with it.

Adam’s Spaghetti Sauce (From: Adam)

• 1lb hamburger or Sausage
• 1 Medium Onion or 2 small Shallots
• 1 Package whole or sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 large Can of Tomato Sauce
• 1 Medium Can of Diced Tomatoes
• 1/4 C (give or take) of Tomato Paste
• 1 T. Basil
• 1 T. Oregeno
• 1 T Ground Fennel Seed

Brown hamburger in a dutch oven, when it is close to being brown add shallot or onion.

Use about half the container of mushrooms, slice into cubes. Drain the oil and fat and make the meat pretty dry.

Add tomato sauce, diced tomato, and tablespoon of tomato paste. Just enough to thicken the sauce.

Turn the heat down to low, you don’t want to burn it and a dutch oven works great to keep it just shy of boiling at almost any heat. Cover and let simmer. After simmering for an hour or so add spices to taste

Simmer for a couple hours 3-5 best.

Make with Spaghetti noodles or another think style of noodle and enjoy.

Adam and I both love Alfredo, but it’s not the best for you so we don’t make it often. Last week I was craving it so bad that I told him we had to try it. He gladly accepted, and even made it for dinner

He served it with steak, but this sauce was creamy and delicious. Almost all the recipes we have made at home have been grainy this one was not, we did use shredded Parmesan instead of grated but otherwise we kept the recipe, and it was delicious!! This will be my go to recipe and next time I want to try homemade pasta.

Fettuccine Alfredo (Found On: Taste of Home Cooking Originally From: Food Network)

• 18 ounces fresh fettuccine
• 2 1/2 cups heavy  cream
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups grated Parmesan
• Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Drain.

Stir 2 cups of the cream in a heavy large skillet to blend. Add the butter and cook over medium heat just until the butter melts, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Add the pasta and toss. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of cream, and Parmesan to the cream sauce in the skillet. Add the  nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Toss the pasta mixture over low heat until the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute.

I was super excited to try this recipe. The WC Ingredient Challenge this week was Parmesan, once it was picked I went to food network and typed Parmesan, I wanted to do something different.

This was an awesome meal, I served it over some angel hair and made homemade marinara. We will try this again and again, I like to have a no meat option in our rotation.

****I’m sorry for the horrible picture, my tummy was rumbling and I didn’t have the patients to get a good photo.

Mushroom Parmesan (From: Food Network)

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the grill pan
• 4 to 6 portobello mushrooms
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup marinara sauce (recipe I use below)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill.

Drizzle 3 tablespoons of olive oil over both sides of the mushrooms. Sprinkle the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil on the grill to prevent the mushrooms from sticking. Grill until the mushrooms are heated through and tender, about 5 minutes per side.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Spread 1/2 cup of the marinara sauce on the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Place the grilled mushrooms on top of the marinara sauce and top with the remaining marinara sauce. Sprinkle with the cheeses and top with the butter pieces. Bake until the cheese melts and the top is golden, about 15 minutes. Serve

Garlic and Basil Marinara (From: Myself)

• 1 lg. can chopped tomatoes
• 1 lg. can crushed tomatoes
• 4 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• fresh basil
• 1 t. sugar
• salt and pepper

Warm dutch oven on stove, with a little olive oil. Saute onion and garlic until tender.

Add tomotoes and spices, simmer on low for hour to hour and half.

My wonderful Mom gave us almost 200 lbs of beef that she was gifted!!! Adam is a beef lover so this was very exciting to him. We now have our whole chest freezer full of beef. So look for lots of beef recipes in the future. I used to love pot roast growing up but everytime I have made it, it never turns out the same. I decided to give it another go.

I prefer mashed potatoes with my roast so I didn’t cook potatoes with it, but you easily could. I also made homemade gravy for the first time!

Beef Roast (From: My Mom)

• 1 beef roast thawed
• 2 cups beef broth
• carrots

Put roast in slow cooker, top with seasonings of choice. Pour beef broth over roast and throw carrots in.

Cook on low for 8 hours or so.

Beef Gravy (From: Myself)

• 2 cups broth from cooked roast
• 2 T. butter
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 cloved crushed garlic

Melt butter in saucepan, once melted brown garlic.

Mix in flour to create a thick paste.

Slowly whisk in broth until all incorporated.

Heat until warm.

The first time Adam cooked for me he did not impress me, he serve brats which I HATE with moldy buns and cheese that he cut the mold off of… impressed no, but since then he has beyond impressed me! He is an awesome cook, he is not one to go find new recipes, but if I e-mail them to him then he is more then willing.

He made this for dinner this week when I said “I’m craving steak” This sauce was AMAZING, we just used strip steaks as that is what he had on hand, but the sauce made them taste wonderful. If you are looking for a new different way to serve steak try this!

Steak with Au Poivre (From: Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations)

• 4 (3/4- to 1-inch-thick) boneless beef top-loin steaks, 8 to 10 oz each 
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/2 cup Cognac or other brandy (Adam used white cooking wine)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
  

Preheat oven to 200°F.

Pat steaks dry and season both sides with kosher salt.

Coarsely crush peppercorns in a sealed plastic bag with a meat pounder or bottom of a heavy skillet, then press pepper evenly onto both sides of steaks.

Heat a 12-inch heavy skillet (preferably cast-iron) over moderately high heat until hot, about 3 minutes, then add oil, swirling skillet, and sauté steaks in 2 batches, turning over once, about 6 minutes per batch for medium-rare.

Transfer steaks as cooked to a heatproof platter and keep warm in oven while making sauce. 

Pour off fat from skillet, then add shallots and half of butter (2 tablespoons) to skillet and cook over moderately low heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until shallots are well-browned all over, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add Cognac (use caution; it may ignite) and boil, stirring, until liquid is reduced to a glaze, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add cream and any meat juices accumulated on platter and boil sauce, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter and cook over low heat, swirling skillet, until butter is incorporated.

Serve sauce with steaks. 

March 14th. Known to some as PiDay, but knowing to me as the day of many birthdays. I have a total of 5 people I know with birthdays today. One of those people is my Pa Jack. Sadly he passed away in December.

I always called him Pa, and I was his pest, until all the other grandkids came along (I had 5 years of me being the only grandkid). After the others I was Pest #1. Pa was well known for his spaghetti sauce! Him and my grandma were snowbirds so he would make a HUGE pot before leaving in the fall and we would freeze it and eat it all winter long. When friends and family got invited down for fresh spaghetti dinner you can bet they were there because they didn’t want to miss. Adam and I included since I moved out!

Since Pa isn’t with us today I figured a great way to honor him would be to try and make his spaghetti sauce. I was VERY nervous in making this recipe as I didn’t want to ruin it and leave a bad taste in my mouth. I  nailed his recipe! This tasted JUST like Pa’s. I promise if you make this you will NOT be disappointed.

***I am sorry for the bad picture our tummy’s were growling!***

Pa’s Spaghetti Sauce (From: Pa Jack)

• 1 lb. Hamburger
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 green pepper diced
• dash of cyan pepper
• 1 lg. Can of sliced tomato
• 1 med. can of tomato sauce
• 1 sm. can of tomato paste
• Thin with tomato juice
• Bay leaves
• Sweet Basil
• Oregano
• Hot Sauce

Brown the hamburger, onion and green peper together in a pan, drain off excess fat. In large pot add meat and veggies, tomato products and seasonings to taste. Simmer on very low heat for around 10 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

I will admit I have been spoiled my whole life. My grandpa makes homemade spaghetti sauce it is very very yummy, and NO spaghetti sauce compares to my grandpas. He normally makes a HUGE batch every fall before they leave for the winter and we freeze  it. Sadly Adam and I ran out months ago. And even sadder my Grandpa passed away in Dec. so no more Pa’s Spaghetti sauce. Someday I will attempt his recipe.

For today I had a weird craving, I was craving bacon and pasta. And we had a pound of hamburger in the fridge that needed to be used. So here is where this recipe was born. I kind of followed Pioneer Woman’s recipe but made it my own with what we had.

This sauce was VERY good, it was just the right amount of meat and sauce and went perfect over our bow-tie pasta. I cannot wait to make my Grandpa’s sauce and compare.

Care Bear’s Spaghetti Sauce (From: Myself, Inspiration From: Pioneer Woman)

• 1 lb hamburger
• 3 slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch strips
• 1/4 of a large onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 14 oz. tomato sauce
• 2 T. Tomato Paste
• 1 T. sugar
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Fry hamburger, bacon, onion and garlic in dutch oven.

Add crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. And 1 T. tomato paste. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes. Add sugar.

Simmer on low covered for 30 minutes. Stirring once or twice.

Uncover. Add 1T. of tomato paste if you want it a little thicker.

Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Stir in parmesan cheese and serve over your favorite pasta.

Whenever my mom and I have a girls weekend we like to make something really fun and yummy for dinner. Last time we set our bar pretty high with the Cream Cheese and Pesto Filled Chicken. This time we decided to go a pasta route.

This was amazing, the chicken and broccoli was a great filling mixture and the sauce has WONDERFUL flavor!

Chicken and Broccoli Asiago Stuffed Shells (Inspired From: Allrecipes)

• 2 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 2 cups rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup six cheese Italian cheese
• 21 jumbo pasta shells, cooked and drained
• Asiago Cheese Sauce (recipe below)

In a large bowl, combine the 1 cup cheese sauce, broccoli, chicken and cheeses. Spoon into pasta shells.

Pour a layer of cheese sauce in a 13X9 inch baking dish, lay stuffed pasta on top. Top with rest of cheese cause. Top with shredded cheese.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.

Asiago Cream Sauce (From: Allrecipes)

• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
• 1/4 cube chicken bouillon, crumbled
• 3/4 cup grated Asiago cheese
• 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons butter

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups cream to a simmer, stirring often. Whisk in bouillon and cheese until well blended and bouillon has dissolved completely. Dissolve cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water, and whisk into mixture. Cook and stir 2 minutes more, add remaining 1/4 cup cream and parsley flakes. Heat through.