Broccoli and Cheese Casserole

C-Fresh's mom sent me this recipe from his childhood for a broccoli and cheese casserole. Quick, easy, cheap and yummy!

Ingredients:
Instant Rice = 2 cups dry
frozen broccoli = 2 boxes or more if you want- thawed
stick of butter -melted
1 can -cream of mushroom
1can -cream of celery
milk -use one of the cans full
grated cheddar cheese - I use a whole small chunk

Directions
mix all together --bake 350 - 45 min.

Greens

I am going to try out a new recipe for Collard Greens tonight. I found it in a back issue of a magazine laying around the house (imagine that). Hopefully it'll turn out yummy. That is the hard thing about experimenting with new recipes because you spend all that money buying the ingredients then take the time to make it and you aren't even sure you are going to like it. That is also the joy though, when you com on that one really great, unexpected, surprisingly good recipe.

Winter Greens and Potato Casserole

This weekend when it was cold and blustery out I made a recipe C-Fresh had sent to me for Winter Greens and Potato Casserole. I have been intrigued by the whole greens thing (kale, collards, mustard, turnip greens) but have not yet explore cooking with them much. I was surprised at how good this tasted and how easy it was to make. The full original recipe is here .

Of course I did have to modify it a little bit. The grocery store that I went to did not have mustard greens so I had to buy canned. Two 14oz cans should do you just fine for this (it was also cheaper to buy the canned because each can was only 52 cents but a pound of kale was $1.99). Also you can use whatever cheese you want. If you have leftover mozzarella that would work really well too. I also chopped up three cloves of garlic and threw it in with the onions just to add a bit more spice.

Bake Asparagus

I love asparagus and Amanda made the most amazing asparagus last Thursday. It was perfectly done so of course I had to steal the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 lb asparagus
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Kalmata olives roughly chopped
1 Tbs lemon pepper (or more or less to taste)
Pinch of Kosher salt

Directions:
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay the asparagus flat on baking sheet (I put foil over the sheet) and drizzle the olive oil over the asparagus.
Drizzle the olive oil over the spears and sprinkle the lemon pepper and salt. Next place the olives over and around the asparagus and bake for about 10-12 minutes (until tender).
That's it! How easy is that? The taste is really amazing so enjoy.

Latke

I made latkes last night for dinner and damn were they good. All latkes are potato pancakes but of course I had to add stuff to them.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs potatoes peeled and grated
2 small yellow onions diced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions:
Combine everything in a bowl and mix well. I used four small frying pans with about 3 Tbs of oil in each pan on medium heat to cook up all four latkes at the same time. You can also use a nonstick griddle. They need to be cooked on each side for about 15 minutes until the outsides are almost black (I like them nice and crispy on the outside). To flip them slide the latke onto a large plate, cover with another plate then slide it back onto the pan carefully and cook another 15 minutes. A little time consuming but oh so yummy and oh so worth the wait.

Basil Vinaigrette

I have been into making my salad dressings lately. D. was right, home made stuff really does taste a lot better even when it comes to salad dressings. A friend of mine gave me this great recipe for a Basil Vinaigrette that is just out of this world!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup olive oil
2 cups fresh basil, chopped
1 peeled shallot
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
dash of salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Dijon mustard

Gently heat 1/4 cup oil and 1 cup basil for 2-3 minutes (the basil should turn bright green and the oil should have small bubbles). Remove from heat and steep for five minutes.

Put the garlic, shallot, vinegar, remaining water, salt, pepper and mustard into the blender and pulse til garlic and shallots are chopped fine. Run the blender and slowly add basil/ oil combo and blend until dressing is smooth. Add remaining basil and blend til smooth.

You can keep this in the fridge in an airtight jar for about three days.

Variety

C-Fresh asked me the other day why I am so into trying new recipes and cooking different things for dinner every night. The answer is pretty basic. First of all, pepper was considered an exotic spice in our house growing up let alone trying to get my parents to use basil or curry powder. Second my parents had a repertoire of about 10 dinner items. Those 10 items would be rotated so that any given week we would be eating 7 of the 10 items (think High School Cafeteria menu rotation). The sides for the dinners did not even vary. . .ever. Even going out to eat they would always go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes from each restaurant.
On that note, though, I am not afraid to use canned vegetables or bottled sauces now because I know you can take those ingredients and give them some oomph. Not every meal needs to be created entirely from scratch. Hell, the frozen green beans I can get at the grocery store are a lot better than the "fresh" ones they are hawking at exorbitant prices. So while there was not much adventure from my dining habits as a child it has at least given me the sense to know that I can use pre made ingredients or canned vegetables or processed something or other and still take that and turn it into something good. After all, there is no law saying you can't add more garlic and basil to a can of Ragu.