Sweet iced tea my way

 Someone once said they had the perfect iced tea recipe and her grandkids concurred. I made my own.

Ingredients:

    8 green tea bags (I use hannaford brand as they are fairly inexpensive and come 40 to a pack)

    1 cup of sugar or to taste (I like mine sweet)

    1/2 gallon of refrigerated tap water (be sure to refrigerate for a few hours to get chlorine to evaporate)

    1/2 gallon of tap water

    Ice if you want to drink it right away

1) fill gallon jug with refrigerated water. Add sugar.

2) refill pitcher and add to dutch oven. bring to a boil.

3) remove from heat and add tea bags.

4) let steep for 8 minutes. dangle into pan then squeeze out as much tea as possible.

5) Pour into gallon jug and stir well to dissolve sugar

6) Refrigerate or pour over ice if needed

Tip: Other things can be added such as lemon or mango juice. What I like to do is add frozen cherries, blueberries or strawberries and let them defrost in the tea adding their flavor to it.

Mouth watering Milanese rice recipe

 Found this in a cookbook which I since lost 🙄. I tweaked it over the years to this recipe.

Ingredients:

    Bone-in chicken (a leg or two or a breast)

    1 Cup rice

    2 1/4 cups water and broth (see instructions)

    1 small yellow onion chopped

    1/2 cup butter

    1 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese

    salt and pepper to taste

 

1) Heat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle chicken with salt, place in a pan and bake for 30 minutes. Pour juices into a measuring cup, flip chicken over and put back in oven for 30 more minutes.

2) Place rice, onion and butter into pot and heat to medium. As butter melts, mix rice and onion so that they get covered.

3) Take the measuring cup with chicken juice in it and add water up to 2 1/4 cup line.

4) Add to rice, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.

5) Add parmesan, salt and pepper and mix. Let it stand off heat for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

6) Serve with chicken.

Breakfast potato salad

 I was making potato salad with egg one day and thought to myself why not bacon? Bacon goes with everything especially potatoes and eggs for breakfast. Wah lah! a recipe was born!

Ingredients:

    2 lbs potatoes

    1 cup mayonnaise

    1/2 tsp lemon juice

    1 tsp mustard

    1 TB italian seasoning

    1 stalk celery chopped

    2 TB chopped onion

    Salt and pepper to taste

    Green olives sliced in half (optional)

    2 hard boiled eggs chopped

    3-6 slices of cooked bacon

1) Boil potatoes in water until tender. Drain and cool until able to be handled then chop.

2) Mix the rest of the ingredients except eggs and bacon in a bowl, cover and refrigerate.

3) When potatoes are chopped, place in bowl with eggs and bacon. Add sauce and mix

Best ever meat loaf

 Ingredients:

    3 slices of soft bread (for gluten free be sure to use wide loaf) or 1 cup crumbs

    1 cup milk

    1 egg beaten

    1 lb ground beef

    1/2 lb ground pork or any other meat

    1/4 cup minced onion

    1 1/4 tsp salt

    1/4 tsp pepper

    1 tsp each cumin and italian seasoning

    1 TB worcestershire sauce

    1 6 oz can tomato paste

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Pour crumbs or tear bread into pieces and put into large mixing bowl.

2) Add remaining ingredients except paste and mix well.

3) Pour into loaf pan and top with tomato paste.

4) Bake 1.5 hours

Delicious burger sauce

 My daughter gave me a cookbook that has recipes inspired by the Simpsons and a couple of them are very good. This is one of them. It is a delicious sauce that goes with burgers, hot dogs, french fries and can even be a good salad dressing.

Ingredients: (makes enough for 4 burgers amply topped)

    1/4 cup mayonnaise 

    1 TB ketchup

    2 tsp pickle relish (sweet or dill)

    1 tsp pickle juice (or pepperoncini if you want to spice it up)

    1 tsp mustard

     

Combine all in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use. I am a pepper head so I typically add some heat to mine.

German potato salad

 As a kid one of my friends parents were German and the mother made a killer potato salad. I never got the recipe but this one totally rocks!

Ingredients:

2 pounds yellow, red or white potatoes (not russet or sweet)

8 slices thick cut bacon

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1 TB mustard (dijon preferably)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp celery salt (optional)

1) Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Salt the water and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium high and boil until tender when pierced with a fork. (15-20 minutes). Drain and slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds

2) Cook the bacon in a large skillet. When done, remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Pour off the fat but reserve 1/4 cup.

3) Lower the heat to medium and add the onion. Cook until translucent and beginning to brown (4-5 minutes)

4) Whisk in the rest and stir until thick and bubbly. Add the potatoes and toss to coat. Top with crumbled bacon.

Best ever cheesecake recipe

 Crust ingredients:

    2 cups gluten free graham cracker crumbs (5 ounce box)

    1/2 cup melted butter

    1 TB sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients until moistened. Press into springform pan and bake until golden brown (10-12 minutes). Remove from oven and lower temperature to 325.

Cake ingredients:

    16 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

    2/3 cup sugar

    1 cup sour cream

    5 large eggs at room temperature

    1 TB vanilla extract (optional)

    1/2 cup heavy cream

1) In a bowl, cream cream cheese until smooth

2) Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy

3) Beat in sour cream

4) Add eggs one at a time beating well after each egg

5) Add vanilla and heavy cream and stir

6) Pour into springform pan

7) Place a 13x9 pan half full with water on bottom oven rack. Place springform pan on rack above it.

8) Bake until lightly browned and center jiggles slightly (50 minutes to 1 hour). Inserting a toothpick helps too.

9) cool on rack and refrigerate overnight

Tips: Do not over mix and be sure cream cheese and eggs are at room temp as this will help keep cake from cracking.

For pumpkin spice variation lower vanilla to 1/2 tsp and add 1 TB of pumpkin pie spice.

For bacon variation use chocolate graham crackers, crumble 3 slices of thick, smoked bacon to crust before baking. add 3 more crumbled slices to batter and 3 on top after baking. I usually frost with chocolate frosting because chocolate and bacon...NOM!

Tomato Sauce Recipe

 My mom used to make a killer tomato sauce that she learned from my dad's mother who emigrated from Italy. She refused to share it but eventually relented and gave SOME of the recipe to us kids (the ones she hadn't disowned that is🙄). She kept one thing from every recipe so she said meaning we would have to get together to compare and figure out the missing link. We are too dysfunctional and no one ever did as far as I know. I searched all over the internet and finally found one that approximates her recipe and with some tweaking I think it is as good as hers.

Ingredients:

    4 cloves minced garlic

    1 TB olive oil (be sure to use oil from Tunisia, California, Italy or Greece and in a brown or green bottle)

    2 cans 28 ounces San Marzano tomatoes (see my Roma tomato recipe below)

    1 6 oz can tomato paste plus 1 can water

    2 bay leaves

    1 small yellow onion sliced or chopped

    .25 tsp salt and pepper or to taste

    1 TB fresh basil

    2 tsp fresh oregano

 

1) Saute garlic in oil in a steel pot for 30-60 seconds on low to medium heat.

2) Add tomatoes and juice to the garlic. Also add the tomato paste and water, onion, salt and pepper and bay leaves. mix well, cover and simmer for 3 -3.5 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

3) When finished, add chopped herbs plus more salt and pepper if needed and enjoy!

 

For Roma tomatoes: (for 8 servings you will need 5 lbs of tomatoes)

1) bring a large pot of water to boil.

2) add tomatoes and boil for 3 minutes. drain and chill.

3) When able to handle, peel skins, core and roughly chop tomatoes

4) add to garlic and continue with #2 above BUT only simmer for 2 hours

You're welcome.