You Can't Always Make What You Want...

Sorry Mick, Keith and gang...I need to borrow your song title for this post.  You're going to get two recipes for the price of one here.  What I wanted to make is listed first.  It's a recipe we did one night at Flavour Cooking School in Forest Park.  The second recipe is what I made by adapting the first recipe to what I had in the house.  Both were amazing.

1-2 tbsp. grapeseed oil
1-2 beef short ribs per person
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 large onion, diced small
2 medium carrots, diced small
2 celery stalks, diced small
1/2 C. dry white wine
12 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp. herbs de Provence
2 tbsp. flour
4-6 C. beef stock
1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 C. Mediterranean black olives, pitted
3 tbsp. roughly chopped fresh parsley

Heat large Dutch oven over medium high heat till hot.  Add oil and swirl to coat.  Season ribs with salt and pepper.  Sear ribs until brown crust forms; 3-5 minutes per side.  Do not over crowd the pan.  Remove meat from the pan.  Pour off all but 2 tbsp. fat from pot.

Add onion, carrots and celery to pot.  Saute until caramelized, 5-7 minutes.  Add wine and deglaze the pan.  Cook until liquid is completely absorbed.  Add garlic, herbs and flour.  Stir to coat vegetables.  Saute 2 minutes to cook off flour taste.

Add 1 C. beef stock slowly, whisking constantly.  Liquid will thicken because of the flour.  Add beef back to pot.

Add tomatoes and bay leaf to pot and then just enough stock to reach 3/4 of the way up the meat.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Braise stove top or in a 300 degree oven until meat is tender and falling off the bone, approximately 2-2 1/2 hours.  Remove meat and bay leaf from pan, discard bay leaf.  Reduce liquid until it reaches a sauce consistency.  Add olives and heat through.  Serve sauce with meat and garnish with parsley.


So last Sunday I was looking at the recipe above.  I new I didn't have short ribs but I did have giant bone in pork chops.  Chris doesn't like olives but we both like onions and peppers.  I wasn't going to be home to braise it on the stove top but I have my trusty crock pot.  Here is what I made.

6 large bone in pork chops
salt, fresh cracked black pepper and garlic powder to taste
2 tbsp. grapeseed oil

In a large Dutch oven over high heat add grapeseed oil and swirl to coat the pot.  When the pan is screaming hot, add the pork chops one at a time and brown on both sides.  While the meat is browning, chop a large onion, and slice 3 red peppers.  Lay the peppers in the bottom of the crock pot and add the meat as it comes out of the Dutch oven.

Deglaze the pan after the chops are browned with some red wine.  Add some crushed garlic (3-4 cloves), the wine and brown bits from the pan, a 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes, a carton of beef broth and the onion.  Cook on low for 7 hours until meat is falling off the bones.

I served this with some pasta and garlic bread.

Minestrone Soup

I found this in a recent Better Homes and Gardens.  I'll be looking for some meat free soup for Lent.  This will work for sure.  You could probably switch out garbanzos and use cannelini beans if you want.  I will also probably triple this recipe so I can share it with my mother in law---it makes a pretty small batch.

1 28oz. can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
1 14 to 15oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed.
1 C. low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 C. dry rigatoni or penne pasta
2 to 3 C. baby spinach
Shaved Parmesan cheese to taste

In a Dutch oven, combine the tomatoes, 2 C. water, beans, broth, sweet pepper, seasoning and pasta.  Bring to boiling over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium.  Cook, covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, just until pasta is barely tender.

Stir in spinach.  Ladle into individual bowls.  Top with Parmesan cheese.

Raspberry Almond Coffeecake

This recipe made the blog because I love raspberries and I love almonds.  Sometimes life is simple.

1 C. fresh raspberries
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/3 C. sugar
1 C. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 C. sour cream
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 C. sliced almonds

Icing
1/4 C. confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsp. 2% milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla

In a bowl, combine raspberries and brown sugar; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a small, bowl, whisk the egg, sour cream, butter and vanilla.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon have of the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch round baking pan.  Top with raspberry mixture.  Spoon the remaining batter over raspberries; sprinkle with almonds.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes before removing from  pan to a wire rack.  In a small bowl, combine icing ingredients.  Drizzle over coffee cake and serve warm.

Puppy Chow

This is a fan favorite at the Super Bowl party we go to.  I personally think it is something that you could eat all 9 cups mindlessly while watching a football game you don't care about!  Oh wait, you didn't hear that from me.  It  is good though, and pretty easy to make.


1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
9 cups Crispix cereal (any flavor)
3 cups powdered sugar


1. Combine peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.

2. Microwave for one minute then stir to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir well.

3. Place the 9 cups of Crispix cereal in a very large bowl.
4. Pour the peanut butter-chocolate mixture over the cereal and toss evenly, making sure all the cereal gets a good covering.
5. Place the powdered sugar in a large zip-lock type plastic bag.
6. Add the peanut butter-chocolate cereal mixture to the bag, leaving enough room for the puppy chow to be shaken (you may have to divide the mixture into smaller batches, coating one batch at a time).
7. Shake the bag vigorously to evenly coat each piece of the puppy chow with powdered sugar.
8. Once the mixture is fully coated, place in a large serving bowl.
9. Coat any additional pieces by shaking the mixture in the powdered sugar filled bag.  Add powdered sugar to the bag as needed until all the mixture is coated.

Rigatoni 2 Ways

OK, I made this last week for dinner with the family for January birthdays and was asked for the recipe today. I didn't have a recipe, I just kind of made it out of my head.  I used my homemade meatball recipe found in this blog.  Normally, my meatballs are slightly smaller than the tennis ball.  But for the rigatoni I made them  about the size of large gumballs.

I also took mild Italian sausage from the Poot, sliced it into chunks again about the size of large gumballs and put them in a baking dish with marinara sauce and cooked them in the oven at 300 degrees for about 3 hours.

I did all of this the week before the party and froze the meatballs and the sausage mixture.

The day of the party I made 3lbs of rigatoni according to package directions.  I also put together some crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce in two Dutch ovens; one for the meatballs and one for the sausage.  I added some sugar to cut the acid, some Italian seasoning, some basil, garlic powder and onion powder.  Simmer until the noodles are ready to work with.

Once the pasta was cooked and drained I pulled out 3 baking dishes.  I then layered, sauce, pasta, meat and then shredded cheese until the pan was filled.  I made one pan with just meatballs, one with just sausage and one mixed.  Kraft has an Italian blend of shredded cheese which is what I used and I thought it gave it nice flavor.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes until bubbly and cheese is starting to brown.

Warm Goat Cheese in Marinara

We have gone to a local restaurant called Cucina Paradiso many times and they have an appetizer that pairs goat cheese, pesto and marinara over crostini.  This is close.  The goat cheese makes this dish.

Freeze one 4oz. log goat cheese for 15 minutes.  Unwrap and cut into 1/2 inch slices.  Combine 1 C. marinara and 2 tbsp. minced fresh basil in a small shallow baking dish.  Top with goat cheese slices; sprinkle with cracked black pepper to taste.  Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until heated through.  Serve warm with toasted baguette slices.

Red Beans and Rice Soup

OK, I have a recipe from a friend for chicken and wild rice soup which I had a taste for recently.  When I went to the pantry, I didn't have all of the ingredients so I improvised and this is what I came up with.  It's in the crock pot now and I just did a taste test and it wasn't too bad.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used lowfat and low sodium)
1 can tomato soup
1 pkg. Zatarains red beans and rice with seasonings
1 1/2 cartons chicken broth
2 soup cans water
Kosher salt to taste
Cajun seasoning to taste

Place chicken in the crock pot and the rest of the ingredients on top.  Cook on low 4-5 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.  Remove chicken and shred.  Put shredded chicken back in the crock pot and warm through.