Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

This isn't a gourmet meal but it's quick, easy, and yummy.  I had these at my sister's baby shower and knew I would want to make them sometime.  The lady who made me told the basics of what she did so I went on-line and found what I thought was a similar recipe and then made adaptions of what was used for the ones I ate.

I found this recipe here at Tasty Kitchen.

FOR THE SANDWICHES:
8 whole Sandwich Rolls (or 16 Dinner Rolls) *
½ pounds Ham, Any (sliced Thin Or Chopped)
½ pounds Cheese, Any Variety That Melts Well *

FOR THE ONION BUTTER:**
8 Tablespoons Salted Butter
½ cups Finely Minced Onion **
3 Tablespoons Prepared Mustard, Any (the More Flavorful, The Better)**
1 teaspoon Poppy Seeds
1 teaspoon Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

Preparation Instructions
To make the onion butter, combine ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat gently just until the butter is melted and all the ingredients are well combined. Cool to a spreadable consistency.

To prepare sandwiches, place roll bottoms, cut side up on a sheet pan. Spread some onion butter evenly onto each of the halves (use about half of the onion butter for this step), top with 1/2 the cheese, next add all the ham, now add remaining cheese, and end with the rest of the onion butter. Top with the roll tops, cover pan with foil, and heat in a 300F oven for 10-15 minutes until the sandwiches are heated through and the cheese melts.

Note: Sandwiches can be assembled up to 2 days in advance, but store them in an airtight container to control the smell of raw onions in your fridge.

* I used Hawaiian rolls, 16 pack and pepperjack cheese.  I split the rolls down the middle put the onion butter on them then layered them with cheese, ham, then more cheese!  I put the top half on then cut them into the rolls and put more of the butter mixture on them.

**  I only prepared half the butter mixture and I felt that was plenty.  I also used 1tsp of onion powder instead of onions and I used honey mustard.

These were tasty both me and hubby liked them.  Our 2 year old son not so much but maybe it was the butter mixture.  They were also good the next day warmed up.  We just ate with chips and a pickle!  Nothing fancy but for some weeknights it does the job and it's better and cheaper than going out to eat!!:)

Grilled Thai Beef Salad ~ page107

This was my first Ellie recipe--and it will be a repeat! I actually did not have very high expectations of this recipe, not being  familiar with flank steak, but the flavors of this salad and the beef were a wonderful surprise!  This made a perfect main dish for a hot summer evening.

I cooked my flank steak for about 8 minuets per side--though Ellis recommends 5 minuets per side. The center of the steak does need to be quite pink--leaning toward red. I served this salad with the Garlic Fries on page 265--outstanding combination of recipes!

Spicy Pulled Pork

I looked all over for pork shoulder and couldn't find it pre-packaged. James discovered for me that pork butt and pork shoulder are interchangeable (one and the same?), so I looked for pork butt. Finally I asked the butcher at the meat counter and he wandered back to the fridge, took out a giant cut of meat, and sliced me off a 5.9 lb. pork butt/shoulder.

I evidently need a larger food processor if I want to cook anything else for a crowd. I made this for our dinner for 8 (church) group last night, and I was worried I wouldn't have enough room for all the ingredients in my 2 cup food chopper. It worked, barely, and I made a mess pouring it out as it was sloshing out the top and dripping through the middle.


The pork was really tender after 6 hours in the oven and stayed moist. I'm still letting my dutch oven soak, so hopefully all the blackened juices and spices will come off alright. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meat and voiced their appreciation for the meal. I thought it was good, though the flavor didn't seem that strong. The limes were a nice touch. Even with 6 other people dining with us, we still have a lot left over. It's a great dish for a crowd and good with pico de gallo, tortillas, and guacamole.

Lasagna

James was excited about this lasagna, having heard good things about it from a friend. Not remembering to read previous posts, I cooked the whole box of lasagna.

It was pretty easy to put together; it just took time to cook and simmer the meat mixture. The sausage with the ground beef was really good. I didn't have fresh herbs, but I'm sure it would have been better with those. I'm not a big lasagna fan, but my husband appreciated it and agreed with previous posters in naming it one of the best lasagna's. It's definitely the best lasagna I've made, since it's my first time to make it! I liked the idea posted about putting the noodles in one at a time; if I had remembered that then my noodles would have cooked a little more evenly. Not that it mattered; having made the whole box, I could just choose the best ones.

Cowboy Calzone (with PW pizza crust)

These turned out really well, I thought, though we decided the pizza crust was too "wheat-y." I made the pizza crust with 1/2 all purpose flour and 1/2 whole-wheat flour, so they were thicker than regular pizza crust. I've never had success with homemade pizza crusts, so I was pleased that this worked out so well. Next time I think I would just follow her recipe and it would be perfect.

James says that PW uses a lot of ground beef. It was hearty, but I liked how filling and easy to make it was. I ran out of pizza dough before I ran out of filling, so I had to freeze a large portion of the meat and cheese mixture. I bet you could make a bunch of these ahead of time, freeze them, and then just cook the amount you needed.

Pizza Crust, Potato-Leek Pizza & Tomato-Basil Pizza

We LOVED this pizza crust!! I was a little nervous to tackle it (prior to making this crust, I had exactly one disastrous experience making a bread product involving yeast), but it was incredibly easy to make and it turned out delicious! We will definitely be making this again, and again, and again... :) Out of the two pizza recipes in the cookbook, my hubbie definitely preferred the tomato-basil pizza (he said that the potato-leek pizza tasted like a "baked potato with cheese" - not his bag when it comes to pizza, I guess!). If a baked potato pizza sounds good to you, though, be sure to slice your potatoes PAPER THIN, or you'll end up with a crunchy baked potato pizza. On the tomato-basil pizza, my only recommendation is to go light on the pesto - if you use too much, it can get a little oily. Otherwise, enjoy! This is a great pizza crust!

Spicy Pulled Pork

We were fairly happy with how the spicy pulled pork turned out, but I think I made a mistake by using my slow cooker instead of roasting the pork in the oven. My hubbie thought the meat wasn't crispy enough (which I'm pretty certain would not have happened if I had used the oven as PW suggested). Otherwise, though, I thought this was a very simple recipe to throw together early in the day - and it went great with black beans and rice and fried plantains. If anyone's interested in another pulled pork recipe - I HIGHLY recommend Carissa's pulled pork recipe (e-mail her for it - you won't regret it!). :)

Beans and Cornbread

In preparing this dish I decided to put my own spin on it but still using the recipe in the PW cookbook as my guide. I opted for using a crock pot so I would be able keep the beans warm since I prepared the dish early in the afternoon. I also used regular bacon instead of the thick-cut bacon because I had it already. In the cookbook, she gave additional seasonings that could be used and I chose to use the following: 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon of garlic, and ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I also added some additional seasonings I thought would add to the taste. I added 1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic, ½ a red onion (she recommended it as an optional garnish) and a small amount of parsley. I like to season my food before I cook it, so I added all of these seasonings as well as the salt and pepper at the start of the cooking process. After the beans cooked for 3 hours, I then turned the temperature on the crock pot to keep warm and let them continue to simmer until dinner time. Cook it and forget it! :)

I hate to admit this but I took the easy way out with the cornbread. I used a pre-packaged cornbread mix, but I did try to stick with the theme. I bought “Pioneer” brand. I topped the beans off with fat free sour cream and cheddar cheese. When my husband ate his second serving he did not add the cheese and said he liked it better that way. All in all, the dish was very tasty and easy to make.

Potato-Leek Pizza, pg.110

This is the recipe that has most intrigued me about this cookbook. I kept hoping someone else would make it to hopefully answer the BIG question with this recipe....DO THE POTATOES WORK? But I gave up and decided to find the answer myself. First off, the crust in absolutely lovely.

I must admit, I did do 2 things different though, so now I don't know how much they added to the "wonderfulness" of my crust. I used the last of my Italian Bread Flour I had bought some time ago from King Arthur Flour. Also, I used a spice from KAF called, Pizza Dough Enhancer. My husband said I messed up big time, and now we don't know if this is truly a wonderful crust recipe or not...

I have a trick I like for baking pizza crust: I sprinkle the pan with cornmeal (rather than oil, like PW suggests). It seems that makes the pizza kind of "float" above the surface of the pan to make the crust crispier. And I used my handy pizza roller instead of my fingers to spread the dough. (It is a lovely dough to work with.)

Here is my next "cheat:" I sprinkled the oiled top of the crust with a special pizza seasoning that has salt in it, rather than just the plain salt the recipe calls for. I was very fugal with the spice though, as I feared getting the whole thing too salty. I would use more next time. This pizza needs salt. We were salting it at the table (and I don't even use much salt normally)
NOW FOR THE POTATOES....I laid awake nights thinking about these potatoes...imagining if they would cook or not, and if not, would raw potatoes taste very good on pizza?? The whole idea just really threw me for a loop. I finally decided I would just make the pizza like she said with raw potatoes....then halfway through arranging the slices on the crust, I quickly picked them all back up again. I just could not imagine this was going to be a good idea. So I decided to cook them a little first.

I put the slices in a microwave bowl and nuked them for one minute. They seemed about half cooked with that, and so I settled down and put them back on the pizza. Oh--one more change (sorry!) I sent hubby to the store for 3 leeks and he came back with one, claiming at $1.78 each, he was not buying 3 of them! (Hubby is very frugal.) So I felt I must fill in a bit. I added some sliced onion, since they are similar, ( I guess) then I decided I needed to use up the last of some fresh spinach. I did not have any bacon, but I do always have bacon grease in my fridge (it is how I grew up!).So I sauteed the leeks and onion in the bacon grease. I am not sure it is quite the "not to be believed" flavor PW thinks it is...but I am a fan of bacon grease, so I was sure it would be nice.

 

I did use only half the amount of fresh mozzarella, after reading on the package that 1 pound is 16 servings! So I used half (she said you could freeze it, so I did.)...plus I used less of the goat cheese just because I think it is quite strong tasting. My cheese situation worked just fine. Oh, and I layered the raw spinach under the cheese. I think spinach should be included in the recipe. It paired perfectly with everything else.

So what is the verdict on the potatoes?? I was wrong. I think I would have preferred the potatoes half raw, like they probably are if you don't pre-cook them a bit like I did. Mine were soft enough to feel a bit out of place on the pizza I think. I just had this feeling that a little crunch in the potato would be a good thing.  I kind of think PW should have said that, to reassure ones like me to not go changing it up! All in all though--we liked this pizza. I served it with a soup because I feared my husband, who does not like potatoes, would maybe not eat it,  so I figured he could eat the soup then. I did have to hold my breath when he took a bite, then dug into the pizza with his finger and proclaimed, " What is this...is this a POTATO!!" But then he just went on eating it like it did not bother him a bit. However, I think this pizza goes very well with soup, as it almost seemed like bread with a vegetable/cheese topping on it.

I will make this again. We really did enjoy it. (We had leftovers twice, and it heated up nicely.) The other half of my crust dough is still in the fridge....haven't decided what to do with it yet.

Janice Makes Baby-Sized Braised Beef Brisket

My husband has this odd thing he likes to do—he loves to trim and cut up large hunks of meat and package them in small portions for the freezer. (He also loves to debone a chicken—even 2 or 3 at a time—weird, I know, but handy for me!) So I had one of his 2 pound brisket portions in my freezer from his last big butcher party with a humongous brisket, and decided to use that for this recipe.  However, I no longer had that big hunk of fat on top the brisket, as hubby really likes to trim lean, so there was not much of that fat layer left. 

I was unable to locate the beef consume, but I found beef stock, so used that instead. I didn’t put the stock in the marinade, however, but rather added it just before baking.  I wanted to marinade in a zip lock baggie, so that I could turn the meat over every few hours so all side would sit in the liquid. I thought the beef stock would make too much liquid for my baggie. I marinated for 24 hours, then poured the brisket and liquids into my pan and added some of the stock. Since my brisket was much smaller than PW’s, I just kind of guessed at the appropriate amounts for the marinade.  

I cooked my small 2 pound brisket for 2 hours, then let it sit covered for another 30 minutes before slicing. (PW suggests about 40 min./pound.) Hubby was really hanging out in the kitchen cause it smelled really, really good…so he took over the slicing (so he could nibble!).

My meat was very tender, but did not fall apart as much as PW’s.  I wondered if that was because it had almost no fat on it. It also seemed to need a lot of salt at the table, and I wondered if that had anything to do with the fat-free meat too…

The leftovers are going to be very good…I will probably get 3 more meals out of this meat…I think some of it will wind up in some BBQ sauce for sure.

Simple, Perfect Enchiladas with Pinto Beans

These are wonderful enchiladas--fun to make and delicious.  I did a few small changes. I used a medium enchilida sauce for a little heat (vey little).  I thought the meat needed some seasonings, so I added a few shakes of seasoned salt and cumin and black pepper. Also, to save a step, I mixed the green onions, olives, and  cheese into my meat mixture, since it was all going to the same place anyway!

The tortillas roll best if you don't put too much meat mixture in them. Which then gave me 19 tortillas, and enough meat for 2 more--but I just got tired of going back to heat more tortillas to use.

I made one pan with foil to put in the freezer.

I used 4 cups of grated cheese (PW calls for 3 cups) and I still did not think it was enough. Husband said more cheese is needed inside the enchilada.  I would say you need more like 5-6 cups of grated cheese--especially if you are making 2 dishes.

The pinto beans were great. I added a ham hock, which flavor beans so nicely all on its own. I normally pre-soak beans--but these turned out fine without that step. I did cook them a good long while--probably more like 4-5 hours. I like my beans pretty soft.

My husband was interested in the tortilla rolling--so I gave him the camera to take action shots!

Add some Spanish rice, and this is a wonderful meal! I am sure you could make these enchaladas up even a day ahead and then cook them--which would be great, as my kitchen was quite a mess by the time we ate!

Meatloaf

I have always wanted to try to make meatloaf but worried I would mess it up too bad. But last night I gave it a whirl and made PW’s Meatloaf for dinner. Having a 15 month old at home, anything that I can do to save time when cooking, I will try. So I made the sauce and meat mixture earlier in the day and just kept it in the refrigerator. Actually, I found that letting the meat mixture sit for a couple of hours really allowed the flavors to set in. The sauce was very sweet to me, so I did add a lot of hot sauce to it but found it really didn’t take any of the sweetness away. I would recommend that if you do not like a sweeter sauce, to cut back on the amount of brown sugar. I found this dish not to be your typical meatloaf that your mom used to make but it was still very good. For my first time attempting meatloaf I was happy with the results as well as my husband and son. I will be making this dish again but next time I will add garlic powder as well as finely chopped onions to it.I really liked her suggestion for the aluminum foil. It made for an easy clean-up!

Roast and Dinner Rolls

I made the roast tonight and only made one change.  I added potatoes.  Roast is my husbands favorite meal, and if I attempted to not have potatoes in there....well it would not have been pretty. :)

Knowing my husband is not a fan of rosemary I decided to add it in and not tell him...He actually loved this!  He was surprised by the rosemary and said that he thought it gave it a nice different flavor.  He voted this his favorite.  So yes, we'll be making this again!!!

I also found a recipe on PW's blog for dinner rolls and made those.  They were pretty easy to make (yay!) and sweet.  The one thing about them is the bottoms cooked a bit more than I would have liked.  I might cook them for a shorter amount of time next time and also use a different pan. 

Mine also were not as pretty as PW's.  I am not sure what happened....she says the dough is slightly sticky but that you should be able to roll the dough in your hands.  She even shows this in her blog but for me that didn't work.  The dough was crazy sticky so I used my cookie scoop (a mini ice cream scoop) so they weren't nearly as good looking but still tasty!

I also halfed this recipe and got 15 huge rolls!

Cowboy Calzone

What a better way to start off the week than cooking my first dish from the newest cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks". I decided to cook the Cowboy Calzone for dinner and it was very good! In my opinion, this dish would also make an excellent breakfast dish. To help save some time, I made the cheese mixture earlier in the day and just left it in the refrigerator till I started cooking. I did add a little extra of both shredded cheeses than what the recipe calls for because my son loves cheese. Also, as I was cooking the meat mixture, I added a little garlic powder too. Our family thinks garlic makes everything better. :) After making the eight calzones, there was still a lot of the meat mixture left. So I made some more crust (self-rising flour, salt, water) while the calzones were cooking and created a casserole with the left- over meat. Then while we ate, I cooked the casserole. After it cooled, I refrigerated it. We had this for dinner the following night. I topped off the casserole with marina sauce and served it with a salad. One recipe turned into two yummy meals. Now that is my kind of cooking! My husband and son liked both versions of the dish, so I will definitely be making it again.
-Michelle

Beans (without the cornbread)

This was a yummy, fairly easy recipe. Initially, I covered the beans with too much water, so I had to scoop some of it out at the end. In the future, I will only cover the beans by about 1 inch instead of 2. I also added a teaspoon of chicken-flavored Better than Bouillon - my mom says that the stuff just makes everything taste better, and it definitely improved the flavor of the beans (which I thought needed a little something extra even after I added the salt and pepper to the mix). I ended up fishing out the bacon once the beans were done. I guess I don't like bacon that isn't crispy, and it just didn't look appetizing to me. I might still use bacon the next time I make this recipe, but maybe I'll just throw in a couple of whole pieces so that they can flavor the beans, but still be easy to remove from the pot once I'm ready to serve them. Once the beans were fully cooked, I added in some chopped up sausage that I had fried up in a skillet and the combination was very good. I served it over rice with sour cream, cheese, chopped onions, and Tabasco sauce. I did serve it with cornbread, but I cheated and used a mix, so I'll have to test out the cornbread recipe another time...

Macaroni and Cheese

Mac and Cheese- the real kind- is a BIG treat in our house, usually only at holiday's.  I was intrigued to try her recipe- because my favorite is made with 4 different types of cheeses. 

I cut everything in half and it made a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish worth- plenty for the 3 of us and leftovers.  I also always use the big macaroni and enjoy it more.  The small macaroni noodles seem to get mushier faster.

I made this the day ahead and it dried out a bit too much- I would put it together and cook right away. 

The one mistake I made was I didn't measure the dry mustard- and it had too much in it! But, the taste of the dry mustard was a nice addition.  I also added paprika, just cause we love it.

We will make this one again!

Chicken Pot Pie

Little did the PW know that she was going to be in a cooking duel since chicken pot pie is a staple in our house. It being such a HUGE favorite, I have baked many and practically perfected the accepted recipe in our house. I was interested to see how this recipe would be received, though I still couldn’t help myself and added a few of my own variations. I substituted milk for the heavy cream, and completely omitted the wine. To save time on my own chicken pot pie recipe I never cook the chicken (and I wasn’t about to start with this recipe); instead I buy one of the pre-made chickens at Kroger (in the savory flavor), which typically yields 2 ½- 3 cups of chicken and I include it all. I also don’t make my own pie crust unless it’s a holiday or special occasion (a personal rule), so I used a premade pie crust. I have always seen chicken pot pie with a bottom crust and a top crust covering the ooey gooey chicken goodness, but the PW only had the top crust. Of course I couldn’t have just one, so I used a top and a bottom pie crust so it was more like a pocket. While baking, I recommend putting a baking sheet on the shelf below the pot pie, just in case it starts to bubble over. We could tell a difference between the PW’s recipe and mine, but it wasn’t a bad difference. Like everything we have tried so far, it was really delicious. I think the only reason I would stick with my recipe is because mine seems to be a bit faster.

Here are all of the ingredients…looks a bit like a Kroger advertisement, doesn’t it? Chicken Pot Pie page 126

Lasagna

On the PW blog this is referred to as "The Best Lasagna. Ever"! I wouldn't go that far but it is good....we gave it a 9! Daniel's complaint was that it wasn't very saucy it was more meaty.

I followed more of the blog recipe. It wasn't to different but she uses sliced mozarella cheese and dried herbs. I also halved the recipe except for the hamburger meat I used 1.11lb b/c that was the smallest one they had. And I would say that worked out perfectly with halving everything else. We like the addition of the sausage and don't be afraid to use the hot....I was at first but went for it and you can't even tell it's "hot".

My one complaint is it's VERY cheesey and I love cheese! It calls for the mozerella on both layers but next time I'm just going to put it on one.

A good tip she put on her blog and it actually said it on the lasgna noodle box was to lie them flat once you shock them in the cold water. PW says use tin foil and the box said a towel...I used tin foil and paper towels on top and it worked wonderfully! Then I used the foil to cover it when we put it in the fridge so it wasn't wasteful.

Another good tip from the noodle box was to add a tbsp of olive oil to the pan and put the noodles in one at a time until they are flexible and then add the next one. This worked like a champ none of mine broke or stuck together!! Oh, and it only takes 8 noodles unless you really like noodles then you could probably do 10 if you overlap them a lot.

Finished product - we got about 7 servings I would say!

Chicken-Fried Steak and the PW’s Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Red meat + mashed potatoes + gravy = one very happy husband. I made this dish Monday night and I had a feeling that it was going to go over well; I was right. I followed the chicken-fried steak recipe exactly according to the PW. For the mashed potatoes, I substituted regular milk for the heavy cream, because I felt like I was clogging an artery by simply looking at the list of ingredients. I really didn’t find either recipe that time consuming or difficult, and they were definitely yummy. My husband said that the mashed potatoes were the best he has ever tasted(my thought was, “well they better be considering how terrible they are for you”). Judging from the smile on my husband’s face as he was eating this dish, I know that we will be making both of these recipes again. Thanks PW for bringing a smile to my Marlboro Man’s face!

Chicken-Fried Steak with Gravy (page 142) and PW’s Creamy Mashed Potatoes (page 146). Here is my version of the PW’s assembly line to “drudged” the meat through, followed by the finished product.

Cowboy Calzone

In the past, I have only made pizza type calzones, so this one sounded very interesting to us.  We liked them very much.  I was a bit hesitant using Hot breakfast sausaage, as we do not like very spicy foods, but the little bit of hot was good when mixed with the plain hamburger meat.  I thought it was very interesting she didn't use any extra spices.

I did add an extra step and drained the meat in a strainer so it wasn't too "liquidy" in the calzone

I was only making calzones for 2 of us, so I made 6 calzones total and wrapped three in saran wrap and foil, labeled them and froze them for a quick lunch or dinner. 

Yummy!

The extra dough I made individual cheese pizzas for my 18mth old son.  Unfortunetly, he was not a fan- oh well!