Pinto Beans & Sausage

Beans & Rice are my comfort food. That and Lucky Charms.

This recipe makes a TON. We had it for days & I finally ended up freezing the rest. The beans taste best served over rice and topped with sharp cheddar.

The base is the refried bean recipe I use.

Ingredients:

2 onions, diced

6 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed

2 jalapenos, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
18 cups water
2 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs brown sugar

1 lb polish sausage, diced

Combine everything except the sausage in a large crockpot. Cook on high for 6 hours, add the sausage & more water if needed to keep the beans covered. Cook for 2 more hours on high. Taste (don't burn your tongue!) & add more salt, if needed. Ladle over steaming bowls of rice. Serves 99,342. Leftovers can be frozen & reheated in the microwave.

Country Style Ribs

Easy and delicious. That's a recurring theme around here.

Ingredients:

As many country style ribs as you want (we used 8 for the 8 of us)
garlic salt
your favorite bbq sauce (or teryaki even)

Place the ribs in a single layer in a baking dish. Sprinkle with garlic salt & bake, uncovered at 250F for 2 hours. Drain the grease & liquid and baste with bbq sauce. Bake for another 2 hours at 250F.

P.S. I recommend leaving the fat on while they're cooking. They taste so much better that way.

Ham Chowder

It's raining here today. That is good news. One, because I don't have to go anywhere. And two, because I can make soup for dinner! Soup is so much more appetizing when it is cold and rainy.

This is a soup that I started making several years ago from a recipe that used canned cream of mushroom soup and canned vegetables. I lost that recipe somewhere along the way, and have come up with my own version. My own version is subject to change, depending on what I have in the fridge & pantry. Today when I made it, I measured and wrote down what I used. You can pretty much use whatever vegetables you have.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

2 onions

8 cups potatoes, cut into chunks

2 cups green beans (2 cans would work, as well)

2 cups carrots, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup flour

8 cups chicken broth (I use bouillon and water)

2 cups diced, cooked ham

1 cup sour cream

1 cup milk

1/4 tsp pepper

Sautee veggies and butter in a large pot until veggies are just about tender. Stir in flour. Slowly stir in broth and cook over medium heat (stirring frequently) for 5 minutes. Add ham, sour cream, milk & pepper. Heat over low heat for 3-5 more minutes or until heated through. Serves an army, or about 8-10 people. You can easily halve this recipe.

Note:

If you use fresh green beans, you may want to steam them separately for a few minutes before you start. The potatoes were tender long before they were.

Pizza Roll

Pizza. One of the best inventions ever known to man. Tasty. Portable. Easy. Fairly cheap. And it contains all of the food groups, right?

We eat pizza at least once a week in one form or another. This recipe is a tasty changeup from the ordinary version. It also allows the eater to control the amount of sauce, which is a big plus if you have people in your family who don't like sauce.

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cup flour
1 pkg yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs oil
1 1/2 cups warm water

2 cups mozzarella
4 Tbs grated parmesan
8 ounces pepperoni

pizza sauce, for dipping


Make dough with the first 6 ingredients. Let it rise for 1 hour. Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Roll each half into a large rectangle, about 1/2-3/4" thick. Spread with pepperoni & sprinkle with the cheeses. Starting with a long side, roll the dough and pinch the seams to seal. Bake at 350F on a greased baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Serve with warm sauce, for dipping.

Note:
You can use almost anything for filling - like salami, or turkey & swiss, olives, spinach, etc... Or make it a breakfast roll, by using cooked sausage and cheddar in place of the pepperoni and mozzarella.

Unfried Rice

Fried rice, or Unfried rice, is a great way to make a little bit of meat and veggies go a long way. The sauce I use in it is salty & sweet and also makes a great marinade for meats. Soy sauce brands vary in flavor & saltiness, so you may want to taste the sauce as you go along (but before you add the garlic - trust me). You may need to add a little more water if it is too salty.

Sauce ingredients:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1 Tbs sesame oil
8 Tbs sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced

Remaining ingredients:
8 cups of hot, cooked rice
1/2 to 1lb diced cooked meat (I used some leftover pork loin in this batch)
1 onion chopped
2 cups mixed veggies (I used carrots, some leftover lima beans & salad greens)
2 eggs, beaten

Combine sauce ingredients in a small pot & heat until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Have a very large pot or bowl ready. (I used my turkey roaster.) Sautee each veggie seperately in a little oil and put them in the large pot. Do the same to the meat. Scramble the eggs & put them in the pot.

Put the rice in the pot, pour the sauce over and mix it all up. Serves 8.