Sunday, February 27, 2011

Swedish Meatballs




This recipe is dedicated to my wonderful nieces and nephews who when coming over our house always immediately ask, "Did you make Swedish meatballs!?!"

1 bag pre-made small size meatballs
1 32oz jar grape jelly - any brand
2 12oz jars chili sauce

In large pot add grape jelly over medium heat until all of the lumps are gone
add 2 jars of chili sauce
add meat balls

Cook until meat balls are hot. Serve or transfer to slow cooker to keep warm.


Second way to make them

1 bag pre-made small size meatballs
3 packages McCormicks Brown gravy packets

Cook brown gravy packets according to package directions. Once heated add meatballs until hot and serve or transfer to slow cooker to keep warm.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Lasagna




Lasagna……To make 1 lasagna

Sauce recipe - cooled
1 large package ground meat
1 package (6) sweet sausage
1 bunch of parsley
1 Large Ricotta
1 egg
1 Large Mozzarella grated (at least a pound) or chopped into small cubes
1 Package Lasagna Noodles
Foil pan. I get the next deeper pan than the lasagna pans they sell in the store are. It’s more like a roaster pan I think. Look at how deep it is from the lasagna pans.

Take the ground meat and the sausage meat and do exactly like my meatball recipe (previous post) except brown the mixture in some olive oil instead of making little meatballs. Break the ground meat into small pieces. The chop meat should be as small as you can get it. I put mine through the food processor on pulse to make it smaller. If you don't have one, break it up with the wooden spoon as it cooks. Let this cool by separating ½ of it into a wide bowl and take the pan from the heat and let the rest cool in the pan. Drain any oil away from the chop meat.

While your noodles are boiling mix the ricotta with the egg and a handful of chopped parsley set aside.

Once your noodles are done, make sure they are not mushy so take them out when they are still a little hard. Run them off in cold water to stop the cooking. Leave your pot in the sink with the noodles and just drain off enough water to reach the noodles. Start lifting noodles out of the pot and laying them over the edge of the pot to dry off.
If you go to start layering and they are too wet just blot with paper towel.
You will now layer following in this order

Sauce
Noodles
Ricotta – plop like 3 or 4 heaping tablespoons over the whole pan of noodles…
Put a tablespoon of sauce on each pile of ricotta and spread around the noodles in the pan to cover. Adjust the ricotta as needed to cover everything.
Sprinkle the ground meat over that layer of ricotta
Sprinkle the mozzarella over the meat and then drizzle sauce over that--Like one drizzle over a row of noodles.
Repeat until your almost to the top. The last layer of noodles just gets sauce spread evenly over the noodles and then a lot of mozzarella. Bake at 350 until bubbling. If it’s getting too brown you can tent it with foil and continue to bake. If you put it in the oven right after making it should take about ½ hr 45 min. If you are going warm it up after being cooked and in the fridge you should take it out of the fridge for at least 2 or 3 hours and then bake it with foil on the top for about ½ hour or more. Use the butter knife in the middle test to see if it’s hot.

If you are making 2 at the same time I would actually buy 2 large ricotta and 1 med size and 3 large mozzarella.

Any left over noodles you can make lasagna roll ups with it. In a flat plate take a lasagna noodle, spread a thin layer of sauce, then ricotta then chop meat then mozzarella. Roll up and place in a baking dish that has sauce on the bottom. Spread sauce on top and top with mozzarella. Bake at 350 for ½ hour or until hot.
Or you can boil some pasta like ziti or rigatoni until aldente drain and place in a baking pan, spread sauce and remaining ricotta and meat mix well and top with mozzarella and bake at 350 until bubbling .

Also, if you just have the meat left over you can put that in a zip lock bag and freeze it. The next time you make a quick sauce you can throw the meat in and make a meat sauce…..It’s quick that way.

The one you've been waiting for- Sauce and Meatballs





Sauce - 4 large cans of crushed tomatoes with basil (try to get Progresso),Only open 3 cans to start. I usually run each can through the blender one can at a time. I don’t like large chunks in the sauce.
1 can tomato paste (try to get Contadina),
Olive Oil (enough to coat the bottom of a large pot)
1 piece of pork (the meat dept usually has a small piece of pork in a package and it’s for sauce-or get a thick pork chop)
2 sausage links from meatball recipe package
1 medium size sweet onion (Vadilla or it will say sweet onion) sliced thin
1 large container of sweet basil or 2 small packages chopped

In a large pot cover bottom with a thin layer of olive oil. Over medium heat, sauté the onion with the piece of pork and the 2 sausage links just till lightly browned. Add 3 cans of tomatoes (rinse cans with a little water about ¼ of the can and add that water to your pot) and bring to a slow boil. Start to make meatballs (recipe below) and carefully drop meatballs into sauce. When all the meatballs are in stir slowly from the bottom of the pot and be careful not to break up the meatballs. You may have to raise the heat for awhile to get it to bubble. (If the pot looks like it needs more sauce add the 4th can in) Bring to a slow boil again and partly cover the pot. Watch the pot so it doesn’t boil too hard or you will burn the sauce on the bottom of the pot. Always stir from the bottom of the pot and bring that sauce to the top. Let simmer slowly for at least 2 hours. At this point you can add the basil. If sauce looks too watery you can add the can of tomato paste. Let simmer again with the lid off for awhile.
To make Bolognese sauce – instead of making meatballs use that same recipe and brown that mixture in a fry pan. Drain the fat off and make the same sauce without the meat. Add browned meat to your sauce and later before ready to serve add about ½ pint of half and half cream slowly until it turns a little pink. You can get cavetelli for this.



Meatballs – 1 large package ground beef (90%),
1 pkg of sweet sausage (usually a package of 8 links),
Fresh garlic,
Fresh onion, regular
Fresh parsley,
Bread crumbs,
Grated locatelli cheese
1 large egg.

In a large bowl take ground beef and 6 of the 8 sausage links and take the meat out of the casing. Add sausage meat to ground beef. Add crushed cloves of garlic (5-6 or more depending on the size), 1 small onion through the mini chop, fresh parsley chopped (enough that filled the mini chop with fresh leaves) 2 hands of breadcrumbs, 5 table spoons of grated cheese and 1 large egg.
Mix well together; it shouldn’t be too wet to the touch it should feel pastey. If it is, slowly add more bread crumbs and cheese a table spoon at a time. Put aside for now.

The meatball recipe is the same for the meat for Lasagna too.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Spicy Shrimp Linguini



Spicy Shrimp Linguini

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion(s), chopped
6 clove(s) garlic clove(s), chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes (plain)
1 can of diced tomatoes with oregano
1/4 cup(s) red wine
2 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground
1 pound(s) shrimp, large, peeled and deveined
3/4 pound(s) uncooked pasta, linguine variety
1/4 cup(s) parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a very large nonstick skillet, then add the onions and garlic. Sauté until golden, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, wine, oregano, crushed pepper, salt, sugar, and ground pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the flavors are blended and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. 

Add the shrimp to the sauce and simmer, uncovered, until the shrimp are just opaque, about 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook the linguine according to package directions; drain and place in a large serving bowl. Toss at once with the sauce and sprinkle with the parsley.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Peach Sangria




One nice Thursday afternoon, Jen called on her lunch break, just like she always did.
"Hey mom, how's your day?"
"Oh crap, I just spilled the vodka"
"Umm... mom... it's 2:00 on a Thursday... why are you spilling vodka??"
"I'm making Peach Sangria for our girls night!"

1 (750)milliter bottle of white wine.  I used Chardonay
3/4 cup peach flavored vodka
6 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/4 cup white sugar
1 jar peaches with juice
then any fruit you want.  Strawberries, grapes, oranges, apples etc
Lemon/Lime seltzer to taste

In a large pitcher combine white wine, peach vodka, lemonade concentrate and sugar.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add peaches, and the fruit of your choice.  Refrigerate sangria until well chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight to blend flavors.  Before serving add lemon/lime seltzer to taste.  Enjoy.

**Courtesy of Mama Smith

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Superbowl- Pulled Pork




This Sunday marks one of my family's favorite holidays: Superbowl! I am a HUGE football fan. There may or may not have been a time I bought a big screen TV for the kitchen just in case the Jets made it to the Superbowl. While my Jets didn't go all the way (J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!) we still all come together and watch the game every year.

Friends of ours made it to the finals in a tailgate competition. They will be bringing their Jets bus and grill all the way to Dallas for the finals. Good Luck to the Winters Brothers!




Investing in a slow cooker is a great idea. It's easy to set and forget plus you can pack it to bring over to the party right in the cooker to keep it warm. Here's a great recipe for game day or any day.

Pulled Pork:
Ingredients

1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle root beer
1 (18 ounce) bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce
8 hamburger buns
Additions: You can also get Scoops chips, guacamole, or sour cream to add

Directions
Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker; pour the root beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours. Drain well. Shred meat with two forks and stir in barbecue sauce. Set on low for another 30 minutes. Serve on hamburger buns or with Scoops or chips.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to Mama Corey's Kitchen! Everyone is always welcome and you can pretty much guarantee that I'll have enough food. This is your resource for recipes, cooking tips, and "mom advice". I've somehow become the go-to woman to call when you're lost in Walmart, can't remember what kind of meat you need for roast beef, or the car service man won't take you seriously.

I hope you enjoy my blog!

Mama Corey