Double Scallop Potatoes

Ingredients:

8 ounces cubed smoked ham
1/2 cup diced green onions
1 can condensed cream of potato (or condensed cheese soup)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 large unpeeled potatoes (about 2 pounds)
1/2 cup seasoned croutons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Cube ham and slice green onions. Crush croutons in a sandwich bag.

2. Combine ham, onions, soup, cream, salt and pepper in large bowl.

3. Thinly slice potatoes. Fold into soup mixture.

4. Pour soup mixture into baking dish and cover with foil.

5. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove and sprinkle crushed croutons over potatoes.

6. Return to oven and bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Easy Grilled Porkchops

Ingredients:

4 Boneless pork chops

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons your choice seasoning

I often make 2 with Weber N'Orleans Cajun seasoning and 2 with fresh Rosemary.

Pour olive oil in a freezer bag(s). Add seasoning and tilt bag so that you can mix the oil and seasoning by massaging the bag.

Add pork chops to bag and seal. Manipulate the bag and pork chops to ensure that all are equally covered. Place flat in fridge for 15 minutes.

Place on Foreman grill for 6-8 minutes or until 160 degrees in center. If cooking on an outdoor grill cook for 6-8 minutes on each side.

No Bake Twix Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 prepared chocolate pie crust

1 jar of Hershey's caramel sauce (located with ice cream toppings)

1 small bag of pecan pieces 

1 box of no bake plain cheesecake (Kroger brand works fine)

1 1/2 cup milk

3 packages of Twix

1. Place a small saucepan filled 2/3 full of water on stove on medium heat for 5 minutes.

2. Turn off heat. Remove lid from caramel sauce and place in water. Let caramel sit for 3-5 minutes or until warm so it is easier to pour.

3. Chop up half of the Twix bars in very thin pieces.

4. Pour a thin layer of caramel in the bottom of the pie crust.

5. Put chopped Twix on top of caramel in bottom of pie crust.

6. Prepare the cheesecake filling from the box as directed. Check box because the amount of milk required may be more or less depending on what brand you use. Typically you pour milk into mixing bowl and then add filing mix. Beat with hand mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes so filling thickens.

7. Pour filling into pie crust on top of caramel and Twix and refrigerate uncovered for one hour.

8. Chop remaining Twix into slightly larger pieces.

9. Remove cheesecake from fridge after one hour. Scatter Twix and nuts on top. Drizzle caramel on top. (The cheesecake pictured below has too much caramel on it. I didn't realize how much I had used until I pulled it out of the freezer so drizzle with caution!) If you need to heat it up in order to be able to pour it, only heat it slightly. You do not want it to be hot or even moderately warm.

10. Place in fridge for 2-3 hours or in the freezer for about 1 hour. The cheesecake needs to cool all the way through before serving.

Bistro Turkey Burgers

You can cook these over a grill with medium coals or on a Foreman grill.

Ingredients:

1 envelope of dry onion soup mix (divided)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of water
1 pound of lean ground turkey (lean = 93%)
1 egg white
2 tablespoons of snipped parsley
1 garlic clove (pressed) or 1/2 teaspoon of diced garlic in jar
1 yellow or red onion cut into 4 slices (1/2 inch thick slices)
4 slices of cheese (I use swiss)
4 onion rolls
4 tablespoons of honey mustard

*For a moist burger, you can also add 1/2 cup of grated carrots and 1/4 cup of chopped green onions to your ground turkey.*

 1. Combine 3 tablespoons of the onion soup mix with 2 tablespoons of water. Add turkey, egg white, parsley and garlic. Mix lightly but thoroughly and pat into 4 round patties, 1-2 inches thick.

2. For basting sauce combine remaining 1 tablespoon of soup mix with 1/4 cup of water. Heat in microwave for 30 seconds.

3. Place patties and onion slices on grill. Brush both with basting sauce. Grill uncovered for 5 minutes. Turn patties and onions, baste and grill 5-6 minutes or until meat is no longer pink in the center and the onions are tender. Put cheese on patties and let melt (approx. 1 minute) before removing from grill.

4. Place roll halves, cut side down on grill for 1-2 minutes or until lightly toasted.

5. Spread honey mustard on roll bottoms, place onion on roll tops with patties.

Side Notes:

You can prepare and shape the burgers in advance. Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to one day before grilling.

Fresh and Fruity and Surprisingly Refreshing

In order to make these, please read the Alabama Slammer post so you know the proper mixing methods. You can use the cheap liquor for these (except for the Hypnotic) but I have put the call brand names in parenthesis.

1/2 ounce = small side of jigger

1 ounce = large side of jigger

Bahama Mama Highball - Shake & Strain over ice

1/2 ounce light rum (Bacardi)

1/2 ounce coconut rum (Malibu)

1/2 ounce Creme de Banana

1/2 ounce Grenadine - buy this at the grocery store

1 1/2 ounces of orange juice

1 1/2 ounce pinapple juice

This goes in a tall/highball glass. The garnish is a pineapple wedge.

Blue Hawaiian Highball - Shake & Strain over ice

1 ounce light rum (Bacardi)

1/2 ounce blue curacao (if you have to ask for this at the store, it is pronounced "cure a sow" - think of a sick pig)

3 ounces of pineapple juice

1/2 ounce or a splash of sprite

This goes in a tall/highball glass. The garnish is a pineapple wedge and a cherry.

These two tequilla drinks are to be 'built on ice' in a tall/highball glass. That means you put the ice in the glass, and pour in the ingredients. Don't shake, strain or mix. It should always have a straw in it so that the person drinking it can mix it if they like. Build on ice drinks don't have garnishs.

When making tequilla drinks, I highly reccommend you get a call brand. Your head will thank you in the morning.

Tequilla Sunrise - Build on ice

1 ounce tequilla

2 ounces orange juice

Top with grenadine (1/2 ounce poured around the edge of the drink. It will settle slowly.)

Sunburn - Build on ice

1 ounce tequilla

1/2 ounce triple sec (Cointreau or Grand Marnier)

1 1/2 ounce cranberry juice.

Hypnotic Martini - Shake & Strain no ice

1 ounce Hypnotic

1/2 ounce coconut rum (Malibu)

1/2 ounce blue curacao - see above

1 ounce pineapple juice

This should be blue. Too much pineapple juice will make it green. Even if it turns green, it will still taste good its just that green drinks aren't visually appealing unless it's St. Patrick's Day. Just watch it as you add the pineapple juice.

This goes in a martini glass. It should be shaken and strained into a martini glass which means it gets no ice. The garnish for this is a glow stick but put whatever you want in it or nothing at all.

Alabama Slammer

Alabama Slammers are great tasting drinks. There are two versions, a highball and a shooter. Either one should come out the same color of the picture above or sometimes they look like dark orange juice. So if your end result looks like either, you probably mixed it right.

The main liquor in an Alabama Slammer is Southern Comfort (also very tasty with SunDrop.) Southern Comfort is a peach flavored whiskey that bartenders refer to as "pisky." It also has Sloe Gin in it. Sloe Gin is a berry flavored gin. It is really more of a cordial liquor than hard liquor because it is sweet and the alcohol content is low (usually 15-30%.) Typically you will find Sloe Gin with the cordials in a liquor store and not with the gin. Last but not least it has amaretto. Cheap amaretto will work for this recipe. It is not necessary to buy Disoronno which is pricey and the only top shelf brand of amaretto that I am aware of.

As for any drink recipe you really need a jigger and a shaker. If you don't have a jigger, find a measuring cup. If you purchase a shaker, the best ones are the tin shakers because the metal and ice will make the drink super cold. When you are at the store, check to make sure the strainer and top come off fairly easily. Sometimes the tops stick and they are a total pain in the ass. The only exception to the tin shaker is if you plan on making lots of gin martinis and then you should go with a plastic or glass shaker. Gin doesn't fair well in metal and I will explain that in a martini recipe later. If you don't have a shaker, find some kind of cup with a lid that you can shake without spilling it or put it in a tupperware bowl with a lid to shake it.... whatever works.

Now, if you have a shaker, put everything in your shaker, put the strainer part on and THEN put the top cap on. Most people put the strainer on with the cap on. It will trap air, not seal and expensive liquor and sticky juice will fly all over the place when you start shaking. Alcohol abuse such as this is never cute.

Alabama Slammer Shooter

1 ounce Southern Comfort (large side of jigger)
1/2 ounce of amaretto (small side of jigger)
1/2 ounce of sloe gin (small side of jigger)
Splash of orange juice

Put ice in your shaker, pour in your booze, shake it hard about 10 times and strain into a glass. *Make sure you really strain all your shooters. You don't want even one single piece of ice to slip into a shot. It's really a party foul for the shooter to start choking and that's usually what happens.*

Alabama Slammer Highball

1 ounce Southern Comfort (large side of jigger)
1/2 ounce of vodka (small side of jigger)
1/2 ounce of amaretto (small side of jigger)
1/2 ounce of sloe gin (small side of jigger)
2-3 ounces of orange juice

The only difference here is the vodka which is totally optional and that you use more orange juice. Shake it hard 10-15 times and strain it into a tall glass. I shake and strain all my drinks into a glass filled with ice. The ice in the shaker will be half melted after you shake it and fresh ice will make the drink colder.


If you want to get all fancy with it, you can garnish it with what bartenders call a flag. It is a cherry and an orange slice stuck together via plastic sword. A toothpick will work or you can just toss it in the glass. Some bartenders will squeeze the garnish in the drink before dropping it. I never did that because getting a drink where my fruit has already been squeezed freaks me out. I don't know why but I think its creepy.

Happy Drinking!

Peppercorn Burgers

I was going to make turkey burgers today but I decided to make some Peppercorn Burgers because I wanted to tell you about panade.

Panada is Italian (I think) and it is basically a thick batter made of bread and milk that holds your burger together when you pat it out and cook it. I think it's awesome and I can't believe more people don't know about it!

Ingredients:

2 slices of thick white bread

1/3 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of peppercorn garlic seasoning

1 onion

1 pound hamburger meat

4 onion rolls - I think its worth an extra dollar or two to get good buns from the grocery store bakery.

Other garnishes of your choice (tomato, lettuce, steak sauce, cheese, onion rings, bacon, etc.)

To make my panade I take 2 pieces of thick white bread and remove the crust. I break it up into small pieces and put in a mixing bowl. I add the milk and seasoning and mix until it forms a thick paste. I then add the hamburger meat and mix it all together.

When patting the burgers out you will be able to tell how much better they hold up. The panade doesn't dry the burgers out at all and if you don't like peppercorn you can add any other seasoning that appeals to you. Another variation is to add some BBQ sauce, it will give your burgers a smokey flavor.

Then pat out 4 big burgers and take into consideration that they will shrink! I make mine about an inch thick and 4 inches wide. On a grill they should cook 3-4 minutes on each side or 6-8 minutes on the Foreman grill.

I cut an onion into thick pieces to put on the burgers and brush them with olive oil. I put the onion slices on the grill for 3-4 minutes along with the burger buns so they get toasty.

Good Luck!