stuffed eggplant

I’ve prepared eggplant before, mainly sliced into about 1 inch slices and prepared.

A different method this time. Basically sliced lengthwise, scoop out some of the interior leaving a shell (x2).

Prepare your favorite stuffing with the removed eggplant diced.

Sparing the details, such as peeling the eggplant, and salting and draining etc, precook the shells in an oven.

Add the stuffing to the shells and baked again till cooked through and soft.

Not the most appetizing pictures of the finished product but similar to a pizza with an eggplant crust.

the shells before baking

prepped ingredients and stuffing preparation

pre baking the shells

A small amount of cooked rice added with sauteed onion,diced green pepper and celery along with seasoning.Later, (not shown) add tomato sauce, diced, cooked sausage. spoon into shells, top with sliced mozzarella cheese.

The finished meal , Placing one of the shelves at the upper most position results in a broiler effect if you like the eggplant a bit more well done. Oven temp was about 350 degrees F Timing was by eye.

Quick bowl of soup

Chicken broth, Chicken, steamed veggies, homemade noodles , season as you like.(Chili paste) Top with fried egg.

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beef soup with noodle squares

a few pictures

a hearty beefy soup, wit the addition of a thickening agent, a stew

a beef soup/stew for the instant pot

prep the following:

egg noodle semolina recipe, roll out and cut into good size noodle squares, set aside

prep veggies, onion, carrot celery, a pinch of oregano, paprika, parsley and thyme, a bit of tomato paste and a few garlic cloves minced

leaf a few brussell sprouts, slice mushrooms

slice and cube beef season with salt, pepper and marinate if possible

set instant pot to saute, high and let come to temp

with a bit of oil, brown beef, remove from pot

add to pot onion, celery and carrot mixture with your seasonings

cook till wilted and soft

add sprout leaves, mushrooms and tomato paste to pot

mix and cook several minutes

return beef to pot, with broth top to fill line of pot.

cover, reset and set to stew soup setting about 15 minutes low pressure

at end of cycle release pressure , remove cover, reset to saute high, add noddle squares when the pot begins to boil

cook the noodle squares till tender, reset and set to keep warm setting

add more broth if necessary.

serve with crusty bread

 

 

 

 

 

canoodling around

Oh  !  More dough, this time the noodle. Once you get hang of making dough for noodles, it’s hard to let go, back to the dried variety, that is if your not cooking for a crowd.

A beef soup base was the groundwork for the noodle. Simple dry  noodles won’t suffice.

Again I wont bore you with the recipe, this could go in a stew direction also  just thicken up the broth, yep add sour cream and milk or straight cream for a goulash finish.

I keep it as a broth , a bit lighter.

Since a small amount of noodle just grabbed the rolling pin. Dinner for two.

start with the basics

ok it’s the instant pot again, the searing setting give automatic temperature control

plate the meat when done

wilt up the veggies

add some stock

add back the meat

add some hot water supplied by the kuerig, seal up the reactor vessel and give it high pressure for a couple of minutes, this does the carrot effortlessly. Get on the with noodle.

over to the processor with the semolina and a yolk and i bit of water and a dribble of oil is also good.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz..Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz,, done

give the dough a break

let dry a bit after rolling

you can use a pizza cutter, nice and steady !

ready for the boiling water bath !

won’t take more than a couple of minutes

Flotation achieved, done

A big drainy scooper

plate up the noodle, top with the beef mixture, I think it only took a few minutes under pressure for the broth mixture, parsley, back to the computer…hmmm..    where the bread. OH we have the noodle no need for bread.  HA ! maybe bread and butter for dessert !

3 bean chili with smoked chicken

It started out as a quick search on the Instant Pot app for chili, Have plenty of dried beans in stock, a quick pressure cooker meal means I didn’t have a long soaking and boiling process ahead for a meal within an hour. I found a recipe for a 3 bean chili jar recipe. Remember when the jar recipes were all the rage for gifts ! Still easy to do for your own meal kits.

Pinto, white and black beans, like maybe a 1/4 cup each ,a can of chopped tomatoes, some tomato paste and a bit over leftover condensed tomato soup. The spice list was long, cumin seeds, coriander, dried hot peppers just to name a few. Chopped onions and garlic, celery and carrot to round out the flavor and a toss of frozen corn . Saute as usual add all else. Top off with veggie stock. Seal, set and be back later.

about 50 minutes later

start the plate with a layer of smoked chicken thighs 

add the 3 bean chili…

top with shredded cheese and chips,

a glass of dark home brew, next time a real light or a lime hard seltzer would be better fro contrast, or possibly a fruit shandy . The chili and the smoked chicken was fantastic. 

Stuffed Chicken Breast

A basic stuffing, onions, celery with bread cubes. Make as usual with a bit of the Bell’s seasonings and wet with stock. Of course you could use a prepared stuffing mix.

A family member brought home some surplus bread, too much to consume before it would go stale, so I processed it into bread crumbs by broiling the slices, and processing in the food processor to different textures.

A sliced chicken breast, just some salt and pepper with addition course bread crumbs.

spread the crumbs on a tray with baking paper

place half of the chicken breast on the tray and cover with stuffing

Place the other half of the breast atop the stuffing, top with additional crumbs

bake and broil as necessary

serve it up…

served with some steamed carrots

shrimp stir fry

A few ingredients for a meal, frozen shrimp available and some veggies with noodles from a soup kit, less the seasoning package. You can get an idea of cooking times from the time date stamps on the pictures.

Start with onions and oil

Add grated tumeric

…. grated ginger

mushroom, brocolli, and celery

stir and fry , add a bit of water or stock if necessary, adjust seasonings

add the frozen shrimp, stir and fry till shrimp are cooked

Add the noodle, I had the noodle packet frozen in the fridge, gave it a couple of seconds in the microwave than added to the mix

finished the cooking process with some dark soy sauce

lo mein

With the abundance of fresh veggies and with the addition of noodles, lo mein was an easy choice, though prep would be essential to the recipe.

A slicing of the veggies was done using the rotary slicer of the kitchen aid attachment.

One of those recipes, the more you look the more variations you find , you settle as with most “authentic” recipes to the ingredients you have available to the village or are grown locally.

I didn’t  get to list all the sauce ingredients and amounts, but loosely followed several recipes that I researched by listing all the ingredients that compose the sauce to get an idea of the basics. I modified it by adding a bit more cornstarch and a good amount of stock as I prefer s saucy-er thick coating to the dish.

The sauce was a build up from the basic soy sauce/rice wine/sugar combo. Some of the associated components are: soy sauce, rice wine, fish sauce, shrimp paste, chili paste, ginger root, galangal root, garlic, sugar, honey, salt and pepper with sesame oil.

The sauce, less the stock.

The veggies are the same deal, use what you have. Pea pods and the baby bok choy were included as they were fresh and attractive from the market. The carrot was also crunchy as they were fresh, large diameter and not very tapered as the packaged carrots were.

Stir fry the veggies in oil.

 

While stir frying the veggies, prep the noodles, I used rice noodles instead of the wheat noodles, so just a brief toss in hot water is all that’s needed, drain and add to wok.

 

Mix well , then add the sauce… serve….

 

 

 

The result is as good or better result than restaurant  because you have control of the ingredients. So if you like salad with noodles with a sauce here it is.

I made this dish twice and this post is a compilation of the pictures from both.

Beef stew

It was time to put away all the spices and herbs and return to a simple beef stew.  Usually a fall seasonal  dish but any break in the high temps and the availability of beef and beef broth made this an easy choice.

Beef, carrot, onion, celery and potato,  common ingredients. Lucky to have some beef broth which I had made previously and froze.

After cutting the beef, brown in some oil, remove from pan

 

now in the same pan saute the veggies.

 

Add the broth, and simmer. …. add the beef back into the pan, but you knew that !🤣

I scrubbed and diced some white potato, and microwaved them slightly, then added to the stew.

Some reserved broth was mixed with rice powder and added to thicken stew. Simmer till the potatoes are done to your preference. Salt and pepper to balance. Nothing fancy here, beef flavor. Perhaps some bread to mop up gravy.

 

Traditional Warm German Potato Salad

Traditional Warm German Potato Salad

From…. https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=163339

Via:…… https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/traditional-warm-german-potato-salad-tradisjonell-tysk-varm-potetsalat/

One of the starts of a day, potato salad for breakfast?  Well now that I am at the age of expansion (not by size 😌) of blogging and cooking skills, more time to plan the start of the day since this day does not require to work for the clock, so to speak. Sit in the yard outside in the cool morning. Breezing through the WordPress reader with the trusty cup of coffee and Diane also came to sit outside for some time and enjoy the late summer morning air. A  reliance  on social media and connectivity for inspiration, catching up on the news both local and global,  Hmmm… this recipe look like something that would give me some first day nourishment. With the ingredients on hand, it was an easy, savory dish !

1. Scrubbing potatoes…
2. Prep ingredients…..
3. Start the cooking……
4. Sweat the onions and celery….

 

scrubbing potatoes

ingredients ready

cooking…

sweating onions and celery

 

starting the dressing

dicing potatoes

cooking the dressing

finishing the dressing

NOTE: I added a bit more sugar to the dressing, the apple cider vinegar used was of the home-made variety so it was a bit more pungent.

 

Finish by mixing in the dressing…. serve warm.

 

 

NOTE: if mobile device is below 20 % battery, then photostream won’t sync, once on charger though it works.