Rotini with Ham and Veggie Casserole

Have you ever made a ham and thought...wow...lots of leftovers? How many days am I going to have to eat ham? Well here is one recipe you can throw in some of your leftover ham and make up a tasty casserole. The Cheddar cheese sauce is mixed with cooked pasta (you can use penne, rotini, elbow whatever you have on hand), bake with a buttery crumb topping....MMMM scrumptious. You can pair with a nice fruit salad or tossed salad to round out a nice complete and tasty meal.

Rotini with Ham and Veggie Casserole

Ingredients:

• 3 cups (1 box of rotini pasta)
• 2 cups frozen mixed veggies, cooked
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced or you can finely dice a small sweet onion
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic (1 small clove)
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 cups milk
• 2 1/2 cups diced ham
• 2 1/2 cups Cheddar cheese    (keeping 1/2 cup separate)   

For the Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

 Directions:

• Heat the oven to 350°.

• Lightly grease 3 Qt baking dish with butter.

• In a large saucepan, cook rotini pasta following package directions. Drain in a colander and rinse with hot water. Cook the frozen veggies. Note: To cook the veggies with the pasta, add the frozen veggies to the pasta during the last 4-5 minutes of cooking time and add 2 minutes to the cooking time. Drain the pasta and veggies together and rinse with hot water.

• In a saucepan or saute pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the green onions, parsley, and garlic; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the milk and cook, stirring, until thickened. Add the diced ham and 2 cups of the shredded cheese and cook, stirring, until cheese is melted and the sauce is hot and bubbly.

• Add the drained pasta and veggies to the sauce, mixing well and heating through.

• Spoon into the baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of Cheddar cheese.

• Combine the bread crumbs and melted butter and blend thoroughly. Sprinkle crumbs over the shredded cheese layer.

• Bake for about 30 minutes, until crumbs are browned and the casserole is hot and bubbly.

This casserole was surprisingly light and I must confess, I found myself eating more than I probably should have. 

"Redneck" Thin Mints - two simple ingredients

 

 

Redneck Thin Mints

I love thin mints and I came across this idea on Pinterest. It is so easy.

Melt some chocolate mint baking pieces ( I used Andes) in the microwave or use a double boiler.

Dip your Ritz crackers into the minty goodness. Place the chocolate covered cracker on a waxed lined baking sheet. Allow the chocolate coating to harden. You can speed up the process by placing tray of crackers in the freezer for a few minutes. Enjoy.

Sugar Cream Pie- Indiana's State Pie

Sugar Cream Pie oh how I love thee! Mercy I finally get to eat what I have been craving for over a week. Delicious!

Mimi's Sugar Cream Pie- special thank you to Leah Austin for sharing her Grandma's recipe.

Sugar Cream Pie

Ingredients:
2 c heavy cream
1 c half n half
2 c white granulated sugar
8 generous T flour
Dash salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 unbaked pie shells
12 pats of butter
Touch of nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Whisk cream, half and half in med bowl.

In larger bowl mix together sugar, flour and salt.

Slowly pour liquids into dry ingredients. Mix well. Add vanilla.

Pour into unbaked pie shells evenly. Dot with 6 pats of butter per pie. Dust with a touch of nutmeg.

Bake for 15 min at 400 degrees then back temperature down to 350 bake for 30-40 minutes or until center of pies are set. They may jiggle but will firm up as they cool.

I must confess, I tried a piece while waiting on dinner to cook.

Donut Bread Pudding- Egg Nog Inspired

I have always been curious about trying bread pudding. I finally got up the nerve to experiment. 
Not having anything to compare it to, I will just have to say that I quite enjoyed what I came up with. 

 

Eggnog Donut Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
4 glazed white yeast donuts
1/2 c raisins
1 c egg nog
1 c half n half
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
2 tsp orange zest

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly spray nonstick cooking oil spray into 8 x8 baking dish.

Tear your donuts into small bite sized pieces and out in baking dish along with the raisins.

In a separate bowl whisk together egg nog, half n half, eggs, cinnamon, and orange zest.

Pour liquid mixture over the donuts and raisins. Press down to make sure all of the donuts have made contact with custard liquid.

Let sit for at least 15 min or overnight.

Before baking place you baking dish inside a 9 x13 baking pan and poor warm water into the 9 x 13 pan to create a water bath. Have the water level halfway up the 8x8 dish. It will prevent the pudding from drying out.

Bake for 40 minutes. Insert pick in center and it should come out clean. Serve warm.

Basic Biscuits

Ever start dreaming of a nice bowl of sausage or hamburger gravy and biscuit only to find yourself not having a handy tube of ready to bake biscuits in the fridge?

Well that is where I found myself a couple of Sunday mornings ago. I then remembered running across a recipe of my Grandma Dunham's for Baking Powder Biscuits. There weren't any directions just ingredients. Luckily I am familiar to the concept of making biscuits. I was psyched.

Basic Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 c flour
3/4 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
4 T. Shortening (I used cold cubed butter)
3/4 c. milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Then cut in with either a fork or pastry blender the butter. Add the milk once you see the butter is in blended into the flour mixture and is about the size of tiny peas.

Roll out your dough onto a floured surface and lightly work it (knead it) a few times. Roll dough or press dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch and use your biscuit cutter or I must confess I couldn't find mine so I used a small juice glass to cut out my biscuits.

This will make 6 biscuits. Place on a greased cookie sheet or parchment lined cookie sheet. You can brush the tops with a little melted butter but I didn't for this batch.

Bake for 12 minutes.

They should have nice layers due to using the cold butter.

Tip- don't over work your dough. It will cause the butter to soften before you get into oven to bake. If you think you over worked dough, wrap it plastic wrap in a disc shape and refrigerate for 30 minutes and then roll out and cut the biscuits and bake.

Enjoy!

Beef and Onion Cheese ball

This time of year I truly like to indulge on various types of cheese balls. It is one of my favorite go to snacks. Do you have a favorite cheese ball, cheese spread or topping for crackers or veggies? If so share your recipe.

A friend of mine Toni Summers started bringing in beef and onion cheese ball for food pitch ins at work. She had tweaked her recipe a few times and knowing that I liked horseradish she started incorporating that into the recipe as well. Cheese ball recipes are nice because you can tweak them to your own preferences. I switch out the type of onion I use in recipes. Sometimes I use green spring onions other times I might use a sweet or just a plain yellow or white onion. That is the beauty of cooking...the sky is the limit! Here is the recipe I currently use when making a beef and onion cheese ball.

Beef and Onion Cheese Ball

 

8 ozs cream cheese, soften ( I use reduced fat)
4 ozs chipped beef I use Buddig (chopped into small pieces)
1 tsp Seasoned salt
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 bunch green onion (chopped tops too)-This is where you
switch out your onions for different taste profile
1/4 c shredded cheddar cheese - optional
1 T horseradish (prepared)- optional

Mix all ingredients together. Shape into a ball or you can just leave in covered container. Refrigerate for an hour at least.

Serve with your favorite cracker or veggies.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls...A favorite in this house.

Many recipes that I have come across in the last couple of years of making cabbage rolls vary just a tiny bit on the ingredients that are utilized. You can use ground beef, veal, Italian sausage. I am guessing you could use game meat too like venison. I haven't personally tried making them with venison but I wouldn't mind giving it a try if I got my hands on some.

There are many ways you can cook them too. You can put them in a crock pot, simmer on the stove, or you could bake them. I prefer to bake them.

Below is my basic recipe for making cabbage rolls.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients-

 
1 head of Savoy Cabbage
2 lbs of ground meat (I use Italian Sausage)
1/2 c. of uncooked instant white rice
1/4 c bread crumbs (seasoned or unseasoned)
1 medium finely diced onion
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper (freshly ground)
2 large eggs slightly beaten

1 - 2 jars of your favorite Tomato sauce (homemade or store bought)

Directions-

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Remove the entire core of the cabbage. A paring knife does a good job of this. Immerse the head of cabbage in the boiling water for a few minutes, peeling off each leaf with tongs as soon as it s flexible. Set the leaves aside. You will need at least 14 leaves depending on their size.

In a large bowl you will make the filling. Combine the ground meat, eggs, onion, breadcrumbs, rice, oregano, basil, thyme, salt, and pepper.

If you want your rolls to have more of a tomato taste you can add 1 cup of the tomato sauce to the meat mixture and mix lightly with a fork. I don't do this regularly , but it does help if your meat mixture appears to be a bit drier than normal as well.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To assemble, place 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish (or crock pot if you decide to go that route of cooking).

Remove the hard triangular rib from the base of each cabbage leaf using that handy paring knife. Place 1/3 cup of filling in an oval shape (small cigar shape) near the rib edge of each leaf and roll up toward the outer edge, tucking the sides in as you roll (kind of like a burrito). Place half the cabbage rolls, seam sides down, over the sauce. Add more sauce and more cabbage rolls alternately until you have placed all the cabbage rolls in the baking dish or crockpot. Pour the remaining sauce over the cabbage rolls. Cover the dish with foil or just put the lid on your crock pot and bake for 1 hour or until the meat is cooked and the rice is tender. If using crock pot, cook on low for 6-7 hour. Internal temp should be 160 degrees F. Serve hot.

I must confess, I find these very addictive.

Enjoy,
Michelle