Spicy Cheese Dip

If you read my blog, you have recently read that I am on a “simple is sometimes better” kick right now.  Well I am going to try a new and simple recipe this weekend for the big Butler game on Saturday versus Florida.  As my little brother Kevin quoted about eating options for the big game…..”I want to just graze for a few hours”.  So, that is our food theme for the Elite Eight Games.  We are going to have several appetizers, with one of those being this  new and simple Spicy Cheese Dip Recipe.  I was given this recipe by my coworkers Brody and Troy who both know there food, so I am excited to try it out. 

Ingredients

4 Packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1 can Hot Rotel

1 lb Spicy Ground Sausage

Tortilla Chips

On a stovetop, brown meat and drain.  Add the cooked spicy sausage with the cream cheese and hot rotel in a slow cooker.  Cook in slow cooker for at least a couple hours or until it looks the part and is ready for dipping.  Saturday is the day to try out this new dip.  Pictures will be posted.  Hope its good!  Stay Tuned……

Sometimes Simple Is Better

I like to consider myself pretty good around the kitchen and cooking in general.  In my years of cooking, I sometimes think I know the best way to cook most things, and it usually involves several steps that are time consuming and quite messy.  The more I cook, the more I realize that just as important as preparation and seasoning, is cooking your dish to the correct temperature/level of doneness.  For example, you can season you steak all you want, but if you cook that steak past a certain level, it will not taste near as good as a lightly seasoned, perfectly cooked medium rare steak.  Case in point tonight, my wife @SarahBuckner cooked BBQ Chicken in the oven.  She put some chicken breasts in a baking dish, and cooked half way thru, then pulled out and drenched in Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, and finished them off.  She baked these for a total of 50 minutes on 350 and they were cooked perfectly!  She served this perfectly cooked chicken, with a garden salad and dinner was served.  Kudos to you @SarahBuckner for a great dinner tonight.  As Sarah has shown me, Sometimes Simple Is Better!

How my tastes have changed over the years…..

On Friday, one of my oldest and best friends Troy Loyd and I went to lunch together as we do from time to time, and we got on the discussion of  how our tastes have changed so much since our younger days.  When we were growing up when we had zero choice in our diet, it was chicken nuggets, PB&J, french fries, hot dogs, fruit snacks, fruit, and when forced…..some vegetables.  Then in high school and college when we had some choice into what we ate, it seemed like the decision was either taco bell or pizza.  Now as we sat in a Mediteranean Restaurant, we were sitting in front of some really powerful tasting foods.  Olives, Feta Cheese, Hummus, Baba Ganouj, Pita Breads, Shish Kafta and Gyros with Tahini were sitting in front of us.  We laughed as we discussed how there was zero percent chance that we would have touched this stuff in our younger days.  Guess some things do get better with age!  Have your tastes changed over the years?

Vegetable Cheese Rice Casserole

Does your family love casseroles?  We are huge casserole people!  We have been big fans of any form of casserole for as long as I can remember.  Both of my grandmothers, mom, aunts, and mother in-law all are great casserole makers which made me start thinking about a good casserole that I could put my own food stamp on. So I began building my own and here is what I came up with……..

Ingredients
White Rice
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Parmesan Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Salt/ Pepper
Chicken Broth
Bread crumbs
Garlic

In a saucepan, bring chicken broth to a boil.  Next add a lot of chopped broccoli and cauliflower until they start to become tender.  Add appropriate amount of white rice until mixture thickens. Next add a can of cream of chicken soup, and a bunch of your favorite cheeses (I use parmesan and cheddar).  Lastly add garlic and salt/pepper to taste.

Pour mixture into baking dish and cover with more cheese and lastly bread crumbs. Bake an additional 25 mins at 375. After baking, let casserole sit for 10 to let set up.

Hopefully my take on this tasty side dish can make it on your table. I can tell you that my wife highly recommends it! Enjoy!

Road Trip Food

If I’m in for a car ride that will last more than four hours, I get a sudden craving for … COMBOS. Yes, this deliciously bad cheese filled pretzel treat is my junk food weakness.

What is yours? 

Mexican Chorizo Chili Soup

With the playoff games on today, I thought a good hearty soup sounded great. After taking inventory of what we had available, I came up with a different style of chili soup, using chorizo in addition to ground beef.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 lb mild chorizo
1 jalapeno
2 cans Original rotel tomatos/green chiles
1 large can chicken broth
1 onion
1 small can of corn
2 cans white navy beans
4 or 5 cloves garlic

Brown chorizo, diced onion, and ground beef in skillet until cooked through. Strain grease from mixture and transfer to crock pot or soup pot. Add to this, corn, tomatoes, diced jalapeno, diced garlic, broth, and navy beans. Simmer in crock pot or soup pot for a few hours so all the flavors can come together. The chorizo flavors the soup and gives it a mexican taste and feel. Serve in large bowls with tortilla chips, cheese and avacado. We ate this for lunch and were amazed with how great it turned out. Give it a try and let me know if you liked it.

Bacon wrapped Meatloaf

When you think of comfort food, what do you think of?  To me, I think of down home southern style cooking.  And when I think of down home southern style cooking, I think of thick cut heartly meatloaf.  That was my most recent creation that I tried.  Below is what I came up with. 

Ingredients

2-3 lbs Ground Beef/Chuck/Sirloin

 1 Onion

1 Fresh Japaneo

1 Green Pepper

1-2 Tomatos

Garlic

Salt Pepper

1 Box of Chicken in a Biscuit Crackers

2-3 Eggs

Ketchup

Bacon

Salt/Pepper

In a mixing bowl combine meat, eggs, diced onion/green pepper/jalapeno/large clove garlic/tomato/salt/pepper and mix together with your hands.  Then add 1/2 to 3/4 of a box of smashed chicken in a biscuit crackers.  I have used all different kinds of crackers in meatloaf, and these seem to pack the most flavor in them so I like to use them.  Next add 1 cup or so of ketchup and mix all ingredients together with you hands.  Once everything is evenly distributed, I like to make 2 even meatloafs.  Once made, I set the loafs on a bed of either fruit or vegetables so the fat can render off the meat and drain into the pan.  You do not want your meatloaf sitting in its own fat drippings.  This step also gives some added flavor to the meatloaf.  The last and most important step, I put strips of bacon over the top of the meatloafs for the last added layer of flavor.  

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.   Once heated up, put loafs in and bake for 45 minutes – 1- hr.  After this, I drizzle ketchup all over the of the meatloaf and put back in the oven for another 30 mins to finish off cooking.   Let sit for 15 minutes to let juices redistribute.  Cut and serve.   Enjoy

Take a guess…..

What am I making for dinner?

Kabobs

Is there really anything better and easier than shish kabobs?

Spicy Breakfast Potatoes w/ Chorizo and Egg

While laying in bed last night I was thinking that a huge breakfast sounded incredible.  I went to the grocery store yesterday and stocked up on a lot of my favorites, so my options were open.  Well this morning when I woke up, I woke up with Mexican themed breakfast on my mind.  When I think of Mexican themed breakfast, I turn for the chorizo.  So this recipe is called Spicy Breakfast Potatoes w/ Chorizo and Egg

Ingredients

Chorizo

Eggs

New Potatoes/Yukon Gold Potatoes

Garlic

Onion

Fresh Jalapeno

Salt Pepper

Avacado

Sour Cream/Greek Yogurt

Bring water to a boil and boil your favorite potato until it is about 3/4 done cooking.  This will vary depending on the size of the potato.  A good trick is to pre-boil some potatoes and put them in the fridge, so you will have some available at all times.  Whether you pre-boil them or boil them that day, cube the potatoes to a size of your liking.

In a skillet (cast iron if you have it), brown your favorite style of chorizo sausage.  I like spicy foods, so I go with hot chorizo.  When sausage is done cooking, strain to a bowl and set to the side.  Leave the sausage drippings in the pan, as we will be using this instead of oil to cook with.  In this skillet, add diced onion, fresh jalapeno, and garlic.  Let this simmer on medium heat until the onion starts to carmelize.  Add potatoes to the mixture and lightly toss in with the onion/garlic/jalapeno.  (These potatoes are tender, and you dont want to lose integrity of potatoes).  Once they are coated, let them cook for a while.  We want that nice crust on these potatoes.  After a good 10 minutes, check to make sure they are carmelizing, and fold over to get that crust on the other side.  Add Salt and Pepper to you liking.

In a side skillet, cook some eggs to sunny side up.  Once finished set to the side and now it is time to start assembling breakfast

Start with a bed of the potatoes, top with 2-3 sunny side up eggs, then sprinkle with the cooked chorizo, then your favorite cheese.  I have found that queso fresco or goat cheese are really good on a dish like this.  I also like to top this with a few slices of avacado, and a small dab of sour cream or greek yogurt.  I can promise you this dish packs a huge punch of flavor that will start any weekend day off great.  Enjoy