Nick Tahou’s Meat Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• salt to taste
• 1 clove garlic, diced or pressed through a garlic press

Start with a crock pot put the oil, onions and garlic in the crock and turn it on high start adding all of the spices.  Mix this up well and add the tomato paste.  Mix well.  By now everything should be warm and the onions softening.  Add the ground beef raw, yes raw, and add water until the beef is almost covered. Put the lid on the crock for about 10 minutes.  Open the crock and stir, stir , stir until the beef looks fine and re-cover. Leave the heat on High until the water comes to a boil and then reduce the heat to Low. Cook for at least 3 hours. Keep moist with water; most will cook away.  Add more water as needed but don’t flood it. If needed, ladle-out the extra water when time to serve. This flavor should remind you more of the real thing. OM NOM NOM!

Source: http://www.chow.com/recipes/28498-nick-tahous-meat-sauce

Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup lager beer
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked chipotle powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and melt butter. When the butter is melted whisk in the flour until combined and cook, stirring frequently for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the milk and beer until combined. Bring the mixture to a simmer and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the cheeses, spices and season with salt and pepper. Hold the sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally, until ready to serve.

Source: http://youtu.be/TIwgN2jhXQA

Chef Boy-R-Gee’s Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds (or so) of cooked elbow macaroni
• 8-10 ounces (total) of Sharp Cheese and Extra Sharp Cheese
• 4 Eggs beaten in 1.5 cups milk

Cooking:

• Mix all ingredients in a large casserole dish and cover almost all the noodles with the egg/milk mixture
• Add salt and pepper
• Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (give or take)

Topping (optional):

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups Panko bread crumbs
• 1 cups extra sharp cheese

Melt butter and stir together with bread crumbs and cheese until combined well.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

This is a super-easy and omnomable holiday no-bake dessert!  Also, many of the ingredients can be substituted for their light or fat free counterparts to help keep waistlines under control during the holiday season.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 1 tbsp. milk
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip
• 1 prepared graham cracker crust (6 oz)
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
• 2 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Instant Vanilla Flavor Pudding & Pie Filling
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

Cheesecake Layer

• Mix cream cheese, 1 tablespoon milk and sugar in large bowl with wire whisk until smooth.  (Hint: soften cream cheese in microwave on HIGH for 20 seconds)
• Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups of the Cool Whip.

Cheesecake Mixture

• Spread onto bottom of crust.

Cheesecake Layer

Pumpkin Layer

• Pour 1 cup milk into large mixing bowl
• Add pumpkin, pudding mixes, and spices

Pumpkin Mix

• Blent until well mixed (mixture will be thick)

Pumpkin Mix Mixed

• Spread over the cheesecake layer

Pumpkin mixture on top of cheesecake layer

Finished Product! Om nom nom!

Refrigerate 4 hours or until set.  Garnish with remaining whipped topping.  Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

Recipe compliments of the JELL-O company

Twice baked potatoes on the grill

Start with two 6-7″ Russet (Idaho) potatoes.

Wash potatoes with cold water

Place 2 potatoes on a paper towel on a plate.

Using a fork, stab the top of the potatoes deep enough to simply pierce the skin and allow moisture/steam to escape.

To speed up the cooking process, place plate of potatoes into microwave.

Cook in microwave on High for 15 minutes, flipping the taters over every 5 mins.

After they have been in the micro for 15 mins, remove from microwave and allow to cool 5-10 mins or until they are cool enough to touch.  This is a good time to begin pre-heating your grill.  Heat to medium (400 degrees give or take)

Next, cut the potato length-wise, removing the top 1/3 of the tater.

Now, grab a spoon and gently begin scooping the “meat” out of the potato and place it into a medium size bowl, thus turning the potato into a tater boat.  Try to leave about 1/4″ of the potato against the skin for strength.

Tater boat

In the bowl that you scooped the innards into, add 1/2 cup sour cream, 2/3 cup cheddar cheese, 1 tbsp minced parsley (parsley flakes will work too), a little salt and pepper, and mix around.  Don’t over-mix the filling, leave it chunky.

Scoop the mixture back into the tater boats.  There should be a little too much mixture left over after filling the boats.  Om nom nom…

I like to add bacon pieces on top of my potatoes.  Any salad bacon toppers work fine for this.

Place the potatoes directly on the grill and cook for approximately 10-15 mins.  Try to keep the lid down so that the heat permeates all sides of the taters.

Tater 1

Tater 2 - with bacon pieces

Remove the potatoes once they start to become golden and you can see the cheese mixture starting to bubble out.

Twice baked potatoes, fresh off the grill!

Twice baked potato with thin-cut NY Strip steak (Montreal steak seasoning), both grilled.

Om nom nom!

Home Fries

Today was my first attempt at making homemade home fries.  They were very easy to make and very tasty!

1. Cube 3-4 medium size potatoes
2. Add to saucepan with 3 tablespoons of butter or margarine.
3. Bring to medium heat, make sure all of the potato cubes have been coated with the butter, and cover for 10 minutes
4. Remove cover, add seasoned salt & pepper, and continue cooking on medium for another 5-10 minutes or until golden (stir frequently)

That’s it!  I’ll have to make them again in the near future and snap a pic to add to this post.  Om nom nom!

Lunch at Bento Ya Masako

Though I have lived in Upstate NY most of my life, today was the first time I have ever eaten at Bento Ya Masako.  It would be easy to miss this little gem because the only identification that there is a restaurant is a small folding sign on the sidewalk.  Behind the sign is a green door that leads you to the second floor where the “restaurant” is located.  This, in itself, is unique because all other Corning restaurants are on the street-level.

The restaurant had approximately 6-10 tables and behind the counter was the small one-stove kitchen where every dish was made individually by the owners.

Not knowing what to order, I decided to try the Yakiniku Bento which was comprised of spicy beef stir-fried with cooked cabbage, carrot with hijiki, cucumber salad, and rice.

The price was $8 which included free, help yourself, tea.  The serving size was very generous.

Overall, I was very pleased with my lunch at Bento and will definitely be eating there again!  Om nom nom!

Yakiniku Bento

Chef Boy-r-Gee’s Chicken Alfredo

This is, by far, the easiest Alfredo sauce I have ever made and it was very tasty!  I cooked up some linguine as the pasta base and the entree was delicious!

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1/3-1/2 cup butter (I use Country Crock instead of butter)
• 1 8oz package of light cream cheese
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/3 cup Parmesan sprinkle-cheese

Chicken Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning (contains the following)
  • Thyme
  • Basil
  • Oregano
  • Marjoram
  • Rosemary
  • Savory
  • Parsley
  • Red pepper
  • Garlic

Sauce:

1. Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat.
2. Once melted, add the package of light cream cheese.
   1. Cutting the cream cheese into smaller chunks will help it mix faster.
3. Once the butter and cream cheese have been blended together (will look thick and creamy), add 2/3 cup milk to the mixture.
4. Add 1/3 cup Parmesan (sprinkle) cheese.
5. Add 1 tsp minced garlic
6. Stir with whisk until everything is blended and smooth
   1. I also added a dash of Parsley to the sauce to give it a bit  color
7. Remove from heat to thicken, stir occasionally

Chicken:

1. Cut the chicken breast into thin (approximately 1/4″) slices.
2. Add 1 tsp (per chicken breast) extra virgin olive oil to pan and warm the oil to medium heat.
3. Place slices of chicken breast into the heated/oiled pan and sprinkle 1 tsp (per chicken breast) Italian seasoning mixture over the slices.
4. Cook both sides of each chicken breast slice for approximately 2 minutes (or until fully cooked).

Place a serving size of linguine (or other pasta) on a plate and spin/twist the pasta to form a nest.  Add chicken on top of the nest of pasta and lightly cover with sauce.

Enjoy!  Om nom nom!

Chicken Alfredo

Zombie Nuts – hahaha

Zombie Nuts

Source: http://www.geekologie.com/2009/12/very_cute_zombies_are_nuts_abo.php

More cat om nom noms!

I don’t know why I find this as funny as I do, but maybe you will too. 🙂