Tonight for dinner I made my husbands favorite dish. Pork Chop Casserole. It’s so easy to make, and yet so homey and tasty! It is however, made with two ingredients he never liked so I would only make it on nights he had to work. Then one evening he came home late–and had not eaten all day. He asked if we had anything–and I told him we had left over casserole in the fridge, but I wasn’t sure he would like it. Well, I was wrong! Like I said, it’s his favorite dish–and even though he’s a Chef–his version just can’t top mine!

Honestly–the recipe is amazingly easy and versatile. In fact, there a couple of different ways to create it–but that end up the same! For this version–you get the LONG way!

Sadly, there are no “measurable” ingredients! Sorry–this one is all pour and dump!!

First, line the bottom of your pan with raw pork chops. The size of the pan and number of pork chops needed will depend on your family size. I use a large casserole dish with 5 pork chops for 6 people. Sprinkle the top of the pork chops with salt and pepper and garlic powder. It goes into the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you are ready for level two. Again based on family size you may need to add only 1 can–but for my 6 people–I put 2 cans of Mushroom Soup in a bowl, add 1 can of milk, and a can of chopped mushrooms. Stir to mix, and then (after draining the grease from the cooked chops) pour mixture over the pork chops to cover. This is in the oven for 10 minutes. As soon as you put this in the oven, cut off the top of a package of Stove Top stuffing. Add 1 1/2 Cups of water directly into the Stove Top bag–it’s waterproof–you are fine! Let this sit for the remainder of the 10 minutes. When the time is up, sprinkle the softened stuffing all over the top of the soup mixture, again to cover. This goes back into the oven for 10 more minutes.

When finished–scoop out each pork chop, turning them over onto the plate. Stuffing is now on the bottom, with a yummy gravy spilling through, and a yummy gravied pork chop looking up at you! That’s it! That is a two dish meal, and it tastes amazing!!

This is a photo of dinner! It’s Yaki-soba (yaki=fried, soba=noodle). I used to make this dish, minus all of the extras when I was poor and living in Japan. You could buy soba noodles (3 packages) for around $2.00, so this was a staple in my diet. I have found them since I’ve been home in the frozen food section of many Asian food stores and have made this meal (with the extras) hundreds of times for my family. It is one of their favorites. It can be made with any type of meat (or none at all), I usually use beef sliced thin and cooked with diced onion. Then I add whatever takes the longest to cook, broccoli, carrots, peppers, and more julienne onions. Then when they are getting close to being cooked, I add in the things that don’t need so long–mushrooms (rarely used), pea pods, bean sprouts and shredded cabbage. After all of my veggies and meat are cooked–I drop them into a bowl–add a cup of water to the wok and the three seasoning packets that come with my soba noodles. When that is boiling-I add three packages of soba and cook through (2 minutes-maybe) then I remove the noodles from the water and toss with the meat and veggies. In Japan, we squirted mayo over the top–yummy–but I’ve never done that here. It’s too sweet to mix it with soy sauce, but I do like salt and pepper on top.

If you were interested in making this for your family, you would want to find the frozen yaki-soba noodles by Maruchan–it looks like this:

And you can find it in most of the bigger Asian food stores. It’s mighty tasty–and a very healthy dinner packed full of protein and vegetables for your family. My kids love it–and one of my husband’s, the Chef, favorite dinners.

I felt so bad! Wednesday was the first day of school and life was crazy having to transport the kids 45 miles home after school. Lunch this week was minuscule and my poor boys were ravenous by the time they got into my car that a pit stop at McD’s was in order. But it’s too late for lunch and too early for dinner–so it wasn’t great. We got home–too late to shop and to a kitchen that has been packed–All I had was a bag of salad, some cheese, some crispy noodles and some oriental dressing–so a quick Chinese Chicken Salad was born. The kids loved it–and I was relieved to find something to fill their tummies!

Can you say YUM!! This is what we are having for dinner tonight! It’s one of my favorite things ever, mind you–scones alone are yummy too–but for dinner-nothing beats the taco up top!

They are really easy to make, and I just use either Rhodes Bake & Serve bread dough or roll dough. Either one works great–you just have to make sure the dough is at room temperature before trying to flatten it. Otherwise, it won’t stay flat enough for you–and it will take longer to cook. After that, it’s just whatever taco toppings you love! In this family it’s meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, olives and guacamole!

It’s not even 10:30 am, and I’m already getting hungry for this puppy!!

A couple of days ago I wrote about the Rachael Ray show and the high fiber brownie recipe that was made. Well, I made them! On Rachael Ray’s site–you can get the recipe to make brownies from scratch, but in this house–nothing beats Betty Crocker brownies with the frosting packet included! They are our favorite–nothing from scratch even compares! Anyway–I pureed the whole can of black beans–liquid and all–and I added two little cups of baby food prunes. Beat them together and then added the brownie mix and ingredients. When they came out of the oven-the first thing I noticed was that they didn’t rise as much as normal–but that just made them a bit more fudgy. We let them cool–and put the chocolate frosting on. How did they go over with the kids??? They loved them! The oldest keeps proclaiming that they are the best brownies he’s ever had–which is good since I made them for him! For an adult–they are just a little thick–with a ‘new’ texture–but honestly–they tasted better than store bought brownies–and each brownie carries the full days worth of fiber! So easy to get this kind of fiber into them!

Don’t mind the look of the top of the brownies–if you don’t have a two year old running his hands through the frosting–your’s won’t look like this!!

Ingredients:

* 4 ea 5-6 oz Tilapia Fillets
* Non-stick Cooking Spray
* ½ lb. Linguini, cooked

Parmesan Crust:

* ½ cup Panko Bread Crumbs*
* ½ cup Parmesan Cheese, pre-shredded

Parmesan Base:

* ½ cup Parmesan Cheese, pre-shredded
* 1 Tbsp. Parsley, dried
* 10 oz Prepared Refrigerated Alfredo Sauce

Parmesan Cream Sauce:

1. 2 Tbsp. Fresh Basil, Chopped
2. ¼ cup Chablis or Chardonnay Wine, optional
3. ¼ cup Half and Half

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray a 9X13 baking dish with Non-stick Cooking Spray. Place the 4 Tilapia fillets in the dish and set aside.
3. In a small bowl, mix the Panko bread crumbs and ½ cup Parmesan cheese to make the crust for the topping. Set aside.
4. To assemble the Parmesan Base, place ½ cup Parmesan cheese, 1 Tbsp. parsley and the prepared Alfredo sauce in a medium bowl and stir well. Remove ½ cup of the mixture (reserving the rest to make the Parmesan Cream Sauce) and brush onto the 4 pieces of Tilapia, making a thick, even covering on the fish. Evenly sprinkle the Parmesan Crust on top of the fish. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 15-20 minutes or until fish reaches 140-150 degrees and the crust is golden brown.
5. Meanwhile while the fish is baking, make the Parmesan Cream sauce. Place the remaining Parmesan Base in a medium sauce pan, add the fresh Basil, Wine, and Half and Half and heat over medium heat until the sauce is simmering, stirring often.
6. Toss the Parmesan Cream Sauce and the Linguini together and serve with the Parmesan Crusted Tilapia. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.
Serves 4

Wine Pairing:
Pinot Grigio, Chardonay

Ok–I mentioned Chocolate Ganache in the last post. Mostly ganache is used as a beautiful, smooth chocolate ‘frosting’ for desserts. But it is the tastiest-most wonderful Hot Fudge over Ice Cream. And SOOOOOOO easy to make!

Ganache Recipe:
8 ounces (227 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.
Makes enough ganache to cover a 9 inch (23 cm) cake or torte.

I just use semi sweet chocolate chips and once it’s wisked to perfection–pour the entire bowl into a tupperware type container. Keep it in your refrigerator. When you want to use it–take a couple of scoops out of the container and put it in a microwave safe dish. Heat until melted and warm–pour over ice cream.

The sweetness of the ice cream and the semi sweet chocolate mix in such an amazing flavor. The ganache is smooth and wonderful! Finger lickin’ good!!

I was visiting my Linky List last night–and it literally took me 2 hours to finish the list!! Why? You ask!! Because I got stuck reading everyones blogs. When you do the Linky List everynight–you are aware of new content. That seems strange with over 100 blogs on the list–but trust me–you know when something new has been posted–and you want to catch up! So it took me awhile! As I was catching up on Army Mom Charlotte’s blog I found the following recipe for what looks to be a SCRUMPTIOUS treat! I will be making it later today–after I head to the supermarket for all of the ingredients!! Thanks Charlotte–my 10 lb weight gain I blame on you!!! Just kidding! I’ll try to snap a photo when they are done and add it here–it sounds sooooo good!!

Caramel Marshmallow Bars

Crumb Mixture:

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped salted nuts

Filling:

3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/2 salted peanuts
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup mil chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For crumb mixture, in small mixer bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and salt. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often until mixture is crumbly 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in nuts. Reserve 3/4 cup crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of a greased and floured 9 inch square baking pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden.

For filling, spread caramel topping over hot crust. Sprinkle remaining filling ingredients over top. Crumble 3/4 cup reserved crumb mixture over top. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until marshmallow just start to brown. Cool on rack about 30 minutes. Cover; refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. Cut into bars.

Makes about 30 bars.

1 Prepared Onion
2 1/2 C. Flour
2 tsp McCormick Seasoned Salt
1/2 tsp. Coarsely Ground Pepper
1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 C. Butter Milk
Mix all dry ingredients together. Onion may be sliced like a blossom by cutting the top 1/4 off, the
top has the stem. Then peel and be very careful to leave the root intact. Carefully slice from the top
of the onion down but stop about 1/2″ before you get to the root, taking care not to cut through the
root. Slice the rest of the onion like a pie into many servings. When complete soak onion in cold ice
water for 1/2 hr. so the onion’s petals will start to open up and bloom. Drain onion and dip in flour
mixture and dust well. Dip onion then in buttermilk and back in flour mixture. Place in hot oil and fry
until golden. Oil should cover onion. When done drain well and place on plate and cut center out of
onion so the petals may easily be removed.

Dipping Sauce
1/2 C. Sour Cream
2 Tbsp. Catsup
1/2 tsp. McCormick Seasoned Salt
1/8 tsp. Red Pepper
1 1/2 tsp. Fresh Horseradish
1/4 tsp. Paprika
Mix all together and serve in the middle of the onion blossom. Garnish with paprika and just a dash
of red pepper.

Sauce:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
4 green onions, sliced
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 chicken breast fillets
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
peel from 1/4 orange, julienned (into 1/8-inch thick strips)

Prepare sauce by heating 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sliced green onions. Add tomato sauce and water quickly before the garlic burns. Add sugar, chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce thickens, then turn off the heat.

Prepare the chicken by heating 1/2 cup oil in a wok over medium heat. Slice chicken breast fillets into bite-size pieces. Combine beaten egg with milk in a medium bowl. Pour the flour into another medium bowl.

Coat chicken pieces by dropping them into the flour a few at a time, then into the egg/milk mixture and back into the flour. Arrange coated chicken on a plate until all chicken is coated.

When oil in the wok is hot, add about half of the chicken to the oil and cook for a couple minutes or until brown on one side, then flip the chicken over. When chicken is golden brown, remove the pieces to a rack or paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining chicken. When all of the chicken is cooked rinse the oil out of the wok with water and place it back on the stove to heat up.

When wok is hot again add julienned orange peel and chicken. Heat for 20 to 30 seconds or so, stirring gently. Add sauce to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir dish a couple times but do it gently so you don’t knock the coating off the chicken. Cook until the sauce thickens then serve up the dish with white or brown rice on the side.