Broccoli & Rice Bake …

So tonight I knew I had to cook these pork steaks I had already thawed out, right?  I also had a fresh head of broccoli but virtually no cheese.  I know, you’re shocked.  THIS house is RARELY without cheese!  I had a little Swiss cheese but that’s it.  So what do I do with the broccoli?  I found this DELICIOUS recipe!  I had all the ingredients so why not give it a try?  I can tell you that it’s going to be a regular here 🙂

Broccoli and Rice Bake

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli, chopped (you can use frozen)

1 10.75 can cream of mushroom soup

1 1/4 cups milk

1 8 oz container sour cream

1 tsp dried crushed basil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cups white rice (long grain)

1 cup Swiss cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

1.  Cook rice according to package directions.

2.  While rice is cooking, cook fresh broccoli in salted water.  Cook until still bright green.  Drain.

3.  In a large bowl, combine soup, milk, sour cream, salt pepper and basil.  Stir in cooked broccoli and cooked rice.  Spoon mixture into a greased 2 quart casserole dish.

4.  Cover and bake for about 30 minutes or until heated through.  Uncover and sprinkle cheese on top of rice dish.  Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

There it is!  Simple as that and everyone LOVED it!  The pork steaks were SO good too and fell apart in my mouth 😉  They’re so easy that I’m almost ashamed to tell you how I do them… but I WILL.  All I do is season them any way I want to and throw them in the oven, covered at 350F.  I cook them until they’re for tender (about 2-3 hours), uncover, drain grease and smother with bar-b-q sauce.  Throw them back into the oven for another half hour until the sauce kind of cooks in 🙂  It’s better than the grill!

Sunday Dinner… Norman Rockwell, roast turkey with all the trimmings AND, featuring, Maque Choux

When I think of Sunday dinner, I think of a Norman Rockwell painting, where a large, extended family is seated around a large table laughing, sharing a story and passing the bowl of mashed potatoes.  Everyone’s happy and there’s NO family drama.  The biggest problem discussed would probably be the price of dairy going up.  lol

Okay, so this ISN’T my family but I still wanted to make Sunday dinner today 🙂  My daughter was coming home from spending the night with my brother and his family and I just wanted to do something nice for her, my husband and my friend (who’s staying with us) and her son.  I got up early and put the turkey in the oven.  It turned out SO tender, it fell off the bone!  Yum.  I made mashed potatoes, turkey gravy and Maque Choux (a corn dish).  So okay, there was NO sitting around the table.  lol  That’s almost funny to think about at my house.  I took SO much time preparing this meal and when it was done, everyone grabbed a paper plate and filled up.  It was downed in 2.2 minutes and now everyone is about to fall asleep in front of the TV.  Classic American family, right?  Oh and NOBODY is jumping up volunteering to do the dishes or clean the mess I left behind, as usual.  Another success and probably no memories made here but hey!  The food was good!  lol

So back to the Maque Choux (pronounced mock shoe).  It’s something I’ve not made before but it sounded good and healthy.  You need SOMETHING healthy when you have food like roast turkey, drenched in herb butter with mashed potatoes and gravy, right? Anyway, Maque Choux is another dish that originated in Louisiana.  Oh and it will be my new “go to” side dish recipe.  It’s PACKED with flavor and so easy to make!  Give it a try 🙂

Maque Choux   

3 TBSP butter

1 med to large Vidalia onion, chopped

1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 cups corn (either off the cob or canned)

3 scallions (green peppers), chopped, dark green tops saved fro garnish

1 large tomato

1 TBSP dried thyme leaves

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1.  In a large skillet, melt butter over medium high heat.  Add theonion, bell pepper and celery.  Cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened, 5 to 7 minutes.  Stir in corn and chopped scallions.  Reduce heat and cover.  Cook for 5 minutes.

2.  Uncover the skillet and stir in tomato, thyme and cayenne pepper.  Cook until the tomato is soft about 3 minutes.  Stir in the cream and cook until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with reserved green scallions.

*This is a really good summer time dish and you can make it a meal by adding shrimp or chicken.

Aunt Arlene’s Easy Corn Souffle (as promised to Jessamine)

One of the awesome blogs I follow, Attempts in Domesticity (Trying to Emulate Martha Stewart in a Town Full of Hipsters), posted about some yummy corn and sausage griddle cakes.  I’d never thought of doing griddle cakes like this, have you?  Anyway, I gave her a “fun fact”, not that she asked!  lol  I told her that I make a yummy corn souffle and she asked for the link.  Ahhhh…. most of my recipes are family recipes and some of them come from my collection of a million cookbooks.  I collect cookbooks like I do shoes.

SO…  Jessamine, as promised, now that I’ve had a couple of cups of espresso on this beautiful Sunday morning, here’s our family’s recipe for corn souffle.  I know you’ll love it if you try it!  It’s something that I don’t usually make unless we’re having company OR it’s a holiday.  BUT, I think it would be good any day, and especially for Sunday dinner 🙂

(photo credit goes to aboutdishes.blogspot.com)

Aunt Arlene’s Easy Corn Souffle

Ingredients

1 small onion

1 green pepper

1 stick butter (use REAL butter)

1 can whole kernel corn

1 can cream style corn

1 box jiffy corn muffin mix

3 eggs, well beaten

1 cup sour cream

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

Saute onion and green pepper in butter.  Add corn, beaten eggs and corn muffin mix.  Stir well and pour into prepared baking dish.  Mix sour cream and grated cheese together, spoon over corn mixture.  Bake at 350 F for 35 -40 minutes.

So here it is.  Now go over and check out Jessamine’s blog!  I think the hook for me was the part where she’s trying to emulate Martha Stewart in a town full of hipsters!  TOO funny.

Porcini Risotto

I meant to  post the recipe for my porcini risotto yesterday when I told you about this, alas, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing and I just ran out of time.  This is a CRAZY good side dish and goes especially with a main dish of beef or could even be a meal on it’s own.

Risotto is easy but a lot of people shy away from it because it really IS time consuming due to the fact that you have to add little amounts of broth at a time until the rice absorbs it.  If you add the liquid all at once, the rice will never absorb it all.  The end result will be a creamy, cheesy, gooey goodness!

Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup Arborio rice (it has to be Arborio)

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

2 medium leeks, only the white parts, sliced (you could use 1 medium onion sliced or diced)

4 or 5 dried porcini mushrooms

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 1/2 cups hot beef broth

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan Cheese

pepper to taste

Directions

To re hydrate dried porcini mushrooms, place in a cup of hot water for a few minutes.  take hydrated mushrooms out of water and set aside.  In a skillet, heat up olive oil on medium high heat.  Add leeks and saute until soft.  Add rice to softened leeks, add garlic powder and salt.  Toast rice until lightly browned (about 2 minutes).  Add wine to rice mixture and saute until wine is mostly absorbed.  Add 1 cup of the hot beef broth, stirring frequently.  As the liquid cooks down add remaining broth 1/2 cup at a time until all broth is used.  At the end, add 1/2 cup of cream and stir until rice is very creamy and most of the fluid is absorbed.  Add Parmesan cheese and pepper, stir until cheese is mixed into the rice.