KITCHEN CRAZY

An early bird good morning to you all out in bloggy land! How are you doing this what-was-supposed-to-be-a-pretty-spring-day!? I had to have the DD to band practice early this morning… back to life as we know it- the normal rat race! YAY! LOL! You ever see someone so in love with occasional chaos? LOL! It’s a cold 45 degrees here and its not even light outside yet!

Ok, so I was in the kitchen all day yesterday playing with all the goodies I got at the market. Since I played yesterday, today is gonna be all about food! I hope you’re hungry LOL! BTW Hazel, your comment was so awesome! I almost fell out of my chair LMAO! I’m glad to know I am not the only “berry thief” around LOL! SO anyway LOL, I have noticed that whenever I have tons of goodies to play with I want to stay in the kitchen all day… and I normally do LOL! So I was originally going to make the Chicken tacos… LOL but the day didn’t really turn out that way!



So the first thing I made was some super delicious pasta salad. Mom used to make this for us as kids and I loved it back then. Now I make it for my own family and its just as loved in this house! I use Wacky Mac pasta, which has beets, tomato, spinach, and regular pastas of different types. Then I cube up some yellow squash and zucchini. I also toss in some fresh carrots and toss the whole bowl lightly with some Zesty Italian salad dressing. You can eat it as a side to a meal or as a meal with some club crackers by itself. Either way its awesome! Its traditionally a summer dish, but I say if you’re in the mood… by George go ahead and make it!



Then I had that yummy delicious box of strawberries taunting me so I knew I had to do something with them before I ate them all and didn’t have enough to do ANYTHING but eat them LOL! Remember I told you they were big berries? Well this is just showing you that the SMALLEST one in the box was as big as an egg and a lime!



SOOO… I washed and quartered 2 pints and dry packed them and froze them. I figure I can make something yummy later on down the road (if I can leave them in the freezer long enough LMAO! Smoothies or something… ok so then I quartered another pint and put those aside to use for dessert. I had some little cakes I got on clearance… any idea where this is going yet? LMAO… With another pint that was washed and hulled, I diced the berries and made more yumminess! LOOK at this homemade glaze… which is also great on other desserts such as cheesecake, etc!



Homemade Strawberry Glaze

Ingredients

2 pounds (32 oz.) fresh strawberries, stems removed
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon corn starch

Instructions

Combine the water, strawberries, water, and lemon juice in a large saucepan on high heat. Stir thoroughly while bringing it up to a boil.

After the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low, and allow to cook for up to ten minutes, occasionally stirring throughout. As the strawberries soften, use a wooden spoon to break them in pieces to release the flavors from the strawberries.

Remove from heat. Using a strainer, pour liquid into a bowl ensuring to press as much juices through strainer with wooden spoon. Dispose any of the solid strawberries leftover from mixture, and return liquid to pan on low heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Then, pour into the simmering pan of strawberry juice.

Increase heat to high, and continue to whisk the mixture until it thickens into a glaze (approximately 3-5 minutes).

Remove glaze from heat, and pour into separate bowl to cool down. Once the glaze has reached room temperature, place in refrigerator until it is chilled.



OK, so fresh strawberries, homemade glaze, some whipped cream and a fork and OMG YUM! I found these sponge cakes on clearance and they were the perfect mini sizes for each person to have 1. Yet another summer dish… hmm think my subconscience is rebelling against mother nature? Maybe… but either way slightly sweet and very fresh and delicious.

Ok, so staring at the red onions and all the other things in sight… hmmm red onion, fresh cilantro, tomatoes, jalapenos, and fresh limes… OH YEA! Homemade Pico De Gallo…



Pico De Gallo

Ingredients

4 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
1 small red onion, minced
1/2 a bunch chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 lime, juiced

Directions

Stir the tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, and lime juice together in a bowl. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.



Alright so now I see the onions and huge red bell pepper… slice and dice time! Add some of the Napolitos from the bag in the fridge and 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic…. I sliced some of those steaks I found on clearance at the beginning of the month into thin strips and soaked them in a homemade Fajita marinade for about 3 hours! Here’s my marinade recipe:



Fajita Marinade

Ingredients

1/4 cup lime juice
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

In a large resealable plastic bag, mix together the lime juice, water, olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, salt, and liquid smoke flavoring. Stir in cayenne and black pepper.

Place desired meat in the marinade, and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight. Cook as desired.



Here’s what we ended up with for dinner! Beef fajitas with bell peppers, onions, and nopalitos, fresh Pico De Gallo, sour cream and cheese wrapped in warm flour tortillas served with a side of Spanish Rice. Doesn’t that just look summer festive yumminess? It was a pleasant change from the soups and such from the winter months past. Followed that with the homemade mini Strawberry shortcakes and we had a bunch of happy people! Not to mention how much of the market goods I used today too! I have red-dyed fingers from all the strawberry juice, but it was worth it!

Now if Texican isn’t your flavor… I have something else you could try. How about a bit of Italian goodness?



World’s Best Lasagna

Ingredients

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 1/4 pound lean ground beef
1 cup minced onion
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
4 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
4 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
Dash of nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Soak raw, hard noodles in a large bowl of very hot tap water for 20-30 min. Noodles won't be cooked but soft, and can complete it's cooking in the oven. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

**You can make this in a pan and freeze it for cooking in the future. Just assemble and freeze. When you are ready to use, thaw in the fridge over night and them bake as directed. Will taste just as wonderful!**

Ok kids, that’s all the food my stomach can handle today! LOL… hopefully there is something here to tempt your taste buds. As for me… well I think today I am going to chase the DH away so I can enjoy the peace and quiet of no kids! YAY! Lazy day for me (yea right) would be a dream, but the truth is, I need to go survey how much damage my garden sustained and fix anything if I can/need to. Then I will also probably go start the final clean up of the storage unit. Hopefully I can get that done by the end of the month! That extra money would be pretty nice! So to all my faithful followers… I’ll see you tomorrow! HUGS!