Kitchen Adventures 12.1

It's been about a year now since I first started sharing my recipes and cooking creations with others through this blog. Admittedly I am not the most faithful of bloggers, but it is something I enjoy and if people keep telling me they read my posts and want to try my recipes then it's worth it.

As usual, I am behind. I need to catch up with my May dishes before adding in my June endeavors. Life has been so busy and will only get busier, even though it's summertime. I always thought things were supposed to slow down when school got out, but it never happens that way. We, or at least I, save projects until it's summer because we somehow think we'll have more time to do things. Yet, inevitably, we have LESS time because we have so many things we put off and have to try to catch up before the summer months slip away. It's the never-ending circle of life I'm discovering as I settle more into my adult life.

Through all the craziness that life sometimes brings, I still find time to cook and bake. I have to eat, of course, and if you know me well you understand how important eating is to me. :) I get quite grumpy without sustenance, as my friends and co-workers can attest.

Something I had been wanting to try for some time is baked spaghetti. I'm a big pasta lover, but this was something I had yet to try. While flipping through my many cookbooks I found a baked spaghetti recipe and decided it was finally time to try it. This one comes from my Wheat State Manor cookbook my mom got for me a couple years ago and it was submitted by a lady from my church. I will have to tell her I tried it out the next time I go home!

One note about the recipe: I made the mistake of not browning my meat with the veggies or seasoning my meat while browning it, so the meat did not absorb as much of the flavor it could have. Just make sure you do this to get the best out of the dish.

Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients:

2 lb. hamburger
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 green pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tomatoes, mashed
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated
spaghetti

Directions:

Brown the hamburger and fresh veggies, seasoning with dashes of the spices; drain. Cook the spaghetti as directed and drain. Add the spaghetti to the meat, and add the cream of mushroom soup, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and spices. Make sure to not add in water to the soup. Mix all this together, then spoon into a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, then top with cheese and return to oven until the cheese melts.

Kitchen Adventures 6.2

I have quite a bit of catching up to do on here! The last week or so has been incredibly crazy, to put it mildly. I've been busy at work, dealing with lots of little issues there, and then finding way too many things to do with my free time. But, hanging out with my friends doing things like celebrating jobs, hitting up the monthly art walk, going to football games and out to dinner, church things, and random shopping trips make my life that much better.

All those fun things, though, keep me away from posting more frequently. For instance, this is a recipe I made about three weeks ago and just never found time to post after making it.

This is the perfect recipe for a chilly fall evening, which to me is soup weather. It also freezes decently well, and I just finished it off this week by sharing with a few friends for dinner one night. I got this one from a binder my Aunt Kathie gave me a couple Christmases ago. She had it at Thanksgiving and showed everyone and I just had to have a copy. I'm not sure where she got the recipes, but if anyone wanted the source for this one I could ask. It's a good one for sure!

A couple notes I learned the first time I made this that made this go-round much better. First, make sure you chop your potatoes to a fairly standard size, that way the chunks cook the same amount. Second, make sure you have the potatoes chopped, onions chopped, and bacon cooked and crumbled before starting the flour and butter. You will not have enough hands to chop, stir, and crumble all at the same time! Finally, you will have to stir for awhile to get the milk to thicken. I probably could have stirred it a little bit more, but it turned out fine.

Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

2/3 c. butter or margarine
4 sliced green onions (I omitted these)
1 c. sour cream
1 1/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese (I used a little more)
7 c. milk
12 cooked, crumbled bacon strips
2/3 c. flour
4 lg. baking potatoes OR hash browns (I used potatoes)

Directions:

Chop potatoes and onions and cook bacon. In a large soup kettle or dutch oven, melt the butter. Add in flour, heat and stir until smooth. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Add potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, stir until cheese is melted.