Posted on 06/24/2005 4:13:54 PM PDT by LadyShallott
You and me both, friend! I don't understand it, but it's true.
Here's one for later that she'll sooner or later need. I have made them several times for ummmm well, research purposes. Ya that's it !!!! Research !!!! LOL They have always been a hit !
Ingredients:
Cherry tomatoes
Vodka (use a good brand)
Celery salt, Old Bay, Cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, in small bowls
Toothpicks
Preparation:
Blanch the tomatoes by dropping them into boiling water until the skin puckers. Remove the tomatoes and pull the skin off. Allow them to cool.
Soak the tomatoes in vodka overnight.
At the Tailgate:
Put your spices into small bowls.
Spear a tomato with a toothpick, roll into the spices of your choice, and pop it into your mouth.
Repeat as often as necessary.
Alternatively, you can season the vodka prior to soaking the tomatoes, then provide some Old Bay for dipping.
Sorry, These are called "Bloody Mary Balls"...
Bachelor bookmark and bump (and thanks to all ... keep them coming!)
Whoopie! I haven't cooked in years; so I'll have to think!
When you get a break some time in the middle of the day, throw some mini carrots in there, some thin-skinned potatoes, and maybe chop an onion if you are motivated. Put in any kind of roast on top of those veggies, or even some stew meat. Sprinkle two packets of dry onion soup mix over the top. Then pour 1/2 cup of red wine over it all, but you can make do with 1/2 cup of white wine, broth, or even water in a pinch.
If you have 5 or more hours until you want to eat, put it on low. 3 to 5 hours, put it on high. No more worries about dinner! Go nurse that baby Freeper!
There are some great rassacole recipes here.
For those who need to work out some angst:
4 large potatoes. Cubed from 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.
1 half pound block of Longhorn Cheddar Cheese.
1 Center Cut Smithfield Ham Slice.
1 buttered or Pam'ed glass cassarole dish.
Spread out a layer of paotao cubes in the dish
Layer thinly slided Longhorn Cheese
Top with another layer of potato cubes
Layer Thinly sliced Longhorn Cheese
Place Center Cut Ham Slice atop potatoes and cheese.
Bake in oven at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Or until the cheese begins to brown.
Jack.
Take a flat roast, or cut a rump into two pieces so the meat is no more than a couple of inches thick.
Place the meat in a pyrex dish and sprinkle dry onion soup mix across the top. Then DUMP two cans of cream soup (any variety: mushroom, golden mushroom, onion, broccoli,etc) on top of the meat and pour one or two (depending on the size of your pan) jars of prepared gravy (Boston Market is my favorite) over that. No need to mix them together.
Cover the dish with foil and bake at a low setting, 325 or so, for several hours. The gravy/soups mix and make an incredible sauce.
I usually serve this with rice -
See #70 - another bachelor gave me this recipe.....it could also be done in a crock pot -
1 pound of pea, navy, or kidney beans (soaked overnight)
1/4 pound Salt Pork in 2 pieces (Bacon works in a pinch but you will get a slightly smokey flavor in the beans)
Pinch of baking soda 1 onion (chopped)
2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 Tsp dry mustard
1/2 Tsp salt
1/4 Tsp black pepper
1/2 cup dark molasses
Rinse beans after soaking overnight add water to cover and bring to a boil. Add Baking soda. skim the foam and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Put beans and liquid in a large Crockpot along with all other ingredients but the pork. mix well. put the pork on top of the beans and set the Crockpot to high until hot. Reduce setting to low and cook for about 6 or 8 hours or until beans are cooked through.
If you choose to bake the beans reserve some of the boiling liquid. and use a ceramic casserole or bean pot bake at 300 degrees for the same 6-8 hours but keep checking the pot and adding liquid as needed.
Easy Lasagna
8 ounces lasagna noodles
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 jar (about 16 ounces) spaghetti sauce, your favorite
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain and set aside. In a large skillet, brown beef, onion, drain well. Stir in spaghetti sauce. In a 2-quart buttered baking dish (about 11x7x2-inches), layer 1/3 of the lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the sauce and 1/3 of the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheeses. Repeat layers twice. Bake lasagna for 30 minutes, or until thoroughly heated and bubbly. Let stand for 8 to 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Serves 6 to 8.
Thank you for posting Aqua! How are ya?
drool...drool...drool... PING for later.
Summertime is always hectic but I won't complain. Was thinking I should make and freeze some of these casseroles to have handy at the end of a hectic day.
Summer's Lasagna Recipe
The Sauce: Total prep time: 8 ½ hours.
1 gross ripe plum tomatoes. (or 8 28oz cans of GOOD tomato puree, if fresh tomatos aren't available. Cento or Progresso are good brands). 2 1/2 cups chopped fresh basil 3/4 cup chopped fresh oregano 8 large garlic cloves, chopped 1 1/2 cups red wine (any inexpensive cab, merlot or dago red will do) 4 large bay leaves (dried is fine). 1 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. 1 cup romano cheese, freshly grated (Locatelli Pecorino is best) 1 large white (sweet) onion, finely chopped. Food processor (or blender) 24 quart stock pot with lid. If using fresh tomatos... Halve tomatoes, remove the stem portion and seeds. Puree tomatoes and pour into stock pot, along with 1 cup of olive oil. If using canned tomatos, pour contents of all 8 cans into stock pot, along with 1 cup olive oil. Sautee garlic in remaining oil until it just begins to brown. Remove from heat and pour immediately into sauce. Add the chopped onion, basil, oregano and bay leaves, and simmer on low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Stir often so that it doesn’t stick (always use a wooden spoon). Add the red wine, and continue to simmer for 4 1/2 hours. Stir frequently. Adjust heat as necessary so that it doesn’t stick or burn. Also, after a time, you’ll begin to see a yellowish/greenish foam forming on the surface of the sauce. Skim that off occasionally and discard. That foam contains much of the acid from the tomatoes, and will ruin the sauce if not removed. Continue to stir and skim as you’re preparing the meatballs and sausages. Keep the pot lid tilted just a bit so that the sauce doesn’t boil over. The Meatballs: Four pounds of freshly ground, 90% lean beef. 1 cup romano cheese, freshly grated. 1 1/2 tbs onion powder (NOT onion salt!) 1 1/2 tbs garlic powder. 2 cups plain bread crumbs (Progresso is fine). 1/2 doz eggs. Put ground beef into a large bowl, and make a large depression in the center. Add the six eggs, onion powder, garlic powder, romano cheese and ONE cup of bread crumbs, and knead until all of the ingredients are completely mixed. If the mixture is too dry to form into meatballs, add another egg. If it’s too wet, add more breadcrumbs. The consistency should be just dry enough to form into meatballs that will keep their shape when placed on a baking pan. Form meatballs to be about the size of tennis balls (yes, tennis balls! Too small, and they’ll dry out! ) Once all of the meatballs are formed, place onto a baking pan lined with aluminum foil and broil until they just begin to brown and crust over. You’ll have to turn them at least once so that the crust is fairly uniform. Once brown, remove from broiler and set aside. The Sausages: (3 lbs) While any good sweet Italian sausage will do, I strongly recommend fennel sausage. They taste incredible and add a wonderful flavor to the sauce. Don’t use the thin sausages, as they have a tendency to dry out. The links should be about ¾” thick and about 4” long. Three pounds of sausages is enough,. Separate links and place onto a lined baking pan. Broil until they begin to brown, turning once (just like the meatballs). Remove from broiler and set aside. Back to the sauce: After the sauce has been simmering for a total of six hours, add the romano cheese, meatballs and sausages. Continue to simmer, stir and skim, but be careful not to damage the meatballs. They’ll become firmer after a time, but you don’t want them to break up in the sauce. Reduce the heat slightly and continue to simmer for another two hours, occasionally stirring and skimming (if necessary – after a while, there won’t be much of that icky foam left). As you’re simmering the sauce, it’ll become thicker and the volume will decrease. This is supposed to happen. After the two hours (total of 8 hours), remove from heat and set aside. I recommend that you let the sauce cool for a few hours and refrigerate over night before use, but that’s not absolutely necessary. The sauce just tastes better the day after J By the way, you’ll have LOTS of sauce left over for other meals. I usually make much more sauce than I’ll need and freeze the rest because of how much work is involved. Oh, and don’t forget to remove the bay leaves. The Lasagna: Two boxes Borilla Lasagna noodles (fresh noodles are better, but unnecessary). 3 lbs fresh whole milk ricotta (Sorrento brand is good if you can’t get fresh) 1 ½ lbs fresh mozzerella, shredded. (again, Sorrento will suffice) The sauce, meatballs and sausage. Large baking pan, about 12”X18”X4”. A larger pan, if you want a bigger lasagna. Thinly slice 5 meatballs and six sausages (slice sausages diagonally). Slices should be just thick enough to hold together. Prepare the lasagna noodles as per the instructions on the box. Add 2 tsps salt and about ¼ cup of olive oil to the water before adding the noodles. When ready, remove the noodles from the water, and carefully drape over the sides of a large pot. Coat the pan with a thin layer of sauce. This will keep the noodles from sticking to the pan. Carefully lay one layer of the noodles length-wise into the bottom of the pan. Trim the edges of the noodles to the top of the rim. Add one more layer cross- wise and trim. Spoon a layer of sauce over the noodles. Add one layer of sliced sausages, and a thin layer of ricotta cheese. From this point forward, you’ll alternate between length-wise and cross-wise layers of noodles, and between slices of sausages and meatballs. You should get about four or five layers total when finished. Slice more meatballs and sausages if necessary. When you reach within ½” of the top of the pan, add a layer of noodles and sauce. The Topping: Crumble any remaining sliced sausages and a whole sausage or two so that you have about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of crumbled sausages. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the lasagna. Sprinkle the shredded mozzerella evenly over the crumbled sausages. Lastly, sprinkle some grated romano over the top; Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, and bake until the topping begins to brown, but does not burn. Remove from oven and let stand for at least 30 minutes, or until firm. Serve with remaining meatballs and sausages, a gravy boat full of sauce and some grated romano. Also some warm Italian bread, and your favorite red wine ( Sabatucci Primitivo di Manduria is an inexpensive but WONDERFUL table wine. Open and allow to breathe for about two hours before serving). Buon Appetito!
Ping to self to remind me to add my own recipe in here for others that have been so kind!!!
A Freeper Recipe List! Great idea!
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