Alfredo Sauce

A friend of mine from high school Johnna posted this recipe on Facebook. I was interested in it. A mutual friend of ours commented that she'd tried out the recipe and loved it. I decided I had to give it a try. Not only is it extremely easy, but it is fantastic. This recipe makes a great base to dress up if you want to - it would be delicious and easy to add onions, garlic, artichoke hearts, or sun dried tomatoes. The possibilities are endless. I just made it with garlic and chicken for Chicken Alfredo. But there is a lot you could do.

Alfredo Sauce
1 stick butter
1 package cream cheese
1 cup milk

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add cream cheese. Stir to melt. Mix in milk. Let cook for 2-5 minutes - sauce will thicken.

Lemon Drunk Chicken

This was a random creation with help from my husband Josh. You can have different variations of spices - for example to make spicy chicken, or mexican chicken. I love this because it's another easy crock-pot fix it and forget type of meal. The chicken is extremely tender when it's done. It is perfect to shred to add to other things. I added this lemon chicken to alfredo pasta.

Lemon Drunk Chicken
Chicken breasts
1 whole lemon
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 beer
1 cup chicken stock

Pour beer and chicken stock into crock pot. Cut lemon in half. Squeeze juice of both halves of lemon and then add halves to liquid. Add vinegar and spices to liquids. Stir. Add chicken to liquid. If chicken isn't completely covered in liquid, add more chicken stock. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

Sweet and Sour Beef

I love my crock pot. During the days of warmer weather it is a life saver because it will do the cooking for me without making our house hot. I also love that you can throw anything into a crock pot and all you have to do is put it all together and walk away. I saw a recipe for sweet and sour pork made in a crock pot in an issue of Taste of Home. I wanted to try it out. I found a chunk of beef I'd forgotten was in the freezer, and decided to make the recipe with beef instead of pork. It smelled amazing while it was cooking (another thing I love about crock pots). However, the flavor wasn't quite what I was wanting. It seemed a bit bland. The smell didn't match the taste. The next time I make it (I will make it again) I'm going to double the "sweet and sour" aspects of the seasoning. I've written out the recipe with the seasonings as double the original.

Sweet and Sour Beef
2 pounds beef shoulder cut into 2 X 1 pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 large onion peeled and diced
1 large green pepper cored, seeds removed, and chopped
about 12 fresh mushrooms chopped (you could use a 4oz can of mushrooms, I just like the real thing)
1 can (14.5 oz) tomato sauce
6 Tblsp brown sugar
4 Tblsp rice vinegar
4 Tblsp soy sauce
either rice or egg noodles

Cut beef into 2 X 1 pieces and place in crock pot. Add chopped onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Stir to mix. In a bowl mix tomato sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Pour over beef mixture. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 6 hours (my crock pot is a little crazy and I cooked it on low for 6 hours and it was more than done). Serve over the top of either rice of egg noodles.

Potato Pancakes

I made my one of my childhood favorites for breakfast. My grandma used to make these when we would come to visit. It was always a special treat.

Potato Pancakes
1 good sized potato
1 egg
salt
1/2 c milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tblsp sugar
2 Tblsp cooking oil
flour

Peel and grate potato. Add rest of ingredients except flour and mix. Stir in flour in small increments until batter is the consistency of regular pancake batter. Cook on medium heat like regular pancakes.

If you've had potato pancakes before and didn't like them, you should at least give these a try. They have a different texture and flavor than most potato pancakes.

Apple Meatloaf

So... here's a recipe that is worth playing around with.

When I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner I looked in my freezer and found a package of ground beef. I did some searching around on the Taste of Home website (another favorite of mine) for some ideas. http://www.tasteofhome.com Why is it when looking to make something with ground beef the only ideas anyone (me and the website) seem to have are tacos, hamburgers, some sort of hotdish/casserole, meatballs, or meatloaf. I was looking for more of an inspiration. However, I did stumble across an Apple Meatloaf recipe that I figured I'd try out. I made it... and there are some adjustments I'd made to the recipe, so I'll post my "adjusted" recipe.. but it's worth a try for the different flavor. I'm not sure if I'm sold on it, but it was good for something different.

Apple Meatloaf 
1 small onion finely chopped
2 tsp butter
3/4 c shredded peeled apple
3/4 c bread or cracker crumbs
1 egg
4 tsp ketchup
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
dash of nutmeg
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp allspice
1 pound ground beef.

Saute onion in butter until soft. In a separate bowl mix apple, cracker crumbs, ketchup, mustard, egg, and spices. Stir in onion. Crumble in beef. Shape into loaf. Place in a greased bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes

However... I did make one of my favorite side dishes. I love Stove Top stuffing. I don't care what anyone says. I love it. Make a package of Stove Top stuffing according to the directions. Heat up a can of cream corn. When the stuffing is done and the corn has boiled, mix them together. It is awesome.

Pork Chop Failure

I'm not really a big pork person. Living in Germany this is hard thing. Germans eat a lot of pork, and pork is much cheaper than beef. We do have a fair amount of pork in our freezer for this reason. I, reluctantly, took some boneless pork chops out of the freezer last night to make for dinner.
I will confess, I have no idea how to cook a pork chop. Usually my parents would grill them. At the moment we don't have a BBQ, so grilling isn't really an option. I thought of baking them, but I wasn't sure how to do it, what temperature, ect. My internet searching didn't really give me any answers. So I decided to go with a tried and true attempt and fry them the way my grandma would have. I'm not quite sure where I went wrong. I got the egg/flour coating thing down pat. I used cajun seasoning, which is always good. But somehow, I didn't find the pork chops to be appetizing. Nothing was wrong with them... they were cooked all the way and not burned. But... they just weren't very good. Fail.
My husband disagrees with this and claims they taste good. However, he will eat anything, and he ate the pork chops with a load of ketchup.

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

This is a recipe I have wanted to try for a long time. It is by Giada De Laurentiis from the Food Network Favorites cookbook. She calls them biscuits, I call them muffins as they are more muffin-like. They. Are. Amazing.

Lemon Ricotta Muffins
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sguar
1/2 c unsalted butter at room temperature
1 Tblsp grated lemon zest from 2 lemons
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1 Tblsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/3 c sliced almonds

Wisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside. In a large bowl beat sugar, butter, and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta cheese. Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and almond extract. Add dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Batter will be thick and fluffy. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Sprinkle tops of muffins with almonds and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (in my crazy oven it was more like 28 minutes). The tops of the muffins will be golden on top.