Food with a Dash Of Fun

Game Day Snack: Hearty Pizza Bread

Barb Ruess — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:13:54 +0000

Whether you’re tailgating or having people over to watch the big game, I’ve got the perfect snack. It’s so hearty it’s almost a meal on its own. It’s pizza bread, probably unlike any you’ve had before. (Well, unless you know me personally because I might have made this for you.)

Many, many years ago I was looking through a pizza dough cook book (that’s one specific cook book by the way), and it had a couple of extra recipes in the back. One of those got me started on this bread. The secret? Mashed potatoes (trust me on this). This isn’t hard to make but it does require some rising time so be sure you plan ahead a few hours to give yourself enough time.

Hearty Pizza Bread

3-4 medium size potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 lb salami, cut into shreds
1 package of active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
3 TB olive oil
6 cups all purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 cups luke warm water
6 ounces of provolone cheese, diced

1. Boil potatoes for 15 minutes, drain and mash. Place in a very large bowl and stir in Parmesan, salami, yeast, salt and 2 tablespoons of oil. Gradually add in the flour and water to make a soft dough. At some point you’ll probably need to turn this out on a floured surface to mix things in with your hands. If your bowl is big enough you can keep it in the bowl, but you’ll still need to use your hands to get everything mixed in.

Note: You may not use all the water… or you may need a little more. You want enough to help the dough stick together without being sticky. What do you do if you’ve added all the flour & water and your dough is sticky? Add a little more flour and work it in until the dough isn’t so sticky. What if the dough won’t stick together in one ball? Work in a little bit of water until it does.

2. Knead your bread dough vigorously for five minutes. Transfer to an oiled baking sheet and pat out to approximately 12 inches in diameter. Cover with clean towels and leave it someplace warm to rise for 1.5 hours. It should nearly double in size.

3. Preheat your oven to 400. Push the diced provolone cheese into the dough at regular intervals. Rub the remaining tablespoon of oil over the top of your dough. Bake on the sheet for 30 minutes until lightly golden.

4. Try to wait at least five minutes before you tear into it

Barb lives in Crown Point with a hungry family that includes three kids. You can find her out running, wishing for a day warm enough to visit Lake Michigan, on Twitter and writing her daily blog, Quick Like A Bunny where you never know what she’ll be talking about.

It’s fall: Let’s make some soup!

Barb Ruess — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:53:17 +0000

The nights are cool (downright chilly even). The morning air is crisp. We all broke out sweatshirts for my son’s baseball game last night. And the kids requested soup for dinner this week.

Yep, fall is in the air. Once the nice cool weather hits we have soup for dinner just about once a week. And since I’m determined to not make the same dinner more than once a month, that’s a lot of soup recipes. Today I’m highlighting some of the many soup recipes I have posted over the years. Starting with what’s in the crock pot for dinner tonight:

Creamy Chicken Chowder
Chicken Jalapeno Soup This one always makes me happy because I got the recipe from a winery on one of our trips up to Traverse City. A place I’m sorely missing this fall. We traded our annual trip to Northern Michigan for a trip to Orlando so I can run the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. It’s a good trade but my soul is missing my dose of Pure Michigan.
Spinach, Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
Potato Cheese Soup Such a family favorite that it’s even been requested as a birthday dinner.
Lentil, Butternut Squash Stew
Meatball Soup This one has been in my recipe box for years.
White Chicken Chili
Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup
Chicken & Rice Soup This one is fantastic with a nice crisp chardonnay.

Now break out your crock pot - it’s soup season!

Barb lives in Crown Point with a hungry family that includes three kids. You can find her out running, heading to the beach, on Twitter and writing her daily blog, Quick Like A Bunny where you never know what she’ll be talking about.

Feed a crowd with Crock Pot Red Beans & Rice

Barb Ruess — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:20:41 +0000

We had a little party last weekend. It involved an 84 lb pig cooking on my driveway and just over 100 people partying it up in my yard, garage, kitchen and basement. It was a blast. It was also a serious test of my hosting abilities. That’s a lot of people to feed and, contrary to what my husband thought, they needed something to eat besides pork. (Though that pork was indeed delicious.)

I ordered a few things from the catering department of our grocery store. I had a few generous friends supply some sides and desserts. And I made two hot side dishes: homemade mac & cheese and red beans & rice. I have a secret to admit, I was so excited to get to make the red beans & rice. My family aren’t huge bean eaters so I’ve only made this once before when we were having people over. I love this recipe but I’m not about to make an entire crock pot full when I’m the only one who will eat it (well, I think J would help me out but he’s the only one).

This recipe fills an 8 quart crock pot so it’s definitely intended to feed a crowd - I think it would be great for a tailgate. And it’s good enough that I was asked for the recipe multiple times and only had two servings left over at the end of the night.

Crock Pot Red Beans & Rice

- 1 lb dried red beans, soaked overnight in water
- 2 smoked ham hocks
- 7 cups water
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 3 tsp minced garlic
- 1 package (approx 1 lb) of Andouille sausage, sliced into half moons
- 3 TB creole seasoning
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 dashes of hot sauce
- 6 cups rice, cooked

1. Place ham hocks in the crock pot. Drain the beans and add them plus all ingredients except the rice to the crock pot. Cook on HIGH for 7 hours.

2. About 30 minutes before you want to eat, put some water on for your rice and cook according to package directions. Remove the bay leaves & ham hocks (they will be breaking apart and you could chop up their meat and add it back in if you’d like, I don’t). Mash some of the beans against the side of the crock pot. Stir in the rice and let sit in the crock pot on warm for about 30 minutes so the rice soaks up the juices.

This can sit in the crock pot for hours on warm and stay good. It also makes excellent leftovers.

Back to school traditions

Barb Ruess — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:48:46 +0000

It’s 6am on a Thursday and my waffle iron is on. That can only mean one thing: it’s the first day of school. It’s our tradition to have homemade, chocolate chip waffles on the first day of school. This food post isn’t about a specific recipe, it’s about food and traditions.

See, my kids don’t care if I use a mix or literally make them from scratch. What matters to them is that I take the time to mix up some batter, pour it on the waffle iron and make them a fresh, hot breakfast. These weekday waffles mean a fresh start, a new beginning while also singling a return to routine and yelling at friends down the hall and carrying backpacks out the door.

That’s a hefty weight for a 4×4 square - even if it is fortified by chocolate. Don’t worry, the waffles can handle it. There’s a reason that food is the center of so many traditions.

Traditions make the everyday special. Traditions are the fuel of future memories. Traditions draw us together.

We’ll have waffles on countless Sundays this year but I bet none of them taste quite the same as these first-day-of-school waffles. Have any beginning of school traditions of your own to share?

Family-pleasing pasta: Steak & Tortellini

Barb Ruess — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:12:22 +0000

I was wandering around the grocery store this week with a cart full of fresh vegetables. I was looking for some dinner inspiration surrounding that fine produce when I spied some sirloin steak marked down for sale that day. And that’s when I came up with this plan:

Steak & Tortellini

1 family size bag of tortellini pasta
1.5 lbs of sirloin steak
1 red bell pepper
1 8oz package of mushrooms
1 red onion
1 head of broccoli
1 14oz can of tomato sauce
Parmesan cheese

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to directions.

2. Grill your sirloin to medium doneness. Let it rest and then cut into bite size pieces.

3. Chop all vegetables into bite-size pieces and, in a large skillet with a lid, saute them in olive oil over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes until they just start to get soft. Add your steak and tomato sauce to the pan. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Drain your pasta and put it in a large bowl. Cover with your sauce/steak/veggie mixture and toss to coat. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.

This is a great way to make use of a variety of vegetables - I think the onion is a must have but the rest are up to you… green beans, squash, asparagus, spinach… just about anything would work!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Barb Ruess — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 22:07:46 +0000

As happens every year, this time of year, we went blueberry picking. I freeze about half of the harvest. The kids eat at least half of what’s left and then I start digging through recipes for the remainder. I decided I wanted something snackable that we could take on our road trip. I started with my yummy recipe for Lemon Blueberry Cake and found a recipe for bread and combined the two to come up with this. It is refreshing and yummy and I shall enjoy it very much as we are making our way West.

1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 lemon - you’ll use it three times.
- juice squeezed from half of a lemon (or 3 TB if you are using a bottle… but use fresh, lemons are cheap)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1/2 cup milk
zest grated from the whole lemon
1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8 inch loaf pan.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and eggs.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add half of these dry ingredients to the batter and mix in. Then add the milk, mix it in. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix it all in. Gently fold in the lemon zest and blueberries. Pour batter into the loaf pan.

4. Bake for 58 minutes (approx 1 hour, I like the crust lightly browned so I go just under). It’s done when you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

5. Bonus: Glaze the top! While it’s cooling, mix together juice squeezed from the other half of your lemon (approx 2 TB) with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. Drizzle the glaze all over the top.

Note on the blueberries: this is just as good with frozen blueberries and you don’t even need to thaw them out. Just toss in a cup frozen, they’ll thaw while baking.

Summer Dessert: Turtle Ice Cream Pie

Barb Ruess — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:41:12 +0000

I love ice cream all year round but it tastes especially good now at the height of summer. It’s almost as if when the sweet corn is good, ice cream is also in season. Here’s a fun and yummy way to make ice cream seem like a fancy dessert. Now I need to invite some people over or something so I have an excuse to make it.

Turtle Ice Cream Pie
1 prepared chocolate graham cracker crust
4 cups of vanilla ice cream, softened
1/3 cup caramel ice cream syrup, plus more at the end
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Put softened ice cream in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer for a few minutes to make it all smooth. Spread half of it in the crust, and put the other half in the fridge for later.

2. Spread the 1/3 cup caramel syrup on top of the ice cream and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.

3. Take it out of the freezer and put the rest of the ice cream on as a top layer. Sprinkle the pecans on top and drizzle with caramel syrup.

Note: If you’re a big fan of pecans, double the amount and put half in the middle layer with the 1/3 cup caramel syrup.

What kid doesn’t like food on a stick?! Peanut Chicken Skewers

Barb Ruess — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 12:12:49 +0000

For Father’s Day my husband requested that he be able to watch the US Open uninterrupted. That’s fine except the tournament falls right on top of dinner time. So the kids and I decided that instead of making him take a dinner break, we’d just make appetizers all afternoon & evening. There were enough of them (five courses) and they were substantial enough that none of us missed an actual dinner. These were the final course and frankly, with a veggie on the side they totally could have been dinner. And since they come on a stick they are very kid friendly - my gang all loved them.

Peanut Chicken Skewers
based on a recipe that appeared a few years ago in Real Simple

- 1 cup salted, roasted peanuts roughly chopped (I put them in a ziploc baggie and had one of the kids bang away with a mallet)
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- salt & pepper
- 1 lb of chicken - either breasts sliced into thin strips or tenderloins
- 2 TB vegetable oil
- wood skewers (I always soak mine in water for a few hours so there are no issues with wood & fire)

Dipping sauce:
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 tsp Asian chili-garlic sauce
- 1 tsp Asian sweet chili cauce

1. Make dipping sauce by combining all three ingredients; place in fridge until ready to eat.

2. On a large plate combine the peanuts, bread crumbs & parsley with a dash of salt & pepper.

3. Thread each chicken strip onto a skewer and press into the peanut mixture to coat.

4. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the skewers until golden - 2-3 minutes on each side. I did mine in batches of three and transferred them to a platter lined with paper towels to soak up any grease. However, since we’re only using a couple tablespoons these weren’t greasy at all. Add oil to the skillet while cooking your batches if necessary.

5. Serve with the dipping sauce.

A family favorite: Creamy Cajun Linguine

Barb Ruess — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:05:59 +0000

I love making a recipe that tastes like it’s filled with cream and butter when it’s not. This one started as a Cooking Light recipe but it doesn’t taste like it.

Creamy Cajun Linguine
1 lb Andouille sausage, grilled and sliced.
1 box whole wheat linguine
1 pound medium size shrimp
2 TB butter
1 package sliced mushrooms
1 bell pepper, sliced
2 TB flour
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
2 cups half & half
3-4 green onions, chopped

1. Bring water to a boil to cook pasta. After pasta has been cooking for 8 minutes, add the shrimp to the boiling water. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes. Drain.

2. Melt butter in large skillet and saute mushrooms & peppers until just soft - about 4 minutes. Add flour and cook for another 3-4 minutes to make a light roux. Add seasonings and then add the half & half. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly - usually happens when it starts to bubble around the edges.

3. Put pasta & shrimp in a large bowl. Add the cooked & sliced sausage, then toss with the sauce mixture and top with chopped green onions.

The sauce is fairly thin on this one but still feels like a rich cream sauce because of all the flavor from the other ingredients. It’s a winner in our house!

Cashew Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Barb Ruess — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:19:31 +0000

Last weekend some grandparents came to watch J’s baseball game in the morning. They were staying for lunch and I wanted to have something in the house besides deli sandwiches (or peanut butter & jelly). I did not however want to cook anything - particularly because the weather is warming up and who wants to heat up the kitchen? So that morning I grabbed a rotisserie chicken and dug out an old recipe. As I ate these sandwiches I kept asking myself why I don’t make them more often.

I love this twist on chicken salad and the original recipe came from Cooking Light so it’s even a healthy twist on chicken salad. Make some tomorrow and you’ll have it in the fridge all weekend for easy sandwiches!

Cashew Chicken Salad Sandwiches
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
2 TB light mayo
1/2 tsp curry powder
4 cups roasted, skinless chicken, chopped (one rotisserie chicken works perfectly)
1/2 cup chopped celery
4 TB chopped cashew pieces
2 TB finely chopped green onions
buns or bread

Combine the first three ingredients in a large bowl and stir to mix them together. Add the chicken, celery, cashews and green onions and stir until well mixed. Serve on bread of your choosing. We used pretzel rolls last weekend and I like the addition of a little bit of lettuce or spinach on my sandwich.