Taco Stuffed Shells

Taco Stuffed Shells
From My Friend Laura's Grandma

For the first time since starting the blog back in August, I've been at a bit of a loss for recipes.  There's a million reasons - December is hectic, we recently acquired an adorable but time consuming new family member (Ralph, our new puppy - be on the lookout for pics), and I haven't spent much time in front of a computer, which is when I do most of my recipe stalking (most people Facebook stalk, I recipe stalk...ok I do both).  But probably the number one reason is that John has been traveling a lot for work, and at the end of the day cooking for one isn't as fun.  Once upon a time it was my main form of cooking, but over the past three years I've gotten used to cooking with two, for two.  It's still doing dishes with one - our marriage isn't that perfect.

Luckily, I have friends ready to step in!  I mentioned my blogging woes at a party over the weekend and my fabulous friend Laura jumped in with not only a fantastic recipe, but an offer to come over and make/eat it with me!  Pretty sweet deal, especially since this is the perfect weekday recipe.  It's super easy and the only ingredient I didn't have laying around was ground beef and the pasta shells.  I *almost* felt bad John missed this one...then I remember that our puppy has to go out every 6 hours and travelling for work = 8 hours of CONTINUOUS sleep...


Ingredients

• 12 jumbo pasta shells
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup shredded cheese (we used a mix of chihuahua and cheddar, but pretty much anything would work)
• 3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
• sour cream, to serve, optional
• green onions, to serve, optional

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and toss with butter.  Set aside.
3. In a medium skillet cook beef over medium high, until browned.  Break up with a spoon while cooking.
4. Drain fat.
5. Add 1/4 cup water, taco seasoning, and cream cheese.  Stir to combine and melt cream cheese.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. 
7. Grease a 9x9 baking dish.  Spread a few tablespoons of the salsa across the bottom of the dish.
8. Divide beef mixture across the 12 shells and place in the baking dish. 
9. Top with remaining salsa, cover, and bake 30 minutes.
10. Remove cover, top shells with cheese and tortilla chips, and return to oven for 15 minutes, uncovered.
11. Serve topped with sour cream and green onions.

Serves 4.

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Breakfast Souffle

Breakfast Souffle
From John's Grandma ABC (Rosemary)

Actual conversation:

John: Geez, this is easy to make, I don't know why my mom only makes it Christmas morning.
Tera: Well it makes so much food, it's not like you can just whip it together for 4 people or something.
Pause.
Tera: Wait, that's how many we're making it for.
John: Yeah.....

So yes, this is John's family's official Christmas morning breakfast casserole, and it most certainly serves their family of 6 and then some.  But it's also really delicious and super easy to make, and since it calls for 9 eggs we decided it just couldn't be cut in half.  In retrospect, all the ingredients are pretty simple multiples of 3, so it could actually be cut down quite easily, but there's no Monday morning quaterbacking allowed in the HMK.

Frankly, it's probably for the best that we made so much of it since we enjoyed it while drinking Bloody Marys and screwdrivers at 9am before the Bears game this past weekend.  Considering the amount of cocktails that we ultimately consumed on Sunday, I'm sure we needed all the food we could get to soak up some of the alcohol.  (As you probably noticed, I'm breaking my perfect record of 7am Monday posts thanks to the ensuing hangover...what's that?  you didn't notice...oh, well, sad but true).  In the end the Bears may not have won, but at least this casserole didn't let us down!


Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs bulk breakfast sausage (the stuff that comes in a big log 'o meat)
• 9 eggs
• 3 cups milk
• 1 Tbsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 slices white bread, cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Preparation

1. Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high, using a wooden spoon to crumble it up.
2. Whisk eggs, milk, mustard and salt in a large bowl.
3. Stir bread, cheese, and sausage into egg mixture.
4. Pour egg mixture into a greased 13x9 pan.
5. Refrigerate overnight, covered.
6. Uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Serves a lot more than 4...probably closer to 8-10.

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Fennel, Sausage and Caramelized Apple Stuffing

Fennel, Sausage, and Caramelized Apple Stuffing
From Cooking Light 

As you are probably aware, Thanksgiving is tomorrow.  And as you probably don't know, John and I attended a fabulous "Friendsgiving" feast on Sunday.  Both of these events involve stuffing.  Lots of delicious stuffing, some of which may even be offered to us as left overs, which is great since we love stuffing.  In fact, love might not be a strong enough word.  Case in point: on Tuesday we made a MASSIVE (i.e. 12 serving) batch of stuffing...for the two of us.  Of course we didn't eat all of it in one sitting, but I'd be willing to bet we polish it off before the week is out.

I blame magazines (obviously I'd never blame our lack of self control...) for this act of gluttony.  The magazine shelves are currently brimming with outrageous cover stories about caramelized veggies, potatoes galore, and of course every variety of stuffing known to man.  The average person only gets to contribute one or two dishes to their family's feast, so for cooking addicts like us there's just not enough Thanksgivings in a lifetime to make everything that looks amazing.  Thus, we had no choice but to cave in and make this awesome stuffing recipe on a random Tuesday night sandwiched between two legitimate holiday feasts.
Don't worry, we turned it into a real meal by sauteing some extra sausage with red pepper and red onion strips and having some garlicky broccoli on the side, but in the end this stuffing stole the show.  The apples add a hint of sweetness without over powering it, and the sausage is the perfect savory note.  It's certainly not traditional Stove Top style, but it's not so far off that traditionalists would be insulted.  So if you're one of the lucky ones that gets to contribute stuffing this year and for some reason haven't found a recipe yet, consider giving this one a try!


Ingredients

• 12 oz sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• cooking spray
• 9 oz Italian sausage (we used hot Italian sausage, but mild works too)
• 5 tsp olive oil, divided
• 4 cups chopped onion
• 1 1/4 cups fennel bulb, sliced
• 1 1/4 cups carrot, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves (the recipe called for 2 Tbsp chopped fresh sage, but we didn't have any)
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
• 1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
• 3 cups apple, chopped (we used Honey Crisp, the recipe called for Golden Delicious)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 2 large eggs

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Arrange bread cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 16 minutes, stirring after 8 minutes.  Place toasted bread in a large bowl.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat with cooking spray.
4. Remove casings froms sausage and add to pan.  Cook 8 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble.  Add cooked sausage to bread bowl, reserving sausage grease.
5. Add 3 tablespoons oil to sausage grease, swirling to coat.
6. Add onion, sliced fennel bulb, carrot, thyme, crushed fennel seeds, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the pan.  Saute 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Add veggies to bread mixture.
7. Add 2 tsp oil to pan, swirling to coat.
8. Add apple and sugar, and saute 5 minutes or until apple caramelizes, stirring occasionally.  Add apple mixture to bread mixture.
9. Whisk broth and eggs in a small bowl.
10. Add broth mixture and 1/4 tsp pepper to mixture, tossing well to combing.
11. Spoon mixture into a 13x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.
12. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
13. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until browned and crisp on top.

Serves 12.

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