Author: Lindsey Young

It’ll be tough to ‘leaf’ leftovers of basil sausage soup

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date September 5, 2019

Italian basil sausage soup has deep tomato and spice flavors and freezes easily for quick leftovers.

I recently came across a photo of an adorable indoor herb garden and immediately became interested in having one myself.

I’m not much of a gardener, and I’m enough of a nerd that I love research, so I have spent more time than I’d like to admit over the past few weeks looking at which herbs are easiest to grow indoors and what kind of skill each one requires to keep alive.

Then I went shopping for the ingredients for this week’s recipe, and all my planning to really map out my herb choices went out the window when I realized that it was going to cost me an arm and a leg to purchase the two cups of fresh basil the recipe required.

I noticed, though, that my produce department had fresh basil plants for a much more economical price than the small packages of leaves in the refrigerator case, and I caved.

So now I have a basil plant, which graciously delivered lots of fragrant leaves on its first night at my house. I hope I can keep the poor thing alive.

This recipe comes from the website “The Slow Roasted Italian.” You can find the original post at https://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2013/09/30-Minute-Hearty-Italian-Basil-Sausage-Soup-Recipe.html. I changed up the spices a bit in my version and simplified the directions some.

Italian Basil Sausage Soup

Italian basil sausage soup has deep tomato and spice flavors and freezes easily for quick leftovers.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword basil, pasta, sausage, soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound mild Italian sausage
3 carrots diced
2 stalks celery diced
8 cups chicken broth
15- ounce can cannellini beans rinsed and drained
14.5- ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
8- ounce can tomato sauce
6- ounce can tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
black pepper to taste
1/2 pound small pasta I used macaroni
2 cups fresh basil chopped

Instructions

In a stock pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, carrots and celery. Stir regularly, breaking up the sausage as you go (You can also use rope sausage. Just remove the casing and slice it into half-inch rounds before adding it to the pot.)
Once the sausage is cooked through, add the chicken broth, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and spices.
Stir to combine and bring the mixture up to a boil.
Once the soup is boiling, add the pasta and cook for 10 minutes (or until the pasta is done to your liking), stirring regularly to keep the soup from sticking to the bottom.
Reduce heat and serve once the mixture is no longer boiling.

I have been in search of some good soups to toss in the freezer for the plethora of nights when Joey and I either need to have a quick dinner or pack something to eat at the office for a late night of work. This recipe definitely fits the bill, and it’s filling several containers in my freezer at the moment.

I poured a little water on my basil plant this morning, where it sits in front of my kitchen window. If all goes well, it will eventually be replanted into an adorable pot, along with some other choice herbs.

If not, I might just stick to dried basil from here on out.

You’d think that having a 10-year-old schnauzer and a one-year-old beta fish would make me feel confident that I can keep something alive, but to be fair, I did a lot of research before adding both of them to our family, too.

Wish me—and my new plant—luck. We’ll both need it.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 5, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Tags basil, Italian, pasta, sausage

Cookies Dessert

These cookies are a ‘cream’ come true

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date August 29, 2019

Boston cream pie cookie bites are creamy, delicious and slightly addictive.

Early on in our marriage, Joey told me he loves Boston cream pie, and I kept that in the back of my mind for a long time as a recipe I should try to make for him.

But then I didn’t.

I think it’s probably because I often balk at making layer cakes, as though they’re somehow supremely more difficult than making one with a single layer.

But then I was gifted a mini muffin tin very recently, and I finally knew how I could give Joey a taste of Boston cream pie without making a large dessert.

I found a recipe for some Boston cream pie cookie bites not long ago on the blog “Practically Homemade.” You can find the post at https://practicallyhomemade.com/boston-cream-pie-cookie-bites/. The only thing I changed was a bit of the procedure, and I highly recommend using dark chocolate chips for the ganache rather than semi-sweet if you have it available.

Boston Cream Pie Cookie Bites

Boston cream pie cookie bites are creamy, delicious and slightly addictive.

Course Dessert

Keyword boston cream pie, cake mix, chocolate, cookies

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1 stick butter softened
3.25- ounce instant vanilla pudding
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup milk I used skim
2 tablespoon chocolate chips I used dark chocolate
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray the cups of a mini muffin tin with cooking spray and set it aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs and butter until smooth.
Use a small scoop to evenly distribute the batter into all the cups (about a tablespoon or dough or so). Pat each cup down so that it has a smooth, flat top, and then bake for seven to eight minutes or until the edges are browned slightly.
Set the cookies aside to cool for about five minutes, and then use a tart shaper or a similarly shaped spoon handle to press down the middle of each cookie and create an indentation.
Let the cookies cool completely before going on to the next step, and remove them from the muffin tin.
For the filling, beat the pudding mix, cup of heavy cream and milk until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
Using the same scoop as before, evenly distribute the filling into all of the cups.
In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips and two tablespoons heavy cream and microwave 10 seconds at a time, stirring between each heating, until the mixture is smooth. Spoon a little of the ganache over each of the cookies, and then refrigerate them until the ganache is set.
Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

These were a huge hit. So much so that when I took the last few cookies over to dinner at my sister and brother-in-law’s house, they announced I wasn’t allowed back without making them another batch (I think they were joking…). And then, when I returned home, Joey was a bit perturbed that his last few cookies ended up disappearing from the fridge.

I guess you can’t win them all.

I probably should still try making a real Boston cream pie, but I’m now obligated to make another batch of cookies for my sister and for Joey, so it still might be awhile before I get that recipe checked off my bucket list.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 29, 2019.

Tags Boston cream pie, cake mix recipe, chocolate

Dessert

Gelatin pie will make you say ‘Jell-O, there’

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date August 22, 2019

Strawberry gelatin pie is a cool treat for a hot day, with very simple ingredients and preparation.

With heat advisories peppering the weather reports this past week, I found myself in serious need of a cool, summer dessert that wouldn’t heat my kitchen past its breaking point.

I guess I didn’t really “need” it, but when the heat index is pushing into the triple digits, I often search for something sweet to try to cool things down a bit. Of course, I’m nearly always in search of something sweet.

This time, I opted for a non-ice-cream treat, which is rare for me, and I instead reached for a box of strawberry gelatin sitting in my pantry.

I was in the mood for a slice of pie, and since I’d recently found a recipe for a gelatin pie I wanted to try, I decided it was high time to whip one up.

The recipe I found was on the blog “Spaceships and Laser Beams.” You can find the original post at https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/no-bake-strawberry-jello-pie/. I changed absolutely nothing, except I realized quickly that there is way too much filling produced by this recipe for just one pie, so I added an additional crust. If you’d rather make just one, you’ll just have leftover filling that you can let setup in the fridge and eat in non-pie form.

Strawberry Gelatin Pie

Strawberry gelatin pie is a cool treat for a hot day, with very simple ingredients and preparation.

Course Dessert

Keyword gelatin, Jell-O, no bake, strawberry

Ingredients

2/3 cup boiling water
3- ounce package strawberry gelatin
1 cup ice cold water
16 ounces frozen whipped topping defrosted
2 prepared 9-inch graham cracker crusts

Instructions

Add the gelatin to the 2/3 cup of boiling water and stir until it is completely dissolved.
In a large bowl, combine the gelatin and cold water and stir it until it begins to thicken just a little. Add in the whipped topping and stir well.
Refrigerate the filling for 30 minutes to let it begin to set up.
Stir the filling and spoon evenly into the two crusts.
Refrigerate the pies for at least three hours or overnight before slicing.
Store covered in the refrigerator.

This is one of those recipes that would be perfect for a beginning cook, especially if you do like I did and boil the water in the microwave instead of on the stovetop.

I also lazily created my ice water by putting a cube in my one-cup measuring cup, filling it with cold water, and waiting. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long to dissolve into nice, super cold water.

If you’ve never tried a gelatin pie before, it’s incredibly airy, making it the perfect, light after-dinner treat, and since it’s such a pretty shade of pink, it’s a nice addition to the table. You could easily decorate it with some more whipped cream if you wanted to.

And, while I won’t claim this as a health food, I did use the low-fat whipped topping and a reduced-fat graham cracker crust, so despite the fact that it’s most certainly still a dessert, it didn’t pack the calorie wallop that most pies tend to have.

Plus, it did cool me down, for at least a couple minutes, which was nice, but full disclosure, if Mother Nature persists with this balmy weather, it will probably take more than one slice to do the job.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 22, 2019.

Tags gelatin, Jell-O, no-bake, pie, strawberry

Main Dish

Deciding to make enchiladas an open and shut ‘queso’

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date August 15, 2019

Queso fresco enchiladas have lots of green chile flavor, using the diced peppers and salsa verde in the recipe.

When I was in grade school, our family used to frequent a now defunct Mexican restaurant called Zaki’s.

For some reason, at that age, I was particularly fond of making bets with my dad, and I can remember two challenges that centered on that restaurant in particular.

The first was a bet I won. The waiter came to the table and asked if we preferred corn or flour chips with our salsa.

“What do we normally get? Flour, right?” my dad said.

“No. It’s corn,” I told him.

And then the bet came into play. Dad ordered the flour, and I bet him a month of him making my bed (these were the things that were important to me back then) that he was wrong about our usual order.

And he was.

It was a glorious month of relaxation as he came through on his end of the bargain each morning.

The second time was more of a challenge than a bet, when I announced that I thought I’d like the cheese enchiladas the restaurant served rather than ones that included meat.

My mom tried to warn me that it might be a bit intense to have an entire plate of just cheese-filled enchiladas, but of course, my dad got me to take up the challenge.

I thought back to that day when I recently made a batch of enchiladas myself—although I included chicken and some other elements in mine.

I didn’t really follow a recipe for this one, although I would give credit to Gina Homolka on her blog “Skinny Taste” for inspiration. If you go to her site at https://www.skinnytaste.com/enchiladas-verdes-green-enchiladas/, you’ll see a lot of similarities to the recipe I present here.

Queso Fresco Enchiladas

Queso fresco enchiladas have lots of green chile flavor, using the diced peppers and salsa verde in the recipe.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword cheese, enchilada, green chile, queso fresco, salsa verde

Ingredients

1 pound cooked shredded chicken
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons cumin
salt and pepper to taste
8 ounces diced green chile peppers drained
10 ounces queso fresco
16 ounces salsa verde
10-16 six-inch flour or white corn tortillas
2-3 cups shredded Mexican style cheese blend

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare a 9×13-inch baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine the shredded chicken, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper, green chiles, and queso fresco. Pour in about 1/2 cup of the salsa, too, and stir to combine.
Dump about half of the remaining salsa in the bottom of the prepared pan.
Warm the tortillas based on their package instructions to soften them. Place a large spoonful of the chicken filling in the center of each tortilla and roll it tightly and place them side by side in the pan, seam-side down, packing them closely together.
Once the dish is full (I ended up having to finish my filling out in a second, smaller baking dish), pour the remaining salsa over the top and then sprinkle liberally with the Mexican style cheese blend.
Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown on top.
Let them rest for at least five minutes before serving.

These enchiladas were great and reheated wonderfully as leftovers. I paired them with some Mexican rice, and they were an excellent dinner.

And if you did want to just make vegetarian enchiladas, you could easily leave out the chicken and include some fresh peppers or beans instead.

This recipe definitely turned out better than my cheese enchilada challenge of yesteryear. Being the stubborn kid I was, I finished the plate, but my stomach was unhappy with me for the rest of the evening, and I never ordered that particular dish again.

I guess that leaves my father and I tied when it comes to Mexican food challenges. It’s probably about time I took him out to dinner to see if I can get back in the winner’s circle—although I doubt he’d agree to any bed making this time.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 15, 2019.

Tags cheese, green chile, Mexican, queso fresco, salsa verde

Main Dish

Expand your ‘chorizo’ns with potato tacos

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date August 8, 2019

Chorizo con papas, or chorizo and potato, tacos are a crowd pleaser with tons of great flavor.

My sister and I have a fundamental difference in opinion when it comes to potatoes in Mexican food.

I’m in the “absolutely” camp, and she’s in the “never, ever” camp. I discovered this philosophical divergence one day when I recommended a local restaurant’s chorizo and potato fried tacos to her, and we were both shocked by the other’s preference.

But since she is absolutely wrong, I decided to make a homemade version of chorizo and potato tacos without the fried shell this week, and they were awesome.

If you’re not familiar, chorizo is a sausage that is full of lots of great spices. For this recipe, you’ll want to get the Mexican kind that is raw rather than the Spanish kind, which generally comes already cooked. It’s also a beautiful color, and I always enjoy cooking with it, since it creates this gorgeous red hue in the pan.

And if you’re not well-versed in Spanish, “con papas” just means “with potatoes” in this recipe’s title.

The recipe I used comes from the blog “In Mama Maggie’s Kitchen” by Maggie Unzueta. You can find the original post at https://inmamamaggieskitchen.com/chorizo-con-papas-or-mexican-chorizo-with-potatoes/. I added more spices and some peppers to my version. I also eliminated the oil in the recipe, since chorizo generally has plenty of grease on its own, but if you have trouble with it sticking, you might add that back in. Finally, I just cooked the potatoes in the pan rather than boiling them first to eliminate dishes.

Chorizo con Papas

Chorizo con papas, or chorizo and potato, tacos are a crowd pleaser with tons of great flavor.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword chorizo, potatoes, tacos

Ingredients

1 pound Mexican pork chorizo remove casings, if applicable
1 small onion diced (I used yellow)
1 jalapeno diced (remove ribs and seeds to decrease spiciness)
1 Anaheim pepper diced
1 pound potatoes diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1 packet of Sazon Goya seasoning
garlic salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large skillet with a lid, brown the chorizo, breaking it apart. Once it is cooked through, transfer the chorizo to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.
Leave only about one tablespoon of grease in the pan and add the onion, peppers, potatoes and spices.
Stir to coat the ingredients in oil and cover the pan. Every few minutes, remove the lid and stir, scraping the bottom to remove any bits.
If the pan becomes too dry, either add a little oil or add a little water (which is what I did) to help steam the vegetables.
Once the potatoes are fork tender, add the chorizo back into the pan and stir. Let the chorizo heat back up and then serve in your favorite taco vessel. (We used flour tortillas.)

We served our tacos with shredded cheese, fresh spinach and some avocado. The recipe author suggests fresh cilantro, too. Really, anything that you like on other kinds of tacos will probably be good on these, although I saw no need for any salsa or tabasco sauce on these, since they had a great amount of flavor on their own.

We also had a lot of leftovers from making this recipe, and the tacos reheated really well in the microwave, which made for some good lunches for us to take to work.

The only regret I have is my sister will never realize just how delicious a batch of chorizo con papas can be, but you can’t win them all, and I can’t help it if she doesn’t know what’s good.

Maybe someday she’ll come around.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 8, 2019.

Tags chorizo, potatoes, tacos

Main Dish Side Dish

Don’t leave dinner ‘scalloped’ to chance

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date August 1, 2019

Scalloped potatoes are relatively easy to put together and customize, depending on your mood and crowd.

I have apparently been misinformed about the difference between scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin for my entire life.

I always thought they both had cheese involved. But after I decided recently to make scalloped potatoes, I discovered that the dish has no cheese at all, and it led me down a rabbit hole of food research.

I discovered that although I’ve always thought “au gratin” just meant “with cheese,” it actually just refers to “the verb ‘to gratinée,’ [which] as used today, means simply to give a dish a golden brown top,” as I read in an article on the site “Culinary Lore.”

The article also argues that an “au gratin” dish may really just refer to the type of vessel you cook it in and nothing to do with the ingredients at all.

So then I wondered what made something “scalloped,” and I found an article from “Cook’s Info” that has a couple possible explanations, from taking the word from a French cooking technique where oysters were cooked in scallop shells to an English dish referred to as “collops,” which “meant, among other things, slices of meat.”

So I went from thinking they were both cheesy dishes to finding out that cheese isn’t a requirement for either one. Nonetheless, I did find a recipe on the blog “Spend with Pennies” that I decided I wanted to try—despite its lack of cheese. You can find it at https://www.spendwithpennies.com/scalloped-potatoes-recipe/. I added extra garlic in my version.

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are relatively easy to put together and customize, depending on your mood and crowd.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Keyword garlic, scalloped potatoes

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
1 onion diced
6 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk I used skim
1 cup chicken broth
3 pounds potatoes sliced thinly
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the onions. Saute until the onions are soft and then add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to brown slightly, add the flour and stir it around for about one minute.
Turn the heat to low and whisk in the milk and broth. Turn the heat to medium high heat and continue whisking until the sauce thickens. Add in the salt and pepper to taste.
While the sauce cooks, spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and layer in about one-third of the sliced potatoes into the bottom of the dish.
Season them with salt and pepper (I also added some red pepper flakes for mine.)
Pour one-third of the sauce over the top and then repeat the layers, ending with the rest of the sauce and some more salt and pepper.
Cover the pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the potatoes are done through.
Turn the broiler on high to get a little color on the top of the potatoes. Leave them under the broiler for about three minutes.
Let the potatoes cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

If you are in a mood for cheese, you could easily sprinkle some between the layers on this dish. I think a grated parmesan would be especially nice.

And after all of my research, I’m now aware that almost no one knows what the true difference between scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin is, since almost every region where those dishes exist has a different recipe for each.

I’d like to set the blame on the shoulders of the French and their cooking techniques, but I suspect that it probably goes back to the English speakers in our past who just wanted to sound fancy. In reality, there’s not much fancy about scalloped potatoes, but boy, do they still taste good.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 1, 2019.

Tags garlic, scalloped potatoes

Cookies Dessert

You’ll love these caramel apple cookies to bits

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 25, 2019

Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.

While hunting for something in the freezer recently, I caused a bit of an avalanche of frozen food and discovered a bag of caramel bits tucked away on the bottom that I was gifted a few weeks ago by someone cleaning out their pantry.

I’ve never used caramel bits in baking before, and although I was tempted to just open the bag and eat them like candy, I decided it might be better to transform them into something so I could share the caloric wealth with family and friends.

From what I can tell, Kraft might be the only vendor that sells something called “caramel bits,” but the recipe I found for some caramel apple oatmeal cookies could also be achieved by buying normal-sized caramels and chopping them up.

I will also admit that this is clearly more of a fall recipe, but I’ll eat caramel any time of the year.

This recipe comes from the blog “Brownie Bites” by Erin Browne. You can find the original post at http://www.browniebites.net/caramel-apple-oatmeal-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.

Course Dessert

Keyword apple, cookies, oatmeal, salted caramel

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups old-fashioned or quick oats
11 ounces caramel bits
2 small Gala apples peeled, cored and diced

Instructions

(You’re going to refrigerate your dough, so no need to preheat your oven yet.)
Beat the butter and sugars until fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and oats until everything is well combined.
Stir in the caramel bits and diced apples.
Refrigerate your dough for about three hours or overnight. (I sped this up by putting mine in the freezer for an hour instead.)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
Scoop the dough in about two-tablespoon-size scoops and place them about two inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.
Refrigerate the rest of the dough while the first batch bakes.
Let the cookies cool before placing them in a container. If they’re too warm, the caramel bits will want to melt out of the bottom of the cookies.
Using two baking sheets will let you keep going with the rest of the dough while each batch cools.

I normally advocate for putting warm cookies into an airtight container pretty quickly after coming out of the oven, but in this case, these are such soft cookies that they hold up better if you let them cool down before storing them.

I really liked the flavor of these, and while I thought at first I should add in a little cinnamon, too, these didn’t need it. They were great the way they were.

This is probably a good sign that I should clean out my freezer more often. Who knows what kinds of treasures are hidden away in there? More likely, who knows what kinds of strange, freezer-burned mysteries may be concealed beneath bags of frozen vegetables?

This piece first appeared in print on July 25, 2019.

Tags apple, caramel, oatmeal

Main Dish Microwave Side Dish

It’s tough to see one more empty seat at the table

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 18, 2019

Scalloped broccoli won't heat up your kitchen with the oven and makes for a good side dish for a big family meal.

A couple weeks ago, our family gathered around my maternal grandmother’s table, enjoying a meal with her along with all of the cousins and their children and spouses present.

It was sometimes a bit loud and boisterous, and there was plenty of laughter as we all ate way too much while telling stories and catching up. It was a rare moment when everyone was able to come.

This past weekend, we were all there again, minus one very noticeable presence: Grandma.

After losing my grandpa in March, she went to join him last week. She was ready; we were not.

Grandma’s table expanded several times over the years as grandchildren, significant others and great grandchildren continued to join our family, and although it seemed like there were always more places set every time we gathered, the amount of leftovers seemed to stay constant. She taught us all to cook for an army, and as she often said, if you left hungry, that was your own fault.

When we were younger, Grandma made us all elaborately decorated birthday cakes every year. I almost always requested a spice cake, and when she asked what dishes we’d like to see for our family dinner together to celebrate, I requested her scalloped broccoli.

The broccoli casserole was a favorite amongst all the grandkids, which I suspect had less to do with the broccoli and more to do with the fact that it had plenty of cheese in it.

I decided that making that dish was the perfect way for me to honor her memory and all of those elaborate meals over the years, so I opened the handwritten cookbook she gave me for my 16th birthday, following the directions written in her beautiful cursive.

I’m not sure if anyone has ever shed nostalgic tears over broccoli before, but I definitely did.

So this week, my recipe comes from the kitchen of Lola Franklin—one of the best cooks I’ve ever known.

Scalloped Broccoli

Scalloped broccoli won't heat up your kitchen with the oven and makes for a good side dish for a big family meal.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Keyword broccoli, casserole, cheese, cream of mushroom, rice

Ingredients

32 ounces frozen broccoli
1 pound American cheese cut into chunks
2 cups minute rice
1 cup milk
2, 10.5- ounce cans cream of mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large pot, add the frozen broccoli along with three cups of water. Put it over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is cooked through.
While the broccoli is cooking, add the cheese (Grandma used to either get the loaves of sliced American cheese to use or would request it from the deli counter), rice, milk and soup to a large, microwave-safe casserole dish with a lid.
Drain the broccoli and stir it into the other ingredients.
Microwave on high, with the lid on, until the cheese is melted and the rice is cooked through (somewhere between five and 10 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave).
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

This is a great dish for leftovers, which I can attest to after being sent home with many Tupperware containers of it over the years.

After mixing up my batch of broccoli, I have to admit it didn’t taste as great at Grandma’s. I doubt I’ll ever be fully satisfied with my version of it, though, since I won’t be enjoying it with one of the most influential women in my life.

Over the years, she taught me much more than just cooking skills around her dinner table. As she loaded up our plates, she also demonstrated how to be resilient, to be caring, to love unconditionally, and to always put others first.

As we spent our last family meal together, Grandma watched my mom, her daughter, bustling around the table, her own plate still empty as she made sure that everyone else was getting their fill and each dish was making its way around.

She looked across at me and said, “I’d be shocked if she ever actually sat down and ate.”

“I wonder where she got that from,” I responded.

“Hey, now,” she said, a gleam in her eye and a wry smile on her face.

I’ll miss sharing those meals with her as we all try to move forward, but she’ll most certainly always be with us at our family dinner tables and other gatherings we host with friends through the years.

If nothing else, Grandma taught me that life can always use an extra large scoop—of love and, of course, of ice cream.

This piece first appeared in print on July 18, 2019.

Tags broccoli, cheese, cream of mushroom, rice

Side Dish

I finally found the cooking method I’ve ‘bean’ looking for

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 11, 2019

Fresh green beans are a beautiful and delicious addition to the summer dinner table.

I absolutely adore green beans. They’ve been near the top of my favorite veggies list since I was little.

My normal ways of preparing them is to open a can, dump them in a microwave-safe container with some salt and pepper and heat them up or to fry up some bits of bacon in a pot and then add the canned beans and seasonings.

But despite my pedestrian preparation of green beans, I am always drawn to fresh ones in the produce aisle when they show up each year. Unfortunately for me (and probably because of my years of canned bean consumption), I’m not a huge fan of crunchy cooked green beans and I seem to struggle to cook them in such a way that they don’t get mushy and overdone.

I still grabbed a big bag of them recently, though, vowing to finally conquer fresh green beans once and for all.

And I totally accomplished it.

So, I thought I would share my green bean process with anyone else who struggles with the perfect line between crispy and mushy fresh beans every summer. I don’t have a specific source for this one, as it’s a product of lots of trial and error over the years, although I’m sure I’m not the first one to try such a preparation.

Fresh Green Beans

Fresh green beans are a beautiful and delicious addition to the summer dinner table.

Course Side Dish

Keyword garlic, green beans, vegetables

Ingredients

1-2 pounds fresh green beans
About 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
6-8 cloves garlic minced
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste optional

Instructions

Cut or snap the stem end of each bean off (I also snapped the longer ones in half so they’d fit in my pot more easily.) and wash them thoroughly.
Put the beans in a large pot and cover them with cold water.
Bring the pot to a boil and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes or until they’re just fork tender.
When the beans are almost done boiling, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the beans are done, drain them well and then add them to the skillet, stirring to coat them in oil.
Add in the garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and stir again, letting the beans sit for a couple minutes on each side before stirring them around. Your goal is to get just a little bit of char on the beans and brown the garlic.
When the garlic is browned, remove the beans from heat and serve immediately.

These also reheated as leftovers really well, which was nice, because I made way more green beans than we could eat in one meal.

And they turned out just how I like them: a beautiful bright green, plenty of flavor and no crunch when biting into them.

I know a lot of people will argue with me about crunchy beans, but if you’re like me and would rather not have that crisp texture, I’d recommend giving this method a try.

And, of course, there’s always the canned variety, but who wants to get out the can opener during the time of year that gardens are overflowing with fresh veggies?

This piece first appeared in print on July 11, 2019.

Tags garlic, green beans, vegetables

Cookies Dessert

Sprinkle in some fun this Fourth

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 4, 2019

Cheesecake sprinkle cookies come together quickly and add lots of color to your dessert table.

For July 4th this year, Joey and I were invited to spend the afternoon and evening with my sister and brother-in-law, and of course, my wonderful niece.

She’s quickly approaching 2 years old, and although she probably won’t stay up long enough to see any fireworks this year, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun playing in the backyard before it’s time for bed.

I’m also going to bring along a little treat to spoil her just a bit, since that’s what aunts are for (at least that’s what I decided long ago).

So, when I was looking online for a recipe to use a box of cheesecake flavored instant pudding, I found in the back of my pantry, I discovered the perfect Fourth of July treat to share: cheesecake sprinkle cookies.

They’re perfect for the Fourth because there’s no frosting to melt, they don’t require refrigeration, and they’re full of bursts of color, just like Fourth of July fireworks.

The recipe I found came from the blog “Simple Sweet Recipes.” You can find the original post at http://simplesweetrecipes.com/sprinkles-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

Cheesecake Sprinkle Cookies

Cheesecake sprinkle cookies come together quickly and add lots of color to your dessert table.

Course Dessert

Keyword cheesecake, cookies, instant pudding, sprinkles

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
3.4 ounces cheesecake instant pudding mix
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sprinkles plus more for topping cookies

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add the baking soda, pudding mix, and one cup of flour and mix until combined. Add the other cup of flour.
Once everything is combined, mix in the sprinkles.
Roll the dough into about one-inch balls and place them about one inch apart on a baking sheet. Press a few extra sprinkles into the top of each cookie.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies are set (they won’t really brown on top). Let them cool for a bit on the cookie sheet before transferring them to an airtight container.

I didn’t think there was anything that screamed “cheesecake” about the flavor of these cookies. Really, they’re just excellent, soft sugar cookies that look super fun.

The recipe author suggests that you could use other types of instant pudding, too, so you could easily toss in some vanilla or even lemon with these if you don’t want to use the cheesecake flavor. I’m tempted to try using chocolate, but then again, I’m always tempted to use chocolate.

After I finished this batch, I couldn’t wait to get them over to share with my family, but since I decided to bake several days early, I’ll just have to let them sit in their container on the counter until then.

But, since I also believe in sampling my own baking, I’m just hoping they last that long.

This piece first appeared in print on July 4, 2019.

Tags cheesecake, instant pudding, sprinkles, sugar cookies