Guest Post: Kitchen Catastrophe

My dear friend Jenny is...how do I say it?...kind of a disaster in the kitchen. I tried to help last year, with monthly cooking classes, but they ended up being "laugh and drink wine and forget about what's in the oven" sessions. She has a boyfriend now who's a great cook...and I don't understand why she doesn't leave meals up to him. God bless her, she keeps trying.

She told me she was going to attempt one of the recipes I had pinned: Creamy Avocado Pasta. I asked her to guest blog about it...but when I got her texts, I decided to just publish them directly.

Note: This is no reflection on this recipe. Total user error. And, doesn't that photo look like she just threw the pasta on the plate? Yeah, 'cause that's exactly what she did.

Here we go:

I don't even know where to begin to tell you what went wrong with this pasta.

I don't have a food processor, which means I use a blender. The avocado was not blending up well, so I kept pushing it down with a rubber spatula. I got sick of doing that and taking lid off. So I put the rubber spatula in while it's running.


Then I have to dump it out to remove the piece of spatula that got chopped off.


Then, it's too thick. Randy comes in and says it needs more olive oil. I get annoyed because I don't stray from the recipe. It has the amount of olive oil in it that the recipe called for.


I hand it over to Randy to fix. He drops a knife in it while starting the blender. Knife and half the sauce go flying.


As I'm trying to add pasta to the sauce, the pasta keeps clumping up. I get frustrated and again walk away for him to fix.


He tells me to taste it and that I should be able to tell him what it needs. I get mad because no I shouldn't, I don't know what anything needs.


So, as very often happens when I cook...I'm mad and frustrated. But I'll take a *&^%*&^% picture and blog about this for you.

The final text came when I asked, "How did it taste?" Her response: "I'm too pissed to eat right now."

Chili Frito Casserole

Okay, it's not pretty. I had no hopes that it would photograph well. But...I still think it looks delicious.

I had printed this recipe out before I left work on Friday to make Sunday night...and we ended up making chili Friday night, so I thought...why not use the leftovers in this dish? You can find the original recipe at Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour. It uses a combination of beef, beans, tomatoes, and taco seasoning.

This obviously isn't gourmet...but it's a perfect way to use up leftover chili and have a bowl of comfort in the fall/winter. I probably would leave out the bottom layer of Fritos next time...they got soft covered with the chili (naturally) and it made them taste stale/chewy.

Printable recipe

2 cups Fritos
2 cups chili
1 cup sour cream
2 cups cheese


In a greased 8x8 pan, layer 1 cup of Fritos (basically, enough to cover bottom of dish). Top with chili. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Spread sour cream over chili and top with rest of Fritos and cheese. Bake an additional 5-10 minutes (or until cheese is melted).

Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs

'

I'm usually a frozen meatball gal, simply because I find the browning process tedious. So, when I come across a recipe that calls for baking them, I jump on it.

The original recipe is from Taste of Home, but I made quite a few changes. I had defrosted some hot Italian sausage the day before, so I used that instead of ground beef. I also doubled the recipe to use the entire package. The mixture looked a little "loose," so I added some bread crumbs. I also read the recipe wrong and bought tomato sauce instead of tomato soup.

The result? I thought these came out great. If you're gun shy about making your own meatballs (I'm talking to you, Mother), it's really not that big of a process. I liked the punch of spicy sausage followed by creamy, gooey cheese. They tasted decadent.

I ate these on their own, but they'd be great over pasta, polenta, or (my favorite) a piece of toasted garlic bread.

Printable recipe

4 tablespoons beaten egg (I used Egg Beaters)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed

1/4 cup bread crumbs
16 cubes cheddar cheese (1/2 inch each)
15-ounce can tomato sauce

Combine first six ingredients. Form 16 meatballs and shape each portion around a cheese cube. Place meatballs in a greased 8x8 pan and top with tomato sauce. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink.

Southwestern Sausage Quiche

I. Love. Quiche.

I always have a box of the mini variety in my freezer, and if it's on a restaurant's lunch menu, I'm almost always going to order it. I can't put my finger on why...it's not like I'm a huge egg fan. There's just something about creamy, (usually) cheesy goodness supported by a flaky crust.

I hope Stephanie at Plain Chicken isn't going to roll her eyes that I'm posting another one of her recipes...but I have so many from her blog bookmarked (now "Pinned").

I think the key to this recipe being so good is the Ranch dressing...which pretty much makes everything better. I also used hot sausage and hot Rotel, which gave it the perfect amount of heat.

It was eaten at my house for dinner...and then for breakfast...and then for lunch by a co-worker...and, finally, as a snack by my mother. This is truly soul-satisfying food.

Printable recipe

1/2 pound ground breakfast sausage
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained 
2 eggs
1/4 cup Ranch dressing
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
1 9-inch unbaked deep dish pie shell

Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, cook sausage until well browned, stirring frequently. Drain off grease and set aside. Whisk together eggs, Ranch dressing, sour cream and milk. Add sausage, cheese and Rotel. Stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into prepared pie crust. Bake 1 hour. Allow quiche to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Dinner at my house often boils down to one question: Italian or Mexican? So, when I saw this recipe, I knew I'd love it...even though it seems like a strange mix of flavors on paper. If you're a pasta fan looking for a twist, this is for you.

I know stuffed shells can seem like a process, but this recipe is so worth it. One of the best cooking tips I've ever received was to fill a Ziploc bag with whatever you're stuffing shells with, snip a corner, and pipe away. So easy.

I have to confess...we had quite a few spoonfuls of the meat mixture (I mean, cream cheese and taco seasoning?) and both agreed that we could have had that for dinner alone. Seriously delicious.

Printable recipe

1 pound ground beef
1 package taco seasoning 
3 ounces cream cheese
16 jumbo pasta shells, cooked
1-1/2 cups salsa
1 cup taco sauce
2 cups cheddar cheese 


Brown beef and add taco seasoning. Add cream cheese and stir until melted. Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each cooked pasta shell with the meat mixture. Place shells in pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes with the foil removed.

Creamy Meatball Stew

I found this recipe over at Cassie Craves awhile ago when I was looking for recipes using frozen meatballs. She calls it a minestrone and uses some fresh vegetables, but I cut out a few steps to streamline the process.

I let the sauce simmer for a couple of hours to develop the flavor, and it also really thickened up. In fact, once the cream cheese is added, it was less stew and more casserole in consistency. I was a little unsure about the beans, but they were a nice addition; they're a good source of protein if you wanted to make this without the meatballs.

Ultimately, this was just a bowlful of comfort. I took a serving next door to my med school neighbor, who I imagine lives on frozen pizza and fast food, and he knocked back on my door within 10 minutes with a scraped-clean bowl.

Printable recipe

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 pound frozen or fresh Italian meatballs 
1 26-ounce jar spaghetti sauce
32 ounces beef broth
8 ounces small uncooked pasta
8 ounces cream cheese, softened

Combine first six ingredients in large stockpot. Simmer until meatballs are warm/cooked through. Add pasta and simmer until cooked. Remove from heat and stir in cream cheese until melted. 

Crockpot BBQ Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

 

I love, love, love buffalo wings (hot, please!), but since I try to keep fried food to a minimum, I'm always looking for other ways to replicate the flavor. This recipe comes from the blog Forever Now and Then, and it completely hit the mark.

My chicken breasts were on the small side, so it looked pretty soupy during the cooking process. I was beginning to re-think the addition of chicken stock and wondering if I should drain the chicken before serving. But, after I shredded the chicken and kept it warm in the sauce for a little while longer, to make sure every bite of chicken was coated, it really came together.

I used a bottled sauce from a local BBQ joint, which happened to be a thin, heavy-on-the-vinegar variety. You could certainly use a sweeter, thicker sauce, which would cut the heat. However, I absolutely loved the spice and tang of this chicken. I'm not a huge fan of blue cheese, but I think a few crumbles in this sandwich would have put it over the edge.

Printable recipe

4 frozen chicken breasts
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup hot sauce
1/4 cup ranch dressing

1 cup chicken broth

Place frozen chicken breasts in crock-pot. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the top. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Shred chicken with two forks and stir. Cook on low until sauce thickens.