Marinated Carrots

Marinated Carrots

5 cups carrots, carrots
1 large bell pepper
1 large Onion
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Salt to taste
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Boil carrots until tender drain. Place carrots, bell peppers and onion in a bowl. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl, add tomato soup, oil, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour mixture over carrots, onions and bell pepper.
Serves 8-10.

Guinness Beer Bread

Guinness Beer Bread

Found this on Simply Recipes and it is simply wonderful

Guinness Bread with Molasses Recipe

This is fantastic eaten fresh, and nearly as good the next day toasted with some more butter. Do not use stale beer for this recipe, you want the carbonation.

Ingredients
3 cups self-rising flour*
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup molasses
A pinch of salt (roughly 1/8 teaspoon)
12 ounces of Guinness beer
Butter for greasing the pan and painting the top, about 3 tablespoons
* If you don't have self-rising flour, you can substitute using a ratio of 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, plus 1/8 teaspoon of salt, for every cup of self-rising flour. Have made both ways though and got better results from the self-rising flour.

Method
1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan well with butter.

2 Pour the flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl and whisk to combine.

3 Slowly pour the Guinness into the flour mixture. (The “pub cans” are larger than 12 ounces, but they have better carbonation, so I pour most of it out and leave a swig to drink. This has never failed me, but if you are a stickler, use a 12-ounce bottle of Guinness instead.) Start stirring the beer into the dry ingredients, and when you are about halfway done, add the molasses. Mix well, just to combine. Don’t work the heck out of the batter – because that’s what it’ll look like – but you don’t want lumps, either.

4 Pour into the loaf pan to no more than 2/3 full. Pop into the oven immediately and bake for 50 minutes. Since ovens can vary, check the bread after 40 minutes and see if a toothpick inserted into the deepest part of the loaf comes out clean. If it does, you’re done.

5 Let the loaf cool a bit, maybe 5 minutes, and then turn it out onto a rack. Paint it with lots of soft butter, which will melt as you go.

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

One-pound package of large mushrooms (stuffing size)
Two cans flaked crab, drained (I think they were 8-ounce cans, rather tuna-can like)
One package cream cheese
Quarter cup finely minced onion or shallot
Three or so minced garlic cloves
One tablespoon olive oil
Two tablespoons garlic hot sauce (Ass-Kickin' Hot Sauce is good)

Wash or brush mushrooms. Pull stems out out and mince. Add oil to pan, warm. Add onions, garlic and mushroom stems and saute' until soft. Add crab, cream cheese and hot sauce. Stir until well blended and let simmer until thickened (if it is too watery. Sometimes the crab meat has a lot of liquid).

When stuffing is ready, place mushrooms in lightly greased baking dish and top with stuffing. Bake at 325 F for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes, they will be quite hot.

Dig in and enjoy :)

Tuna Burgers

This is another of those imprecise recipes. I learned by watching so amounts are guesstimates...

Two cans of water-packed tuna, well drained.
One cup of slow-cooking oats.
A quarter cup or so of horseradish mayo.
Garlic salt and garlic powder to taste (I like garlic. This proves I am not a Vampire, regardless of popular opinion…)

Mix the whole mess together, form into four patties and place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 325 until they start to brown and crisp up a bit. Serve with a bit of tartar sauce for a simple dinner or make a real ‘burger’ out of it, however you prefer.

This recipe doubles easily if you have more hungry mouths to feed. Cheap and easy and reasonably good for you!

White Bean Dip

Two to three cups of cooked navy or Great Northern beans (or a can of beans, rinsed).
Two tbls olive oil
One small onion, finely minced.
Two or three cloves garlic, pressed or one tbls mince garlic (add more if you like garlic. I used about 2 tbls).
Spices to taste. I used a little sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, ground chipotle chile, Mexican oregano and ground thyme. A little cumin would be good, too.

Heat up the oil in a skillet, add onions and cook till they start to get soft. Add the garlic and cook another minute or two until soft and fragrant. Add spices and stir well.

At this point you can add the beans to the skillet (like I did) or you can add the beans to a food processor and pour the onion mixture on top and blend until semi smooth. I just put the beans in on top of the onions and used a potato masher to smash the beans up a bit.

Taste, adjust seasonings as needed. I left the beans to simmer a bit of the liquid out so the dip would thicken up a bit. At the end I added some shredded farmers cheese just to make it a little yummier, but it was quite good without the cheese.

Get some chips and dig in!

Shrimp Scampi

Shrimp Scampi

One pound fresh uncooked shrimp, shelled and deveined
(The rest of these ingredients are estimates on the amounts. We just throw it in till it looks about right)
1/4 cup shallots, minced
4 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
Half stick of butter (do NOT USE MARGARINE!)
2 to 3 Tbls olive oil
1/4 cup white wine
Red pepper to taste
Salt to taste (you likely won’t need much if any, especially if you use salted butter)

Add all ingredients except the shrimp to a skillet and simmer about 30 minutes or until the shallots are very tender and the garlic has mellowed. Add the shrimp and cook another 7 to 10 minutes until the shrimp is pink and cooked through.

Eat!

Thai Coconut Green Curry

found on the back of the Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste jar.

1/2 to 1 Tbls green curry paste
I can coconut milk (I have tried the low-fat coconut milk and it’s just nasty. If you are going to make this recipe, just do yourself a favor and use the good Thai Kitchen brand full fat coconut milk).
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup bamboo shoots
3 Tbls fish sauce
2 Tbls brown sugar
1/3 cup chicken stock
8 ounces of your favorite veggies and cubed chicken (I like fresh sliced mushrooms and a can of baby corn)

Simmer curry and coconut milk about 5 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Serve over hot steamed rice.