Quick and Easy Quiche

For my quiche, I use a ready made pie crust as it saves oodles of time. My favourite quiche recipe contains ham, broccoli and cheese. I use cheddar on mine but any cheese or combinaton of cheese will do.
I mix a few eggs with butter and beat it really well. Then, drop in chunks of ham and broccoli. Add some sea salt and black peppter. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until it's looking solid and then add a layer of shredded cheese on top. Cook about another 15 minutes until it looks lovely and golden.

A quiche is really versatile and a great way to use any leftover vegetables. You can put mushrooms, colourful peppers and other veggies in to make a great brunch or dinner recipe.

If you want to take a stab at your own crust, merely follow the recipe on the back of any Tenderflake lard box or purchase a box of ready to make pie crust that just requires water.

Chicken Parmigiana - Cooking With Amore

I love Chicken Parmesan. I put more mozzarella cheese in it than parmigiana so I'm not sure why I still call it Chicken Parmesan but that's what it's known as and here's my version:

Make your favourite tomato sauce.
*Feel free to dig through my archives for my ten minute homemade tomato sauce*

Dip boneless / skinless chicken breasts in egg and milk batter and then drench in bread crumbs. I put italian seasoning, parmigiano, romano and as well as seasalt and cracked black pepper in my breadcrumbs to give extra flavour (even when using Italian breadcrumbs).

Then lightly fry the breaded chicken in olive oil just to brown the outside (a few minutes each side). Before putting the chicken in a baking dish, put the semi-cooked chicken back into a large bowl of bread crumbs and redredge. Italian breadcrumbs work great and I always make sure I add some spice and grated parmasean and romano cheese.

In a baking dish, line with tomato sauce and then place your semi-cooked chicken breasts on top. Layer more sauce and plenty of shredded mozzarella.

Bake at 350 for an hour covered with tin foil. Make sure chicken is cooked all the way through. An hour generally does it for me if the breasts are thick. If I filet or pound them flat, the time is reduced.

For a double duty meal, make extra because on the next day you can make a great meal with warmed up leftover chicken parm and serve on hot garlic bread or submarine sandwich rolls with extra sauce for dipping. Sometimes I even put it in a wrap with some lettuce and tomato.

All the above meals go well with pasta of your choice, lasagna, risotto or salad.
Bon Apetito...This dish is Cooking With Amore!

Cheesy Vegetable Crockpot Chowder

My friend Brenda sent me this recipe.
I loved it. I tweaked it by adding three kinds of cheese and varying the vegetables a little. I used cauliflower and multiple coloured peppers plus put in a 1/4 cup of Campbell's Gardennay Autumn Carrot Soup and some fresh herbs. This recipe was delicious and I baked some rolled biscuits to dip. (I put garlic and cheese in them to make them taste like Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits)
Thanks Brenda for the recipe!

Vegetable Cheese Chowder-- Brenda Emmett

3 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Cup Chopped Potatoes (or ½ inch cubes)

½ Cup Chopped Carrots (or ½ inch cubes)

½ Cup Chopped Celery

½ Cup Chopped Onion

½ Cup Green Pepper

¼ Cup Butter or Margarine

2 Cups Milk

½ Cup Flour

12 oz Shredded Cheese or 1 jar of Cheez Whiz

1 TB chopped Parsley

Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Heat broth. Add vegetables. Cover and cook in crock-pot or slow cooker for 1 ½ hours at #5 or high heat.

In a small bowl combine milk and flour. Add cheese and remaining ingredients. Stir until thickened. Hold at lower temperature until serving time.

Volcano Bread: My Spinach Dip & Pumpernickel Bread Famous Recipe

I love this recipe. Some call it volcano bread and others call it Spinach Dip or Pumpernickel dip but whatever it's called, it's scrumptious. It's a must-have for Christmas time, any pot lucks and for baby showers and bridal shower fare. Here's how I do mine:

2 cups sour cream
1/2 brick cream cheese (cubed)
1 envelope Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix
1 package thawed frozen chopped spinach (squeeze excess water out)
3 chopped green onions (optional)
can chopped/drained water chestnuts (optional)
1/2 cup real mayo
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
Round Pumpernickel loaf

Mix all ingredients and let blend for an hour before eating in a bowl. Place all into hollowed out pumpernickel loaf. Use hollowed out section in cubes to surround the loaf for dipping. When it runs out, start tearing the loaf apart to dip. You can also put bread sticks and crackers such as Triscuits around the loaf as well. Yum!

Secrets of Great Cooking: Not So Secret

Some of my best 'secret' recipes come from the back of the box or the can label of something. It's a great thing to experiment with the recipes on the back of the can or the back of the box. The recipes are tested and easy and you can grab the items you need in the grocery store and shop for what you need by looking at the listing. Many food companies also list recipes in weekly flyers or package inserts. Many are worth a try. I can think of two recipes off the top of my head that I regularly get asked for and one is my cheesecake. My cheesecake gets awesome reviews and it's simply the recipe from inside the box of Philidelphia Cream Cheese. The shortbread cookie recipe that everyone goes gaga over at Christmas time is on the back of the Canada cornstarch box in my local grocery store. I've also adapted many recipes from the back of a can of Campbell's soup to make it my own by tweaking it.

The next time you don't know what to make for dinner, go to the grocer store and look for a recipe. Or, start leafing through one of the many magazines laying about the house. Most magazines are filled with great recipes and some of them are very simple.

The Big Jerk Jerk Burger

I invented this burger one night when we decided to make hamburgers for dinner. I impulsively decided to try making a Jerk Burger. I had recently been turned on to Caribbean jerk seasoning so created this recipe that I thought was original. After we ate it, I figured I might have to brand it because it was so scrum-didley-uptious (sorry to quote Ned Flanders there but it was necessary!) but upon closer Googling I see that it does exist.

The Big Jerk Jerk Burger
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2lbs of medium ground beef
1 heaping tablespoon of Grace Jerk Marinade
1 heaping tablespoon of Hellmann's Mayo
garlic
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon prepared or dry mustard
2-3 tbsp bread crumbs

Mix well with your bare hands and shape into about 6 patties. Broil in the over for ten minutes each side.

To finish them off, I like to put mayo and sweet bbq sauce on the bun. My husband likes mayo+ Grace's Jerk BBQ sauce. He likes it hot, I like it a little tamer and a sweet BBQ sauce like Diana Sauce does the trick very nicely.

Stop Being Bored With Dinner!

Part of the process of lovingly cooking a meal comes from anticipation of the food itself. If you're bored with your meals and are not excited about what you're cooking, you aren't likely to make it with love. The result will be boring food that's boring to cook and boring to eat. Bleh. Food isn't just about fuel and sustenance, it's about flavour and passion!

If you are not cooking with love, start trying some new things. Get excited about dinner again! We all get in a rut with food. Sometimes my husband and I would wander around the grocery store aimlessly trying to think of something new for dinner. If you find you're cooking the same things and feeling bored with cooking, it might be time to dabble in some new recipes. Here are some tips to get you some ideas

-Watch Food shows on Food channels or your favorite recipe show. This is a great way to get some ideas. Try out a new recipe!
-Select a day a week where you try something new. If it turns out great, you have something new to add to the repertoire. Saturdays are perfect for this because you'll have more time and if it tanks, you can always run out for a pizza:)
-Try something totally different! Look at a cuisine you don't normally eat like Mediterranean, Mexican or Indian, or Thai. Wake up some taste buds by departing from the ordinary.

If you want to try something new today without running out to shop, try using this great tool: Cooking By Numbers. It lets you choose what you have in your kitchen right now and turn it into recipes.

Cabbage Rolls That are Stuffed With Love

When my husband and I makes these special cabbage rolls (he does most of the work), he stuffs love into them. Cabbage rolls are a great meal to make because you can feed an army, send them to friends and family and fill your freezer. They take the better part of a day but are well worth it. You can cook them in a giant (turkey sized) roasting pan or we like to use a plug-in roaster oven. Time and temp are your choice but we find about 300 for 4 hours for this large batch does the trick. Be careful your meat is well cooked.

When we make cabbage rolls we sometimes have to keep it a secret because people will make a special trip over just to steal a few :)

Mix a few pounds of ground beef with cooked Basmati rice, spices, eggs, tomato soup and cream of mushroom soup. For our large batch, I'll put the avg. ingredients below. A lot of this is to taste and as with most cooking with love, there aren't exact ingredient counts. You judge by look/feel/smell. Because they slow cook for a long time in sauce, be generous with your spices!

Cook your cabbage leaves until they're soft in a large pot of boiling water. My husband cooks a few leaves at a time, often putting the whole cabbage in the pot of boiling water to loosen them.

Roll the cabbage leaves up with the meat mixture and line your pan. Layer homemade tomato sauce all over it and fill the pan.
At the top layer, place whole canned tomatoes all over the top and put more spice like salt/pepper and Mrs. Dash and then slow cook until they're done.

Our large batch of Cabbage Rolls:
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5lbs lean ground beef (some people mix ground beef, pork & veal)
3 cabbages
2-3 cans each of tomato & mushroom soup
Homemade tomato sauce (a large pot full)
1.5 cups uncooked Basmati (or your favourite long grain) rice, cooked.
2-3 eggs
Mrs. Dash, Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder

Mmmm Gravy

Gravy can be a lovely part of a meal. Whether you're cooking it for a roast, for turkey dinner or for another meal, good gravy can be the crowning glory of a well prepared meal.

Here's mine. This works with or without pan drippings. Pan drippings are obviously desired but I make it without them when I do it for salisbury steak, hot hamburger gravy or poutine.

Start with brewed tea. It makes a great base instead of plain water. Add your drippings if you have them. If you don't, use extra Bovril.

My two favourite gravy helpers are Bovril and Horne's Gravee powder. I use them both for best results. Taste your gravy as you cook it to find out what works for you.

Add your drippings and your bovril (beef or chicken, whatever you prefer) to your tea and then add a dollop of butter. I know, I know, my alter ego health blog self would tell you to use the butter sparingly but this is the cook with love blog, not the health blog. I can cook healthfully and lovingly but not when I cook gravy. Sorry. :)

Bring it to a boil. When it's bubbling, add your thickener. Some prefer cornstarch and water, others flour and milk but my favourite gravy thickener is milk blended with Bisquick mix (a 1/2 cup milk, 2 tbsps of Bisquick). You can also start the dish with the thickener by a dollop of butter and teaspoon of flour and let it get thick and add to the mixture from there.

It'll thicken quickly and then you need to turn it down or off) and adjust either the thickness, the taste or leave it just as it is. I use gravy in a lot of dishes. Less drippings means less calories and more gravy helpers mean more sodium so serve it the way you like it and do some experimenting until you find the perfect gravy for your tastebuds.

Bon Apetite!

Tag Team Turkey Perfection

Ever had a roasted turkey on Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter that melted in your mouth? Ever had a turkey so juicy and stuffing so tasty that you thought you'd gone to culinary heaven? I have that experience each time I cook a turkey. My husband and I tag team prep our turkey and we cook it with love...

No one wants to slave over a turkey that turns out dry and tasteless. I know I don't! We developed this system over time and we find that since we've mastered it, we always get a perfect outcome.

First, get your bread cubed for stuffing the night before. Let it get a bit stale if you can by leaving it out for a few hours or all night but lightly covered with a clean tea towel. Today we had turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving and I prepped the stuffing last night and put it in the fridge and this morning moistened it with some butter and a little bit more spice and it was scrumptious.

My husband handles the bird prepping part. He cleans the cavity with lots of salt water and dries it really well inside and out with a lot of good quality, thick paper towels. Drying it ensures your dressing/stuffing doesn't turn out too soggy.

My husband smears butter underneath the skin in several parts so that the turkey ends up like a Butterball but much less costly and (we feel) tastier. After he stuffs it, he sews the flap of skin over the top end to keep the dressing dry with butcher's twine and fits the bottom end with tin foil to cover the opening.

We then smear the outside of the bird with butter and poultry seasoning, salt, pepper and a little Mrs. Dash and then cover clean brown paper in butter and fit it over the turkey. The brown buttered paper gets the turkey a nice golden brown. Picture attached is our turkey two Easter's ago.

Baste that baby with loving care every half hour until it's done. That's tres important because that's how you prevent it from drying out. We have a neat little gadget that was only $3 that tucks into the breast and pops out when the turkey is finished. Don't overcook it. If you have to get it out because it's done and your vegetables aren't done 'yet', carve it and cover it with foil while you hurry everything else up. Overcooked and underloved turkey results in dry and not very desirable turkey.

Dana's Turkey Stuffing aka Turkey Dressing:
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2 stalks celery finely chopped
1 large onion
2 eggs
1/8 pound of butter
poultry seasoning
Mrs. Dash
Salt
pepper
1 & 1/2 loaves of cubed or torn bread.

Mix it all up with your bare hands and use spice to taste.

Hubby stuffs the bird, I make the stuffing, I spice it as he gives it a full body massage with butter and spice before it goes in the oven and then we take turns basting it. I then make the gravy while he carves it.
Tag team turkey is a turkey cooked with love and we get thumbs up from family and friends every time!

Christine's Cold Mexican Dip

Looking for a great, easy cold Mexican dip? Love guacamole? This one is not as spicy as it sounds and you can control it by controlling the quantity of spicier ingredients. I spent the weekend eating some food made with love...my cousin Christine made her newly famous Mexican dip for our girl's weekend. Girl's weekend this time was low effort so we decided to do appetizers instead of elaborate meals. Actually, I suggested it because I typically get to do the most elaborate meal and this weekend was about relaxing.

Girl's weekend is four of us in a cottage in the woods with no men, no kids and no counting calories or carbs. I thought I'd share it with you. It's filled with love and yummy goodness:


1 500ml tub sour cream mixed with 1/2 envelope Old El Paso taco seasoning. You don't have to use the whole tub and you can use low fast sour cream

Your favourite refried beans

Some lovely guacamole

finely chopped jalapeno peppers to taste

chopped tomatoes

chopped green onions

shredded cheese (any kind you like. Marble works well)

chopped black olives

Most of this is to taste and you can make it as big or as thick as you like. Layer beans, then guacamole, then sour cream mixture and then cheese and then top with the rest. Serve with your favourite tortilla chips. Ours are: Tostitos Multigrain.

This recipe is SOOOOO filled with love!

My Creamy Cheesy Cauliflower Concoction

The more vegetables you can eat the better...this one is so yummy your kids might not even believe it's a vegetable! I found a cauliflower recipe originally in Better Homes & Gardens but lost it so between looking online, my memory of what was in it and through books and trial and error, came up with my own cauliflower concoction and it gets rave reviews every time. The original had homemade croutons in it too but I don't usually bother with those now.

Wash and clean your cauliflower and chop into little flowerets. Steam it until it's soft. You can do this on the stove or in the microwave but try to do it on the stove. Microwaves zap away the good stuff in my humble opinion.

Whisk together 1/3 cup of milk, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of real mayo and about half the mayo measure of regular or dijon mustard. Put in salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash (or another all spice) a few spoons of grated romano or parmasean and a few handfuls of whatever shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, etc) you like. Bake the cauliflower concoction until everything is bubbly and melted.
YUM!

Soup for The Soul

Soup really does soothe the soul. It's proven that chicken noodle soup can help you feel better when you're sick. There's the sacred heart soup diet to help you detox and lose weight and as Campbell's says, "Soup IS Good Food."

I make soup from scratch and I use some helpers as well. Here are some ways I add love to my soup.

-Use tea as a base. We use green tea for Asian soups, chai tea for exotic soups and regular tea as a soup base for any other soup. It creates a wonderful flavour! If you're sick, make your soup with White tea has superb healing powers for the ill!

-Save leftover vegetables and put them in the freezer. When making a soup toss them in. Save time, money and effort this way and get more vegetables in your diet!

-Make cream soups with milk. They're friendlier on your figure and I think they taste better. Make anything into a cream soup by starting off with some flour and butter in a warm pan and then slowly adding milk and simmering it once it's reaches a quick boil.

-Make homemade rolls or baking powder biscuits to go on the side. Nothing goes better with fresh homemade soup than fresh warm bread or biscuits with some melted butter!

-Make soup in your crock pot! It is easy and results in a wonderful flavour!

Get Some Kudos Tonight!

Are you sick and tired of cooking the same old things? There are two essential parts to making delicious food. Part one is is enjoying the cooking experience and part two is even more important than the first part. Part to is: anticipating the finished dish. If you aren't excited about what you're making and drooling over the prospect of eating it, you won't likely put a generous dash of love in it.

Browse some recipes and find something new to cook! Look online at recipe sites, pull out some magazines from your magazine rack, read your cookbooks or ask someone what they are having for dinner tonight! When you shop in the grocery store, there are often little coupons hanging on the shelves with recipes on the back. Try one!

I have a plastic folder among my cookbooks where I tuck clippings of recipes that I find and what to try. It's like my little inspiration folder and when I'm stuck on what to make for dinner, I'll often go hunting in the inspiration folder for ideas. You never know, you may end up with kudos from family and the whole experience of cooking dinner can have new appeal!

Cook something new tonight and don't forget to cook it with love!

Ten Minute Homemade Tomato Sauce With A Dash of Love

Tomato sauce can be made from scratch in a flash. Don't waste your money on prepared sauces...make your own. Here are a few tips to help you take some tins of tomatoes and make them into something lovely! This can be used for pizza, pasta, meatloaf or any other Italiano dish you like!

If you want it extra thick quick, either use one can of tomato paste for every two cans of tomatoes or buy the jars of strained tomatoes. Whip it with your blender as well and when I'm in a hurry, I blend it with the spices in the blender so that I can improve the blending of the flavours faster. The love adding part is tasting it throughout the process to get the right amount of love in there!

Tip: Use fresh spices wherever you can!

Sauce can be easily made with: a dash of
olive oil
salt & pepper
garlic
Italian seasoning
parsley

And...this is important: about 2 tablespoons of sugar for every two cans of tomatoes. I also like to often add a can of stewed diced tomatoes for chunky texture along with my already smooth, silky tomato sauce.


I also like to add Mrs. Dash to mine. The sugar helps you take the tartness out of the sauce quickly which is a secret many people don't know about. I also like to blush the sauce with a quick glug of milk or light cream. If you want to make a rosee, you can half & half it with milk (yum!)


Bring it to a boil and then turn it off and let it sit and cool while you prep the rest of your meal. I love starting it by sauteeing fresh mushrooms and peppers and adding my other ingredients to the same pot. You can really taste the freshness this way in both the sauce and the vegetables. I also will do meat sauce this way or fry in Italian sausage or meatballs with my mushrooms and peppers before adding the tomatoes and fresh spices. The oil from the meat (if minimal) makes it taste even more like it has come from a gourmet ristorante.

Tip: If you have fresh tomatoes in the fridge or sundried tomatoes, toss them in too!

Bon Appetito!

Cook It With Love Once, Eat It Many Times

I am a huge fan of the multi-purpose meal or follow-up meal or the big batch for freezing. Cook something lovingly in huge batches when a staple item like meat or vegetables are on sale. This can save you later in time, money and effort and make warming up something turn into a great eating experience instead of a so-so dining experience where you nuke a tin of something.

Roast Beef:
A big roast can make many meals. Do your traditional roast beef dinner on day one with a big giant roast. Don't forget the yorkshire pudding and real gravy!
Here are ideas for follow-up meals:

-Day 2, hot roast beef sandwiches (open faced) with leftover gravy or roast beef submarine sandwiches with mozzarella

-Day 3, beef soup or stew. This is a great way to deal with leftover vegetables too! (note, whatever you don't use by today, freeze it for use later.)

4th meal, etc..Beef pot pies. If your batch of stew is huge, you an do a follow-up meal with that with a beef pie by buying ready made or homemade pie crusts or rolled biscuit dough and filling the pie crusts with the stew. Delicious! They freeze well also. I sometimes make a pot of stew on day two or three (max) and half the batch is for dinner and the other half goes into pie shells and straight into the deep freeze.

I always make double or triple batches of spaghetti sauce, meatballs and chili and my husband does a very coveted batch of cabbage rolls that can feed an army and freeze wonderfully. Most times though, they don't make it to the freezer because his recipe is so wonderful family and friends beg for some to take home.

Love Your Crockpot!

This isn't an original statement but it bears repeating because the busy person who loves a good meal will fall madly in love with their crock pot. Don't say your mornings are too crazy, prep the night before! Meat and vegetables and some spices thrown in the pot and the pot thrown in the fridge is only going to take a few minutes at night. In the morning, plug it in, put it on low and 9 hours later, voila!

I also do some crock pot meatballs that often get asked about. Here are two simple meatball crock pot recipes that I often serve for potlucks, baby showers and we always make these on Christmas Eve too. If you love them enough to have them as a meal instead of an appetizer, both these variations are great with any steamed veggie plus a healthy heap of rice. The sauce from both of them works great on rice & vegetables!

Swedish Chinese Meatballs (yes, you read that right)
-frozen Swedish meatballs thrown frozen into a crock pot)
-a jar of sweet & sour sauce
-1/2 jar of water (swish the leftover sauce around)
Turn on the crock pot and as Emeril says, let them get happy!

Tangy Meatballs
-2 bottles Kraft Chili Sauce
2/3 of a large jar of Welch's grape jelly
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
-Box of frozen italian meatballs (If you're in Canada either Schneiders or PC Meatballs will do. If you can't get them, any old meatballs will work too!)
Turn on the crock pot and let the happiness begin...

Meatballs are happy in a few hours but can be happy all day long if you want to do this while you go to work as well. These are easy breazy because they are frozen pre-cooked meatballs and vegetarians can use mockballs (lol) and dieters can use extra lean meabatlls too.

I love putting a roast, stew or chili on in the crock pot too. My husband also loves making Boston baked beans that way. There are whole websites dedicated to crock pot recipes and everything that comes from a real crock pot has a special taste that can't be described. Make sure you use one made with crockery to et that flavour! When you use it too, most recipes that aren't designed for the crock pot may need a little less liquid and spice because the lid will be on all day and you won't lose the juices the way you would in an over on on the stovetop.

Most people who claim they don't have time to cook decent meals during the week have one of these babies in the back of the kitchen cupboard. Haul it out and give it another chance!

Discovering Jerk - Making Jerk Pork at Home

I discovered Jerk this summer. We now keep a stock of Grace Jerk Marinade in our fridge at all times. We also use the Grace Jerk BBQ sauce as well. Try this recipe which is great for a family or even better when you have a big dinner to plan for. Lots of rice with kidney beans on the side goes wonderfully! It's really easy because of the minimal prep. The secret here is to let it marinade for a good 24 hours before slow cooking until the meat falls apart.

Mix marinade with brewed tea 3:1 and cover a pork tenderloin or assortment of chicken and put in the fridge for 24 hours.

Put meat and all the marinade in a roasting pan and cook at 250 for a few hours. Turn up to 350 for the last half hour. It's wonderful! My husband likes me to boil the juices and add a bit more tea for a sauce. Sometimes I thicken it with flour and butter. You can also put some vegetables in the roaster for jerk veggies. Yum!

I've started experimenting with jerk seasoning in other cooking as well. I've spoken with many friends who love Caribbean cooking and all agree that Grace is the best. They have an assortment of other products to go along with the meal as well.