Quick Cabbage "Rolls"

Okay, I think we all know by now that I'm not really into "precise" cooking. This recipe was perfect! I made this on a weeknight after work. I took an old time favorite and made it a little healthier.

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground turkey
1 chopped onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 small head of cabbage
1 large can tomato soup
1 cup brown rice
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cook rice.
Boil cabbage leaves until tender. Drain and set aside on paper towels to dry.
Preheat oven to 450.
Sauté onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil. Add ground turkey and brown. Drain. Return to pan.
Add Worcestershire sauce to beef mixture. Sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.
Mix rice into beef mixture.
In a 9x13 greased casserole dish, place one layer of cabbage leaves on the bottom.
Pour beef mixture on top and layer with remaining cabbage leaves.
Pour tomato soup on top and bake for about 30 minutes.
ENJOY!

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Location:East Hartford, CT

Country Chicken Cobbler

I found this recipe from Good Housekeeping at http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/country-chicken-cobbler-1627.  It's a tasty casserole to make in the fall or winter. 



Ingredients:

16 oz. bag of frozen mixed vegetables

1 can of condensed cream of potato soup

3/4 cup milk

Meat from one rotisserie chicken

1 pkg of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, each biscuit cut into quarters

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

* Ground thyme

* Ground sage



* This recipe is great as it is.  But I made this on a particularly chilly evening after an extremely cold day where temps topped out at 5 degrees!  So I wanted something that tasted a bit more...hearty.  When I added the salt and pepper to taste, I also sprinkled in a little bit of thyme and some sage. 



I bought a rotisserie chicken at the store and pulled off all the meat into pieces.  This was plenty of chicken for this recipe.



1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large skillet, combine the frozen vegetables, potato soup, milk

and pepper.  Cover and cook over medium-high heat until the vegetables are no longer frozen.  Add the chicken and stir.  At this point, I sprinkled in the thyme and sage.

2.  Pour entire mixture into a 9" x 13" glass casserole dish.  Top with the quartered biscuit pieces, evenly spaced.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.



The leftovers taste fantastic! This meal is Markus approved!

Location:East Hartford, CT

Kale Salad with Olive Oil, Lemon and Parmesan

I was very apprehensive about trying raw kale.  I heard it really doesn't taste good at all.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I found a similar recipe to this one and I tried it.  Believe me, this kale salad is DELICIOUS!  I found the original recipe at http://www.themeaningofpie.com/2011/09/kale-salad-with-lemon-and-parmesan and then made some adjustments.

1 bunch curly kale
1 cup pine nuts
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
1 lemon
1/2 olive oil
1 tbsp honey (optional)
Cherry tomatoes (optional)

1.  Wash the kale and dry either with a salad spinner or paper towels.  Remove the stems and chop into fine strips.
2.  In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, and honey, if using.  Whisk together until combined.
3.  Add the pine nuts, cheese, tomatoes and toss.  Add the dressing and toss again.
4.  Season with salt and pepper.
I made this last weekend as well. I was out of Parmesan cheese so I substituted Feta cheese.  Markus also brought back some pumpkin seed oil from Austria from our last trip there and I used some of that.  It really kicked up the taste!  If you can ever get your hands on pumpkin seed oil, GET IT!  It's fantastic on salads.  For those of you wondering if kids will like this, my son couldn't get enough and he is 10 years old.  Last weekend, I also made cubed steak in the crockpot with brown gravy and pearlized couscous.  He was more interested in this salad and even asked for seconds.

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