Recipes and Cooking Ideas for Homemakers and Amateur Cooks
 

Fire up the grill!

I’m going to feature our supper last night. Some of us around here have been sick, so suppers haven’t been happening much this week… until last night. We made up for it then!!!!

Grilled Shrimp & Mushrooms
Stuffed Baked Potatoes
Grilled New York Strip Steak
Sauteed Mushrooms
Texas Toast
Veggies & Dip

Our friends who came over last night supplied the steaks… these are, incidently, the same friends I mentioned a couple weeks ago who brought hot ready-to-eat carry-out pizzas over for supper. Anybody else have friends like that?

Grilled Shrimp & Mushrooms

55 large (not jumbo) shrimp
Butter
Lawry’s seasoning salt
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic seasoning
Sliced mushrooms

There is actually no recipe for this… it was created by Shannon. He doesn’t measure ingredients or anything, but I know that it uses pretty much butter and less mushrooms than shrimp. Thaw the shrimp under cold running water. Mix the shrimp, butter, and seasoning all together in a bowl and skewer it on skewers, putting a mushroom on now and then.
grill shrimp
Grill it till browned. You can either serve them on the skewers or slide them off in to a bowl. Serve with cocktail sauce. So delicious! They cool quckly, so it’s a good idea to put them in a bowl that’s been heated up or eat them right away… or both.
grill shrimp done

Stuffed Baked Potatoes (also known as Twice Baked)     This recipe comes from a Weber Gas Barbeque Cookbook (came with our Weber grill).

3 lg baking potatoes
3 Tablespoons softened butter or margarine
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon fresh snipped chives
2 Tablespoons grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup broccoli florets

Wash and dry potatoes. Prick with fork. Bake until done, about 1 hour. (Mine took 1 1/2 hours @ 400, but they were BIG). Halve potatoes lengthwise. Carefully scoop out pulp, reserving 4 shells. (I just cut the top 1/4 off, then let the shell pretty thick. It doesn’t break as easy then when your scoop out the pulp.)
grill shells
Mash potatoes with butter while still hot. Blend egg yolks and sour cream; mix with potatoes, chives, and salt. Mound mixture into reserved shells
grill filled potato
and place in a foil pan.
Place pan in center of cooking grate of gas grill (over indirect/medium heat) and cook until potatoes are heated through, about 20 minutes. Top each potato with cheese and continue to cook until cheese has melted. Garnish top with cooked broccoli florets before serving.    I usually do them in the oven instead of the grill… bake on ungreased cookie sheet @ 375 for 20 min, then top with cheese, bake 5 min longer. Garnish top with broccoli.
grill done potato

Grilled New York Strip Steak

4 12-oz. New York Strip Steak
Lawry’s seasoning salt
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic seasoning

Again, no actual recipe here, but this is how Shannon does it… Trim fat off,
grill trim
then let set till room temperature. Put seasoning on just before putting on the grill. Don’t put seasonings on ahead of time because the salt in them pulls out the moisture. In a charcoal grill, over to the one side, have HOT coals piled up almost up to the grate. The heat should be so intense that you can’t hold your hand there, even for a second. Sear the steaks there for about 1 1/2 minutes, then flip over to regular coals to finish grilling.
grill steaks  How long it takes depends on how much heat there is. Grill until steaks reach an internal temperature of 145 – 150. We like A-1 sauce with our steaks… ok, Ruthie, just some of us do.
grill steaks done

And, you can’t have steak without…
Sauteed Mushrooms

1/4 cup butter
2 8-oz cartons whole mushrooms, washed

I don’t know an actual recipe for this, but this is how I do it… When butter is about all melted in frying pan, put mushrooms in. Fry over medium/high heat stirring and flipping pretty often until they look darker and smaller and done… not sure exactly how to descibe it, ya just kinda know.    Line a bowl with paper towel and scoop mushrooms into bowl. Then, pull the paper towel out from under them and serve them in the bowl. (The paper towel gets rid of some extra grease.)
grill saute mshrm

Texas Toast

Loaf of French bread
Lots of butter
Garlic powder

Again… this is just how we do it. Slice the loaf on an angle into 1″ thick pieces. Spread butter heavily on both sides. Sprinkle garlic powder on top… less for this kind of meal, more for an Italian meal.
grill toast
Put under broiler for a few minutes, but don’t forget about it or you’ll be reminded by smoke curling out of the oven… been there, done that!    When the first side is done, get them out, flip them over, and broil the other side. You shouldn’t have alot of other stuff going on while doing this, like fussy babies or making veggie trays or very involved conversations. Texas toast is what we call this bread, so if that’s an incorrect term, then we’re talking about a different Texas.
grill toast done

Veggie Tray

Baby carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green Peppers
Ranch veggie dip

Yeah, ok, this was more for healthy looks than anything. The guys didn’t even touch it. It was the only thing on the table not loaded with calories.
grill veg

We didn’t have dessert, but later in the evening, we ate some of the irrestistable Raspberry Cream Cheese Rolls that were left over from when I made them (again already) yesterday morning.

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An entire meal of new recipes!

Posted on December 7, 2006
Filed Under Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Desserts, Seafood, Side dishes

Flavorful Fish Fillets
Dilled Green Beans
Mini Italian Biscuits
Strawberry Yogurt Trifle

1 meal

This past summer, for awhile I was doing the meals they already put together in the Quick Cooking and Taste of Home annual cookbooks. It had kind of (well, totally actually) petered out, so I thought this would be a good time to start it again. I’m going to try to do one every week. This one comes from the 2006 Quick Cooking annual cookbook. I just got this one from one of my friends ( appalolly  on xanga) for my birthday in October.

These recipes always say “Prep/Total Time: 20 min.” or some other little minutes. Three of these recipes say 20 and one says 15 min. From the time I started making supper till it was on the table was an hour and 5 min… not too bad, considering there were a few minor interruptions from the kids. But I do always kinda chuckle at the times they put on recipes!

Flavorful Fish Fillets

1 pkg (18.7 oz) frozen breaded fish fillets
3 T. olive oil
1 jar (26 oz) speghetti sauce
3 T. prepared horseradish
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet, cook fish in oil for 4 min on each side or until crisp and golden brown.
1 fish1Meanwhile, in a lg saucepan, combine the speghetti sauce and horseradish; cook until heated through. Spoon over fish; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 min or until cheese is melted. Yield: 4 – 5 servings.
1 fish2
My opinion: Very good! Would definitely make again! Very easy to make! I wasn’t sure about pasta sauce with fish instead of tartar sauce, but it was just tops!!! Way too much sauce though… next time, I’d cut the sauce in half. I served the rest of the sauce with the meal to spoon on extra, but we didn’t really need it.

Dilled Green Beans

1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
2 T. chopped onion
2 t. beef bouillon granules
1/2 t. dill seed
2 pkgs (9 oz ea) frozen cut green beans

In a lg saucepan, combine the water, green pepper, onion, bouillon, and dill. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 min. Add the beans. Cover and simmer 8-10 min longer or until beans are crisp-tender; drain. Yield: 5 servings.
1 beans1 Oops! I see I didn’t drain them!
My opinion: Good, but nothing outstanding. Wouldn’t make again. With that much work, esp for a side dish, it should be dancing with flavor. It had extra flavor, but not as much as I was hoping it would.

Mini Italian Biscuits
For those of you who have this cookbook, I added the biscuits in here because I think meals should have 3 things, not counting dessert. This recipe comes from the same cookbook.

2 cups biscuit/baking mix
1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
2/3 cup milk

In a bowl, combine the biscuit mix, cheese, garlic powder, oregano, and basil. With a fork, stir in milk just until moistened. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 7-8 min or until golden brown. Serve warm. Yield: about 3 dozen.
1 biscuits
My opinion: Very good outstanding flavor, but too dry. But then, all my biscuits always get dry, so I would take any advice on making moist biscuits that just melt in your mouth! I’m going to find out if I’m doing something wrong and keep trying these biscuits because they are sooooo good!

Strawberry Yogurt Trifle

5 cups cubed angel food cake
1 carton (8 oz) vanilla yogurt
1 cup whipped topping, divided
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 Tablespoon flaked coconut, toasted (optional , I didn’t have any toasted and didn’t feel like toasting 1 tablespoon, so I skipped it completely)

Place cake cubes in a 2-qt bowl.
1dessert1
Combine the yogurt and 3/4 cup whipped topping; spoon over the cake.
1 dessert2Top with strawberries and remaining whipped topping. Sprinkle with coconut. Yield: 4-5 servings.
1dessert3
My opinion: Another keeper! A look at the ingredients tells you that you couldn’t go wrong. I made a half batch. These are the changes I would make next time… I would make 2 layers (cake, goop, strawberries, cake, goop, strawberries, rest of whipped topping) instead of all the cake on the bottom. It’s better to have more cake touching the yogurt part, I think. Also, I would make a little more of the yogurt mixture next time… it just ‘lubricates’ everything nicer.

We both thought this was a very good meal! Especially the dessert and the fish.

Tomorrow afternoon, Lexi and I are planning to make her birthday cake (it’s supposed to be a house). I’ll post it on here then… if we get done before midnight! Also, I’ll put her other 3 birthday cakes from previous years on with it.