Winter Fruit Salad

What a boring name for a delicious salad.

Today I had to take a salad to my son's football banquet, you know how that goes

"Freshman bring desserts, Sophmores salads etc"

and I decided to make this yummy salad because:

a. it is yummy 

b. I had all the ingredients

c. it is super easy peasy lemon squeezy and

d. it is gluten free.

I wish I had a picture of it - but use your imaginations k?

Fabulously yummy super easy Winter Fruit Salad

2 cups cubed, unpeeled red apples
2 cups cubed, unpeeled pears
3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 bananas, sliced
1 TBS lemon juice
3/4 cup of toasted walnuts

Dressing
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 TBS honey
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel (use an organic lemon if you can)
1/8 tsp allspice

In a large bowl combine the apples, pears, cranberries and lemon juice.

In a small bowl combine the dressing ingredients. Blend well and then add to the big bowl. Gently fold in the bananas and the walnuts.

Location

This was so good I will be making it for Thanksgiving instead of waldorf salad.

Potato Leek Clam Soup

I cleaned out the pantry and found a couple of things that needed using up - evaporated milk, potato flakes and a couple cans of chopped clams - and decided to make a clam chowder of sorts. I have made potato leek soup which was totally from scratch - this is more pantry style but still yummy! And the addition of clams - brilliant (or at least inspired).

Yes this is a recycled picture from this post  - but really how exciting is a picture of soup??

Potato Leek Clam Soup

 

1/2 onion chopped

1 leek white part - chopped

1 carrot diced

coconut oil - 2TBS

1TBS butter

1 quart homemade chicken stock

1 cup beans - I used chickpeas but I think white beans would have been better.

1 can evaporated milk

2 cans of water

2 cups potato flakes

1 TBS butter

1 tsp garlic powder, mustard powder, celery seed

salt and pepper

2 cans clams with juice

Saute' the veggies in the coconut oil and butter for 5 minutes or so. Add the chicken stock and cook at a slow boil until the carrots are soft. Add the chickpeas. Blend with stick blender until smooth. Add the milk and water, the potato flakes and stir. Add more water or flakes if needed. Add the spices and then add the butter and clams and taste - salt and pepper as needed. Delicious!

Italian Cube Steak

Saturday my upright freezer broke.

 Kaput.

 Unfixable.

Thankfully my husband is my hero - within 30 minutes of the discovery he was at the local appliance store buying me a replacement.

(One of the many reasons why I love him!!!)

 But there were some pieces of meat that were too thawed to put into the new one. Liver and cube steak topped the list. I have cooked it in the past with more or less success - here is a link to a cube steak stroganoff that my family really likes.
This time I wanted something a bit different and so I made it with a red gravy - I loved this. I added both rice and cooked cabbage to my bowl - kind of like a deconstructed stuffed cabbage.



Italian Cube Steak

6 cube steaks (or so) (if they are big cut in half)
g/f all purpose flour - 2 cups
1tbs garlic powder
1TBS onion powder
1 TBS Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
tallow or lard to cover bottom of pan
1 onion diced
1 red and 1 green pepper diced
2 ribs celery sliced
3 pints tomato sauce
dry red wine - splash

Combine the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper in a bowl.
Melt the fat in a dutch oven.
Dredge each cube steak in the flour mixture and add to the dutch oven - brown each side. Remove to a plate. (Don't crowd the pan, brown in batches if necessary) When done add back to the pot along with onions, celery and peppers and tomato sauce. Splash a little dry red wine in the pot. Put in a 400 degree oven and cook for an hour and 10 minutes.

Serve over rice and/or chopped up cooked cabbage.

Italian Noodly Soup

Hello,
I would be surprised if anyone still reads my little blog - it is now back to its original intent - a place for me to post food that I make that my family likes and I don't want to forget how I did it.
This Italian noodly soup fits the bill - it is amazingly delicious.
And  very very simple.
If you have read this far I would really recommend you make this for yourself, today if possible!

Italian Noodly Soup

1lb Italian Sausage
1/2 medium onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
either 2 TBS tomato paste or 1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 28oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
6 - 8 cups chicken broth
1 lb noodles - corkscrew or mafalda or fusilli pasta (I use gluten free for my serving) (cook in salty water)
spinach (frozen cube) or 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper
shredded mozzarella
grated Parmesan cheese

Heat some oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the Italian sausage and brown, breaking up. Add onion and cook until soft, add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes cook for a minute or so. Add tomato paste and cook for several minutes until it turns a little darker. Or add spaghetti sauce. Then add tomatoes, bay leaves chicken broth and spinach. (if you use fresh basil leaves wait to add them until just before serving.) Bring to a boil and then bring down and let simmer for 30 minutes. In a separate pan boil the noodles al dente. When ready to serve put some noodles in a bowl, top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

I linked this to Scratch Cookin' Tuesday.