Mac and Cheese Dog Casserole

My sister has been in town for the last week, and unfortunately I did not get to spend a lot of time with her because of work. But the first night she was in town we went over to visit and we were discussing making dinner, I had said something about having more hot dogs than I knew what to do with, and Eric, her husband, said we should get the recipe for Mac and Cheese Dog Casserole. Now I know what you are thinking, the same thing I thought when I heard it. Recipe for Mac and Cheese with Hot Dogs? There is no recipe for it. But i was proven wrong, she said she got it from... it almost pains me to say it... Rachel Ray. It could not have been any other chef could it, maybe a Guy Fieri, Michael Simon, or I would even take a Bobby Flay (you can't grill mac and cheese so I guess it could not be him). But when Christy told me the ingredients, I had to try it. There was Mustard, Ketchup, and most importantly Beer in it. I wont type it all out but here is a link to the recipe. My biggest complaint was it was kind of bland, so i would suggest a darker beer, I used Corona, and also and some minced garlic to the onions about a minute before you add the flour to the onions. Next time I am going to use an Italian Bread Crumb and Parmesan mix to top it, so it has a crunchy layer on top to add some texture. If you guys try it and find a good cure for the blahs, let me know.

Its been a while

Sorry about the long space between posts, I have misplaced my camera, so I have not had any pictures to post. But last night I went out to dinner and a concert with Tanya. We went to Tucano's in Boise, and for any of you that have not been, go. It is my new favorite place to eat. It is a Brazilian Grill, that practices the tradition of Churrasco, which means they cook skewers of different meats and veggies over an open flame grill, then bring the skewers to your table and cut you off some. I had so many different meats last night I don't think I can remember them all, but I will try. For beef I had Picahna or top sirloin, Picahlo which is a garlic and parmesan roast, Assado is a marinated brisket, Maminha is sirloin tip, and Bacon wrapped Filet Mignon. You think I would be full but in the Poultry category, I sampled Peru which is Bacon wrapped Turkey, Contra Coxa is a sweet and sour style chicken thigh, and my personal favorite of the night Coracao de Frango, which is Marinated Chicken Hearts, I think I easily ate a dozen of them. I also tried Linguica which is a spicy pork sausage, and Abacaxi which is brown sugar glazed grilled Pineapple. Sounds good right, but I have not mentioned the salad bar that comes with the meal, I went light on the salad bar on a recommendation from my friend Levi, but i had to try the Grilled Bananas. The whole meal was great and the servers were very fun and made the night that much better. Oh and if you read this then decide you need to try it out, do not, I repeat DO NOT skip the chicken hearts, at least try them. You wont be sorry.

Summer time is here

Yea summertime is upon us, and that means fairs and festivals around these parts, and that means one thing to me... fair food. Tanya and I went to the Emmett Cherry Festival today and had a great time.


For lunch I had Pulled Pork and Baked Beans, which were pretty good. The pork was cooked perfectly, nice and tender. The beans were good but tasted like they were fresh out of the can, with out any seasoning. The only real problem I had was the lack of sauce on the pork, it had a good smoked taste that you can only get from a proper low and slow cooking, but i always like to finish mine off with some Bar-B-Que sauce.
Tanya had probably the best lunch. Elk Finger Steaks from Black Canyon Elk Ranch in Emmett. These were very tender, cooked well and had that gamey elk taste, which I was concerned that it would be missing since it is farm raised elk. But they do not feed them with grain or corn, they grow their own alfalfa and use that for feed. Best news is they have an online store and deliver in the valley with a $50.00 minimum purchase. Their site address is www.blackcanyonelk.com. I think i will be ordering the Frenched Rack of Elk to try my Rack of Lamb recipe on.

What a weekend

Well, the yard sale is all done, and i think we all did pretty good. Got rid of enough stuff that I dont need a storage shed any more. Friday night I made enchiladas for every one. Everyone here says they love my enchiladas, but I will still share my recipe. For this you need...
ok you need to go to your local grocery store and buy a can of red enchilada sauce and follow the recipe on the can. What can I say sometimes those on the can recipes are really good, but you can improve on it. What I do is when I am browning the ground beef i put 3 cloves of garlic finely minced and a whole diced yellow onion. Well hopefully I will have some more for you guys later this week, my sister is on her way here now, and that means we are going to have some family dinners.

Sweet Tasty Savory Redemption

Tonight's dinner was really, really good. I think mostly because I screwed up last nights dinner so bad. I don't know what to even title this dish, it is like a Shepard's Pie, but no veggies in it. For this one you will need
2 pounds Ground Beef
3 cloves Minced Garlic
6 Green Onions finely diced
2 packages Brown Gravy Mix
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon Onion Salt
4 oz. Shredded Cheddar Cheese1 Box of any instant mashed potatoes ( I use generic five cheese flavor)
Brown the Ground Beef with the Garlic and Green Onions. Add the Gravy mix, Onion Salt and water, let simmer until it thickens. Mix the Potatoes according to directions on the box. Spoon the Beef mixture into a casserole dish and lightly pack down. Evenly spread the potatoes over the Beef, then top with the Shredded Cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.
Well that about does it for tonight, having a yard sale this weekend and need to get to bed early.

Awww man!!!

It has been one of those days, I had some five cheese tortellini and thought I would make a garlic and butter sauce to go with it... screwed that one up. It looked nice but was not very tasty. Plan B... I will roll some sushi. That would not work tonight either, I could not get the rolls to stay together, so I basically had a crab and rice salad with nori paper all over it. At least that tasted okay. Going to be really busy the next few days, but Friday is enchilada night...Stay tuned.

Few days off

Well it has been a few days since I have written anything, or cooked anything. Heck I cant even review any place I have eaten at this week. But don't worry I plan on getting back into the swing of things this week (no more ramen noodles or hamburger helper dinners). Friday night we are having Enchiladas, and I think tomorrow night I am going to roll some sushi, so check back for more updates later on this week, until then, send me some ideas on what you would like to see me try to make.

Quick Fixin Chicken

If your in a hurry and want to make a quick dinner that looks like you slaved over it, have I got an idea for you. Double dipped baked chicken. The recipe is as follows.
4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut into halves
1 bag potato chips (plain is good but you can try different flavors)
2 eggs
crush chips to make crumbs out of them, then put half in a gallon size zip lock bag. Beat the two eggs together in a medium bowl. Dip chicken pieces in to egg then shake in bag of chips, set on an ungreased cookie sheet. After all the pieces have been coated add the rest of the chips to the bag and put a piece of chicken in the bag, I find that surrounding the chicken in the crumbs then giving it a good squeeze makes the chips adhere better, repeat for all the pieces. replace them on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
We used BBQ chips last night, Tanya said she liked the plain chips better, but I prefer BBQ. Try your own flavor and let me know what you think. Oh yeah i forgot the sauce i put on my serving, pretty simple two tablespoons of mayonnaise and a couple splashes of Franks Red Hot Sauce, mix together and it makes a nice buffalo wing flavored dipping sauce.

So that is what Hollandaise tastes like

As much as I love food, I must admit I have not had the means to try some of the so called finer foods out there. I mean it was only three years ago I tasted my first bite of Fillet Mignon. I must admit I would rather have a nice marbled Rib-eye, but that is neither here or there. So When Tanya asked me to make fish the way she likes it tonight, I decided that I would look up a recipe on how to make Hollandaise. The recipe seemed simple enough.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• dash cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• finely chopped fresh parsley, if desired

Heat butter in a heavy saucepan until hot and foamy, but not browned. In a small bowl, whisk or beat egg yolks with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper or hot sauce. Gradually beat in butter, then water. Return mixture to saucepan and beat over very low heat until mixture is slightly thickened. Serve immediately or let stand over warm water for up to 30 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley before serving.
Makes about 2/3 cup of hollandaise sauce.

When it says serve immediately it was not joking, by the time I got my plate fixed, took a picture and started getting the kids their plates it had already started to break down. Now that could be my fault, first time trying it and all I may have not done it right. I put the sauce over Steelhead fillet's Tanya picked up, that i soaked in lemon juice and dry dill weed for about an hour, then fried in a little olive oil, and some steamed asparagus. Not to be outdone Tanya made a great fruit salad, using watermelon, kiwi, grapes and bananas.

On an off topic tangent here, if you are feeling like you are missing the past, I got a suggestion for you. Go to any free internet radio server like live365.com and find a station that plays old TV theme songs. It is a good way to be all nostalgic and stuff. I could not help thinking of my childhood when the theme to "Hill Street Blues" came on, although i cant remember an episode, I know that it was one of my parent's favorite shows, and I have probably sat through quite a few of them. Holy crap I have to go the theme to C.H.i.P.s is playing....bah, bah, bahbah, bahhhhhhh...

Did somebody say Bacon Cookies... Oh Hell Yeah

Thats right I said it, then I did it...Bacon Sugar Cookies. I got the idea after hearing about Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland Oregon, they have a Bacon Maple Bar, and I thought why not. I used the sugar cookie recipe I posted a few days ago (see building our garden), then I made a maple frosting using 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, 1/3 cup maple syrup, and 1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream, whisked together. I cooked bacon on cooling racks (thank you honey) sat inside cake pans so the fat drips off in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes, then finely diced it. After the cookies have cooled I frosted them with the new frosting spreader (thanks again honey) I got for my anniversary present, then sprinkled the diced bacon bits over them.
You may also notice I am using a new rolling pin (thanks Shanna), now i just have to make Enchiladas in a few weeks. Seems like a fair trade to me. Well that is it for tonight, see you all soon.