Tag Archives: garlic

Pizza Sauce

24 Jan

 

In recent weeks of Bountiful Baskets, I have received a lot of tomatoes.  I like tomatoes in salads, but I also wanted to try some new things with them.  One of those things was pizza sauce.  Most recipes I found called for canned, diced tomatoes or canned, whole tomatoes, or tomato paste, and while I knew I could make those things with fresh tomatoes, I didn’t want to spend the extra time.  So, I finally found a recipe on AllRecipes.com that was exactly what I wanted, a recipe that used fresh tomatoes and didn’t require any extra prep to those tomatoes.  Perfect!  It also used up the rest of my fresh basil and fresh oregano, and some of the fresh parsley in my Italian veggie pack.  Even better!  This sauce was used on a Sausage Florentine Pizza.  It made about 1 1/2 cups of sauce, so was perfect for the size pizza I was making.

 

Pizza Sauce
Based on this recipe

What you need:

2 ripe tomatoes, quartered and seeds removed
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon white sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

How to make it:

Place all ingredients in a food processor.  Do not liquefy, sauce should remain somewhat chunky.

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Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party

24 Jan

If you like to try out new products and host parties, you should look into HouseParty.com.  Manufacturers that want to promote a product work with House Party to get those products out to people who are interested in hosting parties.  Previously, I have hosted a Shutterfly Photobook party, a Febreze Set & Refresh party, and a Huggies Pull Ups Potty Dance party.  Each time, I got free products to share with guests, plus coupons and idea booklets for them to take home.  They all went really well.

In October of last year, I applied and was selected to be a Johnsonville Italian Pizza Possibilities party hostess.  I am already a big fan of Johnsonville sausage and brats, but had never used the sausage for pizza, so this was a good fit for me to try something new.  Unfortunately, some things came up in life and I wasn’t able to host an actual party.  So, now that things have slowed down a bit, I’m able to tell you about Johnsonville and share some of the recipes that were in the booklet with the party.

To start, let’s first talk about what I received in my party kit.

Shown above is an apron, recipe booklet, oven mitt, pizza cutter, paper plates, napkins, and a spoon for spreading pizza sauce.  Also included were coupons for me to get free packages of Johnsonville Italian Sausage and Sargento shredded cheese to use for the party, plus $1 off coupons for the party guests (which I did distribute to some friends).  If you would like to see the recipes in the booklet, you can find them here.

 

So, tonight I made the Sausage Florentine Pizza.  I didn’t have mushrooms, but used onions instead.  I used a homemade pizza sauce for it (recipe coming soon), and because my sauce had lots of fresh spices in it, I did not add the oregano and basil called for in their recipe.  I also used fresh spinach that I chopped instead of using frozen spinach.  I used 2 packages of pizza crust mix to make the pizza a little larger, on one of my baking sheets, so I also used more sauce, spinach, and cheese than what their recipe calls for.  It was great and the family loved it!

 

I’m not sure which recipe I will try next, but they all sound delicious!  So, stay tuned to see what I pick.

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Spinach Basil Pesto Pizza

17 Jan

 

In the Italian themed veggie pack I got from Bountiful Baskets, I got some fresh herbs, which included basil.  I like pesto, but have never actually made it, so I decided the basil would be made into pesto.  I still have some spinach left from my 1/7 basket, so the Spinach Basil Pesto recipe I came across on allrecipes.com seemed perfect to try.  Since I had plenty of tomatoes to use, I wanted to make a pizza with the pesto as the sauce.  I had sliced olives on hand, and I used chicken from a rotisserie chicken I bought at the store.   I was hoping to also add feta cheese, but it didn’t make it into the fridge after the store, so I used mozzarella.  The crust was from a pouch, since I’m really bad at making breads from scratch.  The results were delicious!  There are a number of other toppings that would go great with this, red onion, yellow onion, green peppers, mushrooms, so I suggest using your favorites!

 

Spinach Basil Pesto Pizza

What you need for the Pesto:

1 1/2 cups spinach leaves
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, optional (I omitted them)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

How to make the Pesto:

Blend the spinach, basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a food processor until nearly smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary. Drizzle the remaining olive oil into the mixture while processing until smooth.

What you need for Pizza:

Pizza crust, pre-made, from a pouch, or your favorite recipe to make a 12″ pizza
Pizza toppings, such as sliced tomatoes,  cooked chicken, olives, mushrooms, onions, green peppers
Cheese, like crumbled feta, fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella

How to make the Pizza:

Prepare pizza crust.  Spread pesto evenly on crust.  Add the pizza toppings, then the cheese.  Bake according to the directions for your crust, most likely around 425 F for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread Update

29 Dec

You may remember a while back that I posted the recipe for Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread, using Grands biscuits.  Well, tonight I wanted the bread, but didn’t have any Grands biscuits.  I found a great substitute – Bisquick biscuits.  You just make the dough according to the directions on the box, 2 1/4 cups Biquick mixed wtih 2/3 cup milk, then roll the dough into balls to drop in the pan for the pull apart bread.  Yum!

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Chicken Taquitos

16 Dec

Oh, these are yummy!  They are pretty easy to put together, just takes some time to get them all fried.  I considered baking them this time instead of frying them, but my oven already had enchiladas cooking, so I decided to stick with frying them.   Maybe next time I will bake them.

Chicken Taquitos
Makes 18-24 taquitos 

What you need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups Salsa Verde
1 cup Mexican blend shredded cheese
2 dozen 6 inch corn tortillas
Oil for frying

How to make it:

Place chicken in slow cooker and pour salsa verde over chicken.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4.  If you don’t have a slow cooker, cook chicken by your preferred method and mix with salsa verde.  You could even buy a rotisserie chicken at the store and shred it.  Next, mix cheese in with the chicken and salsa mixture.

Heat oil in deep fryer or a large, heavy pot.  Line a baking sheet with paper towels.

Heat a small skillet over medium low heat.  Place a tortilla in the skillet and heat for a few seconds on each side to make it easier to roll. Put about 2 Tbsp of filling at one end of the tortilla and roll tightly.  Use a toothpick in the center to keep them rolled.  Repeat for remaining tortillas.

Place 5-6 in oil at a time.  Cook for a few minutes, or until golden brown.  I don’t have a deep fryer, so I fry mine in a large pot.  And, of course, I didn’t have enough oil on hand to fully cover the taquitos, so I had to flip them halfway through cooking.

Once they have cooked, remove taquitos from oil and onto the paper towel lined baking sheet.  Allow to cool, then serve.

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Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread

29 Oct

Over the last 2 weeks of Bountiful Baskets, I have gotten a lot of garlic.  I don’t usually use fresh garlic, but since I have it, I needed to find ways to use it.  This recipe is a lot like monkey bread, a favorite of mine that my sister always makes for Christmas morning breakfast.  I had read a post about the Parmesan Pull Apart Bread at My Kinda Rain, and changed up the recipe a bit based on what I had and what pans I had.  Tonight I decided it was time to make it again with the fresh garlic I had, and oh man, I had forgotten how good this bread is!  It was the perfect complement to the Spaghetti Pie we had (which I will be writing about very soon!).

Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread

What you need:

1 can Pillsbury Grands biscuits (not the flaky layered kind)*
1/2 stick of butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp garlic salt

How to make it:

Preheat your oven to 375 F.  Melt butter in a small pan on the stove, and stir in the minced garlic. Pour the mixture into a 9 in round baking pan.  Sprinkle in the Parmesan cheese and garlic salt.

Cut each Grands biscuit into 4 pieces and gently roll each piece in your hands.  Drop into the pan.  It doesn’t have to be too tightly together, there can be small gaps because the dough will expand some while baking.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until tops of dough just start to brown.  Remove from oven and immediately flip bread onto a plate to serve.

* You can also make biscuit dough according to the package directions on a box of Bisquick.  With regular Bisquick, it is 2 1/4 cups Bisquick and 2/3 cup milk, then just mix together.  Roll the dough into balls, and follow the remaining directions above.

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Salsa Verde and Baked Tortilla Chips

25 Oct

After making Salsa Roja a couple nights ago, I had the ingredients to make Salsa Verde, but was out of tortilla chips.  I was going to head to the store because I needed a few things anyway, but decided since I had some corn tortillas still, I would bake tortilla chips with them.  Super easy, fairly fast to do.  Here is how to make both.

Salsa Verde

What you need:

1 lb tomatillos, husks removed (if you aren’t familiar with tomatillos, you can see them in this post, second picture, bottom left)
4 jalapenos, more or less depending on the level of hot you want
1 yellow onion, cut in half
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup cilantro
juice of 1 lime

How you make it:

You can roast the ingredients 2 ways.  One way is to roast them in the oven, like I did the ingredients for Salsa Roja.  The other way is to roast them on the grill, like I did last night.  Place a piece of aluminum foil on your grill and heat up your grill. Place tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, and garlic on the foil.  Flip the veggies as they start to blacken.  Continue to cook until onions are translucent, and everything has started to blacken.  Remove from grill and allow to cool.  Then, add all of that plus the cilantro and lime juice to your food processor or blender and blend well.  Serve as desired.

Last night we had this with chips, but a lot of times I will put it over chicken in the slow cooker, then shred the cooked chicken for enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos, burritos, etc.

Baked Tortilla Chips

What you need:

Small corn tortillas
Vegetable or olive oil
Sea salt

How you make them:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  Cut tortillas into 6 pieces using a pizza cutter.  Spray or brush the foil with the oil.  Lay chips out in a single layer on the pan.  Spray or brush the tops of the chips with oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes.  If you bake 2 pans at a time, rotate the pans in the oven halfway through.  Allow to cool and serve.

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Salsa Roja

23 Oct

I have been making a lot of Roasted Corn Salsa, but since I don’t have corn, I decided to use some of my Mexican veggie pack ingredients to make some Salsa Roja.  I’ve made it a few times before, but I have been working on finding the perfect method.  I have been very close on the taste I want, but I came across this recipe for Salsa Roja and decided to give it a try, but on a much smaller scale than the recipe calls for.

 

Salsa Roja

What you need:

4 tomatoes
1 small onion
4 jalapenos (more or less depending on how hot you want)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro
juice of one lime

How you make it:

Cut tomatoes in half, onions in fourths.  Remove caps from jalapenos and cut in half.  Remove seeds if desired, this reduces some of the heat of the jalapenos.  Line a baking sheet with foil and add tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, and garlic, cut sides up. Roast in oven at 375 F for about 30 minutes, or until onions look translucent.

Allow to cool, then add to a blender or food processor.  Add cilantro, salt, and lime juice to blender or food processor.  Blend well.  Serve as desired.

 

I found this made about 2 1/2 cups of salsa and was a little hot for my tastes, but my husband enjoyed it.

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Guaca-, Guaca-, -mole, -mole!!

21 Oct

Let me explain the title first.  A while back, I was introduced to this video.  I don’t know if it was a commercial Bounty did outside the US or what, but the song is catchy, and K sings it whenever I make guacamole.

I have been waiting all week for my avocados to ripen, and tonight, they finally were.   We are all big fans of guacamole in this house, and this batch was perfect.

Guacamole

What you need:

5 avocados
1/2 bunch green onion
2 jalapeno peppers, tops and seeds removed
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup cilantro
juice of 1 lime
sea salt

How to make it:

Coarsely chop all the ingredients and add to a food processor or blender.  Blend as desired.

I left mine a little chunky, but mostly pureed.  It was a beautiful green color and full of flavor.  It made about 2 cups of guacamole.


(So, is the guacamole song still stuck in your head?)

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Garlic Butter Shrimp

10 Oct

A while back I was in search of a new recipe using shrimp.  I had been using a shrimp alfredo recipe, but wanted something different.  That’s when I came across  this recipe for Garlic Butter Shrimp.  It’s really straightforward and fairly quick to put together.  For this meal, I only had 1/2 pound of small shrimp, so I halved the recipe.

Garlic Butter Shrimp

What you need:

1/4 cup butter
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried parsley
Cooked rice or pasta

How you make it:

Melt butter in a large skillet.  Saute garlic and shrimp in butter until shrimp turns pink.  Add in lemon juice and parsley and heat for a few minutes more.   Serve over rice or pasta.

For this meal, I served it over angel hair pasta.

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