Cowboy Spaghetti

Yee-haw! This cowboy spaghetti is a fun and flavorful twist to the typical red sauce with noodles. The original recipe called for beer (no thanks) and fire-roasted crushed tomatoes (this has enough spice as is). Enjoy!

Cowboy Spaghetti
adapted from Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals
Serves 4-6
1 pound spaghetti
salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 pound ground sirloin
1 medium onion, chopped
3 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped
ground black pepper
2 teaspoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock 
1 (14-ounce) can chopped or crushed tomatoes
1 (16-ounce) can tomato sauce
8 ounces sharp cheddar
4 scallions, chopped

Heat a pot of water to a boil. Add spaghetti and salt the water. Cook to al dente or with a bite to it.

Heat a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and bacon. Brown and crisp bacon, 5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon. Drain off a little excess fat if necessary. Leave just enough to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add beef and crumble it as it browns, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions, garlic and stir into meat. Season the meat with salt and pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Add 1/2 cup beef stock and deglaze the pan. Cook 5 to 6 minutes more then stir in tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Add hot spaghetti to meat and sauce and combine. Adjust seasonings and serve up pasta in shallow bowls. Grate some cheese over the pasta and sprinkle with scallions. Garnish with crisp bacon.

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Kabobs

This was dinner tonight and I loved the colors! I always tell my kids that the more rainbow colors the more vitamins! (Fruit Loops don't count!) I'm still a novice at grilling. Tonight's lesson in grilling was that if you must change a diaper while grilling at least turn the grill down. Some of the bacon wraps were casualties tonight.

This recipe comes from Natalie at Perry's Plate. ("Hi Natalie!")  She is the nicest blogging stranger that I've met so far and I love her recipes. If you want to jump over to her blog you'll see this recipe in top-notch photos.

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Kabobs
adapted from Taste of Home as featured on Perry's Plate

¾ c. Italian dressing
¼ c. lime juice
2 tsp. Worcestershire
1 lb chicken breasts, cut into roughly 1-inch chunks
About 12 slices of thin-cut bacon, cut in half (turkey bacon or prosciutto works nicely, too)
About 24 slices of fresh basil
Metal or wooden skewers

In a zip top bag, combine dressing, lime juice and Worcestershire. Add chicken. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Drain and discard marinade. Top bacon slice with piece of chicken and a basil leaf (or sprinkle with dried basil). Roll up and thread onto metal or wooden skewer. Grill, covered, over med heat for 5 min on each side or until chicken juices run clear.

Jayne's Notes: 

- My family loves kabobs especially served over rice. Tonight I squeezed a little lime juice over my serving while eating and it brought out some of the marinade flavor. 

- Cut your chicken on the large size of 1 inch rather than the small. I found that the smaller chicken pieces were done sooner than the bacon wrap. It was also hard to skewer the smaller chicken pieces with the kabob stick. The bacon took a long while to cook so next time I might use prosciutto and see if that cooks quicker.

- I strung pineapple pieces between each chicken wrap. It gave a sweet flavor to the meat and grilled pineapple tastes divine!

- Group your meats on their own sticks since they take the longest to cook. Once the meat is almost done you can add your 'longer cooking time' veggies and lastly your cherry tomatoes since they cook the fastest. (Watch those tomatoes! They really do cook fast and all you want to do is warm the tomato until the skin is just starting to break.)

- I've always been scared of using fresh herbs and when I saw this recipe my first reaction was 'a WHOLE basil leaf on each chicken?!?' There's nothing to fear with this recipe. Fresh basil makes a big difference and the flavor is not overpowering.

Creamy Fire Roasted Tomato and Bacon Soup

This soup was a lovely calorific end to a year. I think my husband especially liked all the bacon flavor (and fat).

Creamy Fire Roasted Tomato and Bacon Soup
(an original by Jenny at Picky Palate...photo included)

12 strips of bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 Cup white onion, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 serrano pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
¼ Cup flour
3 14 oz cans reduced sodium chicken broth
28 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (Del Monte worked great as well!)
10-12 fresh basil leaves with stem
Few pinches of salt to taste
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 Cup half and half or heavy cream

1. Place bacon pieces in a large dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Cook until browned and crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery and pepper to hot bacon grease. Cook until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic for 1 minutes then stir in flour for another minute.
3. Slowly stir in chicken broth. Add tomatoes, basil leaves, salt, pepper and half of crumbled crisp bacon.
4. Remove basil leaves from soup and carefully transfer soup, in batches, to a blender and blend
until smooth. Pour back into pot and stir in heavy cream. Simmer on low for 15 minutes. Top each bowl with remaining crumbled bacon pieces. Enjoy!

*Jayne's notes: I don't have fresh basil so instead I used a shake of dried. Also, we didn't include the serrano pepper and it was plenty spicy.

Zuppa Toscana

Photo courtesy of Tuscan Recipes

Zuppa Toscana
Olive Garden's recipe adapted by Lori Hopkin

1 (16 oz) package of mild or spicy sausage
6 slices of bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 qt water
2 T chicken bouillon
2 medium potatoes cut into 1/4 in slices
2 cups of kale
1/8 - 1/4 crushed red pepper (optional)
1/3 cup of heavy cream

1. In a large cooking pot cook sausage over medium high heat until done. Remove from pan. Drain fat.
2. In same cooking pot, fry bacon until crisp; remove, drain; drain on paper towels crumble and set aside. Drain all but 1-tablespoon bacon fat from pot.
3. Add onions to same cooking pot and cook over medium heat until softened. Add garlic and cooked for 1 minute. Add the water, chicken base and potatoes. Bring to boiling, reduce heat and simmer, co0vered, for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
4. Return the cooked sausage and crumbled bacon to the pot. Add the kale and crushed red pepper, if using, and simmer for 4 minutes. Stir in the cream and cook until heated through, without boiling. Serving hot.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

*An easier option would be to substitute with 1-pound bulk Italian sausage; crumble and cook until done; drain fat, set aside and continue with recipe as directed.

Jayne's Notes: I love this soup but as you can see from the ingredients it isn't for the dieting crowd. We used to have a Girls' Night recipe club and Lori shared this yummy favorite with us. It is in fact very similar to Olive Garden's Tuscana. When making this recipe I usually add another quart of broth to thin the soup. Also, kale is chewier than spinach so I try to cut it into smaller pieces for the kids' sake (but not too small because it holds it's shape and looks pretty somewhat larger leafed).

Goulash

We really enjoyed this recipe. My kids even asked for seconds! We served this over egg noodles but now that I know how much we like the sauce next time we'll be serving it like the Austrians over spaetzle. (Spaetzle is a pasta made with a cool 'spaetzle maker' which we just happen to own!)

Goulash
(Featured on Perry's Plate from Smitten Kitchen (adapted from Gourmet, 1994). Photo courtesy of Perry's Plate...she's a better food photographer than me.)

5 slices bacon, chopped
3 pounds boneless chuck, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 T vegetable oil
4 medium onions (about 1 1/2 pounds), chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons paprika (preferably Hungarian sweet)
1 1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. red-wine vinegar
1/4 c. tomato paste
5 c. beef broth
1 to 5 cups water (use the former to make a stew, the latter to make a soup)
1 teaspoon salt
2 red bell peppers, chopped fine

In a 6-8 qt dutch oven or saucepan, cook bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp and transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Leave the bacon fat in the saucepan and add beef, browning in small batches over high heat and transferring it as browned with slotted spoon to bowl. (Doesn't have to be cooked all the way through.)

Reduce heat to moderate and add oil. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden. Stir in paprika, caraway seeds, and flour and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Whisk in vinegar and tomato paste and cook, whisking, 1 minute. (Mixture will be very thick.) Stir in broth, water, salt, bell peppers, bacon, and browned beef and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer soup, covered, stirring occasionally, 60 to 75 minutes.

Season soup with salt and pepper. Soup may be made 3 days ahead and cooled, uncovered, before chilling, covered. Reheat soup, thinning with water if desired. Serve over egg noodles, potatoes or gnocci. (Or go all-out Austrian and make some spaetzle!) Serves 12.

**Jayne's Notes: I halved this recipe. I didn't have Hungarian sweet paprika so my dish included just plain generic brand paprika and I went light on the onions and slightly heavier on the bacon (Dan likes bacon and 3 strips in a 'halved' recipe just didn't cut it for him). Also, don't be afraid to use caraway seeds. I'm not a fan of rye bread but a little shake of these seeds seemed to make a positive difference. Lastly, we started making this after a late church meeting on Sunday so we definitely did not have the patience to simmer for an hour. I think in the end it simmered for 30 minutes.