Bulgogi

Being an Army brat, I had the pleasure of many new experiences and becoming friends with a diverse group of people while growing up. My first best friend ever I met in Germany in the 1980s while in elementary school. Gina and I did everything together and stayed at each other's houses often. I made my nachos for her, and her mother, a Korean native, introduced me to many foods I'd never tried before. Gina and I reconnected in adulthood and remain friends to this day. For Thanksgiving 2016, Gina and her daughter came to visit me and my family. We had so much fun reminiscing and allowing our daughters the chance to get to know one another. One of my favorite activities was the cooking we did together... just like old times. I made Gina several dishes she had not tried before, and Gina made me bulgogi. Have you ever had bulgogi? It's a Korean dish made of thin, marinated slices of beef or pork grilled on a barbecue or on a stove-top griddle. It is also often stir-fried in a pan in home cooking. Sirloin, rib eye or brisket are frequently used cuts of beef for the dish. This dish was so delicious, and both my daughter and I loved it. This is Gina's recipe that she shared with me. You have to try this!

4 lbs rump roast (ask the store to shave it as thinly as possible)
1 entire bulb of garlic finely chopped
2 bunches of green onions sliced thin
2 large yellow onions chopped
3 green (red, yellow or orange) bell peppers chopped
4 large carrots finely peeled and sliced or a bag of julienne pre-cut matchstix size
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 entire bottle of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 bottle of sesame seed oil

2 Tbsp of fresh diced ginger or use the purée in a tube

1 Tbsp of black pepper

Start by chopping and prepping the bell pepper, onion, green onion, and carrots and garlic, if you're chopping those. I chose to use jarred garlic and the matchstix carrots.

Add the soy sauce and sesame oil to the meat.

Add the garlic, ginger, and sugar and mix into the meat.

Add the carrots, bell peppers, onion, and green onion and mix all of it together by hand (put on latex gloves) and be sure to separate the slices of meat to get all the flavors mixed in it.

Let it marinate for 30 minutes to overnight. The 4 lbs of meat will make enough to feed 6 people two times. I chose to bag and freeze mine. I got four quart-size freezer bags full of bulgogi, which feed my daughter and me twice. Be sure to freeze them flat. It's easier to store, and they thaws quicker. 

If you are pulling it out of the freezer, be sure to pull it the night before and thaw in fridge. When ready to cook, fry in a frying pan or wok on high heat. No extra oil is needed. At first it will be very liquidy... just continue to cook until some of the moisture cooks down.

Serve over jasmine rice and enjoy the aromatic, delicious yumminess!

Hashbrown Cheesy Casserole

This casserole is amazing! It's creamy and cheesy and delicious and a perfect addition to a regular meal, a special meal, a potluck, or a holiday meal. I love potatoes in pretty much every way possible, and this recipe does not disappoint. This is supposed to be a copy of Cracker Barrel's hashbrown casserole, and I found two recipes that were just slightly different, so I made my own decision on how to prepare this.

26 oz bag frozen hash browns
1/2 cup margarine or 1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (10 1/4 oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 pint (16 oz) sour cream
1/2 cup onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded Colby cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine melted butter, cream of chicken, onion, and sour cream. Stir until well blended.

Stir in potatoes, cheese, salt and pepper.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Pour hashbrown mixture into baking dish.

Bake for about 45 minutes until top is golden brown. Enjoy!

Quesadillas

I love Mexican food... even Americanized Mexican food. And what could be more delicious than quesadillas? This is my own creation, but I used Applebee's former quesadillas as my inspiration. These are super easy to make. The hardest part is chopping everything. But the flavor is amazing! Add a little homemade salsa verde and you've got a super easy and delicious dinner.

Quesadilla cheese
tortillas
jalapeños
tomatoes
onion
bacon bits
olive oil spray

I prep the quesadillas on a plate so that they're ready to cook. Put about 1/3 cup of cheese on half of a tortilla. Sprinkle with tomatoes, jalapeños, onions, and bacon to taste. 

Heat a skillet large enough to hold the tortillas on medium-high. Spray lightly with olive oil spray. Fold tortilla in half and carefully place in skillet.

Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until slightly browned.

Keep prepping and cooking quesadillas until you have how many you want. If they start to cook too quickly then turn the heat down to medium. Cut up and enjoy!

Roulade

So, I've been a picky eater since I was a kid. There are a number of things I refused to eat, and some that I still do. One of those things is mustard. I'm just not a fan. Even so, I have two recipes that use mustard, and I love them both. This roulade recipe is one of those recipes; the other is ham. This roulade also has a bunch of diced onion and lightly cooked bacon... and I love it in this recipe. This roulade is a recipe that my mom made for years while I was growing up, and there is so much flavor and goodness in this recipe. I don't know where she got the recipe from, but here is how you make it.

Thinly sliced beef (the pack I get usually has 7-9 slices)
One pack of bacon (12 ounces is pretty good)
One small diced onion
Spicy brown mustard (about a 1/4 cup or so)
Season all salt
Black pepper

Lay out the beef one piece at a time. Layer 1-2 slices of bacon on it. Then slather a thin coating of spicy brown mustard.

Sprinkle with season all salt and black pepper, and then sprinkle a layer of onion.

Start at one end and carefully roll the beef up.

Secure with a toothpick. Prepare each slice of beef as above.

Heat a little olive oil in your skillet, and cook on each side.

Roll beef as necessary cooking all sides until all beef is cooked.

Pair the roulade with these delicious German Fried Potatoes for a bacon-filled meal and a side of Sautéed Spinach, and you'll have an amazing meal.

Squash Casserole

It took me years to get around to eating squash. I mean, literally, years. I was in my 30s before I tried it. I'm still a little limited in how I eat it. I either like it raw and sliced or this casserole. This casserole is so flavorful. I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you give it a try. I got this recipe from my mom, but I'm not really sure where she found it from all of those years ago.

2.5 to 3 lbs of squash (cubed)
1 large onion (diced)
1 stack saltine crackers (crushed)
3 Tbsps melted butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
add salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (save 1/4 cup of cheese for later)

Cut squash and dice onion.

Cover with water and boil squash and onion with salt and pepper until squash is fork tender.

Drain water and mash squash until you reach the texture you prefer - I do not like large chunks of squash, so I mash mine quite a bit.

While squash and onion are cooking, gather remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Start with the crackers - a trick I've learned when you need to crush a whole pack of crackers is to push the crackers down to one end and then force them into a slant with your fingers. Then start crushing. Do this over the bowl you're using to catch any crumbs. When it feels crushed enough, then just open one end and pour the crumbs in the bowl.

 Add the egg, milk, melted butter and most of the cheese to the crackers.

When squash is cooked, drain water and mash squash and onion.

Combine with other ingredients and mix well.

Pour into a greased casserole dish, and bake at 400 degrees about 45 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Sprinkle remaining cheese over hot casserole.

Salsa Verde

I love Mexican food, and I love spicy food. Eating out or purchasing large quantities of food just isn't a very viable option, so I figured out how to make salsa verde at home... and it is gooooooood. Nice touch of heat, but it won't make you cry. At least, it doesn't make me cry. Please use the ingredients as more of a guideline. I've made this three times now, with different amounts of ingredients each time. My latest batch made about three pint-size jars of salsa verde.

1-2.5 lbs tomatillos
1/2 to 2 large onion
3-8 peppers (I used 3 or 4 jalapeños and 1 serrano, just use what you have or like for the heat you want)
4-10 cloves of garlic, depending on how big they are and how much garlic you like
olive oil
bunch of cilantro
Splash of vinegar (I use white wine vinegar for a milder flavor)
salt
water

To roast in a pot:

Prep your items: remove the husks of the tomatillos, wash, and cut in half or quarters. Roughly dice the onion. Open, peel, and crush the garlic. Cut the tops off the peppers; remove the seeds of some of them to reduce the heat while maintaining the pepper flavors. Be careful not to touch the seeds too much and wash your hands promptly. Get all ingredients in a bowl.

In a large soup pot (if you are making a smaller amount then you can use a small pot or a large skillet), heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatillos, onions, peppers, and garlic and roast until everything is softened and just beginning to fall apart. Stir often so that nothing sticks, but you do want some heat scoring. This will provide tons of flavor. This picture below is partially cooked. It went a bit longer after this.

To roast in the oven:

Peel, wash and dry the tomatillos. Halve or quarter the onions. In a large bowl, put the tomatillos, peppers, garlic and onion pieces (I halve mine). Sprinkle some olive oil over the ingredients and toss to ensure even coverage. Line everything out on a foil-covered baking sheet. Lightly sprinkle with ingredients with kosher salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tomatillos and peppers begin to brown and break down. Tomatillos will look soupy, and peppers should be blistered and mostly blackened. Peel the skin off the peppers. This is easier to do if you put the peppers in a plastic bag as soon as you pull them from the oven for about 10 minutes. That steams them and allows the skin to loosen.

Once everything is softened, remove from heat. Allow to cool just a bit so that you don't burn yourself. Add most of the ingredients to blender, leaving enough space for rising during blending. I like to hold back on the peppers and garlic, and add more to taste. Tear off several handfuls of cilantro, to taste, and place in blender along with a heavy sprinkle of salt, also to taste, and a splash of vinegar (I probably don't use more than a 1/2 tsp or so for about 1.5 lbs of tomatillos). Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take salt or vinegar out. Pulse until desired consistency is achieved - I prefer mine smooth. Add water to thin salsa. I use about 1 cup for 1.5 lbs of tomatillos. Salsa will thicken in the fridge. Add additional salt, cilantro, peppers or garlic to taste and blend until you reach the consistency and flavor you prefer.

Pour in a jar(s) or plastic container. Allow to cool, and then store in the refrigerator. Use as a salsa or as a sauce over your favorite dishes.

Chicken Chili

I grew up notorious for being a very plain, habitual, consistent eater. The past year or two, I have taken an active role in trying to push the boundaries of my self-imposed limitations. There are still plenty of areas that I'm not ready to push past, but this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Chili that I found on Pinterest was one of the ones out of my norm that I decided to give a try. It actually was a nice alternative to my regular chili, and worth a look at if you like chicken and chili. I messed with the recipe a little. The original is cooked in a crock pot, which I passed on. And I left out a few ingredients that I wasn't interested in. I don't think the recipe suffered any, because it was still rather delicious.

2 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large red (or orange or yellow) pepper

Assortment of hot peppers - jalapeño, cayenne, Anaheim, cowherd
1 large onion
5 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup chili powder
2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp paprika

1 Tbsp Ancho chili powder
Other possible chili powders are cayenne, chipotle, hot Mexican chili powder (I added an addition 2 Tbsps or so)

Dash of Adobo
3 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can kidney chili beans
1 (15 oz) can black chili beans
1 (15 oz) can pinto chili beans

1 (15 oz) can corn, drained
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken in large pot until cooked and easy to shred.

Shred chicken. Heat about 2 Tbsps oil in the pot. Add onions and bell pepper and sauté for 2 minutes. Add chicken and garlic to pot and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add corn, beans, tomato sauce, hot peppers and spices, and mix well.

 Cook on low for several hours until hot and flavors come together.