Quinoa Salad

I made an awesome quinoa salad the other day!  It's part Food Network Magazine recipe and part my own.  Here goes:

1 cup quinoa rinsed
2 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Add vegetable stock and rinsed quinoa to a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil.  Once boiling, cover and reduce to simmer for 12 to 15.  Toss with the thawed corn, scallions, and salt and pepper to taste.

Very very tasty!!

If it's Sunday it must be Sunday Gravy!

Today has been a very busy cook day!  I'll post more later about the other things I made but I wanted to put the recipe out there for the Sunday Gravy that I've been making.  I remember my Granny making this sometimes when we would visit for dinner.  Every Italian family probably has their own.  Since I don't have my Granny's recipe I had to rely on the good people at http://www.foodnetwork.com/ to provide one for me and it does not disappoint!  It's a crowd pleaser in my house.  I make beef brasciole and stuff it with whatever they'll eat like garlic and fresh Italian parsley.  I also add hot Italian sausage and today I made the meatball recipe I blogged about a few months ago, not the recipe above.  I'll try those another time.  I know Big Jim's Meatballs are a hit so I don't want to mess with what works!  Can't wait to dig in!!

It would have made my Granny proud!  Here she is with her Italian sisters, Pia, Mary, and Jae.  My Granny, Etalia, is the one in white.

Chicken Cassarole

Today I made a chicken cassarole that came out so well!  I used someone else's recipe but I had to modify it based on what I had on hand.

1 tbsp EVOO
1 1/2 to 2 pounds of boneless chicken thighs, cut up
2 cans of cream of celery soup
1 large onion cut into rings
4 cloves of garlic
Savory (herbs) or poultry seasoning if you have it
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  In a sautee pan with EVOO cook the onion and garlic until the onions are softened.  Then add the chunks of chicken.  Sautee the chicken until lightly browned.  Once browned add mixture to a 13x9 baking dish.  Stir in 2 cans of cream of celery soup.  Add a sprinkling of savory or poultry seasoning.  Add salt and pepper to taste and stir.  Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 2 hours.  Serve over chicken flavored rice or your whatever rice you choose.

Salisbury Steak and Parsnip Mashed Potatoes

Tonight I made a Rachael Ray recipe I saw this morning and boy was it good!  I forgot to take pictures of it and the family demolished it.  I boiled and mashed parsnips in with the potatoes just as the recipe called for and they were wonderful.  It was a great way to hide a vegetable because none of them know they were eating anything other than mashed potatoes.  Mmmmm mmmmm!

Corn and Carrot Salad with Golden Raisins

While watching Food Network this morning we caught a little bit of Paula Deen's show.  She and her son Bobby made a Corn and Carrot Salad with Golden Raisins.  I'm not a fan of mayo so my hubby decided to make it for himself.  It was so nice and easy and he really loved it! 

Bacon Cornbread

I was watching Food Network this morning (as I always do on weekend mornings) and I caught Claire Robinson's show 5 Ingredient Fix.  She was doing Truck Stop Gourmet this morning and the cornbread looked sooooo good!  This was so easy to make and it turned out so good!  I also made the butter to with it.  I didn't have the cast iron cornbread pan so I used a 10'' cast iron skillet to bake it in the oven.  Enjoy the pic and Claire's fabulous recipes!

Bacon Cornbread

Honey Whipped Butter

One of my favorite new utensils

I chopped A LOT of onions today.  All totaled I diced about 6 onions today.  I have a little chef's blade that I saw Alton Brown use to scoop up his diced veggies and it has come in so handy today!  It's so worth the price!!

Chefmate Chop n Scoop