Pork and sauerkraut dishes are part of every Eastern European restaurant menu, and the main ingredients are a popular staple in every household.

Sauerkraut is  a well utilized vegetable in many Eastern European recipes, including soups, salads, dumplings filling (verenyky), side dishes, and even pastries (Pyrizhky,Kapusnyachky).

Today I will share a recipe I created for Sauerkraut Stuffed Pork Roll, which received “thumbs up” from most members of my family, especially one of my nieces.

This recipe could easily be turned into a casserole dish, rather than a roll, if you prefer.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. ground pork
• 3 cups of sauerkraut
• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. caraway seeds
• 4 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
• 2 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 Tbs. salt
• 1 Tbs. black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves , minced (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
• 2 tsp. onion powder
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 Tbs. olive oil

Directions:

1. Place the sauerkraut in a colander, and rinse a little under running water, to remove some of the tartness.
2. Squeeze out any excess water, and place it in a medium bowl.
3. Saute the onions in the bacon fat, or in oil, until golden.
4. Add the shredded carrots and saute for couple of minutes.
5. Mix in sauerkraut, bacon bits, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper, and caraway seeds.
6. Saute for 15 minutes, mixing it often.
7. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. In a medium bowl mix the ground pork, the remaining salt and pepper, parsley, garlic, onion powder, eggs,
   Worcestershire Sauce, bread crumbs, and water.
9. Place the pork mixture on waxed or parchment paper, and form it into a rectangle.
10. Spread  the kraut mixture evenly over the pork base, leaving at least 1 inch stuffing-free border all around.
11. Lift one end of the parchment paper, as shown above, and start forming a jelly-roll like all the way to the opposite end of the meat and stuffing. Make sure you do not roll the parchment paper into the meat roll, but rather use it a tool to help you create a roll to enclose the filling.
12. This is how your stuffed meat roll will end up looking.  The seam of the roll needs to be on the bottom.
13. Grease the casserole dish with oil, and place the roll (seam down) in the pan.
14. Grease the top and sides of the meat roll with some oil to form a nice crust during baking.
15. Place the meat in a preheated oven to 400 degrees F, and bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes, or until the internal temperature is at least 155 -160 degrees F.
16. Remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil, and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
17. Slice into serving pieces, and serve with your favorite gravy (mushroom gravy is my favorite).

Enjoy!

While visiting our relatives in PA, we enjoyed this very tasty meal of a French Roast and veggies, prepared in a Crock-pot.

The whole meal was cooking by itself in a Crock-pot, providing lots of time together to catch up on our past family events, while snacking on delicious horse devours.

The main course was preceded by delicious homemade Borscht, as well as tossed salad, completing the meal with a decadent dessert of a Coffee Cream cake.

This recipe yields plenty of food for 4-6 people.

Ingredients:

•  3-5 lbs of beef (Rump Roast, Eye Round, London Broil)
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 8 oz. baby carrots, whole (I did not have baby carrots on hand, so cut up regular carrots)
• 2 stalks celery, cut up
• 4 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1 cup French Dressing
• 1/2 cup Beef Broth
• 2 Tbs. Dry Tapioca

Directions:

1. Trim the meat of fat, and rub it all over with salt, pepper and minced garlic.
2. Brown the meat on all sides, on stove top in a frying pan seasoned with some oil.
3. Set aside.
4. Place the potatoes, carrots and onions at the bottom of the slow cooker.
5. Sprinkle Tapioca over the veggies.
6. Mix the French salad dressing with beef broth.
7. Pour 1/2 of the mixture over the veggies.
8. Please the meat over the veggies ( I cut my meat into serving portions)
9. Pour remaining dressing/beef broth mixture over the meat.
10. Cover slow cooker.
11. Cook on High for 4-5 hours.

Best served hot.

Enjoy

Another wonderful, and simple, chicken recipe to prepare for your family and friends.

One of my co-workers enjoys cooking and sharing recipes, hence this recipe for Caprese Chicken with Bacon.

She found this recipe in Taste of Home magazine.  She was very pleased with the preparation simplicity, taste of the dish, and wonderful presentation, so shared her experience with me ( the word is out that I love trying new recipes….).

I followed the original recipe, but decided to pound the chicken breasts lightly, to make them thinner, and cut them in half to form smaller portions.

I personally prefer to start my meal with smaller food portions on my plate, and have the choice of having a second helping if I choose to do so.

You, however, might decide to keep the chicken breasts whole, to have larger portions.

Ingredients:

• 8 bacon strips (I cut mine in half after baking)
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I pounded mine, and cut each in half, making 8 portions)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (my addition)
• 1 plum tomatoes sliced (I used large tomatoes)
• 6 basil leaves, thinly sliced (I used 10)
• 4 slices fresh Mozzarella cheese (I needed 8 slices – 8 oz ball of fresh mozzarella)
• Olive oil to brush tops of chicken

Directions:

1. Place bacon in an ungreased  backing pan 15 x 10 inch (I used glass Pirex casserole dish)
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and bake it for 10 minutes, without turning it over.
3. Remove bacon from pan and set aside (I used kitchen scissors to cut my bacon strips in half, as I needed more pieces of smaller size).
4. Place chicken breasts in an ungreased 13 x 9 backing pan (I used the same pan I was baking the bacon in, but used paper towels to wipe off the bacon grease, before placing the chicken in it).  I placed the chicken with the skin side down (the skin was removed of course).
5. Brush chicken breasts with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
6. Place a slice of tomato on each meat portion, and sprinkle with chopped basil leaves.
7. Place the bacon, side by side (as I did), or crisscross as they suggested, if you have whole breasts and whole bacon pieces.
8. Bake it uncovered at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until the inner temp of the meat reaches 165 degrees F.
9. Top each meat piece with slice of fresh mozzarella, and bake for a minute longer to partially melt the cheese.

Serve hot.

Enjoy!

TIP:  This dish is best served fresh, but leftovers are still good, warmed up in the oven.

Chicken is known for being one of our healthier meat choices, and there are myriad of ways of preparing it.

I prefer chicken meat over turkey, as you already know from my previous posts, and am always searching for new recipes to try.

A friend shared this recipe, so I am not sure of its origin, but you will LOVE it…it’s so moist on the inside, yet crispy and crunchy on the outside.

Ingredients:

• 4 large chicken breasts, boneless, cut in half
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 cups Panco crumbs
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tbs. parsley, dried
• cooking spray

Directions:

1. Get three medium bowls, and fill one with milk, one with cheddar cheese, and one with Panco crumbs.
2. Line a baking sheet (I used a glass one 10 x 13 inches) with aluminum foil, and coat it with cooking spray.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Dip each piece of chicken breasts (8 pieces in all) in milk, then pat it on all sides with cheddar cheese, then dip it in Panco crumbs.
5. Arrange coated chicken breasts in the baking pan.
6. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and parsley flakes.
7. Bake uncovered for 50-60 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven.
9. Let it rest in the pan for few minutes before serving.
10. For best results and crispness, serve it soon after cooking.

Enjoy!

Few weeks ago I baked my first bread in the Dutch Oven, but used all-purpose unbleached white flour, mixed with some whole wheat flour.  The bread was very tasty, and spongy.

Today, I tried the same recipe, but with bread flour, and the results were amazing.

The bread dough was rising much more rapidly than my first one.  It was very spongy, and light, and the bread turned out even better than my first loaf.

I can’t believe there is such an easy way to make homemade bread.

Since I used the same recipe and same directions, I will not repeat them here, but you can check out my previous post, if you are ready to make some fresh bread for your family.

I am definitely going to invest in a Dutch Oven of my own (waiting for a good sale), as this one is borrowed from my daughter.

Can you believe this loaf of bread costs only 81 cents….and that includes all the ingredient, and cost of the energy used to bake it.