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.

While doing my grocery shopping today, I noticed fresh AMERICAN shrimp in the seafood department (if you pay attention to labels, you will notice that majority of the shrimp you find is from China, India, Indonesia…. something that I will not purchase.  Click on these links to read more about it.

To sweeten the deal further, it was on SALE…so I purchased 2 lbs., which was too much for the two of us for one meal, hence another recipe today.

This recipe is full of flavor, with an added “kick” from red pepper.

I would be interested in hearing your opinion, which of these two posted shrimp recipes you like better, or please share your favorite shrimp recipe with us.

Pinterest picture of this recipe looked so delicious, which prompted me to give it a try.  If you notice the shrimp in my picture have their tails removed (I do not care to see the tails in my prepared dish…just a personal preference, as I am not much of a seafood admirer).

I am listing the ingredients, since I made some changes to the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 Tbs. olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp. red pepper, ground
• 1 Tbs. sweet paprika, ground
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice (used 2 lemons)
• 2 Tbs. dry white wine ( I used California Collection by Beringer – Souvignon Blanc)
• Salt and Black Ground Pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped (Italian Flat Leaf Parsley is my favorite

Directions:

1.  In a medium frying pan, set on medium heat, gently saute the minced garlic in olive oil, about 1 min.
2. Mix in the paprika and red pepper, stir well to incorporate with the garlic and oil.
3. Mix the wine with the lemon juice. Set aside.
4. Add the shrimp to the paprika/garlic mixture.
5. Pour the wine and lemon juice over the shrimp.
6. Cook for 2 minutes on one side, turn them over and cook  1 minute longer.
7. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

I was about to try a Potato Kugel recipe, to share with my friends who are planning their Passover menu, but a young lady I work for, shared this wonderful recipe for Potato Kugel Cups, posted on another site.

I thought this was a wonderful idea, and decided to give it a try.

Very quick and easy process of preparing a traditional Passover dish, with a modern twist.  It presents itself nicely, and tastes scrumptious.

Excellent idea for individual servings, making it so easy to handle, rather than scooping out portions out of a casserole dish.

I did not have enough individual baking containers, so I used a muffin pan, which was even more convenient.

For serving, I removed them from the pan, and arranged them on a serving platter, surrounded by lettuce leaves and carrot shavings, as in this picture of a single serving.

This recipe produced 6 muffin size cups of Potato Kugel, or if you want smaller portions, you can use cupcake pan, and most likely make 12 potato cups.

If you noticed, I placed a sheet of Aluminum Foil under my muffin pan, to catch any oil drippings spilling out of the cups, because I overfilled them, and my oven would have been a mess.

Ingredients:

• 6 large potatoes (I used Russet Baking Potatoes – they are less watery), grated on a large eye grater, or food processor
• 1 large onion, grated on a fine eye grater ( or in a food processor)
• 3 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper, ground
• cooking spray

Directions:

1. Clean, peel, and grate potatoes (keep peeled potatoes submerged in cold water to prevent from browning).
2. Place grated potatoes on a strainer to drip off any excess liquids, until ready to mix.
3. Add the shredded onions.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, along with the muffin/cupcake baking pan.
5. Beat the eggs with salt and pepper.
6. Place the grated potatoes and onion into a medium bowl.
7. Mix in the egg mixture, until evenly distributed.
8. Remove the muffin/cupcake pan from the oven, and generously spray each cup with cooking spray
9. Scoop out potato mixture, to fill each cup about 3/4 full,  until you use up all your potato mixture.
10. Place the pan back in the oven, on the middle rack, and bake uncovered for an hour, or until the tops become crunchy.
11. Remove from the oven, and let them rest for a minute or so.
12. Using a plastic knife (so you don’t scratch your pan) loosen up the cups around the edges, and slide them out onto a serving platter.
13. Best served warm. However, may also be made ahead of time, and heated in the microwave, or on a baking sheet in the oven.

These individual Potato Kugel cups make a great accompaniment to any meat dish, or can be served with apple sauce, or any way you like them.

Enjoy your Passover meal.

I am not much of a seafood foodie, but since fish should be part of our diet, I try to find recipes that suit my palate.

I do like some fish, but it has to be mild in flavor, and totally free of bones.

Today I baked fresh shrimp with herbs, lemon, and butter.  It was fairly simple to prepare (except for the cleaning and deveining), and fine tasting, however shrimp scampi, and Broiled Salmon , are still my favorite seafood recipes thus far.

I have another shrimp recipe to try, and definitely will share my comments with you.

The picture of this dish was posted on Pinterest, including some quick ingredients and directions, so I will include my version, for your convenience.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. raw shrimp, cleaned and deveined (I buy American brand)
• 8 Tbs. butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (my addition)
• 1 packet of Good Seasons Italian all natural seasoning
• 1  1/2 lemon, sliced into discs (circles)
• 1 Tbs. dried parsley leaves (my addition)
• 1 tsp. black pepper, ground (my addition)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix the melted butter with minced garlic, and pour into a rectangular glass casserole dish, spreading it all over the bottom of the dish.
3. Arrange the lemon slices on top of butter, forming a single layer.
4. Arrange the cleaned and deveined shrimp on top of the lemon slices.
5. Sprinkle the Italian Seasoning over the shrimp.
6. Sprinkle the parsley flakes and pepper on top of that.
7. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Enjoy.

TIP:  You can serve this shrimp as an appetizer, or a main course over pasta, or just plain with a side dish of veggies and wild rice.