EASY RECIPES AND STUFF

EASY RECIPE

Kinda cold yesterday, so She Who Must Be Obeyed decided to make Easy Apple-Cherry Crisp. Sue got the recipe from her friend Julie and I have no idea where she got the recipe. I did a quick Internet search and found a few similar recipes. So while laying no claim to the recipe, I can say it is easy to make and fun to eat!

Ingredients:

2  twenty-one oz cans apple pie filling (reduce to 1 if you desire thicker filling).

1 twenty-one oz can cherry pie filling.

1 package of white or yellow cake mix.

1/2 cup pecan chips.

1/2 pound butter.

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

To a 9 x 13 inch pan spread the filling over the bottom.

Melt the butter.

Pour cake mix over the top of the pie filling and smooth it out.

Carefully drizzle melted butter over the cake mix so as to evenly distribute.

Sprinkle the pecan chips over the cake mix top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. When done, remove crisp from oven and let it setup for an hour or so.

And that is all there is to making a wonderful desert thanks to She Who Must Be Obeyed, and Julie, and others!

AND STUFF

The third adventure in my Amber Reyes and Jack Fields novel series  was recently published!

In Desert Ice, beautiful ex-Army Ranger Amber Reyes and her ex-FBI business partner and lover Jack Fields are hired to provide security for a super wealthy London underwriter and his friend the ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain as they yacht along the New England coast. When the yacht disappears, along with Jack and Amber’s junior partner Juval Saint James, Jack and Amber immediately spring into action. Jack and Amber follow the kidnapers trail from iceberg alley to the 163 floor Desert Ice Tower in Dubai. And then, things go real bad when they become the hunted.

DESERT ICE is now available in e-book form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the iStore.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

 

 

EASY RECIPE

I love Italian food. While I could eat pasta every day I probably shouldn’t. The other day I wondered if I could make a tasty Italian style dish with less fat, carbohydrate, and sugar. I decided to use very lean ground turkey, and instead of pasta I would load up on vegetables. The result of my experiment was an easy, tasty meal which reduced all the unwanted components while maintaining the essence of a great Italian style dish.

Recipe serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb, extra lean ground turkey with Italian seasoning.

1 egg.

1/4 cup breadcrumbs.

2 Tbsp minced onion.

2 cloves garlic – minced.

1 tsp parsley – minced.

dash of salt and pepper.

15 oz can of tomato sauce.

14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes.

1 ½ tsp minced garlic (for sauce).

2 tablespoon fresh chopped basil.

1 tsp fresh chopped oregano.

¼ teaspoon dried fennel seed.

1/3 cup red wine.

1 head cabbage.

1/2 red bell pepper – sliced into quarter inch or so circles and then halved.

1/2 onion – sliced into quarter inch or so circles and halved.

2 Tbsp canola oil.

Preparation:

To a large sauce pot add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, 1 and 1/2 tsp minced garlic, basil, oregano, fennel seed and wine. Stir as you bring mixture to low boil. Reduce heat to get the sauce at a simmer and cover. Stir sauce every now and then.

To mixing bowl add the first seven listed ingredients. Use your hands to mix the ingredients. Form mixture into 1 and 1/2 inch meatballs.

Add 1 Tbsp of canola oil to fry pan. On medium-high heat brown the meatballs for 10 minutes turning occasionally so as to brown all sides. Remove meatballs and set aside.

To same frypan add 1 Tbsp canola oil and then sauté red bell pepper and onion slices.

Carefully remove four cabbage leaves. Rinse leaves and allow to drip- dry upside down on paper towel.

Gently add meatballs to sauce and raise sauce temperature to boil and then reduce heat to simmer for five to ten minutes so the meatballs and sauce have time to work their magic on each other.

Plate the cabbage bowls.  Add equal number of meatballs to each cabbage bowl, top with sauce and then the bell peppers and onion.

And that’s all there is to making an awesome no pasta low fat dinner.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

My new Jack Fields and Amber Reyes action novel DESERT ICE is available in all e-book formats.

With the Oscars approaching I pulled together some great and easy recipes for your awards party!

Easy Recipes

1. Ruby Red Grapefruit Basil Martini

Recipe is one drink.

Ingredients

4 oz fresh squeezed red grapefruit

2 oz vodka

1 basil leaf – minced and ground

1 basil leaf for garnish

1/2 tsp simple syrup

Preparation:

For simple syrup: add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 C water to saucepan and heat on medium. Stir until the sugar dissolves, a couple minutes, and then remove from heat (there will be a great deal of simple syrup left over for other drinks).

Mince and grind one basil leaf.

To shaker add ice, vodka, squeezed red grapefruit juice, minced basil, and simple syrup. Shake and then pour through strainer into a martini glass straight up or on ice.

2.   Easy Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots

Chef Jamie inspired Sue to cook her easy but awesome bacon wrapped tater tots.

Ingredients:

16 oz package of apple smoked thick cut bacon.

16 oz package of frozen tater tots.

brown sugar.

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Pour ample amount of brown sugar on a plate.

Cut bacon strips in half.

Wrap each tater tot with 1/2 strip of bacon.

Roll bacon wrapped tater tot in brown sugar.

Shake off excess brown sugar.

Place tater tots on sided backing sheet (so bacon grease is contained) seam side down.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

2. Pull Pork Sliders

Ingredients:

4 lbs boneless pork shoulder

1 large onion sliced into thin rounds

1 C chicken stock (canned)

1 C coke

3/4 C BBQ sauce

2 cloves garlic – minced

1 Tbsp chipotle sauce

1 tsp chili pwder

1/2 tsp liquid smoke

1/2 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp salt

dash pepper

24 Slider buns

For Coleslaw:

1 ten oz package of pre-shreded cabbage

1 carrot cleaned and sliced into small thin juliennes

3 green onions – sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine and mix coleslaw mixture and then add 1/8 cup Italian dressing.

Mix and refrigerate.

For Cuban Beans:

Make a real hard bean recipe or buy  a few cans of Cuban Black Beans.

Pulled Pork Preparation:

In your Ninja Cooking system (or in fry pan) add 1 Tbsp olive oil and saute onions.

Add pork to Ninja (or add pork and onions to slow cooker)

In mixing bowl add all other ingredients and stir to mix.

Add contents of mixing bowl to pork and onions pouring it over the pork. Lift the pork up to get mixture underneath.

Turn Ninja onto to slow cooker – low heat and figure out something to do for the next 7 hours.

When fully cooked remove pork and use forks to shred. Spoon some of the awesome cooking sauce and onions over the plate of pork and serve with side of coleslaw, black beans, and slider buns.

3.  Monica’s Killer Easy But Awesome Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

1 pineapple

fresh cherries

fresh blackberries

fresh raspberries

cantaloupe – cubed

Preparation:

Step 1: At the base of the pineapple crown cut straight across the crown (plume of leaves) taking about a half inch of pineapple so the leaves stay together. Reserve the crown for use as the center of fruit tray

Step 2: Cut pineapple in half lengthwise.

Step 3: Half each half lengthwise to create four equal pineapple sections.

Step 4: Slice down the center on an angle to remove the core (this results in a long triangular piece for each quarter being removed)

Step 5: Use a medium sized knife to knife to fillet cut around the shell and free the fruit in one piece.

Step 6: Put the piece back in the shell and slice lengthwise down each quarter (taking care not to slice the shell) and then slice crosswise to create bite sized pieces of fruit sitting freely on top of the shell.

Step 7: Place the crown on a large platter, and then position the pineapple quarters like spokes.

Step 8: Fill the voids between quarters with cherries, blackberries, raspberries, and cantaloupe.

And that’s all there is to stealing the show with your easy but beautiful fruit dish platter.

Enjoy the show and dinner!

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

My new Jack Fields and Amber Reyes action novel DESERT ICE is available in all e-book formats.

EASY RECIPE

After all the wonderful rich dips and foods I ate during the Super Bowl seemed like a good Monday to do an easy meatless lunch. So I decided to pay homage to a wonderful panini She Who Must Obeyed and I ate in Paris. My Easy Basil, Tomato and Mozzarella Panini is based on the memory, and whether I captured the dish exactly doesn’t matter as my version is easy to make and tastes great!

 

recipe serves one – so do the math for as many as you need.

Ingredients:

2 slices sourdough bread.

6 fresh basil leaves.

4 thin slices of tomato.

3 or 4 thin slices of mozzarella.

mayonaise.

dijon mustard.

butter.

Preparation:

If you do not have a panini grill simply cook the sandwich as you would grilled cheese.

Place a a couple dabs of butter one slice of bread. On the other slice of bread spread some mayonnaise and then dijon mustard. To the mayo and dijon mustard layer the tomato slices, and then whole (stemmed) basil leaves, and then the cheese.

 

Place buttered slice of bread on top, with butter side up, to complete construction of the sandwich.

Heat panini grill or fry pan.

Place sandwich butter sided down on panini grill or fry pan. Add butter to top unbuttered bread. Gently press the grill shut and cook until you get a nice golden color on the bread.

Plate some fruit or chips with the Easy Basil, Tomato and Mozzaral Panini and enjoy!

AND STUFF

While Sue and I were in Paris for our anniversary, we would walk through a section of the city to get to the River Seine river boat launch area. The boats, serving the function of a river bus, were the perfect way to get from one must see location to the next.

Of course on our first try we missed the boat and had some time to look around while waiting for another boat to arrive. We spied a panini food cart parked on the walkway and noting the large line of customers concluded we should try whatever they were making. And, what they were making was a basil, tomato, cheese panini.

As our sandwich was being cooked to order, Sue and I waited on concrete bench style seating and took in the sights. Finally Sue’s name was called. Then, while seated on the concrete bench seats overlooking the Seine, we shared the most wonderful  panini sandwich either of us could remember.

Was it the beautiful scenery, or the company of my beautiful Sue sitting with me by the Seine that made the quick lunch so memorable?         The sandwich was pretty darn good, but the view with Sue in it made the memory.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

My action novels Goldplay and Veyron are available in select bookstores, and in all e-book formats. Signed copies available through http://www.rogerscouton.com