Stuffed Peppers

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BRISKET IS AMAZING

Ok - big question of the day - which brisket to make on thursday?

Who votes for BBQ Rub and who votes for Ketchup?

BBQ RUB VIDEO:



KETCHUP VIDEO:

yeeeehaw!

YEEHAW! Great great great event coming up on August 29th! how2heroes and Smolak Farms present the 2010 Hoedown!

http://how2heroes.com/hoedown

Buy your tickets today!

There is also a baking contest - win good stuff from King Arthur Flour! Yummo!

Peanut Butter Cookie Central

Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies
These are delicious and so easy. The biggest time crunch is breaking up the pretzels and then letting the dough rest in the fridge for 20 minutes. If you don't - it's pretty sticky.



Watch to learn how:




Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies
Easy easy easy! Just make sure the chocolate is melted enough and you pop these suckers in a cool place to let them set - like the fridge.



Watch to learn how:

Oh Yes.

Oh yes. Best cookie ever. Yum.

Quick and Easy Squash Soup

This is a quick one - Curry Butternut Squash Soup w/ Dried cranberries

Ingredients:

• 1 quart (or box) of Chicken Stock (LOW SALT!)
• 1 package of pre-chopped squash (yes, I know, lazy but whatever)
• 1 sweet onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Yellow curry powder
• Garlic powder
• Salt

and the secret ingredient... Greek yogurt. yes. you read that correctly. Greek yogurt. Read on!



Very quickly, grab a BIG pot. Pour in the chicken stock on medium, add the squash. Heat that stuff up!

Chop the onion and garlic up and saute till they are translucent. Add to the squash.

Add two or three tablespoons of curry - basically to taste. Stir. add sprinkle of garlic powder and salt to taste. Stir. Once everything is well heated and cooked, it's time to bring out the blender.

Blender - let me tell you about the blender. You may be surprised that I've got a blender - BUT the truth is, I called my mom. She brought me the blender. She wasn't using it. It's on loan. No. My uncle did not have a blender. Sucks for him.

Once the soup is well mixed - it's time to blend. Add the mixture to the blender and blend the crap out of it! You may need to mix it a few times - meaning in and out of the blender because it all won't fit at once. Once you're almost all blended... it's time for the yogurt! Add the yogurt and blend that sucker again!

Once it's all blended - time to serve! Top off this fab soup with dried cranberries. Love it!

Layers of Lovely Noodles

Lasagna! Honestly - who doesn't love it? Want to know why I love it? Because you feel like you're eating something bad but with my recipe - its not! I promise!

I've made about a ZILLION lasagna's and this is the BEST ONE I'VE EVER MADE! Seriously! I feel bad for you that you aren't here to eat it with me! Ha ha!

The secret to the best lasagna? The coolest can opener ever! lol. Yes, it's avacado green and awesome! (and yes, my nails are neon pink - you know you love it!)



Want to know the second secret? The BIGGEST YELLOW OLD-SCHOOL STRAINER EVER! Check this sucker out - HUGE! This is a normal size sink and this strainer fills the whole thing! I wasn't lying last post when I said my lovely Uncle has about 10000 strainers - i choose this one because I like the color.



Want to know the third secret? I FOUND THE POT HOLDERS! YES! My mittens can rest easy tonight! They won't be needed.



Here's a quick rundown of the ingredients and amounts I've used. This should make one large lasagna or two smaller ones.

• 1 box of lasagna noodles - I'm using whole wheat ones because I feel they are less bad for me, I could be totally wrong but who cares!
• 1 Large red pepper
• 1 medium size zucchini
• 1 medium size head of broccoli
• 1 can of Italian flavored sauce - I've used Contadina
• 1 jar of tomato sauce - I've used
• 2 bags of mozzeralla cheese - I've used part-skim (a little bit of fat is ok)
• 1 package of ground turkey
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• Fresh Basil
• 1 small onion
• Fresh garlic
• Bit of olive oil

You'll also need a lot of pots - sorry, this isn't a clean recipe - you'll use lots and lots of pots.



First off - boil in a BIG pot some water, add about 3 pinches of salt to the pot. This helps the noodles from sticking together. Add the noodles and let them cook according to the package.

Then its time to chopppppppp! Garlic - I LOVE garlic so I always use a lot - I've got about 6 cloves and I chopped the crap out of them. Small bits but not too small. Then the onion is up next - chop the crap outta that guy - smaller is better in this case. Once you finish chopping - heat up your sauce pan with a little bit of olive oil. Save a little bit of onion for the sauce. Then you want to heat up the garlic and onions to get the juices flowing. From there - add the meat and cook till its not pink anymore.

While the meat is cooking - add the jar and can of sauce together. Just heat these guys up together and add a sprinkle or two of the Parmesan cheese. Then add the onions you set aside earlier as well. Just let this sit and mix together on a low heat for about 10 minutes.



The noodles should be about done now (they take about 15-10 minutes). You want to drain the pot and take the noodles out. The tricky thing about lasagna noodles is getting them to not stick together. I've used some tin foil spread over the counter to let them rest a bit.

So far so good eh? There is where it gets interesting. Now you want to chop up all your veggies into very small pieces - the zucchini, broccoli and peppers. I wanted to use the same sauce pan as I had used for the turkey but as you can see - the veggies don't all fit. Now it's time to get creative - there is a BIG pot that i had the noodles in - maybe that will work - YES! Rockin'.



You want to heat up your veggies so they get to be brightly colored - not too much. You want them still to have some sort of texture to them. Then add the sauce - mix that together for a minute, then add the meat, mix that together for a minute, then you're ready to build!



First start off with a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodles, then a layer of cheese (I also sprinkle a little bit of the parm here as well), then I start over again and keep layering until I end with a layer of cheese on top and it's just about the top of the pan. Sometimes this is three sets of layers, sometimes two.

You'll probably have bits and pieces of noodles leftover - you know what i do? I make a mini version and eat it while the larger one is baking! HA!

Cover your lasagna with tin foil and pop it into the over for 30-40 minutes. You'll know it's done when the cheese on top is melted and the entire thing is bubbling like crazy! Now - one thing to remember, this is HOT! I know this because I didn't heed my own warning and burned the crap outta my mouth. sucks.

Oh well. I hope you enjoy my recipe. Not too many troubles this time except for the pots. I warned you - lots and lots of pots.