Audrey's Corn Chowder

There are never any leftovers with this soup. It's great for a cold day and really easy.

Ingredients:

1 lb Jimmy Dean Lean Pork Sausage

4 C yukon gold, diced small

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp pepper

2 C water

1 can creamed corn (1/2 of it) or 2 C of frozen (and increase milk)

1 can evaporated milk

thicken with chicken broth and flour if needed

brown and drain sausage, add potatoes, salt and water. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add spices, corn, evaporated milk and cook until thickened. You will need to thicken it. You may want to add cayenne.

Asparagus and Sausage Strata

For the last few years I have brought this to our ward Christmas breakfast. I am always asked for the recipe, so being that our Christmas breakfast is tomorrow morning, I thought I'd post early. Be warned, this is a make the day ahead recipe.

Ingredients:

12 slices rustic white bread
1/2 C milk
1 lb fresh asparagus broken into pieces (you can substitute frozen, but it's not as crisp)
8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 oni0n, diced
1 lb. sausage (Jimmy Dean's Hot N Spicy)
1/2 lb. grated cheddar
8 large eggs
1 C buttermilk or sour cream
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
dash of Worcestershire
dash of Tabasco


Instructions:
Cube bread into 1/2 inch pieces. Toss with milk in large bowl and set aside.

Brown sausage and drain.

In the same pan, saute mushrooms and onions for about 3 minutes. Turn off heat and add asparagus and sausage back to the pan.

In a separate bowl, blend eggs, sour cream/buttermilk, and seasonings.

Using a 9x13 greased pan (I use Pam) layer the strata as follows:

1/2 the bread cubes
1/2 the sausage/vegetable mixture
1/2 cheese
1/2 bread cubes
1/2 sausage/vegetables
1/2 cheese

Pour the egg mixture over it all, covering it completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for an hour before baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-1 hour until inserted knife comes out clean.

Jim's Yummy Summer Salad

Okay, Jim actually made this for me last Thanksgiving, but it was the perfect accompaniment to our burgers tonight!

Ingredients:

Red leaf lettuce (washed, spun dry and wrapped in a dish towel, stored in the fridge until ready to use)
Blueberries
Strawberries, washed, tops cut off and diced
Thinly sliced red onion
Freshly Grated Parmesan
Mixed Nuts, salted
Audrey's Sweet Vinaigrette

Combine ingredients and dress lightly with vinaigrette. That recipe is attached to Audrey's Spinach and Pear salad.

Audrey's Cafe Rio Salad

If you have ever lived in Utah and been BLESSED to eat this salad at this restaurant, well, then you've been blessed. I thought my Cafe Rio days were over. But no, no. Not when Audrey Dieker lives down the street.

Audrey's Version of Cafe Rio Salad

Sweet Chile Verde (The Pork)

3 lbs pork loin roast (salt and pepper for the outside)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 t oil
1 ½ c mango/ peach salsa (can use regular or pineapple)
½ can chicken broth
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ t salt

In a large frying pan or dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until translucent (stir frequently to avoid burning), about 3 minutes. Add pork roast (if you need to cut it into two large pieces to fit your crock pot, that’s fine), sear the outside of roast until it is browned on both sides.

Pour the entire contents into crock pot (including all bits of brown or “fond”). Add remaining ingredients of salsa, chicken broth, salt, and brown sugar. Cook on low for 6 hours. Meat should fall apart after about 4-5 hours, break meat apart to absorb juices.

Cafe Rio Salad Dressing

1 c buttermilk (for thicker dressing use sour cream instead)
1 c mayonnaise
3-4 tomatillos, husks removed (or 4 from a can)
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper


Cilantro Lime Rice

1 cup uncooked rice
3 T butter
2 1/4 cup water (can use 1 15 oz. can chicken broth and 1 cup water)
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice
3 t sugar
3 T freshly chopped cilantro

In a saucepan, combine rice, butter and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook 15-20 minutes, until all water is absorbed. Remove from heat.
In a small bowl combine lime juice and sugar. Pour over hot rice and toss. Right before serving, add cilantro and stir through rice.

Black Beans

We used/heated Bush's Black Beans Seasoned Recipe (from a can)

Corn Tortilla Crisps

Corn Tortillas
oil for deep frying
salt

Finely slice corn tortillas (the thinner the better). Fry in oil until crispy and slightly brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Lightly salt while still warm.

"Cafe Rio Salad" - (Assembly)

Layer a warm flour tortilla with shredded cheese, beans, rice, lettuce (romaine), chile verde pork, salsa (mango salsa is a great addition), sliced avocadoes (or guacamole), cilantro tomatillo dressing, and finish with corn tortilla crisps.

Enjoy!

Audrey's Corn Chowder

This is a hearty wintertime soup, delicious with white rolls topped with herbed butter. If you are looking to skimp on calories, look elsewhere.

Ingredients:

1 lb Jimmy Dean Lean Pork Sausage
4 C yukon gold potatoes, diced small
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp pepper
2 C water
1 can creamed corn (or substitute with frozen corn and add a little more milk)
1 can evaporated milk
Chicken Broth
Flour

Brown the sausage in a large stock part and drain on paper towels. In the same pot add the potatoes, salt and water. Boil until the potatoes are tender (less then 10 minutes). Add spices, corn, and evaporated milk and cook over medium heat until thickened. You may need to make a roux out of chicken broth and flour to thicken it. In fact, this will be likely. So be prepared.

You may also want to add a dash of cayenne. So good on a gray, chilly day!

Audrey's Sausage, Peppers and Potatoes

Are you catching a theme here? I did a dinner swap with Audrey last year and the relationship was SO not reciprocal. I'm sure she'll be blessed for her kindness.

Anyway, we had this tonight with a greek salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions marinated in white vinegar with coarse salt and garlic pepper and served over baby spinach and iceberg lettuce with feta cheese and pine nuts and a red wine vinaigrette. I wanted more.)

Ingredients

6 potatoes (if you use Yukon Golds, you don't have to peel them before cutting, but I only had Russets)
2 Bell Peppers julienned
1 yellow onion small dice
4 Italian Sausage Links (I buy Costco's Premio Italian Sausage, cheaper and bigger than Johnsonville, and just as delicious)
Olive Oil
Coarse Salt and Pepper
Minced Garlic
Dried Basil
Red Pepper Flakes



Instructions

1. Peel (if necessary) and dice your potatoes, keeping them the same size. Add julienned peppers and diced onion and 1 tsp. minced garlic. Toss with Olive Oil. Salt and Pepper to taste and add a pinch each of basil and red pepper flakes.



2. Using scissors, cut sausage links into bite sized nuggets over the potato/vegetable mixture in a 9x13 glass pan.


3. Bake at 350 for 60-90 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender and sausage is fully cooked and a little crispy.

Audrey's Ratatouille

This food is the combination of everything perfect. Tons of vegetables, chicken that's tender on the inside, crispy on the outside, served over couscous. I haven't yet learned to make it so it is consistently FABULOUS, but it is consistently pretty yummy. Audrey's is consistently fabulous. And I'm not bitter. Today.





Ingredients

4-5 Chicken Thighs (one per person), skin removed by hand (if you buy the skinless, it has almost no fat on it and you need the fat to make it mo' tasty and delicious) I buy mine at Costco.
1 zucchini sliced in half lengthwise, cut into small half circles. Make them the same width.
3 carrots peeled and sliced on the diagonal.
1 onion diced small.
2 bell peppers diced large.
1 ripe eggplant (the ripeness is important, if you cut it open and it is green close to the skin, cut of the green parts. They taste like cucumber and will ruin the flavor of the dish)
Olive OilBalsamic VinegarCoarse Salt and Pepper
Garlic Pepper
Minced Garlic
32 oz can whole tomatoes
Regular or whole wheat couscous prepared according to package directions, except I like to make mine in chicken broth instead of water.


Instructions

1. After removing the skin from the chicken thighs, grind salt and garlic pepper, flavoring both sides of the chicken.


2. Warm 1 T Olive oil in a pan on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add chicken. Allow chicken to brown about 5 minutes on each side. It does not need to cook through, just get a nice crisp on both sides.


3. After chopping all your vegetables, toss them with olive oil, coarse salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and about 1 T of minced garlic. I do not have measurements on the oil, salt and pepper and vinegar because I totally eyeball it. Maybe this explains my lack of consistent deliciousness . . .



4. Place the vegetables in a glass 9x13 pan and lay the chicken on top.


5. Drain your canned tomatoes and pour them on top of the chicken. Add some salt to the tomatoes.



6. Bake for 2 hours at 300 degrees, checking vegetables for tenderness. If, like me, you prepare your dish in the morning and refrigerate it during the day, you will need to add additional cooking time for the pan and the food to warm up. About a half hour.

7. Prepare couscous.

8. Enjoy your health conscious triumph!

Audrey's Pear and Blue Cheese salad with Candied Pecans

Check out my "salad hands". My sister-in-law first showed me these and I've been wanting them for years. I got them this week and they are as wonderful at tossing salad as I had hoped!

1 T Butter

1 C Pecans

1/2 C Granulated Sugar

1/8 tsp. Salt

1 bag spinach

2 ripe pears (or crisp apples -- pears are best)

1/2 C crumbled Blue Cheese

To make pecans: In a nonstick skillet using a wooden spoon (plastic will melt), over medium high heat, melt butter. Add pecans, sugar and salt. Move pecans in pan until sugar begins to dissolve. Once most of sugar is dissolved, let pecans cool on non-stick wax or parchment paper. It seems initially in this process that nothing is happening, and then the sugar dissolves all at once. At this point, it is very easy to burn the pecans, so be careful to stir constantly and remove from heat if pecans are getting too brown.

Place spinach in salad bowl. Top with pears (sliced thin), crumbled blue cheese, and pecans (slightly cooled and crumbled by hand) Dress salad lightly with vinaigrette recipe below.

Dijon Vinaigrette

6 T olive oil

3 T finely chopped onion or shallots

3 T white wine vinegar

6-10 T sugar (start with 6 and then taste. You want it to be tangy, yet sweet.)

1 T Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 t black pepper

In a blender combine

all ingredients. Blend until pureed. You probably won't need all of the dressing. Dress the salad first and then taste, adding if you need more.

Audrey's Shepherd's Pie

Okay, so first off, I have to say that these pictures do not do this Shepherd's Pie justice. I used (gulp!) INSTANT mashed potatoes and it lost a great deal of the delectableness, let me tell you! So, be forewarned. Homemade mashed potatoes make this dish out of this world!

Ingredients

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground Italian sausage
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 finely chopped carrots
1 can green beans, drained
1 large handful of frozen corn
1 jar marinara sauce

or
Homemade marinara sauce (1 can diced tomatoes, 2 cans tomato sauce, 1 can tomato paste, salt, basil,crushed pepper, garlic, sugar)

Sliced cheddar cheese (in spite of what the picture may suggest, I did NOT use processed cheese. Those are Tillamook Sharp Cheddar Slices from Costco)

6-8 servings mashed potatoes (we make our homemade with Yukon Golds, milk, butter, sour cream and salt. MMM BOY!)

In a sauce pan, brown meat, with onion, and carrots. Add green beans, corn, and marinara sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Even when I use jarred marinara I add a little more salt, basil and crushed pepper).

Place meat mixture in 9x13 pan. Place enough slices of cheese over the top. Finish with the mashed potatoes spread evenly over the cheese. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until bubbly and toasted on top.

Beef Stroganoff

Audrey invited my family for dinner a few years ago promising to serve Beef Stroganoff. Instantly an image of egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup and ground beef popped into my mind. Yummy enough, but not DELECTABLE. Instead she served the following, and I still salivate whenever I think about it!

She changed my previous impression of Shepherd's Pie also, but I'll post that at a later date.

Audrey's Beef Stroganoff

1 Chuck Roast
1 Onion, diced
Salt
Pepper
Minced Garlic
1/3-1/4 C White Wine
1 large package White Mushrooms (I get mine from Costco)
Chicken Broth
1/4-1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg (Audrey swears by freshly ground, but I haven't tried it yet)
Bayleaf
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 C White Flour
1/2-1 C Cream
1/2 Container Sour Cream

Instructions

Cut fat out of the roast. This is easier if the roast is at least partially frozen. Slice into fist sized portions, then cut into bite sized pieces, against the grain.

In a large dutch oven, soften diced onion in Canola oil. Add meat to onion and sear. Salt, pepper, and add minced garlic to taste. Add white wine and bring wine to a full boil.

Add washed mushrooms (stems removed and tops broken into 3-4 pieces).

Fill dutch oven with chicken broth (I usually use up using 3 quarts for my 5 quart dutch oven). Add cayenne, nutmeg, bay leaf and salt.

Bake at 300 degrees for 2-3 hours. Check meat at 2 hours for tenderness.

If needed, transfer meat and broth to a larger pot. Take 1 1/2 to 2 C of broth and whisk with 1/2 C of flour in a separate bowl. Look for a milkshake like consistency.

Bring meat barely to a boil and add slurry, cream, and sour cream. Taste. If it is too bland, add salt or cayenne pepper. If your sauce is not thick enough, remove broth again and mix with 2 T of Cornstarch. Add back to dish and allow to thicken over heat.

Serve over Butterfly Pasta.

This makes a large amount of stroganoff so I usually prepare at least 2 lb.s of pasta to go with it. Invite friends!