Pace Stuffed Baby Bellas

Foodbuzz's Tastemakers and Pace Picante sent me 2 free jars of Pace's Original Picante Sauce to work up a dish suitable for a Super Bowl party.  I didn't make up one but 3 that I think will tantalize the taste buds of just about anyone who loves mushrooms. 

36 Baby Bellas
1 jar (8 oz.) Pace Picante Sauce
Medium size, pre-cooked shrimp
Wheat Crackers
cracker size cuts of cheddar cheese
Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Gently wipe off your mushrooms.  Carefully, using the tip of a paring knife, cut around the stem without cutting through into the cap of the mushroom.  Pop out the stem and set aside for other dishes.  For those made without crackers, spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick spray.  Place mushrooms, cap side down into each tin.  Fill each cap with Pace Picante Sauce.  Top with shrimp and sprinkle with pepper jack cheese.  For those made with crackers, line a cookie pan with foil, spray with non-stick spray.  Assemble - cracker, cheddar cheese square, mushroom cap, Pace Picante Sauce and pepper jack cheese.  Bake 15-20 minutes. 

I passed these around to some of my Food Testers.  They were a great hit!  I personally like those made with shrimp best but I love shrimp.  Those made with crackers are delicious but are 2-3 biters so you must remember the Pace Picante sauce is inside and can spill out.  But it's worth it!

Pictured - Top left - Crackers with cheddar, Pace Picante and Pepper Jack
                Top Right - No crackers with Pace Picante and Pepper Jack
                Bottom - No crackers wit Pace Picante, Shrimp and Pepper Jack

Enjoy!

Cheezy Salmon Patties

2 cans (5 oz. each) boneless, skinless salmon, drained
1 egg
1/4 cup instant mash potatoes
3/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
Panko bread crumbs
oil for cooking

In a bowl mix salmon, egg, instant potatoes and cheese.  Cover and let sit for about 30 minutes.  Shape into patties, press into Panko, both sides.  Heat enough oil to lightly cover the bottom of your frying pan.  Cook patties on medium heat for 4 -  5 minutes on each side.  Patties should be golden brown with a crisp outside. Makes 6-8 depending on size.

I love Salmon Patties and am always looking for a new way to make them.  When I came up with this idea I just knew it had to work and boy did it.  The outside is crisp and the inside is moist and tasty. 

Red Bird and Snow

This was too pretty not to share.  I took this after our last snow/ice storm.

Beautiful contrast!

Hushpuppy Cornbread

This was one of my Think With Your Taste Bud moments.  I had made a pot of soup and wanted some cornbread to go with it so when I went to get out my cornmeal I spotted a bag of Hushpuppy Mix.  I thought "why not?"  I looked at the directions and it required that you add water only.  Well, I decided to give it a try but to use buttermilk instead of water.  I mixed 2 cups of the Hushpuppy Mix with enough buttermilk that would make it smooth and creamy.  I sat that aside, put a little cooking oil in my cast iron frying pan and let it heat up while my oven heated to 400 degrees.  When the pan was ready I added enough water to make the mix the consistency of cake batter and poured it into the hot skillet.  All that was left was to bake until golden brown and EAT!  The onion and garlic flavors in the Hushpuppy Mix gave the cornbread a wonderful flavor.  I think I could have eaten the whole pan.

Homemade Egg Substitute

6 egg whites
1/4 cup instant nonfat dry milk powder
2 tsp. water
2 tsp. oil
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric

Combine all ingredients in an electric blender and process for 30 seconds. Chill. 1/4 cup equals 1 egg.

This works but I still want those yolks in mine.

Spaghetti Pizza

8 oz. uncooked spaghetti
1 jar (24 oz.) your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Toppings (your choice):
 Pepperoni
 Bell Peppers, chopped
 Onions, chopped
 Black Olives

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a baking sheet (15x10) with non-stick spray.  Cook spaghetti according to package directions.  Drain but don't rinse.  Spread evenly over baking sheet.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted.  Top evenly with spaghetti sauce, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Top with your choice of toppings.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted completely.  To serve, cut into slices.

This is simple and delicious.  It's a great recipe to create with the kids.  I used whole wheat spaghetti and Italian sausage flavored sauce.  My toppings were pepperoni, onions and bell peppers. 

Creamy Clam Chowder

This is good with a little cheese garnish and can be made using shrimp instead of the clams and boy is it good!

See the full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet

Cinnamon Twists

While running through an old cookbook I came across a recipe that required you to make up a dough, let it rise, rolled it out, cut it into strips and baked.  After baking it was drizzled with butter, cheese and seasonings.  Well, this sounds good but I wanted something sweet and didn't want to go through the process of making my own dough.  That is when I decided to give pizza crust dough a try.  It works perfectly!  And if you Think With Your Taste Buds you can even come up with your own combination making your Twists sweet or basted with butter and sprinkled with seasonings and cheese.

See the full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet

Winter Tips

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks. 

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

With the weather as bad as it's been lately, I thought you too might need these tips. 

Kitchen Tips

I ran across these 2 tips and just had to share.

1.  Before submerging your beaters into their sticky mix, spray them with non-stick spray.  This helps keep the ingredients from adhering to the beaters and allows what you're mixing mix more evenly.

2.  To keep oven racks from sticking, rub the wall ridges with steel wool pads.  Rinse and dry, then wipe down with veggie oil.  They glide smoothly after this treatment.

More Snow in Charlotte!

Brown Rice Pasta with Apples

This idea came to me after a friend told me about a dessert recipe made with pasta. I've never had "sweet" pasta and the idea didn't really appeal to me. I had 3 Granny Smith apples that needed to be used or they would go to waste and when I started thinking of ways to cook them I decided stewing would be the best. Then I spotted a box of brown rice penne that was staring at me from it's shelf in the cabinet. What did I have to loose? That's how I came up with the above recipe. I simply decided to "Think With My Taste Buds."

After making this dish I did what I always do which is serve it to some of my food testers. It was sampled by 5 testers. Four gave it a 10 with one of them actually eating 3 servings. Only one didn't like the dish but as she said, it's the concept of eating "sweet" pasta. All in all, this turned out to be a really good dish and a healthy one too.

Find the full recipe by going to Martha's Kitchen Korner

NC White Christmas

It does snow in NC, sometimes.  This is the 1st white Christmas Charlotte, NC has had in about 60 years.  It was so beautiful!

If you look closely, you will see it's still snowing in the picture above.

Garlic Rye Bread

I love fresh breads but have to admit that I'm a little lazy when it comes to making my own, that is until I found a recipe that fit me perfectly.  My biggest problem comes with the kneading.  I really don't enjoy doing this step.  I don't now if it's because I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly, if I don't like the feel of the flour and dough or if it is again because I'm a little lazy.  But with this simple bread making recipe I've discovered that I can let my table top mixer do all of the kneading for me. 

The original recipe was for making a dill bread.  I like dill but not in my bread so I made a couple of changes and ended up with what I'm calling Garlic Rye Bread.  So, here it is.

1 pkg. (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1 cup warm 2% milk (110 to 115 degrees)
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp. Caraway seeds
1 heaping Tbsp. of roasted minced garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add the milk, butter, sugar, eggs, caraway seed, garlic, salt and 1 1/2 cups of the flour.  Beat on low speed for 3 minutes.  Using a spoon, stir in the remaining flour (batter will be sticky).  Cover with plastic wrap coated with non-stick cooking spray.  Place in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. 

Spray 2 loaf pans (8 x 4) with non-stick spray.  Using a spoon, stir down the batter.  Spoon half into each pan.  Again cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30- 35 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. 

The Garlic Rye Bread makes a great sandwich but it also makes a great piece of toast.  I toasted one with a bit of cheese (top), I buttered a slice (bottom right) and my favorite, I coated it nicely with cream cheese and added a little pepper jelly. 

Picture and Comment from Mary Deal

Mary Deal bought my Cookbook Stir, Laugh, Repeat and decided to make my Carrot Muffins.  When I saw and read her comment, I knew I had to share.





Carrot Muffins from Martha Cheves's cookbook, "Stir, Laugh, Repeat." These muffins are so moist and light I had to eat them with a fork.