Sauteed Kale with Bacon

I love kale. I didn't know that I loved kale until I made this recipe. I had made kale chips before and liked them. But I could have eaten bowl after bowl of sauteed kale. When I had Eric tried it, part of me hoped he wouldn't like it so I'd have the whole batch to myself. But he fell in love with it too.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoon onion, minced
1/2 cup vegetable stock or chicken stock
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
salt
pepper
2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion; cook until soft but not colored. Pour in stock and kale. Toss to combine.

Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to cook, stirring continuously until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in bacon. Drizzle with vinegar.

Sauteed kale with cheese stuffed chicken and corn.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Side Dish Recipes:
Baked Parmesan Tomatoes
Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes
Cheesy Tomato Zucchini Bake 
Twice Microwaved Loaded Potatoes
Very Simple Roasted Potatoes
Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese

Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied

I may have mentioned once or twice how cranberry crazed I've been this winter season. Well, I'm not the only one. For Thanksgiving we went to my parents' house and my mom made two different types of cranberry sauces--orange (at my prompting, I love the cranberry-orange combination) and brandied. Both were phenomenal and of course I had to ask for the recipes. Then for Christmas I made traditional cranberry sauce with the recipe found on the back of the bag of fresh cranberries.

Traditional Cranberry Sauce

Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, rinsed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cold water

Directions:
In a medium sauce pan, bring water and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cranberries. Bring the mixture back to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until sauce has thicken and the majority of cranberries have popped, approximately 10 minutes.

Serve warm or cold.

Orange Zest Cranberry Sauce

Orange Zest Cranberry Sauce
Recipe from here.
Ingredients:
1 12-ounce bag of cranberries, rinsed
1/4 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed is best)
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Directions:
Combine orange juice, orange zest, sugar, and water in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cranberries and bring mixture back to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sauce thickens and most of the cranberries pop, about 10 minutes.

Serve warm or chilled.

Brandied cranberry sauce

Brandy Cranberry Sauce
Recipe from here.

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup brandy

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Pour cranberries into a 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the berries evenly with the sugar. Bake for 1 hours, stirring the berries halfway through.

Add brandy to the baking dish and stir until well combined. Serve warm or chilled.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cranberry Recipes:
Chocolate Cover Cranberries
Cranberry Brownies
Sugared Cranberries

Eric's Fried Rice

Eric and I both love food. While I do most of the actually cooking, he does participate in the recipe development, offering more than "I like it," "I hate it," or "it needs more salt." He takes his time and gives real thought to what would make a dish better. A few weeks ago we had homemade pasties (if you don't know what a pastie is, click here) bought from a local church event. His was beef, mine turkey, both with rutabaga and onion inside. While the pastry dough was to die for, the inside was a bit dry and flavorless--though I did discover that I like rutabaga. Eric immediately wanted me to try to make my own, but with my diced rosemary potatoes and some type of sauce inside. Cooking is a collaborative effort for us. But Eric does have a couple recipes of his own that he always cooks--seared parmesan chicken and fried rice.

After extensive research and a number of hit or miss attempts, Eric finally got it just right. He now does fried rice better than any restaurant out there. It basically comes down to two key tricks: cold rice and sesame oil.

Since Eric doesn't measure anything out other than the rice, this is more of a guideline than a precise recipe.

We were up north at my parents' cabin so we didn't have our wok and things got a little messy.

 Ingredients: 
3 cups instant white rice, prepared and refrigerated for at least 24 hours or frozen for at least 4 hours
soy sauce, to taste (Eric prefers Kikkoman. I prefer low-sodium)
about 1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots, prepared
2 to 3 eggs, depending on how much you like eggs
sesame oil
2 cups prepared chicken, shredded, optional

Directions:
Prepare your rice according to package directions. If you want rice for tomorrow's dinner, place in the refrigerator. If you're not good at planning your meals ahead of time--we're not--place the rice in the freezer for at least four hours. Refrigerating or freezing the rice prevents it from soaking up the oil and turning into mush.

Scramble and cook your eggs then set aside.

Cook the peas and carrots according to package directions. Set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a wok or large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the rice. Continuously toss or stir so all the rice becomes coated in the oil and fried. Add eggs, vegetables, and chicken. Toss. Add soy sauce to taste. Cook until the food is thoroughly warmed.

Fried rice, shrimp in an herb butter sauce, parmesan tomatoes, and zucchini bites.

Eric has made this for both our families and they've both raved about. In fact, Eric's mom made his rice herself not too long ago and it turned out stupendous. And while we were up north with my parent a few weeks ago, Eric taught my mom how to make it.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Slower Cooker: Alfredo Green Bean Casserole

This is another recipe I tested out on my parents over Memorial weekend. My mom was a little skeptical of this dish. She had never tasted Alfredo sauce and when she tried a bit, she wasn't impressed. But I told her to trust me. Alfredo sauce is great for picking up other flavors like garlic or roasted red pepper, which she loves. Well, after sampling this casserole, she said she's never going back to your typical green bean casserole.

This recipes comes from Pillsbury with a few small changes.

Ingredients:
2 pound green beans (fresh, frozen, or canned. I used canned, drained)
1/2 cup roasted red peppers (jarred or homemade), cut in strips*
1 1/4 cups Alfredo sauce (I prefer Bertolli, never Ragu)
1 cup water chestnut, drained and sliced (optional)**
1 cup French fried onions
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Whenever I use the slow cooker, I always spray the inside with cooking spray. It makes cleaning it so much easier. So spray the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray.

Add the beans, water chestnuts, Alfredo sauce, pepper, and roasted red peppers to the slow cooker. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook on Low for 3 to 4 hours, stirring after an hour and a half. Before serving, stir in the French Fried onions.

*Jarred roasted red peppers are so expensive so I make my own roasted red peppers in the oven. My mom thought I was nuts, making my own roasted red peppers. She even came into the kitchen to watch me make them because she didn't believe it was as easy as I said. I recommend making your own using the link above.

**I am the only person I know who likes water chestnuts. So I left them out of this recipe. However, I would have loved to have them in the casserole.

I can't wait to make this casserole for Eric's family, especially his mom. She loves red pepper just like my mom and this dish has such a prominent, delicious red pepper flavor. Eric does not find red peppers as exciting and tasty as the rest of us so I might had crumbled bacon topping to the top of the casserole just to entice him to try it.

Enjoy!

~Krissy