Burrito Bowl (like Chipotle's)

I love the burrito bowl at Chipotle Grill and order it every time I go there. Which isn't often enough. Tonight I was thinking about Chipotle Grill and decided to make my own burrito bowl. This wasn't exactly like Chipotle's but it was similar and really good.

This will serve 2 people, with a little meat and rice leftover. Maybe.

2/3 C rice

1 1/3 C water

1.5 pounds hamburger, browned and drained

The juice of one small lime (about 1.5 Tbsp.)

1/2 head of lettuce, shredded

A handful of chopped cilantro, or if you have the frozen kind - 6 cubes*

1 packet taco seasoning

1 can of beans (kidney, black or refried.) Tonight I used kidney.

Tomato, onion and cheese for topping at the table

Sour cream, thousand island and hot sauce (all optional) at the table

*If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, in the freezer section they have frozen cubes of cilantro, as well as garlic and other things. These work great for this type of meal.

Start browning your hamburger in a skillet over medium heat. Then put the rice and water in a small pot over high heat. As soon as the rice water starts to boil, put a lid on it and turn it down to low. Set a timer for 18 minutes.

Drain the hamburger when it is done browning, and then add a packet of taco seasoning. Add just a little water and stir the seasoning into the meat. Let it simmer on low. If you chose black beans or kidney beans, you can add them to the meat now.

When the timer for the rice goes off, fluff the rice with a fork, then add the cilantro and the lime juice. Stir to mix completely and let it remain on low heat for 2 more minutes.

On a plate or a large-ish bowl, add the lettuce, rice, meat & beans, and then your toppings.

Goopy Potato Salad

My Aunt Florence made the best potato salad ever. I was always so happy as a kid when Auntie Florence was cooking. Potato Salad, Greasy Beans, Baked Beans, etc.

When I got older and began to cook for myself I wanted to learn how to make potato salad that tasted like Florence's. Through a lot of trial and error I came up with this recipe. Florence always made it so the sauce was on the goopy side - which I loved! Her son-in-law Vance, called it potato salad soup. No matter, I loved it! This isn't exactly like hers, but it's very similar and the texture is just like hers - goopy!

5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and boiled soft. You don't want them crunchy, but cooked only long enough that they are fork tender and will still hold their shape.

5 eggs, boiled, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 3/4 C mayonnaise

3/4 C sour cream

3 Tbsp prepared mustard

2-3 medium pickles, chopped fine

4 Tbsp pickle juice

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 C white sugar

1 tsp horseradish

3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 white or yellow onion, chopped fine

1 tsp dill weed

A Splash of lemon juice

Peel the potatoes and boil as mentioned above. Boil and peel the eggs as mentioned above. While the potatoes and eggs are boiling, mix all of the other ingredients together for the sauce (dressing). Add salt & pepper as desired.

When the potatoes are done, run under cold water to stop the cooking process, then cut into small bite-sized pieces. Add the potatoes and the eggs to the sauce. It will be quite runny to begin with but as the potatoes absorb some of the sauce it will thicken. But, it will still remain goopy. Yay!

Note: This will have a nice dill pickle flavor, which I love. If you don't want so much dill flavor, eliminate the dill weed, cut down on the amount of pickle and a little of the pickle juice.

Here is what you'll need for the sauce.

Salmon in a packet (for the oven)

First of all, let me say this: Blogger has changed the format for creating posts and I do not like it. I'll get used to it but for now, please pardon me if things aren't laid out like you're used to seeing here.

Orange Sherbet Jello Salad

Several years ago my Aunt Pearl made this yummy jello salad and I thought I had the recipe for it. But I couldn't find it, and it's not in our family cookbook so I went by memory to recreate Pearl's salad. I'm sure this is pretty close and it's delicious. Thanks Pearl!

1 3 oz. package orange jello

2 cups orange sherbet

1 C whipped cream (or Cool Whip)

1 small can sliced tangerines

1 banana, sliced

Mix your packet of jello with one cup of boiling water. Stir until dissolved - about 2 minutes. Add all other ingredients and gently stir to mix. Place in fridge until set. You can call this a salad or a dessert. It's great either way!

Chicken Fettuccine

I am usually just cooking for two but since this dish makes excellent leftovers, I always make more than would just serve two.

For the chicken part of the recipe, you can use whatever you want, in the amount of 1-2 cups of cut up chicken. Tonight I used a boneless, skinless breast that I cooked just until done - about 4 minutes per side. It was cut into smaller pieces before cooking, so it would cook evenly and be done in the center. I have also used rotisserie chicken from the deli for this, or one of those cans of cut up chicken you can buy. (A little bit bigger than a can of tuna.)

Here's what you will need:

Chicken, as mentioned above
1 C whipping cream
1/4 C honey
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp dill weed
2 Tbsp white wine (optional)
1/4 C sliced mushrooms8 oz. Fettuccine noodles
Myzithra or Parmesan cheese to your liking
Salt & pepper to taste

Prepare your chicken, if needed. Put on the water to boil and add the noodles. Follow the instructions on the noodle package.



To the skillet with your chicken, add the cream, garlic, onion, cayenne, dill and white wine. I don't always use the white wine, but when I do I'm glad for the little extra kick of flavor it gives. It doesn't taste like wine or alcohol but gives the dish a little something extra. (I usually buy one of those little bottles that comes in a 4-pack since I don't use white wine other than for cooking.)

Stir over medium heat and the sauce will start to thicken. Add the mushrooms, and if you like a cheesy flavor and texture add about 1/4 cup grated Myzithra cheese or Parmesan cheese. I prefer Myzithra, but it's not available everywhere. Save some for topping at the table.

Salt & pepper the sauce as you like. When the noodles are done, drain them and then add to the creamy mixture and stir. Let the mixture simmer over low heat for 15-30 minutes, stirring now and then. The longer it sits the more it will thicken.

Here it is plated with a green salad, some French bread and you can see it is topped with a very generous sprinkling of grated Myzithra cheese.

Creamy Chicken Crescent Ring

While trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight I decided it was a night to use up things in the fridge that have been there awhile. A tube of crescent rolls. A leftover chicken breast. An almost empty bag of grated cheese. A cluster of cilantro that was just starting to get wilty. Some green onions with the same story....

So, remembering back to the days of numerous Pampered Chef parties and the "ring meals" we learned to make there, I decided to put together a chicken ring with a bunch of stuff in it, and this was the result. A nice, tasty meal.

This recipe is for 2 people, so adjust up, if you are cooking for more than 2.

1 tube of crescent rolls
1 chicken breast, or approximately 1.5-2 Cups cut up chicken, cooked
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 C sour cream
2 tsp Wasabi sauce (optional)
A splash of lemon juice (maybe a teaspoon)
3 splashes of Worcestershire
1/4 C grated cheese (I used Mozzarella, but any kind will work)
1/4 C sliced mushrooms
1 green onion, sliced (using the whole onion from green to white)
1 handful chopped cilantro
Salt & Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375.

Take the crescent rolls and separate them. Then place on a cookie sheet (or preferably a round pizza stone) in a circle, with the wide part of the roll towards the center. Make a ring with all of the rolls, overlapping slightly.


Mix all of the other ingredients together and then place a serving sized spoonful of the mix on each wide part of the roll. When all of your creamy mix is used up, take the thin part of each roll and pull them over the sauce and tuck in at the middle area. There will be a lot of mix sticking outside of the dough and that is just fine.



Place in oven for 15 minutes.


This mixture came about because I had things I wanted to use up. But this was so tasty I will make it again.

Plated here with a green salad.

Pork Loin with Balsamic Sauce

I normally use a pork tenderloin with this recipe, but the pork loin I had in the freezer worked just as well. It's just bigger, that's all.



If you're not familiar with the taste of Balsamic vinegar, I'm not sure how to describe it. It is used often in European cooking and I got acquainted with it first as a part of a dipping sauce for French bread. It has a unique flavor but it's not super-over-powering.

Because I had this pork loin in the freezer and wanted to use it for this recipe, I cut it in half. So what you see here is a 3.28 pound loin, of which I used about 1.5 pounds. The rest of it went back into the freezer to be used for this recipe again soon.

1.5 pound pork loin or pork tenderloin
1 C water
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 C brown gravy mix (or 2 packets)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/4 onion, cut into slices or rings
1/2 C fresh mushrooms, sliced
2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil

Mix the water, vinegar, sugar, garlic, soy and gravy mix in a small bowl and set aside.

Remove as much of the "silver fat" from the loin as you can. The silver fat, as I call it, is chewy, so if you leave it on, it can make your meat a little on the tougher side. Then slice your loin into approximately 1/2 inch slices. (Like slices of bread.)

Brown the pork slices in the oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Brown it on all sides, and when you're almost done with that, add in the onions.



When the pork is brown on all sides, pour the bowl of other ingredients over the top, along with the mushrooms and lower the heat to a low simmer. It will thicken to a sauce in about 15 minutes. No need to stir and fuss over it. Go about getting the rest of your meal ready, but you can give it a stir now and then if you want.

This plate has 4 slices of pork on it, with some of the sauce, alongside a baked potato and a green salad. And yes, those are fresh chives right out of the garden. Our first chives of the season!

Asian Inspired Chicken Noodle Soup

I love soup and I love to make soup. It's such a comforting thing to sit with a steaming bowl of soup on a cold, rainy day. In Seattle, we have lots of those days! I've even wished during a hot summer, that it would rain just so I could make soup.

This soup is kind of a cross between Chinese Eggflower soup, Won Ton soup and Chicken Noodle soup.

1 Rotisserie Chicken from your grocery store deli
1 box (32 oz) chicken stock
4 C water
2 packages chicken flavored Top Ramen Noodles
1 handful cilantro, stems removed
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 eggs
Pepper to taste
Chopped green onions for garnish (and taste), if desired

Remove all the meat from the chicken carcass and place in your soup kettle. (I chopped the chicken into real small pieces this time, but I usually just chunk it or shred it.) Add your chicken stock and water, and turn on medium heat. Add your noodles (and the flavor packets that come with the noodles), cumin, cayenne and pepper and then the cilantro. When the noodles have softened, reduce to simmer.







This shows the amount of cilantro (what I call a handful.) I love cilantro, so if this were just for me alone I would add a couple more handfuls!

Right before you are ready to serve, raise the heat and bring the soup to a boil. Take the 2 eggs and whisk them together, breaking the yolks. Pour a little at a time into the boiling soup. They will cook immediately as they hit the hot liquid. Sometimes they make funny little shapes and strings as they hit the liquid.



I know this picture looks like I'm pouring in a bunch all at once. Well, it's hard to get eggs to cooperate, but I was trying to pour in about 1-2 Tbsp of liquid at a time. Most of the time that was successful.

Turn off heat, ladle into bowls, top with cut green onions and serve.

This is a really delicious soup and makes great leftovers.

Hamburger Gravy

My Mom used to make this, maybe she still does. But it's been a LONG time since I've had it. Truthfully I was going to make hamburger soup or stew with the hamburger I needed to use up, but Rick can't have anything that isn't soft right now, so no veggies and stuff....on to Plan B.

I made the hamburger into the smallest pieces I possibly could so he wouldn't have to do any chewing. (He had gum surgery a few days ago.) When the gravy was all done I poured it over mashed potatoes, and we had a satisfying meal that didn't require much chewing at all.

1.5 pounds hamburger, cooked and drained
1 box OR 2 cans of chicken broth (about 32 oz. total)
1 packet dry onion soup mix
2-3 shakes Worcestershire
1 C flour
1/2 C butter (one stick)
1 C milk

I would normally add real onions to this too, but didn't want anymore texture for Rick to deal with, so the dry onion soup mix will have to work. And it worked good. (For my picky relatives who don't like onions, no names shall be mentioned here, go ahead and use the dry onion soup mix anyway. You'll get the onion flavor without the onion texture.)

Brown your hamburger and drain it. Put the hamburger into your kettle and pour in the chicken stock, dry onion soup mix and Worcestershire.

In a separate skillet, add your butter and let it melt a little, then add the flour. Stir until it is smooth - it will be kind of pasty. (This mixture of flour and butter is called a Roux.)

Spoon the Roux into the hamburger mix, about 1/4 at a time and stir until smooth. I recommend using a whisk for stirring this. Add the milk, then heat through, continually stirring. You can leave it on simmer for several minutes, or serve right away.



The pigs are looking on , wondering if they are going to get to sample this? :)


This plate of food looks a little boring with just potatoes & gravy and some cottage cheese. Remember this plate of food is for someone who can't chew much right now. :)