Easy Polenta with Fresh Pesto

Several weeks ago I bought a small bag of organic polenta (actually it is coarse cornmeal). I had on hand some leftover chicken I had made in the slow cooker and I had plenty of sweet basil with which to make pesto. So I went looking for an EASY polenta recipe because I didn't want to have to stand over the stove and stir it for 20 to 30 minutes as some of the recipes suggested. Admittedly, I have the ideal heavy stainless steel pot to make polenta in, but still...after looking at many different recipes I found one that looked like just what I was looking for!

Here it is: basic polenta. One modification I made was to leave out the butter at the end. Basically, I put it on, left it on low and went away and forgot about it for about 10 minutes. When I ran back to the stove to check on it, it just needed to be stirred and allowed to cook for another 10 minutes or so during which time I stirred it about 3 more times. Then I spooned it out into a greased loaf pan and put it in the refrigerator. After a couple of hours, I sliced it, sprayed each slice with olive oil and baked it in a 350 degree oven until it looked brown. It turned out wonderfully crunchy on the outside and soft and tasty on the inside. We covered it with fresh pesto and leftover chicken with broth. What a yummy and super easy gourmet meal!

Easy and Quick Quiche Recipe

Do you love quiche but can't stand the idea of making a crust to put it in? Well, here is an easy and quick quiche recipe and the quiche makes its own crust as it bakes. If you've ever made impossible pie, it's kind of the same idea. This is how I do it: Brown bacon or sausage, drain and set aside. Use whatever quantity you'd like but in a single quiche, I might use about 4 to 6 slices of bacon or about 1/4 pound of sausage. You can use sausage links, bulk sausage or the larger type of sausage cut into smaller chunks. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan. Ingredients for the filling: Bacon or sausage 4 ounces of any kind of cheese, grated 2 Tablespoons of melted butter 5 or 6 eggs, beaten 1/4 cup finely chopped onion 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 1/2 cups milk Basil, oregano, parsley or thyme (optional depending on what you like) Line the bottom of your pie pan with cheese and meat. (If you're using bacon, crumble it.) Combine eggs, melted butter, onion, salt, flour, milk and herbs. Whisk together until smooth and pour over the cheese and meat. I like to add a small amount of grated cheese on top. Bake in oven for 45 minutes (more or less). I bake it until it is nicely rounded on top and golden brown looking. You can serve this either hot or cold. Delicious!

Grilled or Broiled Scallop Squash

I planted almost a full bed (4' x 12') of scallop (or patty pan) squash this summer and I'm getting lots of them. I take them to the market and frequently am asked how I prepare my scallop squash. Here is my answer: Wash several small scallop squashes. Cut them lengthwise so you end up with 2 circles. Drizzle on a little olive oil (or your favorite oil). Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano and/or other herbs. Wrap in foil and grill for about 3 to 5 minutes. Or place on a broiling pan and broil until softened - maximum of 5 to 10 minutes but it may take less time if the scallop squashes are young and tender. Enjoy!

Orange Sauteed Beets

I tend to put off making beets just because it takes so long to cook them, then peel them, then slice them and get them to the table. So I end up rarely making them...can you tell I'm a bit of a lazy cook?!

So last night while in the garden I decided to pick a few "baby beets" and then I had a brainstorm. So in keeping with the "from scratch in a flash" vision of this blog, This is what I did. Since there were 3 of us who eat beets (sorry, non-beet-lovers...you don't know what you're missing!) I took 3 beets, washed and peeled them and then grated them with my handy, dandy grater that catches everything in a container below the grater. Meanwhile I sauteed a few tablespoons of chopped onion, then added the grated beets, a dash of salt and pepper and let them saute lightly. I knew orange went well with beets so I went out on my patio and clipped 3 sprigs of orange mint (yes, there is mint with an orange flavor) rinsed them, chopped them and at the last minute, stirred them into the beet and onion mixture.

Oh, my! They were a taste delight! And best of all, it took less than 10 minutes to make them. Meanwhile I had also chopped up the beet greens and had them cooking. So we had yummy beet greens and absolutely "out of this world" orange sauteed beets!

In case you live in North Texas and would like to have some beets to try out this recipe, we sell them at Cypress Lake Ranch.

Quick and Easy Dill Dip

This is a recipe my mother used to make for home business meetings. I have awesome heirloom Mammoth Melting Sugar peas in the garden (and for sale at Cypress Lake Ranch) and this dip is great for vegetables or chips. I make mine with homegrown and dried dill weed.

1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise (or miracle whip) (I usually use only half that amount of mayo)
1 Tbs. dried onion flakes
1 Tbs. parsley flakes
1 tsp dill weed (or more if you like it to taste more like dill)
1 tsp seasoned salt OR garlic salt OR beau monde seasoning OR any combination

Mix, chill and enjoy with your favorite dip-ables!

Mayonnaise in No Time Flat

One of the helpful time savers I use in my kitchen is an immersion blender and it is so easy to make mayonnaise from scratch, you can have it made quicker than finding the mayo shelf at the grocery store and putting a jar of it in your shopping cart.

I use all virgin olive oil when I make it to avoid oils made with genetically modified ingredients. I also eliminated the sugar. I may try it with a small amount of stevia as a sweetener but we find it very palatable without any sugar at all. And I only use a dash of cayenne pepper in my version.

I use a wide-mouthed canning jar and just blend everything up in it, use a small rubber spatula to get the excess mayo off of the blades and then put the lid on the jar and into the refrigerator it goes. I then wash the immersion blender by blending a small amount of warm, soapy water then I dry it and put it away. Total time used is about 5 minutes from start to finish.

What could be easier?!

You can get your own immersion blender from Amazon and have fresh, healthy mayonnaise from scratch in a flash.

Quick and Easy Fudge from Scratch

No special ingredients needed here to make this wonderful fudge from scratch. No waiting for the mixture to cook, then cool, etc, etc. With the holiday season upon us, this is the quickest "from scratch fudge" I've ever come across. If you're interested in saving time, but serving up a great batch of fudge, try this out. It's definitely a winner!

You'll never guess where it came from...our local newspaper and it was submitted by Carla Maddox. (Giving credit where credit is due!)

Easy Microwave Fudge (Oh yes, it does take a microwave - apologies to all of you who are down on microwaves. I don't use them much either, but they are handy at times.)

4 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup baking cocoa (powdered form)
1/4 lb of butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup of milk
1 Tablespoon of vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (or less)

Line an 8x8 baking pan with either waxed paper or plastic wrap. Blend sugar and cocoa in a 2 qt. glass mixing bowl and add milk and butter. Cook on High 1 minute and 45 seconds. Remove from microwave and beat by hand until smooth. Add vanilla and nuts and stir until blended. Pour fudge into the lined pan. Refrigerate until firm. To serve, run knife along edge of baking dish. Turn upside down on plate. Remove waxed paper or plastic wrap. Place fudge right side up on cutting board and cut as desired. Enjoy or wrap and give as a very special homemade "from scratch" gift.