dinner

Bacon and Potato Soup

/ krby4 / Leave a comment

This soup is one of my favorites to cook because it honestly comes together pretty fast and is delicious. This is also pretty much clam chowder without the clam juice and clams, so if you have a hankering for clam chowder but can’t source them, this is your soup.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb bacon, I prefer thick cut
  • 3 lb red potatoes cut into small cubes
  • 8 stalks celery cut into small chunks
  • 1 white or yellow onion diced
  • 6-8 cup chicken stock
  • Flour or corn starch to thicken soup (optional)
  • 1-1.5 cup cream
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Red pepper flake (optional)

Tools

  • One large cutting board or pastry mat
  • One large pot with lid

Method

  • Cut your bacon into roughly 1/2 inch chunks and throw all of it into a preheated pot over medium heat
  • While the bacon is crisping up, cut potatoes, onions, and celery
  • After the bacon is crispy, remove the chunks and place aside. Retain all of the bacon grease in the bottom of the pan. Cook until the onion is translucent
  • If using flour to thicken your soup, create your roux now. Depending on how much grease your bacon produced, this could be anywhere from 3-5 tbsp of flour
  • Put the potatoes in the pot, and cover with chicken stock and add spices to taste. 1 tbsp salt/pepper is a starting point, but half the salt if you don’t like salty food. How much chicken stock you use depends on how thick you want your soup. I tend to cover it about 1/2-1 inch above the potatoes because I like my soup to be very chunky
  • Bring the soup to a simmer and reduce heat to low for about 20-30 minutes, or until your potatoes are all the way cooked
  • If thickening your soup with corn starch, use between 1-2 tbsp of cornstarch and create a slurry with some stock from the soup and stir in
  • We aren’t aiming to thicken the soup up too much with thickening agents, its not a stew.
  • Stir in your cream, for a creamier soup use more
  • Stir in half the bacon crumbles you created
  • Serve in a bowl with bacon crumbles on top of the soup

Baked Chicken Wings

/ krby4 / Leave a comment

Deep frying is a lot of work, so this is a delicious chicken wing recipe that is done in the oven.

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds chicken wings
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup hot sauce
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tsp white pepper (optional)
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tbsp sal1 tsp granulated garlic
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1-2 tbsp oil

Tools

  • One large baking sheet
  • One large sealable plastic bag
  • 1 large bowl for mixing wings

Method

  • Prepare a marinade for the wings in a plastic ziplock bag using 2 cups buttermilk, 1/2 cup hot sauce of your choice, 1tbsp salt, and 1 tsp white pepper if using.
  • Place wings in bag, covering all the wings, and remove the air to provide better surface area coverage
  • Marinate at least 8 hours, preferably overnight
  • Preheat oven to 425
  • Remove wings from marinade and discard the marinade
  • Dry wings as much as you can
  • Place wings on parchment paper or cooking rack on the baking sheet
  • Cook at 425 for 20 minutes, flip wings, cook at 425 for another 20 minutes. If the wings are not done to your liking, cook an additional 10-15 minutes

Lasagna

/ krby4 / Leave a comment

This lasagna is good. End of statement.

Ingredients

  • 1lb Ground Beef
  • 1Lb Italian Sausage
  • 30oz tomato sauce
  • 1tsp granulated onion
  • 1tsp granulated garlic
  • 1tsp black pepper
  • 1/2tsp salt
  • 1/2tsp basil
  • 1/2tsp oregano
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2tsp olive oil
  • 1lb shredded mozzerella
  • 4oz shredded parmesan or romano
  • 32oz ricotta cheese

Tools

  • 1 Large casserole dish
  • Noodle Maker
  • 1 Large stockpot or saucier pan
  • 1 Large mixing bowl
  • 1 Medium mixing bowl
  • 1 Stand Mixer (Optional)

Method

Sauce

  • Brown both the ground beef and Italian sausage in your pot or pan you are using for the sauce with a little olive oil to stop the meat from sticking
  • Pour in the 30oz tomato sauce, granulated onion, granulated garlic, 1/2tsp black pepper, basil, and oregano and bring to a simmer while occasionally stirring
  • After you see small bubbles in the sauce, turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally

Noodles

  • In your mixing bowl, add your flour and salt. Make a crater in your flour and crack the eggs in the crater
  • Beat the eggs and slowly incorporate more and more flour until the mixture is dry enough to need with your hands
  • If you find that not all of the flour is incorporating, add small amount of olive oil and water until barely incorperated
  • Let rest 5 minutes while you set up your noodle maker
  • Cut noodle block into 4 chunks. Run each chunk through the noodle maker on the widest setting, putting flour on both sides of the noodles as they come out
  • Continue running the noodles through the noodle maker and flouring until you have gone through at least half of the thickness settings for your noodle maker. Mine goes from 1-9, 9 being the thinnest, and I usually stop at 6 or a 7. You may also find that you can skip multiple numbers each passthrough
  • These noodles will be cooked in the oven and do not need to be boiled

Cheese

  • Combine the riccota cheese, half of your grated parmesan or romano, and 1/2tsp salt and 1/2tsp pepper until your mixture is evenly distributed
  • Mix the remaining parmesan with your mozzarella

Assembly and Baking

  • Preheat oven to 350
  • Begin by putting roughly 1/3 of your meat sauce at the bottom of the pan
  • Layer noodles over it until covered
  • Layer 1/2 of your ricotta mixture on top of the noodles, spreading evenly
  • Place roughly 1/4 of your mozzarella mixture on top of the ricotta mixture
  • Cover cheese layer with another layer of noodles
  • Repeat this for one more layer each, you should have 2 layers of meat sauce and 2 layers of cheese now
  • For the final layer, I leave it open faced. Pour the remaining 1/3 of your meat sauce on the layer, spread evenly, then top with your remaining mozzarella
  • Bake covered in tin foil for 40 minutes. I usually put in wooden toothpicks to keep the foil off of the cheese
  • Uncover, bake an additional 10 minutes or until the top is slightly golden brown. If you don’t like golden brown cheese, bake less time
  • Leave set at room temperature for 15 minutes. This ensures that the slices remain together and the cheese and meat sauce do not drain out of the layers

Baked Mac and Cheese

/ krby4 / Leave a comment

This is a fairly easy recipe to make. Savory meatballs are great in subs and with spaghetti.

Ingredients

  • 1lb bacon
  • 1lb macaroni or other noodles (like lumaconi)
  • 1.5lb shredded sharp cheddar
  • .25lb shredded romano or parmesan
  • .5lb shredded pepper jack
  • 1tsp chili powder (optional)
  • 1tsp salt
  • 1tsp black pepper
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs (optional)
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup flour
  • 1-1/2 cup whole milk

Tools

  • 1 large saute pan
  • 1 large casserole dish
  • Stockpot to boil noodles

Method

  • Begin by chopping your bacon up into small pieces, roughly 1/2″ in width
  • Cook your bacon to crispy, drain, and set aside. Reserve the bacon grease
  • Cook noodles 1 minute under recommended time
  • Preheat oven to 350
  • With the bacon grease, turn the pan to medium low and make a roux out of the flour and grease
  • Slowly add in the milk while stirring to create a gravy
  • Add in the spices and stir
  • Add the shredded cheese in batches, roughly a 1/2 cup at a time. Reserve about a cup of cheese to top the casserole dish with
  • Stir in between each batch, letting the gravy mixture come up to temp between each batch. Stir until the cheese in fully encorperated
  • Put the cooked noodles back into the drained pot where you cooked them and pour in the cheese mixture and half of your cooked bacon. Stir well
  • Pour the mac and cheese into the casserole dish, add the remaining bacon, cheese, and bread crumbs
  • Cook covered for 30 minutes at 350
  • Uncover and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the mac and cheese is crispy to your liking
  • Let rest 10 minutes before serving