Pizza and Poppers

Pizza and Poppers??? Yep, Pizza and Poppers. It's the best Pizza I have ever made and some of the best I've had (outside of my moms and Teds, of course). My jalapeños were too big and I didn't get all the seeds out, but the poppers were good too.

Pizza Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp tomato sauce
+ whatever you want for toppings (We used more mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and Canadian bacon.)

Directions:
1. Combine mozzarella cheese, eggs, garlic powder, and basil in a bowl and mix very well.
2. Press evenly onto a non-stick (or Pam sprayed) pizza pan or cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 450 until golden brown (about 10 to 15 minutes).
4. Remove the crust from the oven.
5. Spread on the tomato sauce.
6. Add the rest of your toppings.
7. Put pizza under the broiler and broil until cheese is melted and toppings are cooked to your desired done-ness.

Jalapeño Popper Ingredients:
Jalapeño peppers
cream cheese
bacon

Directions:
1. Cut the peppers open and take out the seeds.
2. Fill the peppers with cream cheese (I found some Roka Blue Cream Cheese that was amazing).
3. Wrap the peppers with bacon.
4. Cook the poppers either on the grill or broil them until the bacon is done and the peppers are a bit soft.

The peppers I used were too big, but they didn't have any smaller ones when I was shopping for them.

Both of these recipes were ones I had found online posted by people who pulled them from other people. Not sure who originally came up with the recipe.

Greek Roasted Chicken

This is a very simple chicken recipe/marinade that makes the chicken taste like the stuff you get at a small town fair or at a small carnival/festival put on by local groups like the Lions Club or Snowmobile Club (for you northerners). Not sure why, but it really reminds me of that. Note that it needs up to a day for marinading.

Ingredients:
3-4 pounds of chicken (cut-up, split, whole, whatever you want)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:
1. Wash chicken and pat dry.
2. Combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and stir in together.
3. For a whole chicken, rub all over the chicken, including in the cavity. For chicken parts, put in a zip lock bag and pour in marinade.
4. Let sit in a fridge for at least an hour, up to a day. The longer it sits, the better the flavor.
5. One hour before cooking, take chicken out of the bag and let sit.
6. Grill, bake, or broil the chicken as you desire. I prefer to slow grill it.

To slow grill chicken:
1. Heat 1/2 the grill (with charcoals on one side or 1/2 the gas burners turned off).
2. Sear the chicken for 3-5 minutes per side directly over the high heat.
3. Move the chicken to the indirect side, turn heat down a bit, and let sit for about 20 minutes per side, flipping once.
4. After about 10 minutes of high heat and 40 minutes of low heat it will be about done.
5. If you want to crisp up the skin, turn up to high again and put directly over the heat for a minute or two per side.

Overall it was a very easy meal, yet very tasty.

This recipe was based on one from Dana Carpenders 500 LC Recipes

Garlic & Lime Pork Chops

A wonderful marinade for pork chops that give them a bit of a kick and some very good flavor. We used some very thin pork chops and it was ready in about 5 minutes.

Ingredients:
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp soy sauce (Braggs Liquid Aminos)
2 tbsp fresh gingerroot, peeled and grated
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup lime juice
4 oz olive oil
1/2 hot chili pepper, finely diced
8 pork chops

Directions:
1. Combine the garlic, Braggs (soy sauce), gingerroot,Dijon mustard, lime juice, oil, and chili pepper into a zip lock bag.
2. Add pork chops and let marinade up to a day. The longer the better.
3. Remove Pork Chops and grill (or broil).
4. If you want, you can boil the marinade and use as a sauce on top, but ours was wonderful just off the grill.

This recipe was based off of one in Gillespe's 501 Recipes for LC Life cookbook.

Grilled Chicken Leg Quarters and Sauteed Zucchini and Onions

What do you do when you don't feel like prepping anything? Weber to the rescue. Here's a couple very simple ideas that combine for a very yummy meal.

Grilled Chicken Leg Quarters

Ingredients:
Chicken Leg Quarters
Olive Oil
Homemade Seasoned Salt (Recipe)

Directions:
1. Preheat the grill to about 350
2. Brush the chicken leg quarters with the olive oil.
3. Sprinkle on the seasoned salt.
4. Turn off 1/2 the burners (or move the charcoal to one side) and put the chicken on the side that is on/heating for about 3-5 minutes per side. Enough to crisp up the outside a bit.
5. Move the chicken to the side that is turned off/not heating for about 20 minutes per side.
6. Cook until the chicken is about 165-170 degrees and the juices are running clear.

Sauteed Zucchini and Onions

Ingredients:
Zucchini
Onions
Butter

Directions:
1. Slice up the Zucchini and Onions.
2. Put the Zucchini and Onions in a pan with the butter.
3. Saute until they are nice and golden brown.

It's easy to make up the Sauteed Zucchini and Onions while the chicken is grilling.

Homemade Seasoned Salt

We recently ran out of seasoned salt at home and so instead of going to buy more, we decided to make our own without sugar in it. Here's the basic starter information.

Ingredients:
6 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp celery salt.

Direction:
1. Mix all ingredients together. You can use a food processor on low or anything to mix it up.

It's really quite simple and you can change it to whatever you like. It was a bit salty for us (probably because I used larger chunk Kosher salt), so I may cut back on the salt or else increase the other ingredients. I may also add things like ginger, Cayenne pepper, a bit of citrus flavor, and other things like that to round out the taste a bit more.

Zucchini Meat Loaf Italiano

A nice simple twist on meatloaf. So good that no sauce was needed on it.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive oil
2 medium zucchini, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1 egg
3/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and saute the zucchini, onion, and garlic for 7-8 minutes
3. Let the veggies cool, then dump into a big bowl with the beef, parsley, egg, cheese, salt, and pepper.
4. Mix very throughly.
5. Take the mixture and put into a loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 for 75 to 90 minutes. (Ours was 75 minutes, very moist, but done through).
7. Serve and enjoy!!!

Another great recipe from Dana Carpender's 500 LC Recipes

Pork Chops and Gorgonzola Butter

Wow. This is a very simple recipe, but the Gorgonzola butter is some of the best butter I have ever had. It would go amazing on any kind of pork, beef, or lamb steak or chop. Just some great flavor.

This recipe is based on one in Gillespie's 501 Recipe book, but is quite different. I used pork chops instead of veal, broiled instead of baked, and Gorgonzola instead of Roquefort cheese. I also changed the ratios up a bit. I'm putting what I used instead of what's in the book.

Ingredients:
8 oz butter (melted)
4 oz Gorgonzola cheese crumbled
1 clove garlic, crushed
Few dashes of Hot Sauce (Tabasco Habanero is what we used)
1/2 bunch parsley, leaves only
8 (4 oz) boneless pork chops
Olive Oil
Seasonings to taste on the pork chops

Butter Directions:
1. Blanch the parsley leaves in boiling water for 5 seconds. Then let refresh in cold water. Dry and then chop coarsely. (I don't know what this step does, but I did it. If anyone can explain, that would be great).
2. Melt butter a bit so it is super soft and and put in the garlic, few drops of the hot sauce (to taste), and 2 oz of the Gorgonzola.
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Mix in the parsley and the rest of the Gorgonzola.
5. I used my blender to re-mix everything. That made the parsley much smaller and the butter a bit smoother, but you don't need to do that, you can just mix by hand.
6. Put in the refrigerator to cool and harden.


Pork Chop Directions:
1. Brush the pork chops with oil on both sides.
2. Season both sides with your choice of seasoning. (My favorite blend is black pepper, garlic powder, seasoned salt, and blackened seasoning. It makes a wonderful combination).
3. Broil on high for about 5-7 minutes per side.
4. Take out the pork chops and let rest for a few minutes.


Serving:
1. Take the pork chops and serve on a plate.
2. Take the Gorgonzola butter and slice off some for each pork chop.
3. Enjoy!!!!