Homemade Italian Bread Crumbs:

Homemade Italian Bread Crumbs:

2 cups stale bread or 10-12 slices

1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan

Heat oven to 250 degrees F.

Arrange bread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, until the bread is crisp and dry. Allow to cool completely, and the break into small pieces.  Now, TV hosts always then use a food processor to make bread crumbs.  Nice.  If you have one.  I do not.  So, I just throw the very crisp, toasted and cooled off bread into a plastic bag, and then, with my pastry roller, I smush them up into tiny pieces.

Once your bread is crumbs, you can season it to your hearts content.  If you are going for the traditional flavor of Italian Bread Crumbs, add the ingredients as above, and store, tightly covered in your refrigerator for about 2 months.

 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

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Garlic-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Garlic-Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium bowl, mash the garlic well.  Add salt and continue to mash it together.  Whisk in the balsamic vinegar, and 1/2 cup of oil.  Add pepper to taste, again whisking well.  I keep this in the mixing bowl, until just ready to serve, when I whisk it well again, and then pour into a serving bowl.

Use the vinaigrette as a dipping sauce for the nuggets.

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Roast Beef Wraps – Tortilla Wraps, part 1

Growing up in the mid-western state of Nebraska – the western end, to boot, means I was around a lot of Mexican foods. Though this recipe isn’t a Mexican recipe, it does contain tortillas. Some people love sandwiches, some like bagels, some like rye bread.. I love tortillas and have tons of uses for them, other than the standard ‘beans and rice’ that tortillas are known for.

This is a simple recipe – that is the beauty of a wrap – anything goes. And here, anything really could go: Replace the roast beef with chicken, or turkey, use tomatoes in place of peppers, Vidalia onion in place of the red.. and you’ve got a totally new wrap.

Enjoy!

Amazing Roast Beef Wraps

4 small burrito sized wraps or tortillas
4 -8 ounces Roast Beef, thinly sliced
1 Roasted Red Pepper (see Recipe below)
2-3 slices Red Onion
1 bunch of sprouts
Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce (See recipe below)

Spread Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce on each wrap, and place other ingredients, to taste, on the wrap, roll to close. Serve chilled.

To store these for later, roll tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

Roasted Red Peppers

6 large red bell peppers
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
brown paper bag
1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt

Preheat your broiler or grill. Lightly oil the peppers with the 1 tablespoon of oil (do not seed the peppers at this point). Place on baking sheet (if using an indoor broiler), or directly on your grill. Cook peppers, turning often, until they have black spots and blister all over, and are tender to the touch. Place the peppers into the paper bag (or plastic bag, or any closed container), and seal closed. Set aside until the peppers have cooled – about 30 minutes.

Once the peppers have cooled, remove the skins by lightly peeling them, using the edge of a knife to scrape away the blackened and blistered skins. Slice the peppers and remove seeds and inner core. Rinse quickly under water, and dry well. Cut the peppers into long strips.

In a sterile jar, add salt, remaining olive oil, garlic, parsley and peppers.

You can refrigerate this for 3-4 weeks… if they last that long ;)

Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

1 Cup Sour Cream
3-4 Tablespoons Hot Horseradish (prepared)
1 1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Lemon Juice
Dash Paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and chill until ready to serve.

For another ‘Tortilla Wrap’ recipe, click here.

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Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

This is a quick little recipe for a fantastic sauce, best used with roast beef, grilled steak, or wraps.

Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

1 Cup Sour Cream
3-4 Tablespoons Hot Horseradish (prepared)
1 1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Lemon Juice
Dash Paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and chill until ready to serve.

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Roasted Red Peppers

redpepper1

Roasted Red Peppers

6 large red bell peppers
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
brown paper bag
1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt

Preheat your broiler or grill.  Lightly oil the peppers with the 1 tablespoon of oil (do not seed the peppers at this point).  Place on baking sheet (if using an indoor broiler), or directly on your grill.  Cook peppers, turning often, until they have black spots and blister all over, and are tender to the touch.  Place the peppers into the paper bag (or plastic bag, or any closed container), and seal closed.  Set aside until the peppers have cooled – about 30 minutes.

Once the peppers have cooled, remove the skins by lightly peeling them, using the edge of a knife to scrape away the blackened and blistered skins.  Slice the peppers and remove seeds and inner core.  Rinse quickly under water, and dry well.  Cut the peppers into long strips.

In a sterile jar, add salt, remaining olive oil, garlic, parsley and peppers.

You can refrigerate this for 3-4 weeks… if they last that long ;)

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Computer Lover Cooking Terms

1. ACCELERATOR: Microwave
2. ACCESS DENIED: Diet Time
3. ALT: As in “alt and pepper to taste”
4. ASCII: Callii Tech Support
5. AUTOEXEC.BAT: Cookies in your boss’ car
6. BACKSLASH: Do to piecrust before cooking
7. BACKUP: Leftovers
8. BASIC: PBJ Sandwich
9. BATCH: Mess o’
10. BINARY: Buy nary, eat nary
11. BLOCK: Cake baked with no eggs
12. BOOT: Heat your oven
13. CACHE: Do when egg is rolling off counter
14. CAD: Someone who promises to cook, then doesn’t
15. CD: When you don’t core apples before baking
16. CLUSTER: Kitchen advisors
17. COMMAND: Tell someone else to cook
18. COMPRESS: Knead
19. CONFIG.SYS: Have your sister figure it out
20. COPY: Double recipe
21. CRASH: Drop main course at big dinner party
22. CTRL: What you lose after crashing
23. CURSOR: Who you are after crashing
24. CUSTOMIZE: Add sprinkles
25. DATA: Sort-a like-a fig-a
26. DEBUG: Check the flour before using
27. DIP-SWITCH: What you do when you’re out of salsa
28. DIRECTORY: De place where de priest lives
29. DOCUMENT: Small, after-dinner candy
30. DOS: Dine Or Starve
31. DOT MATRIX: Dorothy’s mother
32. DOWNLOAD: Pour batter into pan
33. DOWNTIME: Time while brownies are baking
34. DRAG: Time while brownies are baking
35. ENTER: Put in oven
36. ESCAPE: Order out
37. EXPANSION: Too much yeast
38. EXPORT: Take leftovers to the neighbors
39. EXTRACT: Usually vanilla
40. F.A.T.: See “Access denied”
41. FASTOPEN: Do to oven when you overbake
42. FLOPPY: Bake longer next time
43. FOLDER: Blender
44. FRAGMENT: What’s left of brownies
45. FREEZE: Do when you accidently quadruple the recipe
46. GIGA-BYTE: Enough for an army
47. GOTO: As in “Goto restaurant when recipe bombs”
48. HELP: Julia Child
49. HIGH DENSITY: Forgot to fold in the eggs
50. HIGHLIGHT: Top with white icing
51. ICON: I con cook anything better than you con
52. IMPORT: Borrow a cup of sugar
53. INTERFACE: Where a lady puts her dinner
54. LAPTOP: Eat only the icing
55. LOADHIGH: Put in freezer
56. LOG ON: Cook in fireplace
57. LOGIC: Why somebody else should cook
58. LOOP: Why somebody else thinks you should cook
59. LPT1: Put on front burner
60. MAINFRAME: Oven
61. MEG: Mc chickens lay ’em
62. MEGA-BYTE: Slow down!
63. MEGA-HERTZ: When you forget to use a potholder
64. MEMORY: Forget it – use a timer
65. MENU: Surely you’re kidding
66. MERGE: Nickname for margarine
67. MICROCHIPS: Serve with micro salsa
68. MODEM: Top with ice cream
69. MONITOR: Oven window
70. MONO: One-burner stove
71. MOTHERBOARD: Mom’s tired of cooking
72. NANOSECOND: Time it takes to eat DOS-Serts
73. NERD: Someone who understands this whole glossary
74. NETWORK: I slice, you dice
75. NORTON: Maybe he’ll fix these recipes for you
76. PARAMETERS: Kitchen doors
77. PARSE: Nickname for parsley
78. PASSWORD: “Dinnertime”
79. PATH: Worn-out place leading to refrigerator
80. POSTCRIPT: Dessert
81. RAM: Overeat
82. ROM: Overeat in England
83. SCANNER: Guest deciding whether to eat
84. SCROLL: Recite list of ingredients
85. SELECT: Choose edible portion
86. SERIAL: What you eat when you burn dinner
87. SHAREWARE: Mom’s crock pot
88. SHIFT: “Cap” cake with icing
89. SORT: Pick the burnt ones out
90. SPREADSHEET: Use under really messy cooks
91. TAB: Drink after “Pie A La Modem”
92. TECH SUPPORT: Hello, Mom?
93. TOGGLE: Switch recipes
94. TURBO: High setting on microwave
95. VGA: Add food coloring
96. ZOOM: I can see it on the table now

From “Quick Bytes: Computer Lover’s Cookbook” by Diane Pfeifer

Can you think of more?? Post a comment if you do.

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