BBQ Bacon Meat Loaf

I was playing with stuffed mushroom recipe and had extra meat left over. So I made a meat loaf.

Ingredients
1 lb spicy sausage
1/2 lb bacon, chopped and fried
1 medium onion, chopped
6 garlic gloves, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs

Fry bacon until crisp. Add onions and garlic and saute. Let bacon cool and mix with the rest of the ingredients leaving 1/4 cup ketchup and 1/4 BBQ sauce for topping.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

This is by no means healthy, but the bacon is really good. The BBQ sauce and sausage give it an extra kick.

Vegetarian Sarmale

My friend Jamie and her boyfriend came to Atlanta for a visit and I just had to make them something Romanian to snack on. I instantly knew that I wanted to make sarmale, but they're vegetarian. So I made vegetarian sarmale. Here's what I did.

3 grated carrots

1 large onion finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped kalamata olives
1 lb finely chopped mushrooms
1 cup uncooked rice
V8 or vegetable juice
1 cup lemon juice
3 tbs dill
1 tbs vegeta
1 jar grape leaves
1/4 cup olive oil

All the ingredients together with the exception of grape leaves, vegetable juice, and lemon juice. Put the grape leaf in one palm and scoop about 2 tbs of the mixture and roll  into the grape leaf. Place in a crock pot. Repeat until you use all the of them mixture. Add the bottle of vegetable juice and lemon juice. Cook on low for 6 hours.

Garlic and Dill Chicken

I love garlic, dill, and when I'm in the mood to eat meat, I usually always go for chicken. So I combined  all those in a pretty simple recipe.

Garlic and Dill Chicken

Ingredients:

2 TBS Vegeta

1/2 cup EVOO

10 cloves of garlic

2 TBS fresh dill

1 lb chicken breasts

2 slices mozzarella cheese

Start by finely chopping garlic and dill. In a bowl, smash in a mortar and pestle. Mix in EVOO and Vegeta. 

Cut the mozzarella in quarters. 

Grease a class baking pan. Cut slits in the middle of the chicken breasts. Fill with a quarter slice of mozzerella and 1 tsp of garlic oil. Pour left over garlic oil over chicken.

Bake at 350 for 30 min. 

Placinta Cu Mere si Branza: Yummy Romanian Apple and Cheese Dessert

It's been a while since I shared a recipe on here. I wasn't in the mood to cook for a while. I moved to Atlanta and now that I'm settled, I feel like cooking again. So last night, I had a girlfriend over. Her and I went to high school together. It's nice to have someone like her close by in a new city. She isn't much for sweets, but she liked this.

Placinta Cu Mere si Branza

This is actually pretty easy, but I never made it until now. Think of this like an apple lasagna. 

What You Need

1 bag of apples. I recommend Jonathans.

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

Cinnamon (to taste)

Cloves (to taste)

2 TBS vanilla

24 oz low fat cottage cheese 

1 package philo dough

Brown sugar

Peel and slice applies thinly and sauté in 1 cup sugar until soft. 

In a large bowl, mix cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, cinnamon and cloves to taste. 1 tsp would suffice.  

Grease a 13x9 pan. Add 1 layer of 8 sheets of philo dough. Spray with Pam and add sprinkle with brown sugar. 

Add another layer of philo dough. Spread half the apples over the dough. 

Add another layer of philo dough. Spread half the cottage cheese mixture over the dough. 

Repeat until apples and cottage cheese are gone. My top layer was cottage cheese, but you can top with philo dough, sprayed with Pam and sprinkled with brown sugar.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve warm. 

BBQ Ranch Drumsticks

I wanted BBQ and ranch today so why combine them. I figured it was worth experimenting. So I thawed drumsticks and had some fun in the kitchen. :) 

BBQ Ranch Drumsticks

Preheat your oven to 350. Whisk together 1 cup BBQ sauce and 3/4 cup Kraft Light Ranch dressing. I used Maul's KC BBQ sauce.  Roll drumsticks in the BBQ ranch mix and bake for 40 minutes. Super easy and pretty delicious. Sweet and tangy but not over powering. 

No Bake Chocolate Clatite Cake

  

A coworker has a birthday next week, and I asked him what he wanted. He said anything chocolate. So  I had this brilliant idea for a no bake cake made from clatite. He wanted chocolate, so I made chocolate clatite. I made it and had it yesterday with when some of my dearest friends came over for dinner. It was delicious! It's not nearly as sweet as it looks.

Chocolate Clatite
Whisk 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2 cups skim milk until smooth.


Over medium heat pour about 1/4 cup batter into a greased (Pam works fine) 9 inch skillet. Cook both sides (usually about 2 min).

Cheesecake Filling

This is my standard recipe. Whisk 8 oz lite cool whip, 8 oz lite cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar.  Add 1/4 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup.

No Bake Chocolat Clatite Cake

Place 1 clatite in a 9 inch pie pan. Spread a thick layer of cream cheese filling and repeat until all the clatite are gone, ending with the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate to set. 

No Bake Chocolate Clatite Cake

Semi Romanian Lunch

In the midst of studying, I was craving some mamaliga (aka corn meal mush, polenta) with feta cheese. So I put down my laptop and started cooking. I made mamaliga with broccoli cole slaw fry. It was yummy.

I started by frying three pieces of bacon. Once done, I removed the bacon and sautéed one onion and 2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms. Add a bag of broccoli cole slaw. The bacon grease should be absorbed by this point so add 1 tbs EVOO. Sauté a few minutes.

You can now start on the mamaliga. Follow the directions for corn meal mush. I added 1 tbs of garlic salt too.

Add 1 tbs apple vinegar and 1/2 tsp soy sauce to the broccoli cole claw. Continue cooking on medium heat, stirring often for about 5 min.

I chopped up a tomato and added a little salt as a side. I plated the mamaliga over feta too. Crumble the bacon over the mamaliga. That is my semi Romanian lunch. :)