Cucumber Dill Sauce

This is good as a dip or sauce with cold poached salmon. Or, you can use it on any cooked fish.

It’s so easy to make; the most work you will have to do is slicing the cucumbers.

Ingredients

• CUCUMBER, 1 seeded and thinly sliced
• SOUR CREAM, 1 pint
• YOGURT, plain, 1 cup
• MAYONNAISE, 4 tablespoons
• FRESH DILL WEED, 2 tablespoons (or double the amount if dried)
• LEMON, juice of 1
• CIDER VINEGAR, 1 teaspoon
• GARLIC SALT to taste
• WHITE PEPPER, freshly ground, to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and refrigerate, the longer the better, to let the flavors marry and the cucumbers absorb the flavors.
2. Serve over cold salmon that has been poached in seasoned water and fresh dill sprigs.

Chili Willi

This is a variety breakfast that I have occasionally, whenever there’s leftover chili from the night before.

I heat up the chili, fry up a couple of over-easy eggs and lay them on top of hot steamed rice, and pour the chili on top. You can do it in a soup bowl and have your breakfast with a big spoon. Hearty man-sized meal, it is.

As for the name, “Chili Willi,” it’s just something silly I made up one day because it’s a good hot breakfast for a cold winter morning.

If we have a lot of leftover chili, I divide it into individual-sized servings and freeze it for another time when I have a hankering for Chili Willi upon waking up in the morning.

Craig’s Brussels Sprouts

I’m just being facetious, naming this vegetable dish “Craig’s Brussels Sprouts.” The truth is, I saw it being made on a cooking show but didn’t pay that much attention and had to figure out the recipe later on when I decided to serve Brussels sprouts this way.

That being said, it’s a good way to get people to eat their vegetables – even those who say they don’t like Brussels sprouts.

Ingredients

• BRUSSELS SPROUTS, 12 to 20, trimmed
• BACON, 2 slices, cut into lardons
• SHALLOTS, 2 large, sliced
• BUTTER, 2-3 tablespoons
• LEMON JUICE, 1 lemon
• BREAD CRUMBS, ¼ cup (I use Progresso Italian)

Directions

1. Steam or boil the Brussels sprouts until a toothpick pokes through the stem side easily. Drain and let cool.
2. Cut the Brussels sprouts in half lengthwise.
3. In a large pan, render the bacon until slightly crispy. Drain off the excess oil (save to use another time).
4. Add the shallots and butter. Stir.
5. When butter is melted, add in the halved Brussels sprouts.
6. Sauté for a minute or so, then add the lemon juice. Stir.
7. Sprinkle on the bread crumbs, toss, and serve.

Easy Roast Pork

Low and slow, it’s easy and uncomplicated. Just remember, low and slow.

Ingredients 

• PORK SHOULDER (BUTT), 3-4 pounds, bone-in is okay
• ONION, 1 sliced
• APPLE, 1 Granny Smith, cored and sliced
• LIPTON DRY ONION SOUP MIX, 1 package
• APPLE CIDER/JUICE, 1 small can
• PORK GRAVY MIX, 1 package

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Rub the onion soup mix all over the pork roast.
3. Place in deep pan on top of onion and most of the apple slices
4. Arrange a few apple slices on top of the pork.
5. Pour in the apple cider.
6. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
7. Bake for 3 hours or longer, until meat flakes off the bone
8. Pour pan liquid into a pot and add the pork gravy mix, along with one cup of water.
9. Bring gravy to a boil and reduce heat, cooking for a minute or two.
10. Shred or slice the pork and serve with the gravy.

Mexican Chicken

This is another fast and easy meal for the family.

Ingredients

• CHICKEN, 4 to 10 pieces
• FLOUR, ¼ cup
• SALSA, 1 large jar (I use Pace mild chunky)
• ONIONS (Maui or Vidalia or Texas Sweet), 2 large, wedged into 8ths
• WHITE MUSHROOMS, 8 ounces
• BLACK AMERICAN OLIVES, 1 can drained
• MEXICAN CHEESE BLEND, 1 package pre-shredded
• GARLIC SALT and PEPPER to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250°F.
2. Dust chicken with the flour and brown in frying pan.
3. Place in large rectangular aluminum or glass pan.
4. Scatter onion wedges, mushrooms and olives on top.
5. Pour salsa on top.
6. Sprinkle garlic salt and grind on some black pepper.
7. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for two hours.
8. Uncover and confirm that chicken is cooked through.
9. Sprinkle with half-bag of the cheese and place under broiler for about a couple of minutes to melt and toast cheese slightly.
10. Let stand 5-10 minutes and it's ready to eat.
11. Serve with rice.

Salmon Omelet

This is so easy, no recipe is required.

If you have left-over salmon – baked, fried, smoked, miso-marinated, you name it – you can enjoy a salmon omelet in the morning, or maybe even for dinner.

All you need in addition to the salmon is butter or margarine (I use Benecol), sliced mushrooms if you have any lying around, chopped onions (sweet round or green) if you’ve got some, and a couple of eggs (I usually use one egg and egg substitute).

Sauté the mushrooms in a small nonstick pan in lots of butter, then add the salmon and onions. Start your omelet in a larger nonstick omelet pan flavored with more butter. Add in the heated salmon-mushroom-onion mix.

Slide the omelet off onto a plate, folding it over on itself.

If you are so inclined, you can add anything else to the innards that you can think of. Crispy bacon would be nice. So would bean sprouts. Heck, I’ve even added in chopped leftover Brussels sprouts.

Yum!

Easy Pleasy Apple Pie

This one’s easy, because I use refrigerated premade crust that I get at the supermarket … most likely Pillsbury. All you have to do is mix the dry ingredients and add them to the apples. Then, pour everything into the crust and bake.

I use two types of apples – Granny Smith for tartness and body, and Fuji for sweetness.

Ingredients

• BROWN SUGAR, ¾ cup, light (or white sugar will do as well)
• FLOUR, ¼ cup, all-purpose
• SALT, ¼ teaspoon
• CINNAMON, ¾ teaspoon, ground
• NUTMEG, to taste
• APPLES, 3 Fuji + 3 Granny Smith
• LEMON, 1, zest + juice
• BUTTER, 3 tablespoons, cold and diced
• EGG WASH
• SUGAR, to sprinkle on top crust

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Mix sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and set aside.
3. Peel, core, and cut apples into wedges.
4. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning, and toss.
5. Evenly coat the apples with the sugar mixture, sprinkling in some lemon zest if you are so inclined, otherwise, keep the zest for another recipe in the future.
6. Line a 9-inch pie tin with one crust.
7. Mound the apples in the crusted pie pan.
8. Dot the apples with the diced butter.
9. Cover with the second crust and seal the pie by crimping around the circumference.
10. Cut four 2-inch slits in the top, radiating outward from about an inch or two from the center.
11. Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar.
12. Bake on center rack for 45 minutes, take out of oven and let the pie rest for 20 minutes.