Father's Day Flank Steak, Asparagus, Cauliflower, and Potato Pancakes

For Father's Day, I made Flank Steak, Asparagus, Cauliflower, and Potato Pancakes.  I marinaded the flank stead all day in the fridge in soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, and fajita seasoning.  It took an hour to cook in the oven, broiled on high.  The asparagus was baked in the oven with soy sauce balsamic vinegar and garlic.  The cauliflower was baked in the oven with butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese.  The potato pancakes were made with shredded potatoes, small diced onion, eggs, and flour.  Mix all ingredients and fry each side in a skillet with crisco.

Crab Rangoon

Great easy appetizer.  Made with won ton wrappers filled with cream cheese, salt, Worcestershire, and garlic salt, these are blended together, then top with piece of crab meat.  Fold in sides of won ton wrapper, place in cupcake tray and bake until brown.

Biscuits and Gravy

Super easy biscuits and from scratch gravy.  Cooked pork sausage in a skillet, once cooked, move pork to one side of pan, use fat drippings and flour on the other side of the pan to make a roux.  Once the roux is thoroughly mixed, add whole milk and stir everything together.  Let the gravy simmer to thicken while the biscuits cook in the oven, I used packaged biscuits, either frozen or refrigerated.

Pound Cake

Pound cake is a simple recipe made with a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of butter.  I really wanted to try this recipe to see if it really works.  FYI, a pound of sugar and a pound of flour is not the same number of cups of each, you must use a scale (or a conversion on Google).  I also added some vanilla and salt for flavor.  This turned out to be a really dense cake, great for an easy cake recipe of ingredients I always have on hand.  The outside comes out really crispy so I cut the bottom off the cake.

Fresh Garden Brushetta, Lasagna, and Salad

Using ingredients from the garden, fresh tomatoes from my parents garden and fresh basil from my own garden, I diced tomatoes, cut (chiffonade) basil, added garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and Parmesan cheese.  Mixed all the ingredients and let them chill in the fridge for about 30 min while the slices of bread baked in the oven at 350 deg.  Served the baked bread slices with the bruschetta, use spoons for scooping.

My lasagna recipe is simple.  Use a standard homemade spaghetti sauce recipe (one pound of meat; turkey, beef, or pork, onion, cans of tomato sauce, crushed, and/or paste, simmer for 1 hour).  Layer in a lasagna pan the dry noodles (wheat or white), sauce (enough to cover), cheese (mixture of ricotta, mozzarella, cottage, and/or Parmesan).  I usually do 3-4 layers.  Cover with foil, bake for an hour in the oven.  Take off foil, and let bake until golden brown and bubbly.