Cheeseburger Pizza

Made from Pillsbury Pizza Dough, seasoned ground beef, shredded cheese, and Roma tomatoes.  Spread the dough on a oiled sheet pan and season.  Add ground beef, shredded cheese, Roma tomatoes, and any other ingredients that you want.  Roll the dough into a log, rub with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Bake the log in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and slice.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin and Steamed Asparagus

Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin  was made by searing all 4 sides of a pork tenderloin, then baking it in the oven.  Using the skillet that the tenderloin was seared in, add balsamic vinegar and chicken stock and let the sauce reduce and get thick.  Once the pork is done baking, cut into slices and add back into the skillet.  For the Steamed Asparagus, break off the hard ends and add to a steamer, takes about 30 minutes.  Add salt and pepper for flavor.

Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and gravy, great southern breakfast.  Start by browning one pound of sausage in a skillet.  Once the sausage is cooked, add flour to the oil to make a roux.  Once the flour is dissolved, start slowing adding milk, until you get the consistency of gravy you want  (the roux needs to cook about 30 minutes with the milk).  While the gravy is cooking, make your biscuits in the oven.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Nutty, Heath, Graham Cracker Cookie

These pan cookies are made in a 13x9 inch casserole dish.  Start by melting a stick of butter in the oven at 350, once melted, add one cup of graham cracker crumbs, mix well and press down.  Cover the graham cracker crust with a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk evenly.  Then cover this with you ingredients, I used chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, walnuts, and heath pieces.  Press the ingredients down softly.  Bake this at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown.  Once cooled, cut carefully with a sharp knife.

Meatloaf and Baked Butternut Squash

Classic meatloaf made with ground beef, Italian bread crumbs, seasoning, chopped onion, and a ketchup brown sugar topping.  Next time I will saute the onion prior to adding it to the meatloaf.  I served a baked butternut squash casserole with the meatloaf.

Pan Fried Pork, Steamed Asparagus, Baked Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Potatoes

This was a recipe I found.  I marinaded the pork chops in a little soy sauce and some season salt.  Then I dipped them in egg and Italian seasoned bread crumbs.  Once they were breaded, I put them in a skillet with hot olive oil and seared each side of the pork for about 3 minutes.  Once seared, I placed the pork chops in a baking dish and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  This was the perfect amount of time for the thickness I had and they were still juicy and not dried out.  While they were baking for 45 minutes, I made a pan sauce by adding cream of mushroom soup to the skillet where the pork was seared and about half a beer.  I let this simmer the entire time the pork was cooking and just added some salt and pepper.  While the sauce was simmering, I also steamed some asparagus.

Grapefruit Mimosa

Traditionally mimosa's are served with orange juice, but I like mine with grapefruit juice.  This one is made of half champagne and half grapefruit juice, you can also use prosecco instead of champagne, making it a Grapefruit Bellini.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner involved all our traditional favorites like turkey and dressing, green beans, green bean casserole, gravy, squash, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and one new addition, butternut squash casserole.  I forgot to take a picture before we put it away in the fridge for leftovers.  We also had for dessert, lemon cheesecake, pecan pie, apple pie, chocolate pie, and coconut cream pie.

Stovetop Hot Chocolate

Start by making a chocolate syrup, made from a cup and a half of white sugar, a cup and a half of water, a cup of cocoa powder, a dash of salt, and dash of vanilla.  Let all ingredients come to a simmer and then turn it down on low.  Once the chocolate syrup is done, add as much milk as you want for the chocolate flavor you want, strong or light.  Heat the chocolate milk until hot enough to drink.

Peach Pork and Mashed Red Potatoes

My favorite cut of pork is the tenderloin and it goes great with a fruit sauce.  First I start by heating a skillet on medium high, once it's hot, I place the pork tenderloin on the hot skillet and sear it on all four sides, about a minute per side, you know it's seared when it releases easily from the pan.  Once all four sides are seared, place the pork in an oven safe casserole dish and put it in the oven at 350 deg.  I like to cook my pork to 155 deg, I use a thermometer on the inside of the pork.  I take it out at 155 deg internal temperature and let it rest and the temperature will rise to 160 deg, once it's at 160 deg, I slice and serve the pork.  While the pork is in the oven, I make the sauce in the skillet that I seared the pork in.  Once I remove the pork, I add a whole diced onion and cook it until it's translucent.  Once the onion is cooked, I add a whole clove of diced garlic.  Then I add some kind of beer or wine.  This one I used a peach Belgium beer to deglaze the pan, about a cup full.  Once the pan has been deglazed, I add a pint of water and one chicken bouillon cube, but you could also use 16 ounces of chicken stock.  I just let the sauce simmer and reduce while the pork is cooking.  Once the consistency is good, I reduce the heat to low and just keep adding the beer or wine or water to keep it the right consistency until the pork is ready.  I like to drink the wine or beer I cooked the pork with.

For an easy side dish, I peeled and rough chopped 2 pounds of red potatoes, added them to cold water, brought the pot to a boil and cooked them until done.  I drained them and then mashed them and added some milk, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic, just enough for the right flavor and consistency.