Black bean mozzarella calzones and garlic cheese fingers

These are pretty simple. Just use your favorite go to pizza dough recipe, or use ready made dough if you like.

Roll out enough dough for one calzone, I make mine huge, you can make them as big or small as you'd like. For these, I used tomatillo salsa. I spread a thin layer of green salsa on one of half of the dough, then put a couple handful's of black beans over that, and then load the beans with shredded mozzarella. These would be yummy with Jack too.

I made spinach calzones with mozzarella last week, also yummy. Can't beat a calzone, quick, easy, and always delicious and you can fill it with whatever you want!

Quick comfort foods

Because I have been so busy with the farm, bottle baby goats, and Izzie the calf, I have been making lots of late night (sometimes 10, 11 PM...) meals and a few quickies. We've had lots of soups, pasta's... These are a couple of my favorite quick, yummy, comforting meals, especially good for late night suppers.

Caramelized Onion Macaroni



This one is super quick, just heat lots of butter in a pan and caramelize your onions over a slow heat until they are golden brown and delicious. Then just pour them over some cooked macaroni or other small pasta and mix. Sprinkle some Parmesan on it and enjoy.

Black Bean Avocado wraps



Take and drain one can of black beans, or two depending on how much you want. One can makes three wraps. Finely dice one large clove of garlic (you can use two cloves if you use two cans)

Heat some oil in a pan and add the black beans and garlic, and heat through. Mash the beans and garlic.

Grate some Mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese and mash up your avocado.

Get your wraps ready, and place some of the beans, avocado, and cheese, on each wrap. Wrap them individually in paper towel and microwave for 1-2 minutes until the cheese is melted. We eat these with sour cream and they are so yummy.

Black bean burgers

These black bean burgers are so delicious. They are among my favorite burgers, ever. I make them so huge they are a meal in themselves, and I always make huge homemade rolls. But this goes really well with warm potato salad. I just boil some potatoes, and mix up some apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, and finely diced onion, and add it to the hot potatoes. It's really nice on a cool evening.

Of course you can top your burgers with whatever you like. We do mayo, mustard, and lots of lettuce. Cheese would be good on these, and really anything you could think of. Tomato, red onion.....

Ingredients
1/2 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and fresh ground black pepper

4 really nice rolls

Directions
Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-low heat.

In a food processor, pulse onion and garlic until finely chopped. Add 1 can black beans, cilantro, parsley, egg, and red pepper flakes and pulse to combine. (I did not put this in the food processor, I just mashed one can of the beans, and then added everything finely chopped. I cannot be bothered with food processors.)

Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining can of black beans and the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and mix until well combined.
Divide remaining mixture into 4 portions and form into patties. Place on hot oiled grill over medium-low heat and cook about 6 minutes a side or until heated through. Toast hamburger buns on a grill. Place a burger on the bottom of each bun. Top with favorite toppings. Cover the burgers with the top of the bun and serve.

Pork Schnitzel

So it's nearly impossible to go wrong with fried pork right? This is just a simple recipe for a simple pork schnitzel. There are so many recipes, so many kinds of schnitzel, so little time.

So to get the craving satisfied, this works.

A lot of pork schnitzel recipes call for pork loin chops, I used a pork tenderloin. I cut it in half, then I cut it into four smaller pieces. I then pounded the heck out of it with my trusted rolling pin, which serves many purposes in backwoods kitchen. Just remember to make it as thin as you can.

It worked great.

So then get yourself set up.

First you need about 1 cup flour, 1 tsp seasoned salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. Mix that together on a plate, or your counter, whatever you are using.

Then beat one egg with 2 tablespoons of milk.

Then have your breadcrumbs ready. You can use any type of bread crumbs that suit your fancy, and you can add any kind of herbs or spices that you would like.

Take your pork cutlet, dredge it in the flour mixture, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Continue with the remaining cutlets, and put on a place.

Heat your pan up with your oil. You need enough to cover the bottom of the pan and a little extra. The pork does not need to be completely covered in oil, but you need a decent amount so it browns really good.

Cook it until nice and brown on both sides. This worked out to about 5-6 minutes a side for me.

It turns out really yummy, it was a hit with the other half, he loved this.

Pasta & bean soup

I whipped this simple soup up in a hurry. It's a miserable day outside and I'm tired today, partly because of the weather and partly because I'm just tired! So I needed something that was good, filling, warm, and easy.


This turned out to be all of the above.

I used:

5 slices bacon

1 small potato, diced

1 small carrot, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves minced garlic

2 1/2 cups vegetable stock

about 2 cups water

1 1/2 cups small pasta (I used shells)

1 can Romano beans

1 tsp. thyme

salt & pepper to taste

Cook the bacon till done, a little crispy but do not over cook. Drain the fat, and add more oil to the pan. Cook the potato, carrot, onion, and, garlic until tender and starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the veggies to your soup pot, you stock, your water, your bacon, beans, dried pasta, thyme, salt & pepper. Cook until the paste is tender, and the veggies are done.


I cooked this for about an hour because I left it cooking to go to the barn and was in the barn longer than I planned. The pasta was really cooked, but it all taste delicious and had thickened up a lot.

Cranberry pork roast - crockpot

Yummy :)



1 Pork tenderloin cleaned
1 16 oz can jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water
1 tsp salt

Place the tenderloin in the slow cooker. Combine cranberry sauce, sugar, cranberry juice, mustard and cloves, pour over roast.

Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.

Remove roast and keep warm. Skim fat from juices. Measure 2 cups adding water if needed. Pour into saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Combine cornstarch in cold water to make a paste. Stir into gravy. Cook and stir until thickened. Season with salt and serve with pork.

M&M cookie bars

These M&M cookie bars are all over the place, on blogs, on recipe sites, everywhere. I figured if so many people were making them, they must be good. Here is the recipe for them as seen on novice-baker.blogspot.com. This recipe is lots of places, but this the one I used.

Also I did change on thing, to make them a little more special, I used peanut butter M&M's.



2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups M&M's

Preheat the oven to 350.

Lightly spray a 10 X 15" jelly roll pan with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.In another large bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar, stirring until evenly distributed. Allow to cool slightly. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each one. Mix in vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture and when combined add in the M&M's. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.Bake for 24-26 minutes, until they are shiny and golden brown on top. Try not to overbake these or they will be dry. A cake tester will most likely not come out clean. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting.