The Good Plate Latest Recipes – Page 43 of 72

Pork Burrito Salad

This was intended to be a Toastada with a beautiful shell, but, you know, you come home from work, you’re hungry, and that high falutin fiesta shell goes out the window. No problem, this was actually better because you could eat some, then pick it up and eat it like a burrito. Of course, you could put anything you want in here, chicken, beef, tongue, fish, or completely meatless.

I really like what I call Whole Meal Salads in the summer. It means usually not having to turn your oven on at all. If you want meat, you can get meat already cooked, like rotisserie chicken that I used in my Curried Chicken Salad. Have you noticed, it’s been a real summer of salads. That’s good, salads are healthy, depending on what you put in them. I try to keep high-end salads that have blue cheese dressing for special occasions, and keep everyone else with a little oil and vinegar, if anything.

Curried Chicken Salad with Mango Chutney

I have always loved curry, and to go with it, Major Grey’s Mango Chutney – I can eat that chutney right out of the jar. Curried chicken is often made in our house. My son loves the curry, but I have to be careful of the chutney, once he knows it’s in the fridge, I might not see it again. When I make curry at home, I put little bowls with garnishes, coconut, raisins, apple, and tomatoes.

Chutney is a condiment and comes in many varieties. I prefer Major Grey’s and it’s available in most stores. Find out more about chutney.

Sounds like a salad, doesn’t it? Yup, those ingredients make a very nice salad. Use a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket because if you don’t want to heat up your kitchen. Serve it on the bed of thinly sliced lettuce and you are good to go on a hot summer night. A tall, icy glass of beer, or iced tea for the younger set, is very good with this.

Chinese Lemon Chicken

I love Chinese Lemon Chicken. It is slightly sweet but tastes very fresh. The addition of a little cayenne makes this recipe sing. Baking is a great idea if you are averse to frying, but I prefer the crispness of the fried.

This couldn’t have been easier. I love Lemon Chicken and this turns out just lovely.

Beans in the Instant Pot

I couldn’t help myself. Everyone I knew had one of these new Instant Pots, and everyone was going on about how wonderful they were. Even my therapist had one! So, I looked up to see exactly what it was, and when I realized it was in fact an enhanced pressure cooker, I got kind of scared.

What’s for Dinner, Mom?

My mother was getting the cheese out of the refrigerator while the pressure cooker was happily bubbling on the stove. I walked in to ask my mother if I could have a glass of whatever (probably milk), when suddenly, there was a loud explosion, a red flash, and as we looked up, there was red spaghetti all over the kitchen walls. If my mother had been by the pot, she probably would have been seriously injured if not killed. I swear we picked spaghetti off that kitchen wall for days. It was kind of fun… but, that’s how you get a phobia about pressure cookers.

Times, They Are a Changin’

Despite being deathly afraid of the contraptions, I realized that technology must have made them safer. After all, if we could send a man to the moon in nothing more than a glorified tin can, then why couldn’t we have beans in an instant pot, and not perish. I got a little mini pot just so I could play around and get used to it. The 6 quart, I was thinking about getting is large, but it’s only two of us, and this little guy, just over a quart, makes more than enough for us.

Because I don’t have to heat up a lot of other pots or dirty a lot of dishes, I really appreciate this little pot. Just put this one on sauté, add the vegetables, sauté them, then add the beans, liquid, cover, and I’m good to go. Everything everyone said about how great these pressure cookers are was right. They are wonderful. But, we’re here to talk about Beans in the Instant Pot, so let’s do that.

Hackfleisch Salat (Meat Salad)

Hackfleisch Salat (Meat Salad) is was a salad I loved as a child when my family was stationed in Germany. It’s actually pretty simple, and very filling. It’s perfect for a hot day, or a nice picnic in the park.

My father was a Major in the U.S. Army. We were stationed in Kaiserslautern. My mother bought a lot of foods at the PX, but we didn’t go very often. The PX was similar to a Costco, where military members could get food and goods, shipped from America, in Germany. So, if you really wanted Cheez Whiz, you could get it at the PX, because your local corner store did not have it.

But, when we were living there in the 1960’s, we had a local department store called Seifenmeyer. Downstairs was the deli, upstairs was the perfume department, second floor was clothing, and the top had a fancy restaurant. In the deli, they had excellent bologna, and this is what my mother used to make her salad.

Orecchiette Pasta Salad

Orecchiette Pasta Salad with tuna and Caesar dressing is perfect for the hot summer months. Make it Vegan, and omit the tuna.

Pimento Cheese Spread – A Tradition from the South

My History with Pimento Cheese Spread

When I was a little girl, my mother would sometimes make Pimento Cheese Spread for cocktail parties. My father’s family was from the Texas, my mother’s from New York. At the time, my father was a Captain in the US Army, and we were stationed in Germany. He had aspirations to be a Colonel – and that meant having the Brass over for cocktail parties that my mother had to make all the food – they didn’t have caterers in Germany that made American food that was in my mother’s budget – so she made everything from scratch. Imagine a party scene from Mad Men, and you have an idea of what my mother’s parties were like. Due to my mother’s great talents at entertaining, my father made it to Major before deciding to come home and have the career he always wanted – antique furniture refinisher.

If I was well-behaved and didn’t get in my mother’s way in the kitchen when she was making all these things, she would put aside a plate of appetizers just for me, and if I was lucky, it had Pimento Cheese Spread.

Clean Out Your Fridge

The great thing about Pimento Cheese Spread is that you can put odd bits of hard cheese you have lying around in your fridge. You might have forgotten they were even there. They might have a bit of mold, cut it off and you’re good to go. They might have a dried up outside, just cut that off, too. I usually have a good sharp cheddar as my main cheese, and I might have some pieces of Jack or Swiss left over in my cheese drawer. I wouldn’t put in a pungent cheese that would overbear your main cheese’s flavor. You could put a softer cheese in, too, just put it in after the pimentos go in. Important: don’t use pre-shredded cheese – it has extra ingredients that can affect the flavor and texture of this luscious spread.

Boswell Refrigerated Pizza Dough

I really like this dough because I can make one recipe of it, and have two crusts. Since we usually have our meatless day on Friday, we can have a veggie pizza on Friday, and then we can have a nice sausage pizza later on in the week. The dough stays nicely refrigerated until it’s ready to use. It also develops a nice slightly sour flavor in that time.

Street Dogs – Hot Dogs with Bacon and Peppers

Have the famous Street Dogs at home – jumbo franks wrapped in bacon with sauted jalapeno, onions and bell peppers. Have them with corn!

Croque Monsieur – The Glorified Ham and Grilled Cheese

The Croque Monsieur is a French bistro sandwich, so we bring the French cheese and the Russian ham together on French Pullman bread for an absolutely sublime sandwich.