Cabbie’s Cooking

This is a recipe that my niece, Naomi, sent to me. I tried it and loved it. The tanginess of the cranberry sauce gives it a unique taste. Delicious!

Pork Tenderloin With Cranberry Relish

1 oven bag - large size
2 Tablespoons flour
1 can jellied or whole cranberry sauce
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 3/4 pound pork tenderloins

Preheat oen to 350. Place oven bag in 9 x 13 dish. Add flour to oven bag. Twist end of bag and shake to coat. Add cranberry sauce, cranberries, brownsugar, vinegar and ginger to oven bag. Squeeze bag to blend ingredients. Add the pork tenderloins, turning to coat. Arrange in an even layer. Close the bag with a tie. Cut six 1/2 inch slits in top of bag. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes.

Here’s a great recipe for delicious meatloaf - and it’s enough to make three meals. One to enjoy now, and two to freeze for later.

Cabbie’s Meat Loaf

Cabbie’s Meatloaf
3 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (I use no more than 4% fat)
1 large onion, finely diced
1/2 cup finely diced peppers (any combination of red, yellow and green peppers)
3 tablespoons finely diced parsley
2 stalks celery, finely diced
4 eggs
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
bread crumbs (approximately 3 cups - I save hamburger buns, rolls and the heels from loaves of bread in the freezer - and then take them out to use when I make meatloaf. If you use commercially prepared bread crumbs, use less since commercial crumbs are so fine. I prefer larger pieces of bread crumbs in my meatloaf.)

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Diced vegetables ready to be mixed with the other ingredients

Mix well - using your hands. (I always put gloves on for this step).

Put those hands to work! Using a spoon just doesn’t work as well!

Form the mixture into three meatloaves. To bake, cook for each loaf for approximately 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.

This recipe makes three meatloaves. Each loaf will provide 4 generous servings.

If you’re freezing the loaves, wrap them in aluminum foil and mark with the date. I keep a Sharpie in a kitchen drawer for this purpose.

This is a great meal to free for make ahead meals. Take one out of the freezer in the morning, place in the refrigerator to defrost while you’re at work. Then when you get home, just pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately an hour.

I usually make a tomato sauce to serve over the meatloaf. Here’s the recipe for my tomoto sauce:

Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf

1 large can petite diced tomotoes
1 Tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
salt/pepper to taste
1 small can tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients well. Bring to a boil in a small saucepans. Simmer for 15 minutes. Spoon over meatloaf before serving.

A few years ago some friends and I made a trip to Memphis, Tennessee.  We only had two days for our trip, and so we wanted to make sure we used our time wisely and saw plenty of the Memphis sites of interest, and we wanted to make sure we tried some real Memphis barbecue ribs while we were there.  If you ever plan a similar trip to Memphis, check out Trusted Tours and Attractions.  Better yet, sign up for the Trusted Tours newsletter. That way you’ll get information on siteseeing and tours in not only Memphis, but all the cities where Trusted Tours provide service.  The newsletters are full of family vacation ideas, too.  For example, if you ever visit New York City, you could take their tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  And by the way, when you sign up for the newsletter you can enter to win an IPOD Nano!

Back to our trip to Memphis.  We saw most of the tourist sites, and we stopped by the Rendezvous to try their world-famous ribs.  In Memphis, ribs are traditionally served up dry.  “Dry” doesn’t mean dried out.  It simply means they don’t serve barbecue sauce with them.   So when you visit Memphis, make sure to see all the sites via Trust Tours, and then finish up your trip with the best barbecue ribs around at the Rendezvous.

I don’t have the Rendezvous recipe for their barbecue rib rub, but I came up with this one that comes pretty darn close.   

MEMPHIS STYLE RIB RUB

5 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons salt
2 and 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
2 and 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cayenne (or to taste)

Mix ingredients together. Spread evenly on prepared ribs that have been patted dry with a paper towel. Smoke until tender and delicious. I actually cook mine in a low oven (275 degrees) for a couple hours before putting them in the smoker. That seems to make them extra tender.

This is my mother’s recipe, and it is delicious.  She makes these to take to  covered dish dinners, and they are always snapped up immediately - not even any crumbs left to take home.

Ruth’s Fried Salmon Patties

2 eggs, beaten

salt/pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon dried onion flakes (or 1/2 small onion, chopped finely)

1 handful of cornmeal (1/4 cup)

1 handful of flour ( 1/4 cup)

1 large can of flaked salmon, drained

In a mixing bowl, add all ingredients except salmon.  Mix well.  Add the drained salmon and mix well.  In a large frying pan add 1/4 inch of vegetable oil and heat.  Use a large serving spoon to dip out a ball of batter and put it into the hot oil - flattening it into a circle.  When it browns on one side turn it over and brown on the other side.  Drain and blot on paper towerls.

My niece, Lyn, and her husband, Ricky, have a delicious sweet and sour chicken recipe. After making it a few times, I felt I no longer needed to look at the recipe. I could make it from memory. After I had the sauce mixed, I realized it didn’t look like it usually does. I checked the recipe. Oops! For some reason I thought the recipe contained mustard and I had already added some mustard to the sauce, but mustard was definitely not in the recipe. So I accidentally came up with a new recipe - because adding the mustard made it better than ever. So here is the recipe - with my own touch:

Ricky and Lyn’s Sweet and Sour Chicken a la Carol

8 boneless chicken breasts (I use frozen chicken tenderloins)

1 8-ounce jar peach or apricot preserves

1 8-ounce bottle Catalina dressing

2 envelopes onion soup mix

1/4 cup prepared Dijon mustard

Mix all ingredients except chicken breasts.  Place chicken in casserole dish.  Pour mixture over the chicken breasts. Bake covered for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Remove cover and bake an additional hour.

I serve it over rice.

RT needed something to take to an office party.  We were going to buy some wraps at Kroger, but they didn’t have any fresh ones.  So, I decided to make some myself.  Looking at the ones at Kroger (the ones that had been there since Friday), I figured it couldn’t be too difficult.  Here’s the photo of the tray after I finished them. I think it looks very nice.  And since we snacked on the “leftovers”, we already know that the wraps taste really good. The wraps are now in the refrigerator - ready for RT to take to work with him tomorrow morning.  They were surprisingly easy and quick to make.  I don’t know why I haven’t tried making wraps before.  I’ll be looking for more wrap recipes now since these turned out so well.  Here’s how I made them:

WRAPS

3 large tortillas (large, wrap size - whatever “flavor” you prefer.  I  bought three packages of tortillas: garden spinach herb, sundried tomato basil, and whole grain wheat.  I had no idea how many tortillas I’d need, but that ended up being WAY too many tortillas.  I used three tortillas total - one of each kind - for the tray in the photograph. RT and I will be eating tortillas a lot in the next couple weeks in order to use them all up). 

1 package of thinly sliced or shaved sandwich meat - turkey and ham (you can use roast beef or other cold cuts, too)

1 package of grated sharp cheddar

A few grape tomatoes

A few leaves of romaine lettuce

Mayonaise (I used light mayo)

Take a tortilla and spread mayonaise on it.  Sprinkle it with grated cheese.  It’s important to put the cheese on top of the mayo in order to hold the cheese in place.  Layer the lettuce and then the meat on top.  Starting on one side, roll the tortilla as tightly as possible - being careful to keep the fillings inside.  Once it is rolled up, place it seam side down on a cutting board.  Take a knife and cut off 1-inch slices. Line your serving tray with lettuce, and use the grape tomatoes as a garnish.

Very tasty!

I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight. I usually make adjustments to any recipe to reflect my own tastes, and this recipe is no exception. It tasted very good!

Chicken Cobbler

6 T. butter, divided
5 cups cubed bread (I used a few slices of sourdough bread that I cubed - other breads would be good, too)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 T. chopped parsley
2 medium onions, chopped
1 cup buttermilk (you can substitute regular milk OR wine, depending on your taste)
1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup drained/chopped roasted red peppers
2 1/2 cups chopped/cooked chicken (I used canned chicken)

(1) Melt 4 T. butter and toss lightly with rolls, cheese and parsley. Set aside.
(2) Saute onions in 2 T. butter until golden brown.
(3) Stir in the buttermilk.
(4) Add the soup, peppers and chicken.
(5) Heat in the saucepan until bubbly.
(6) Pour into a 9-inch square baking dish.
(7) Top with the bread mixture.
(8) Bake at 375 for about 20 - 30 minutes until browned.