Cooking in Chaos

I love to cook and amid the chaos of our lives, I actually spend a lot of time in the kitchen making meals for my family and for when we are working cattle.

The Quest for Lasagna

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I started cooking for our hunters in 2012, before this we had hired a cook because I was teaching school.  Cooking for eight to ten people can make a person a little nervous.  I am definitely a perfectionist when it comes to cooking. I want everything just right.  I know it’s silly. My husband is always telling me that the guys won’t care because they are just happy to eat after sitting in a blind all day. Phew! Everyone enjoys a good meal and not just a mediocre one.

Let me just say I had to cook this meal of lasagna and cheesecake for some guys from New Jersey. I was really nervous about the cheesecake because they can get amazing cheesecakes there. But then one of the guys came through the kitchen and said his wife was from Italy. OH NO!! Would this be up to par. It was! I received rave reviews and have every time I have made this.

This cooking OCD I have, inspired me to find the best lasagna I could. I can not tell you the number of recipes I looked at, read reviews on, printed out, and searched for. Let me just say there are hundreds, no thousands of recipes for lasagna. I think everyone has their own recipe that they have been handed down, found, claimed, revamped, whatever.  I however did not have one. I am more of a fried chicken type girl. Italian food is a little out of my genre.

Well as I was looking it became pretty clear that for good lasagna you have to have a good sauce. Am I right? And good sauce is homemade. Am I right again? So therefore I decided upon a recipe that looked pretty easy and I was going to give it a try.  It turned out pretty darn good. Then with some revamping of my own. It has become my staple.

This recipe gives the most amazing sauce I have ever eaten. Yes, we eat it out of the pot as it is cooking. If you walk by the kitchen when this is simmering. You will not be able to keep your self from getting a spoon, and trying a little sample.

I will say it is a little bit of work, but the benefits are so worth it. I have also found that you MUST use diced tomatoes. I pour a little into my hand over the pot and smash around. Then pour another handful and repeat until it is all smashed.   I tried whole tomatoes and crushed tomatoes. They just don’t work. For some reason, it just makes the correct mixture to crush by hand.

This makes a ton of sauce. I mean you will need a large pot for this.  I usually double it, so that I can make two lasagna pans. One for that meal, and another to freeze. I am really into freezing for future meals. Makes life so easy sometimes.  You can also freeze the sauce to use in spaghetti and other pastas.

Werner Hunting House Lasagna

  • Servings: 10-12
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • Print

  • 1 pd sweet italian sausage
  • 1 pd ground beef
  • ½ cup onion, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes, crush by hand
  • 2 (6.5 oz) cans tomato paste
  • 1-1 ½ cups water
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons parsley, divided
  • 12 lasagna noodles or 2 pkgs lasagna sheets
  • 16 ounces ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
  • 1 cup parmesan cheeses, grated
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  1. In a large saucepan cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basic, fennel seeds, italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
  2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8-10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley and 1/2 tsp salt.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Tope with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers. Top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Cover with foil to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make are the foil does not touch the cheese.
  5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Dawna’s Taco Salad

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You know sometimes when you are getting hungry, you yearn for something from home. Or maybe it is when you yearn for home you get a little hungry.  Either way memories and food seem to go hand in hand.

I’ve noticed for myself that when I am especially homesick for Tennessee that is when I crave my mom’s cooking the most. I want those smells to linger in my house. I want to taste the food and savor that memory of the last time I had this in my mom’s kitchen.  I bet we all have those certain recipes that just take us home. No matter where we are in the world, or where we are in life, we can smell that aroma or taste that food and we are back with in our childhood homes enjoying home.

Well that is what I believe this recipe is for my husband and his sisters.  For several years we would celebrate Thanksgiving down in gorgeous Craig, Colorado. Erica, my husband’s middle sister, lived in spectacular cabin placed on the hillside. Just being there over the holiday made you feel like you were in a movie. The crisp air, the cabin atmosphere, and the food. Oh my the food.

After Thanksgiving, my husband’s younger sister would whip up their mom’s taco salad. This recipe makes a ton. The girls would go shopping early in the morning and come home to this for lunch.  It will fill you up and hit the spot. Let me just say I have never settled for just one bowl. I always seem to over stuff my self again on Friday, rather than giving my gullet a break.

Today my husband asked me to make this recipe for our day tomorrow gathering cows on the mountain.  It is a long day and this salad will be a great meal.  (Although my son, who is the pickiest eater in the free world, will have none and a PBJ will be calling his name.) This was a meal from my understanding their mom would make up for large crowds and for cow work.

So Enjoy!

Dawna's Taco Salad

  • Servings: 10-12
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 2 lbs of hamburger
  • 1 head of lettuce, chopped
  • 1 lrg onion, diced
  • 2 cups cheddar cheese
  • 1 lrg can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 cups mayo
  • 1 pkg taco seasoning
  • 1 family size back of Nacho Cheese Doritos

Cook the hamburger meat and drain. Add salt and pepper.  Remove from pan and allow to cool.  Mix together mayo and taco seasoning. Once the meat is cool add the mayo mixture and mix well.  Add the beans, lettuce, onion, cheese, to the meat mixture. Stir to combine.

Crush up the Doritos and add to the salad just before serving.

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This is my 2nd bowl. I was trying to downsize and only have a 1/2 cup of mix before I added my chips. That makes a second bowl better right?

Notes:  I have used pepper jack cheese and it was great. Also I don’t add the chips because it makes soggy leftovers. Instead I place the crushed chips in a large serving bowl and let guests add them to their bowls.  There is always leftovers and it keeps it crunchy. I like it better, it’s a texture thing for me I think.

Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup

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As I promised here is the recipe for this wonderful soup.  Trust me that hits home on a cold night. I made it in the morning for lunch. I was all alone and it was fantastic.  My husband and children really don’t care for this very much, so I was so happy to make it just for myself.  They are not real fans of gnocchi.

I left one container in the fridge,which I enjoyed for lunch today. The rest I put in containers and froze for another time. I am an avid freezer of everything. I hate for stuff to go to waste, so if I can freeze it I do.

Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup

  • Servings: 6-8
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • Print

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  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 tbsp flour
  • 4 cups half/half
  • 2 (14oz) cans of chicken broth
  • 1 cup carrots, finely diced or shredded
  • 2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
  • 1 pkg gnocchi
  • 1 box frozen chopped spinach
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp parsley

In a large pot, combine oil and butter. When melted add onion, celery, and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent.  Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, then add the half/half.

In another pot cook gnocchi according to pkg directions.

 

Add carrots and chicken to the soup mixture.  Once the mixture thickens add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and turn to a simmer.

 

Once it thickens again add the gnocchi, spinach, and seasonings.  Simmer until heated thro

 

ughly. Before serving season to taste.

 

This is the basic recipe. I will tell you that I deviate from this every time.  I seldom cook the gnocchi in another pot. I know there is a good reason, but to me why dirty another pot, when I can throw it in with the soup and leT it cook there. So when I add the chicken and carrots, I also add the gnocchi.  I guess it is just one of my pet peeves. If it turns out okay, why mess with more dishes to clean later.

 

I also have used heavy cream instead of half and half and it turned out just fine. My reasoning was that it was in my fridge and I didn’t have that much milk to thin it out.  I guess it was just a much creamier and a much higher calorie count then the above recipe. Also it was oh, so good!

Enjoy!

What a Ham!

wyranchwife2 Comments

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This summer at the local county fair market sale, we bought a 4-H pig from one of the kids. It is a great sale and the kids get a wonderful price for their animals. Most kids use this money for college. Our kids have sold steers the last couple of years and it is a great learning experience. Sometimes the buyers will donate the animal back to 4-H and they sale it at actual market price for buy backs. This is when most people can actually afford to buy one of the animals. The businesses will pay way above average to help the kids out.

Some animals are taken right away to be processed, However some go on to enter the Wyoming State fair. If they go to state then the processing plant will contact us when it is ready.

We had bought a lamb the year before and still had some left, so I pushed my husband toward the pig. He would rather have more lamb, but I wanted to get something else. So hence we have a pig in the freezer. Next year we will probably get another lamb, but for now we have some of both to eat.

At our place I keep all of the meat at the hunting house in two deep freezes. As I need it I go over and bring back what I want. It is just easier. In the deep freeze here at the house I keep all the other freezer items such as veggies, bread, ice cream, etc.

Well yesterday when I was digging in the freeze I found the fresh ham roast. I had never cooked one before, but why put it off. So out it came and I put it in the sink overnight to thaw. I am a terrible planner, so having it thaw in the fridge would have taken days, and I don’t plan that well. So overnight in the sink works well.

This morning we headed into town for church. It was a nice day and I was able to drive my new little car that the kids named the rocket. It’s a blast. I will share that story soon. Anyway on the way home I was searching different recipes for fresh ham. I found a couple and as usual did my own thing. I have to. It is what works with my pantry and what works for me.

I put this huge roast on my roasting rack. Oh My! It is easily 15 pounds if not more. I scored it and put cloves all over it.  My son wanted to know what was sticking out of it. LOL..  I let it cook at 350 for about 5 hours and then began basting it with sauce.  I basted it about every 15-20 mintues for around an hour. Then I poured what was left over the roast and cooked it another 15 minutes.  At this point I took it out and let it sit while I prepared some mashed potatoes to go with it.

Usually I try to do the southern traditional thing of something green, white, and yellow at every meal. However tonight it was just mashed potatoes and ham. That was plenty.  It turned out great and received reviews from all the family.

I will say I am going to have to come up with some recipes to use up this huge ham besides sandwiches.

Dr. Pepper Glazed Fresh Ham

  • Servings: 12-15
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • Print

  • 1 large fresh ham, 15 pounds
  • 2 cans of Dr. pepper or similar beverage
  • 3 tsp ground mustard
  • 6 cups brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • cloves

Score the ham in a criss cross pattern. Insert cloves where they meet.  Cook at 350 degrees for about 5 hours or 20 minutes per pound.

In the meantime combine coke, mustard, brown sugar, and vinegar. Bring it to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Continue to simmer until it reduces.

Brush the ham with the sauce every 15-20 minutes. Pour the additional sauce over the ham and let it cook for 10-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes.

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Maybe Minestrone

wyranchwife1 Comment

I am not a huge TV watcher. I can take it or leave it and I would say 98% of the time I leave it.  However there is one exception. I do DVR Pioneer Woman, Barefoot Contessa, and Trisha Yearwood. There is one more but I haven’t watched any of the shows yet, so I can’t even remember the name.  Oh well, these are my big three. Everyone in my house knows that if Mom sits down and turns TV on, it is going to cooking shows.  Well it is what I do.

This morning started much the same as usual, take the kids to the bus stop and come back here for my breakfast before I begin cleaning or tackling any other to do items.  I have been eating the Pioneer Woman’s Spinach Artichoke dip for breakfast. I made it a couple of days ago. Look that one up on her blog. It is amazing!!!

Well I decided to catch up with Mrs. Ina.  She was making a great soup called Minestrone. Never made it before. However lots of chopping, lots of cooking. The longer I watched the more I thought I can make this. I have NEARLY all the ingredients. Well Decision made. The end of the show Ina and her husband were in front of the cozy fire and that topped it for me. I want to be warm and cozy enjoying this soup.

As I looked at Ina’s recipe, it immediately became apparent that I was going to have to improvise. I did not have a lot of the ingredients and since I live 33 miles from civilization, I would not be getting them anytime soon.  However I was already invested so here we go. Check hers out at www.foodnetwork.com. Hopefully next time I will have all the stuff to make it her way. When living on the ranch the main lesson I have learned is flexibility in all things. You gotta make things work.

Here we go. Her recipe uses pancetta. I don’t have any, never have. So I am going for bacon. Is that the same. I hope so. Maybe they are close and it will give a similar taste. I chopped it up with my handy-dandy kitchen shears and cooked it until almost crumbly, but not crunchy. I have a high hate for crunchy bacon. EWWW!

The next couple of items goes extremely well. I have carrots, onions, celery, but no squash. I figure potatoes will do. So I chop up a couple of those and throw them in. I let them cook with garlic, thyme. I do not have any canned tomatoes. But what I do have is a can of tomato sauce and some fresh tomatoes. I throw that in with about half a can of water. I add the 4 cups of chicken stock from my freezer. (Darn if I had thought ahead. I just made it and put in the freezer yesterday.) I let it all cook for about 30 minutes until the veggies were tender.

I then added 2 cups of dry elbow noodles. That was all I had besides rainbow spirals. I do not have any beans what so ever. I have never been out of beans. I am not sure what has happened to my cabinets. I am usually overly stocked on everything. I am thinking a major shopping endeavor is going to happen soon in my future.

I add 1 block of frozen chopped spinach and let it melt in the pot. I add some more chicken stock. Yep the rest of what I made. At this point my pot is almost to the spilling point. However I add just another handful of noodles. I figure they will soak up some extra moisture.  My chicken stock also has some chicken that came off the bones. So I do have some of that floating in my pot. Not sure how this is going to turn out.

It begins to thicken. The noodles are done. I add just a little more salt and pepper. Ladle myself a bowl and top with grated parmesan cheese. Not bad. Not bad at all. Wow, I can only imagine if I had made it properly as in her recipe, but this is pretty good.

Here is my recipe. If you make it let me know it I need to adjust something. Sometimes I forget my exact substitutions.

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How many utensils can I fit in that pot? I know crazy.

Connie's Substitution Minestrone

  • Servings: 8-10
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

  • 5-7 pieces of bacon, cut into pieces
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 3 carrots, diced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 large potatoes, washed and diced with skins on
  • 1 1/2 tbsp. minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp. salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 2 tsp thyme leaves
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 can of water
  • 4 tomatoes, washed, and diced
  • 6-8 cups chicken stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cups dry pasta
  • 1 pkg frozen chopped spinach
  • Shredded parmesan cheese

Cook the bacon over medium heat until brown, but not crunchy. (unless you like crunchy)  Add the onions, celery, carrots, and potatoes. Stir and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, bay leaves, thyme, tomato sauce, water, tomatoes, and 4-5 cups of the chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, reduce and cook uncovered at a simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add the dry pasta and spinach.  Cook at a simmer until the pasta is done. Adjust seasonings as needed.

Serve in large bowls, with parmesan sprinkled over the top.

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Oh, it’s yummy. Hopefully the hubby will agree when he arrives home off the mountain.

First Time Potato and Ham Soup!

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When it’s cold out I want soup. When I am stressed I want soup. (Well I want to chop stuff up and soup lets me do that.)Last week was just cold, damp and gloomy. So I was in the soup making mood.

When our last week of hunters drive away. That is my cue to begin cleaning out the hunting house and bringing all the food back to my house. With the power outage, I had more than my usual amount of food to bring home and some needed cooked. I had two bags of the diced ham. I use it for a ham, egg, cheese, and hash brown breakfast casserole. My kids won’t eat it, and I hate eggs. (Yes, long story, but I detest them.)  So I needed to use it up.

Searching online I found several ham and potato soup recipes. I am notorious for reading 10 recipes and then using parts of all of them. It usually works out okay, until I go to make it again and have no idea what I did. This is one of those instances, but I think I remember pretty good.

Well I pulled out the pot and away we went.  I actually turned out delicious. My overly picky son, devoured it. He even took it to school in his lunch the next day and wanted it for supper. So it is a make again recipe.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Ham and Potato Soup

  • 3-4 large potatoes, cut into small pieces
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 6 cups water, or enough to cover the potatoes
  • 1-2 pkgs diced ham,
  • 1/2 stick butter, softened
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons Watkins Chicken flavoring or bullion granules
  • salt, to taste
  • pepper, to taste
  • 3-4 tbsp flour to thicken
  • 3 cups, milk or more to thin

1. Combine the potatoes, onion, ham, and water in a large pot.  Bring to a boil, cook over medium heat until tender.  Stir in the chicken flavoring, salt, and pepper.

2. Stir together butter and flour until combined. Add to the soup mixture.  Stir until dissolved. Add the milk. Stir over medium low heat until thick and soup is heated through.

3. Adjust with more thickening or thinning until you reach the desired consistency. Season to taste.

This is a great soup because you can add to it with more ham, maybe cheese. Serve it as thick or as thin as you desire.

It’s Time!

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There is something about the giving away of summer and the entrance of fall. Yes, fall. Not the abrupt jumping of seasons that winter tried to do last week, but the gradual entrance of fall. I look forward to this every year. I for one detest summer. The hot long days of cow work or just the blinding heat that keeps you trapped inside an overly hot house. Ugh! You can’t cook because nothing sounds good, plus who wants to heat up the house even more. I for one am a cooker. I cook for fun, when I am stressed, or depressed, or when I have nothing to do. Okay I always have something to do, so if I am avoiding doing something I should be doing, I cook instead.   It is what I do. A terrible habit I must admit!

Well fall brings with it my inability to stop myself from cooking everything. It’s time again for cookies, pies, and soups. Oh, how I love to cook a good soup. Plus it is almost time for the holidays and the cooking gets even more intense. Oh I just love this time of year.

We have an outfitting business and I do all the cooking. It is so much fun and I cook until I am tired of standing in the kitchen.   My poor hands crack from the constant dishes, but it is so darn fun. Well I have leftover supplies that I being back over to my house. This year one of the things I just never used was a two pound bag of pecans. I mean what was I thinking to buy that big of a bag. I hate nuts in anything. They are just odd. Well this morning as I was putting away all the supplies this bag of pecans just kept pulling me. I couldn’t help myself. I usually wait till closer to the holidays, but I couldn’t I had to make the most fabulous thing possible with pecans and in my world quite possible the only thing I make with pecans, Candied sugared holiday pecans.  These are so good. Oh I could eat them all. I really could. Over time of course. You must try these. They will be a hit with everyone. Even non nut eaters like myself will be begging you to make more. Trust me do this, do it soon.

Sugared Candied Holiday Pecans

  • Servings: 10-12
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

  • 1 lb pecans whole
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sugar

1. In a large bowl combine the egg white and water. Whisk until frothy. Add the  pecans to the bowl and mix until coated well. Let sit for 2-3 minutes to moisten well.

2. In a small bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Pour over the pecans. Mix thoroughly until all the pecans are coated with the sugar mixture. Pour onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 200 degrees for 1.5 hours. Stir once. Let cool on cookie sheet. Break apart and store in an airtight container.