Happy Monday to you!  I hope you had a great weekend.  My weekend was action packed with “the house”.  We started painting the ceilings this weekend and I had to clean the whole house  before paint starts on the walls (today).  We are still having window problems – we had some more rain along with a couple of new leaks – grrrrrrr.

We had a lot of help at the new build with sweeping, cleaning and vacuuming.  It was greatly appreciated.  A zesty in law spent the whole day on Sunday pushing the broom, scraping the seam filling mud off the floor and vacuuming.  You gotta love great help!  Needless to say I didn’t spend much in the kitchen but we did manage to eat.  I wanted to share with you a old time recipe that I am guessing everyone has tried.

Now this is a super dish for leftovers, a great casserole in the winter and even better a pretty healthy dish over all.  I know this has ground beef on the bottom but if you are a vegetarian you could simple substitute out the beef for scrambled tofu or just use other vegetables such as eggplant, zucchini or even squash.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
• 1-2 cups vegetables – chopped carrots, corn, peas
• 1 1/2 – 2 lbs potatoes (3 large potatoes)
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).
2. While the potatoes are cooking, add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink.
3. Add the carrots and let them cook until warmed through.Add salt and pepper.
4. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.
5. Add corn or peas near the end of the cooking process before adding to the casserole dish.
6. Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, add the milk to give some extra flavor and season to taste.
7. Place beef and vegetable mixture in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely.
8. Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Zesty Tip: There are a couple of tips that I would recommend with this dish.  Utilizing a can of vegetable soup is a great idea if you don’t have beef stock on hand.  It gives a nice flavor and keeps it moist.  Another idea is to rub a little milk and butter on top of the potatoes to ensure they get nice and golden brown.

My final idea, which I have yet to try, is to attempt this recipe with a “SWEET POTATO” topping.  I can only assume this would be delicious.

Open Sky NEW PROMOTION – 10% OFF SALE

We’ve launched a 10% OFF SALE!  This sale applies to EVERYTHING in every OpenSky shop, from Yes You Can Grill’s Outdoor Chef City Grill to Cooking With Friends’ Jarden Ball Home Canning Kit to Veggie Gardening Tips’ Composting Accessory Kit.

Here are the details:

• Coupon Code: Cory1009
• Offer: 10% off
• Expiration: November 15, 2009

Giveaway Update

I am really impressed with the results of my latest giveaway from Friday and I am really grateful for all your nice comments.  They really are fun to read!  I was thinking of a crazy idea and I wanted to run it by you to see what you thought.  What do you think if I get 350 comments on the giveaway that I actually give TWO Design Makeovers.  Let me know your thoughts and then tell all your friends and see if we can reach that number.

Wow  – I think that was a long post.  I hope you have an awesome Monday.  If I can remember to take the camera to the house tomorrow – you will be getting a house update.

Take care

zesty

Well I think it is safe to say that at some point in our lives we have all been exposed to a box of kraft dinner or two.  I first have to tell you a couple of mandatory ingredients that are a must have for a successfull batch of the popular fluorescent orange meal.

To start it off – if one does not have real milk and real butter they should not even open the package of kraft dinner and get started.  These really are must haves to make the kraft dinner as it was intended.  While cooking it at our house – I usually add a little less milk and little more butter than they suggest to make it creamier.  I find if you add to much milk it becomes soup-like ( which I am not a huge fan of)

Now because Kraft Dinner preparation is not rocket science… I thought I would spice this post up and show you how I spent yesterday at the house.  I tested ( not for the first time for some) the below add-in recipes to make sure they turned out edible and worthy of letting the world see inside my unique kraft dinner add-ins.  So I hope you enjoy the recipes to follow and if you have any different or interesting comments about Kraft Dinner – I would love to hear about them.

Ground Beef

• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked
• add taco seasoning (as you would to make meat for tacos, according to the package directions)
• drained 1 can (15 oz.) Mexican style diced tomatoes
• 1 Cup mushroom pieces and stems

Tuna

• 1 can (6 oz.) tuna, drained chunk
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• dash of Italian seasoning
• 1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup each milk and frozen peas

Chicken

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1/2 lb.), cooked, chopped
• 1 can (15 oz.) Italian style diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup chopped green peppers (about 1 medium)
• dash of thyme

Pepperoni/Hotdog

• 1 cup Pepperoni or hotdog slices (about 1/4 lb.)
• 1 cup chopped green peppers (about 1 medium)
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes (about 2 medium)

Ham

• 1 cup of cooked ham ( cubed)
• 1 cup of cooked spinach ( or baby spinach raw)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2 cup Bread crumbs

For the Ham Recipe above I like to stir in the parmesan cheese in at the very end then transfer everything to a casserole dish and top with bread crumbs and baked it in oven at 375 degrees until golden brown and bubbly.  And of course you can do that for any of the above choices but I find it works best with the ham and spinach.

Just for the record – I am not a huge fan of Kraft Dinner and I rarely eat it but it is fun to experiment. No matter how much you argue – most kids in this generation really do love the infamous orange noodle.