Can't Get Easier Than This

3 Bean and Sausage Bake

The older I get, the less complicated my cooking becomes. I watch my daughters making wonderful dinners—and they'll say, "but this was easy."—and I know it was, but their recipes will have more steps than I want to take right now.

Last night I made a new recipe that was the epitome of simple. It tasted good. It was the comfort food I needed. And I had all the ingredients on hand—at least with a couple of substitutions, I did. (As far as I'm concerned, canned beans are interchangeable.) I'm keeping this recipe and will do it again.

I had spent a week, thankfully with Daddy-O's help for most of the days, keeping these two little kiddos while their parents had a get-away. I am not the grandmother I was ten years ago when the middle set of grandchildren were this age. (Our grandchildren are in 3 age "sets"—22...12 & 8...3 & 1) Lifting the baby and wrangling two little ones in general kept me on the move. 

I got home late afternoon two days ago and that night we simply had cheese and crackers for supper right before I fell asleep. Last night I figured I should do better.

This printed recipe had been on my kitchen counter for a couple of weeks. I am such a fan of beans and I love sausage, so I knew I was going to try this one. The hardest part of throwing this together was dicing the onion. And I'm speedy with that task. Slice the sausage and open the cans and you're nearly done.

The author of this recipe says it's Weight Watcher friendly. If you don't count the cornbread. I made a couple of less friendly subs because my goal last night was to be super quick. I used 1 tablespoon of olive oil instead of cooking spray to brown the sausage and the onion. And I used shredded cheese from a bag...not reduced fat like she did...because it was easy. 

In her post she said the recipe freezes well. I'm trusting her. We are a household of two, so I divided the recipe into two pan and popped one into the freezer after I covered and labeled it. I know we should have had something green on this plate. But last night it was good just to have food. Check out the original recipe from Recipe Girl here. 

3 BEAN & SAUSAGE BAKE

1 tablespoon olive oil

16-oz turkey kielbasa, sliced

1 medium onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 tsp from a jar)

1 (15-oz can) great northern beans, drained & rinsed

1 (15-oz can) pinto beans, drained & rinsed (I only had black beans on hand)

1 (15-oz can) light red kidney beans, drained & rinsed

1 cup water

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350º. Spray a 3-qt baking dish with cooking spray. 

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in skillet. Add kielbasa and cook until brown, stirring occasionally. Add onion and garlic, and cook until onion is tender. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes to let flavors blend. 

Pour into baking dish and bake, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes until bubbly in the center. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. (Because I divided mine into smaller pans, 30 minutes was enough baking time.)

I made a quick batch of corn muffins from a box of Jiffy mix. I always keep a box on the shelf because it's so easy. Right around New Years, I read a post on Instagram of 24 things to add to Jiffy Mix. And I found the article for you to read here. You can add one more thing to the list. Last night I scraped out the last of the sour cream from a container and added about 1/3 cup to the mix along with the milk and egg that's listed on the box. It was so good. A definite improvement in taste AND texture. 

My, Oh My...That Pie!

Easy Skillet Apple Pie

You've seen this recipe here before but it's worth another appearance. My friend Missy pointed me toward this Southern Living recipe a couple of years ago. If Missy says it's good, it's good. I made it right after she told me about it. Since then I've made it a few more times. My son-in-law made it twice over the holidays. It's that good. And it's that easy.

It also looks impressive. I had my book club friends here for lunch this week. Carol brought soup and corn muffins. Sarah brought cheese, fruit and crackers to nibble on as the girls arrived. And my job was to provide dessert. The seven of us take turns with the food. When they walked in my front door, our house smelled divine. All that cinnamon! 

This is ridiculously easy to make considering the showy result. The hardest part is peeling and slicing four pounds of apple. My mix of apples was what I had in the refrigerator—Macintosh, Red Delicious, a couple of Galas and one lone Granny Smith. That was fine.

I had a friend watching as I made it. She looked at the big bowl of sliced apples, shook her head and told me, "They're never going to fit into that pan." Although I didn't tell her, I wasn't sure they were going to fit either. But I kept piling them up high, tucking them in along the sides. I wish I had made a "before" photo. But they cook down into a normal size pie.

You might need to scoop it out. One time I actually got slices. Either way, it's delicious.

EASY SKILLET APPLE PIE

4 lbs apples, half Granny Smith & half Braeburn or Macintosh

good squeeze of lemon juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 box refrigerated pie crust (2 crusts per box)

1 egg white

2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Peel and slice apples into 1/2 inch slices. Squeeze lemon juice over apples and toss.  Then toss apples with cinnamon, 3/4 cup sugar and pinch of salt.

Melt butter in 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 to 2 minutes until sugar is melted. Remove from heat and place one pie crust on top of butter mixture. Spoon apples over pie crust. Top with remaining pie crust. (I didn't try to crimp the edges because the pan is hot. Just tuck in anything that hangs over.) 

Whisk egg white until foamy and brush over crust. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut slits in the top crust so the steam can escape. 

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly. If the crust is browning too quickly, shield with foil for the last 10 minutes.

Cool for 30 minutes before serving. And y'all...it begged for a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

PS...I slid a pizza pan onto the rack under the pie as it baked. Only one tiny drip. But better than it landed on the pan.

Aiming For An Ordinary New Year

Chloe, your comment on my last blog post meant more to me than you'll ever know. 

We all (I think) wonder if people notice us. It's good to be checked on. 

We said "good riddance" to 2022 and welcomed 2023 with our traditional peas and collards. Notice how basic the plate is? It was a very bare bones meal, with three of us eating at lunch time and the rest having the leftovers for dinner—after they got home from the hospital. 2022 seems to be dragging its feet into this new year. 

We are aiming for "ordinary" this year. There is wonder and comfort in the routine and the regular. We look forward to tucking in special bits in here and there.

We have had nothing catastrophic happen, but the last six months have been nothing like we expected.  So many things happened. Our schedule went wonky. Some health issues were ours. Some belonged to others but impacted us, too. Our church pianist fell right before Christmas and broke her arm. That turned into lots and lots of extra time at the piano to prepare music for several services. I'm learning trying to live within my limits. Piano time took priority over cooking, making photos and blog posting. 

Yesterday I was able to spend several minutes in our beautiful historic sanctuary before I sorted out my music and settled in at the piano. I needed the calm and the peace that was there. 

(It was a different story on Christmas Eve when a squirrel got into the sanctuary and raced around during the service.)

These collards were so good yesterday that I'm sharing this recipe again. It takes a whole morning or afternoon to cook them like this—and I put my cooker out on our porch—but it's very easy. Any leftovers can be frozen for a quick vegetable side dish later. 

COLLARD GREENS

1/2 lb. smoked meat (ham hocks, smoked turkey wings or smoked neck bones--I use turkey wings)
2-3 teaspoons House Seasoning*
1-2 teaspoons Lawrys' Seasoning Salt
2 (16- oz) bags frozen chopped collards (or 1 large bunch of fresh collards, cleaned and sliced)
1 tablespoon butter

In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add smoked meat, house seasoning and seasoned salt. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour.
Add frozen greens and butter. Cook for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning to taste.

*House Seasoning: 1 cup salt, 1/4  cup black pepper, 1/4 cup garlic powder. Mix together and store in airtight container.

 

How regular will I be posting in 2023? I really have no clue. Maybe not at often as in years past (do I dare admit I have nothing left to say?) but I'm aiming for at least once a month, with extra posts when there is something worth sharing. 

This blog space has become a much used resource for storing my recipes. It's accessible to family and friends. It can be pulled up while standing in the grocery aisle. So you may see and occasional post that is only a recipe. That lets me add it to the index. 

Just a reminder, if you can't find a recipe in the index, you can use the little search box at the top left of the web version of the blog. Type in a key word and it should pull up any posts related to it. I find I use that more often than the index. The trick is to open the web version .