Patty Pan Squash Pleasure

I found a new love! Patty Pan Squash! Now I've only had the pleasure of trying the white ones with a hint of green, but they are still awesome!

The squash itself is sweeter than a zucchini & fewer seeds, but any recipe I have used with Zucchini has been interchangeable with Patty Pans. Cutting up the squash alone is even fun to do. 

With the plants my mom is growing, I've noticed a difference between the squash from two different plants. One is whiter with stripes of light green, bumpier too with more ball like edges and the other is more of a solid white with green tint, and smoother with flat ball like edges. The smoother ones tended to have a tougher outside. Not sure how that happened since the seeds came from the same packet.

With all this squash I have been prepping, I'm beginning to think I also have a secrete love for garlic & onions...... :o)

Ingredients

1 sliced patty pan squash - 4-5 inches in diameter
1-2 tomatoes diced

1/2 c mild green chili

1/2 c onions

2 tbl minced garlic

pinch of pepper

pinch of salt

1 tsp Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Extra Spicy seasoning
1/2 tsp olive oil
Mozzarella cheese to put on top (optional)

In a medium sauce pan or skillet, sauté garlic & onions in olive oil. Add squash sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cook 5-10 minutes until squash is tender, may need to cover to speed up the cook. Add seasons & tomatoes and green chili & cook an addition minute or two until the tomatoes and chili are warm.

Serve with mozzarella cheese.

Best Ever Chicken & Zucchini Soup

I had been sick with pneumonia over the last month, I was taking forever to get better. I was even having trouble keeping food down, It had been five days & the only thing I could keep down was a can of Squirt (I later found out that the antibiotic medicine I was taking was the root of the problem). My mom had decided to come pick me up & take me to her house to get better.  She had purchased a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.  With the abundance she had left over, she made some soup with it, using all fresh ingredients from her garden, well, minus the chicken broth... Really, anything can be added to the soup with no real measured amounts & it will still taste fantastic! I made it again when I got home, & as my partner told me, it made "A party in her mouth!"

2-3 c or about 1 lb cubed & cooked chicken

2 cans of chicken broth

Squash - diced

Carrots - cut small

Green Chili - diced

1 can of Garlic & Herb Diced Tomatoes

4 tbls minced garlic

1 c sliced onions (I don't really dice my onions, since I like to see & eat the long pieces)

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp McCormick Vegetable seasoning

Sauté garlic & onions in olive oil in a large deep pan, until onions are slightly soft. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours or until carrots are soft.
Eat!
I served the soup with garlic bread. I didn't have a whole chicken left over, so I browned some cubed chicken breast in olive oil in a skillet before I added it to my soup.  I figured the chicken would fall apart if I didn't brown it first.

Stuffed Zucchini Squash

I've had an abundance of zucchini given to me from my Mom's Garden.  In the past we usually threw out the extremely large pieces thinking they weren't any good.  After trying them, I decided they were still good, they are only extremely large due to my Dad's awesome rabbit manure mix... Plus, my parents live in an area where there are not any rocks, so gardening is very easy for them. I've been trying to put the zucchini to good use & record what I've done with them so I can remember for next year.

I had seen something similar on Pinterest, taken from Kayotic Kitchen, so I decided to adapt the recipe to my liking.

After only two days, my mom would pick anywhere from 7-10 big suckers like these, And she only has two plants!!!

Ingredients

1 extremely large squash (pictured above, large green one about 12 inches long)

1 tsp Olive Oil

3-4 tbl minced garlic

1/2 c sliced onions

1 large tomato diced & drained or one can of diced tomatoes drained (I rinsed the juices off under water)

1 c sliced mushrooms

1/2 c chopped green chili drained

1 tsp McCormick vegetable seasoning

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 spoon full of sour cream

6-10 slices of cooked bacon diced

Mozzarella & Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 400˚F.

Clean and slice in half the large squash, leaving the ends for the cool look. Scoop out insides, leaving a little flesh in the boat & dice the insides. (If more detail is need, see Kayotic Kitchen's recipe, link above).

Sauté in a medium sauce pan: olive oil, minced garlic, onions, & squash insides for 5-10 minutes until onions are soft. Add mushrooms, tomatoes & green chili. Important to have the tomatoes and green chili drained of their juices because the squash is extremely juicy itself, otherwise will have a lot of juices left on the plate. If necessary, drain extra juice from pan then add vegetable seasoning, salt & pepper. Sauté for 1 minute longer, the remove from heat to cool.

Place zucchini boats in a baking dish, lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick spray.

Add sour cream & bacon to vegetables & mix.

Spoon mix into zucchini boats and top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Place uncovered in oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is browned and zucchini is forkable.

Best Ever Stuffing!

I'm not a fan of stuffing that come in a box because I can't really stand the celery bits. Once I set to reading the back of my crouton packaging, it read that they would be great to be used as a stuffing, but there was no recipe... :-( So, I set to work on experimenting...

Ingredients
2-6 oz pkg Rothbury Farms Seasoned Croutons (no longer in business)
1 1/2 c beef or chicken broth
1/2 c butter

On the stove, in a medium pan, bring to a boil broth & butter. Remove from heat. Add croutons. Stir. Let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork before serving.

Crock Pot Red Chili con Carne

Once while visiting my Ma, I had the pleasure of tasting some of her Red Chili Meat. It was the BEST! Just thinking about it is making my mouth water! I bugged her about the recipe, but she didn't really have one, she just threw things together & made it work. With two attempts at it myself at home, I figured it out.

Servings ~ 10
Prep: 20 minutes; Cook: 6-8 hours
Ingredients
3 lbs of pork stew meat (It doesn't really matter which cut of meat you use, the crock pot will make it tender. I'm sure it will work with beef or chicken. I found some grilling pork on sale & used that for my second attempt.)
1lb 12 oz Red Chili sauce
2 1/2 c water
1/2 c flour
2 tbl spoons minced garlic, heaping
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp salt (optional)
Olive Oil to fry in

In a blender, add red chili sauce, water, flour, minced garlic, salt & garlic salt. My blender was quite full after I added it all together. You may want to hold off adding 1 c. of water until after you have the rest blended. Blend the mix until the sauce is smooth & mixed. Add the sauce to crock pot. (for a thicker sauce, leave out 1/2 cup of water)

Cut up meat to small bite size pieces. Personally, I like small bites of meat so I can tear off a piece of tortilla, fold a piece of meat in it & add a dollop of sour cream to each bite.

In a pan of oil on the stove (deep fryer will work also), fry a large handful of meat at a time until you do not see any pink on the outside. There is no need to fry the meat all the way through, they will cook the rest of the way in the crock pot. (This step can be excluded altogether, but I think it adds more flavor to the meat to have it fried just the tinniest bit). My Ma likes to fry her meat in vegetable oil because it will get hotter than olive oil & 'brown' her meat a little bit.

When you remove the meat from the fryer, it is best to place it in a separate bowl so the oil will drain off. After the meat has drained, scoop meat out of the bowl with a large spoon with holes & place it into the crock pot with chili (do not pour the whole bowl into the crock pot to avoid adding the drippings). Give the chili meat mixture a good stir, cover & turn crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. 

Serve like a soup in a bowl with flour tortillas, shredded mozzarella cheese, sour cream & guacamole or make a burrito out of it.

Holiday Cheese Balls with Crackers

Growing up, I remember always helping my Mother make cheese balls for friends & family. I would grate the cheese, my Mom would mix and make the balls, then I would roll them around in the red powder. Now I have my own family, I decided I would carry on the tradition.

In December 2023, I decided I would try adding dried Green Chili and Rosemary to the inside of the cheeseball. I loved the change! 

Makes about 20 medium size cheese balls
Ingredients

Thanksgiving Turkey Cake Pops

I had decided to make these for my son's class & give them a little boost for the holiday spirit. :)

As I started making them, I asked myself, 'WHY did I start them again soo soon after making some for Halloween?!?!?!?' They turned out cute and were not so difficult as the first ones I did.



I started the day before on making my sugar gum paste feathers & heads. My son & I spent some time coloring the gum paste with gel food coloring.  We were trying to match the brown to the chocolate bodies but couldn't quite get it dark enough. I used a flower cookie cutter & knife to cut out the shapes for each of the feathers.  It worked well for my 9yr old son to cut the rolled out sugar gum paste with the cookie cutter & I used the knife cut the flowers into feathers.  In very random order I 'glued' three together with clear vanilla extract on a sheet of wax paper.  This took almost 24 hours to dry, but when they did dry, they were well stuck together. I did not think it would work at first but I didn't give up.   

My partner thought they
looked huge in a picture
so I captured my hand to
show the size.

My son was helping in the beginning but it proved a little difficult for him so I had him bake a chocolate cake while I did the gluing. 

I used both Orange and Yellow for the beaks.  They were very small. As soon as I rolled the head, I stuck the beak on the head so they could dry together. My son used a edible marker to color the eyes.  After they had dried to where they wouldn't smash when I would pick them up, I used red gel food coloring to paint the red snood on the beak.

The next morning, I crumbled the cake and added 1/2 a can of chocolate buttercream icing, mixing it well.  I stuck the bowl of cake & icing mixture in the fridge for about 20 minutes for it to firm up.  I then rolled the cake mixture into balls and placed them onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I then poked a hole into the top of each ball for the sucker sticks.  I melted a small amount of chocolate dipping candy, suck a sucker stick into the melted candy & then placed the sucker stick into the hole on the ball of cake.

After I had all the balls and sticks made, I froze them for about 2 hours so that when I dipped the cake into chocolate, they wouldn't fall off the stick.

The chocolate melt was still a little darker than the color of my turkey heads so I added some white candy melt to it and the color came out softer. I melted the candy according to the directions on the packaging.

In assembling all the pieces together, I had my partner help me.  I dipped while she placed the feather and heads on the body.  It was easier to have the feathers laid out on wax paper & set the cake pop onto the feathers rather than holding the cake pop upright & holding the feathers and head until the chocolate candy hardened.

I went to Walmart three days before Thanksiving to look for a way to display my gaggle of turkeys & I was pleasantly surprised to see the "fall" items on sale. I purchased a scarecrow for $.50!  Also found some small plastic pumpkins to throw into the mix.

I used the same basket that I had used for the Scary Cake Pops. I purchased a tan leafy material to cover my Styrofoam block. I found some 'straw' to use & ribbon with wire in the fabric section. 

The ladies in the school office thought it was sooooo cute. The next time I went to the office they wanted to know what I was going to make for Christmas.... Snow mans???  Sorry to say tho, they will have to be okay with my Holiday Cheeseballs....