Thanksgiving Week - Green Bean Casserole

Available from Berkley Prime Crime now.

By Peg Cochran

We came to the concept of green bean casserole late in my family.  My father did not eat casseroles.  Period.  I doubt either of my parents, both of European heritage, had ever even heard of anything like a green bean casserole. I can't remember when I decided to try it--but I was determined to make it with fresh ingredients and sans the mushroom soup.  My girls took to it like a duck to water, and now it is de rigueur for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I made this up right to the point where you top it with the French fried onion rings and bake it.  I wanted to be able to freeze it for Thanksgiving and have one dish out of the way! So you will have to use your imagination when it comes to the final product.







2 lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed and cut in half
1 8 oz package white mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt & pepper to taste
1 container of French fried onion rings (store brand is fine)

White Sauce

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare green beans and add to boiling water.  Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until partially cooked but still firm. They will cook the rest of the way in the oven.  Plunge under cold water to stop the cooking and preserve the bright green color.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in saute pan.  Add sliced mushrooms, thyme and salt and pepper and cook until mushrooms begin to yield their juice.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in saucepan.  Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 to 60 seconds to cook flour.  Slowly stir in milk, pinch of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens.

Sliced mushrooms browning in pan.

Nicely browned mushrooms.

Blanched green beans

One of a set of nifty "mise en place" bowls my sister-in-law gave me.

Flour added to butter and browning slightly for white sauce

Add mushrooms to white sauce and combine with beans (it's helpful to do this in a large bowl).  Add to casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees until hot and bubbly--approximately 20 to 25 minutes.  Top with onion rings and bake until onion rings brown, approximately 10 minutes more.

The frozen pizza I made for dinner because I was making this green bean casserole. <g>

Top with onion rings before baking. This is going in the freezer for Thanksgiving

Available from Berkley Prime Crime now.

Caramel Candy Corn Apples

by Peg Cochran

I remember when I was a kid trick-or-treating that the elderly couple down the street always gave us the biggest, most beautiful Red Delicious apple you could imagine.  Of course this was before we had to worry about sick people putting things in apples.  At the time I thought it was the biggest rip-off.  An apple?  Puleeze.  Plus they always invited us in, and we had to stand there quietly while they chatted with my mother, wasting valuable trick-or-treating time.

Now caramel apples are a different story!  I decided to try my hand at them with mixed results.  They taste great, but I’m not very artistic (or patient) so mine didn’t turn out looking like the beautiful ones you see in gourmet food stores.  But it was fun!  I decided to use candy corn on them to accent the Halloween theme along with a drizzle of chocolate.  One of the biggest stumbling blocks was keeping my husband out of the caramels before I had a chance to make these!

You'll need apples, caramels, candy corn and sticks

Ingredients:

1-14 oz bag caramels (the kids can help you unwrap them!)

3 apples

sticks for the apples

your choice of toppings

Chocolate chips

Melt about 30 caramels in a pan with a tablespoon of water over low heat.  Keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

Submerge apples one at a time in boiling water for a couple of seconds.  Remove and dry vigorously with a towel.  (this will remove the wax coating they put on apples which would make it harder for the caramel to stick.)

When the caramel is melted, hold the apple by the stick and dip in caramel.  I found it was easiest to put the apple in the pan and then drizzle on the caramel with a spoon.  When coated, quickly roll the apple in the candy corn or your topping of choice.

I placed the apples on a foil lined cookie sheet.  Note to self, either butter the foil or spray with Pam.  The caramel STICKS and I had to wrestle them free!  Melt a handful of chocolate chips in the microwave (about 1/3 cup) and drizzle over apples. 

I found I had to warm the caramel between apples because it would harden very quickly.

Available now from Berkley Prime Crime

Available now from Berkley Prime Crime

  

Paninis Without the Press

by Peg Cochran

The word panino is Italian for "small bread roll.”  The plural form is panini.  A panini is essentially a sandwich although it has come to refer to a grilled sandwich.  They make special panini presses, and while I’ve ogled them in the Williams Sonoma catalog on more than one occasion, I decided that I really didn’t need another gadget in my kitchen (famous last words!).  So…I came up with an alternative method.

I usually put the panini on my cast iron stove top grill and top it with the heavy cast iron frying pan that I inherited from my grandmother, and which I will be able to leave to my children, grandchildren, etc.  (Do they ever wear out?)

I was going to make some paninis the other day when I spied my waffle iron on my shelf.  Hmmmm….how about a sandwich grilled in that?  Not strictly a panini maybe, but I thought it might be interesting.  My husband loved it!  It got nice and crispy, and the cheese melted beautifully.

You have lots of options for your filling, but for your bread you need something fairly substantial—tonight I’m using a Portuguese bread I found in the grocery store.  Other times, I’ve used a round loaf of peasant Italian bread. 

I’ve used deli meats (ham and turkey specifically) with a layer of cheese (provolone or swiss) with great results.  But I also like to use leftover chicken.  We had a rotisserie chicken the other night so I’m going to use the leftover white meat. 

Ingredients

Mayo
Butter
Deli meat slices or white meat chicken
Slices of cheese
Extras: Sliced tomatoes, avocado or onion

Italian or Portuguese bread

Your basic waffle iron

A glass of wine for the cook!

First, put some mayo on each slice of bread.  I use light mayo.  If you aren’t at all concerned about calories, butter the outsides of the slices of bread.  If you want to limit the caloric hit, you can spray them with non-stick cooking spray such as Pam.   Place your choice of fillings on the bread, put your sandwich together and place in your waffle iron and press down.  I wasn’t able to completely close and lock my waffle iron, but that didn’t matter.

The delicious finished product

 Grill for approximately three minutes (depends on how hot your waffle iron gets so be sure to check every minute or so.) 

Available now from Berkley Prime Crime

 Enjoy.

Available now from Berkley Prime Crime

A Dinner Your Kids Can Make!

I'm so old my picture is in b/w! Me with my grandmother's dog Pinky

by Peg Cochran

Girl Scout Stew

This has been such a fun week on Mystery Lover’s Kitchen!  I’ve loved seeing the recipe suggestions for dinners, lunches and snacks although my little ones are grown and my granddaughter is approaching pre-school age.

My recipe is one that your children can make on their own!  I’m guessing they need to be around 10 or 11 to handle this, but you will be able to judge when they are ready to safely use the stove.   We called this “Girl Scout Stew” although the recipes I have seen on-line are slightly different.  I assume I got this recipe from my Girl Scout troop.  It was a huge thrill when my mother let me make it for dinner!  Besides, I thought it was delicious!  But we never had it when my father was home.  He refused to eat anything resembling a casserole (except my grandmother’s sauerbraten and my aunt’s stuffed cabbage).  He liked his meat, vegetable and starch neatly separated on the plate!

The original recipe for this did not include the onion, but when making it for me and my husband to take the pictures, I thought it would add something.  You can leave it out, or, you can teach your son or daughter some knife skills.  I’ve shown one technique for cutting an onion below. I was afraid my husband would find this dish too unsophisticated, but he went back for seconds and ate the leftovers for lunch the next day.  So much for sophistication!

It’s a huge thrill for a child to be able to make dinner for the whole family!  I always felt like a million dollars when I did it.  The one thing you might want to help with or supervise is draining the pasta from the boiling water.

I also halved the recipe for this blog since it’s just me and my husband.  The ingredients are for the full recipe and should serve four.

Ingredients:

Olive or vegetable oil

1 lb. ground beef
2 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped (optional)
1 lb. elbow macaroni

Add 1 TBL of olive or vegetable oil to your frying pan and turn heat to medium high. Saute onion until translucent (if using.)  Add ground beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until meat loses its raw color.  Add two cans of tomato sauce and let simmer on a very low flame for 15 to 20 minutes to meld the flavors (Optional step – if you don’t have the time, just proceed with the recipe.) 

Cook elbow macaroni in boiling water until just done (don’t overcook).  Add to ground beef/tomato mixture and stir.  Heat through—approximately five minutes.  Can be served as is or topped with grated parmesan cheese.

To Cut Your Onion.

First peel onion, then cut in quarters, leaving the stem on.

 

Lay onion quarter on its side and slice lengthwise at regular intervals but without cutting through stem.  This will keep your onion layers together.  Turn onion to other flat side and again slice through vertically at intervals.  Now, slice across the onion, perpendicular to your original cuts.  You should have nice diced pieces!  Discard stem end when done and repeat with remaining onion quarters.  

Both my books are out now!  Allergic to Death is the first in the Gourmet De-Lite series.  Murder Unmentionable is written under my pen name of Meg London and is first in the Sweet Nothings Lingerie series.