Fudge Pie

This pie is easy as pie and delicious!

I made this kind and peach for Kristen's birthday many years ago.  That little boy is now 10 and his sister is 12. Shown with Grandpa Pete- our long-time neighbor and friend.

Fudge Pie

2 squares (2 ounces) semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 unbaked pie crust

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan or in the microwave.  Stir until smooth.  Add the sugar and eggs and beat well.  Pour into the pie shell and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate for about an hour or longer until set.  Serve with whipped cream.

This pie is good and it is so easy.  But the best chocolate pie recipe I have is this one.  So if you want easy, try the recipe above.  If you want out of this world, click on the link.  

Taco Rice

Mexican-flavored foods are gaining popularity in Japan.  You can find ingredients such as salsa, taco seasoning, and hot sauce on the grocery shelves.  A recipe they make there, that I haven't seen here is taco rice.  It puts Mexican flavors with their beloved rice.  It was really good.  It is difficult to find tortill chips there.  So they often just put regular potato chips on the taco rice(as shown).  They served this a few times at our weekly family home evenings.  It was always a big hit with everyone. (Eat it with chopsticks, of course!)

Taco Rice
1 lb. hamburger browned with
1 diced onion
Add taco seasoning and water to make a sauce
Serve over hot, cooked rice.  Top with chopped lettuce, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, chopped green onions, tortilla chips, and salsa. 
Easy and yummy.

Michelle's Cheese Ball

Need a good cheese ball recipe for your New Year's festivities or Super Bowl celebration?  Michelle made this for an appetizer for our Thanksgiving dinner.  It was delicious!  She got the recipe from allrecipes.com.

Cheese Ball
2- 8oz. packages cream cheese, softened
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
1/2 green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Salt, just a pinch
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans.
Combine the cream cheese and cheddar cheese in a bowl- It is easiest to use your hands to mix them together.  Add the peppers, onion, Worcestershire, lemon juice and salt.  Mix well and shape into a round ball.  Spread the chopped pecans on a plate.  Roll the cheeseball in the pecans until the ball is well and evenly coated.  Refrigerate overnight.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

Italian Beef Sandwiches
3-4 lb. boneless beef chuck roast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 T. Italian seasoning
2 green peppers, diced
2 onions, diced
1 box mushrooms, sliced
1 jar sliced pepperoncini
2 small cans tomato sauce
Sliced provolone or Mozarella cheese
Sandwich rolls, toasted

Spray a crockpot.
Combine the salt, pepper, garlic salt and Italian seasoning to make a rub.  Rub into the roast.  Put the roast in the slow cooker.  Add the vegetables and some of the juice from the pepperoncini.  Add the tomato sauce.  Cover and cook on low for 10 hours or high for 5 or 6.  Using two forks, shred the meat.  Mix well.  Put some of the mixture on top of a split, toasted crusty sandwich roll.  Top with cheese.  Put under the broiler until the cheese is melted.

Sesame Spinach Salad

This is a very common, nutritious and delicious salad served in Japan.  We had it often at our weekly family home evenings held at the church.  I was always excited to see it on the menu.  It didn't always have the beet greens- only when fresh from the garden. 

2 boxes frozen spinach or 1 1/2 lbs. fresh baby spinach, blanched and drained
Beet greens (optional- they add a pretty red color, but the spinach alone is fine, too)

3 Tablespoons sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon mirin (optional)
2 teaspoons sugar or maple syrup (to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

  Blanche the spinach.  For some reason, the Japanese friend who taught me this recipe said she preferred to make it with frozen spinach. Her reason was lost in the translation, I guess.  Let the spinach drain while you make the sauce:   Toast the sesame seeds in a small pan until they start to pop.  (You can buy them toasted, but they are expensive)  Grind the seeds in a mortar and pestle to make a paste.  If you don't have a mortar and pestle- like I don't- put the seeds (saving out a few for garnish) in a quart-sized freezer zip lock bag.  Close the bag and roll over and over with a rolling pin.  You'll soon have a goma or sesame seed paste.    Add the soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, and sugar right in the bag to make the dressing.  Add the sesame or vegetale oil.  Squeeze the excess moisture out of the spinach and put in a bowl.  Pour the dressing over the top of the spinach.  Mix well. Garnish with reserved seeds.  Easy, nutritious and delicious!  And so Japanese!

Scotch Eggs

A very popular dish in Japan is Scotch Eggs.  It is a Scottish dish, but the Japanese have adopted it as their own.  It is basically meat-  ground pork (pork is the most used and popular meat in Japan) wrapped around a hard-boiled egg, then fried. Sausage is not available in Japan, but this is made with sweet (as opposed to spicy) sausage in Scotland. The Japanese just use ground pork.  These little jewels are delicious and are a fun surprise when you cut into them.

Here, the elders and Remi are forming and dipping the scotch eggs, preparing them to be fried.

Imi frying the scotch eggs.  Notice the special extra long chopsticks used for frying.

Scotch Eggs  
1 1/2 lbs sweet sausage or ground pork
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Pepper and Salt (If using ground pork- not necessary if using bulk sausage)


4 peeled hard-boiled eggs
flour on a plate
1 beaten egg in a bowl with a little bit of water added
Panko or other bread crumbs on a plate
Oil for frying, if you are frying
  Mix the meat with the Worcestershire sauce.  I just sprinkle the Worcestershire sauce on the meat in the tray the meat comes in.  Then I mix it with my hands, then flatten the meat back out into the tray and cut it fourths.  Divide the meat into four equal parts.  Shape each 1/4 around a hard-boiled egg by flattening the meat in a circle, then completely enclosing the egg.  Dip the balls into flour, then egg, then panko bread crumbs, coating well with each.  When well- coated fry the balls in hot oil or bake in the oven at 375 until lightly browned- about 25 minutes (much fewer calories, but not how it is traditionally done.)  Makes 4 scotch eggs.
Here are some pictures of some I made at home in America.  I used sausage and baked them in the oven.  They turned out really good!

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce

I love this recipe for spaghetti sauce!  It is so delicious!  My favorite way to make it is in an enameled cast iron pan on the stovetop, but it also works great in a crockpot if you are going to be away from home all day.  It makes 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce- one for now and three for the freezer.  I LOVE recipes like that!  One quart is about right for about 3/4 -1 lb. of spaghetti or other pasta.

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce
Brown together in an enameled cast iron pot (or large fry pan if you are going to use a slow cooker):
1 1/2- 3 lbs. sweet sausage and/ or ground beef (you can use a mixture.  We like it with all sausage and like to use the full 3 lbs.)
1 large onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
When browned, add crushed or minced garlic and brown.
Drain the grease through a colander, then put all back in the pot or transfer to the crockpot.  Add:
2 jars or cans spaghetti sauce of choice
1- 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes (or one 14 oz. can of each)
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T. Italian seasoning
1 pkg. spaghetti seasoning
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. beef bouillion

Cook on low for several hours.  About an hour or 2 or 3 before you want to eat, add:
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1-2 jars artichoke hearts, mostly drained
1 can olives, drained and sliced

Continue cooking until the mushrooms are cooked and all is blended together.
Fill three quart jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  When cooled, put in the freezer (or share.)

Serve over cooked, hot pasta with lots of grated Parmesan cheese.

Pasta with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Pasta with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Need a delicious dinner in 20 minutes?  Here's the recipe for you, and it's delicious!  I got it from Cooking Without Recipes site.  That site just gives ingredient ideas and cooking methods- amounts and ingredients can vary according to taste.  I love that kind of cooking!
Pasta with Creamy Mushroom Sauce
1 lb pasta  (the site suggested orecchiette, which I love) I've used ravioli stuffed with chicken and cheese. That was good because it added a little bit of meat to the dish.   It was so delicious!)
Mushrooms, sliced  However many and varieties you like.  I've used a white button and creminis
Butter, a hunk- as much or little as you like
Cream (or you could use half n half)
Parmesan
Garlic (opt)
Chives or Parsley for garnish, opt.

In a large pot, boil water with a lot of salt. Cook pasta to el dente

In a large skillet, brown some butter and add mushrooms and garlic if desired. You may also add garlic salt. When browned and softened, add some cream to make a nice creamy sauce.  Drain the pasta and add the hot, cooked pasta into the sauce.  Season with some red pepper flakes and salt.  Add lots of parmesan cheese.  Stir and serve hot.