I love cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers were one of the first things I ever cooked. I like mixing the meat, picking the flavors, and the wonderful smell as the burgers cook. I started making normal cheeseburgers, but over time I started experimenting with topping. I found topping a burger with speedied mushrooms and caramelized onions to be one of my favorites. I also liked covering them with Cooper sharp cheese and covering them to fully melt the cheese before plating. After a while, I began placing the toppings under the cheese and that is my preferred method today.
Place a pound of ground beef into a medium sized bowl. Add 2 tbsp A1, and about 2 tsp worcestershire sauce. Mix together with your hands. Divide into 3-5 pieces.
Begin heating a small frying pan over medium low heat. Add 1 can of strained mushroom stems and pieces. Add 4 Tbsp Italian dressing or speedie sauce.
Heat another large frying pan on a second burner over medium heat.
Each piece, roll into a ball. Press these balls between the palm of your hand. Make them thinner in the center, and wider than you want them. They with get thicker in the center and shrink on the edges as they cook. Place each patty onto the large heated frying pan.
Cook on the first side until it is browned about 3/4 up the side of the burger. Flip your burgers and cook just as long on the second side. Top flipped burgers with a dollop of A1. Once you only have about 5 minutes of cooking, top your burger with mushrooms, then top with cheese.
Let burgers rest for 5 minutes before placing on buns to eat.
Veal Parmesan is a classic Italian staple. Full of flavor, the juicy and savory meat is complimented further by the cheese and tomato sauce. This On-Cor frozen Veal Parmesan is just that, frozen. Your expectations would be too high if you expect a 5 star restaurant quality meal. Beyond that, I’ve been eating On-Cor’s Chicken Parmesan and Salisbury Steak since I was a child.
This Veal Parmesan doesn’t have any of the crispy texture you’d get at a restaurant. The patties are coated in sauce that removes any chance of texture. The veal is also a veal patty that is compacted meat, and the cheese is a small square that you can see under the top breading. Beyond that, this veal parm is good for a frozen meal. The sauce it thick and tastes like real tomato sauce, but there is only a small excess in sauce. The breading and veal have good flavor and texture, not bland, rubbery, or gelatinous. The cheese is stringy and isn’t over powdered. This meal is also cooked on a sheet pan in it’s container, so you don’t even have to wash the pan. I usually serve chicken/veal parm with buttered noodles, and serve the protein on top.
This is a recipe I received from my mother-in-law several months ago. Josh grew up eating this dish and I’ve been able to make it for Josh a time or two according to the recipe. However, with this pandemic, I’m not able to get to the store as much as normal, and things with short shelf lives are used up very quickly in my house because I don’t want them going bad. So, things this recipe would usually call for, like sour cream, I didn’t have.
There are many things I did differently with this recipe, or should have done differently. First, I didn’t microwave my broccoli before baking. Though the broccoli did cook in the oven, there was water in the bottom of the casserole dish. Cooking and straining the broccoli would help this, you could also use fresh broccoli if you have some. I baked my chicken breast for 40 minutes since it was still half frozen. I took the internal temperature and it was up to 170 F, so though the juices from the chicken have some color, it isn’t dangerous, I also had to bake it again in the casserole, so even if there were under temperature spots, they would be cooked again in the casserole. I made a lot of alteration to the sauce. The recipe called for less mayo and sour cream. I don’t usually have sour cream on hand, and I also had no vanilla yogurt for that tangy flavor. So, I added in ranch for a bit of that dairy tang, and I really enjoyed the extra flavor from it. I didn’t realize the onion and garlic flavor would taste so good in this recipe! I also added lots more curry powder than original, and I added some cumin for even more flavor. The sour cream and curry powder made me think this recipe has an inspiration from Indian cuisine, so I added the cumin to add a bit more of the Indian spice without the heat. I also didn’t add all of the spice into the sauce mix like I should have. I tasted the sauce and it was lacking, so I gave the sauce a dusting of curry powder and cumin once it was already spread in the casserole dish. It’s an inconsistent way of measuring so it’s best to put it in the sauce and mix it in evenly. Then I shredded a block of sharp cheese. I keep them in the freezer because they tend to go bad in my fridge, and shredding frozen cheese is so much easier! I then grabbed a loaf of homemade bread I made last week, crumbled it over the top of the casserole, then sprinkled it with the standard stuffing herbs, sage and thyme. I dusted very lightly over the top, because you don’t want too much stuffing flavor, you want more of the Indian spice flavor. This dish made 6 serving for us.
Bake a 1 lb chicken breast at 400 F for 30-40 minutes until an internal temperature over 165 F is reached. Spray an 9 x 13 casserole dish with non-stick spray.
Grab a 12 oz bag of frozen broccoli and microwave it as directed. Strain any excess water from your broccoli and make one even layer in your casserole dish.
Let your baked chicken cool for 5 minutes, transfer into a large bowl and shred the chicken using a hand or stand mixer. Evenly spread the shredded chicken over the broccoli.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together 3/4 cup mayo, 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup, 3 Tbsp ranch dressing, 3 tsp of curry powder, and 2 tsp cumin. Stir until mixed, then spread in an even layer over the shredded chicken.
Reduce oven to 375 F
Shred 8 oz of sharp cheese and spread evenly over sauce. Cube about 2 cups of bread (use stale bread if you have any) and spread evenly over your cheese layer. Sprinkle over the top a dusting of sage and thyme.
Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Fried ravioli was an interesting experience. On one hand it’s fried noodles, so it tastes like Chinese food. At the same time it’s cheese filled, and tastes oddly like mozzarella sticks. The buttery flavor that the ravioli absorbs makes this a fun finger food for parties, or a playful dinner. Serve these as they are for a fun unique flavor, or serve them with sauce for a buttery mozzarella stick experience. These are very hot, and will be very hot even after you let them cool for 5 minutes.
In a large sided dutch oven, heat 1/2 inch of oil over medium heat. Heat till oil is shimmering.
Add ravioli to hot oil. Cook on first side for 3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 3 minutes, or until cheese begins to leak out.
Strain on a paper towel lines plate, wait 5 minutes before serving. Optional serve with pasta sauce.
Ravioli with red sauce is a pretty common meal. In fact, it is probably the most common way to eat ravioli. While it’s true I’ve seen recipes for casseroles or slow cooker meals with these cheese stuffed pasta, I have found nothing more iconic than ravioli with pasta sauce. Yesterday I posted this recipe for ravioli. I made these that night with red sauce and a couple nights later made what my post will be for tomorrow, fried ravioli. I found my biggest flaws with making fresh homemade ravioli with red sauce to be excess water from boiling and quantity of sauce. For that reason, I adjusted to recipe to include a time to strain, so your plate doesn’t have a puddle on it like mine did. I also adjusted the recipe to remind you to limit your red sauce. These are homemade ravioli; you shouldn’t be hiding them under a mountain of sauce. You also want the full flavor of these homemade gems. You put the effort into making them, make sure everyone can see and taste they are homemade.
Bring large sauce pan of water to a boil. Add 2-3 large pinches of salt and stir. In a smaller sauce pan, bring spaghetti sauce to a light simmer.
Add ravioli to pot of water. Boil ravioli for 3-5 minutes until the ravioli float. Remove ravioli with a slotted spoon, set on paper towel to strain for 5 minutes.
To sauce, add 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning, 1 Tbsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp onion salt.
Plate your ravioli, top with 1 tsp of sauce per ravioli, less is more. Top with parmasean or parsley.
Our Lustron Home 