16 oz prepared red cabbage with apple bits

Mix everything except the cabbage and paprika in a bowl. Knead until every item is distributed evenly. Place cabbage on bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle paprika. Spread meat mixture on top of cabbage. Cover and cook in oven for one our at 350 degrees. Forty minutes in, feel free to drain. With ten minutes left, cover with sauce.

Sauce for meatloaf

• 4 tablespoons minced onion
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 4T of brown sugar,
• 4T vinegar,
• 2T Worchestershire Sauce
• 1 teaspoon basil leaves

Simmer everything in a small sauce pan and stir constantly. Serve with meatloaf.

Mix all the ingredients up to the eggs, mashing the beans until lumpy. Place onto the baguette slices and garnish with the remaining ingredients.

• 6 cups crumbled cornbread (to be cooked prior to this)
• 4 apples (cooking apples)
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 2 sprigs sage
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 large yellow onion (2 small onions will work)
• 3/4 cup Half and Half
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 5 links Colosimo’s red wine sausage
• 8 tablespoons butter (this is a whole stick)
• 4 cloves garlic

Melt one stick of butter in a frying pan and soften your peeled cored diced apples and place these aside.

The purpose of the sausage is to help make a base for the stuffing. We can do this by slicing each sausage in half, then scraping the meat from the casing. Discard the case.  Brown the sausage like you would with ground beef. After the sausage is browned, add the sliced celery and onion. Cook until slightly tender.

Using your fingers, scrape the leaves from your sprigs of herbs and chop them finely before adding to the mixture.

Take your crumbled cornbread and mix with the apples. Blend the eggs with half and half then add to the cornbread mixture. Knead gently. Once this is all blended, mix with the sausage mixture by hand.  Make sure that things are moist enough to form into balls.

Roll into balls slightly smaller than your fist. You’ll only get one shot at shaping these correctly. Place into muffin cups in a muffin tin and bake at 375 for 20 – 30 minutes. For extra pizazz you can garnish each serving with a pecan or parsley or whatever you think would be good.

I may or may not edit this post in the near future for better readability.

• 3 Stone ground whole wheat flat-bread wraps (you can use any kind of tortilla)
• 3 eggs
• 6 tablespoons refried black beans
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chili powder
• Tapatio
• Butter

This recipe is simple. Throw a couple tabs of butter into a hot pan, break three eggs into the pan after the butter is sizzling and break the yolks with your spatula. I never whisk my scrambled eggs, I just break the yolks and give a couple stirs then season while the eggs are still liquid. To season, just dash some salt, pepper and chili powder by which time the eggs should be solid enough on the bottom to fold in half.

While the eggs are finishing, spread two tablespoons of refried black beans on each tortilla and then you can flip your eggs over. I usually do this in one pan where my eggs only take up half and I only need the half of the tortilla with the beans on it to feel the heat from the pan. I’ll cook one tortilla at a time and slice off a portion of egg topping with tapatio and sour cream then give a partial roll (this will burn your fingers) before placing the burrito on a surface to cool before rolling.

That’s it. That’s the formula. Layer of refried black beans, scrambled egg, tapatio, sour cream then tuck and roll. This will make you three burritos. If you serve this with something else you can feed three people. Two of these by themselves filled me up to where I could have not eaten a couple bites and still been full. Enjoy.

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 9 slices bacon
• 6 oz bleu cheese
• 1 onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c toasted bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 milk
• 2-3 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 T dijon mustard
• salt and pepper
• buns
• toppings (ketchup, mustard, onion, lettuce, more bleu cheese and bacon, etc.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sautee onion and garlic till translucent. Place in a large bowl. Fry bacon and add half of it to the bowl with the onions and garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients except buns and toppings and mix thoroughly.  Form into 6 large balls and place on a baking sheet.  Make a large dent in the balls and add bleu cheese and  remaining bacon to each, pinching ground beef around the hole to close. Flatten, taking care not to let any of the filling to get out.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well done. Serve on buns with your choice of toppings.

Fine Dining for the Real World

Welcome to Simply Sunday. I am excited to lend some expertise, advice and wisdom. Please feel free to ask questions about your culinary conundrums, seek handy tips, comment or share your experience in the comment section. This first edition is at keldwud’s request, but this weekly spot will also feature my own recipes as well as hints for the begginer and so on. A bit of background: I started cooking for my family when I was 7. I learned quickly how to stretch a little food to feed a lot of people. After getting married, I quickly found a real and pure joy in preparing delicious meals for my husband. Soon word got out that I was a pretty decent cook; soon I found myself being asked to prepare things for church events, family events and so on. I am thrilled to be catering my first wedding in March! I watch a lot of Food Network, and have yet to back down from a challenge. I love food, in all its forms, from all over the world, and I’m so excited to be doing this. Enough about me, though. On to the food! ~Danielle

Corned Beef Hash

While this dish is most popular around St. Patrick’s Day, the truth is, it’s good any time of year! To be honest, corned beef is not something an Irishman during St. Paddy’s actual day would ever have heard of. Be creative. Try corned beef on sandwiches, chopped into a quesadilla, served finely sliced on an antipasti platter. But try this first. You will need:

• 1 corned beef roast from the market (2-4 pounds depending on how much you plan to eat before hashing it!)
• 1 small head of cabbage, cut into large chunks
• 1 onion, sliced
• Butter, a soft stick
• 1/3 c. water
• 2-3 cups hashbrowns OR
• 2-3 cups diced potatoes (see below)
• Eggs, two per person
• Salt and black pepper
• Cinnamon
• Slowcooker
• Large skillet
• Small skillet
• Food processor

This is a two step process, which is fine, because you’ll end up eating well twice! I may do another spot later on corning your beef from scratch, but for now we’ll just use a store-prepped hunk o’meat. Take the packet of spices that comes with the roast, and… toss it. Seriously. You don’t need ‘em. Rub your roast generously with black pepper and sprinkle with a hint of cinnamon. Coat the bottom of your slowcooker with butter. Add in a layer of onion, a layer of cabbage, repeat once more. Put your roast on top. Slowly pour water over all, cover, and DO NOT TOUCH for the next 6 hours. (Cook it on low). Remove your meat and let it sit there for 10-15 minutes. Don’t be swayed to slice it any sooner!! If you want yours with carrots and potatoes, that is fine, but be prepared to pick them out later. I would cook my potatoes separately, in slices, either boiled and then fried or just nuke them in the micro.

When you are done with this fine meal, put the leftovers in a container with NO juices included. Take out any carrots/taters you may have cooked it with and place in a different container. Put these in the fridge ’til you’re ready to make your hash!!

To make your hash, put your meat/cabbage/onion mixture in a food processor or a REALLY good blender. Pulverize until it’s almost but not quite the consistancy of ground meat. Take out your skillet and butter it well. Over medium heat, brown either what’s left of last night’s potatoes (diced) or hashbrowns (this will be enough for 2-3 people!). After your first side of potatoes have browned, dump your beef mix on top and then carefully flip it if you know how, or use a wide flat spatula to turn it. In the meantime, in a separate small skillet, fry your eggs, 2 per person. If you don’t know how to do this, don’t worry, there will be an article about eggs in the near future! After about 5 minutes on the second side, use your spatula or a big spoon to mix everything up. Put a serving on a plate, add the eggs on top, salt and pepper your eggs, and add Tabasco if you feel so inclined (which I do). Eat up!

P.S. YOU be the judge. If you have a lot more meat than potato, don’t use all the meat. Or use more potato. ~Danielle