Stuffed Peppers

This is one of those classic comfort food dishes, with the whole meal in one dish. It has vegetables, rice and meat with various spices, that you can adapt and change according to your personal taste.

What you need: 2 or 3 sweet peppers, any colour you like or a variety; 600 gr lean ground beef; 4 cups cooked rice; 1/2  cup finely chopped onion, ; 2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced; 1 cup crushed tomatoes or 1 small can of tomato paste mixed with one can of water; a block of cheddar cheese; salt and pepper to taste, 2 tbs of parsley or cilantro flakes, and/or any other spices you wish to add.
Heat oven to 350 F

What you do:  cook the beef in a skillet until well cooked through. Add all your spices, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, parsley. Stir well. Stir in cooked rice and tomato sauce. cut peppers into sections, and remove the pith and seeds. Fill each piece of pepper with the meat blend. There are usually lots more of the mixture than will fit into your pepper pieces, so take any extra meat mix and smooth onto the bottom of a small baking pan. Place all the pepper pieces on top of the baking pan. Slice cheese and place one slice on each piece of pepper. Place into the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

Serve hot with a good wine or  beer. Enjoy.

Breakfast casserole

I do a breakfast for St Luke's outreach school in Okotoks twice a month. I am always looking for new things to try, and found this idea on another cooking website. I made a few changes - as always - and it was a big hit.
It has hashbrowns, bacon, cheese and eggs. How can you go wrong?

Preheat oven to 400 F.
What you need:  4 cups of frozen hashbrowns; 2 tbs margarine or butter; 6-8 slices of bacon; 6 eggs; about 4 oz of cheese; 1/2 cup milk; 1 tbs onion powder - or 3 tbs minced fresh onion, 1 tbs garlic powder - or 2 cloves of garlic minced; 2 tbs parsley flakes; salt and pepper to taste.

What you do:  Cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove and add margarine to the skillet. When it is all melted, add the hashbrowns, and season with onion, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. Cook until pieces are browned and crispy. Remove skillet from heat. Pour the hashbrowns into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spread evenly over the bottom of the dish, and set aside. In a bowl, mix eggs with milk. Pour over the hashbrowns. Grate cheese and sprinkle over the baking pan. Chop or break the bacon into bits, and sprinkle over the top of the casserole. Bake for 40 minutes or until the eggs are completely cooked.

Optional: You can do all the prep work and put the casserole into the fridge overnight.** Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before placing into the oven.  Cut into slices to serve.

Enjoy.  This reheats very well.

** Can also be frozen. If you freeze it allow to thaw in the fridge overnight before cooking.

Sugar Cookies with variations for holidays or Christmas

Sugar cookies are very easy to make, but even more important, they are so easy to change, so you have a dozen kinds of cookie from one basic recipe. This includes lemon, orange, spice, almond, and lots of colours to make pink hearts for Valentines Day, orange pumpkins and black cats for Halloween, Green shamrocks for St Patrick's Day, and of course, tons of Christmas shapes and colours. You are only limited by your imagination - or the cookie cutters you can find.

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Basic recipe:

What you need: 2/3 cup shortening, 1 and 1/2 cups sugar; 2 eggs; 1 and 1/2 tsp salt; 2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp vanilla - clear vanilla if you have it. (food colour is optional, depending on the season)

What you do: Cream shortening with sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.(Add colour if using) Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add in small amounts to the sugar mix, until just blended. Over mixing makes for tough cookies.  Chill dough for 30 minutes. Roll out on floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookis cutters into desired shapes. If you want to use them for decorations on the Christmas tree, use a straw to make holes in the cookies before baking. 
Bake 12  - 15 minutes, or until edges are starting to brown.

Can be decorated with icing, and other toppings - non-pareil, sprinkles, candy dots, stars, silver balls, etc.

To adapt this for other flavours, substitute the vanilla for other flavours as below.

Lemon cookies - use 2 tsp lemon extract,add 2 tbs lemon juice,  2 Tbs lemon zest, and a few drops of yellow colouring. Roll, cut and bake as above.

Orange cookies - use orange  in place of lemon extract, juice and zest, and add yellow and red colour to create the orange you like best. Bake as above.

Spice cookies - to basic recipe, use 1 tsp rum flavouring in place of vanilla, and add 1/2 tsp each of nutmeg, allspice, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Bake as above.

Almond cookies - to basic recipe, use almond flavouring in place of vanilla, add 1/2 cup slivered almonds.

Peppermint cookies - to basic recipe, use peppermint extract in place of vanilla, and colour with red or green. You can add 2 tbs of crushed candy canes, or top with crushed candy canes after baking.

Chocolate cookies - to basic recipe add 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and a little water or milk if need to make a good rolling consistancy. Bake as above.

Peanut Butter Cookies

First recipe I ever made on my own, at age 8.  Preheat oven to 350 F

What you need: 1/2 cup margarine; 1/2 cup peanut butter; 1/2 cup sugar; 1/2 cup brown sugar; 1 egg; 1 and 1/2 cup flour; 1 tsp baking soda.  Optional: 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

What you do:  In a large bowl, cream peanut butter with margarine, then beat in egg. Add sugars and mix well. Add 1 cup flour in small amounts. Add baking powder, and cinnamon if using, to the remaining flour, and add to mixture in small amounts until dough is well mixed. Roll dough into small balls, and place on cookie sheets. Press down with a fork in a cross pattern. Bake 12 minutes or until edges start to brown and centers are dry when tested with  a toothpick.  

Scotch Broth soup - with gluten free variation

Some friends came for lunch a few weeks ago, and asked for this recipe. This one is out of my first cookbook, written when I was between 8 and 12. Any of you with Scottish blood should be very familiar with this hearty soup, based on lamb or mutton - which is a staple in Scotland. Campbells actually makes a good version of this, but it has too much salt for me these days.

What you need: 1 kg of lamb or mutton (shoulder works well), with or without the bone; 1 large onion; 2 cloves garlic; 3 ribs of celery, with the leaves; 3 carrots;1/2 cup pot barley; 3 - 4 TBs parsley flakes; 1 bay leaf, 2 litres water; salt and pepper to taste.

What you do: Cut the meat off bones (if using bone -in) and chop into bite size pieces. Peel and chop onion, peel and mince garlic. Peel and chop carrots into small cubes, and slice celery stalk thinly. I usually leave the leaf part of the celery whole, so I can remove the leaves before serving.
 Heat a little oil in a skillet, and sear the meat, then add onion and garlic. Place bones into a stock pot and add water. Bring to a boil. Add seared meat, and all the vegetables. Add barley and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. Return to boil then reduce heat and simmer for several hours, until veggies are tender, and barley cooked. Adjust seasonings as needed.

Goes well with fresh biscuits, or crackers. Enjoy.

If you are gluten free, omit the barley and add 3 chopped potatoes.

Tourtière - (the filling is gluten free)

Every year our church has a pie sale, and for the last few years I have been making the traditional pies called 'Tourtière'. They are from my French Canadian background, and are usually served on Christmas Eve after Midnight Mass, during the celebration of 'Reveillon'. Every town, or perhaps, every family in Quebec has their own version of this classic pie. They are very filling, as they contain meat and spices. Some people add potato, as I do, and some do not. The meat can be pork, beef, veal, lamb, or a combination of any of them. I have not heard of a version with poultry, but there is a different pie for the birds, called `rappé pie`. Here is my version of Tourtière. I will have to work on finding - or creating - a gluten free dough recipe.


What you  need: pastry for one double crust pie; 300 gr lean ground pork; 300 gr lean ground beef; 1/2 package (375 gr) of frozen shredded style hash browns; 1/4 cup minced onion; 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced; 1 tsp each: ground cinnamon, ground coriander, and dried summer savoury leaves; 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, or 2 tbs dried; salt and pepper.

What you do:  Cook beef and pork until cooked through, stirring to break up the pieces. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place meat in a strainer and drain off the juices. Place the drippings into the fridge, and allow the fat to congeal. Place meat in a large bowl. Add potatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and spices. If fat layer has hardened, remove drippings from fridge.  Lift off fat, and pour any juices back into the meat mixture. Stir the filling well, and taste, adjusting seasonings to your preference. Place bottom pie pastry in pie plate. Fill with meat mixture. Moisten edges of pastry, and cover with top crust, sealing and fluting edges. Make several cuts in top crust, to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 450F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for 30 minutes more.
This can be served hot or cold, but I like it hot best. Enjoy.

This recipe also freezes well.

Stuffed Salmon (another gluten free dish)

I have been making this recipe for over 28 years, and have had many compliments from guests. It is a little more time consuming, so usually save it for when we have company. It can be done in the oven, or on a BBQ, so it is a year round treat. This is a 'start early in the day' production. The most important thing about cooking fish, is to get it cooked without over-cooking. This can be very tricky, and I still have days when I left it too long. When over cooked, fish becomes dried, and difficult to swallow. The perfect point of cooking is when the flesh is just opaque, but still moist and very tender. If done right, it just melts in your mouth.


What you need:  1 whole salmon, 4-5 pounds (head and tail removed if you wish); 1 cup of raw wild rice, 2 cups of raw long grain white rice or brown rice; 1 small onion, 3 - 4 cloves of garlic; a bunch of fresh parsley; 2 lemons; salt; pepper; 2 tbs 'herbes fines' , or your favourite blend of herbs.

About 4 hours before serving time, cook wild rice in 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Set aside in remaining cooking water.

Peel and mince the onoin and garlic. Heat a little butter, margarine, or oil and gently saute the onion and garlic until transparent, but not browned.

Cook white or brown rice as directed on package. Finely chop the parsley.
Add wild rice to other cooked rice, reserving cooking liquid from wild rice. Add sauted onion and garlic, and season with salt, pepper, parsley and the fine herbs.

Remove wrappings from salmon and wash well in cool water. Place on a large doubled sheet of heavy duty foil, which is long enough to enclose the whole fish. Season inside and outside of the fish with salt and pepper. Stuff cavity with rice mixture. Thinly slice 1 lemon, and place slices on top of fish. Roll the fish to the other side, and repeat with second lemon. Tightly wrap the foil, folding edges together to seal. Place remaining rice mixture in an oven safe crock or baking dish. Add cooking liquid from wild rice to about an inch depth. Cover tightly with foil.

Oven baking - Place fish on a cookie sheet to bake in oven, and bake about 15-20 minutes per side at 350 F. Place extra stuffing in oven to keep hot. Check for doneness, by slicing into the fish to see if the flesh in opaque. the industry says cook fish for 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Use that as your guide, because the fish will take more or less time depending on it's size.

If using the BBQ  preheat at maximum. After initial heating, reduce to about medium heat. Place foil wrapped fish directly on rack, and place extra stuffing on upper rack to keep hot. Turn whole package over after 10 minutes. Check the fish after 10 minutes for doneness.

To serve, peel back top side of the skin. It should separate fairly easily from the flesh. Use a metal spatula to lift the meat from the ribcage and spinal bones. When all the usable meat is removed from the top side, turn fish and repeat to get meat from other side. Serve with the rice mixture and a salad or cooked vegetables of your choice. Also, I usually make a Hollandaise sauce to go with this. I make it from scratch, but there are also many mixes available at the market. The recipe I use is from the Vancouver 1986 World's Fair cookbook, so I am not able to share, as I do not own the rights to it.
Hope you enjoy.