Kielbasa Pasta

When I was at the store this weekend I picked up some Kielbasa. I LOVE Kielbasa (thanks to my Polish roots) and I can eat it hot, cold, room temp, plain, with cheese on crackers, etc. BUT my favorite way to eat it is with sauerkraut. Those some sliced kielbasa and sauerkraut in a pan, let it heat up and I am a happy camper!

I decided I wanted to do something different with the kielbasa this time though...expand my horizons, if you must. So I checked online and found a pasta dish using it. IT IS SO SIMPLE!

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Kielbasa Pasta

Ingredients:

- Kielbasa (sliced)

- 1 Green Pepper (julienned - sliced skinny and lengthwise)

- 1 Red Pepper (julienned)

- 1 Onion (chopped/sliced)

- Olive Oil

- Pasta (penne is preferred, but use any kind)

- Spaghetti Sauce

Directions:

- Cook the pasta as the package instructs

- In a pan, saute the green pepper, red pepper, kielbasa, and onion with a little bit of olive oil

- Once it is all cooked, pour the spaghetti sauce over the pasta, and put the kielbasa/pepper mix over the pasta

- Eat until your heart is content :)

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<--- mmm, cheese on top!

<---all mixed in so you can see all the tasty pieces!

This was SUPER easy to make, but I didn't have the red pepper so I had to leave that out. I also was going to opt to go sauceless but at the last minute decided to use the spaghetti sauce after all. I also topped it all off with some shredded mozzarella cheese. It was QUITE good. I had to take a break and go back to it because it was so filling. Good thing I have leftover ingredients so I can make it again (maybe as a pre-race dinner) :)

Enjoy! - apes -

Fudge Pudding Cake

So I was perusing (I'm hoping that's correct verbiage) the Internet and stumbled upon the below recipe.

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Easy Fudge Pudding Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:

- 1 cup all-purpose flour

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 2 tablespoons cocoa

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup milk

- 2 tablespoons melted shortening

- 1/2 cup chopped pecans

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sauce:

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1/3 cup cocoa

- 1 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Sift flour with dry ingredients
2. Stir in milk and shortening. Then add pecans and vanilla.
3. Mix until well combined then pour into a generously greased 8 x 8-inch square pan.
4. Combine sauce ingredients; pour over cake batter.
5. Bake the cake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 40 minutes. Set on a rack to cool slightly (do not remove the cake from the pan). The fudgey, gooey, delicious sauce will end up on the bottom of the pan.
6. Cut (or just dig in with a fork) and serve hot or cold.

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My first thought "this looks easy." My second thought "who can I make this for?" Silly Apes, I can make it for MYSELF!!! So I looked at the ingredients and realized I had everything but the pecans and shortening. I stopped at the store on the way home and took care of that problem, and then it was time to bake!

So I got home and re-looked at the recipe. When a recipe calls for lots of ingredients, I get a little nervous that I'll miss something and I read it about 4 times over, BEFORE I do the first step. Even though this one had a lot of ingredients, it was still super easy.

Once it was in the oven, I happened to get a call from my friend Kevin wanting to hang out. So I told him I was baking, and he should just come over and eat the cake with me. I really twisted his arm on that one.

After the cake was done (check out the gooey goodness above) and it was cooled off - we sat down in front of the pan equipped with full glasses of milk and a fork for each of us. That cake didn't stand a chance! We got through half of it (could have done more damage but my roommate gave us ice-cream to go with it halfway through our devouring).

So try it out - it's easy and TASTY!

Enjoy! - apes -

Asparagus wrapped Bacon

For those that like food, we all share one common love: BACON! You can put that meat on ANYTHING and it tastes amazing (there's even bacon flavored ice-cream). Anyways, I decided to cook up a tasty dinner (using bacon) last night since I didn't have to work.

Dinner: Sauteed Mushrooms and Bacon wrapped Asparagus

Sauteed Mushrooms
Ingredients:

- Whole Mushrooms (the fresh kind you get at the grocery store that are in a little square container)

- Olive Oil

- Vegetable Seasoning

- Butter

Directions:

- Put half tablespoon of butter in a heated pan

- Once melted, add whole mushrooms (make sure to rinse first, and pull off stems)

- Add a tablespoon of Olive Oil

- Sprinkle Vegetable Seasoning onto Mushrooms

- Cover and cook on Medium heat for 10 minutes

- Take off heat, and eat once cool - MMMMM

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Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
Ingredients:

- Fresh Asparagus Stems

- Olive Oil

- Bacon Slices (if frozen, make sure you defrost first)

- Toothpicks

Directions:

- Cover Asparagus stems with olive oil (easiest to put the stems on a baking pan, drizzle olive oil on them, then roll the stems through the oil to coat them)

- Wrap 3 (or as many as you like) stems in bacon, using toothpicks to secure ends of bacon onto asparagus (make sure to rinse the toothpicks in water first, so they don't burn)

- Cook in oven (350 degrees) for 10-15min, or until bacon is how you like it

- Let cool, then eat it all up!
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Enjoy! - apes -

Vday with Oreo Balls!

So it's valentine's day. Woo-hoo. It's a silly holiday that you either celebrate:

1) being single and hating life
2) being in a relationship and hate vday
3) being in a mushy relationship where celebrating vday is like sitting on a cloud for a day (barf)

I am closest to number 1. I am single (love it) but hate when vday comes around. I don't hate it because I don't have anyone to celebrate it with, I hate it because everyone expects me to have some awesome plans and wants to hear about it, no matter if I am single OR taken. It's just another day on the calendar, right? Although, I don't hate when the grocery store has candy hearts, or those chocolate sampler boxes. Those I DO enjoy. ALOT.

But anyways, the reason for the post....

So I had a staff meeting Sunday morning (the person who scheduled the meeting is the only one married, so it made me laugh). I (being one of two girls on staff) decided to make goodies for the guys. OREO BALLS!!! I happened upon the recipe below, and thought it looked easy enough, so I figured I'd try it out (also, no real cooking involved!).

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Oreo Balls
Ingredients:
- 1 Package Oreo cookies, crushed
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 bag chocolate chips, melted or 2 packages dipping chocolate (white, dark, milk – whichever you prefer!)

Directions:
- Mix the crushed Oreo cookies and cream cheese together in a bowl. Use food processor or blender to speed up this process.
- With your hands, roll Oreo and cream cheese mixture into small balls. Place on baking sheet lined with wax paper.
- Chill in freezer for 30 minutes.
- Melt chocolate chips or dipping chocolate in the microwave until melted.
- Using a toothpick, dip the Oreo balls into the melted chocolate. Cover well.
- Let Oreo balls harden on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet in fridge or freezer. Takes about 15 minutes.
- Keep in fridge! Serve cold and enjoy!
Makes about 25 – 40 Oreo Balls, depending on how you make them.

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Ok, so it looks easy enough, right? Well - it pretty much is. Here's how mine turned out:
- The ones on the left are white chocolate (the tastiest in my opinion) - some have sprinkles
- The middle ones are a mess of white chocolate with red food coloring. Apparently just putting a drop of food coloring into chocolate is NOT how you use it. It turned the chocolate all hard and annoying to use.
- The ones on the right are plain Oreo balls (I ran out of chocolate to melt after the red food coloring fiasco)

Even though my pic above makes them look not so appetizing, the guys LOVED them. They liked them so much, I had 4 of them ask for the recipe afterwards: mix Oreo's and cream cheese, and form balls. EASY as buying vday chocolate from the grocery store.

Here are some tips:

- when crumbling the Oreo's, do it first my hand, then use a mixing bowl.
- if you don't get it ALL the Oreo's crushed, that's no biggie - having some crunch is also tasty
- you don't NEED to dip them in anything - plain Oreo balls are just as tasty (and a tad healthier than a pack of Oreo's with cream cheese already isn't)
- they are MUCH tastier if you have them after you have kept them in the fridge for a few minutes

Enjoy! - apes -

I can cook!

So many of you may read my "fitness" bog...aka my blog on running and becoming a cyclist (and other stuff).

I also have been trying out some new recipes in the kitchen and wanted to share them. They will be SUPER easy recipes (I can't do any crazy cooking stuff - no top chef here), but I will be putting up some baking and just plain cooking recipes I've tried out (and liked).

So there's my intro post. Now let me move on and actually put up some recipe posts!

- apes -