Tag: Special Occasion

Salmon (pan seared)

Pan-seared salmon is great if you’d like a little bit of crust on your salmon or if you’re trying to make it really fast. The baked one goes pretty fast too, but we generally opt for the pan-seared one lately. Just make sure to press out extra water from the salmon so it sears better.

And of course this one is naturally gluten free. Just make sure that your garlic butter hasn’t been contaminated with bread crumbs from previous uses.

Make it a meal with:

Salmon (pan seared)

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: easy
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Like most seafood recipes, try not to make leftovers with this one–it’s better fresh.

Ingredients

  • Salmon Filets
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Olive Oil
  • Garlic Butter (for gluten free, make sure it’s a new tub or not contaminated with old bread crumbs)
  • Lemon Juice (optional)

Directions

Place paper towels under and on top of filets, then press out extra water. Season the salmon filets with salt and pepper. Heat a small amount of oil in a heavy pan on medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the salmon filets. Brown the salmon for 2-3 minutes (even with a crust if desired), then flip the salmon. Place a dollop of garlic butter on each salmon filet and let it melt. Squeeze in a little lemon juice over the fish, and spoon the melted butter and lemon juice over each filet before serving.


Salmon (baked)

I thought about combining the two easy salmon recipes that we use and just calling it “Salmon Two Ways”–But then I thought I should just separate it. We used to make this one all the time in my teenage years and 20s. It’s nice and easy. Baked salmon is good if you’ve got a lot of people to feed, but the pan seared one is faster by a few minutes. Lemon pepper and dill are both great with seafood, and we generally use both. But if you’re not a fan of dill, it’s great with just lemon pepper. I’ve also made it with just salt, pepper, and garlic butter (like in the photo).

And of course this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Salmon (baked)

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: easy
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Like basically all seafood recipes, try not to make leftovers with this one–it’s better fresh.

Ingredients

  • Salmon Filets
  • 1 Tbsp. melted Butter per filet
  • Lemon Pepper Seasoning
  • Dill Weed (optional)

Directions

If filets are frozen, place individual packaged filets in cold water to thaw for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400°. Cover a cookie sheet in foil and spray with nonstick spray. Place paper towels under and on top of filets, then press out extra water. Then place filets on the cookie sheet and cover with melted butter. Sprinkle each filet generously with lemon pepper seasoning. Lightly sprinkle each with dill weed. Bake at 400° for 10-15 minutes (depending on size of filet).


Shrimp or Chicken Alfredo

I originally found this listed as a Red Lobster copycat recipe. I’m not sure it’s a copycat, but it’s very delicious. I did double it from the original recipe because it originally called for 8 oz. of pasta, and generally linguine or alfredo noodles come in 16 oz. packages. The leftovers don’t reheat the best, though–(it gets really oily when you microwave it)–so you might just want this as a one-time meal without leftovers, or add less oil at the beginning to help.

Here’s a picture of the shrimp version using linguine:

Now we mostly make this as chicken alfredo because chicken is cheaper and more popular with several family members. And of course I just use chicken broth instead of clam juice.

If you’re making this gluten free, I’ve made it with gluten free rotini and once I actually used zoodles, and it has turned out well. Of course with the zoodles, the sauce doesn’t cling as well to the noodles so it’s soupier, but it still tastes nice and is a low carb option.

Make it a meal with:

Shrimp or Chicken Alfredo

  • Servings: 6-8?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Flavors of Red Lobster–just try to eat it all in one sitting instead of having leftovers (it doesn’t reheat amazingly).

Ingredients

  • 1/3 c. Olive Oil
  • 6 cloves Garlic, minced (2 Tbsp. minced)
  • 2 lb. raw Shrimp (peeled, deveined, no tails) or chicken, cubed
  • 1 1/3 c. Clam Juice or chicken broth
  • 2 c. Heavy Cream
  • 1 c. Parmesan Cheese
  • 1/2 tsp. dried Basil
  • 1/2 tsp. dried Oregano
  • 1 package Linguine or Fettucine (16 oz.) cooked and drained (or gluten free pasta or zoodles, lightly sauteed so they keep some crunch)

Directions

(If making chicken version, cook chicken first, then place in a separate bowl.) Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; reduce heat to low. Simmer until garlic is tender. Add shrimp and cook until opaque. Remove; reserve liquid in pan. Add clam juice or chicken broth, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; add cream, then cheese. Cook until thickened. Add shrimp or chicken to sauce and remaining except pasta. Pour over pasta in large bowl; toss gently to coat.


Roast Beef

For a Sunday dinner, nothing beats a simple roast beef with mashed potatoes. The house smells amazing, and everyone loves the meal. The bouillon cubes and water in the bottom of the pan are to make sure the drippings don’t burn for gravy. Also, the best way to cook the roast is to use a digital thermometer and cook until it reaches 145° for medium rare (time varies by weight).

If you’re making this one gluten free, the beef itself is of course gluten free. But if you’re making gravy, make sure to use Members Mark Beef Base or Better Than Bouillon instead of bouillon cubes (or use gluten free bouillon cubes if you can find them).

Make it a meal with:

Roast Beef

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Roast with a digital thermometer stuck in the middle, until it reaches 145° for medium rare.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 lb. Beef Roast
  • (Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, and/or garlic powder optional)
  • 2 Beef Bouillon Cubes (or use 2 tsp. Members Mark Beef Base in gravy, not in roaster pan)
  • 2 c. Water

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°. Place foil in bottom of broiler pan. In bottom, place bouillon cubes. On top pan (greased), place roast. Place pan in oven, then add water to bottom of pan. Cook for 2-3 hours at 325° or until internal temperature reaches 145°. Be sure to watch the temperature because sometimes it can get done faster than anticipated.


Prime Rib

When I was in my 20s, our family starting making Prime Rib every Christmas Eve, served with baked potatoes and cheesy broccoli. And maybe razzleberry pie or frozen cheesecake bites for dessert. My brothers like having the savory horseradish cream instead of straight up horseradish also. It’s such a wonderful tradition, and the one time of year when you can justify spending so much on meat for a meal.

We’ve tried a few different methods of cooking prime rib. Originally we used a method of turning the oven off for two hours, but sometimes it was extremely rare in the middle. And we’ve tried roasting it just like a roast beef. Lately we’ve been using the reverse searing method, which works pretty well. They suggest letting it dry out in your fridge overnight beforehand for a nicer crust, but I never remember to do that and it’s still delicious.

And of course this one is naturally gluten free.

This method comes from sweetandsavorybyshinee.com. This chart is helpful, haha, even though I’m realizing it has a typo that says “eastimated.”

Make it a meal with:

  • Baked Potatoes or Twice Baked Potatoes
  • Cheesy Broccoli
  • Mixed Berries or Fruit Salad
  • Razzleberry Pie or Cheesecake Bites

Prime Rib

  • Servings: 10?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Perfect for Christmas Eve. Remember to let it sit about 2 hours on your counter before roasting.

Ingredients

Roast

  • 6-8 lb. Boneless Beef Rib Roast
  • Generous salt and pepper
  • Onion Powder
  • Garlic Powder

Horseradish Cream

  • 2 c. Whipping Cream, whipped
  • ½ tsp. Salt
  • 6 Tbsp. grated Horseradish, pressed dry (squeeze all liquid out)

Directions

For the roast, place the unwrapped roast on a cookie sheet and generously salt all over, then place in the fridge overnight to dry it and create a nice crust (it’s ok if you forget this step). Then 1-2 hours before roasting (depending on roast size), take the roast out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature. Then season all over with pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Push a thermometer in the middle of the roast, place the roast fat side up on a greased roasting pan (with foil in the bottom for easier cleaning), and cook at 200° for about 3.5 hours (or according to time on the chart) or until the internal temperature reaches 120°. *Note: If you use a convection oven, the cook time is a little less, so keep an eye on your thermometer. Remove from oven, then cover with foil and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 500° and roast for 6-10 minutes until crisp and brown on the outside. The internal temperature should be 135° for medium rare. For easier slicing, cut off the bone before slicing.

For hoseradish cream, whip cream and fold in other ingredients. Taste for flavor and add salt as needed.


Porcupine Meatballs

Why do they call them porcupine meatballs? I think it’s because the rice makes it like little porcupine quills. In any case, on a fall evening, I love when the house is full of the warm smells of porcupine meatballs, hot blueberry muffins, and green beans. This is also a great pantry meal that you can make without needing any fresh or refrigerated ingredients. It’s not a hard recipe, but it does take time to make, with rolling the meatballs and then needing time to simmer. Also, FYI, you can include ground turkey or chicken for one pound of the meat, but don’t do the entire 2 lb. as poultry. I’ve tried that before, and the meatballs just fall apart. Maybe it needs the higher fat content to hold together better or something.

If you’re making this gluten free, you’ll need to make the replacement for the canned tomato soup (since most condensed soups have wheat in them).

Make it a meal with:

  • Blueberry Muffins or French bread
  • Green Beans
  • Jell-O

Porcupine Meatballs

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Perfect for fall evenings, especially with blueberry muffins.

Ingredients

Sauce

  • 2 small cans Tomato Soup
    • For gluten free, use:
    • 16 oz. Tomato Sauce
    • 1 Tbsp. Sugar
    • 2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
    • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 2 cans Water (or about 22 oz. water)
  • 2 Whole Cloves
  • ¼ tsp. Chili Powder
  • 1 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
  • ¼ c. Minute Rice

Meatballs

  • 2 lbs. Hamburger
  • 1 c. Minute Rice
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. Dried Minced Onion
  • 1 1/8 tsp. Salt
  • Pepper to taste

Directions

In a heavy pan, mix the sauce ingredients. Then in a large bowl, mix all the meatball ingredients with your hands. Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and drop into the sauce. Simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard cloves before serving if you can find them.


Pork Chops

These pork chops are amazing for Sunday dinner or a special occasion. They’re probably more appropriately called “Smothered Pork Chops”, but whenever my family referred to pork chops, we always knew this is what we meant. I think these may have been Grandma’s delicious oven pork chops. The absolute star of this dish is the gravy, sweet and savory. It’s like no other gravy I’ve ever had. I can’t get enough, spooned over mashed potatoes. I have altered the recipe a little, with the change over the years in the size of cream of mushroom cans.

The longer you can let the pork go in the oven, the more tender it will be. I’ve used regular pork chops, bone in or boneless, and even pork sirloin chops. They all turn out quite delicious. I’ve also tried these pork chops without the flour on the outside, or just flouring and not browning. If you’re going to flour them, make sure to brown them–otherwise, the flavor is a little off. Without the flour is also delicious, but the most delicious is flouring and then browning. Just make sure to fish out the cloves before serving if you can–it’s always a little hard since they kind of blend in with the mushrooms from the cream of mushroom soup.

If you’re making this gluten free, you’ll either want to leave off the flour entirely or coat with gluten free flour or corn starch before browning. I find that it tastes better if I do actually coat it and brown it. And make sure to use the gluten free cream of mushroom soup because cream soups usually have wheat in them.

Make it a meal with:

Pork Chops

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: medium
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Smothered in a sweet and savory gravy, and amazing for special occasions.

Ingredients

  • 6-8 Pork Chops with fat trimmed away
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Flour (or gluten free flour)
  • Paprika
  • 2 Tbsp. Dried Minced Onion
  • 1 large can Cream of Mushroom Soup (or 3 small cans) (or gluten free cream of mushroom soup)
  • 1/3 can Water (or 1/3 can from each small can)
  • 3-4 shakes Worcestershire Sauce
  • 4 whole Cloves
  • 4 heaping Tbsp. Brown Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

Directions

Salt and pepper the chops, then place in a gallon bag with flour and shake until coated. Heat a small amount of oil in a thick-bottomed pan and brown the chops on each side. Place chops in a large greased glass pan. Sprinkle paprika and onion flakes over chops. Then mix together remaining ingredients in a large bowl and pour over chops. Cover and bake for 1 ½ – 2 hours at 325° until chops reach desired tenderness. Remove cloves before serving (if you can find them).


Parmesan Ranch Chicken

I always forget how amazing this chicken is. We usually have it with twice baked potatoes, and everyone loves it. And the house smells so amazing. I think this recipe originally came from a lady at church where I grew up. But Mom loved it, and I even remember when we had a Young Women’s party for Leap Year, and my mom was in charge of the dinner, so she made this chicken. And everyone loved it. By the way, this is great boneless or not boneless.

If you’re making this gluten free, just crush up some Corn Chex and switch it out for the corn flake crumbs–that’s what’s in the photo. (Corn Flakes have malt flavoring, which has gluten.)

Make it a meal with:

Parmesan Ranch Chicken

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: medium
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Amazingly delicious for a weeknight dinner or special occasion.

Ingredients

  • ¾ c. melted Butter
  • ¾ c. Crushed Corn Flakes (or crushed Corn Chex)
  • ¾ c. Parmesan Cheese
  • 3 Tbsp. Ranch Dressing Powder (1 pkg.)
  • 8-10 boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts

Directions

Mix Corn Flake crumbs, ranch dressing, and cheese in shallow dish. Pat chicken dry and dip in dry mix. Then dip chicken in melted butter and coat with crumb mixture for a double coating of the dry mix. Bake, covered at 350° for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 20-25 minutes longer.


Manicotti

The filling is good for manicotti shells or jumbo shells. And it makes great leftovers.

If you’re making it gluten free, good luck finding gluten free manicotti shells. I’m pretty sure those unicorns do exist, though, haha. I usually end up making gluten free rotini or penne, and layering it like I’d layer lasagna. It bakes nicely and is delicious.

Make it a meal with:

  • Garlic Bread or Breadsticks
  • Corn
  • Green Salad
  • Jell-O

Manicotti

  • Servings: 5
  • Difficulty: medium
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Delicious, great leftovers, and freezes well.

Ingredients

  • 10 Manicotti Shells, cooked in salt water
  • 1 pt. Ricotta Cheese
  • 1 Egg, beaten
  • ¼ c. Parmesan Cheese
  • ½ c. Shredded Mozzarella
  • 1 Tbsp. Parsley Flakes
  • Spaghetti Sauce
  • Mozzarella Cheese for topping

Directions

Combine ricotta, eggs, parmesan, and parsley. Stuff into shells either with a spoon or by putting the filling in a quart bag, cutting off the tip, and piping into the shells. Place some spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Place stuffed shells on top of sauce. Pour remaining sauce over top of shells. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Cook at 350° for 30 minutes.


Kalua Pork

Michael got this recipe on his mission from a Hawaiian family, and we’ve made it a lot since then. It’s great and very easy for large gatherings, and your house smells delicious all day. Plus, pork shoulder is often on sale, even as low as 99 cents a pound. Kalua pork is a little greasy, though, so take note. We often serve it on rice, but it’s also great on hamburger buns or Hawaiian sweet rolls.

And good news, this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Kalua Pork

  • Servings: 12?
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print


Very easy and great for large gatherings.

Ingredients

  • 5-6 lb. Pork Shoulder/Butt (boneless if possible, but bone-in is fine)
  • 1 Tbsp.+ Sea Salt
  • 1 Tbsp. Liquid Smoke
  • 1 bottle Hawaiian BBQ Sauce (optional)

Directions

Combine ingredients and cook on low in oven at 200° or in crock pot on low for 14-20 hours. May season with more salt afterwards, if needed. After cooked, pull apart with fork and serve on rice with BBQ sauce (if desired). You can place the pork back in the crock pot to keep it warm, but remove most of the liquid or it will be very fatty.