Recipe: Emeril's Christmas Bread

Imagine someone who doubled a bread recipe and the results nearly took over the kitchen with a lot of rising bread dough. If anyone's familiar with the classic I Love Lucy show when she was cornered by a huge loaf of bread coming out of the oven, this is kinda like this. The bread went BAM back...

But of course, Jamie and I had a good laugh reading this. We'll have to make it sometime.

Emeril's Christmas Bread: A story of 2 loaves, 3 colors, and 1 frightened baker

The recipe is at the end of the article.

Recipe: Chicken mushroom casserole

4 lbs chicken
2-3 cans cream of mushroom
3 green peppers
2 large onions
2 potato

Heat up the oven to 400 degrees.

You may want to add more or less cream of mushroom, though the general ratio seems to be for every two pounds of chicken, use one can cream of mushroom. We used three cans, and it still came out nicely. A large casserole dish works nicely for this.

Chop up the green pepper, onion, and potato. Add to the chicken and cream of mushroom in the casserole dish. Other veggies like zucchini, celery, and carrots can be used as long as they're not too wet, like tomatoes. Add more veggies to balance out the meat.

Bake for 45-60 minutes. Adjust cooking times if you use more or less chicken.

Serves four hungry people.

Thanks to a friend for passing it on to me.

Recipe: Pita Pizza

I've tried making my own pizzas using various things, but one thing that stands out is making it using pita bread after using flatbreads. You tend to fill up on the bread rather than the toppings.

- hummus or regular sauce
- cheese (soy, veggie, or regular)
- 4-5 toppings, spread around evenly
- top cheese

Heat up the oven to 350 degrees and cook for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted enough to your satisfaction. The pita bread will be a little soft or crunchy, depending on how long it was in the oven. I've put the pizza on foil squares. When removing from the oven, put it on newspaper so you don't lose it on the floor if the foil tears.

For a variation, open up the pita and put in some cheese and/or a topping.

Recipe - Cube Steak Quesadillas

I made this when I had to make dinner quickly and we had some cube steak, also known as "steak-umm."

2 tablespoons cooking oil like wok oil
1 box Steak-Umm or cube steak (about 12-16 oz)
2 eggs
1 diced medium onion
3-4 chopped scallions
2 chopped garlic cloves
1/2 can stewed tomatoes (optional)
tortillas (large or small)
cheese

1. Break up and brown the cube steak
2. In a wok or other cooking utensil, stir fry the eggs and garlic.
3. Add the cut-up onion and scallions when the egg is done.
4. When the onions are soft enough, add in the cube steak and stir fry for a few minutes
5. Serve hot on tortillas. Eat like a wrap or fold it over, sprinkling cheese on top.

Depending on the size of your tortillas and how hungry people are, it can feed 2-3.