What's 4 Dinner, by Marie: April 2012

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

1 cup salad oil
1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon sugar (I use 2 packets of Splenda)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 clove of garlic, minced
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Combine, in order, in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Give a great shake. Ready to use or refrigerate. Always shake before pouring onto a salad. Today, I've used the dressing on my Red Salad of Kidney Beans and chopped fresh tomatoes. This dressing is great on any green salad, as well!

Enjoy!

Oil first. I'm using Canola oil. You can use olive oil, but it will be solid when kept in the fridge. I prefer to be able to use my dressings cold.

Now the Balsamic Vinegar. Costco sells a very nice one, direct from Modena, Italy!

The spices, all measured out, ready to go.

In the spices go.

Looks pretty! Put the lid on, tight. Shake, shake, shake!

I used about 1/4 cup on this red salad.

A little sprinkle of parsley for color and we're ready to eat!

Kielbasa with Peppers & Onions with Red Salad on the side

Quick dinner for a busy night.

Kielbasa
onion
green pepper
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Cut sausage into pieces, add 1/4 cup water. Cover and simmer till hot. Add cut up onions and green pepper strips. Put the lid back on the pan and simmer until vegetables are cooked. Remove lid and allow water to evaporate away. Once water is gone, dinner is served!

Paired here with a red salad of kidney beans and fresh cut tomatoes with my homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing.

2 pounds of kielbasa for my hungry family.

Cut up and into the pan with just a bit of water. Simmer gently. Remember that it's already fully cooked. So, relying on how quickly you need dinner, use your own judgement.

Cut up the onion and green pepper. Yes, my peppers are already cut up and frozen. Quick quick! I certainly could cut up onions, as well.

The sausage is simmering, I'll start on the salad now. Cut up fresh tomatoes.

Add a can of drained red kidney beans. Mix well.

Add salad dressing, mix well. This salad dressing is posted separately here on FB.

Add a little sprinkle of parsley for color and it's done. I'll put it into the fridge until dinner is done.

The sausage is hot, I add veggies and re-cover the pan.

After a few minutes, the veggies are tender. I remove the lid and allow the water to boil away. Set the table, dinner is done!

YUM! A little carb on the side, I've chosen some rice-a-roni dish. A nice slice of Italian bread with butter and it's a well rounded meal.

Broccoli Slaw

A nice fresh alternative to a hot vegetable side dish.

3 large broccoli crowns
1 large carrot
1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoon white vinegar
4 teaspoon sugar (I used 4 Splenda packets)
2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sesame seeds, optional
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Cut up the fresh broccoli. Slice the carrot very thin, I use my mandolin. You can also slice the carrot into matchsticks. Mix together the rest of the ingredients to make the slaw dressing. Mix together with broccoli. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if you'd like. Refrigerate until serving.

Three broccoli heads. Washed.

Cut off the flowers. This will come as old news to most, but if you've never cut up broccoli before, don't just chop away. You'll lose most of the flowers. Cut on "branch" off the head.

Then cut through your cut end to separate into bite size pieces. The flowers will come apart on their own, you only cut the stem.

See, nice and neat, no chopped off flowers.

I've cut up all three heads, and this is all the flowers I lost. Nothing...

OK, in another bowl, mix your slaw dressing. Mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt, celery seed and salt.

Everything goes in together.

All the spices, too.

I use a whisk to mix until smooth and creamy.

I've thinly sliced the carrot into the dressing. Mix well.

Pour the cut broccoli into the dressing and mix well.

All coated nicely.

Now, I pour it back into the nice bowl, after I wiped out the excess water that had dripped off the broccoli flowers.

Last step, sprinkle with a little sesame seed. How nice. OK, into the fridge until dinner is ready.

Szechuan Teriyaki Meatballs

1 - 1.5 pound ground beef
1 - 1.5 pound ground pork Don't sweat the amounts...
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs, or more if it's wet
S&P

Teriyaki sauce
Red pepper paste -Asian store or grocery store aisle
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Mix the meatballs from the first set of ingredients. Make meatballs and fry in skillet until browned. Don't worry if they aren't cooked all the way through, just turn them often to brown. Add pepper paste and teriyaki sauce and 1 cup of water. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15-60 minutes. In the meantime, make some noodles or rice. Loosen the lid if you need to thicken the gravy.

Simple, simple. Ready is well under an hour. :)

If you go searching for a red pepper paste, don't worry about the brand. You just want a pepper paste that's mostly red peppers, and thick.

Beef and pork and eggs. Now, the messy part... Mix with your hands, add the breadcrumbs and S&P.

I use this little ice cream scoop kind of thing to get my meatballs the same size. You can do it any way you like.

Can you tell I LOVE my 12 inch skillet? Perfect fit! If you can't fit them all in at once, rotate out the browned ones and add the raw ones. Once you get the sauce started, you can out them all back in together.

Turn them every few minutes to brown on all sides.

When they are all browned nicely, put them to the edges to make a lace to work on the sauce.

Nice big glob of pepper paste. This is all by taste, but this is about 1/4 cup. This will not be overly spicy, just a little zing.

1/2 bottle of teriyaki glaze. If you are using the second half of the bottle and not the first half, like I am here, fill the bottle with your water and shake it good to rinse the bottle out well. This stuff is too good to waste!