Fast Food

[Chuck52]

Maybe the title should be Fast Food Alternatives. What do you fix when it's getting late and you can't face another pizza? We just tried out a recipe from Southern Living (with minor modification) that meets the bill for fast, easy, and not much mess, plus it fits the season.

Smoked sausage, or one of it's relatives, like Polish sausage, with sourkraut, onions and apples. We added the onions...very creative. Sautee the onions and apples in a small amount of oil until the onion is transparent. Add the drained kraut and sausage, and about a cup of apple juice or cider. Cover and simmer until the apples are soft and the flavors have melded. The original recipe calls for adding caraway seeds and some brown sugar, but we used Bavarian style kraut that already has the seeds and is slightly sweet. Serve with mashed potatoes and maybe lima beans. Fast. Cheap. Not too messy. Very tasty. Great on a cold night in front of the fire.

Chuck

[AndyF]

Sauerkraut and sausage is one of my kids favorites. We have it fairly often in the winter, sometimes with potato pancakes instead of mashed potatoes.

A quick favorite for me is pasta with vegetables - braised onions in the fall, fresh vegetables in the spring, with some garlic toast and a tossed salad. Total time to prepare is <30 minutes. Frozen ravioli with tomato sauce is even quicker, <20minutes.

In the summer, you can't beat a fresh tomato sandwich on toast. With good tomatoes this is a meal in itself.

[ScottAR]

Homemade strombolie (sp?)
1 roll of refrigerated french bread dough
2 cups grated cheese (I buy it already grated)
Cold cuts ( ham and turkey work well... experiment here)
Roasted bell peppers OR a jar of pimenteos
Black pepper (optional)

Flatten out the dough to about 12"x12". Spread out the cheese, ham and peppers. Black pepper to taste. Roll the dough in on itself and pinch the side and ends closed. Bake according to the bread directions. While still warm, brush on melted butter and garlic powder. Aside from the baking time, it takes about 10-15minutes.

Serve warm with a little ranch salad dressing or pizza sauce. Yummy... [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Hondo]

We often used leftovers to make quesadillas. Place a tortilla in a nonstick skillet, spread a little pesto on it, sprinkle a mild cheese over that, place some sliced grilled chicken (shrimp, pork, etc.) add some roasted peppers, maybe some crumbled blue cheese (goat cheese is good, too) and chopped onions, sprinkle the mild cheese over this (the cheese acts like glue) and top it with another tortilla. Heat over medium heat until the cheese melts and the bottom tortilla gets a little crispy. Flip it once, and you're done. Quick, easy and tasty. Of course it helps to have good leftovers available. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[RichZ]

There's always hamburger helper![img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] It's actually pretty good!![img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[pbenven]

Venison sausauge risotto.

In saucepan, saute a chopped onion in olive oil until transparent.
In another pan, heat about 4 cups of chicken stock (powdered soup base is fine for this).
Cut a couple of sausages up into thin slices and toss in with the onions.
When the sausages are cooked, add a cup of uncooked rice (arborio rice is best for this).
Stir around to mix everything together then add a cup of red wine.
When the wine disappears, add a ladle full of the stock. Continue adding ladles of stock one after the other, giving a chance for the rice to absorb the last one before adding the next.
It should take about 20 minutes for the rice to be ready. If you run out of soup stock, finish up using water.
It's done when the rice is tender. It should be creamy enough to flow and find its own level.

Even faster: Linguini with oil and garlic

While the water is coming to a boil, prepare the sauce...

5 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley
a pinch of chili flakes
Grated parmesan or romano cheese
Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the oil, garlic, half of the parsley, salt and pepper, and the chili flakes to a cold frying pan. Put the pan on the heat and stir around until the garlic begins to sizzle. Keep it on the heat for another 10 seconds and then remove.

When the pasta is ready, put the frying pan with the sauce back on the heat and transfer the pasta to it. Add about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of the pasta water to the frying pan and the remaining parsley. Toss around for about a mintue and serve with grated cheese on top.

[Hondo]

But after twenty minutes of stirring the risotto your arm feels like it's about to fall off and you begin to wish that you'd put the wine in you instead of the dish...

[Chuck52]

Rich,

Yep. Hamburger Helper helped us through many a "What's for supper?" moment over the years. One of the things younger folks might not be aware of is how much the instant food products have improved since they first became available. Dried potato products are a prime example. I remember the first Pringles potato chips I ever tasted. They had the kinda sweet, strange dried potato taste I associated with instant mashed potatoes. Now they taste more-or-less like "real" potato chips. I still prefer making most things from more basic ingredients, but some of the time-saving kits are quite good. We really like the Zataran rice dishes. The spices are about as good as I'd come up with myself.

One common theme of "fast food" at home seems to be having the basics available at all times. We use lots of parmesan and asiago cheeses, pasta, rice, olive oil, tomatoes (canned or fresh depending on the season), and of course onions and garlic. You can go pretty far with those and a few extras.

Chuck

[Carl]

Paul,

I was thinking about my garlic/oliveoil/anchovy pasta while reading this thread. I do the same thing but add a squirt of anchovy paste to the olive oil - just enough to get the flavor then top off with fresh parmesan before serving.

[RichZ]

Chuck, my wife (who happens to be "Earthmother")and I both work full time. When we get home to the farm, we have to take care of the animals and do farm chores. Hamburger helper gets us through many nights when she has no time to cook while I'm up to my nose in various kinds of manure![img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]