Salmon

Sometimes when cooking, less is more. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but here it does. This salmon recipe is extremely simple to make and tastes very good.
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 (3 pound) salmon fillet

Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl. Place fish, skin side down in a 13X9 inch baking dish. Rub sugar mixture over fish. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours. Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Wipe off the renaming sugar mixture with a paper towel. Coat a jelly roll pan with cooking spray. Place fish, skin side down, in pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until fish flakes easily.

Cheesecake

What is the best dessert? Its not brownies? Its not ice cream? Its cheesecake. Good cheesecake tastes so good, and yet at places like the "Cheesecake Factory" it is so expensive. And fattening. So sometimes you want to make some cheap, healthy cheesecake and here is a example of that.

9 inch graham cracker crust
2-8 ounces package Neufchatel cream cheese
2-8 ounce package fat free cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 large eggs plus 3 egg whites
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat both cream cheeses and the sugar with a mixer on medium high speed until smooth, 5 minutes, then beat in the sour cream on low. Lightly whisk the 3 egg whites in a bowl, then add to the cream cheese mixture along with2 whole eggs, flour, vanilla, and lemon zest. Beat on medium speed until fluffy, 3 minutes. Pour over the crust.
3. Place the cheesecake in a roasting pan and add enough warn water to come one quarter up the sides of the pan. Bake until the cake is set but still jiggles, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Turn off the oven, and keep the cheesecake in there for another 20 minutes with the door closed.
4. Remove the cake from the water bath, and cool completley. Chill until firm, at least 8 hours. Top with whatever and enjoy.

Banana Bread

When you have a really old and mushy banana feed it to your children. It might scar the child for life, making them dislike bananas for years, but the banana will be gone. Or you could just make some delicious banana bread.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
3 large bananas-mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips-optional

Cream butter and sugar together; add eggs. Sift together dry ingredients and add to the mixture. Add bananas and mix well; add chocolate chips if you want. Pour into well greased loaf pan. Bake slowly at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Enjoy warm with butter... or cold if you are like me.

Ham and cheese potatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and slice 7 or 8 good sized potatoes, and put that in a greased casserole dish along with 3/4 of a bag of diced ham. After that, make the cheese sauce, by creating roux with a Tbs of butter and 2 Tbs of flour, add 1 cup of milk, add cubed velveeta (1/2 brick), and melt in pan until velveeta is melted. Add then to the ham and potatoes, stir to coat everything. Place in the oven for an hour, or until the potatoes are no longer firm. You can pierce with a fork to check.

Manicotti

So in continuing that Valentine's day theme, sometimes when you cook for someone, you shouldn't use a mix instead slave a bit to make a delicious meal. In this case, the manicotti turned out beautifully, and if I would be with someone (eventually), they would have enjoyed it.

1 lb bulk pork sausage
Prego tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) carton ricotta cheese
3 cups shedded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 tsp parsley flakes
12 manicotti noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained
Grated Parmesan Cheese

In a large saucepa, brown sausage, drain. Then combine in a medium bowl, sausage, , ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella, egg, and parsley. In a 13X9X2 inch baking dish, pour 1/3 spaghetti sauce, so it covers the bottom. Stuff manicotti noodles with ricotta noodles and place on top of the sauce. Pour the remaning sauce over filled noodles, top with reaming mozzarella and sprinkle with parmesean. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 20 minutes.

Whoopie Pies

Sometimes on valentines day you want to do something simple, and romantic. Not that I would know, but cookies can be romantic. Even if they are from a mix. For this post I used a mix from stone wall kitchen that contained directions to make the aforementioned pies.

Well, this is embarrassing, I can't really post the recipe because it is from a mix, even though you do add stuff to it. Anyway, they turned out delicious, and it also had a good recipe for frosting, which is just powdered sugar, milk, vanilla... and a bit of pink food coloring.

Meatloaf

Sometimes I can be hungry. As surprising as that is, sometimes I just want something to be warm, hearty, and can eat it later anywhere. One great example of that is meatloaf. You can have meatloaf, a meatloaf sandwich, or just a meatloaf milkshake, doesn't that sound great?

1 pound ground beef
1 cup herbed seasoning stuffing
2 eggs, beaten to blend
1/4 c ketchup
3 Tbs minced fresh parsley (or dried parsley)
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 garlic cloves, minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing throrougly. Transfer micture to a greased 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 inch loaf plan. Bake until meat loaf shrinks from sides of pan and top is brown, about 1 hour, and serve.