Homemade Lasagna

Posted on 02/15/2013 by Walter Blevins

Everybody’s got a recipe for lasagna I would imagine.  For years I just did the recipe on the back of the box.  Now I pretty much do it out of my head.  I don’t try to get fancy.  And this isn’t a recipe that my Great Grandma used to cook in Sicily or Naples or anything like that.  It’s just good old basic Lasagna with 3 cheeses and uses canned sauce.

Yes, canned sauce.  Have I ever explained why I use canned sauce rather than making it from scratch?  It’s simple.  Making it from scratch is delicious.  It takes the better part of a whole day, or longer, to simmer properly and get the full, rich flavor.  But I quit making it from scratch (which I used to do all the time) about 25 years ago when I discovered one thing.

What was the one thing?  My kids couldn’t have cared less that it was homemade sauce.  Dinners with little kids needed to be cooked quickly and served just as quickly before the little ragamuffins starved to death right before my eyes.  So I went to prepared sauce.

Homemade Lasagna

Then it took me about another 17 years to figure out that the canned stuff was not only 1/3 the price of the jarred stuff but that I liked the way it tastes a lot better—more like real tomato sauce with just a bit of acid still in it rather than the over-sweetened stuff in a jar.  There are only so many glass jars that I can stuff in my cupboards for future use anyway.

So if that’s too plebian for your taste that’s all right with me.  Because I’m the Cheap Bastid.  If you want to foo-foo your lasagna with all sorts of stuff, that’s OK too.  Have at it.  Use more expensive and better quality cheeses.  Do a gourmet sauce.  All that’s fine.  Mine tastes good and sticks to your ribs.  Plus it’s cheap. Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, pasta & pizza | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cheesy Jalapeno Homemade Biscuits

Posted on 02/09/2013 by Walter Blevins

I’ve given up on buying those refrigerated tubes of biscuits at the grocery store.  Even the store brand costs more than this Cheap Bastid is willing to pay for gooey dough that transforms into blonde hockey pucks.

If I’m going to make a blonde hockey puck, I’m going to do it from scratch.  Fortunately, I’ve practiced enough now making biscuits from scratch that they don’t come out that way.  Very often.  And there’s always something therapeutic, relaxing or maybe creative about getting out my pastry board, mixing bowl, flour and other ingredients and embarking on a morning’s mission of hot, “scratch” biscuits.

But you need to change things up a bit every now and then.  So, I tried a batch of Cheese and Jalapeno biscuits.  They’re just as easy to make as regular biscuits—you just need to toss in a couple of extra ingredients for something that looks and tastes different and really good.

Cheesy Jalapeno biscuits

These are great all by themselves or they’re even better with breakfast or dinner.  And start to finish they take just a bit more than a half hour to make.  You’ve got a half hour don’t you? Continue reading →

Posted in baking, breakfast & brinner, Comfort Food, Southern Cooking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Saucy Meatballs and Grits

Posted on 02/05/2013 by Walter Blevins

“Comfort food always has something gloppy in it” was Mrs. CB’s definition this morning when we got to talking about the dinner I made last night.  Saucy Meatballs and Grits is definitely comfort food and I think Mrs. CB hit the nail on the head.

The gloppy, rich smoothness of the Bob’s Red Mill grits played beautifully with the hint of acid from the tomato sauce and the fullness of the tennis ball sized meatballs.  Oh for crying out loud—that sounds just like some of the “foo-foo” pronouncements from the judges on “Chopped” or “Top Chef”.  It was good.  It was “go back for seconds tasty”.  It filled you up and warmed your belly.

That’s all that comfort food is supposed to do.  We tend to make more of it than what it is.  It’s simple.  It’s tasty.  And, OK, it’s got something gloppy like grits or mashed potatoes (or even rice if you’re making Oriental comfort food).

Saucy Meatballs and Grits

If you want this to sound just a bit more refined, feel free to refer to it as “Saucy Meatballs with Polenta”.  At a restaurant you’d pay about $12 for Meatballs and Grits and about $18 for Meatballs and Polenta.  Same meal.  Different name.  Higher price.  This is “Southern Comfort food meets Italian”–and it’s really tasty. Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, Italian, Southern Cooking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

White Chili or Chicken and Bean Soup

Posted on 01/28/2013 by Walter Blevins

Living for 30+ years in the Upper Midwest gave me an appreciation for “stick to your ribs”, “old fashioned” slow cooked comfort food.  It’s a “fix and forget” meal which you can’t resist the temptation to fuss around with all day, making repeated trips to the slow cooker to taste, burn your lips and tongue and minutely adjust seasoning or temperature.

The results are always delicious.  Why?  Well, because all those repeated trips to check the pot are where the love goes in.  It’s where the anticipation builds.  The aroma of the stick-to-your ribs dinner has taken over the kitchen and is wafting out to the rest of your home.  Your belly starts to growl just a bit well ahead of dinner time.  Why? Because a slow cooked dinner is intoxicating.  You just can’t wait.  But you know you have to.

white chili served

Making chili is at least a half day process and it doesn’t matter if it’s red chili or this “white” chili.  The actual preparation doesn’t take all that long but letting all the ingredients slowly cook and marry together is what takes a while.  And I’ve never had the patience to just leave it along to do that.  I’m constantly fussing with it, stirring, sniffing, tasting adding a bit of this or a bit of that. Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, Slow Cooker/Crock Pot, soup and stew, Southern Cooking, turkey & chicken | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on White Chili or Chicken and Bean Soup

Homemade Apple Crisp

Posted on 01/23/2013 by Walter Blevins

OK, folks, Cheap Bastid hasn’t been around in a couple of weeks.  That’s because I am now employed again as a bastion of the automotive industry selling cars.

Anyhow, before I have to hit the shower and get my game face on, I thought I’d post a recipe.  It’s one I’ve “developed”, “synthesized”, “plagiarized” or created a couple of years ago and made enough times to finally start getting it “right”.  And, I haven’t posted about it because I didn’t have any photos.

So, yesterday I had the day off—thank goodness because the day before stretched from a scheduled 6 ½ hour day to a 14 hour day and I was worn out—and I thought that one way to rest would be to plan a good dinner and make a dessert to go along with it.  So, I ran to Frazier Farms for apples and raw oatmeal to make Apple Crisp.  Then, in the middle of making it I discovered that I was out of cinnamon—so it was off to the dollar store because it needed it for the crisp and for the sweet potatoes I was going to grill.  And the results were pretty doggone good for not having made this dessert in a while.

apple crisp

Continue reading →

Posted in baking, dessert, family meals | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments