Oprah Winfrey

So I know a lot of my friends and family know this, but for all of you who don't know me personally I wanted to let you know that I have a personal blog as well.  It tells you all about me.  It's called "The Strasburg Family".  

The latest and greatest news is that I will be going back on the Oprah show for the 3rd time since I was 19.  This is the last and final time I will be on and the show is "Oprah's Most Memorable Guests" spanning her entire time on air.  It will be filmed on April 6th, and then I will make sure to let you know the date it will be on TV.  If you want to check out my blog click here.  So I just wanted to let all of you know because I probably won't have to many new recipes up in the next week just because I'm getting ready to fly to Chicago and getting ready for the show.  

If you are interested in what my show was about you can visit the Oprah website by clicking here.  That will tell you the whole story.  Anyway I hope you all have a great week, and I'll have some amazing and delicious recipes for you when I get home!

Bruschetta-5 Different Way

Here is the 1st recipe of a 5 series with Bruschetta.

So I love bruschetta.  I also love really really good olive oil.  I have come across 1 of my favorite olive oil companies and a recipe that will knock yours socks off if you like bruschetta.  I always like to try a little twist to the original fresca one, so here is what I came up with last night.

 Prosciutto, Burrata Cheese, and a slice of fig, on top of a really crusty bagetta, drizzled with rich organic extra virgin olive oil from Olio and Olive, bake that under your broiler and then layer the ingredients on top!!  You will love it!  I will post many more Bruschetta recipes to come!  

I would highly recommend checking out Olio and Olive though!  You can order their sampler and try out all of their amazing olive oils, if that is your thing.  It definitely is mine.  I love to go and just buy a loaf of ciabatta bread and warm it up and dip in EVOO and cracked pepper.  Delish!

Homemade Wheat Thins

 I follow a bunch of blogs and a lot of food blogs, so needless to say I find a lot of amazing recipes.  This one sadly I have to say is not my own, but it was so fantastic that I had to steal it from Tracey's Culinary Adventures....So thank you Tracey for the amazing recipe!

I love Wheat Thins, and how great that you could make them all by yourself and know exactly what is in them and make them delicious?!

Homemade Wheat Thins
1 1/4 cups (5 oz) whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus extra for topping
1/4 teaspoon paprika
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Add the flour, sugar, salt and paprika to a medium bowl and whisk to combine.  Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the bowl.  Then, using a pastry blender, mix the butter into the dry ingredients thoroughly.  Combine the water and vanilla in a small measuring cup.  Add to the butter/flour mixture and mix until a smooth dough forms.  (My dough was still pretty dry so I added slightly more water before it came together.)

Divide the dough into 4 pieces.  Work with one piece at a time, keeping the others covered with a towel so they don't dry out.  Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangle.  Lift the dough and turn it as you roll to ensure it's not sticking.  You want to roll the dough as thin as possible, try to make sure it's 1/16-inch thick at most.  If you want all of your crackers to be perfect, trim the edges of the dough so you have a rectangle with even sides.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the rectangle into squares about 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide. 

Transfer the dough squares to the prepared baking sheets.  You don't need to leave much space in between the crackers - they don't spread at all in the oven.  Sprinkle the squares lightly with salt.  Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining 3 pieces of dough.  Save all of your scraps under the towel; reroll them all at once to create a final batch of crackers.  (I covered the baking sheets with towels while I rolled the rest of the dough so the cut crackers wouldn't dry out.)

Bake the crackers, one sheet at a time, until crisp and browned, about 5-10 minutes.  Check the crackers at 5 minutes, and if some of the thinner ones are browning too quickly, remove them to a plate and return the remaining crackers to the oven to finish baking.  The crackers can burn quickly so you want to keep a close eye on them.  Once brown and crisp, transfer to a plate to cool.  Store the crackers in an airtight container.

Tacos

Tacos are one of my favorite meals.  I have come up with my own taco recipe over the years that I love and luckily my family loves as well. So, I hope your family enjoys it as well.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef

1 can refried beans

1/2 C. salsa

1 tomato diced

Lettuce chopped

grated sharp cheddar cheese

Mild Green Sauce

Tortillas

Directions:

Brown the beef in a pan and drain the grease.  Add the salsa and refried beans until warm.  There's your meat.

Warm up your tortillas either in a pan or microwave.  And layer however you want, but this is how I do it.

tortilla, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, mild green sauce.  You can always add sour cream if you want!  Enjoy!

Pantry Perfect Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb. Hamburger

3-14oz Cans Diced Tomatoes
1 can Chicken Broth
1 Can Beef Broth

2 Cans of Corn

2 Cans of Peas

2 Cans Carrots

1/2 Onion diced

S & P

3 Potatoes washed and dice (I leave the skins on)

Directions:

Brown hamburger and drain. In a large pot mix everything together and let warm and simmer until it thickens up.  Serve with a thick piece of bread.

Good Morning!....Coffee Cake

Batter Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Flour plus 1/2 Tbls extra

1 Tbls. Baking Powder

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Softened Butter

1/2 Cup Milk

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 Egg

Topping Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Tbls. Flour

2 Tbls. melted Butter

1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions:
Mix all the batter ingredients together until well combined.  The mix the topping mixture in a mixing bowl. 

Grease a 9x13 baking dish or place in parchment paper and layer the cake in a 9x13 baking dish 1/2 batter, 1/2 mixture, 1/2 batter, 1/2 mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 min.

Spur of the Moment Spaghetti Sauce

I was at my sister's house tonight and she just had a baby.  I had set it up so that dinners would be coming to them for a week, so when I got there I was expecting them to have a meal.  To my surprise there was no food there at 5pm.  So I asked what was going on and they let me know that they had received a text message a few minutes prior and that the person who was supposed to be making their dinner was sick and didn't want to chance them getting sick, so they would not be getting dinner.  Well I could not have that happen to my sweet family that I love, so I asked them kindly if I could raid their pantry and refrigerator and make a meal.  This is what I came up with, and by the way, it was a HUGE hit!

Ingredients:

1 12oz can Tomato Sauce

1 12 oz. can Diced Tomatoes with Chili's

6oz. Tomato Paste

2 tsp. minced garlic

3/4 onion chopped

1 lb. ground beef

1/3 C. cream cheese

2 tsp. basil

2 tsp. Oregano

1 tsp. tyme

about 4 flakes of crushed red pepper

4 tbls. butter

1 box of whole wheat spaghetti

Directions:

In a deep pan brown the ground beef, drain and set aside.  In a saute pan melt your butter and add your onion and garlic.  Cook until translucent.  Throw the onion mixture into the deep pan with your beef.  Then add all your ingredients except the spaghetti over medium heat.  Let everything heat up and simmer so the spices combine and it becomes tastey  (About 20-25 min).

When the sauce has about 10 more minutes to simmer bring 4-6 quarts of water to boil and salt heavily.  Once the water is at a rolling boil drop your pasta and cook according to package instructions.  Save about 1/4 cup pasta water.

When pasta is done you can either mix the sauce with the pasta water and pasta, or just drain your pasta and place the sauce on top.  Top with a little grated cheese and voila!  It was easy and delicious!  It was also very creamy because of the cream cheese.  I'm sorry I don't have a picture, but I promise there wasn't any left!