Weeknight Paella

 I'm back, for this week anyway.
This is a quick recipe you can make during the week, it is not a true paella, but it has the flavors of paella. A great way to use up leftover rice and meats. The great thing about paellas is that you can use just about any meat, seafood or you can even do vegetable versions.

Weeknight Paella
2 spicy sausages, cut into 1/2 inch coins I used hot Italian Chorizo would be good
1 cod fillet, cut into bite sized pieces or any firm white fish
1 ham steak, cut into bite size pieces
12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 to 1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2/3 cup peas, frozen
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper
1 pinch of saffron, optional
1 large clove of garlic, minced
2 tbs olive oil
Parsley for garnish, I also used some saffron threads for the pictures

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Sprinkle the saffron threads on the tomatoes, this will soften them and let the flavors combine. If you don't let the saffron bloom in liquid it will be stringy and the flavor doesn't develop. Add sausage and ham. Cook until they start to take on color then add the fish. Add the rice, tomatoes, garlic, smoked paprika and pepper. When the rice is warmed through add the shrimp. When the shrimp takes on color add the peas. Cook until peas are heated through.

Place on plate/bowl and garnish with parsley.

Breakfast in Bread

With Mother's Day upon us here is a simple breakfast that looks very special. You can use a heart cookie cutter instead of the round biscuit cutter mentioned in the recipe.

Breakfast in Bread

1 egg, fried or poached
1 tsp olive oil
1 stalk of asparagus
1 piece Canadian Bacon or about 1 oz of ham chopped
3 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 or 1 tbs of diced tomato
2 tsp parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 slice of toast
Non-stick spray

This recipe is for 1 egg, you can multiple by however many eggs you are making. You will need a biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter, I used round but any shape will do) a little less than the width of a piece of toast. If you have 2 biscuit cutters the same size and shape it will be even easier.

In a pan put 1 tsp of olive oil and heat to a shimmer add the asparagus and ham. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes. cook for another 2 minutes, until ham starts to brown. Set aside.

Start making your egg, if you are frying spray the cutter with the non-stick spray and place with the non-cutting side down in the pan. Crack the egg into the cutter. This will keep the egg shape the same size as the hole in the toast. Start the toast. Cook egg to desired doneness. When egg is done carefully remove egg from cutter. Then use cutter to cut a whole in the toast. Remove the piece of toast that you cut out and put toast on plate. Put egg in the hole in the toast. Now top with ham, asparagus, tomato mixture. Sprinkle the parmesan over the whole toast.

Manchego and Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast

Did you ever have a craving for some food or type of food so you plan the whole meal around that item? This weekend my craving was for southwestern food. I found a recipe and thought I could add some southwestern seasoning to that and it would be really good. Since it was a new dish I followed the recipe closely, a little to closely. After I was done and had the dish in the oven I turned around and saw my southwestern seasoning sitting on the cupboard behind me and realized I never added it to the dish. Now to come up with another recipe for the chicken. Well here is the recipe I came up with.
Note I used Manchego cheese in this recipe if you can't find it you could use parmesan. Manchego is available in grocery stores around here so I assume it is readily available elsewhere. If you have not heard of Manchego it is a semi-hard cheese, that comes from the La Mancha area of Spain. It is made from the milk of the Manchega sheep. The cheese is rich with a buttery and slightly spicy flavor. Manchego quickly became a family favorite when we tried it a couple of months ago. I think it is worth looking for if you haven't tried it before.

Manchego & Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast

This recipe is for 1 breast, just multiply by the number of breasts you need. You won't have to double the olive oil just use enough so the breasts are sitting in the oil.
2 tsp olive oil
1 chicken breast butterflied, cut in half so that it opens like a book
dijon mustard, enough to coat the inside of the chicken book
3 thin asparagus stalks, hard ends removed
1 thin slice manchego cheese, about as long as the breast
1 thinly sliced piece of ham

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. While the oil is heating spread the chicken breast out like a book and cover the inside with dijon mustard. Lay the 3 stalks of asparagus on the bottom half of the breast, then the cheese and the ham. Fold the top slice of the chicken breast over the stuffing. It should now look like a regular chicken breast with stuffing.

Place the breast in the pan carefully, so it does not fall apart. cook until bottom is golden brown. Flip the breast over and cook the other side until browned.

Cuban Sandwich

It seems like everywhere I look lately they have Cuban sandwiches. Being the foodie that I am I had to investigate. Wikipedia says a Cuban sandwich consists of yellow mustard, thinly sliced pickles, pork and slices of glazed ham. I had some left over pork loin roast that I had grilled. The roast had a spicy/sweet rub on it that I had made. That seems easy enough, so here was my version. Not bad for someone who never had one before.

Cuban Sandwich
2 slices of good quality bread
2 slices of ham, I used honey ham from the deli
2-4 slices pork roast, depending on size and thickness of roast
enough slices of dill pickle to cover the sandwich
enough yellow mustard to cover 2 pieces of bread
Olive Oil to spread on the side of the bread without the mustard

On one side of the bread spread olive oil on the other spread mustard. On the mustard side put down the pork, then the pickles, then the ham. Put the other slice of bread on top with olive oil side on the outside. If you have a panini press/George Foreman grill use that, if not then use a griddle/frying pan with a weight on top of the sandwich (I used a griddle with a cast iron skillet on this sandwich). Cook until bread is golden brown and turn over and do the other side if using a frying pan/griddle.

Breakfast in Bread

Every Sunday morning while my wife is getting ready for church I make eggs for breakfast. I try to come up with something besides fried, scrambled and poached. This was my idea for last Sunday, it certainly isn't a new idea, but I haven't tried it in years. If you have ever made eggs in a hole, eggs in a basket or whatever you want to call it you will know that the toast and the eggs don't always cook at the same rate., so you end up with burnt toast and raw eggs. So I cheated.

Breakfast on Bread or the Toastest with the Mostest


1 egg, fried or poached
1 tsp olive oil
1 stalk of asparagus
1 piece Canadian Bacon or about 1 oz of ham chopped
3 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 or 1 tbs of diced tomato
2 tsp parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 slice of toast
Non-stick spray

This recipe is for 1 egg, you can multiple by however many eggs you are making. You will need a biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter, I used round but any shape will do) a little less than the width of a piece of toast. If you have 2 biscuit cutters the same size and shape it will be even easier.

In a pan put 1 tsp of olive oil and heat to a shimmer add the asparagus and ham. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes. cook for another 2 minutes, until ham starts to brown. Set aside.

Start making your egg, if you are frying spray the cutter with the non-stick spray and place with the non-cutting side down in the pan. Crack the egg into the cutter. This will keep the egg shape the same size as the hole in the toast. Start the toast. Cook egg to desired doneness. When egg is done carefully remove egg from cutter. Then use cutter to cut a whole in the toast. Remove the piece of toast that you cut out and put toast on plate. Put egg in the hole in the toast. Now top with ham, asparagus, tomato mixture. Sprinkle the parmesan over the whole toast.