Pineapple & Kielbasa Baked Beans

It's the Fourth of July weekend and Southport is North Carolina's Fourth of July capital so cookouts, parades, fireworks, and parties abound!  What to bring for the neighborhood potluck cook-out?  How about a delicious variation on traditional baked beans?  Add a bit of Polish kielbasa, crushed pineapple, and bacon and voila, the dish becomes extraordinary!  This is an old recipe that I found in my recipe box and I think it's blog worthy. I made this for just us but the recipe is easily doubled for a 9 x 13 baking dish to serve a crowd.

INGREDIENTS:

1 28-ounce can Van Camps Pork & Beans, mostly drained

1 small onion, chopped

1 15-ounce can crushed pineapple, mostly drained              

½ pound Kielbasa sausage, chopped

¼ cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons Heinz 57 steak sauce

1 Tablespoon yellow mustard

8 slices bacon (I used Hormel ready cooked)

¾ cup ketchup

DIRECTIONS:

  Spray 9 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray

  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

  Mix together beans, onion, pineapple, sausage, brown sugar, steak sauce, and mustard.

  Pour into baking dish.

  Lay bacon slices over the beans.

 Spoon ketchup over the bacon and spread to cover.

Bake uncovered about 2 hours or until bacon is caramelized.

Let the smiles and oohs and ahs begin!

Bacon Scallops/Water Chestnuts Rolls

Also known as Rumaki, this is a great appetizer recipe that is easy and tasty!  This recipe calls for water chestnuts, but you can also wrap scallops, pineapple, tater tots, chicken livers, and oysters.  The possibilities are as endless as  your imagination! 

Rumaki, an appetizer that dates from the 1940's (served at Tiki Bars such as Trader Vic's) recently made an appearance on the TV series Mad Men, when Betty Draper served it at a cocktail party.  I don’t like chicken livers and would never knowingly eat one; but when rumaki was on the buffet table at a wedding reception a few years ago, I ate several of the bite sized morsels before I was told that I was eating chicken livers!  Yep, it was that good… even with chicken livers! Let the smiles begin!

Since the cooking time is the same, sometimes I do a combination of water chestnuts and scallops.

INGREDIENTS:

·         1 pound scallops or 2 cans water chestnuts, drained

·         1 pound bacon, each slice cut in half*

·         ½  cup light mayonnaise

·         1 cup light brown sugar (or ½ cup Splenda brown sugar)

·         ½ cup chili sauce (I used Heinz)

·         1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
        Wooden toothpicks (soaked in water for 5-10 minutes to prevent scorching)

DIRECTIONS:

·         Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

·         Wrap each scallop or water chestnut with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. 

·         Place on wire rack on large cookie sheet (the rack drains any bacon grease so that the bacon is crispy). For easier clean-up use a silpat liner or line the cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

·         Bake for 30 minutes until bacon is crisp. Remove from oven and top with sauce.

·         Sauce: In a small bowl, blend the mayonnaise, brown sugar, chili sauce, and Worcestershire sauce until smooth and well combined.  Spoon this over the scallop or chestnut rolls and return them to the oven to bake for 25 minutes. 

*I used Costco's Hormel pre-cooked bacon to cut down on both grease and baking time; if using pre-cooked bacon, adjust baking time in half.  

Zucchini, Tomato & Bacon Frittata

What’s for Sunday brunch?  How about a frittata using fresh veggies from the farmer’s market?   I still have zucchini and tomatoes from my most recent farmer's market shopping spree, so I want to use them today.  This recipe makes about 4 servings as I used a small cast iron skillet.  Served with blackberry kuchen and English muffins with home made strawberry jam, this was a perfect brunch.  It would also make a nice Sunday supper.

INGREDIENTS:

1 to 2 Tablespoons olive oil

½ large zucchini, thinly sliced & quartered

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

1 medium tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped

½ cup shredded Gouda cheese (or cheese of your choice)

3 slices bacon, cooked & broken into bite sized pieces

4 large eggs

¼ cup low fat milk

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Add olive oil to 9-inch cast iron (or oven proof) skillet and heat over medium heat.
• Add onion and zucchini and saute until tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.  
• Add tomato and cook another couple of minutes.  Add salt & pepper to taste and Italian seasoning.  Set aside to cool a bit.
• In a small bowl, combine eggs, milk, and mustard and blend well.  Add cheese and bacon and stir until well combined.  Salt & pepper to taste.
• If necessary, drain vegetable mixture and return it to the skillet.  Spread evenly over the bottom of the skillet.  Pour egg mixture over the veggies.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until set and lightly browned.

Cut into wedges and serve!

Chicken Spinach Gouda Roll-Ups

Servings 5 to 6

The combination of thin chicken cutlets, tomatoes, Gouda cheese and spinach makes my mouth water!  These are a few of my favorite things so I put them together to make an easy and delicious Sunday supper.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
  
INGREDIENTS:

1¼ pound thin-cut, boneless skinless chicken cutlets (5 to 6 cutlets)

9-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

4 ounces Gouda cheese, shredded

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

5-6 slices bacon

1 15-ounce can diced Italian style tomatoes with juice

1 Tablespoon melted butter

Italian seasoned panko bread crumbs for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS:

·        Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

·        Lightly grease cooking dish with olive oil or cooking spray.

·        Pour diced tomatoes with juices into prepared pan.

·        Squeeze spinach dry and combine well in small bowl with gouda cheese, cream cheese and salt & pepper.

·        Lightly salt & pepper the chicken breasts and spread the spinach mixture over each, leaving about a 1-inch border at the bottom of each cutlet (about ¼ cup mixture for each cutlet).

·        Roll each cutlet tightly and wrap each with one slice of bacon.  Secure with toothpicks.

·        Arrange in baking dish, brush with melted butter and top with sprinkling of Panko crumbs.

·        Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Serve with herbed orzo and side green salad.