Bag Kabobs

So, first things first.  This is NOT my recipe.  Credit for it is given at the bottom.  I found this on the KOA website while searching for camping recipes.  Ugh.  Camping.  Not on my top 10 list of favorite things to do.  Not even in my top 100.  But my husband is bound and determined that this is the summer we are finally going to use that new 10 person tent we bought 5 years ago.  I guess buying a boat last year didn't help matters (for me that is).  Now we can camp AND boat all at the same time!  Yee Haw.  Tune in later to see how this all turns out.  In the meantime, I thought this recipe looked like something we might like.  I'm going for SIMPLE things to cook over the fire.  You'd be surprised at how many camp fire recipes there are for crap I wouldn't even cook at home, much less in the great outdoors.  The only reason I'm blogging about this recipe is because I want to pin it, and there was no link to do so on the KOA page.  I'll make a foot note after we try it and let you know if it's worth fixing!  In the mean time, wish me luck!


 

Bottom of Form

Bag Kabobs

Ingredients

• beef or chicken
• bell peppers
• mushrooms
• onion
• jalapeno peppers (optional)
• small potatoes
• zucchini squash
• fresh garlic
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• lemon or lime
• McCormick's Salt-free Chicken seasoning
• powdered butter flavoring
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• lemon pepper seasonings
• dill

Preparation

Boil potatoes for approximately 4-5 minutes depending on size. They should still be firm and crisp, not mushy. They will finish cooking on the grill. Let potatoes cool completely before putting in foil bag. Chop bell peppers, onion and zucchini squash into large pieces. Put chopped vegetables, whole jalapenos, whole potatoes and whole mushrooms into a large foil bag with garlic, olive oil, lemon or lime juice, soy sauce, butter flavoring, lemon pepper seasonings, and dill. Cut meat into large stew size pieces. Put meat in a separate foil bag with 1/4 cup of olive oil, garlic, chicken seasonings, butter flavoring and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. When using more than one kind of meat, put in separate bags. Place the foil bags into larger 2 gallon ziplock bags to store while traveling. To cook, remove foil bags from plastic ziplock bags and grill for 8-10 minutes, turning after 5-6 minutes. Let sit before opening bags.

Submitted By

Deb McMillen, Olathe, KS

Categories

Campfire Cooking

Source:  http://koa.com/camping-recipe/bag-kabobs/

A New Chapter

Welcome to my new cooking blog!!!  I've posted a few recipes at my other blog, and I'm just now getting around to moving them to this one.  I still need to get my IT Guru "spicotte" to help me add a pinterest link, but one thing at a time.  Not sure how often I'll post recipes here - I mainly started it because I didn't want barb-wired to turn into a recipe blog.  Stay tuned!

Sausage and Rice and Peppers Oh My!

Cooking.  Never really been a fan.  Or at least I didn't think I was.  But then I realized, it's not the cooking itself I don't like, it's the cleanup.  And when you're trying to create a masterpiece in a tiny area (that would be my kitchen) it's even worse.  So I've never been terribly adventurous when it comes to new recipes.  There 's another reason for that as well.  Greg hates it when I cook something new.  He'd be happy to eat the same 5 or 6 meals every night for the rest of his life.  Nothing wrong with em, why mess with em?  That would be why I have a pinterest board titled "Stuff Greg Won't Eat".  But every once in a while, I come up with something worth adding to the rotation, as they say.  A while back, I started throwing some stuff together, thought it turned out ok, and tweaked it from there until I had something pretty yummy.  Then I made the mistake of bringing leftovers to work one day.  Now, about once a month, a few of my favorite spoiled rotten brats start whining about how they sure would like me to bring some to work!  I always give them a hard time about having to cook for them, but the truth is I really like making people happy, and if something I cooked does the trick, then I'm all over it.  So without further ado, I present to you my recipe for Hot Sausage and Rice. 

I'd love to be like Robyn and Nance over at dinosaurs can't eat pizza and post a picture of all of the ingredients that go into this dish, but I just made this a couple of nights ago and don't have all of the ingredients on hand right now, so that's just not gonna happen today.  I do have a few pictures taken during different stages of cooking, so that's gonna have to do for now.

The ingredients are:

1 lb. Tennessee Pride Hot Pork Sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped peppers
2 T. Olive Oil
1 box Creamy Four Cheese Rice A Roni
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
2 cups water
1/2 cup Fake Velveeta, chopped
     edited to add that since Kraft has ruined Velveeta, I now buy store brand only
salt and pepper to taste


The first thing I do is chop the onions and peppers.  The peppers I use depends on what I have in the freezer or if I have to buy peppers in store.  We grow all sorts of varieties of hot peppers in the garden and then freeze them, so that's what I usually use.  The small red, yellow and green peppers that come in a bag in the store work great for this.  They aren't hot, so if I use them I throw a few jalapenos in too.  How many hot peppers you use depends on how hot you like your food.  The hot sausage is pretty spicy, so I usually seed any hot peppers I use.

Saute the onions and peppers in the olive oil. 

Then add sausage and cook until the sausage is done.  

SORRY - NO PICTURE OF THE MEAT AND VEGGIES!!!

Remember I mentioned how much I hate cleaning up?  Well that led me to using the same big skillet for everything in this dish.  When the meat is cooked thoroughly, I dump the rice right into the center of the skillet and brown it a minute or two before adding the chicken soup and water.  Then turn down the heat, cover and let it simmer until the rice is almost done (about 10 minutes)  It's a good idea to check on it frequently and stir so it doesn't burn.  Once most of the liquid is cooked out, I add the cheese packet from the rice and Fake Velveeta and let it melt.  Season with salt and pepper. 

If you have a fancy schmancy dishwasher and pots and pan running out of your ass, feel free to cook the rice as directed on the box, then add it to the sausage mixture and add the soup and cheese in without any additional water.  I happen to think MY way is easier. 

Now if I'm making this for supper after I get home from work, Greg is probably starving, so we go ahead and eat it at this stage.  If I'm making it to take to work, I put it in a pan and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes or so.  Baking it cooks the rice a little more and just firms it up a bit -- it's really however you prefer to eat it.  There's no right or wrong way to eat this stuff!

 All ready to feed to those bratty kids at work!!!

The beauty of this recipe is you can change anything in it to suit your tastes.  And while I do think the sausage is what makes it so good, you don't have to use hot sausage.

If you're brave enough to try my recipe, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Gina and Barb's Not So Famous Chicken Salad

Sharing another Barb-Wired recipe -- this was from earlier this spring.


My co-worker Gina and I made chicken salad for lunch today.  When we started throwing things together, we realized it had been a while since we last made it and weren't even sure what all we used before.  We definitely don't want to forget how to make it!!  For that reason, and just because it's so yummy and we want to share, I'm posting the recipe here. 

Gina and Barb's Famous Chicken Salad

1 big can of chicken, drained
1 apple, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup grapes, halved
1 cup pecans
1 cup Miracle Whip

throw it all together in a big bowl and stir! 

Yes -- it's that simple.  Not exactly rocket science, but definitely worth making.  It makes enough to feed 3 or 4 lunch easily. 

Today, we finished off with a pinterest recipe for dessert.  You can find it on either of our pinterest pages. 

Crescent Roll Pecan Pie Bars



Obviously they are delish -- it's half gone already!!!  (and just in case you're wondering, no Gina and I did not eat all of that.  Not quite. ha!) Tastes just like pecan pie, but uses crescent roll dough so you don't have to roll out pie dough.  That's my kinda recipe!  Gina did tell me she doubled everything except the crescent roll.  More = better.  Right?

Mothers Day Breakfast Burritos

Sharing my recipe for breakfast burritos which was originally posted at Barb-Wired.  Not exactly reinventing the wheel here, just a tweak or two.

ingredients -- frozen hashbrowns, milk, flour tortillas, cream cheese, eggs, gravy mix and smoked sausage

step 1. cook hashbrowns as directed on package

dump in a big ass

pan (technical, I know) 

 Step 2 - dice smoked sausage into small bite size pieces, and brown

 (sorry - no picture of the dicing - you'll have to use your imagination)

 here is what they look like after browning (duh)

yep, you guessed it - dump in the big ass pan with the hashbrowns

next up -- eggs!  Ideally, I would have Philadelphia Cooking Creme to add to the eggs, but since the plain old unspiced boring flavor was unavailable everywhere I looked (2 stores!) I had to use regular cream cheese - which means it looks lumpy when you combine it with the eggs - don't worry - it will melt eventually.

 

Scramble the eggs and cheese until the eggs are set -- how bout that whisk action!!!

do I have to say it?  Ok fine - dump the eggs in the big ass pan

stir it all up till it looks like a mess.  Add a lot of salt and pepper. 

Actually now that I think about it, I think I salt and peppered the hashbrowns too. 

Doesn't really matter when, as long as you do it!

now you need to warm your tortillas in the microwave so they roll up without tearing

and you're ready to assemble the burritos.  Put a heaping spoonful of the mixture from the big ass pot on the tortilla and top it with a little bit of gravy.  Crap - I forgot to make the gravy.

Imagine this is a picture of a pan full of gravy mix and milk

Follow the directions on the package and make the gravy.

I had leftover gravy in the fridge so didn't have to make it.

Sorry

No action shots of the folding of the tortilla -

just go with whatever works for you so the stuff isn't falling out all over the place, mkay? 

Now wrap that bad boy up in some foil unless you're planning to eat it immediately. 

WAIT!  If you're going to reheat them in the microwave, foil - not such a great idea. 

You heard it here -- if your microwave catches on fire, don't blame me! 

Now for all the boring stuff for those of you cooks who don't just fly by the seat of your pants like I do.  Ingredients and such.

Mother's Day Breakfast Burritos

32 oz frozen hash brown O'Briens
1 package Smoked Sausage  (more if your husband won't stay out of them)
12 eggs
4 oz Philadelphia Cooking Creme, Original Flavor
salt and pepper to taste
18 flour tortillas (soft taco size)
1 package sausage gravy mix prepared as directed on package


Of course, you can use larger tortillas, which will result in fewer burritos (see how I did that?)  I made smallish ones since there was going to be alot of other food to eat.

As a reformed gravy hater, I enjoy the gravy added in.  If you haven't come over to the dark side, no prob - just leave the gravy out!  Or if you're really crazy - dump that shit over the top of it!  Go wild!  Whatever makes you happy!

Bacon and Tomato Salad

I am not a planner.  I'm a "I'm in the store and something sounds good" kinda cook.  Which means I buy what I think I need and then get home and find out I forgot 6 things.  So there's nothing left to do  but revise my idea and use what I have on hand to make something else.  Sometimes it's edible... some times not so much.  Today, I'm happy to report, it was not only edible, but pretty darn good.  And so, I'm sharing my recipe for Bacon and Tomato Pasta Salad. 

2 cups rainbow rotini pasta, cooked and cooled
1/3 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped bell peppers (any or all colors, your choice)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped finely
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained  (reserve some juice in case you need it)
3/4 cup Miracle Whip
6 slices bacon (I would probably add more, but that's all I had)
Salt and Pepper

Add onions and peppers to pasta.  Add Miracle Whip to drained tomatoes.  If the dressing isn't thin enough, you can add a bit more juice - just depends on how well you drained the tomatoes.  Combine with pasta mix.  Stir in bacon, and salt and pepper to taste.   Chill. 

Not exactly rocket science, but tasty none the less.  Let me know if you try it and what changes you make to it -- if nothing else, I'm flexible!