American Chop Suey

American Chop Suey is made differently in almost every home. I find it to be a recipe that you grew up with that gets passed down with small tweaks.  To be honest it was never one of my favorite meals since I don't eat hamburg so I always would take the noodles plain with some sauce before mixing it together.  On the other hand it is one of my husbands FAVORITE meals and his mothers version is much different than my mothers version so I have learned to make her version over the past year.  The one change that I made is that I add extra hamburg and Italian sausage since that is Scott's favorite part.

I start be removing the sausage from their casings (I use about 3 or 4) and adding them to about 1lb of hamburg in a large skillet.  I combine them and cook until no longer pink.  I then add a tablespoon or so of Basil, Italian Seasoning and garlic powder with salt and pepper to taste.  Once mixed together I add 1/2 of a large sweet onion, 1/2 a green pepper (I used orange this time since that is what I had) and 1/2 a red pepper.  I cover the pan and simmer until the veggies are tender. 

Once they are tender I add in a box of pre-cooked elbows or shells (- the bowl i took out for myself!) and a jar of vidalia onion spaghetti sauce and mix together.  I let this simmer for about 10 minutes and then it is ready to ENJOY!

Grilled Cornish Hen

As you know, today was my grandmother's birthday and after that delicious rich cake who would have thought we would ever need to eat dinner?!?!?! WELL we did and decided on Cornish Game Hens!  These hens are tricky to grill as they are small and can dry out easily.  With the food processor we created a wet stuffing consisting of mainly celery, onions and a mixture of spices.

We then used a combination of those spices to coat the outside with to give the skin that extra flavor before sending them off to the grill!

 As you can see we were so anxious to bite in that we forgot the after picture.  The meat was very flavorful and extremely moist!  I can not wait to enjoy the rest for lunch tomorrow!