Quick Cheesy Grits

These grits make a great side dish for any meaty/saucy meal, but also taste great on their own. I made these grits to go along with my BBQ Chipotle Ribs and they were the perfect side!

First, cook a cup of grits according to the package directions. In this case it was 3 1/2 cups of water for one cup of grits. Once the water was boiling, I slowly stirred in the grits. The the entire mixture cooked in a covered pot for 20 minutes on a low heat.

When the grits are done, mix in 1 cup of cheddar cheese (I used fat free cheese and it turned out great!) and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. Recover the grits and let it sit off the heat for an additional 10 minutes and then serve!!

Recpie Recap
1 cup of grits cooked according to the package directions
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook the grits and stir in the cheese. Let sit off the heat for 10 minutes and serve.

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

Simple Simple Simple!!

Chop the garlic thin and be careful not the slice through the potato!! Use your knife to cut thin slices into the potato without cutting all of the way through.

Carefully stuff the garlic slices into the potato. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a coarse salt.

Bake at 400 degrees to an hour, until they are roasted all of the way through!

Recipe Recap:
6 potatoes
1 head of garlic sliced thin
Olive Oil
Salt

Wash and cut the potatoes. Thinly slice the garlic and place within the potato slices. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour.

Spaetzle from Scratch

Everyone has had spaetzle as a side dish at a German restaurant, but it always seemed to me that it was something that I could not make at home (which if funny considering my very German family). I had purchased boxed of dried spaetzle at the grocery store, but they weren't as good and they were pretty expensive.

So a few years ago I started asking my mother and grandmother how I could make spaetzle at home. They told me about my great aunt and memories of her making spaetzle from scratch. After doing a little more research online (and ordering one of these) I found a quick and easy way to make spaetzle at home.

Here is what you have to do:

First you will need to make the dough. Mix 1 cup of flour, a pinch of salt and some pepper in a large bowl.

Then add in 2 eggs and 1/4 cup of milk and mix together everything with a fork.

When the dough comes together add a dash of nutmeg to the top of the mixture. Combine thoroughly and let the dough sit in your fridge for about an hour.

At this point, you need to extrude the dough that you have made into hot water so it can cook. You can use anything that has lots of little holes in it, like a colander or ricer. I decided to purchase a spaetzle maker because I love kitchen gadgets. But if you are short on space or don't want to invest the money, the colander or ricer would do just fine. This is what my spaetzle looks like, see how it sits right on the pot......love it....did I mention that I love kitchen gadgets.....

This part is simple; using a spatula, push the dough through into the boiling water.

Once all of the dough has been pushed through to the water, let the spaetlze boil for 3-4 minutes, until they are all floating.

Drain the pasta and melt some butter into the same pot.

Put the spaetzle back into pot and cook with the butter until the noodles are golden brown. Add in any herbs that compliment the rest of the meal. Here I added in parsley and basil.

Recap of the Recipe:
1 cup flour
pinch of salt and pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
dash of nutmeg
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp parsley or basil (or a combination)