I am Somer Canon: Shiftless lay-about, blog enthusiast, and more importantly, food lover. This blog will share my favorite recipes, cooking techniques, adventures in eating, and just about any subject pertaining to cooking and eating.
When I was little, I used to spend my summer vacations going to a nearby lake and swimming all day. When we would come home, my brother and I would eat those individual frozen microwavable pizzas. My favorite was the cheeseburger pizza. It was complete grubbing food and I loved it after a full day of swimming and horse-play.
Then last week I noticed that all of the internet was abuzz about superbowl parties and the food served at these parties. A superbowl party is nothing more than an excuse to be completely hedonistic food-wise. Nobody is going to a superbowl party and having a mesclun salad with a slight squeeze of lemon. People go to superbowl parties to eat chili, chips, 40 different kinds of dips, wings, burgers, hot dogs, and pizza. Now, I didn’t attend a superbowl party. I stayed home and cleaned house. The next day, I got on the internet and Googled, “Who won the superbowl?” However, I was thinking that if I were to attend one next year or some unassuming internet surfer should be looking for an interesting recipe to take to a superbowl party, then this cheeseburger pizza would be a great thing to share.
When thinking about how to formulate a recipe for a cheeseburger pizza, I first asked myself what I like to eat on cheeseburgers. I like gooey cheese. I like bacon. I like onions. I like tomato. And I like perfectly cooked, juicy meat. That is how this recipe came to be.
A while back, I wrote another post about a homemade pizza. Contained in that post are recipes for both homemade pizza sauce (it couldn’t be easier…don’t buy it. Make it.) and pizza crust. Check it out.
Cheeseburger Pizza
(My Recipe)
-1 recipe prepared pizza crusts (if you use the recipe I provide, it makes 2 thin crust pizzas)
-1 recipe pizza sauce
-1 lb. ground beef
-6 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
-2 cups thinly sliced onions
-1 large jar of yellow cheese product (Cheez Whiz)
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Roll out pizza dough and place it on either a pizza stone or a pizza baking sheet.
Spread pizza sauce on the dough.
Add uncooked hamburger and bacon. I used thick sliced peppercorn bacon, but any bacon will do fine.
Add onions. As you can see here, I add quite a lot of onions. Keep in mind that they cook down, but you can absolutely cut back on the onions on this pizza if that is your taste.
Glob on the “cheese” product. Look, when it comes to a pizza like this, you want a cheese that is smooth, savory, and completely unlike any real cheese. This stuff works perfectly and, trust me, it is really shamefully delicious.
Bake the pizza for 15-17 minutes.
This recipe yeilds 2 medium pizzas. It’s an easy recipe to double if you have a lot of people or big eaters to feed.
Gooey. Savory. Delicious. Totally worthy of a kickass football game. Or any televised sporting event, for that matter. I hope you try this recipe. It’s really delicious.
I’ve eaten chili all my life. My mom makes a mean chili and I’m always happy to eat some. Not until maybe 5 years ago did I become aware of the fact that there is a heated debate over whether or not a true chili contains beans.
I grew up eating chili with beans. I think that in the beginning of this style, the beans were used as a way to stretch the use of a single pound of meat. It was economical and it grew into an acquired taste. There are people who will smack the teeth right out of your face if you question their usage of beans.
I make chili without beans. It’s not that I don’t like chili with beans, I just honestly like it a little better without. I used to always make my chili with beans because it’s the kind that both my husband and I grew up eating. Then one night my husband was complaining incessantly (if you know my husband, you know that incessantly is the only way that he knows how to complain) that he wanted chili for dinner. I didn’t have beans on hand and you know how much I hate those small trips to the store. So I made him chili without the beans and I added a few new spices just for kicks. As it turned out, we were both stunned at how much we preferred this style over the previous style.
Chili (No Beans)
My Recipe
-1 lb. 80/20 ground beef
-2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce
-1 medium onion, diced
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. black pepper
-1/4 cup chili powder
-1 tsp. cumin
-1/4 tsp. coriander
-1 tsp. dried oregano
-1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
-1/8 tsp. ground cloves
-5 good shakes of Tabasco Sauce
-1/4 tsp. Cayenne pepper
Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Don’t drain. Chili, somehow, is better greasy. Trust me.
Heat a dutch oven over medium heat. Heat 1 Tblsp. olive oil in the dutch oven. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Add the two cans of tomato sauce. Stir. Add ground meat and juices. Stir.
Add brown sugar and stir well. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and let heat through. Once the mixture is heated, give the chili a taste and adjust the seasonings to your taste. Once the seasonings satisfy you, lower the heat and cover. Cook for 30 minutes.
I like to serve this with homemade cornbread. Sprinkle some shredded cheese and minced white onion over the chili. YIELD: 4 large servings.
I know that a few of those spices seem a little out of place in a chili, but trust me when I say that it adds a new level of spice to the mixture. Sometimes I like to add some chopped bell peppers of banana peppers to this as a little extra.
If you insist on beans, add two cans of drained chili beans and omit the cinnamon, cloves, and coriander. They don’t have the same magic with beans.
I think the only chili that could possibly ever really offend me is a runny chili. I like a thick and hearty chili. Runny chili is just, well, disgusting. So work on that, you runny chili people! Otherwise, cook on! Chili is great in cold and hot weather and is a great dish to make for company since most people love it.
I had made a leg of lamb for dinner a few days back and, of course, there was quite a bit of leftover meat. When you prefer your lamb to be medium rare, you can only reheat it so many times before it turns into something tasting like burnt rubber. I considered my options for what to do with the leftover meat and finally came to the conclusion that some sort of Somer-ized Indian lamb meatball dish was in order.
I hadn’t done anything fancy with my leg of lamb. I prefer a flavorful meat such as lamb (when in huge meat-chunk form) to be prepared simply. I cut small slits into the meat and stuffed the slits with garlic and fresh rosemary. I then simply roasted the lamb until it was a beautiful medium rare. I think that with this simple preparation, I was able to make the meat into something completely different.
The first thing that I did was chop the lamb meat into a ground meat-like consistency. I ended up with about 1 lb. of ground lamb. My other food processor didn’t survive the move from Washington to Pennsylvania so Santa brought me a new one for Christmas. This thing is a bit nicer than my deceased Black and Decker one, but oh my goodness it chopped that lamb meat like it was making bread crumbs! And it is quiet!
Once the meat was ground, I put it into a bowl, added two eggs, 1 minced onion, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. coriander, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, and 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper. I decided against adding a filler to these meatballs like breadcrumbs in order to preserve the flavor. The meatballs were a little crumbly because of this omission, but with a little care I was able to preserve their shape.
I fried the meatballs in a dutch oven in vegetable oil much the same way that I would fry up regular meatballs. Again, take care when flipping because these meatballs are much more delicate and crumbly. And, as with regular meatballs, do not overcrowd the pan to ensure even browning of the meat without boiling it. It takes 2-3 batches to do all of the meatballs, just set them aside on a plate as they finish browning.
As for the sauce in which these meatballs were to swim, I turned to my beloved Indian cookbook and thumbed through it considering my options. My eye was caught by a Rogan Josh recipe for lamb. Lamb Rogan Josh is one of those milder Indian dishes that most Americans should be familiar with at this point. I have yet to find an Indian restaurant that doesn’t serve Lamb Rogan Josh and really, it IS a lovely dish even if it is not terribly adventurous. Taking my cues from the recipe from my culinary tome, I concocted a sauce that was thick, tangy, and spicy. It’s a very fast moving process a.k.a. stir-fry style in which the cooking is very hot and very fast so you will want to have everything already chopped and set out before you start the sauce so that it will be a smooth process.
-2 tsp. ground cardamom (the original recipe called for cardamom pods which are hard to find in stores but easy to find online)
-2 bay leaves
-6 cloves
-10 peppercorns (of you don’t have whole peppercorns, don’t try to substitute ground pepper, just leave it out)
-1 small cinnamon stick
-1 large onion finely chopped
-1 tsp. ground coriander
-2 tsp. ground cumin
- 4 tsp. Spanish paprika (it has a great color and a nice flavor)
- Cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you want this dish, you can add between 1/8 to 1 tsp.)
-6 Tblsp. plain yogurt
Make a thick paste of the ginger and garlic by putting them into a small blender or food processor and then adding just enough water. I only needed 2 Tblsp.
Heat 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in the same pot where you browned your lamb meatballs. When the oil is nuclear hot, add the cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon. Stir quickly and when the smell of the deep perfumes of these spices becomes strong and the bay leaves start to color, add the onions. Stir until the onions start to take on a light caramel color. Add the ginger garlic paste and stir for about 30 seconds. Add the rest of the spices and stir for another 30 seconds.
Now add the yogurt 1 Tblsp. at a time, stirring and incorporating completely before adding the next tablespoon.
Add the water and stir. When the water is hot, gently add the meatballs to the sauce. Turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 30-45 minutes. Because you are cooking meatballs instead of meat chunks, it doesn’t need to cook quite as long.
If, at the end of this time, the liquid is still very thin, turn the heat to medium and uncover the dish and let some of the liquid evaporate. Keep an eye on it, though and don’t let it burn.
I like to serve saucy dishes like this with some rice. Obviously, the preferred rice is Basmati rice, but I didn’t have any on hand at the time, so I used the regular (and cheap) long grain rice and added some bay leaves, cloves, and cardamom to the water. You get a flavorful rice that is totally worthy of this dish.
When we have Indian dishes like this, I like to serve them in their own small bowls. The main dish in it’s own small bowl, and the rice in it’s own small bowl. I then make Naan, and we eat with our fingers. It helps with the whole experience of eating an ethnic food that is otherwise completely foreign to us. I think it’s a neat way to pay homage to the dish.
This was a great dish and a brilliant way to use some leftover lamb meat. I have to say, I’m pleased with myself. I hope you try this and like it as much as we did. Enjoy!
I hate shopping. For anything and everything. I’ve had furious arguments with horrible insensitive men who assume that all women want to shop all day for clothes and shoes because I really don’t think that there are many people out there who hate shopping more than I do.
Alas, it is a necessity in my life. I have to do it at least once a month. I can handle those enormous once a month trips, I can handle it. What irritates me are all of those smaller trips in between where only one or two things need to be procured. A gallon of milk. Diapers. A special ingredient for the dinner I want to make. I hate those trips.
Luckily, as time goes on, my shopping has become more efficient and I am able to minimize the number of those small runs. I’ve learned to stock my home in such a way that it lasts the full month, but I’ve also learned to make a lot of things homemade so that I don’t have to worry about buying them. One of these things is yogurt. My son eats yogurt for breakfast every morning and I like to always have yogurt on hand because I LOVE Indian food and yogurt is a big part of that cuisine.
It was actually from an Indian cookbook that I was able to first learn how to make yogurt. I messed it up quite a few times, but I figured out a few tricks that might help.
Start off with a quart of milk. You can use any milk you like, I use whole milk, but you can use 2% or 1%.
Bring the milk to a boil in a large heavy pot and stir constantly. When the milk starts to rise, remove it from the heat. Allow the milk to cool slightly. Don’t let it get to room temperature, you want it to be warm to the touch, but not hot.
You need some “starter” for this. Starter is about 2 Tablespoons of yogurt that you have. You can use purchased yogurt from the dairy aisle. That’s what I use.
Put the yogurt in a heat-safe large bowl and whisk it until it is smooth. Slowly add the warm milk, whisking all the while.
Make sure that the yogurt and milk are thoroughly incorporated.
Now you need to let the yogurt set up. You need a warm place for this. I like to use my oven. If your oven has a “WARM” setting, start this while the milk is still boiling. If your oven doesn’t, the simply set the oven to it’s lowest temperature (mine goes only as low as 170 degrees F.) and let it preheat while you are preparing the yogurt. Turn the heat off before you put the bowl inside and make a warm and snuggly place for the bowl to sit.
I put a thick dish towel on the oven rack, the bowl on the towel, and then another thick towel over the bowl. This needs to be a gently warmed environment so the yogurt sets up correctly. It’s not as hard as it sounds. It takes 8 hours for the yogurt to set up. Take a peek about 4-5 hours in and if the oven isn’t warm, set the warmer on again for 5 minutes and turn it off before it gets too hot.
Do this right and you’ll have your own homemade yogurt. And you won’t have to go to the store to buy one lousy little tub. Your welcome.
When it comes to the holidays, I am usually a very traditional kind of gal. I usually cook and bake the foods that I had as a child and I rarely wander off of that course. For Thanksgiving, I make a HUGE dinner that consists of only things that I had as a child. The turkey is prepared the same way (because part of me fears that if I deviate, I will regret it. And a turkey is a big bird to have as a regret).
Over the past 4 years, however, I have started trying many different things for Christmas. For example, I started a tradition that we call The Five Days of Decadence where December 20-25th I make 5 decadent dinners and desserts. (I didn’t get around to doing it this year because of the whole moving and unpacking thing, but I’ll write about it next year!) And instead of having either ham or turkey Christmas day like when I was a kid, I make lamb. And for someone as unwilling to try new traditions as myself, I have really enjoyed this new tradition.
Christmas cookies are one of the things that I stick with tradition. I always make Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal and Sugar Cookies as well as Gingerbread Men. That’s it. Even though there are hundreds of other cookies recipes out there that are terrific for the holidays, I stick with those because they evoke memories of being a kid sitting by the tree and having warm cookies and milk after dinner.
A few years ago, my mother-in-law got my this cookbook for Christmas. I was surprised at how much I adore this cookbook. No really. I LOVE this cookbook and every November, I get all giddy when I get to pull it out and start planning my Five Days of Decadence and pondering the desserts and breads. This year I pondered the cookies. I didn’t get very adventurous because I didn’t have a lot of things on hand to deviate from my usual and I didn’t want to go to the store. But I DID deviate. I added two new cookies to my roster, and I’m glad that I did.
Before I start talking about the actual cookies, I’d like to share with you two tools that make my holiday baking experience so much more pleasant.
This cookbook stand is wonderful (have I written about it before?) It stands the cookbooks up so I’m not leaning over them, and it has a plastic cover to both protect the pages (I get goop all over my cookbooks) and to hold the book open is the binding is too tight. I love this thing.
I can’t find it on the website from which I originally bought this, but here’s a few places where you can get one of your own.
My KitchenAid Stand Mixer. This thing has become indispensable to me when it comes to baking. It whips up a batch of cookie dough in the blink of an eye. And for clean up between different batches I just full my sink with hot soapy water and do a quick clean of the paddle and bowl so that I can start a new batch the second the old batch has finished.
I won’t lie, these are pricey. I usually don’t like to recommend pricey things because I don’t live like that and I like to put my money to good use, but trust me: this is a good investment. Have a look.
And now, on to the cookies! As you may have notices, this post’s pictures are much larger than usual. That’s because it’s about Christmas cookies! I want you to be able to have a face-full of cookies just by looking at this blog. I’ll start with the two new cookies that I’ve added this year and finish with my usuals!
1/2 cup granulated brown sugar or granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets; set aside. <–Somer’s Hint: Use parchment paper on your cookie sheets instead of grease. The cookies won’t stick and clean up is a lot easier.
Beat granulated sugar and shortening about 5 minutes in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg; beat until fluffy.
Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mustard and salt in medium bowl. Add to shortening mixture; mix until just combined.
Place brown sugar in shallow dish. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar to coat. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cookies stand on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. YIELD: 6 dozen cookies.
These are delicious cookies. I think next year I’ll make them for Thanksgiving!
Beat butter and granulated sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add sour cream, eggs, 2 tsp. almond extract and vanilla; beat until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; beat just until well blended.
Divide dough into 4 pieces; flatten each piece into a disc. Wrap each disc tightly with plastic wrap. refrigerate at least 3 hours or up to 3 days.
Combine powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup and remaining 1 tsp. almond extract in small bowl; stir until smooth. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Working with 1 disc of dough at a time, roll out on floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut dough into desired shapes using 2-1/2 inch cookie cutters. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are brown. Remove from baking sheets to wire racks to cool. <–Somer’s Hint: This is a very sticky dough so be sure to really flour your preparation surface and also dust a generous amount of flour on the top of the dough before you roll it out.
Separate powdered sugar mixture into 3 or 4 batches in small bowls; tint each batch with desired food coloring. Frost cookies. <–Somer’s Hint: This is not a lot of frosting and you may need to make more. A quick and easy way to frost these cookies is to put the frosting into microwave-safe bowls and microwave for 10-30 seconds. The icing gets runny and instead of using a knife or spatula to ice the cookie, simply dip the face of the cookies into the thinned frosting and use a spatula to scrape off any excess. It goes by very quickyl this way. YIELD: About 3 dozen cookies.
These cookies were the last to be finished, but I can tell that they will be the first cookies gone. They are crazy good. My husband and son are constantly stealing away to the dining room to sneak one of these.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 12th Edition (2003)
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts (filberts). Optional (I never use nuts!)
In a large mixing bowl beat shortening and butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, and baking soda. Beat until mixture is combines, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in chocolate chips, and , if you’re crazy, nuts.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degrees F oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. YIELD: about 60 cookies
This recipe does not yield pretty cookies. But I don’t care. They taste awesome and I look forward to making them every Christmas (I also make them throughout the year because I LOVE them).
Oatmeal Cookies
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 12th Edition (2003)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional) (I use it!)
1/4 tsp. ground cloves (optional) (I use it, too!)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1-3/4 cups AP flour
2 cups rolled oats
In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and cloves. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
Somer’s Note:You won’t see any raisins being added to this. YUCK.
As a kid, these were a great excuse to eat cookies for breakfast.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 12th Edition (2003)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar or 1/4 cup honey (I used honey)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/4 cups AP flour
Granulated sugar
In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, honey, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combines, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. If necessary, cover and chill dough until easy to handle.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional granulated sugar to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork. Bake in a 375 degrees F. oven for 7-9 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. YIELD: about 36 cookies
Not only are these great holiday cookies, but they are also my “I’ve had a bad day” cookies.
Sugar Cookie Cutouts
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 12th Edition (2003)
2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 Tblsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups AP flour
In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer in medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. If necessary, cover and chill dough 30 minutes or until easy to handle.
On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time until 1/8 inch thick. Using a 2-1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake in a 375 degrees F. oven for 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfewr to a wire rack and let cool. If desired, frost with icing. YIELD: about 36 cookies
A simple frosting, colored sugar, and cinnamon candies go a long way. For the simple frosting,combine 4 cups confectioners’ sugar and 1/3 cup milk. Play with it for desired thickness by adding more confectioners’ sugar or more milk.
Gingerbread Men
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 12th Edition (2003)
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 Tblsp. vinegar
2-1/2 cups AP flour
In a mixing bowl, beat shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in molasses, egg, and vinegar until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill dough about 3 hours or until easy to handle.
Grease cookie sheet (parchment paper!); set aside. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough at a time until 1/8 inch thick. Using a 2-1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake in 375 degrees F. oven for 5-6 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack and let cool. If desired, decorate cookie with icing and candies. YIELD: 36-48 cookies.
The cookie on the top right makes me laugh. He looks like a bondage fetish gingerbread man! I love these cookies. They are cute and very tasty. And oh, so festive!
I am Somer Canon: Shiftless lay-about, blog enthusiast, and more importantly, food lover. This blog will share my favorite recipes, cooking techniques, adventures in eating, and just about any subject pertaining to cooking and eating.
