Monday, June 21, 2010

New Orleans Corn Bisque with Smoked Sausage

This is now one of my favorite ways to use the smoked sausage I find on sale.  It's a real comfort food, but can be spiced up by using kielbasa and a bit more pepper. Found on allrecipes.com.  It is also fabulous served with corn bread!

Serves: 6

Ingredients

  • 1 (16 ounce) package Hillshire Farm® Smoked Sausage
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
  • 4 cups milk
  • 2 cups cubed potatoes, cooked, drained
  • Chopped parsley (optional)
  • Shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions

  1. Cut sausage into 1/2 inch cubes.
  2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir until tender. Add flour, salt and pepper; cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
  3. Add milk. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Add corn and sausage; return to a boil.
  4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in potatoes; heat through.
  5. Top each serving with parsley and cheese, if desired.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Frozen Brownie Sundaes

I LOVE ice cream cake so when this recipe appeared on TV I knew I had to try it. It was wonderful. It may look like a lot of steps but it assembly goes fast. The strawberry sauce at the end adds something to whole dish, don't skip it. I used fresh strawberries instead of frozen and added lemon juice, water, and powdered sugar to taste. YUM!




Frozen Brownie Sundaes

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Prep Time:
25 min
Inactive Prep Time:
6 hr 30 min
Cook Time:
35 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

Brownie layer:

Vegetable oil cooking spray
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups brownie mix (recommended: Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 (1.4-ounce) milk chocolate-toffee candy bars, coarsely chopped (recommended: Heath or Skor)

IIce cream layer:
1 pint dulche de leche or caramel ice cream (recommended: Haagen-Dazs), softened

Chocolate layer:
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 3/4 cups milk chocolate chips

Sauce:
1 (12-ounce) bag frozen strawberries, thawed
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice


Directions

Brownie layer: Put an oven rack in the center of the
oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 by 8-inch glass baking pan with vegetable oil cooking
spray. Line the pan with parchment paper, allowing 2 inches of paper to overhang the sides. Set aside. Spray
the parchment paper with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix together the water, oil and egg. Add the brownie mix and stir until blended. Stir in the
chocolate chips and candy bar pieces. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake until a toothpick
inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and cool the brownie layer completely in the pan, about 1 1/2 hours.

Ice cream layer: Using a spatula, spread the softened ice cream on top of the brownie layer and freeze until
firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

Chocolate layer: In a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium-low heat until hot but not boiling. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is
smooth. Using a spatula, spread the chocolate mixture over the ice cream layer. Freeze for at least 1 hour or
until ready to serve.

Sauce: Put the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth.

To serve: Remove the layers from the pan and peel away the parchment paper. Cut the layers into squares and
drizzle with the strawberry sauce.


Notes

For a smoother sauce, strain the sauce through a
sieve and discard the seeds.