It's Springtime Pasta Bake

 

Here’s a delicious veggie-loaded pasta bake that's perfect for a springtime meal!  

 

Delicious!

It’s a great dish for the nights you want to go meatless.

 

Chicken Vesuvio ~ a Chicago Specialty!

 

Chicken that's “Vesuvioed,” tastes better than you could ever imagine!  It’s a meat-and-potatoes dish from meat-and potatoes Chi-Town, it’s indigenous to Chicago.

 

Ummm, mmm!  Delicious!

It's still a little chilly and rainy so this dish hit the spot!

 

Broken Spaghetti in Garlic-Butter and Parmesan Sauce

 

Hankering for a big, full bowl of pasta smothered in a creamy garlic-butter and Parmesan sauce?   

 

 

If so, I’ve got a great recipe for you!

 

Beefy Sour Cream Noodle Bake

 

It’s Spring, but it's still chilly rainy here and here’s a classic recipe that may be the epitome of comfort food for this weather!  It’s a layered combination of meatiness, cheesiness and creaminess!

 

 

Beefy Sour Cream Noodle Bake is a mouthwatering hearty dish of ground beef, tomato sauce and egg noodles combined; a layer of cottage cheese, sour cream and green onions, topped with a layer cheddar cheese.  Simple ingredients that most people like.  

Slightly Spicy Summer Veggies and Bacon Skillet

 

Turn your farmers’ market pickings into a vegetable stir-fry dish for dinner, it’s as colorful as it is tasty!

 

 

Bill and I both really liked this; just the right amount of seasonings with the extra flavor of smoky bacon. 

 

Chicken w/Garlic and Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce

Chicken lovers unite, here’s a scrumptious creamy 

satisfying dish just for you!

This delicious chicken smothered in a delectable creamy garlic and mushroom sauce with white wine will make you forget it’s a chilly fall day out there, not to mention less daylight. It comes together in no time!

Spaghetti Squash with Mushrooms and Ripe Olives

This is a fabulous side dish of squash that I could actually make a meal of!

It’s fall and squash season again, with spaghetti squash one of the best, due to its unique texture that has a similarity to spaghetti.  

Dinner was Oven-fried Catfish!

I gave catfish a lighter spin by baking the fish last night.

There’s no problem in finding catfish here in the Midwest.  Virtually every body of water in Illinois contains at least one species of the catfish family, with the most common members being channel catfish, flatheads, blue catfish and several species of bullheads.

Roasted Robusto Italian Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms

This recipe is truly simple and seriously satisfying!

I’ve mentioned more than once that I’m a big fan of Wish-Bone Robusto Italian Dressing.  It’s not only great on salad; it does a great job of marinating meat also.

Chicken and Stuffing Bake and Some Winter Diamond Dust!

 

Not since 1873 has it been this cold, 

on this date, March 4th, 

here in Chicagoland, 

blame it on the polar vortex!

Our thermometer read -4° this morning, that's with a windchill of -20°.

Diamond dust over Lake Michigan, Chicago

Diamond dust has been in the air this bitter cold winter ~ tiny ice crystals falling from an apparently clear sky, when the temperatures are subzero.  In sunlight, moonlight, or artificial light, the ice crystals glitter and shine like diamonds. 

The Best ~ Classic Chicken and Dumplings

This is an all-time favorite meal here at our house!  

And for good reason ~ 

it’s a delicious comfort dish for chilly snowy weather!

Chicken always gets top billing, but it’s the dumplings that sway people so easily.  There are a plethora of ways to make this dish, and this time I followed Paula Deen’s most of the way...

Not So Sweet, Sloppy Joes!

Tradition here in our family is a huge dinner for Christmas Eve ~ and Christmas Day is all about sloppy joes!

9th Blogiversary and Even More Potatoes!

I’m an impulsive sort of person at times.  Knowing me, Bill, thought this blog would be a passing whim that wouldn’t make it a couple of months…

And here I am ~ still at it, 9 years later!

The Best Salmon I Have Ever Baked!

Bill told me way back when, that he was part of the "I really don't like salmon" crowd.  Those were fighting words to me, and I was determined ~ and on a mission ~ to change his mind.  I figured he had a bad encounter with salmon once, just like I did many years ago with a catfish dinner at Mammoth Cave, when I cut into the fish and fat streamed out of it.  

I've been off on a long journey over the years for the best salmon recipe, and I'm sure I finally found it:  I'm just not sure though how I acquired this great recipe.  

Salmon has a great strong flavor and it's meatier than most fish. This rich, tender, flaky, and nutrient dense salmon gets slathered with a savory flavorful Dijon mustard sauce, then baked at a high temperature to perfection for our taste buds.

Spicy Garlic-Lime Shrimp with Grits

Remember what Bubba Gump said?

"Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. 
You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, 
bake it, sauté it. 
There's uh, shrimp-kabobs, 
shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. 
Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried."

And then there's this dish that has all the right ingredients: ~ Spicy Garlic-Lime Shrimp!

Grilled Pork Chops with Spice Paste

Take a dry rub, add moisture and you have a paste.  The moisture component can be beer, honey, cider vinegar, bourbon, wine, molasses, or it can simply be vegetable oil, as in this recipe...

I would not have thought something as easy as a little paste spread on meat would work so well to create such tasty chops; it was a delicious surprise!

After Almost 9 Years, it's So Long with a Corn Salad Recipe

It has been almost 9 years, since October 2009, that I started this blog.  That's a lot of posts and I've reached the point where it has become a chore for me, so it's time to say so long.

It has been a great journey, I've learned a lot from all of you over the years and thank you all very much for your support of Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner!  I'm leaving you with a great summer recipe that I hope you'll try...

It’s looks like fiesta time when you serve this spicy corn salad for your crowd! 

Tortellini Salad with Asiago, Peas and Proscuitto

Tortellini was a new food to me when we moved here to the Chicago area years ago ~ it was absolutely love at first bite!

The legend of tortellini is a little amusing: 

Baked Lime-Mustard Salmon

I adore salmon ~ unfortunately I'm the only one here who feels that adoration.  Salmon is one of the most widely loved varieties of seafood in the world.  Fresh, canned or smoked, it makes me happy when I enjoy a meal of it...

Eating two or three servings a week of salmon is a good way to improve your health, with it being  a healthy tasty alternative to chicken, beef and pork.  It’s rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and protein.  Plus providing iron, niacin, zinc, Vitamins B6 and B12, and a whole host of other ingredients essential for good health. 

Delicious Chicken with Lemon-Wine Sauce

FYI:  Don't be eating your chicken with a fork in Gainesville, Georgia, the 'Chicken Capital of the World', it's against the law.   And by the way, Honest Abe was an honest-to-goodness foodie.*  He even did his own grocery shopping!  Abe could eat four score and seven corn cakes; and, speaking of chicken, chicken fricassee was one of the only two dishes the Lincolns were known to have eaten at dinner in the 1850's, the other was corned beef.

It's no wonder that chicken appears as a staple in practically every culture’s cuisine ~ it can easily be flavored and prepared in many ways ~ roasted, grilled, poached, broiled, in stews, potpies and soups ~ with a plethora of sauces, toppings and seasonings, such as...