My wife and I signed up for a vegatable home delivery where they drop off fresh organic produce once a week. Sometimes there are vegetables that I am not familiar with like leeks, but when some showed up I expanded my taste buds and created this soup. I’ve had leeks before but never actually cooked with them myself and was pleasantly surprised how easy they were to work with. Cleaning them is very important because of all the dirt inside so I would suggets google searching “Cleaning Leeks” there was only 1000 plus videos on it!

Sweet Leek Soup

2 slices of bacon
1 Leek cleaned and chopped
1 shallot diced
2 carrots diced
2 celery stalks diced
2 cups sweet potato diced
4 mushrooms chopped
1 can of vegetable broth
1 can of coconut milk

Medium heat; start cooking your bacon then add your leeks salt and pepper and sauté for 10 minutes covered.

Add shallots, carrots, celery and sweet potatoes continue to sauté for 15 minutes covered.

Add mushrooms sauté for 5 more minutes covered.

Add broth and milk and simmer for 10 minutes.

Turkey Tex-Mex!

This is an amazing recipe that not only is healthy and delicious, but also easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 lbs. ground turkey meat

3 TBS chopped garlic

3 TBS olive oil

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 bottle of the black bean and corn salsa (Bald Eagle brand found on our website)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Salt, pepper and blackened seasoning for extra kick!

If you really like it spicy add green chilis or finely chopped jalapenos.

Directions:

In a saute pan on a medium heat, put the olive oil, garlic and turkey meat.  Salt and pepper to your liking, then add your onions and peppers and make sure they cook together sharing the flavored oil and garlic.  Dump in your salsa and let cook for 3 minutes or until all the ingredients come together then turn off the heat and add the cheese, but put a lid on so the cheese melts evenly throughout the recipe.  Serve on a tortilla or on a lettuce wrap, depending on your preference!!!

Sweet Potato Apple Sausage Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic

1 yellow onion chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

2 carrots diced

1 green pepper chopped

1 red pepper chopped

2 medium sized sweet potatoes diced

4 chicken apple sausages diced

Cajun seasoning and salt/pepper for flavor

In a large sauté or skillet using medium high heat cook the first 7 ingredients for 5 minutes. Lower heat to medium, add the rest of the ingredients and cover for 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

2 poached chicken breasts diced

2 cups cooked shelled edamame or soy beans

1 12 oz bag of broccoli slaw

1 cup craisins

½ cup slivered almonds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1.     Boil your chicken breasts in 3 cups of water for 20 minutes, let cool before cutting up.

2.     Boil edamame in a shallow pan of water for 3 minutes and strain

3.     Mix in large bowl all the ingredients above

4.     Serve portion size amounts for meals with Asian Dressing

Asian Dressing

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

In a separate bowl mix all 5 ingredients and only use what you need for your salad or Asian Broccoli Slaw mix. 

A lot of our recipes seem to have a lot of meat or lots of cheese or other hearty ingredients that some people may find heavy and unhealthy.  We here at UCC believe that food can be amazing even if it is healthy and fun to make.  This is a pasta primavera that we made quickly with leftover vegetables, some pasta and a little sauce.  This tasted amazing and was light for the stomach when in the great outdoors.  You can see the flavors bursting in the picture and it was so easy to make.  What is your favorite vegetable dishes?  What is your favorite healthy, easy meal you can make while with friends and family in the great outoors?!

Chopped garlic, olive oil, chopped zucchini, sliced onions, mushrooms, tomato basil sauce, spaghetti, salt and pepper!  Wow is that simple and scrumptious!!!

You don't want to miss this!!!  Mac and The Big Cheese have been invited to the largest and greatest RV show in the country at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA from October 14th to the 23rd.  The best part is on Monday the 17th and Wednesday the 19th there is a Dutch oven competiton that yeilds some amazing prizes and a tremedous time.  Monday it's the entree competition and Wednesday is the dessert competiton!  You still have to pay the entree fee of the event, but this enables you to enjoy the event as well as participate in the most presigious cooking competiton with the famous celebrity chefs, Mac and The Big Cheese!  The entree form for this competiton is on the home page of this website, just fill out the information and be ready to rock and roll.  Please bring all ingredients to the event with you, the event will provide aluminum trays for the coals so it doesn't destroy the grounds.  Be as ORIGINAL as possible, we enjoy awesome new unique recipes, so be creative and have fun!!!

What are you making for Super Bowl? If you don’t know try out these two recipes sure to please your guest.

Rhode Island Clam Chowder

4 slices of thick smoked bacon

1 large yellow onion chopped

4 celery stalks chopped

2 tablespoons garlic

4 6.5oz cans of clams drained

2 teaspoons of fresh thyme finely chopped

2 teaspoons of fresh basil finely chopped

6 russet potatoes diced (boiled separate)

1 32oz clam juice

1 15 oz chicken broth

In a large soup pot cook your bacon until crisp and set aside. At a medium high heat add onions, celery, garlic and sauté for 8 minutes. Add clams (drained) and bacon (chopped) and heat for another 5 minutes.

In a separate pot boil your diced potatoes for 10 minutes and cold wash them when done to keep them crisp. Then add them to your clam soup and sauté for 3 minutes.

Pour clam juice and chicken broth and heat on a low medium for 45 minutes.

Serving suggestions: For maximum flavor, let cool and refrigerate for 24 hours giving an opportunity for all the ingredients to come together.

Sleeping Bag Jalapeños

1 pound sweet maple sausage

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

15 to 20 jalapenos, halved and seeded

In a large sauté pan on a medium flame, cook the sausage all the way through until there is no pink left. Add the cream cheese and mozzarella and cook, stirring constantly, for about 7 minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted.

Stuff each jalapeño with about 1 tablespoon of the sausage and cheese mixture. Place the stuffed jalapeños on a grill and cook on

low direct heat for 15 minutes. If the grill is not available, you can bake these for 20 minutes in a covered Dutch oven with 8 coals on top and 6 around the outside of the bottom (not underneath).

What a great week in Kansas City, we shot our new tailgate DVD in front of a live audience during our show and came up with some great recipes. Chop Block Sliders, Prosciutto Stuffed Pork Chops, Dutch French Onion Soup, BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches just to name a few and a Bloody Marry Mix that will sure to be penalized for unnecessary roughness.

We got to eat at some great restaurants in town but my favorite by far was Anthony’s, an old Italian joint with one of the best veal parmesans I have had in a long time! The owner came over and gave us the history on the place and it was nice to see that it stayed in the family for so many years. M&S Grill was another awesome spot with the Kansas City strip that melted on my fork! We did spend one evening with our friends Jon and Andi who had introduced us to Smoke House BBQ, some of the best BBQ I have tasted.

Ultimate camp cooking is coming back to Kansas City next week to the Mid-America RV Show Bartle Hall, Kansas City MO Convention Center January 27 to 30, 2011.

We were there last year and had a blast and we can’t wait to see you all again with four new recipes to share. We will also be doing something a little different this year; we will add a new tailgate recipe each show and film it for our new “Ultimate Tailgate” DVD. Of course these recipes are perfect for the mountains when you are camping like biscuits and gravy, pork sliders, BBQ pizza and many more.

Being part of the audience for this DVD will be a cool experience for the spectators to see a behind the scenes look at how it’s done and taste the food.

Good food and good friends is what we are focusing on this year in Kansas City and I really hope you all can come out and share that with us. Plus there are some great restaurants that we need to visit.  

 

Just wanted to take a moment and thank the city of Chicago for welcoming Ultimate Camp Cooking to town and helping us sell out of cookbooks. 

I did notice a slight breeze and sideways snow after we got there but the 12 degree temperature made up for it. The fun part was watching the temp rise to 28 and the people of the city of Chicago were happy!

The best part about Chicago besides the awesome people we met was the restaurants! We never had a bad meal while we were in town, from Krolls, Firehouse, Weber Steak House to Mama’s place we ate like kings!

When I rented my car and drove on the freeway I was really impressed with the NASCAR speed every kept. In Chicago people have places to go and good food to eat! So when I got pulled over in downtown by a Chicago city PD for doing 50 in 25 I was shocked? The officer asked me what the hurry was and I made up some story about being late and that I didn’t know it was illegal to speed in Chicago? He said that it’s only OK on the freeway but not in the downtown area where homeless people cross the street without crosswalks and die. I said, “Homeless person getting killed in Chicago is an upgrade isn’t it?” He tried not to laugh and told me to SLOW DOWN and let me go!

We also got to experience WGN midday news show who invited us in to share a cooking segment. The scene went fast but we had a good time and the studio crew was awesome and treated us great!

Until next time Chicago……… Off to Kansas City next week!

Just in case you missed the WGN spot, follow the link below.

 http://www.wgntv.com/news/middaynews/wgntv-lunchbreak-ultimate-camp-cooking,0,1689562.story

Prime rib soup will start your year off right! Of course in order to have a prime rib soup you must start with a prime rib, oh the horror of that.

Perfect Prime Rib

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 tablespoons fresh thyme minced

2 tablespoons fresh sage minced

2 tablespoons fresh oregano minced

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary minced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 cup yellow mustard

5-6 lb rib roast

Combine the first six ingredients separately 

Rub your prime rib in olive oil and roll over the mix of fresh seasonings rubbing them into the meat.

With that back of a spoon layer the mustard over the top of the roast.

Bake at 450 for 20 minutes a pound. You will see a black crust start to form and that is a good thing. When finished let sit for 15 minutes on a cutting board before slicing.

Using a sharp knife carve out the rib bone and set aside and break off the crust and leave with the bone.

Enjoy your dinner!

Trim the meat off the bone and cut left-over meat into cubed pieces and refrigerate. Boil bone and crust in water for one hour. Pour through a strainer and discard left over bones and fat. Let your broth set over night in the fridge allowing the fat to separate, then skim the fat off.

Prime Rib Soup

2 cloves garlic chopped

2 yellow onions diced

3 celery stalks diced

3 large carrots diced

10 mushrooms chopped

4-5 russet potatoes diced

2 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 tablespoons fresh thyme

1 tablespoons fresh sage

1 tablespoons fresh oregano

1 tablespoons fresh rosemary

Broth from rib roast

Left over prime rib meat

Boil Potatoes in separate pan for 8 minutes then drain and cool water wash when done and set aside.

Sauté garlic and onions in large pot for 6 minutes and add sugar and continue to sauté for another 3 minutes.

Add fresh thyme, rosemary, sage and oregano and heat for another 2 minutes.

Add meat, celery, carrots, mushroom and potatoes and continue to sauté for 5 more minutes.

Add broth from rib roast and simmer for 30 minutes. Add water if needed to build up broth.