A Yummy Salad September 30, 2008

Wedding chaos has kicked into high gear!  It is officially less than a week until the big day, so things are a little nutty around here.  My friend Elizabeth is coming tonight to help with some stuff and we threw together a big salad to just grab while we worked.  I don’t like salad unless it has tons of good stuff in it.  Here’s what we did: 

 

Spinach leaves

1 cucumber, diced

1 carrot, sliced

1 tomato, diced

cheddar cheese, shredded

2 hard boiled eggs, diced

2 green onions, sliced

1 rotisserie chicken, chopped

 

Pretty basic, super easy, fairly healthy and really, really good!

Crock Pot Chicken September 27, 2008

This recipe was part of “15 Best Chicken Recipes” on MSN.com home page a few weeks ago.  Ross’ Dad was kind enough to forward the recipe to us, and last night we finally got around to testing it out. The verdict… it was great!  Like most crock pot meals, it was nice and tender.  Unlike some others, it was very flavorful.  I loved that you took the sauce that the meal cooked in, transferred it to the stove and thickened it to make a gravy.  Sometimes meals in the crock pot get too dried out, or there isn’t enough sauce to go around.  This makes more than enough for all of the meat, and a side of rice or mashed potatoes as well.  Best of all it was extremely easy, it took me just 5 minutes to throw it all together in the morning and another 5 to thicken up the sauce last night.  We’ll have this again for sure!

Chicken and Vegetables with Herbs

Prep: 20 minutes 
Cook: 7 to 8 hours (low) or 3 1/2 to 4 hours (high)
Ingredients
8  ounces mushrooms, halved 
1  cup frozen pearl onions 
1/2  cup chicken broth 
1/4  cup dry red wine 
2  tablespoons tomato paste 
1/2  teaspoon garlic salt 
1/2  teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed 
1/2  teaspoon dried thyme, crushed 
1/4  teaspoon ground black pepper 
1  bay leaf 
4  small chicken legs (drumstick-thigh portion; skinned) (2 to 2-1/2 pounds total) 
Chicken broth (optional) 
1/4  cup chicken broth 
2  tablespoons all-purpose flour 
Hot cooked mashed potatoes (optional) 
Fresh parsley sprigs (optional) 
Directions
1. In a 5-1/2- or 6-quart slow cooker, combine mushrooms and pearl onions. Stir in the 1/2 cup broth, the wine, tomato paste, garlic salt, rosemary, thyme, pepper, and bay leaf. Add chicken legs to cooker. 
2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 7 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3-1/2 to 4 hours. 
3. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chicken and vegetables to a serving platter.. Discard bay leaf. Cover chicken and vegetables and keep warm. 
4. For sauce: Skim fat from cooking liquid. Measure 2 cups of the cooking liquid, adding additional chicken broth, if necessary, to equal 2 cups total liquid. Transfer liquid to a medium saucepan. In a small bowl, stir the 1/4 cup broth into the flour; stir into liquid in saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly; cook and stir for 1 minute more. Spoon some of the sauce over chicken. Pass remaining sauce. If desired, serve with mashed potatoes and garnish with parsley. Makes 4 servings.

Chicken Noodle Soup September 24, 2008

A few weeks ago, I posted about  buying a whole chicken that we were going to make several meals out of.  We froze the broth and some of the meat off of the chicken and brought it out tonight to make chicken noodle soup.  In my original post, I described how I boiled the chicken.  The flavor of the broth really depends on what you add to the pot while you are boiling the meat.  I came up with that mixture based on combining a few different recipes I saw, plus just some things that I thought belonged.  Tonight for the soup, I poured the broth into a large stockpot and added

 

3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

1/2 onion, diced into medium sized chunks

3 stalks of celery, sliced

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

3-4 turns of the peppermill

 

It seemed like I needed a little more broth, so I added 2 cups of chicken broth to the pot.  I wanted leftovers!  I let the mixture simmer for about a half hour, brought it to a boil and added 2 handfuls of egg noodles.  After allowing them to boil (about 6-8 minutes), I added the chunks of chicken from when we originally boiled it.  We had this with some grilled Swiss paninis (because we seem to eat paninis about daily now).  It was a nice, warm and fulfilling meal!

Paninis make me happy, too September 22, 2008

With the addition of our new panini maker, we have been having sandwiches more frequently lately.  Not just any old sandwiches, either.  Really, really good sandwiches.  Ross made homemade French Dips last week.  I had guided him to a website I found, paninihappy.com to suggest a recipe for Cheeseburger Paninis.   

 

I liked this site a lot, I thought it was cool how the writer led you through the steps it took to find the perfect way to make this recipe.  Well, Ross went to the site and found something else he wanted to make instead.  French Dip Paninis were awesome.  The best part about them was the roasted garlic aioli and the au jus, so be sure to make those to go along with it if you decide to try this recipe.

 

Tonight, Ross is grilling steaks that we are then going to use for paninis with provolone, asiago, caramelized onions, the roasted garlic aioli and the au jus for dipping.  We couldn’t let the leftovers go to waste!  I still want to make the cheeseburger paninis in the near future, as well as the Grilled Brownie Sundae Panini… ummm, hello.  It doesn’t get to sounding much better than that one!

My Birthday Favorite September 21, 2008

It’s not my birthday, not even close really.  But I’m making it anyway.  Goulash was always one of my favorite meals.  I find that funny, because my Mom is a wonderful cook and made something different practically every night of my life it seems.  She was always experimenting, clipping recipes from magazines and buying new cookbooks.  We had many really amazing meals.  For some reason, a meal where you dump a bunch of cans of stuff into a pot and bake it was my favorite.  Each year on our birthday, we had the chance to pick what we wanted for dinner.  I can remember many years where my choice was goulash. 

 

Tonight, when Ross and I knew we needed to use the ground turkey in the fridge, a lightbulb went off in my head.  I wanted goulash.  I think a conversation at work a week or two ago triggered my craving.  Somehow I got to talking about goulash with a co-worker.  It is one of those meals that can be something completely different, depending on who is making it.  While she admitted that my family recipe for goulash sounded pretty foreign, she also admitted that it sounded good.  And it is.

 

Here it is:

1 lb hamburger (or ground turkey)

1 onion, chopped

2 green pepper, chopped

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 can tomato soup

1 16 oz can stewed tomatoes

1/2 bag egg noodles

A splash of milk

Boil noodles.  Saute ground meat, peppers and onions.  Combine all ingredients in casserole dish.  Bake at 350 30-45 minutes.  Do not cover.

 

Although I have a very strict “no food is allowed to touch on my plate” rule, this is delicious served with corn, and it is even ok if they mix together a little bit on the plate!

Comforting Cube Steaks September 19, 2008

…And they were just that.  This meal was very tasty.  I had to work very late tonight, and just got home and finished dinner.  Ross made this for our dinner tonight.  Comforting Cube Steaks is easy to make and requires very few ingredients.  The cream of mushroom soup makes it creamy, the onion soup mix makes it a bit salty, and the sprite makes it a bit sweet.  The cajun seasoning and pepper add a tiny bite along with the other combinations.  All together, they flavor the meat well, make it nice and tender, and create a wonderful gravy for some mashed potatoes on the side.

 

Ross has always been the master mashed potato maker in our little family.  He usually uses red potatoes, leaves a bit of skin on here and there, and salt, butter, milk, and cream cheese (and sometimes even a little sour cream if we have it) while whipping them up.  I’m pretty sure the cream cheese idea came from our dear friend Elizabeth.  She made potatoes that way at her house one night and we’ve copied her idea ever since. 

 

Ross kicked it up a notch tonight and added a few cloves of garlic and some other seasonings into the pot of potatoes while they were boiling.  I always thought my Aunt Molly made awesome mashed potatoes, too.  I think she told me once that she put an onion, sliced, in the pot of potatoes while boiling and mashed them up with the potatoes.  I am beginning to think that the secret is more in what you boil the potatoes with, not so much what you mix in afterwards (although let me tell ya, if you haven’t tried it with cream cheese and/or sour cream, you must!).

 

I’m already excited to have my leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Guess What? September 17, 2008

“Anyone Hungry” has made it to the Sanford Herald!  Check out the new column in today’s paper, or on the Herald’s NEW website! 

 

Let me know what you think!

Ziti Lasagna September 14, 2008

That’s what I call it at least.  It’s really called Baked Ziti IV but I think my title is more fun

 

I am really surprised that I haven’t blogged about this recipe yet, it is one of our very favorites that we’ve found on allrecipes.com.  This recipe is wonderful for a bunch of reasons:

• It’s a regular… with a twist, which makes it fun.
• It’s Italian, which makes it good right away.
• It is like lasagna, but easier to make.
• It has rosemary in it.  Mmmmmmm.  I love rosemary.
• It’s super creamy and cheesy (sorry, Kim!).
• The pan weighs about 100 lbs.  That is how you know it is going to be good (as long as you don’t think about the fact that the weight will soon be shifted to your own personal body).
• The sour cream and cottage cheese add to the creaminess and cheesiness, but you can easily use light/skim and it tastes just as good.  Promise.
• It makes a BIG pan, so there are plenty of leftovers for lunches and quick meals (or snacks!) throughout the next few days.

We usually just use either sausage or ground beef, whatever we have.  Tonight it is just the ground beef.  I am sure the combination would be even better, but we’re cheap and just buy one or the other.

 

Hope you all had a good weekend and have a happy week ahead!

 

Official wedding countdown:  20 days!!!

Cool New Kitchen Stuff September 14, 2008

Ross’ sister and parents had a couples shower for us today at La Dolce Vita.  LDV is one of our favorite local restaurants, and very special because it is where we had our first date (and where we met in person for the first time!).  The food was amazing as always, and Renee, the owner, was sweet enough to give us a gift certificate from her and her staff as a gift.  That means we get to go back soon!!!

We received several new super cool kitchen items today.  I cannot WAIT to make some new recipes using these new gadgets!

 

First is the Cuisinart Griddler Panini Maker.  Here are pictures of it being used both ways:

                                    

How cool is that?  There are different plates that can be put in depdending on what you want to use it for, and best of all… the plates are dishwasher safe!  One of my favorite childhood memories is my Dad making breakfast for us on Sunday mornings on the griddle.  It has been many years since I’ve had that breakfast, and I can’t wait to cook one up.  I am also excited about making some super delicious sandwiches!

 

Our next awesome Cuisinart gift is the blender/food processor combo.  They have some pretty smart engineers at Cuisinart.

There are a few recipes that I have wanted to make that need a food processor and we haven’t had one.  Potato soup will be made at our house in the very near future!  Also, I think my sister and I ruined my last blender by making too many margaritas and crushing too much ice.  This one has a special ice crusing setting, so I think we’ll be all set.  We even got a recipe today for beer margaritas, so we might have to make up a batch of those to test out the new blender! 

 

We also received the Black and Decker electric carving knife.  Ross has pretty much perfected making roasts, and this will help it to look much nicer when it is served! 

 

We also received tons of other cool gifts, including lots of stuff for the house and garden.  Thanks to everyone, today and over the past few months, who has given us so much cool stuff!

Chicken ‘n Dumplings September 12, 2008

Today was not my favorite day.  It was not horrible, but it was not my favorite.  First of all, I started my work day at 7:30 and just finished (it’s 8:43).  Granted, I got home at 6:15, but still had a few things that needed to be done in response to issues that came up at the end of the day.  When I got home and began working on one of two letters that needed to be written, I was happy that the thoughts just started pouring out.  Before I knew it, I had almost a full page letter written that said just what I had wanted it to say.  When I went to save, the computer froze.  I had to close out of Word, and although I crossed my fingers when I re-opened it (and made Ross do the same), it was not in that handy little “recovered documents” panel on the left hand side of my screen.  I searched, but it was just not there.  So, I started over…  not a happy way to end my work day.  I just finished re-writing it, but I’m just not as happy with it as I was with the first  one.  Oh well.

 

This week’s weather has also made it a tough week.  All I want to do is curl up and take a nap!  Emily and I had to get a coffee from Cafe 121 (one of the perks of my day) to help us make it through the afternoon.  While this weather isn’t the NC weather that I love, it sure does make it a great day for a comfort meal.

 

Our comfort meal tonight was courtesy of Rachael Ray’s Comfort Foods cookbook.  This cookbook was my first introduction to Rachael, and I love it.  There are so many great recipes in this little book.   Chicken and Dumplings was one of the first recipes I tried after receiving the book as a gift, and I have made it many a time since.  It is quick (30 minutes… imagine that!) and tastes like it simmered in the pot all day.  If this weather keeps up, I suggest you give this meal a try!  It will make you feel all warm and cozy inside, and it’s healthy, too!

 

Chicken and Dumplings

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into chunks

handful of flour

sprinkle of salt and pepper

Old Bay seasoning (I never have this, so I just add whatever spices appeal to me at the moment)

2 T olive oil

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 medium onion, diced

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 bay leaf

1 box Jiffy biscuit mix

2 qt chicken broth

1 c frozen peas (add whatever amount you want)

 

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium high heat.  Toss chicken breast chunks in combination of flour, salt, pepper and Old Bay seasoning.  Add to hot pot and brown on each side, about 3-4 minutes.  Add vegetables and bay leaf, cook for 5 minutes more, covered.  While cooking, prepare biscuit mix as directed on box.  Add broth to chicken and vegetable mixture, bring to a boil (Now’s a good time to taste the broth to see if you want to add any more spices!).  Drop biscuit batter into pot by rounded teaspoonfuls.  Reduce heat to a simmer, cover for 8 minutes.  Add peas, stir and cook for one more minute or until heated through.

 

Enjoy, and go get cozy!  Tomorrow’s Friday!!!