Eating In, Eating Out

Cooking a good meal at home is as easy as cutting up a few things and popping them all in the oven. I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately how only 40 percent of the US population regularly cooks at home. I have always been involved with cooking at home and find it hard to understand families eating at restaurants every night. So here is an easy recipe I cooked up, using items I had on hand I made chicken and biscuits in the oven.

You will need a cup and half of chopped carrots, celery, and onion. You can make it an equal portion of each or if you enjoy one more than the other cut up more of that. I used slightly more carrots as they are one of my favorites.

Dump them all in with two chopped cloves into a 1/3 cup of melted butter in a cast Iron Dutch oven and let it all soften on medium low heat. This should take about ten minutes. While they veg is softening go ahead and make some biscuits.

I used a Bisquick mix, because I had it on hand. Sometimes I’ve used a can of biscuits or even make them totally from scratch. I prefer to make them from scratch if I have the time. Divide it into about nine balls and flatten them into round disks. Then set them aside so that the milk can absorb into the flour. Preheat the oven at 350.

Add half a cup of flour to the vegetables in the Dutch oven. Let it cook for a moment or two so that you cook the flour. The raw flour taste is not so yummy. It may look a little dry in the pan, but it is ok. Add four cups of low sodium chicken broth, Basil, and dry Bay leaf (just remember to fish it out later), add salt and pepper to taste. Bring it to a boil for a least a minute.

While you are waiting for it to come to a boil chop up the chicken. I used four chicken breasts that I cooked for 25 minutes at 350 in the oven. Just a little spray oil, so that it wouldn’t stick, but nothing else. You can use cooked chicken from the grocery store, those lovely rotisserie chickens or they even have pre-cooked breasts.

Add the chicken to Dutch oven and some frozen peas. Wait for it to come back to a boil.

Place the biscuits on top as close as you can to each other. You want the top to be almost completely covered.

Pop on the lid and put it in the oven for ten minutes. After ten minutes pull of the lid and cook for anther twenty. The biscuits should be brown and the soup bubbly. Serve and enjoy!

Here are ten fixs for Thanksgiving problems

I think the best fix is just being kind and patient no matter the issue. Something will be edible even if it is just the cranberry sauce from the can. At least everyone is together even if you have to call out for pizza!

It was time to bake yesturday. So first I went to the pantry, found what I had on hand, and gathered it all up.

Throw it all in the bowl. I then read the directions on the canister. mmmmm… yummy raw egg.

Then off to the oven it goes. I LOVE my silcon pans!

Out it came all cooked and ready to share.

When the fall leaves start appearing and I see the cans of pumpkin puree at the grocery store I know its time to start planning. Planning on what to do with the extra pumpkin puree after pie making. In my cupboard was this quick bread mix that I had been there for awhile. So I thought it would be great to mix it up. Sometimes you just have to use what’s in the house.

Another evening and all I have defrosted is some chicken and no ideas. Time to figure out what to do for dinner.

I popped some butter in a pan and popped in the breasts. Grilled them up until cooked and then cut them into strips. Then I threw some shallots in the pan to soften with butter lots of butter. Butter makes it better!

A few moments latter I threw in some broccoli. I get the big bag of broccoli florets at Costco, so I always have it on hand. I put about two cups of the florets in. More Butter!

I cooked some egg noodles while the shallots softened and I put in them in the pan with the rest. Also guess what? More butter went in.

TaDa you have my Not-A-Tuna Noddle casserole with chicken. It’s not a casserole and not tuna… but it sure is yummy!

So my mom asked for cupcakes for her birthday and I was more than happy to oblige. I love cupcakes they are cute mini cakes. What’s not to love about them? Tsk… on all you cupcake haters out there! One famous one comes to mind, Duff Goldman of Ace of Cakes, but that’s ok because he did make the worlds largest cupcake!

Enough rambling and on to the cake! I made the better homes and gardens Triple Layer Lemon Cake and poured it into my silicone cupcake muffin molds. Popped them in the oven and while I waited for them to bake I whisked up the lemon cream cheese frosting that the recipe recommends.

I Than followed the recommendations from Baking Bites on how to fill it. I used Lemon Curd to fill the centers of the cupcakes, Dickinsons Lemon Curd, to be specific. You can find this at pretty much any grocery store. I love lemon curd, it is so nice and tart, great as a cake filling or on a scone.

So I have been on this sweet kick for the last couple of weeks and this is one of the items I made. I have made this recipe twice now and everyone has gone gaga for it. I like it because it is super easy and I get wonderful complments. Everyone should get wonderful complments from baking!

I have adapted the recipe from the Saveur magazine.

I used the recipe exactly as is for the shortbread. What I changed was the topping.

While the shortbread is finishing up in the oven put all of the topping ingredients in a saucepan and heat on medium high heat until bubbly. Then let it cook about five to ten minutes, like you would a caramel. When it sheets off of your spoon it is ready.

When the shortbread comes out of the oven spread it on top.

Now you have an easy and yummy recipe!

Wondering what foods are in season now? Here is one great article and a great link to a map of what is fresh in Western WA. 

The ten Fall Harvest Foods recipes are a great way to use local produce when it is season. NOW! 

Follow this link to a list that lets you know when your favorite’s are in season here in the Puget Sound. http://www.pugetsoundfresh.org/harvest_schedule.htm 

This month we are in the heart of harvest so make it on down to your local farmers markets.

I have been eating cream of wheat as long as I can remember. Most likely since my mom introduced semi sold foods to me as a baby. Since my first bite I have had it the same way; cooked in milk with a tiny bit of brown sugar on top. Well I decided it was time for change after twenty eight years.

I cooked it up with some water then added a handful of grated mozzarella cheese then grated some Parmesan cheese on top. Let it all melt together. Then the piece-da-resistance! I added some crisped bacon crumbles. mmmmm tasty.

Sometimes you have to take an old favorite and reinvent in a new way. I will have to come up some new additions for the future. Any ideas on what I should try?

So I tried a new recipe. It was an unmitigated disaster. I also learned my husband only likes chickpeas/garbanzo beans in humus and not in their natural state. Well, let’s just say making Cauliflower Curry from www.goodhousekeeping.com end in a pizza run to a local joint called Camp Union Pizza. They serve as close to east coast pizza as we can get on the peninsula. My hubby is a bit of a pizza connoisseur and being a Brooklyn native he likes the thin floppy pizza. So it ended up in a tasty night.

But it began with the Cauliflower Curry. I think it was just a bit to out of the box with the spice blend. It was both spicy and bland. I think it was the texture that really killed it. Everything was soft there was not difference in texture to speak of. Oh well live and learn. On to the next adventure in cooking…

I defrosted some chicken for dinner. Did I know what kind of chicken I was making? Nope not at all. When I am cooking at home I never seem to figure out what I want to cook until the last minute, when my husband is coming to me with his stomach growling! I looked through several of my cook books and couldn’t find a thing I wanted to make or I was missing a key ingredint. I even looked online and was uninspired!

So I threw some rice in a pot and started looking in the pantry for what I had on hand. Cream of Mushroom soup, I could make the old traditional chicken and rice Cassoral. But I was bored with that, however it was a good starting point so I threw it in a bowl. If you have ever made soup from a can, and who hasn’t, you know how thick it is. So I thinned down the soup with some fat free milk. On to the flavor enhancers! First the Worcester sauce. Let me count the way’s I love this sauce. It is just the most delicious rich and meaty addition. I ALWAYS have this in the pantry. I put in about ten to fifteen drops. Then about a teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder. If you can tell I am not big into measuring. Who wants to dirty somthing else? Then I added about a teaspoon and half of paprika, for its nice smoky flavor. Then a palm full of dried parsley.  Oh, Also, I added at the last minute a pinch of thyme.

Now to wait for the rice to finish cooking…

Woot! It’s done. So I added half of the sauce to the rice, stirred it up, and plopped it into the baking dish.

I know how icky raw chicken looks so just look real quick at the picture. I put two pieces on top of the rice.

On top of the chicken I put several slices of Jarlsberg Swiss cheese. It’s what I had on hand. Yummy Jarlsberg! I am sure regular Swiss would be ok.

Add the rest of the sauce and a handful of breadcrumbs dusted over the chicken and into the oven at 350 degrees. 

Cross your fingers and see if it comes out yummy!

It seems to have come out very well. At the very least it is all gone now. The only thing I think needs tweaking is the bread crumbs. I would suggest adding some melted butter before topping the chicken with the breadcrumbs. This will let it get nice and crispy.