Chicken Salad, with Apples and Pecans 10th May 2010

A few days ago I made this salad with some extra chicken I had.

1 Vidalia Onion, finely chopped
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and finely chopped
1 Celery Heart, finely chopped
1 C White Meat Chicken, cooked and chopped into large chunks
1/2 C Pecans, chopped
Juice of 1 Lemon
Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper

After peeling and chopping  the apple, put it in the lemon juice to prevent browning.  Add the onion, celery heart, and pecans.  Chop up the chicken and combine with the other ingredients.  Add just enough mayonnaise to lightly coat the ingredients.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with cheddar cheese toast.

Hello world! 23rd March 2010

I encountered one too many pop-up ads on Livejournal, so I switched to WordPress.  The transition may take awhile.  🙂

Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers 18th March 2010

We got a baked chicken meal, to go, last night for dinner, and we had a lot of chicken left over, so I decided to make stuffed bell peppers with it.

2 C White meat chicken, pulled into bite size pieces
1 Small onion, chopped finely
3 Bell peppers
2 t Chopped garlic, from a jar
2 C Shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 C Prepared with chicken broth, brown jasmine rice
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the tops off the bell peppers. Use a grapefruit spoon to get the white ribs out of the inside. Chop the edible parts of the bell pepper caps up into fine pieces. Saute the onions, bell pepper pieces, and chopped garlic in a little olive oil, until the onions just start to turn translucent. It’s okay for the veggies to be a little undercooked since they will bake inside the bell peppers later.

Combine the rice, sauteed veggies, 1 1/2 Cups of the mozzarella, chicken, salt, and pepper. Stuff the bell peppers with the mixture and but into a baking dish. Top the stuffed bell peppers with the remaining 1/2 Cup of mozzarella.

Bake in a 350° oven, 30 min, or until the cheese begins to brown.

Spring Time Potato Soup 15th March 2010

4 Yukon Yellow Potatoes, finely cubed
1 Small White Onion, finely chopped
1 Small Yellow Onion, finely chopped
1 Sweet Onion, finely chopped
1 Celery Heart, finely chopped
2T Fresh Parsley, finely chopped
2T White Wine
1 Box Chicken Stock
5T Herb Butter
2 Chicken Breasts Broiled with Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper, cubed
Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt the herb butter in the bottom of a pan that can hold the soup. Add the potatoes and some salt. Saute the potatoes till they just start to brown. Watch out for the potatoes sticking to the bottom and burning. Add the onions and celery. Add the box of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, stirring almost constantly, the starch from the potatoes sinks to the bottom and burns easily. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the onions turn translucent. Add the cubed chicken. Add the white wine and the parsley. Cook until the parsley is tender yet still bright green. Serve with a fresh salad. 🙂

Leftover Porkchop and Bacon Saute 4th March 2010

I had some leftovers I wanted to use up.

Noodles

Half of a package of Farfalle, prepared by package instructions
Juice of one lemon
1T fresh parsley, chopped
Black pepper to taste
4t butter

Combine the lemon juice, parsley and black pepper together in the bottom of a serving bowel. Place the pats of butter on top. After the noodles have been drained, while they’re still hot, put them into the serving bowel on top of the mixture and butter. Mix, and put aside.

Saute

1 Medium onion, chopped into long strips
1C Mushrooms, chopped into large pieces
1 Package of baby spinach, that comes prewashed
1 Boneless porkchop, already cooked, sliced into long thin strips
2 Pieces of Bacon, already cooked, crumbled

Saute the onion in olive oil until it starts to brown. Remove the onion from the pan, leaving as much of the oil as possible. Add a tablespoon of butter. Add the mushrooms, cook until they began to turn a golden brown. Add the onions back. Put the spinach on top wilting it, you may have to do this a bit at a time to get it to fit in the pan. Add the porkchop and bacon pieces. Heat the meat through. Put the saute on top of the noodles. Serve.

Chicken Bacon Bake and Southwestern Inspired Sauce 10th February 2010

I had a ripe avocado and wanted to make something with it.

Chicken Bake

2 Chicken Breasts, cleaned and cut into 3 chicken tender size pieces
1 Small Yellow Onion, chopped finely
4T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1t Fresh Oregano, finely chopped
4 Slices of Sharp Cheddar Cheese
3 Pieces of Bacon, cooked at breakfast, crumbled
To Taste, Salt and Pepper

Cook the onion in the olive oil till just starting to turn translucent. Pour the onion and oil mixture into your baking dish. Put the fresh oregano into the dish too. Mix the onions, oil, and oregano together, then add the raw chicken pieces. Coat the chicken pieces with the mixture already in the dish then spread the pieces out evenly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the crumbled bacon on top of the chicken. Put the cheddar cheese on top of everything. Place in a preheated 350° oven. Bake 20 min. Then broil till the cheese starts to brown.

Sauce or Side

1 Can Bushes Seasoned Black Beans
1 Package of Frozen Shoepeg Corn, cooked on shortest time, then rinsed and drained
1 Avocado, chopped
1 Large Yellow Onion, chopped
1 Box of Cherry Tomatoes, halved, or quartered if they’re really big
Juice of One Lemon
To Taste, Salt and Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, just enough to cook the onions in

Combine the avocado, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and set aside. Saute the onion in the oil till translucent. Add the can of beans, sauce included. Heat till simmering. When you finish baking the chicken, and start to broil it, add the corn to the pan. Then get the sauce up to a simmer again. Take the pan off the heat and add the avocado and cherry tomato mixture to the bean mixture. Serve over the chicken or on the side. 🙂

Savory French Toast 23rd January 2010

I felt like french toast but only had tuscan garlic bread, and I don’t think garlic and cinnamon suger go well together. So I made this variation up.

8 slices of french bread with garlic cloves baked in, toasted lightly if it wasn’t stale
4 eggs beaten
1C milk or cream
1T chopped fresh herbs (I had parsley, dill, and oregano)
1/2 small yellow onion chopped really fine
1/2t salt
Herb butter to saute in

Saute the onions in herb butter till translucent. Mix the eggs, cream, herbs, onions, and salt together in a bowl. Soak the bread in the mixture. Cook the soaked slices of bread in a frying pan with more herb butter on medium heat till both sides are brown. I just had them plain, but I think they might be good with sour cream or apple sauce. Like those potato pancakes at IHOP.

Chicken Catchatori and Tortellini Casserole 19th January 2010

Made this up today. 🙂

The Sauce

1C Chopped Onion
1C Chopped Mushroom
4T Prechopped Garlic from a Jar
2T White Wine
1 Chicken Breast Cleaned, Trimmed, and Sliced
3 Pieces of Bacon, Cooked Earlier, Chopped Into Bits
1 Box of Chopped Tomatos
To Taste Basil, Oregano, Garlic Powder, Salt, and Pepper

Other Ingredients

2C Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 Box of Cheese and Garlic Tortellini, Cooked for Shortest Time on Package

Saute the fresh ingredients and the Garlic for the sauce. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until the sauce is somewhat reduced.

Place the cooked tortellini in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer the sauce on top of them, then top the whole casserole off with the mozzarella. Bake in a 350° oven till the cheese starts to brown.

Beef Roast with Baby Veggies 7th January 2010

Just finished prepping for a beef roast I’m making tomorrow. Have the roast marinating and all the veggies chopped up.

Marinade

Juice of 1 lemon
Half a head of garlic coarsely chopped
1/2 C red wine
Pepper to taste

Veggies

Shiitake mushrooms
Baby carrots
Baby Vidalia onions
Fingerling potatoes

Tomorrow I’ll put the roast, veggies, fresh parsley, and salt, into a roasting bag and follow the directions that come with the bags.

Macaroni and Cheese 19th February 2009

I think of homemade macaroni and cheese as a meal made of pure love. It has a soft, gentel flavor and texture. It’s a comfort food from my deep memories of childhood.

I started with a quad colored pasta that was not quite macaroni, the noodles are four times the length of traditional macaroni noodles and spiral around. They also are ridged on the outside. I have been using ridged macaroni for a while now because it holds sauce better than smooth noodles.

I boiled about 6 cups of dry noodles in salted water.

To make the sauce I took:

4 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons flour
1 Cup whole milk
1 Cup heavy whipping cream

I melted the butter in a pan then added the flour to make a rue. I cooked the mixture over medium heat till the flour was completly incorperated with the butter and the mixture was bubbling. I quickly added the milk and cream while continusly stirring. I then stirred this over medium heat until the sauce started to significantly thicken. Then I added the cheeses.

1 lb sharp chedder
1/4 lb butterkase
1 slice jarlsburg swiss
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
black pepper to taste

I heated this over medium heat while stirring until the cheeses were completly melted and incorporated.

I chopped one medium size sweet vadilia onion into fine pieces. I sauteed this in butter over medium heat until the onions were translucent. I added this to the cheese sauce.

I combined the cheese sauce and the noodles together. I put the mixture into cassaroles. On top of the cassarol I put slices of sharp chedder. I sliced a tomato into thin rounds and put these on top of the cassarol as a garnish.

Then the cassarol was baked in an oven at 350 degrees for 30 minites or until the chedder toping had melted and the tomato slices had started to brown just a little.