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Friday, November 25, 2011

Corn Casserole

I’m a huge fan of casseroles and one-dish meals.  I make them a lot and my husband sometimes makes fun of me.  But I love them and will continue to create and combine until my heart is content.  This is for several reasons.
1.       One pan/pot/dish = less cleaning. When you have a tiny kitchen and no dishwasher, this is a GOOD thing.
2.       Casseroles can be adapted to what you have on hand and made with leftovers and odds and ends, very thrifty (ß cheap girl!)
3.       Casseroles usually reheat very well and can be eaten for days or taken to work and eaten.
4.       Who doesn’t love smelling something delicious baking and bubbling in the oven??
So you will see a lot of casseroles in this blog. They are versatile, inexpensive, and most of all,     yum-tastic!
The first of many will be a dish popular with my family at birthdays and holidays.  It is buttery and delicious, and packed with corn; it’s a good way to get your kids to eat vegetables:
Corn casserole
1 c. milk
2 eggs, beaten
3 T butter, melted
1 T sugar
1 T minced onion (dried or fresh)
½ t salt
Dash pepper
1 can corn
2/3 c crushed crackers (saltines, ritz, town house, whatever you've got. This is a good use for stale crackers!)
Preheat to 350. Combine everything in a 8 x 11 baking dish.  Bake 30 minutes until firm and lightly browned. That’s it!!! SO EASY and SO YUMMY!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

Here is a recipe that is a staple in our family for the holidays.  I'm sure it is (or will become) one of yours when you try this simple recipe for everyone's favorite pumpkin dish. My stand-by recipe calls for canned pumpkin but, if you'd like to do it the old fashioned way and use a fresh pumpkin, I will include a second towards the end about that. I also use refrigerated pie crust when I'm in a time pinch and they work great.

2 eggs, beaten
1 can of pumpkin (15 oz.)
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Dash of nutmeg (be careful, nutmeg is a POWERFUL spice.)
1 1/2 c. evaporated milk (about 2 small cans)
1 single crust pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425.  Press pie crust into pan (if not already done) and fold the edge under.  Crimp as desired.  Combine these ingredients in the order listed, mixing with a stand or hand mixer until well combined (but not foamy or fluffy).  Pour into pie crust (it may be very full, use caution).  Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 45 minutes. If crust begins to brown too rapidly, tear off a piece of aluminum foil, cut a hole in the middle that will allow the edges of the crust to be covered by the foil but not the pumpkin, and place it over the pie.  Pie is done when firm enough not to jiggle too much when shaken.  You can also use the old toothpick test for this one.  A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.  This is a great pie to whip up right before company comes because it is great served warm with a dollop of cool whip or whipped cream.


Instructions for fresh pumpkin:

Stores will sell small "pie pumpkins" or "sugar pumpkins" around the holidays for just this purpose.  If you've ever cooked whole squash before, this process will be familiar to you.  Preheat to 350. Remove the stem and cut the pumpkin in half with a large knife.  Scoop out all the guts, keep the seeds for roasting if you want to.  fill a 9x13 (or larger) pan with about an inch of water. Place the pumpkin, cut side down, in the water in the pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes or until pumpkin is soft.  This time will depend on the size of the pumpkin.  It's a good indication that the pumpkin is ready if it begins to cave in a little.  Once the pumpkin is cooled enough to handle, put a clean kitchen towel in a large bowl and use a big spoon and scoop out all the soft pumpkin from the shell, or skin.  Put it on the towel in the bowl and press the towel around and over it.  The purpose of this is to get as much of the water out of the pumpkin as you can.  You may need a second towel if your pumpkin is very watery.  If the pulp is too wet when you go to make the pie, it will take FOREVER to bake.  One average size pie pumpkin should be about all you need. Use this in place of the canned variety. 

Creamy Cream Soups


Cream of…soup?
                Cream soups may seem like a daunting task for those who haven’t attempted before, but they are really a simple and delicious addition to your cooking repertoire.  Once you know how to make the basic well, base… the sky’s the limit.  I have made it with broccoli, potato, mushrooms, and chicken. Take it on, and I’m sure you’ll like it!
Cream of potato soup, loaded style!
2 lg. potatoes
¼ c. crumbled bacon
2 c. milk
2 T chives, chopped
1 T parsley, chopped
1/3 c. shredded cheddar
Sour cream
Pepper
4 T butter
3 T flour
1 T salt
Cook the potatoes in salted water until fork tender, cool, peel, and chop into 1 in. cubes. (good use for leftover potatoes)  In a saucepan, melt butter, whisk in flour and salt, making a paste.  In a separate small pan, sauté the onions in a little butter or oil until tender.    The basis of any cream soup is a roux (rüe).  This flour paste is a roux, and you will want to cook it on med-low for about 3-4 minutes, whisking continuously, and letting it bubble, but not burn.  This will keep it from tasting like paste.  Add the milk slowly, a bit at a time, whisking until smooth.  Add the potato, bacon, cheese, chives, parsley, and onions.  Season with black pepper and cook on low until just thickened.  Be warned!! Once this soup begins to thicken, it will go from a pleasing thickness to goop reallllllly fast, so keep your eye on it.  If you get goop, simply add more milk and whisk well.  Serve topped with more shredded cheese, chives, and a dollop of sour cream.  This type of soup freezes well and can be reheated on the stovetop or in the microwave.  I like to freeze it in individual portions for my eating pleasure!

Cream of broccoli soup
1 C fresh or frozen broccoli, cut into small pieces
½ tsp onion powder
4 T butter
Pepper
3 T flour
2 C milk
1 T salt
Dash paprika
(½ c shredded cheddar) optional
Steam or boil broccoli until tender, reserve ½ c cooking liquid.  Make roux just like in the first recipe (see above) adding onion powder.  Gradually add milk and broccoli liquid, whisking constantly.  Add broccoli (and cheese) and cook on low until soup thickens.  Done!

Easy Cheesy Taco Bake


If you’ve ever cast about the kitchen at the last minute, panicking about what to make for dinner (and who hasn’t) here is a good recipe to save you from peanut-butter-and-jelly night.  My husband, his two brothers, and his father devour this dish like it’s going out of style and are always asking for more.  It’s easy to make from things you have in your cupboard and fridge, and is fantastic leftover. The best part is, if you’re missing something, you can improvise, or omit it altogether.  It’s a flexible recipe. 
Easy Cheesy Taco Bake
1 box shells and cheese dinner
1 lb ground beef
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
3 green onions, chopped
1 T fresh parsley
1 pkg taco seasoning
½ c water
½ c sour cream (I’ve used cream cheese in a pinch, same result)
¾ c shredded cheddar (more if you like)
¾ c salsa
¾ c coarsely crushed tortilla chips (this is a good use for those end-of-the-bag staleys)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Brown meat, add onions halfway through.  Drain fat, add seasoning and water, cook until completely incorporated, about 3-5 min.  Prepare shells and cheese according to box directions.  Stir in sour cream with cheese sauce mix.  Spoon half of mac and cheese into an 8 or 9 inch square baking dish.  Top with half of meat, half of tomato, and half of shredded cheese, half of parsley, and half of green onion.  Spoon rest of mac and cheese on top and add the rest of the ingredients, ending with cheese.  Spread salsa on top of cheese, and cover with foil.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until bubbly, then uncover.  Top with crushed tortilla chips, bake another 5 minutes, until chips just start to brown.  Serve with hot sauce and a dollop of sour cream.    

Red Lobster in Your Kitchen


A good dinner isn’t complete without bread, I think.  I am a self-confessed bread-aholic and truly could make a meal from a few slices of crusty baguette and butter.  This recipe truly completes a meal.  This is a recipe that everyone asks for after they have had one bite! It’s nearly an exact duplicate of the famous Cheddar Bay Biscuits served at Red Lobster restaurants.   If you’ve never had one, you’re missing out! They are so easy and will disappear like cookies on Christmas.  Here it is, you’d better make a double batch!!
‘Cheesy Garlic Biskies’
2 c. Bisquick or baking mix
2/3 c. milk
1 c. grated sharp cheddar
1 T. minced garlic (I like to use the kind in a jar, pre-minced, easy and fast)
1/3 c. melted butter
½ tsp. garlic salt
1 T. parsley flakes
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Combine Bisquick, cheese, garlic and milk in a bowl and mix well.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet or a stone.  (Side note: I LOVE my stone! I use it for everything.  It was meant to be a pizza stone but I use it for everything from cookies to biscuits to bread.  I got two more pieces of stoneware as wedding gifts and can’t WAIT to get them seasoned up and well browned.)  Combine remaining ingredients in a smaller bowl. Bake 10-12 minutes (longer for stoneware), brushing tops with melted butter mixture halfway through.  While still warm, after taking them out of the oven, brush again with butter mixture.  EAT!

Domesticity On a Dime!


It’s appropriate, I think, to kick off a new blog during the beginning of the Holiday season.  Especially one having to do with food!  As such, I begin my attempts at becoming a blogger.  I have tried, in the past, unsuccessfully, to write personal blogs, but found my life just uninteresting enough that I had nothing much to say!  Lately, after sampling some of the more well-known food blogs and trying some new recipes, I have begun to think about starting my own, cost conscious, as well as time conscious food blog.  I love to cook.  That’s an understatement. I ADORE cooking.  I love the way it fills the house with unparalleled aroma and makes a house into a home.  In general I am not a “pinch of this dash of that” kind of girl.  For the most part I need a recipe to follow or at least as a jumping off point.  I tend to like to tweak and twist classics.  I am not afraid of butter and cream and oil and yes, even sometimes grease.  I love to make things from scratch the way our mothers and grandmothers did.  I love dying arts.  I have recently taught myself several as a way to preserve our heritage as modern people, as well as compare the final result to store-bought comparables.  Doing things yourself really gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment that you can’t get anywhere else.  I hope, with this blog, updated whenever I have inspiration to do so, will help a few people discover my love for cooking and food for themselves, and inspire them to try things that they may not otherwise have tried.  I do not use expensive ingredients, complicated recipes, or fancy mustards.  My food is home made from stuff in my home!  That’s the way dinner usually goes here.  Walk into kitchen. Open fridge, Open freezer, Open cabinets. Make something from what’s already there!  You can do anything I do.  I promise.  Bon apetit everyone, and be fearless!!

My first entry will be kind of a bonus entry.  I call it 4 for 1 chicken because that is precisely what you will get out of it if you are feeding two people.  4 meals for one chicken.  (If you are feeding a family, you may want to invest in a larger bird, or roast a couple breasts of thighs alongside your whole bird.)  I am cheap.  That is no lie; I am a cheap person, partially out of necessity to be so, partially because I can’t stand spending exorbitant amounts of money on silly things.  So getting more bang for my cluck is something I must do! I won’t waste any part of a whole bird, be it chicken, turkey, quail, what have you.  This entry, I hope, will give you some tips and insight on how to be less wasteful and more frugal when thinking about chicken.
Herb Rubbed Roasted Chicken
1 whole chicken
Chopped fresh herbs (I use flat leaf parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme.) substitute dried herbs if you don’t have fresh, b ut I really recommend using fresh, the flavor is so much more intense.  A window herb garden is just a few dollars to start and totally worth it to have fresh herbs year round.
4 or 5 garlic cloves, cut into slivers
1/2 stick of butter or margarine (I have used honey butter with stunning results) (4 Tbsp)
Salt & pepper
Flour
Kitchen twine, heavy cotton thread & needle, or toothpicks
One onion
Make sure the chicken is thawed and clean, rinse it with cold water and pat dry with paper towels.  Poke holes in the chicken breast, thighs, and legs with a small paring knife. Shove the slivers of garlic deep into the holes. This will give the chicken a great garlic flavor.  Cut the onion and half, remove the outer skin, and stick the whole thing into the cavity of the chicken.  Mix the softened butter with the chopped herbs and make a thick paste.  Put any leftover herbs you have cut into the chicken cavity too.  Rub the butter and herb mixture over the whole chicken.  I like to rub a lot under the skin as well as on top.  You can easily separate the skin on the breast from the meat by using the handle or a wooden spoon or spatula.  Use as much of the herb butter as you can, it helps keep the meat moist and the herbs give the chicken a lovely taste.  Sprinkle generously with kosher salt and ground black pepper.  Coat the chicken all over with a light dusting of flour, and pat it in.  It will keep the butter from immediately running off and help the skin to brown and crisp, sealing in the juices.  Close the chicken cavity with the loose skin and either sew it shut, or use a few toothpicks to secure it.  Tie the drumsticks together with twine or thread, and turn the wing tips under the body so they won’t scorch.  Roast in a 350 degree oven for 20 min. per pound.  About 1 ½ hours for an average grocery-store chicken.  The advantage of using whole chicken is it is SO much cheaper than pre-cut pieces and you get more meat, flavor, and juiciness.  I paid $3.24 for a BIG whole chicken (the bigger it is, the further it will go.)  SAVINGS!
Serve the chicken with some crusty bread and steamed vegetables, spooning the pan juices over the meat. (you will want more!!)
Next-day or later-that-night chicken dishes.
I pick every bit of meat from the carcass when the chicken cools.  I usually put the entire thing in a plastic food bag in the fridge overnight to make it easier.  Then I strip the bird.  I use the breast meat for the stir-fry because it absorbs juices well, and the darker meat for the chicken salad because it is more flavorful on its own.  While you are making the other two dishes, you can prepare the chicken stock.
Dump the carcass and any pan drippings, juice bits, well, just everything from the roasting pan, into a large soup pot or crock pot.  Add two halved onions, two stalks of celery, and two carrots.  Boil.  It couldn’t be simpler.  Boil until things start to fall apart and float around in there, about 2 hours on low-medium heat.  You will be able to smell when it’s getting close to done, it’s wonderful.
Meanwhile…
Orchard Chicken Salad
1 c. chopped roasted chicken
¼ each chopped onion, celery, apple, pecan pieces
Dash salt, pepper
1 tsp dill
4 tbsp mayonnaise
This is the easiest thing to make and SO delicious, it gets better if you let it sit overnight in the fridge, the mayo really picks up all the flavor. Make sure the onion and celery are chopped pretty small. The apple and chicken can be cut slightly larger. Toast a couple slices of sourdough bread and pile it on! (This also works well with slivered almonds instead of pecans and halved red grapes instead of apples)

Leftover stir fry chicken
1 – 2 cups sliced chicken
Assorted veggies sliced into strips (I used peppers, onions, green beans, peas, and broccoli) Use whatever you have in your refrigerator and freezer. About 4 – 5 cups uncooked.
1 packet stir-fry seasoning (found with all the other taco, roast, and grilling packet seasonings)
(mine required 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/3 c water for the sauce)
Oil
Minute rice, any rice, or noodles.
Boil the rice or noodles to your liking and set aside, covered, so it stays warm.  This doesn’t take long, so it pays to have your starch ready and waiting for a hot forkful of still-crisp veggies.  In a wok or large frying pan, heat about 2 tbsp. olive oil until it smokes and sizzles when a drop of water is put in it.  Add the vegetables, fresh and frozen all at once, stir or toss every minute until then begin to soften (about 7 or 8 min) making sure they don’t burn.  Add the chicken just until it warms.  You don’t want to cook the chicken too long because, well, it’s already cooked, and it will become tough.  Mix the stir-fry sauce according to the package directions.  Add the mixed sauce to the wok and stir vigorously for about another minute, until most of it evaporates.  Add a dash of teriyaki sauce if you want, I love its flavor.  Serve over rice or noodles.  Voila! Your family will inhale it.

Chicken and Dumplings
This is a home-made superstar.  I haven’t met a person yet who doesn’t just adore this recipe.  It takes a little more time so probably not ideal for a weeknight meal, but Saturday or Sunday.  Since you already have a pot of stock ready for delicious additions, the chicken is cooked, the dumplings should be a piece of cake.
1 egg
3 T water
2 T oil
½ tsp salt
1 c. all purpose flour, more for dusting
4 c. chicken stock
2-3 cups of chicken chunks
1 c. warm water
2 T cold butter cut into pieces
¼ c. cream, whole milk, or half and half
Pinch of black pepper
Kosher salt
In a bowl, whisk together egg, oil, salt, and cold water. Add the flour slowly and stir it together until its elastic and kind of “gloppy.”  Cover and put in the fridge for 2 hours.  Pick the chicken apart into chunks, I like big pieces of chicken in mine.  Get the stock and warm water boiling just before the 2 hours is up, in a large pot.  Make sure there is room in the pot, the dumplings will expand.  Season well with kosher salt.  Turn dough onto a well-floured surface and roll thin. I suggest ¼ to ½ inch.   Try not to let the dough get too warm, it becomes harder to work with, cold dough is easier.  Cut with a smooth knife or pizza cutter into 2-3 inch squares.  Drop into boiling stock, don’t dust off excess flour, it will help thicken the stock. Shake the pot, don’t stir it.  Cook 3-5 minutes.  Add chicken, cream, pepper and butter, and reduce to simmer.  Cook 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let stand 10 minutes.  WARNING! This makes a LOT of food.  It is savory and comforting and will fill your belly!